CatServant

Mainly retweet as usually someone has said what I'm thinking much more eloquently than I could. I also like cats 🐈

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

It must be so frustrating to be a Conservative politician and to have all these ideas for how to make the country better so soon after having 14 years in power when all they did was make the country worse.

[Mike H @mikoh123]

Richard Ayoade -In Essex, one local man tries to walk normally despite having a wedge of bank notes stuck up his arse.
#hignfy

[JmRoyle #LFC #YNWA #BLM #RejoinEU @MyArrse]

This is why Tories \ Reform UK are bricking it about rejoining The EU.

[Miffy @miffythegamer]

Where Tom thinks Britain is.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Ripping apart NATO for his Russian master, Trump says the UK, the Baltics and France are not allowed to attend next month's NATO summit in Poland.

A reminder, the Baltics are next on Putin's list and all 3 cannot attend.

[Triple Lock Pensions @TPensions]

The UK can't afford to pay the OAPs a decent Pension

That's what Andy Burnham is really saying,

That's good to know,
13 Million pensioners will just have to find another home for their votes!
@UKLabour
@number10gov
#retainthelock

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

@NJ_Timothy Cat check: As Dame Owers independent review made clear, the current crisis was caused by the Tory government closing 18 prisons and reducing prison places during their 14 years in office. Timothy worked as a special advisor to Theresa May during this period.

[YouGov @YouGov]

Our latest tracker data shows that 59% of Britons support rejoining the EU, and 73% support a closer relationship

Only 30% support the status quo, and just 16% want to loosen ties further

[Neil Clark @NeilClark66]

As I said, abolishing the Triple Lock was the ‘foot in the door’ - which is why it was so important to fight to keep it.
The Anti-state pension lobby won’t rest until there is no state pension at all.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Nigel Farage and his lickspittles: It's outrageous that Burnham won't guarantee the pension triple lock past 2030

Normal people: So do Reform guarantee to keep the pension triple lock past 2030 in the unlikely event you're in government?

Nigel Farage and his lickspittles: No

[Peter Stefanovic @PeterStefanovi2]

“We would.. come out of the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act and not replace it” Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp tells @SkyNews

NOT REPLACE IT!

The European Convention on Human Rights PROTECTS US ALL

The rights within it – firmly implanted into UK law by the Human Rights Act are the reason why families devastated by disasters like Hillsborough could demand justice, why victims of abuse can seek safety and why disabled people are treated with dignity in care. It grants our right to protest, our right to privacy, our right to fair trials and so much more.

WE MUST PROTECT IT NOT LEAVE IT

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

NEW: Senior Downing Street officials have been reaching out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test public support for the UK rejoining the EU.

Aides to Andy Burnham have been talking to EU experts in a range of organisations about how the public would view a promise to rejoin.

Some in No 10 are keen to promise that Labour would at least negotiate over re-entry, something Burnham has previously said he wants to see happen “in his lifetime”.

Others are nervous, however, that making such a promise could revive the flagging political fortunes of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage - @kiranstacey & @lisaocarroll report

https://t.co/iwfKo9Fy8Q

[Byline Times @BylineTimes]

🔴 NEW

Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives Ban Byline Times From Conference After Condemning Reform for Journalist Ban

By Byline Times Team

The ban comes just weeks after the Conservative leader called Reform's barring of critical journalists from their conference an "authoritarian" attack on the free press

Subscribe to support fearless independent journalism.

https://t.co/0GrJZtNuU6

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

'Ending' the State Pension triple lock: what is really likely to happen? Many are confused, and think the State Pension won't rise. Actually the change is subtle, it's about loosening, not ending, one of the three locks - the link to average earnings. So I want to try to explain as simply as I can.

CURRENT TRIPLE LOCK
The State Pension(s) rise each April by highest of:
- 2.5%
- CPI inflation
- Average earnings growth

[State Pension(s) as it applies to the new State Pension and older basic State Pension. Though not the old additional State Pensions (eg SERPS) and a few other additional pension which only go up with CPI. The new system will likely be similar.]

PROPOSED NEW SYSTEM
The State Pension(s) will rise each April by at least the higher of:
- 2.5%
- CPI inflation

The 'at least' is because it will also rise due to average earnings, but not specifically for that year instead over a longer period.

Yet the exact mechanisms aren't set out, so I'm going to use one example of a way it could work, where the rise keeps up with average earnings since the system start date of 2030, as I think its easier to understand.

HOW THIS COULD WORK IN PRACTICE
Here's a made up example to set it out...

Current System:
Year 1: Inflation 3%, earnings up 2%. Pension rises 3%.
Year 2: Inflation 4%, earnings up 6%. Pension rises 6%.
Year 3: Inflation 3%, earnings up 1%. Pension rises 3%.
TOTAL RISE: 12.5% over the 3yrs as the increases compound.

New system:
Year 1: Inflation 3%, earnings up 2%. So it rises 3%.
Year 2: Inflation 4%, earnings up 6%.

A rise of only 4% would be a total rise since the start of 7.1%, yet that's less than the total rise in average earnings of 8.1%. So the Pension would rise about 5% that year to match the total rise in average earnings.
Year 3: Inflation 3%, earnings up 1%, so it rises by 3%.
TOTAL RISE: 11.4% over the three years
------------------
I hope that makes sense, again this is just a rough example to give you an idea as best as I understand it, but I think I'm in the ballpark.

I will try and do a video on it if time as that may make it easier to understand.

[Anglo-Reconquista @thetraitorfiles]

🚨 THE CRAIG–BURNHAM–UAE MANCHESTER NETWORK

There is a political and corporate overlap in Manchester that deserves far more scrutiny.

Bev Craig was not simply another Labour council leader.

While Andy Burnham was Mayor of Greater Manchester, Craig became his senior Economy, Business and International figure inside the GMCA. Official records show her continuing to hold the region’s economy and business portfolio into 2026. (Greater Manchester Democracy)

At the same time, Craig was Leader of Manchester City Council.

And she also became a director of Manchester Life, the property-development partnership between Manchester City Council and the investment structure ultimately controlled by Sheikh Mansour.

So one politician was simultaneously sitting across:

Manchester City Council.

Greater Manchester’s regional economic machinery.

And the Sheikh Mansour-linked Manchester Life development structure.

Meanwhile, Burnham repeatedly defended the contribution of Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi owners to Manchester.

Today, following the Premier League commission’s adverse findings against Manchester City, Burnham said he would be “very concerned” if the Abu Dhabi owners sold the club because of what their investment had done for the city.

Manchester City denies wrongdoing and is appealing the ruling. (Reuters)

The sequence is remarkable.

Burnham builds his Greater Manchester economic model around major outside investment.

Craig becomes one of his most important economic lieutenants.

Craig simultaneously sits inside the flagship Sheikh Mansour-linked property joint venture.

Craig then emerges as Burnham’s political successor in Greater Manchester.

And Burnham continues publicly defending the importance of the Abu Dhabi ownership to Manchester.

But the institutional overlap is very real.

The question worth asking is simple:

How much access and influence did one extraordinarily concentrated Abu Dhabi investment network acquire inside Manchester’s political and development establishment?

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

Brits want to get closer to the EU — and even Farage’s voters agree https://t.co/n7KjVqTLW4

[Matthew Stadlen @MatthewStadlen]

And here’s Richard Tice saying Reform can’t guarantee the triple lock

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

This is how Brexit finally unravels: not through ideology, but because British businesses can no longer afford it.

34% of small firms trading with the EU expect to cut or stop unless things change. Just 6% expect growth.

Burnham’s clear path back towards Europe is economic necessity.

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

NEW: Emmanuel Macron says “welcome back” if the UK wants to rejoin the EU

Pedro Sanchez says Spain would have “open arms” if Britain wants to reverse Brexit

Comes after Andy Burnham said he was considering fighting the next election on the UK rejoining

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

There wasn't a social care crisis when local authorities provided the service free of charge. Then Thatcher privatised it and private equity bosses started charging £8000 a month.