At this point they are actively doctoring quotes to racebait.
It frankly abhorrent. They are lying.
For those who have left my party to join them - do you stand by this? Is this what you believe in now?
Farage, of course, has form. He did it after the Southport murders. He’s doing it again after the murder or Henry Nowak. He looks to divide and destroy rather than unite and build.
Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:
- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly
Blair basically says all that.
The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:
- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs
None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it
Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.
Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others
בן גביר הוא עבריין ונזק אסטרטגי למדינת ישראל.
בזמן שישראל נלחמת על ביטחונה ועל מעמדה בעולם, בן גביר מייצר עוד סרטון בחירות, עוד פרובוקציה, עוד ביזיון - ומרסק את ישראל מבפנים.
הקואליציה הזאת יודעת שסופה קרוב. הלחץ עולה, הפאניקה גוברת ואת המחיר משלמים אזרחי ישראל בביטחון, בכלכלה ובבידוד מדיני.
בקרוב נחליף אותם. אנחנו נחזיר עמוד שדרה דמוקרטי ליברלי וציוני לממשלה הבאה.
After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.
Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences.
We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea.
Insane.
The murderous attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego was a horrific act of violent hatred, and a devastating moment for the local community. I extend condolences to the families of the victims.
I am acutely aware of the fear that this type of attack creates for Muslim communities around the world, including here in the UK.
In the face of this kind of attack, communities of faith must stand together, to demand that all people deserve to live in peace and security.
Unpopular opinion: Kemi Badenoch is becoming *really* good at this, and is miles better than Nigel Farage. Farage avoids scrutiny, avoids clarity, is trying to draw together a broad coalition by painting in the vaguest of strokes, where Badenoch is doing the hard work of becoming genuinely competent
The fact there was nothing on welfare in King’s Speech tells you everything about you need to know about this government’s predicament. So cowardly. More interested in protecting the welfare state than standing up for workers who pay for it
The thing about bond markets is that if Labour said:
"We're going to borrow this money to do a massive investment in nuclear energy, built to Korean standards, we're going to expand our airports and ports, renew and expand Britain's highway and rail systems, renew Britain's armed services and we're going to dramatically overhaul our planning and approvals system to do it rapidly"
Labour would get a very positive response from the markets and its borrowing rate would fall.
Unfortunately what Labour tells the markets is "we're going to borrow money and throw it at our client groups - welfare recipients, pensioners, the public sector and unions - basically the least productive members of society". Oddly enough this doesn't go down very well.
Side note.
To the Labour MPs who shout “Liz Truss” whenever the economy is discussed, should note that the UK 10yr bond yield under Truss peaked at 4.7%
This morning, because of Reeves’ and Starmer’s ineptitude the 10yr bond yield is 5.02%
Labour crashed the economy.
The ministers urging Starmer to go are feeding the hysteria. The next leader will be subject to instant leadership speculation and the next, and the next, whether Labour, Reform or Tory. Britain is becoming ungovernable. And the media fixation on this tittle tattle is not helping
Britain has had barely any real productivity growth for over a decade, wages flatlining against inflation, house prices now around 8x average earnings, welfare spending exploding and nearly 1 million young people not in work or education. Meanwhile we import everything, make almost nothing, have no serious energy resilience and are already falling behind in the AI race.
And yet Westminster thinks another game of musical chairs will somehow fix the country.
It’s totally pathetic. A political class obsessed with internal squabbles while ordinary people get poorer, younger generations lose hope and Britain drifts further into managed decline. I’ve never felt so disillusioned with politics