Janne Lehtonen

"When all else fails, start blasting!" -Earthworm Jim

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

End Of Term Report: Bridget Phillipson. Grade: F. Must Do Better Is No Longer Sufficient.

As children across England sit their exams this week, some of them are doing so in schools they did not choose, having been displaced from schools their families stretched to afford, by a policy that promised 6,500 new teachers and cannot confirm a single one was hired. That is Bridget Phillipson's record. Here is the full assessment.

Private school VAT. The government promised the levy would displace around 14,000 pupils into the state sector and fund 6,500 new teachers. The original internal estimate was 3,000 pupils. The actual figure is over 43,000, three times the revised estimate and fourteen times the original one. Over 100 private schools have closed, including schools that explicitly named the VAT policy as the cause of their collapse. Fees have risen on average 14 percent, substantially above Treasury forecasts, hitting middle income families hardest, the people Labour claimed it was protecting. Smaller, more affordable independent schools have been destroyed. The country's most prestigious and expensive institutions have barely noticed.

On the 6,500 new teachers: when asked in Parliament how many had actually been recruited using the VAT revenue, a government minister declined to answer. The question was put directly and left unanswered. The government does not know, or will not say, how many teachers its flagship policy created. What is known is that more teachers have left the profession than joined it in the last recorded period. The state sector is absorbing tens of thousands of additional pupils while the teaching workforce shrinks.

Kemi Badenoch called Phillipson a spiteful class warrior. The evidence supports the description. The policy was not designed around evidence. The government's own estimate was out by a factor of fourteen. It was designed around ideology, the belief that private education is an offence against equality and that taxing it is its own reward regardless of consequences. The consequences landed not on Eton but on families who stretched to afford smaller schools that no longer exist.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that sex under the Equality Act means biological sex. That was one year ago. The Equality and Human Rights Commission drafted its code of practice. Phillipson received it and sat on it. Baroness Falkner, who oversaw the drafting, said publicly that the guidance is ready and that the delay is political. The charge has gone unanswered. The minister holds the title Secretary of State for Women and Equalities while withholding the legal protections the law requires her to implement.

Schools are being nudged toward identity-based decision-making in areas that demand caution, maturity and parental involvement. Teachers are placed in an impossible position, told to affirm identity claims before maturity, before medical certainty, often before parents are informed. The Cass Review explicitly warned against premature affirmation. The guidance ignores that warning. When things go wrong it will not be ministers who face the consequences. It will be teachers.

The Eton-backed free sixth form in Middlesbrough, a free school for deprived pupils in one of England's poorest areas, was cancelled not because it failed but because it threatened to succeed in a way the government could not control.

The curriculum is being diluted. The EBacc is under pressure. Knowledge is being replaced with flexibility, which means lower academic floors for the children least able to absorb that cost.

While children sit their exams, the record speaks. Over 43,000 pupils displaced. Over 100 schools closed. Zero confirmed new teachers from a policy that promised 6,500. Legal guidance withheld. Safeguarding inverted. Excellence cancelled. Not fit for purpose. Should not be allowed to continue in post.

End Of Term Report: Bridget Phillipson. Grade: F. Must Do Better Is No Longer Sufficient.

[Brunhylde Lingus 💚🤍💜🇬🇧🇮🇱 @bunny_lingus]

@FranceintheUK @jnbarrot @francediplo_EN @RPFranceUE Shove it. We voted to Leave your corrupt, necrotic, autocratic federation.

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Non, merci. Nous allons bien.

[Queen Natalie 👑 @TheNorfolkLion]

Finally found him! This is the thug in the video!

Share, make him famous!

[Dr. Eli David @DrEliDavid]

Thank you Germany 🇩🇪 and UK 🇬🇧 for heroically sacrificing your economy to save the planet 💪
_

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Great news! And now all those undocumented young men who arrived in the UK illegally are on their way home. Oh, wait, no they're not. They've been moved into bedsits in residential streets next door to families. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

NEW: Spain’s lower house has officially passed a non-binding resolution calling on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to resign.

[London & UK Street News @CrimeLdn]

It also backs an assertion by the Nowak family that Digwa was "never handcuffed", as Henry was while he lay dying. The contrast in the men's treatment by Hampshire police was described as "unbearable" by the family.

https://t.co/DkJZGyjqUy

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

BREAKING:

New video of the aftermath of Henry Nowak’s murder shows Vickrum Digwa lying to the police, saying Henry called him a “Paki” and pushed off his turban.

He refuses to mention that he stabbed Henry and complains about being tired as well the police lights blinding him

[Kiera Diss @KieraDiss]

WELCOME TO THE UK 🇬🇧

From Boulogne to Birmingham, I’ve watched this group move unimpeded from their tents in France to now being dressed in their Sunday best in Brum.

If I can track two groups in two weeks, why can’t the authorities?

Or why won’t they?

[Daniel Hannan @DanielJHannan]

“Appearing before a parliamentary committee this week, Lord Hermer said he was still determined to conclude a treaty surrendering the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. This is shocking. It beggars belief that, even at five to midnight in the life of the Starmer government, there are those in Whitehall still seeking to railroad through a deal replete with absurd and dangerous terms. It belongs in one place and one place only: the bin.”

https://t.co/pvWwrpjOPj

[Brandon Gill @realBrandonGill]

How exactly can Congress allow somebody to take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States if they openly advocate for eradicating the country?

[GB News @GBNEWS]

Home Office asylum seeker military camps plan faces fury as Labour seats avoid 5,000 migrants

https://t.co/kT1TeVPgDF

[Payton Alexander @AlexanderPayton]

“Everyone should be learning about this case.”

Okay! Here’s what happened:

On the night of July 4, 2025, 11 members of a North Texas Antifa cell carried out a coordinated attack on the Prairieland Detention Center.

Earlier that day, they had conducted reconnaissance (including reporting on security of the facility), and had assembled a cache of dozens of firearms.

The group planned the attack ahead of time, including a “gear check” where the leader discussed bringing rifles and ominously “not getting arrested.”

They dressed in black uniforms and brought 11 firearms, body armor, and military-grade first aid kits (including tourniquets for gunshot wounds).

They disabled CCTV cameras at the facility, and threw fireworks and explosives to flush the officers out for a planned massacre.

When officers called 911, Lt. Thomas Gross responded. Bodycam footage shows one of the attackers yelling “get to the rifles!” as the group opened fire.

Gross was shot once in the neck, with the bullet exiting through his back, but survived and continued to fight back.

The perpetrators of the failed mass shooting were arrested and charged with offenses ranging from concealment of evidence to attempted murder.

They were found guilty by a jury of their peers, and very appropriately received sentences ranging from 30-100 years.

There. Now you know.

[Mari Rantanen @MariPSRantanen]

EU käyttää viisumivipuvartta ensimmäistä kertaa Somalialle, koska palautukset eivät toimi. Asiasta keskusteltiin myös sisäministereiden kokouksessa ja jäsenmaat olivat laajasti toimien kannalla.
Hyvä päätös. Yhteistyö voi toimia vain kahteen suuntaan.

[ThePersistence @ScottPresler]

Chairman Jim Eschenbaum confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Thune asked me not to attend this event.

Thank you for recording everything, James Bialota.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Manchester Model is also the Miliband Model

David Miliband joined the advisory board of Giant Ventures in September 2020. Five months earlier, his brother Ed had become Keir Starmer's shadow energy secretary. Giant Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm with a declared focus on green technology. Its portfolio includes Field, a battery storage company, and Beams, a green home renovation platform. Both stand to profit directly from the energy policies Ed Miliband now controls as Secretary of State.

Less than three weeks after Labour's election victory, Ed Miliband personally signed the Capacity Market Amendment Rules 2024. The document is technical. Its effect is not. Battery storage firms, including Field, benefited from rule changes that reduced the performance obligations previously required of contracted operators. Field had been a Giant Ventures investment since 2021. David Miliband was a paid adviser to Giant Ventures when his brother signed that document. Giant Ventures refused to disclose his remuneration. The firm's other advisory board members, including Lord Browne, record the position in their register of interests as remunerated employment.

The Ministerial Code requires newly appointed ministers to declare all interests that give rise to a conflict, including those of close family members. It requires them to avoid not merely actual conflicts but the perception of one. When both the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Cabinet Office were asked whether Ed had declared his brother's role at Giant Ventures, both refused to comment. When the department was pressed further, its spokesperson confirmed only that the List of Ministers' Interests would be published "in due course." Giant Ventures declined to comment. David Miliband did not respond. That silence is the story.

Ed Miliband's department has also paid over one million pounds in public contracts to Verian Group, a research and communications firm whose board includes David Miliband, appointed as non-executive director in April 2023. The contracts funded work on public attitudes to Net Zero and secondary heating behaviours. The department's defence is that Verian has provided services to DESNZ for many years and the relationship predates the current Secretary of State. That may be true of the contract history. It does not address why neither department would confirm a declaration had been made, or why a minister whose brother sits on a contractor's board continued to approve payments to that contractor.

The pattern matters because it has a twin.

Andy Burnham governed Greater Manchester for eight years on a platform of clean transport and green infrastructure. His wife, Marie-France van Heel, joined Be.EV as chief marketing officer in July 2023, was promoted to chief customer officer in July 2024, and was appointed to the board of directors in September 2024. Be.EV holds a public contract with Transport for Greater Manchester to operate the city's electric vehicle charging network, a contract awarded in 2019. She holds 252 shares in Iduna Infrastructure, Be.EV's parent company, and is a beneficiary of a long-term incentive plan tied to the firm's commercial growth. Greater Manchester is now tendering a new £166 million EV charging contract. Burnham declares his wife's role. He steps back from relevant decisions. The paperwork is in order, which is precisely the point.

In both cases the politician sets the policy direction. In both cases a family member holds a financial stake in the commercial sector that policy governs. In both cases the defence is procedural. Declaration filed. Recusal noted. Nothing to see.

Britain is being asked to take the Manchester Model national and trust its architect with Downing Street. Before it decides, it should understand what compliance permits. A conflict of interest that has been registered is not a conflict of interest that has been resolved. It is a conflict of interest with a paper trail.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

"Ed Miliband's department has also paid over one million pounds in public contracts to Verian Group, a research and communications firm whose board includes David Miliband"

[Alma Laine @laine_alma]

Ensi Vertti Kiukas komentaa pääministeri Orpoa, nyt paljastuu että Jan Vapaavuori komentaa Orpoa.

Jos nämä kaikki pitävät paikkansa..

Areenatukisotkun jäljet näyttäisivät johtavan suoraan pääministeri Orpoon | Paikalliset | Helsingin Uutiset https://t.co/2lT4p3hhL3

[ThePersistence @ScottPresler]

They will NOT allow me into — as a ticketed individual — the South Dakota Republican Party dinner w/ Senate Majority Leader Thune.