simon ort

I stand with the Jews of Israel and the world. I stand for freedom, democracy and the sovereign state.

[Make Britain Great Again @UkandNireland]

A man who took part in the Hanley riots has been spared jail despite the fact he pleaded guilty to throwing rocks at the police and inciting violence. His name?
Mohammed Iqbal, his defence he has children Two Tier Policing 2.0
A lot of 21 was locked up for throwing a police cone at the police in Southampton

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

Andy Burnham just said he didn’t want the country to become “HMO Britain”.

That’s the difference the doorstep has had. Starmer would’ve been canvassing in liberal elite North London, Andy Burnham campaigned in a more broadly representative seat, like Makerfield.

Much harder for Burnham to ignore those voters than it is for Starmer.

[Mark N @Cold8957]

There won’t be any change.
The whole suggestion that Burnham would offer change from the worst pm and the worst government was a lie.
This is about Burnham serving Burnham & Labour carrying on with more of the same but with a different figurehead.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

@afneil "A unified right, as Aberdeen South shows, can still deliver landslide victories against a collapsing SNP and an even more collapsed Labour. The difference between the two results is not the public mood. It is discipline."
https://t.co/lHyhQ5zNpX

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

Ed Miliband’s net zero rules risk scuppering Britain’s push to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, an industry expert has warned. The Energy Secretary’s restrictions on new gas-fired power stations mean there would not be enough electricity for AI data centres. There is growing concern that Miliband’s net zero ambitions and crackdown on fossil fuels are clashing with Starmer’s pledge to make the UK a global leader in AI.

#CostOfNetZero

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

Home Office guidance is crystal clear: asylum claims from EU nationals are supposed to be automatically inadmissible unless there are “exceptional circumstances”.

EU and EEA nationals are explicitly listed in legislation as normally ineligible for asylum support, except to the extent needed to avoid breaching the ECHR.

Yet the reality is 150 EU citizens on full asylum housing and weekly payments, plus dozens of Americans, sitting in the same system as people fleeing actual conflict zones.

Either these are suddenly all “exceptional” cases from France, Spain and Sweden, or ministers and officials have quietly turned narrow human‑rights exceptions into a de facto open‑door welfare entitlement for anyone who knows the right form to fill in.

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

The Conservatives roundly beat the SNP in the Aberdeen South by-election Friday morning — after weeks of hammering the ruling Scottish Party over restrictions on oil and gas drilling.

The British people are ready to drill, baby, drill.

[Mike Yardley @YardleyShooting]

If Burnham, a Leftist (and further left than Starmer), becomes PM, he has plenty of time to ruin the UK before the next election. Meantime, there are many millions of us who are just fed up with the way our country is going. The ever Bigger Big State is increasingly unbearable.

[John Redwood @johnredwood]

Great win for Conservatives in Aberdeen South on a platform of saving our oil and gas industry. The UK government should listen to this strong message from voters. The government needs to reverse the job losses and economic damage from its mad anti UK energy policy.

[Pete North @FUDdaily]

Reform has serious problems with its candidate selection process. Pochin was symptomatic of this. She's thick as mince, but Kenyon is a yob. Reform is not winning where they should and they're not able to source new talent without defections. Maybe slopulism has run out of road. Reform needs to start looking like a serious prospect for government and not a daytime gameshow.

[Kelvin MacKenzie @kelvmackenzie]

If the BBC is so good John why not make it available on subscription where the viewer has a choice rather than forcing them to pay or face jail.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

A welcoming present just out this morning for a Mr A Burnham to underline just how limited his latitude as PM will be:
The UK government borrowed £23.3 billion last month, 30 per cent or £5.4 billion higher than a year earlier.
It was also more than the £18.8 billion expected by most economists and the £17.7 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog.
 The interest payable on government debt rose to £11.7 billion, the highest ever recorded in any May.

[Net Zero Watch @NetZeroWatch]

It’s the Ed Miliband paradox: why does Britain have among the highest power prices in Europe when we have so much electricity that suppliers have to pay customers to use it?

“It is time to be honest about the costs of the net zero target,” says @Dieter_Helm.

[simon ort @simonort3]

@ClaireCoutinho Quite agree, except for leaf-blowers, which are an abomination and can’t be banned soon enough.

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

This is correct and something I hear repeatedly from Africans, particularly government representatives

They are very clear that poverty is the biggest challenge they face and often say they see natural gas as their primary route to the industrialisation needed to lift them out of poverty

People in the developed world insisting they don't use fossil fuels ARE being neo-colonial. Decisions on African economic development should be made by Africans and not imposed by anyone else

[Pete North @FUDdaily]

The Telegraph and Mail have run stories linking Restore Britain to "neo-Nazis". Rupert Lowe apparently does not care, while his activist base say its a baseless smear. What is not disputed is that a large contingent of the activist base are ethnonationalists, which is not all that controversial or surprising. As to neo-Nazis, that requires some clarification.

There is a cohort within the nationalist sphere, with whom I am reasonably familiar. These are individuals for whom Homeland was not purist enough, and their view is that nationalism must oppose "Zionism". They have gravitated to Restore Britain. These people are profoundly antisemitic.

Of course, there are degrees of antisemitism, but these are people whose entire worldview hinges on it. If a party is sympathetic towards Israel, it's a deal-breaker. They believe Reform UK is "cucked by Zionists" and "zogged". Whatever that means. It was a bone of contention for many that I was accepted into the Homeland Party because I have no problem with Jews or Israel.

As such, antisemitism is very much a cornerstone of their political philosophy, and it is a non-negotiable. Those calling for "total remigration" don't just mean Africans and South Asians. It also extends to British Jews with a long British lineage. Most would probably deport Jews first because Jews are blamed for everything form mass immigration to the English weather and the proliferation of Crocs sandals. If the latter could be proven, I might have joined them.

In fact, most of what they believe in some way involves the Jews. All the worlds ills are apparently caused by Zionism. They are completely insane, politically illiterate, and deeply unpleasant. It goes hand in hand with just about every other paranoid conspiracy theory - which is why you don't want them anywhere near your party if you have vague aspirations of getting elected. That would be my advice even if I did harbour animosity towards Jews and Israel.

The people, quite famously, cannot cooperate with anyone but each other, and even then, they fight like rats in a sack. Consequently, any political enterprise they start up has a lifecycle not exceeding two years. Consequently, they are political pikeys looking for land to squat on - and they consider Restore Britain to be vacant land, because nobody will drive them off it. Being that some of them have a large social media profile, Restore is not in a hurry to denounce them, and occasionally shows them a bit of ankle. It needs them. Or so they think. Essentially, there is an unwritten accommodation with these people.

As to whether the label "Neo-Nazi" fits, I suppose is a matter of debate, but it's in my view, it is in the right ballpark. "Neo-Nazi" is accessible shorthand. Their economic ideas, align with their theories about race mixing, puts them in that bracket. You might have noticed a certain dress code among some of them - ranging from Victorian gentleman to 1970s geography teacher. A few of them made an appearance at the Southampton riot, and it would appear they've been grooming Young Bob. He's certainly been drifting into their orbit.

When I first came into contact with this sort of politics, I thought it was largely peripheral, but soon came to learn that it is the majority view among most of the high profile ethnonationalists, and you some come to realise that behind the tongue-in-cheek humour, they mean every word of what they say.

Restore Britain has denied they have any formal role in the party, though some of them have been spotted in and around Makerfield, because Lowe is their most promising political opportunity in decades. Rupert Lowe's personal politics does not appear to be a deal breaker for them, because his closest advisers are now singing their tune - or at least throwing some tasty chum in the water.

If Restore was alert to who these people are, and their track record, they'd take steps to insulate themselves. If you sup with the devil, you must use a long spoon. But Lowe does not understand the landscape his party currently occupies, and when the usual suspects like HNH etc say his activists are far right neo-nazis, the reflex is to simply deny it and write if off as a smear. This is the smokescreen that Neo-Nazis (for want of a better term) will exploit.

In the end, these people will wreck Restore Britain, because they are wreckers by nature. However robustly right wing Restore is, it will never be enough. Lowe will have to confront this problem eventually, and the longer he leaves it, the more damaging it will be. If he doesn't then Restore's vibe will turn sour. Lowe's gentleman farmer image can only conceal so much. As much as anything, the behaviour of these individuals is achingly juvenile and thuggish, which will limit Restore's appeal.

None of what I've written here is a smear. It is all informed by experience and is true to the best of my knowledge. What you choose to do with that information is up to you. I don't care. I don't see a future for them anyway. They will drown in their own slop bucket.

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

The official line is that EU and EEA nationals are normally barred from asylum support and can only be helped where necessary to avoid breaching their ECHR rights – a narrow, tightly drawn exception.

Yet the Home Office’s own practice, exposed now in the numbers, shows that exception being applied so generously that hundreds of people from safe democracies are in hotel rooms and B&Bs subsidised by the British taxpayer.

We’ve ended up with a system that is simultaneously hostile in rhetoric and indulgent in practice: tough talk about “safe countries” and inadmissibility on paper, but hotel beds and weekly payments in reality for anyone who gets over the threshold.

The ultimate losers are the British public footing the bill and the genuinely persecuted, whose cases are pushed to the back of the queue while the asylum regime is treated like a catch‑all social‑security scheme for the entire developed world.

[Mike Yardley @YardleyShooting]

Reform could've won Makerfield with a more charismatic candidate. The result isn't a disaster for them, but it's a disaster. It'll lead the way to a Labour leadership election, possibly to a quick General Election, and, worst possibility, another reduced majority Labour govt.

[John Redwood @johnredwood]

Andy Burnham has no proposals to rescue growth, jobs and prosperity. He needs to back reversing the dear energy and anti oil and gas policies, propose the repeal of the blizzard of anti business and jobs taxes Reeves has put in, and support the reform of welfare.

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Burnham wants to be all things to all men - but here's why he'll end up delivering NOTHING and pleasing no one. My column for @TheSun ⬇️ https://t.co/zKMrztgBde