Simon Wain

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

This past week, on a test bed in Britain, a Rolls-Royce jet engine ran at full take-off power on pure hydrogen, putting out water vapour instead of carbon.

Nobody on Earth had managed it before. It is the sort of thing that ought to stop the country in its tracks, and it will be forgotten by the weekend.

Leave aside the recent paroxysms of renewed net-zero insanity from Derelict Ed and the pervasive atmosphere of offended envy that greets much homegrown achievement nowadays in Britain. This engineering is a wonder, and it's British to the bone.

We gave the world the jet engine in the first place - Frank Whittle, a Coventry man and an RAF officer, patented it in 1930 while the Air Ministry assured him it was a curiosity. Rolls-Royce is today one of perhaps three firms anywhere that can build a large aero engine at the outer edge of the possible, and it has just done what most of the industry swore was twenty years away.

As usual, you marvel at how little the people who govern us had to do with it. The engineers in Derby are world-class; the stewardship above them is third-rate. They pulled off a global first while paying the most expensive industrial electricity in the developed world to keep the power on over the bench - a weight no German, American or Gulf rival has to carry. We produce frontier brilliance on the shop floor and fritter it away at the despatch box, and we have done for two generations.

That is the maddening shape of modern Britain: brilliance from below, sub- (or, indeed, ultra-) mediocrity from above. The people here who actually make things are still among the best in the world; the state that is meant to back them treats a firm like Rolls-Royce as a photocall today and a takeover target tomorrow, and prices its energy as though it would prefer the next plant were built in Texas.

Progress starts from the other end. Give these people what every rival government gives its champions and we beg ours to do without: the cheap, abundant power their competitors already enjoy, a supply chain built around them, and a state that guards a national asset rather than auctioning it. The hard part of a British revival - the talent, the nerve, the engineering - is already done, and was done again this week, by people who deserve a far better country than the one currently sitting above them.

We just taught an engine to breathe fire and exhale water. The least we owe the men and women who managed it is a government and a state as brilliant as they are.

[78 Squadron (Swanwick) @78SqnSwanwick]

78 Sqn - RAF Southern League Plate Winners 2026 🟡 ⚫

An incredible 4-0 win!

[The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats @SwinWildcats]

Your League Champions 2025/26.

History Made for the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats.

[The Prince and Princess of Wales @KensingtonRoyal]

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌼

[Chris Philp MP @CPhilpOfficial]

It is a shocking that the Palestine Action thugs were acquitted

Smashing up property and attacking a female police officer with a sledgehammer leaving her with a fractured spine is despicable

There is no justification for this, no matter how strongly someone feels about something

In this country, we decide issues by debate and elections not by violence

This verdict risks giving the green light to mob violence in pursuit of a political objective

[Conservative Post 🇬🇧 @ConsPost]

EXCLUSIVE: Chagos First Minister's letter to the British people.

"Please contact members of the House of Lords. Ask them to stop this deal. Ask them to defend British territory, security, taxpayers, and a unique natural environment that Britain has safeguarded for generations."

[Simon Wain @simon_wain]

Festive travels with the World's most adorable Border Collie.

[Royal Air Force @RoyalAirForce]

Congratulations to all personnel associated with the Royal Air Force who have been recognised in the New Year Honours List.

For details of all RAF Whole Force recipients, visit: https://t.co/IbziWmGqjl

[Sir Humphrey @pinstripedline]

This is hands down the most superb RN Christmas video I have ever seen. It speaks to the sacrifices sailors have made at sea, and the risks they face daily far from home and loved ones to keep us all safe.

[New York Jets @nyjets]

ballgame

[Barstool New York @BarstoolNYC]

“You’ve been watching the Jets your entire life?”

“That’s correct ”

“And you’ve never gotten any joy from watching them?”

“I have not, Dave”

“And you still plan to watch every game?”

“Affirmative”

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

FIFA, who happily awarded World Cup tournaments to Russia, where the President murders his political opponents, and to Qatar, an authoritarian state that harbours Hamas terrorists, looks set to throw Israel, a democratic state, out of international competitions based on baseless claims of genocide in Gaza. Is there no end to FIFA's shameless, money grubbing moral corruption? It seems not.

[Scotty @scottyeders]

Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollack who flew a RAF plane under Tower Bridge dies age 89

Flt Lt Pollock said he was protesting the failure of the government to recognise the 50th anniversary of the founding of the RAF in 1918. https://t.co/vzkDP82YvX

[78 Squadron (Swanwick) @78SqnSwanwick]

This week Air Marshal Paul Lloyd, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, visited 78 Sqn, witnessing firsthand how we support domestic and global air operations.✈️🌍
The visit culminated in an honours and awards ceremony, recognising the excellent achievements of our personnel. #WeEnable

[Robert Jenrick @RobertJenrick]

Jacek Brzozowski sexually abused a 15-year-old girl at a party at his home at which she and her friend were raped by other men.

Today he was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years.

How can you get 31 months in prison for a nasty tweet, but nothing for this?

[San Diego @visitsandiego]

As the sun goes down, the sky comes to life. 😍

📍: Point Loma #VisitSD

[New York Mets @Mets]

Mother's Day W! #MetsWin #LGM

[Sarah @Sarahw9111]

This is what victims and survivors have been up against all these years this is why we wasn’t listened to they never cared and never will !!!

Totally dismissed survivors and our experiences of been groomed !

I was an 11 year old little girl been raped and trafficked all across England trying to blow the ‘dogs’ whistle and be saved but instead they chucked us to the dogs and left us to be tortured!!!

[Simon Wain @simon_wain]

Springtime walks with the greatest Border Collie in the World.

[Rare 🇺🇸 @RareImagery]

The shittest dog breed, the border collie!

My first dog too!