Mike Cameron

Dad, husband, retired maths and computer science teacher, slave to two cats. I could, so I taught.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

For Christmas I got myself a Substack. Its my retirement project.

Hark, what light? https://t.co/xSl9WKYwq2

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@afneil Scotland will, of course, be boycotting the knockout rounds.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

One thing we’ve found out for sure today - the US military WILL carry out illegal orders.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

I know of a school that is going through a redundancy process with a consultation period over Xmas and a significant input to the decision making will be based on a single lesson observation of all members of staff to be carried out in the New Year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

The UK electorate continue to lash around aimlessly in the dark trying to decide which political party is most likely to solve all their problems without increasing their taxes.

Recency bias looms large here.

[YouGov @YouGov]

Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention (14-15 December 2025)

Reform UK: 28% (+1 from 7-8 Dec)
Labour: 18% (-1)
Greens: 17% (+2)
Conservatives: 17% (-1)
Lib Dems: 14% (=)
SNP: 4% (+1)

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Tomorrows front pages leave me with one nagging question:- why didn’t Rachel Reeves cure the kings cancer earlier? Why did she leave him suffering for so long?

[Púck @puc_ie]

#TomorrowsNewsTonight
#TomorrowsPapers

𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟯 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲⬇️
https://t.co/uXeBEHdayK

#TomorrowsPapersToday

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Who would notice one more phoney dick in there?

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: Nigel Farage's former campaign staffer, who accused him of breaking electoral law, was expelled by Reform for allegedly keeping sex toys in Farage’s Clacton office

[@Telegraph]

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Shock horror!

Original OBR estimates re private schools VAT changes turn out to be mostly correct, if anything an underestimate of the tax being raised.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Seen some negative comments about this. Seems a good way of prompting parents to get their kids into school and help with attendance issues, where every little helps.

[Department for Education @educationgovuk]

What would you do with an extra 30 minutes in your day? 🤔

Free breakfast clubs are transforming mornings for 500,000 children - that's 95 precious hours back each year while children get a nutritious start to their day.

Part of our Plan for Change ✨

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@StuartLock @MrJLauder @MoreMorrow So that would save about £30 per student per annum (assuming no extra costs required). Is that enough to make a significant difference to their experience/outcomes?

Also, I would worry that the next stop on from 2000 to 300 is to zero. Not sure the system would manage that.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Maybe there is a god.

[Adam Boulton @adamboultonTABB]

Stupid arrogant behaviour by Telegraph grandees - they nay kill off their organ for good .

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@BodilUK I’d love to see this question also posed as “4 + 8 = 5 + _ “ to see if there was any difference in outcome.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

And at a stroke, the BBC story is off the front pages and the airwaves are full of people saying how much they support the government.

Political journalists are so easy to play.

[Ben Riley-Smith @benrileysmith]

***What’s really going on with these No10 briefings that Keir Starmer is prepared to fight a leadership challenge?***

Here’s my best guess after a load of calls…

It seems clear tonight that Downing Street deliberately wanted out there the idea the PM will battle to keep his job

Well-informed pieces from Guardian’s @PippaCrerar, Times’s @patrickkmaguire and BBC’s @ChrisMasonBBC and @hzeffman dropped this evening carrying No10 figures / Starmer allies making that argument.

Downing Street folks have since told @Telegraph the same. One said: “Any attempt to bring political instability into a Government with a very stable majority would be economically and politically extremely unwise.”

The clear message tonight: Starmer will face down any challenge.

Some cabinet ministers - Wes Streeting in particular but also Shabana Mahmood - have had fingers of blame pointed at them from Starmer allies. Accused of being on manoeuvres.

An extraordinary night of briefing wars has followed. Streeting’s team on record has denied: “These claims are categorically untrue." Mahmood ally has called them “nonsense”.

The question then becomes… why has No10 picked this moment to elevate the idea his position is under threat?

It feels like an early attempt to smoke out any plotters and get Labour MPs rallying round Starmer before an incredibly tricky Budget (one in which he’s expected to break the manifesto by raising income tax).

Wes Streeting is on the media round tomorrow (as Downing Street figures well know). He’ll be bounced into publicly pledging loyalty to Starmer.

Starmer himself is at PMQs tomorrow. Presumably he will insist he’s not going anywhere, to cheers from Labour MPs (as usually happens for leaders in PMQs).

Perhaps the hope from No10 is to repeat the dynamic from Labour conference, when Andy Burnham publicly floated his ambitions and the party as a whole slapped him down / rallied to Starmer’s side.

This feels like an attempt to repeat, calling the bluff of other leadership pretenders to smooth the post-Budget fallout.

But there is also one resounding takeaway: That No10 even feels it needs to mount this operation shows there is at least some genuine degree of concern about Starmer’s position.

And that is why tonight has been so telling.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

I wouldn’t trust politicians who are
A) this bad at maths, and
B) clearly incapable of checking what they say against reality.

[The Green Party @TheGreenParty]

Tesla have approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk. That's 20 billion times more than a nurse in the UK earns.

Don't let anyone tell you immigrants or disabled people are the problem. It's the richest 1% hoarding all the wealth.

Time to tax the super-rich properly.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@michael_merrick The axis is “rank” so gives no real information about relative income - they could all be within a couple of quid of each other. It’s also income net of tax without any other attempts to look at differences (eg medical costs). Plus it’s still the top 15 out of 200.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@adamboxer1 The change in memory and storage capacity and price is what makes me certain there must be an alien apace ship in Area 51.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

Everyone leaves the track. Just the one penalty. Guess who?

[deni @fiagirly]

📻 | Lewis Hamilton: “Has anyone else had a penalty?”

📻 | Adami: “Not at the moment.”

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@soniasodha That’s not what I said. But that’s fine, carry on as you were.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

@soniasodha It’s not a cop out at all. It’s the harder job. How do we eradicate poverty, disadvantage, extreme inequality? Doing that will reduce the numbers of vulnerable people. But no one wants to do that because it’s too hard. By all means address offending behaviour at the same time.

[Mike Cameron @mikercameron]

“Leeds fortunate there.”

Yeah, fortunate that Attwell is the ref.