Colin

[Football Away Days @AwayDaysFB]

Rivalry can wait when someone needs a hand. An Everton fan helping an elderly Liverpool supporter is exactly the sort of thing football should be about. ❤️💙

Absolutely love this image when I come across it, it showcases that football rivarlies can eaisly be put aside for the more important things in life 👏🏻

[GB Politics @GBPolitcs]

🚨NEW: It has emerged that Labour's Manchester council chief, Sir Howard Bernstein, who signed the 2015 "first refusal" land deal with Man City owners ADUG, was later given the role of Man City's strategic adviser after leaving the council

[@theipaper]

[Electroverse @Electroversenet]

The EU's 2035 combustion engine ban is now off the table.

Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic pushed back hard, and Ursula von der Leyen has quietly buckled.

Instead of outlawing petrol and diesel cars, the EU will shift to emissions reduction targets. Meaning, engines built today can still be built and sold tomorrow.

This is a full retreat from the 'ban the engine' narrative that dominated EU climate policy for years. And it's happening because the bloc's industrial base, especially Germany, cannot survive the original targets.

Europe's flagship green policy just folded under economic reality.

[𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 #𝗡𝗨𝗙𝗖 @ToonTakeover_]

🚨 💰 BREAKING NEWS!

Newcastle United CEO, David Hopkinson, has just announced that Newcastle United will announce a new sponsorship with a MAJOR GLOBAL BRAND tomorrow!

#NUFC Via @tfNUFC

[𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 #𝗡𝗨𝗙𝗖 @ToonTakeover_]

🚨 BREAKING NEWS!

Newcastle United CEO, David Hopkinson, has tonight CONFIRMED that our new Woolsington Hall training complex will be the SECOND LARGEST in WORLD FOOTBALL.

Real Madrid will be the only club with a bigger training ground than us.

#NUFC Via @tfNUFC

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Surely The Times should be all over this? Nothing about this on the BBC. Has she been reported to the Standards Committee?

Labour continuously being what they accuse others of being.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

If a council candidate for Reform posted a threat to kill a left wing politician it would lead every news cycle in the country for days.

The leader of a major left wing party does so against the leader of Reform UK and it barely registers.

Understand what time it is in Britain.

[Fanbrizio Rovaldo @FabrizioRomaxno]

🚨BREAKING: FIFA President Gianni Infantino will face the FIFA congress before the start of the new season

He has been summoned into questioning over alleged corruption and favoritism towards Argentina in 2022

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Sweden is reintroducing printed books and handwriting into its classrooms. Once celebrated as a leader in digital education, the country is now directing significant resources toward traditional textbooks while limiting the use of tablets and screens, particularly for young students.

Swedish authorities attribute this policy shift to mounting evidence that excessive screen time may have harmed reading proficiency and basic skill development. The government has also announced plans to ban digital learning tools for children under six years old.

Scientific research on handwriting provides insight into the rationale. When children write by hand, they engage multiple brain areas responsible for motor control, visual processing, memory, focus, and language. Unlike typing, this process demands precise coordination of fine movements alongside letter recognition and word formation. Studies indicate that such multisensory engagement enhances letter knowledge, spelling, reading acquisition, and memory retention.

Printed books may similarly promote stronger comprehension. Research shows that people often retain information more effectively from physical pages than from digital displays. The tangible nature of paper offers spatial references that aid memory organization. In contrast, screen based reading, especially when interrupted by notifications or hyperlinks, can fragment attention and reduce deep focus.

This approach does not reject technology entirely. Computers and tablets continue to serve important roles in research, group projects, accessibility features, and interactive exercises. Education specialists emphasize the need for thoughtful integration, applying digital resources where they prove most effective while safeguarding core practices such as handwriting, printed materials, and direct teacher instruction.

Sweden's policy change mirrors growing international discussions about optimal screen time in schools. As educators worldwide evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of digital tools, many are reconsidering when traditional methods may better support fundamental learning.

[Peter Egan @PeterEgan6]

Hi everyone we are auctioning a couple of FA CUP FINAL TICKETS MANCHESTER CITY V CHELSEA https://t.co/BhbVOk9ZPm every penny raised will go to supporting our dogs @SavingStraysUK

[Prof Colin Talbot (and my late pal Rory) @colinrtalbot]

Morgan McSweeney:

“I have decided to resign from the government”.

He was not part of “the government”. He was the PMs Chief of Staff.

This little ‘freudian slip’ tells us rather a lot does it not?

[David Wolfson @DXW_KC]

Mr McSweeney is not part of the government, so he can’t resign from it.
But the fact that he thinks he is, is part of the underlying problem - which his resignation won’t cure.

[FarmingUK @FarmingUK]

If you ever see a sheep on its back, its likely to be stuck - like this one 🐑

Just grab it and roll it onto its feet and you’ll save its life 👇

📹 Headys Farm

[Kay Waters @411jenniedog]

Please, please, please read this if you have dogs…

[Colin @cfwesbro]

@Fox_Claire @christopherhope @GBNEWS I’m glad you added “for 2025” Chris! You had me worried for a moment….You are one of the best, always great analysis!

[GB Politics @GBPolitcs]

🚨NEW: It has been revealed that the price Keir Starmer has agreed to pay the EU to rejoin the Erasmus scheme for students—(£570 million)—is higher than the estimated revenue raised by the inheritance tax on farmers (£230 million)

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Ethics Committee's Moment of Truth: Investigate Reeves or Admit the System Is Dead

There comes a moment in every political crisis when the question turns from "what happened?" to "what kind of country are we now?" The row over Rachel Reeves has reached that point. Because this is no longer about one Budget, or one lie, or one reckless Chancellor – or a Prime Minister who didn't merely stand by, but signed off the deceit. This is now a test of Britain's entire system of standards – and whether the ministerial code still has any force at all, or whether it has been hollowed out into a stage prop for a government that treats truth as optional.

The facts are beyond dispute. Reeves was told by the OBR that the public finances were sound. She knew there was headroom, not a hole. She knew her own warnings of fiscal ruin were false. She went out anyway and sold the country a story of collapse to soften the ground for a £30 billion tax raid. She misled Parliament. She misled the public. She distorted market expectations. She even tried to hang the OBR out to dry when the truth surfaced. And she did all this with Keir Starmer's approval. The Prime Minister saw the figures. He read the claims. He nodded them through.

Now Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser, is being asked the simplest question imaginable: if this doesn't trigger an investigation, what on earth would? If knowingly inventing a crisis to justify tax hikes isn't a breach of honesty and openness, then those words mean nothing. If repeatedly misleading Parliament doesn't cross the line, then the line doesn't exist. The ministerial code demands truth. Reeves offered the public theatre. The code demands candour. She offered a smokescreen. The code demands accuracy. She offered numbers she knew to be fiction.

You can see the trap tightening around Downing Street. An inquiry won't just expose Reeves – it will drag Starmer into the witness box. If he knew the truth and sanctioned the lie, he is complicit. If he didn't know, he is unfit to lead. Either way, the varnish of integrity Labour slapped on itself has already begun to peel. They sold themselves as the party of grown-ups, sensible hands on the tiller, the antidote to chaos. But a government that survives only by keeping the ethics adviser at arm's length is not a government of grown-ups. It is a government that fears scrutiny because it fears what scrutiny will show.

But there is a deeper rot here. Once a minister can rewrite fiscal reality without consequence, the code becomes a polite fiction – a script recited at lecterns while the real business of government is done in shadows. And once a Prime Minister ties his fate to a Chancellor caught fabricating a crisis, he forfeits any claim to moral authority. The truth is bleak but obvious: this government is fighting not for its credibility, but for its cover story.

The ethics committee stands at a fork in the road. If it investigates, the government risks collapse. If it looks away, the country learns that standards are theatre, not rules. Either outcome tells us something profound about where Britain now stands. But the one thing we cannot pretend is that nothing serious has happened. A Chancellor engineered a false emergency. A Prime Minister approved it. And now both expect the watchdog to avert its eyes.

If the ethics system cannot hold the line here, it has no purpose at all. And a government that survives only because the truth is never tested is a government already condemned.

"Now Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser, is being asked the simplest question imaginable: if this doesn't trigger an investigation, what on earth would?"

[Ben Leo @Benleo]

Wow, big.

Now the Cabinet are briefing the Times and kicking off.

Starmer and Reeves should do the right thing and go.

[Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford]

EXCLUSIVE

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been accused of misleading the Cabinet by using claims that there was a black hole in the public finances to justify tax rises during the run up to the Budget

One Cabinet minister told The Times: “Why did Keir and Rachel allow the country to believe for so long that we would break our manifesto by putting up income tax by 2p when they would have known that wasn’t true?

'At no point were the Cabinet told about the reality of the OBR forecasts. Had we been told, we might have been in a position to advise against setting hares running on income tax and giving the public the impression we are casual about our manifesto commitments. The handling of this Budget has been a disaster from start to finish'

Another senior minister said: 'The Treasury’s operation is not exactly cutting edge. The argument about living in uncertain times and needing more headroom makes sense but the way she presented it - by saying there’s a big hole we need to fill - is frustrating. We had this hokey cokey about income taxes going up and then not going up'

Another minister said Starmer and Reeves look 'weak and incompetent' in the wake of the budget but described it as 'par for the course'

The chancellor repeatedly highlighted a downgrade in productivity forecasts in a series of Cabinet meetings as she made the case for raising taxes

It included a meeting on November 4 that was held after a Downing Street press conference which she used to heavily signal that she was preparing to break Labour’s manifesto and raise the basic rate of income tax

Reeves told Cabinet that Britain faces challenges' in the form of tariffs, unstable borrowing costs, inflation and long-term productivity'. She said she “had to respond to the World as it is now, not as she might wish it to be'

Ministers emerged from the meeting convinced that the public finances were in such a dire state that a manifesto-breaking increase in the basic rate of income tax was necessary. 

In fact the Office for Budget Responsibility had already informed her privately that the downgrade in the public finances had been more than offset by higher than expected tax revenues

It told Reeves on October 31 that she had a £4.2billion surplus, but the information was not shared with the Cabinet or the public. Only she and Starmer were aware of the improvement in the forecasts. They abandoned the plans to increase the basic rate of income tax a week later amid concerns about a political backlash

https://t.co/RMZZFy1pb4

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

This will be a tough weekend for the Chancellor. She knew almost six weeks before the Budget from the OBR there was no ‘black hole’. Yet she and the Treasury still stoked up the idea that there was — and it would take big tax rises to fill it.
By Oct 31 she knew from the OBR there was actually £4bn headroom rather than a black hole. Yet still on Nov 5th she commandeered breakfast media to roll the pitch for big tax rises.
Even by mid-November she was telling the BBC if Labour stuck to its manifesto commitments (ie no income tax rises) she’d need deep cuts to capital investment.
None of what she said in the run up to the Budget was true. The Treasury select committee needs to ask her why she so misled the Parliament, the markets and the British people.
She raised taxes to give herself some more headroom and to pay for yet another increase in (largely welfare) spending.
The tax burden is going to all-time record level for a simple reason: the Labour manifesto said public spending would be around £10bn higher than Tory plans by 2028/29. In reality on the latest projections it will be £179bn higher!!! Nothing to do with filling in black holes.