Clear Blue Thinking

Classical Liberal thoughts & ideas in a world that needs them more than ever. Believe in freedom of the Individual. Hate socialism/PC/woke/CCP. Ex-Tory member.

[Michelle Dewberry @MichelleDewbs]

I shouldn’t laugh, but….

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤯

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Gary Lineker: Make us pay more tax Andy Burnham!

Also Gary Lineker:

[Kevin Edger @KEdge23]

“Let’s just remind people, it was the Conservatives who set the cap at £2 when in office, and then you as Labour, under Keir Starmer, put it up to £3. So you’re only bringing it back to what the Conservatives set it at originally”

Car crash interview.

[Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes]

If Gary wanted to pay more tax he could simply have handed over the £4.9 million that HMRC thought they were owed.

Instead he fought a protracted legal battle to keep it. #Hypocrite #GiveUsTheMoneyGary

[Rt. Hon Ben Wallace @BenWallace70]

I am no fan of Refom but every time the @timespolitics @guardian mentions Geroge Cottrell the prefix it with “convicted criminal.”. They must prefix Louie Haigh then with “convicted fraudster.” Not to do so is to show disdain for professional journalism.

[The Spectator @spectator]

You get two impressions of Britain at the moment. First, that nothing works. Second, that the state is not on the side of those who try to work for a living and generally do the right thing, but on the side of those who intend to ride on the backs of others and generally take the mick.

Keir Starmer today leaves the country in a worse place on both counts. Let us take them in turn.

✍️ Ameer Kotecha

Article | https://t.co/n3esMneDaq | @Ameer_Kotecha

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

🚨🚨 Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson spent more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money trying to water down university free speech laws.

Ms Phillipson launched a bid to dilute the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (HEFSA), which she branded a “Tory hate speech charter”.

The Act was introduced after countless staff and students were hounded out of their jobs or ostracised by their peers for expressing their lawfully held views on campus. The Free Speech Union has proudly supported many of those affected.

Bridget Phillipson’s attempt to weaken the law was successfully thwarted after the Free Speech Union launched a legal challenge against the Education Secretary.

The High Court has now ruled that the Government should pay the Free Speech Union’s legal costs of £353,748, taking the total bill to more than £500,000 once the Government’s own legal costs are included.

When Labour came to power in 2024, Phillipson announced that she would halt the implementation of HEFSA, which had been passed by the previous Conservative Government.

Internal documents disclosed during the litigation showed that officials had been instructed to have a statutory instrument ready to pause the Act “on day one” and that the Secretary of State did not intend to implement the Act in full.

In January 2025, however, the Education Secretary performed a U-turn and told Parliament that the majority of the Act’s provisions would be implemented.

The Free Speech Union offered to withdraw its claim in return for a fixed costs payment of £84,000. The Government refused, offering instead a “drop hands” settlement under which the FSU, despite having won in substance, would recover nothing. Since then, costs have spiralled as expensive KCs have argued over the remaining issues.

General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, said: “The significance of this judicial decision is that it confirms our view, and the view of our lawyers, that we won this case and the Education Secretary lost. Costs are awarded to the winners, with the losers having to pay.

‘Judicial reviews are expensive, but thanks to this award of costs we’ll have enough money in our bank account.’”

Read more below 👇

[Patrick Christys @PatrickChristys]

The Argentinian football players are just horrible, aren’t they?

[Robert Jenrick @RobertJenrick]

Fantasy economics from Rachel Reeves until the bitter end.

-Unemployment is higher.
-The tax burden is £66 billion higher.
-Energy bills are higher.
-Benefits spending is higher.
-Inflation and prices are higher.
-Debt interest is at the highest rate since the financial crash.
-6 pubs *a week* have closed.
-Disposable income is lower.
-Business confidence is lower.

Now I’ll be fair to her. Some of this damage is partly caused by stuff outside her control. And she was left a poor inheritance.

But the decisions she and Starmer took made it worse.

Like doubling down on impossible net zero targets.

Raising taxes on employers hiring people.

Refusing to cut benefits on people that don’t need it.

Giving huge, inflation-busting pay rises to his trade-union paymasters.

I’m afraid I expect to see more of the same from Burnham.

He still won’t rule out the tax rises he has supported previously.

So Reform UK will fight him at every turn.

We are the only party standing up for the people that hold this country together.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

Andy, the police say they “found no evidence to support anyone being charged with any offences linked to the alleged threat.”

Why did you instantly speculate about something so serious?

Is it because you only care about “hatred” towards groups you think will vote for you?

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

Just waiting for Burnham to appoint Peter Mandelson at this point.

Clearly sleaze and scandal doesn’t matter when it comes to high office under Labour.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

1. Transfer the tens of billions earmarked for net zero to defence and supply chain resilience, to create a major industrial/defence sector, thereby creating skilled jobs in UK, rather than China (as net zero does)
2. Radical tough love welfare reform to get 1m people of working age into work, thereby cutting the welfare bill and increasing the tax base. Coupled with massive expansion of German-class STEM skill apprenticeships.
3. Radical reform of planning laws to stop nimbys/greens from thwarting every major infrastructure development. Put judges/courts in their place when it comes to such matters.
4. Put rocket boosters under high-speed rail link between Leeds-Manchester-Liverpool. Brook no opposition/delay.
5. Unleash North Sea oil/gas + slash energy bills by removing all green levies. New breed of gas-fired and smaller nuke generating stations.
Much more to suggest. But this should be good for starters.

[Annunziata Rees-Mogg @zatzi]

Labour financial genius strikes again. 👇

And Burnham is going to spread this magic across the country.

Oh yeah 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Toby Young @toadmeister]

Earlier today a @Guardian journalist sent me this query:

Dear Toby Young,

I'm Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian. I'm getting in touch because we're planning to report that the US state department is considering a grant of $5m to Free Speech Union, your organisation, as part of a new grant-making scheme, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. We would appreciate receiving your comment by 14:30.

We are considering reporting the following:

- The grant to the FSU is part of a package to Maga aligned groups that former US officials have condemned as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics and interfere with democracy.

- It is rare for the US government to fund partisan political organisations in western countries.

- These grants are likely to pose a challenge to Andy Burnham, who has said he will be "very upfront" with Trump about any disagreements.

- These grants - including to your organisation - are "sole source" grants, meaning they are to be awarded without any competitive process. This is unusual for a highly regulated process which usually requires grantees to show they have a track record for handling funds and clear plans for the money.

- This lack of process has been criticised as "outrageous and absurd" by former US officials, and as "gross incompetence" and "horrible stewardship" of US taxpayer money.

- Your organisation does not appear to have a track record of handling grants of this amount.

- We describe your organisation as "a rallying point for “anti-woke” grievance" which "frequently allies itself with rightwing causes" and say that you, Toby Young, appeared on Rees-Mogg's GB news show earlier this month to warn about 'Soviet-style' censorship in the UK.

- The state department says that its grant to FSU will “support campaigns promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe and Australia”. The sole-source award is justified “due to FSU’s global network of free speech activists”.

We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view and look forward to your statement. Thank you,

--
Aisha Kehoe Down
Senior Tarbell Fellow,
Guardian News and Media

I replied as follows:

It sounds like a pretty garbled story.

Free Speech Union International, which is the umbrella group that FSU UK, FSU Australia, FSU New Zealand, FSU Canada, FSU South Africa and FSU Brazil sit within, has expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department. This would be to promote the right to freedom of expression in those countries, which, far from being a partisan cause, is a universal human right. But it hasn't submitted a formal application and, consequently, has been awarded no grant from the State Department or any other branch of the US Government.

You've mischaracterised the FSUs, all of which are non-partisan organisations that defend people who get into trouble for exercising their right to feee speech regardless of their political views. The FSU UK, for instance, is currently paying for the legal defence of a protestor who's being prosecuted for holding up a sign saying "I support Palestine Action", as well as a protestor for wearing a t-shirt at a Unite the Kingdom rally for saying "Fuck Islam Christ is King". Yes, we helped Lucy Connolly appeal her sentence -- we thought a prison sentence of over two-and-a-half years for a single tweet was excessive -- but we also tweeted yesterday, condemning the arrest of Heather Herbert and offering our support. Yes, we came to the defence of Nigel Farage when he was debanked, but we've also offered to help the Canary in its recent debanking case. So to describe the FSU UK as a "rallying point for anti-woke grievance" is misleading. We are a rallying point for those who want to defend the right to freedom of expression.

Best,

Toby

The @Guardian then ran this story:

https://t.co/1l4K0PABvM

You be the judge of whether you think this is good journalism.

[Alan D Miller @alanvibe]

Quite the interview Jess

[Nick Dixon @NickDixon]

Hope Not Hate published a hit piece on Ann Widdecombe, contributing to the deranged hatred against her.

Now Burnham hires two people from Hope Not Hate.

Burnham can pretend to be a nice guy, but his government is tacitly endorsing this vile organisation.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

It’s as if he’s running for Prime Minister rather than about to become PM on Monday. Performative Politics when he should be Preparing Policy! He will fall to earth fast.

[Emma Trimble @Emma_A_Webb]

Andy Burnham wants to go back to the 1970s. What might that look like?

1973 Oil Crisis - but replace the Yom Kippur War with the Strait of Hormuz.

1976 IMF crisis - the IMF has already warned Burnham against increasing taxes and increasing spending.

Winter of Discontent - caused by Net Zero policies, after Burnham discovers the left of his party won’t let him permit drilling in the North Sea.

The Troubles - we are already plagued by increasing sectarianism, which will surely be bolstered by giving local councils more power through further devolution.

You can’t say the man’s lacking in vision. What a decade to aspire to.

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

Why are we sending £153 MILLION of the British people’s money to Pakistan while Pakistan refuse to take back their grooming gang monsters?

[Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat]

If you're wondering why the left seem so deluded it's because they literally do not see the problems in our country

Alistair Campbell here openly admitting he doesn't think two tier policing is real despite the evidence