Philip Scott

Former Dundee Conservative councillor and parliamentary candidate. Don't like the SNP, Reform or Trump. Retweets always an endorsement.

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

Trump will have one of his wishes granted - to have history remember him for a very long time - as the absolute opposite of everything you would want in a president - or even a half- decent human being

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

UEFA backing down on its boycott threat is self-evidently a victory for the FIFA president Gianni Infantino. And that’s a defeat for football. The widespread desire for Infantino to resign was not just about his shameful plan to sell off parts of the World Cup. The desire was to call to account a president enthralled by the rich and powerful, whose reign has seen political and commercial interference in football.

Take your pick of: Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami being parachuted into the Club World Cup; handing out a peace prize (that’s the Nobel Committee’s prerogative); the suspension of Cristiano Ronaldo’s ban so he was available for all the World Cup group stage for Portugal; and sponsored hydration breaks.

Any more? Yes. The phone-call from the White House that led to the review of Folarin Balogun’s ban; the loss of respected FIFA staff like Kevin Lamour; and the vote-winning plan to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 which will kill qualifying, dilute further the quality of the tournament itself and reduce the number of nations that can host such a bloated event. And on it goes.

There could well be more now that UEFA appears a paper tiger. Infantino will be emboldened by Nyon’s retreat. Yes, it’s good for the players that the Women’s Under-20s World Cup in Poland goes ahead. They've worked hard to get there. It's not their fault that Infantino's actions plunged the sport into civil war. And the fact that FIFA tournaments are going ahead with a slightly sheepish European flock is particularly good for Infantino.

His supporters will be delighted. Those wavering may see UEFA blinking first and so throw their support behind Infantino. He now has more time to rebuild his support and ensure he gets voted back in when the presidential election is held in March. Four more years.

Any resistance movement within FIFA will surely melt quietly away, knowing that UEFA was not maintaining its initial, lauded firm stance. Pity. When the game needed strong, enlightened leadership to step forward, UEFA stepped back. Pity.

[Jeff 💋 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 Slava Ukraini ❤️🥰 @Always_Me_Jeff]

BREAKING: CNN's fact-checker exposes an AVALANCHE OF LIES from Trump about Canada — and there's a new one almost every day.

Donald Trump doesn't just have policy disagreements with Canada. According to CNN's chief fact-checker Daniel Dale, who happens to be Canadian himself, Trump has built his entire trade war narrative on a foundation of demonstrably false claims — and the lies keep coming.

Just today, Dale documented, Trump falsely claimed Canada's unemployment rate is "10% and rapidly rising." The actual number: 6.4%, and it's been DECLINING for three straight months. Trump also falsely claimed Canada does "95% of its business with the US." The real figure is 72%.

He blamed the entire US-Canada trade deficit on high Canadian agricultural tariffs, despite the fact that roughly 97% of US agricultural exports to Canada are already tariff-free, and the actual deficit stems overwhelmingly from cheap Canadian crude oil imports that benefit American consumers.

And that's just today's batch. Dale's running tally over the past 18 months reads like a highlight reel of fabrication.

Trump has falsely claimed Canada doesn't buy American agricultural products, when it's actually the world's SECOND-LARGEST buyer of them. He's falsely claimed Canadians support becoming America's 51st state, when polling shows overwhelming opposition.

He's falsely claimed Canada is among the world's highest-tariff nations, when World Trade Organization rankings place it near the bottom. He's falsely claimed Canada "essentially doesn't have a military," ignoring that Canadian forces have fought alongside American troops in multiple wars and rank in the upper half of NATO by force size.

He's also falsely inflated the US trade deficit with Canada to "$200 billion" (nowhere close), falsely claimed Canada bans American banks (more than a dozen currently operate there), falsely claimed Canada is "constantly surrounded" by Chinese and Russian ships (fiction), and falsely accused former PM Trudeau of using trade tensions to run for reelection — despite Trudeau, quite obviously, not running.

This isn't policy disagreement. This is a dispute over the nature of reality!

This is a sitting president manufacturing an entire economic conflict with one of America's closest allies using numbers he simply invented, over and over, across nearly two years, with virtually no correction or accountability.

When the facts don't support your trade war, apparently the solution is just to make up new facts. Someone needs to tell Trump that the world doesn’t work like that, and it may as well be CNN’s Daniel Dale.

Please like and share if you’re sick of Trump’s lies!

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Ye gods. Who wants Harry and Meghan back in the UK?

How is it supposed to work? Are they planning on making quasi-Royal visits - in which case they undermine the Prince and Princess of Wales who cordially loathe them.

What happened to Britain being a ghastly, racist country Madam couldn’t stand living in?

Are they expecting to spend Christmas at Sandringham, welcomed back into the bosom of the family they trashed? That will work well.

They will embarrass the King when he’s seriously ill. But they don’t care.

The Markles know that when William ascends the throne they’re Out - kids struck from the line of Succession- so they’re desperately trying to crawl back into favour while Harry’s father is still alive.

It’s a high-stakes gamble. Harry is no longer popular and Meghan is widely despised.

It’s going to be a car crash, isn’t it?

[Kevin Hague @kevverage]

this “if you’re not a separatist, you can’t be a proud Scot” line is one of the most deeply insulting nationalist takes - i guess it reveals the paucity of their arguments that they stoop so low

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The SNP has increased taxes on higher incomes. Not on wealth. Don’t you understand the difference in the Numpty Nursery? What have you done to tackle wealth inequality? What have you done to those who ‘hoard wealth’? Who are they? Name them. Or are you simply referring to folks who save — savings that are then invested. If this is what passes for economic discourse in Scotland then it truly is run by a kakistocracy. I despair.

[Tom Harris 🇬🇧 @MrTCHarris]

Good to see at least one party in Scotland standing against this madness.

[Glenn @GlennGlennReal]

Why does Scotland need so many politicians??
We have 3.6 x more politicians per head of population than England.
The Scottish civil service has tripled since devolution and we are now saddled with an ever growing welfare bill and a completely bloated public sector!
The question Scots should be asking is:
Has devolution with all the extra layers of bureaucracy and cost to the taxpayer delivered better outcomes for ordinary Scots, or has Holyrood simply become an expensive, self-perpetuating disappointment that Scotland can no longer afford to treat as beyond criticism?

We should be asking why debates about gender ideology, foreign policy, Net zero, Palestine and constitutional issues remain front and centre stage when concerns about healthcare, education, public infrastructure, economic growth and government accountability remain unresolved?

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The SNP runs into the Laffer Curve: its 48% top rate of income tax (NICs on top) results in £22m LESS in tax revenues.
Don’t they teach economics in the land of Adam Smith any more?
Or does left-wing virtue signalling — I’m ‘taxing the rich’ more than you — trump everything?

[Conservatives @Conservatives]

Andy Burnham puts Angela Rayner back into the Housing Department after she was forced to resign for underpaying property tax.

The leader's changed, but it's the same old Labour Party.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Andy Burnham believes that prosperity can be achieved by re-organising local government, and then taking money from “the rich”. This is the politics of zero sum; it has a long history, all of it disastrous. He has the wrong diagnosis, the wrong priorities and the wrong solutions. My job now is to expose and challenge this at every turn.

Mrs Thatcher’s genius was that she understood that national prosperity was in the hands of the people, not the State. She had a vision for the country that went beyond tax and spend; she rebuilt Britain’s self-confidence and oversaw the fastest rise in working people’s income by unlocking enterprise, ownership and personal responsibility, using less regulation and lower taxes.

The choice is now clear. Andy Burnham's Labour Party offering state control and redistribution or my new Conservative Party offering enterprise, responsibility and growth just like Thatcher did.   Our offer is a vision in which prosperity comes from the people, not the State and where everyone, whether rich or poor has a brighter future.

[Russell Findlay @RussellFindlay1]

The SNP have issued a press release 'raising a glass' to Argentina ahead of their Word Cup semi-final with England👇

Football rivalry is fine but the SNP's anglophobia is ugly, small and pathetic.

As a proud Scot, I wish the very best of British to our English friends 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

[David Gauke @DavidGauke]

There’s a great opportunity for the Tories at the moment. Labour has drifted into its soft left comfort zone. Reform is mired in sleaze. But rather than build a broad centre right coalition, the priority is to apply purity tests that exclude many mainstream Conservatives.

[Philip Scott @philscott70]

@currys England 2 Argentina 1 #CurrysFootball

[England @England]

Into the final four of the @FIFAWorldCup. GET IN THERE! 💪

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Surprised this posh SNP fraud hasn’t started speaking with a Norwegian accent.
Anti-English hatred is so unnecessary and puerile.

[Conservatives @Conservatives]

Imagine your biggest political opponent being a man with a bin on his head 🤦‍♂️

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

‼️ Listen to BBC Today:

Q: “What is your appeal going to be to the people of Clacton?”

Count Binface: “Well… I’m not Nigel Farage.”

😂

Farage called this by-election to dominate the headlines. Instead, he’s handed @CountBinface a national platform.

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

On my way, Clacton.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

The Conservatives will not be standing a candidate in this fake by-election.