Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰

Humble hewer of wood and bearer of water. Graduate of @warstudies and @uclcs. Former national security/strategic policy analyst. Recovering hedge funder.

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

The root problem with Toryism for a while now is that there is no desire to think seriously about the role of the state in an age of large and growing demographic pressures (immigration, health, social care, pensions), but a instead a reflexive cargo-cult affinity for tax cuts 1/

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

Just abolish Council Tax and SDLT and replace them with an annual tax on land value

[Ashley Osborne | PRSim | AngelBrics | LEXIT 🇦🇺 @proptechpioneer]

The UK government has been turning a dial for 70 years.

They call it stamp duty.

What it actually is: a demand control mechanism that has never once controlled prices.

Here's the full story — with data. 🧵

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

Yes that's true. Never see this with the French, for example

[loose Cannon of Lakeview @notnotpreston]

@Europoorupset I work with and visit England often, They never really got over the fact that England is no longer the preeminent flagship society. Exceedingly insecure. Don’t see this with other European nations. that’s why they have so much angst towards the US, because we took their place.

[George Eaton @georgeeaton]

Middle-earners should pay more tax – targeting the wealthy will never be enough.

New column for @ArguablyMag on the inconvenient truth that no politician will speak. https://t.co/tb3DWMYBhf

[James Heale @JAHeale]

On Friday, the Ukraine War will have lasted 1569 days - longer than the First World War

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

You were a Treasury minister, and then Welfare Secretary, while we were running up that very debt....

You don't give the keys back to the person who crashed the car

[Mel Stride @MelJStride]

The @Conservatives are the only party with a plan to tackle Britain’s debt 👇🏻

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

The *actual* truth is that the UK has chosen the worst of both worlds... mainly privatised companies, but burdonsome, pro-incumbent regulation that makes competition impossible or undesirable

Either nationalise something, or create a real market. Death zone is in the middle

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

The truth is the complete 180° opposite of this claim. Britian pays too much for the basics because the state exercises too much control over housing, energy, water, transport, care and education.

We will not thrive as a nation u til we recognise this simple fact

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

Turns out you can eat Tesla shares...

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

If you took half of Elon Musks wealth, you could fix world hunger, and he would still be the richest person on the planet.

[Washington Speakers Bureau @WSB_Speakers]

At 36, Admiral James Stavridis (@stavridisj) had his first command, a guided missile destroyer with 350 sailors and a record of winning every award. He figured the streak would hold.

Then came a routine engineering inspection. The ship failed it so badly the inspectors told him he was not safe to operate, and they towed the destroyer back into port, past every other ship in San Diego, with the whole fleet watching.

He went home that night and told his wife his career was over.

The next day, the phone started ringing. The calls weren't from his bosses. They were from the other captains in the fleet. Bad day, they said. What do you need? A working party? Spare parts? Should I send my master chief over to help with training?

That was the day he learned what peers are really for.

"Your peers can save you, because they know you."

[Roy Jenkinsite 🇬🇧 @shriverist]

Supermarket prices being high = greedflation, evil corporations need to stop hoarding profits, we need to lower prices 😡😡😡
Supermarket prices being low = evil corporations are ripping off and exploiting workers, we need to increase prices 😡😡😡

[Infrastructure explained @infraexplained]

the german east india company

[The Critical Drinker @TheCriticalDri2]

Just Hugh Laurie eloquently destroying another clueless "journalist". What a perfect start to the week.

[JamesFennell MBE @FennellJW]

The UK needs enough maritime capability to keep the Russian Northern Fleet bottled up, provide a two division reserve Corps to NATO and protect the UK's airspace and defeat Russian long range aviation and missiles that threaten it. That is the bottom line.https://t.co/0a6JJA5Swo

[Noah Kaufman @noahqk]

The Kaya Identity shows the four ways to reduce emissions.
As a general rule of thumb, as the focus moves from right to left among these four, decarbonization strategies get increasingly delusional (and arguably immoral).

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

@MuKuDk2 Agreed. But the point is they were capable of it. They achieved incredible things and most went on to have fairly normal lives afterward. Are this generation capable of such things today?

[Capel Lofft @CapelLofft]

Haldane on Lloyd George v Asquith in 1916. One can't help feeling that - for all that I dislike the Welsh Goat in many ways - the British state now could do with a bit more of a Lloyd George 'get this sh*t done and to hell with the niceties' approach

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

@lfg_uk At some point, I am confident that British governments are going to realise that we have Parliamentary supremacy in this country, and the correct thing to do is to reverse the burden of proof, and simply pass a law that makes it illegal for something essential NOT to be built

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

@BenObeseJecty The F-35A was incoherent for a more prosaic reason - the B-61 would be dual key, which means a US veto. Which means ineffective. The escalation gap they were trying to fill, however, is very real, imo

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

Within hours of being announced as the nominee to be the U.S. Director of the CIA, I received a hand-delivered message on MI6 stationery congratulating me on my nomination. It was signed simply "C" in green ink. Legendary. I shared it with my son and even he thought I was now cool!

More than that, this note, from Sir Alex Younger, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, confirmed what I already believed: the work that the CIA and MI6 did together mattered, that the partnership was critical, and that two leaders focused on the mission could save lives and provide tools for our nations to deter our adversaries.

Alex's passing this week brought back so many memories of our time in service together. He flew to Langley to see me the day I was confirmed. We brought our two senior teams together in the UK to plan and coordinate and build in the first several weeks of my time on duty: making clear to them all that this relationship was more than special - it was critical for the security of our two countries.

Alex was a remarkable intelligence partner. When we needed help, it wasn't "let me see;" it was "this matters to you and America we'll get it done." And he and his team always did. I think he knew we would do the same for him and his team and his nation. Many Americans are alive today because of his leadership of MI6, I never knew how to thank him enough.

Alex became a friend as well. In the years since we both left office we would see each other from time to time. He was always so kind, so thoughtful, so smart. His deep love of his country was surpassed only by his deep commitment and love of his family. Decent and proper - and funny as hell - Alex was "C." As espionage requires, he was quiet, not attention seeking. He knew what evil was and he was ruthless in his efforts to crush it with every legal tool at his command. And he knew who his friends were and committed himself to supporting them.

I miss Sir Alex Younger. He was a role model for me and a man with whom every minute I spent was valued and savored. Blessings to you Alex. Praying for you and for your family. Well done and may you rest in peace in His hands.

[Sir Harry Paget Flashman 🔰 @flashman198]

@Outoftweet123 Whut? The money is the easy bit. Housing is one of the best cost-benefit trades going in the UK. If it was the state building it, it can do so at scale. The much harder bit is where is all the skilled labour going to come from.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox @Zaphod2042]

If, taking into account economies of scale for the five exported to Norway, BAE could deliver Type 26 for sub-£800m (£840m a ship in 2022) it appears a great deal better value warship than a sparsely fitted Type 31.

Does not bode well for the hopes to export them to New Zealand.