jason fawcett

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

It moves ...

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

Very interesting… it is frankly astonishing to see how much is paid NOT to generate energy, and is a verdict on the long term ability of the convoluted grid to keep up with changing patterns of supply and demand… as well as the cost of refusing pylons alongside refusal to put wind power close to demand…

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@michaeldweiss 🤣

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@DeborahMeaden 😂

[Private Eye Magazine @PrivateEyeNews]

How Britain’s flagship ‘levelling up’ project turned into a scandalous giveaway.

Read the eight-page special report from Eye 1660 (Oct 2025). Back issue available here:
https://t.co/bXcux3OZ64

It was to be the UK’s largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport. But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of the River Tees became little more than an unlawful, taxpayer-funded scheme to promote the political career of a Tory golden boy and vastly enrich a couple of local businessmen and their families, all hidden in a web of deception.

[Victoria Derbyshire @vicderbyshire]

Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley Lord Houchen told #Newsnight in 2024 that 2 private developers had ‘£50m of their money sitting in a bank account’ when I quoted an independent report pointing out the pair (Chris Musgrove & Martin Corney) had put no direct cash of their own into regenerating the huge old Redcar steelworks site (now Teesworks)

@RBrooks45 reports in this week’s @PrivateEyeNews that almost all of that £50m has now been taken as dividends by Messrs Musgrave & Corney (there’s £2.7m left in the account)

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@Scaramucci 😂

[Robert Peston @Peston]

We just learned that the world’s most powerful person, Donald Trump, has a boss: the bond market.

He may not have acknowledged this to himself, yet, but the global financial tumult he caused - and has temporarily eased - has locked him in a fiscal prison.

Because, as I have been saying for 24 hours, he came perilously close yesterday to having caused such an extreme fall in the price of US government debt that it would have become prohibitively expensive for his administration to fund a large deficit - more than 6% of GDP - and also to refinance the almost $8 trillion of government debt that matures in the coming year (almost a third of America’s sovereign debt).

The point is he is totally in hock to the good will of bonds investors.

And when he announced his reckless roster of massive tariffs eight days ago he alienated them, because they feared he would tank the economy such that tax revenues would plummet and the deficit would balloon.

So they sold US government bonds, Treasuries, and the yield on the bonds - the de facto interest rate - soared.

Which is why Trump blinked, and put on hold the more extreme tariffs, except for the 140% on China, for 90 days.

You might think the worst part of this is the uncertainty he has created for businesses and investors for the next 90 days. Since no one in their right minds would make a major US investment till the final tariff determinations are made.

But the cancerous uncertainty is not the worst of it.

The worst of it is he has shredded any respect that overseas governments and investors might have had for America’s economic and fiscal competence.

Shades - you might say - of how Truss and Kwarteng’s unwise unfunded tax cuts undermined the perceived fiscal competence of the UK.

But unlike Truss and Kwarteng, there is pretty much no mechanism for removing Trump.

All of which means that bond and stock markets will remain fragile and volatile - fearful that Trump will regain his mojo and engage in some other fiscal extravagance.

He has also handed a loaded gun to his perceived enemy, China, and his supposed ally Japan.

This matters in both cases, because he is engaged in the mother of all trade wars with China - and Japan wants a trade deal with him that would see it escape mega tariffs.

The loaded guns they have are their massive loans to the US government. Japan owns more than a trillion dollars of US Treasuries and China not much less.

If they were to sell those bonds, or even if they chose not to refinance maturing bonds, that could be a disaster for Trump. Because it could cause another potentially crippling spike in bond yields.

Here is the measure of Trump’s debacle.

He may well have trashed America’s single most important financial competitive advantage, namely that investors have traditionally bought the dollar and US Treasuries at a time of economic and political uncertainty.

No more - because he personally has become the world’s source of economic uncertainty snd anxiety.

So, as I say he, is now in a fiscal prison. And if bond investors, including Japan and China, see him imposing tariffs or cutting taxes in ways they don’t like, they learned yesterday they have the means and power to stop him.

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@kacungira Congratulations!

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Swedish warship Vasa is the world's best preserved 17th century ship.

Built between 1626 and 1628, it sank during her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628 and was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961

[read more: https://t.co/Cyc3RSlcaW]

[Sir William Browder KCMG @Billbrowder]

“Russian money has completely corrupted the British establishment”: Bill Browder on the Kremlin's influence over Brexit and a Russia without Putin - The New European https://t.co/QcqJ5eucFi

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@lindayacc 😂

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@klaasm67 Foyles has an excellent military history section on 2nd floor

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@Maks_NAFO_FELLA There’s been an outage

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Sarah (I'm heartbroken about sewage but doubled my salary) Bentley has resigned from @thameswater

Anyone care to guess how big her payoff will be? The last one got £2,800,000.

https://t.co/SSVWD0SMFW

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Thames Water on the brink of bankruptcy?

So we get to the real reason for Sarah (I’m heartbroken about Sewage) Bentley’s sacking.

@thameswater is teetering on the brink of insolvency and it appears they’re not the only water company heading in that direction.

More to follow

[Nigel with the Brie 🇺🇦 @admiralbooth]

@hownottodraw Nowhere within the grid is actually northern.

[Janey Godley @JaneyGodley]

Dear @Gett_UK you charged me £67 for a cab that had £29 on the meter from Euston to Gloucester Rd tube. I won’t be using your APP again and I hope everyone reading this knows what charges to expect - thanks for your reply- now deleting the APP - have a great day my friend

[jason fawcett @fawcejas]

@Londonist Elephant and Castle