David Watchorn

Husband, NFFC s/t - 1st game 1960. 2 sons, both NFFC s/t holders. Shinedown/5FDP/Rammstein/Van Halen/The Sixteen

[FootballFunnys @FootballFunnnys]

Crystal Palace star Brennan Johnson has started dating OF actress Lily Phillips, who set a world record last December by sleeping with 101 men in 24 hours...

Imagine the shame of going home to your parents and having to tell them your partner used to play for Tottenham... 🤣

[Ben Leo @Benleo]

WEIRD: this is the moment a Greater Manchester Police PCSO in an unmarked car asked who I was as we knocked doors on a street with asylum HMOs run by Serco.

The copper said he was just patrolling the area…. or maybe someone didn’t want us nosing around? 🤔

@GBNEWS

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Defence of the Realm vs The Defence of the Majority

George Robertson has been a Labour man for sixty years. He served as Tony Blair's Defence Secretary. He ran NATO. When Keir Starmer needed someone to write his Strategic Defence Review, he turned to Robertson. That is the context in which Robertson's words this week must be understood.

Britain's national security, he said, is "in peril." The Treasury is committing "vandalism." The government is gripped by "corrosive complacency." His co-author, General Sir Richard Barrons, was equally precise: the British Army can currently "seize a small market town on a good day."

That verdict comes from the men Starmer himself commissioned. But Robertson said something else, something quieter, that explains everything. The reason Starmer will not act, he told the Guardian, is that everybody is "worried about votes." Left and right. Reactions. The political situation. He said it almost as an aside. It should have been the headline.

The Defence Investment Plan was due last October. It has still not appeared. The military faces a funding gap of £28 billion over four years. Defence chiefs are meeting this week to discuss cuts of £3.5 billion. The Treasury, it is widely reported in Whitehall, is simply refusing to release money. Meanwhile the welfare budget runs at five times what Britain spends on defence.

Robertson's remedy is direct: the welfare budget must be reduced to fund the armed forces. Within hours, Diane Abbott was on cue. Cutting welfare to spend on armaments, she said, was "appalling." Labour would lose votes to the Greens. That was the authentic voice of the constraint Robertson was describing.

Starmer cannot cut welfare. A backbench rebellion of over a hundred Labour MPs killed his welfare reform bill last year. He cannot borrow more without alarming markets. He cannot raise taxes without another political crisis. So the system deadlocks. The review sits on a shelf. The investment plan drifts toward June, then perhaps beyond. And the men who wrote the review go public.

Those who follow my work will know I have written at length about Starmer's paralysis on Iran. The inability to act decisively in the Gulf, the refusal to name what is actually driving his hesitation. The answer, in both cases, is the same. Starmer leads a coalition held together by Muslim communities whose votes he cannot afford to lose and whose instincts run directly against any muscular projection of British power abroad. That constraint does not stop at the water's edge. The same electoral arithmetic is now preventing him funding the armed forces. It is not a coincidence. It is a governing philosophy. When survival of the parliamentary party conflicts with the national interest, the parliamentary party wins. Every time.

The government's response to Robertson was to say Britain's armed forces are "among the best in the world" and that Starmer is "determined" the investment plan will be fit for purpose. Determined. Not funded. Not scheduled. Determined.

General Barrons put the timeline plainly. At the current pace, Britain needs ten years to reach genuine war readiness. British intelligence, alongside allied assessments, gives Russia three to five years before it tests European resolve directly. That is the gap. That is what "corrosive complacency" means in operational terms.

Lord Hutton, another former Labour Defence Secretary, has called this the defining moment of Starmer's premiership. He is right, though not in the way he intends. The defining moment has already passed. Starmer has chosen. Faced with a direct conflict between what the defence of this country requires and what his backbenchers will tolerate, he has chosen the backbenchers.

Robertson said he believes his country is in danger. He said he had to speak out even though it would be uncomfortable. A sixty-year Labour loyalist broke with his own government because he concluded the alternative was worse. And he was right.

[David Watchorn @Grantham46]

@RhonddaBryant That's pretty rich coming from you bunch of incompetents.

[Yorkshire Rose @YorksRose_84]

🚨 Leeds Robbery

Officers have released a CCTV image of a man they wish to speak to following a jewellery robbery yesterday in Hunslet, Leeds.

It happened around 4.45pm on Wednesday 10 June, in the park area on Burton Row.

A woman had been sat on a bench when a man approached her and pulled jewellery from around her neck which he then made off with.

Officers would like to identify the man in the image, as he may have information that could assist the ongoing investigation.

[Paul Rees. ex Rucksack. @HannahIamthest1]

Did you know that Tommy Cooper was a pioneer of the green movement with FOUR recycling bins outside his house.

They were labelled:

Glass.

Bottle.

Bottle.

Glass.

🤣🤣

[Sheep In Stitches @sheepinstitches]

Stolen from GL4 (Glos) between 9pm Wed 10th & 6am on Thurs 11th June. Landrover 90 TDI. N463 UUX.
V. well used and v. distinctive. Series 3 drivers door, Mercedes front grill badge, multiple scars and dents and stickers including #hawkstonefarmerschoir Please share. Thanks!💔

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

“The White Star Line is delighted to appoint a new purser for its flagship vessel The Titanic”

[N Ecc 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @Neccccy]

😂😂😂😂

[Robbie @Robbie_Reasons]

Starmer has made a conscious decision to underfund our military, leaving us defenceless, whilst spending billions of pounds on importing third world fighting age men.

At what point does this level of treachery become treason?

[Jac o' the North 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @JacotheNorth]

Anybody recognise him?

[Burnside @BurnsideWasTosh]

BREAKING: Starmer hits back at John Healey.

"We can't fund free breakfast clubs and bullets, I chose middle class children's toast. I'm sorry John has joined the far right but he will be feeling the full force of the law"

[steve @bagshaw2112]

In my opinion #tommycooper was one of the best comedians of our generation. They say comedy is all about timing, and Tommy was the absolute master . No one will ever be like him . #memories #comedy

[Bev Turner @beverleyturner]

Ffs ... this was so obvious!

Be AFRAID!!
Misbehave!!
Incoming control.....

[WeGotitBack 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇺🇸 @NotFarLeftAtAll]

An Afghan war hero cannot afford a new prosthetic arm to hold his children's hands.

Ben McBean, 39, has been forced to appeal to the public to fund a new prosthetic arm to hold his two boys' hands.

He decided to set up a GoFundMe page, with a £26,000 target, explaining to the private donors he is "trying to raise a few quid" so he can "experience a bionic arm", which he described as a "dream" for him and his family.

The page has raised almost £22,000.
As the donations have rolled in, Mr McBean wrote on the page: "I can't actually believe this. Thank you so much, everyone. Really can't believe the support."
Six weeks later, he posted again: "One step closer. Can't bloody believe it.

[Burnside @BurnsideWasTosh]

Well the pattern is now set:

Atrocity
Condemn in weakest terms possible
Calls for calm
Angry scenes
Family of victim used
Full force of the law
New laws limiting everyone's freedom
Ignore problem that caused atrocity

[Tristan Tate @TateTheTalisman]

Find me Ben.

Direct contact please.

I’ll cover the entire cost.

[David Watchorn @Grantham46]

@GBNEWS Tough.