David

-participatory democrat, believer in representative democracy, pungently anti-Brexit, fundamentally European.🕷☘️🇪🇺 former European Parliament Petitions Ctee

[Thierry de Cabarrus @tcabarrus]

Le coup de patte d'Emmanuel Macron aux deux extrêmes. ⤵️

[David @davidnormanlowe]

@LordRickettsP Especially as until now he has, to my knowledge, said little or nothing.

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

🚊

A decade on from Brexit… there is one place which is the artery of UK-EU trade flows built up as a “rolling motorway” of frictionless trade - the Channel Tunnel

As part of a look at actual data and academic economic analysis of the past decade I dug up the Channel Tunnel lorry freight traffic, which is as the highest value UK-EU trade flows, full of just in time manufacturing parts, fine food exports and imports, is down 29%… 31% down from record peak in 2018.

That’s half a million missing Channel tunnel lorry crossings. 1.64m in 2016, 1.16m in 2025. There’s a bit of modal shift there to ferries, but the overall short straits traffic is 900k plus down from 2016.

While there was an immediate dip around the pandemic it recovered back. What is significant is the ongoing squeeze on traffic, years later. Insiders tell me it is the embodiment of the impact of Brexit especially on having broken supply chains, and on smaller traders both ways who gave up trading across the new trade barriers and red tape. The picture in the data of a particular impact on smaller goods exporters, that may be intensifying, not normalising is important. Did the first years after Brexit in fact keep many single market created panic European supply chains intact within the UK, that have started to erode away as waves of new investment emerge?

Last year, 2025, was the worst year for UK goods exports volumes to the EU this century, apart from one year in the depth of the financial crisis. UK exports and imports to and from the EU versus 2019 are down 14% and 10% respectively.

There is brighter news from headline services exports, which increased notably although against the backdrop of a global boom in services trade. It is also possible that the fruits of trade deals and regulatory freedoms in AI are just beginning to show.

But the focus on proving right or wrong the forecasts made on all sides during the referendum campaign has obscured attention from some actual important data on ongoing impacts of Brexit… on the Channel Tunnel, on goods trade, on smaller exporters, on trade varieties, on actual “preference utilisation”… and the lack of enquiry from successive Governments on the impact by sector, size, & market is quite notable. Here’s my in depth for starters:

https://t.co/8DrTrKZbC6

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Quite something that around the tenth anniversary of the Brexit campaign murder of Jo Cox he says he is the most attacked politician of the last decade. Well done Sally Nugent for pressing with Qs so many of her colleagues have decided to move on from because he doesn’t want to answer them

[Mark Carney @MarkJCarney]

It has been a privilege to work alongside Sir Keir Starmer as he has led international efforts to support Ukraine through the Coalition of the Willing, strengthen NATO, improve Arctic cooperation, and deepen the historic partnership between Canada and the United Kingdom.

Throughout, and in the face of exceptional challenges, Keir has acted with principle, determination, and collaboration. The world is safer and allies are more united because of his efforts.

Keir, thank you for your lifetime of public service. I am grateful for your friendship, and I wish you all the best as you concentrate on your "most important job.”

[Federico Gatti @federicogatti]

NEW: Statement by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 🇮🇹🇬🇧

I wish, on behalf of the Italian Government, to thank Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the work we have done together over these years.

We have collaborated on key issues for both our nations: from the management of migration flows to the major international crises, always with great pragmatism, while at the same time significantly strengthening the bilateral relationship, particularly in the strategic sectors of the defence industry and energy.

—

Dichiarazione del Presidente del Consiglio, Giorgia Meloni

Desidero, a nome del Governo italiano, ringraziare il Primo Ministro Keir Starmer per il lavoro svolto insieme in questi anni.
Abbiamo collaborato su dossier fondamentali per entrambe le nostre Nazioni: dalla gestione dei flussi migratori alle principali crisi internazionali, sempre con grande pragmatismo, rafforzando al contempo in modo significativo il rapporto bilaterale, in particolare nei settori strategici dell’industria della difesa e dell’energia.

@GiorgiaMeloni @Keir_Starmer

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

This kind of statement👇from an EU leader would have been unthinkable about all the other PMs the UK's flitted through since "taking back control"

It doesn't get much mention in the UK, but boring Starmer made 🇬🇧 look reliable and serious again after the clown show before him

[🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 @front_ukrainian]

❗️Zelenskyy responded to the tensions with Poland: Ukraine is grateful to the Poles for their support, but it lives “from attack to attack,” not “from ‘thank you’ to ‘thank you.’”

“Can we, between the thank-yous, still protect all of you?” the president stressed, emphasizing that Ukraine is defending not only itself but also its partners.

[dr. mohammed hamad - Gaza @Medo198518]

Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajneh recounted a brief conversation he had with a Palestinian prisoner during a court hearing, after noticing clear signs of exhaustion and fatigue on him.

In a post on X, he wrote:

“Today, while listening to the testimony of a Palestinian prisoner in court, I asked him whether he had eaten breakfast.

He replied, ‘My last meal was yesterday afternoon.’

I asked him, ‘Are you hungry?’

He looked at me sadly and said, ‘Yes.’

The hearing was halted, and the prison guards were forced to bring him food. That single ‘yes’ summarizes the harsh reality that Palestinian prisoners are enduring inside Israeli prisons.”

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Keir, thank you for all our cooperation, your support, and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger.

The United Kingdom has been, is, and will remain among the world’s leaders. Here in Ukraine, we deeply value Britain, and every meeting and every conversation we have had has always been filled with real substance.

Thank you for always being in touch, always engaged, and always striving to do what is needed and what will truly help.

I wish the United Kingdom and all British people every success as well as realisation of your national goals. We have confidence in Britain.

Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.

@Keir_Starmer

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 The Times Business Pages: The UK has lost £74 billion in goods exports since Brexit.

Key sectors like cars, pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing have been hit hardest.
Exporters say the new trade barriers have made things significantly harder.

British food exports are down 22% (£4 billion)

Food is one of Brexit’s biggest losers: more red tape, lost EU markets, and cheaper imports undercutting our farmers.

Ten years on, the data continues to show a clear net loss, not the global trading powerhouse we were promised.

[Barry Andrews MEP @BarryAndrewsMEP]

"A genocidal state can no longer be a darling of the Western world" - @gideonle in @haaretzcom

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

Have followed the politics of the country I grew up in since Harold Wilson 🤡but seriously don't understand what's just happened

Starmer sure wasn't the greatest communicator, made mistakes and I for one thought his red lines on the EU were ludicrous - but he was an 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 more serious PM than the clowns he replaced - Johnson ? Truss - hello ? And do people really think Burnham isn't going to prove equally unpopular within barely a few months ?

Starmer made his party electable then reduced NHS waiting lists, and drastically cut immigration within just 2 years, significantly improved UK EU relations and refused to take the UK into Trump's vanity war. Most non UK media treated him as being boring, which is way better than as clowns as had been the case with the his predecessors

I honestly think too, watching this from the EU, there's an element of the usual UK exceptionalism in it. In the age we live in all leaders are pretty unpopular, Macron, Merz, Trump to name but a few. There are massive forces outside all our countries whipping up discord and divisiveness against those in power and huge numbers of idiots fall for it and worse echo it. Starmer's downfall is in some way because the UK doesn't realize how unpopular all leaders are these days

Anyway - Burnham already proved in Makerfield he was a weathervane on Europe. Yet another British PM with no clear idea of whether the UK's place is in Europe or not is hardly what it needs, 10 years on (and 7 PMs) after deciding to "take back control" .....

[caroline wheeler @cazjwheeler]

Exclusive: Andy Burnham is being urged by business leaders to rejoin the European Union as new economic modelling reveals it could add at least £92bn to the economy and boost growth by at least 3.6 per cent - helping to fund the changes he is promising.
The study, commissioned by campaign group Best for Britain and carried out by Frontier Economics, a consultancy chaired by Dame Sharon White, the former chair of John Lewis, models the key benefits of EU membership and finds the prize dwarfs every other option on the table.
The report suggests that the UK would recover up to 90 per cent of Brexit’s economic hit to UK GDP - which the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has calculated at minus 4 per cent by 2030 - far eclipsing value of a customs union or all post-Brexit trade deals combined.
Crucially for a would-be Prime Minister who built his name as the champion of the North, the gains would be felt most strongly - outside London - in Britain’s former industrial and manufacturing heartlands in the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North - due to an “outsized” boost to trade in goods.

https://t.co/6s2lguD1p2

[Jack Dart @JackWDart]

If people genuinely believe Burnham won’t receive the exact same media onslaught, they’ve not been paying attention.

Starmer is not, objectively, bad. This idea that he is somehow the worst PM in British history is frankly laughable.

Liz truss lasted 49 days, crashed the pound and was laughed out of Downing Street.

Since Labour took office, Keir Starmer’s government has:

• Scrapped the two-child benefit limit, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and putting money back into some of the hardest-pressed households in the country.

• Expanded free school meals, cutting costs for families and making sure more children get a proper meal during the school day.

• Expanded funded childcare, reducing one of the biggest monthly costs facing working parents and making it easier for people to stay in work.

• Raised the National Living Wage, increasing pay for millions of low-paid workers.

• Strengthened workers’ rights, giving people greater protection against insecure work and bad employers.

• Introduced statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, so workers are less likely to choose between their health and their wages.

• Ended no-fault evictions, giving renters more security in their homes.

• Brought rail operators back into public ownership, taking key services out of failed private hands and giving the public a stronger stake in how they are run.

• Cut NHS waiting lists from their post-pandemic peak, meaning more patients are being seen sooner.

• Raised the state pension through the triple lock, protecting pensioners’ incomes against rising costs.

• Scrapped the old non-dom tax regime, making some of the wealthiest people in the country pay more fairly.

• Added VAT to private school fees, raising money from those most able to contribute.

• Removed business rates relief from private schools, ending an unjustified tax break.

• Increased neighbourhood policing, putting more officers and PCSOs back into communities.

• Helped bring knife crime down, meaning fewer families face the devastation of serious violence.

• Recorded the lowest homicide rate since the 1970s, a material improvement in public safety.

• Created Great British Energy, giving Britain a publicly owned clean energy company.

• Created the National Wealth Fund, backing investment in industry, infrastructure and clean energy.

• Passed planning reforms aimed at getting homes and major projects built faster.

• Improved relations with the EU, reducing diplomatic hostility and rebuilding practical cooperation.

• Agreed a UK-EU security partnership, strengthening cooperation on defence and European security.

• Signed a long-term partnership with Ukraine, reinforcing Britain’s support against Putin’s invasion.

• Secured new trade agreements, opening up markets for British businesses.

• Helped restore seriousness to government after years of scandal, chaos and decline.

People do not have to like Starmer. They do not have to vote Labour. But pretending this is the record of the worst Prime Minister in British history is absurd.

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

The ten-year-anniversary of the Brexit vote highlights a treasonous betrayal of the British public by a class of unserious political opportunists.

Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson built their careers on populist lies, and their enduring legacy is a weakened state that has spent a decade spiraling into global irrelevance.

Leaving the European Union directly compromised Western solidarity, leaving a trail of damage across the United Kingdom and Europe alike. It was a fundamentally reckless move that dismantled regional security architectures, making democratic nations far more vulnerable to external enemies.

This engineered division is precisely why Moscow put its weight behind the campaign. Tearing down the bond between London and Brussels is a textbook victory for autocratic regimes, providing immense satisfaction to Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Donald Trump, who all benefit from a fragmented West.

The domestic price for this manufactured sovereignty has been complete institutional paralysis. The United Kingdom managed to maintain just three prime ministers during a nineteen year period before the vote. In the ten years since, the country has degraded into a political circus, chewing through six (soon seven) prime ministers as the state struggles to find its footing.

There is no future in isolation, and the only logical solution is for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union. Reversing this failure is essential for global stability. Europe needs British cooperation, and the United Kingdom needs European strength to counter the existential military and societal threats from China and Russia, as well as the constant pressures from the United States

[Alfons López Tena 🦇 @alfonslopeztena]

Brexit has left Britons more divided, less influential, poorer than they would otherwise have been. Promise that UK would “take back control” was a cruel joke. UK has been buffeted by global events. Brexiteers promised immigration would fall, but it soared https://t.co/kwYHvUxMgg

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Israeli forces, accompanied by Jerusalem Municipality staff, stormed the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate land in Silwan. They expelled the Church's representative, confiscated equipment, uprooted trees, destroyed crops, and fenced off the property.
https://t.co/QiOAbofNdn

[Nick Reeves #RejoinEU #NAFO #FBPE @nickreeves9876]

"The government have actively avoided looking for evidence Russia interfered."

The Intelligence & Security Committee's Stewart Hosie said the government didn't investigate alleged Russian interference in the Brexit vote, and no one wanted to touch this "with a ten-foot pole".

Starmer has done nothing to rectify this situation. Please repost if you want the government to conduct a full scale inquiry into Russian interference in British politics over the last twenty years. Russia is waging a hybrid war against the UK and this government, like its Tory predecessors, is failing to protect us against the political half of that attack.

[Thierry de Cabarrus @tcabarrus]

François Bayrou a raison, on regrettera Emmanuel Macron.