Ellie

[LubnanBoi🇵🇸🇱🇧 🇮🇷 @AgitatorAK]

Dear @JeremyClarkson I saw this on my feed on another platform and instantly thought you needed to see it.

"Jeremy Clarkson thinks people who receive benefits should have to send a weekly thank you email to a randomly chosen working person, explaining what they did with the money, or have their payments stopped.

So here is mine. If you’d like to give it a share to help Jeremy see it, that would be great.

Dear Jezza,

Thank you for your concern about my contribution to society.

I should say first that you were aiming this at young people you believe are sitting at home doing nothing.

But you wrote it as a blanket rule applying to everyone whose benefits are paid.

That includes more than thirteen million pensioners, millions of people who receive benefits while working, who may find themselves being ordered to thank another benefit claimant, and me.

I receive PIP.

That money goes towards the Motability car I use to travel to work.

It is not a free car. It is not even my car. I exchange the mobility part of my PIP to lease it.

The car takes the lot.

Which is awkward, because that same payment is also meant to help cover the additional costs of being disabled, including a wheelchair that is actually usable for my job and hearing aids that allow me to do it.

There is nothing left for either.

I chose the thing that gets me to work.

That car enables me to work and, because I can work, I now pay considerably more in tax than I have ever received in PIP.

But my contribution does not end with my own tax bill.

I have built programmes that hundreds of people now use to earn a living.

They pay tax too.

Those programmes have helped thousands of people overcome anxiety, return to their lives and, in many cases, return to work.

Then there are all the people supported by the coaches and practitioners I have trained.

That is what disability support can do when it is designed to enable people rather than humiliate them.

My PIP did not disappear into some great benefits black hole.

It helped provide the transport that allowed me to work, build a business, create opportunities for other people and contribute far more than I could ever have done without it.

But as we are exchanging thank you letters, perhaps you could send me one too.

I paid my television licence throughout the years the BBC gave you the platform that made you famous.

I now pay for Amazon Prime, which helps fund the television programme about your farm.

I do not choose to watch it.

But that is how society works, Jeremy.

We all contribute towards things we may never personally use because the entire country would fall apart if every payment had to provide us with an individual benefit.

Perhaps you could also thank the taxpayers whose public services and infrastructure support your businesses.

And while you have the stationery out, perhaps you could explain the farm.

In 2021, you told The Times that avoiding inheritance tax was “the critical thing” in your decision to buy land.

In 2024, when that became rather inconvenient, you said it had never been true. You claimed you had actually bought the farm because you wanted somewhere to shoot and that tax avoidance had simply sounded like a better story at the time.

I am not sure which version helps your argument.

It is funny how public support and clever tax arrangements are treated as perfectly respectable when they benefit wealthy people.

Yet when a disabled person receives help to leave the house, go to work and participate in society, you think they should be made to perform gratitude.

So thank you for your concern, Jezza.

I hope my licence fee, Amazon subscription, taxes and contribution to the economy have all been gratefully received.

Please send your thank you letter weekly, along with a full breakdown of how you spent the money.

If it is not sufficiently fulsome and effusive, I assume your income will be stopped.

That is only fair."

[CHPI @CHPIthinktank]

Fascinating to see the debate on social care cover the issue of profiteering. Finally. Our director gave this interview to the BBC 7 years ago. £hundreds of millions leak out of the system each year in profits which should go to the frontline.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

I saw a post on Reddit that said that “The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.” And I don’t think I’ve ever seen AI described so incisively.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

So another cracking Cottrell story by @venetiamenzies & the Insight team. Bravo.

I’m also fascinated by the stake-out pix. ST is throwing PROPER money at this. Looks like photographers stationed at known Cottrell locations.

What do the Murdochologists make of this? @davidyelland? @davidfolkenflik? @arusbridger?

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

You know who else got de-banked? Arron Banks. It’s almost as if there was some sort of pattern.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Move over Jason Bourne.

George Cottrell had TWO passports under two separate identities, according to new blockbuster piece from @NafeezAhmed.

So many qs, including WHO is Oscar Drewitt?! 🧐

[Shehab Khan @ShehabKhan]

The fact we're even having conversations about a potential Chancellor who hasn't studied economics, hasn't worked in the City, hasn't run a business, or has any meaningful experience in any related sector says a lot about where we are as a country

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

The terrifying murder of Ann Widdecombe…

And the gross reactions that followed

Plus:

The Reform stench that’s going nowhere

Count Binface quietly turning into a hero

And Harry Kane’s questionable choice of golf partner

🎧 New Trawl out today - Link below…

[Samuel West 💙💛 @exitthelemming]

Ten billion pounds wasted. One pound a second for 317 years

[E. Jean Carroll @ejeancarroll]

The Eagle has landed.

[Dale Vince @DaleVince]

So Farage makes much of needing protection, claims the secret 5mill was for protection, now we see he has been offered fully funded protection, public funded, and refused it, in the past.

Maybe he didn’t want his movements known to the state.

https://t.co/7C0yT3BRx2

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

"Reform politicians have accused Labour of putting their lives at risk by seeking to cap political donations."

They really will say anything to ensure they can line their pockets...

[Samuel West 💙💛 @exitthelemming]

Of 2500 media stories about the June heatwave in the UK, 72% didn’t mention climate change. 95% didn’t mention net zero.

“The link between all three recent periods of extreme heat and climate change is indisputable.” - Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit https://t.co/HBUkHPdym4

[Sam @SamCKx]

Breaking: It has emerged that last year Nigel Farage was offered government-funded security comparable to that provided to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and senior Cabinet ministers, but reportedly turned it down.

For months, Farage pointed to a lack of state security to justify accepting an undisclosed £5 million gift. More recently, however, his explanation has shifted, with him describing it as an entirely unconditional gift that he could have spent on “Ferraris” if he wished.

That change matters. If the money was given for a specific purpose connected to his role as an MP or political activities, it could have different implications for parliamentary declaration requirements than an unrestricted personal gift.

This situation just keeps getting worse and worse for Farage.

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

So there’s me…

State schooled, working class, yet I’m supposed to be “the establishment”

Or Nigel Farage, Dulwich College, City trader

Or…Richard Tice, Uppingham, grandson of a property tycoon

Both getting £££ bungs from the aristocracy

Which is the establishment again?

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Reported while female.

Didn’t work for a right-wing newspaper.

Dismissed & ridiculed by men who did.

Gaslit for a decade.

Sued through the courts.

But I’m not the loser here.

This decade of denial has caused Britain irreparable harm.

[Annette Dittert  @annettedittert]

It's maybe time for a long story on @carolecadwalla who had warned and done the work on potential corruption around Farage et al years ago but was instead hounded and insulted and later sued.

Even worse, she wasn't listened to at the time. Why not?

[Ellie @elliem70]

@richardpbacon 🤣👏👏👏👏

[Ben Kentish @BenKentish]

As was pointed out to me on my LBC show last night, this is grossly misleading and really poor journalism. It implies that 100,000 people are out of work because of ADHD when in reality many of them- possibly most of them - will be working. PIP is awarded regardless of someone’s work status and is based on how much their condition affects their lives. None of which is reflected in this front page story. Really shoddy journalism.

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

I’m thoroughly enjoying just how much Nigel Farage’s millions of pounds in gifts “for his security” have left him feeling in such a state of insecurity.