Nick Horrox

[Donna Louise @DonnaLouise1212]

🚨 "I am Peter, living man, son of Michael and Lily."

Those were the haunting last words of 61-year-old grandfather Peter Lynch — repeated over and over to prison guards as he refused food and water before taking his own life in HMP Moorland.

Arrested for shouting at police during the Rotherham riots outside an asylum hotel, this dad and grandad got 2 years 8 months. No violence against officers, but part of an angry crowd protesting grooming gangs, open borders & child safety.

Now he's dead. While the government fast-tracked riot sentences and ignored root causes, a confused, vulnerable man slipped through the cracks with zero mental health referral.

This isn't justice. This is what government overreach looks like when it crushes ordinary people raising their voices. RIP Peter Lynch. Britain needs to wake up.

[Nick Timothy MP @NJ_Timothy]

Mohamed Abdulraziq dragged a five-year-old girl off the street and sexually assaulted her.

When I referred his sentence to the Government as unduly lenient, the minister disagreed.

That minister - Ellie Reeves - has just been made Attorney General.
https://t.co/jeDpdpvf0O

[Charlotte Gill @CharlotteCGill]

Andy Burnham’s new Energy Secretary was trained at a school awarded $1,822,049 by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations

Can you imagine the stink if Elon Musk replaced Soros in this scenario?

https://t.co/I7WdtaUWdu

[House Of The People @HoTPOfficial]

Parliament closed for the summer on Thursday. It will not sit again until September.

For the next six weeks, the government will make announcements, statutory instruments will come into force, and policy will move forward without Commons scrutiny.

Democracy does not take a holiday. Only the mechanism for holding it accountable does.

We are tracking every decision made in the vacuum.

https://t.co/WVi7iKrI6t

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, Burnham has appointed:

- a Housing Secretary who “resigned” in disgrace from the same job because she couldn’t even pay the correct stamp duty on her 2nd house

- a previously sacked convicted fraudster who will be in charge of ethics in the Cabinet Office

- a Business Secretary that had to apologise to parliament over misleading CV statements

- a Chancellor who couldn’t count how many frigates we had in our fleet when he was defence secretary

- a Defence Secretary with no military experience (despite multiple ex-servicemen available)

So much for the “hope” vibes.

[Jewish Jess @jessisajew]

Hey BBC I fixed your new advert for you

[Nick Horrox @nickhorrox]

@ArchRose90 👍

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

“undoubtedly saved lives”

I’m extremely worried as to what is going on in the Home Office.

Twice, in a week, the most senior politicians in our country are looking stupid because they’ve shared police misinformation, or have made it up themselves.

Spreading misinformation to millions of people, without apology, whilst you hold high office should be a breach of ministerial code.

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Another sign that Andy Burnham will be no better than Keir Starmer.

There was no right-wing terror plot or hatred against Muslims. He will be another useful idiot.

[James Price @jamespriceglos]

Earlier this week, the Home Secretary interfered with a police investigation to say that arrests “Undoubtedly saved lives”.

But now Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of CTP London said: “We have made extensive enquiries, but at this time, we have found no evidence to support anyone being charged with any offences linked to the alleged threat.”

Was the Home Secretary lying, or badly informed, or both?

Deeply strange

[Dr Clare Craig @ClareCraigPath]

The UK is planning to put 5 tonnes of folic acid into flour each year.

If that amount was fed to 20 million mice it would kill 10 million of them.

(And rodents metabolise it 50 times more efficiently than humans).

It is a synthetic drug.

NO TO MASS MEDICATION.

[Toby Young @toadmeister]

Earlier today a @Guardian journalist sent me this query:

Dear Toby Young,

I'm Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian. I'm getting in touch because we're planning to report that the US state department is considering a grant of $5m to Free Speech Union, your organisation, as part of a new grant-making scheme, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. We would appreciate receiving your comment by 14:30.

We are considering reporting the following:

- The grant to the FSU is part of a package to Maga aligned groups that former US officials have condemned as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics and interfere with democracy.

- It is rare for the US government to fund partisan political organisations in western countries.

- These grants are likely to pose a challenge to Andy Burnham, who has said he will be "very upfront" with Trump about any disagreements.

- These grants - including to your organisation - are "sole source" grants, meaning they are to be awarded without any competitive process. This is unusual for a highly regulated process which usually requires grantees to show they have a track record for handling funds and clear plans for the money.

- This lack of process has been criticised as "outrageous and absurd" by former US officials, and as "gross incompetence" and "horrible stewardship" of US taxpayer money.

- Your organisation does not appear to have a track record of handling grants of this amount.

- We describe your organisation as "a rallying point for “anti-woke” grievance" which "frequently allies itself with rightwing causes" and say that you, Toby Young, appeared on Rees-Mogg's GB news show earlier this month to warn about 'Soviet-style' censorship in the UK.

- The state department says that its grant to FSU will “support campaigns promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe and Australia”. The sole-source award is justified “due to FSU’s global network of free speech activists”.

We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view and look forward to your statement. Thank you,

--
Aisha Kehoe Down
Senior Tarbell Fellow,
Guardian News and Media

I replied as follows:

It sounds like a pretty garbled story.

Free Speech Union International, which is the umbrella group that FSU UK, FSU Australia, FSU New Zealand, FSU Canada, FSU South Africa and FSU Brazil sit within, has expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department. This would be to promote the right to freedom of expression in those countries, which, far from being a partisan cause, is a universal human right. But it hasn't submitted a formal application and, consequently, has been awarded no grant from the State Department or any other branch of the US Government.

You've mischaracterised the FSUs, all of which are non-partisan organisations that defend people who get into trouble for exercising their right to feee speech regardless of their political views. The FSU UK, for instance, is currently paying for the legal defence of a protestor who's being prosecuted for holding up a sign saying "I support Palestine Action", as well as a protestor for wearing a t-shirt at a Unite the Kingdom rally for saying "Fuck Islam Christ is King". Yes, we helped Lucy Connolly appeal her sentence -- we thought a prison sentence of over two-and-a-half years for a single tweet was excessive -- but we also tweeted yesterday, condemning the arrest of Heather Herbert and offering our support. Yes, we came to the defence of Nigel Farage when he was debanked, but we've also offered to help the Canary in its recent debanking case. So to describe the FSU UK as a "rallying point for anti-woke grievance" is misleading. We are a rallying point for those who want to defend the right to freedom of expression.

Best,

Toby

The @Guardian then ran this story:

https://t.co/1l4K0PABvM

You be the judge of whether you think this is good journalism.

[Pat Condell @patcondell]

And Stalin wasn’t involved in the murder of Trotsky either.

[Robin Faustino-Stirling @Glazertwalker]

Starmer, in power for a tad over 2 years, has appointed 17.5% of all the members of the house of lords - a total of 135 peers.

[Great British PAC 🇬🇧 @GreatBritishPAC]

🇬🇧 DAY 2 COMPLETE 🇬🇧
Today, the Court of Appeal heard from Philip Rule KC, James Tumbridge and the Chagossians' legal team.
This really is a David versus Goliath battle.
Earlier this year, the Chagossians won.
Instead of accepting that victory, the Labour Government chose to drag them back into court.
The Government may have an army of lawyers and King's Counsel funded by taxpayers' money, but the Chagossians have something far more powerful on their side:
Justice. Self-determination. The right to live in the homeland of their parents and grandparents.
The Chagossians overwhelmingly want their islands to remain British.
They overwhelmingly want the right to return home as British citizens.
Yet Labour continues to spend public money trying to defeat them in court.
How can a Government that claims to champion human rights deny the Chagossian people the most fundamental right of all – the right to determine their own future?
Tomorrow is the final day of the hearing.
We do not yet know whether the Court will deliver judgment immediately or reserve its decision for a later date, which could mean waiting weeks or even months.
Whatever happens, the Chagossians have shown extraordinary courage.
Tomorrow, the fight continues.
🇬🇧 Stand with the Chagossians.
🇬🇧 Stand for self-determination.
🇬🇧 Stand for British sovereignty.
#Chagos #Chagossians #SelfDetermination #BritishSovereignty #JusticeForChagossians

[Penfold @elbow112]

Look at this pair of clever fkrs 👀 😆

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

A timely reminder that Andy Burnham used to refer to Theresa May as an “unelected PM” after she was crowned leader.

We should refer to Andy as an unelected PM from next Monday.

[Laila Cunningham @policylaila]

Sadiq Khan wanted the House of Lords abolished.

Now he’ll happily take a seat there as Lord Khan.

What changed? Your principles, or your title? Isn’t being Mayor of London enough of a title for you? And will you now resign?

[Nick Horrox @nickhorrox]

@cassisnouveau @ArchRose90 @0xeb0de @SadiqKhan God help us 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Keir Starmer — ever a man of his word til the end.
In June 2023 he explicitly ruled out ever indulging in a resignation honours list (BBC Radio 4 Today).
Today he’s marked his resignation with 21 peerages, overwhelmingly public-sector/legal jobsworths. Barely a single wealth creator among them.
Classic line up of the New Establishment which has run the country under Labour and Tory governments for the past three decades and is now firmly in control. Largely (if not entirely) with the following characteristics:
*Career almost entirely in public sector, often taking salaries from several sinecures at once as they work up the greasy taxpayer-funded pole.
*Associated with various ‘right-on’ causes.
*Largely middle class, London chattering class, Oxbridge well represented (of course).
*Fashionable left but not too left. Good mainstream Labour links.
Thus is the antediluvian House of Lords perpetuated by the Left as well as the Right as a comfortable state-funded retirement home for the well-connected ‘good and great’ past their sell-by date — when it should simply be abolished.