Tony Balmforth

Lifetime in property, lover of Mallorca, Scilly and all things boaty. Strat-loving muso. Semper in excreta sumus solum profundum variat.

[Tony Balmforth @tonybalmforth]

The voice of reason. Wonderful!

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

The woman speaks for the entire country right now. An absolutely glorious rant against Keir Starmer. And she signs off in the most quintessentially British way.

[Tony Balmforth @tonybalmforth]

The kindest of words about an exceptional man.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

The news about Sir Alex Younger has hit really hard. I met him just once. In February this year, he was the keynote speaker at our parliamentary away day.

He was superb.

I wished he had been in government when I was in cabinet. Even in retirement he was studiously apolitical. Yet the depth of knowledge, expertise and his sheer love of the United Kingdom and deep commitment to her defence and safety shone through with his remarks and answers to even the most knotty questions.

He gave candid advice on how to use our time in opposition to get ready for defence and national security in this new geopolitical era.

So much of the recent policy work and research we have started and announced was based on his recommendations. There is so much to do and so little time.

It was a real privilege to have a long lunch with him that day. I am grateful for the time he spent with me and deeply sad to know our agreement to have further conversations will now not happen.

It is odd to feel such a loss for someone I only met once but his death is a loss not only of a remarkable man, but of the wisdom, insight and clarity he still had to offer.

He was a great man who loved, fought for and defended our country in ways we will never know.

May he rest in peace.

[H @AuntieBoooog]

The most disgraceful ABUSE of an MP’s expense account yet!

At total of £231,306.65 for one year for a back bench MP ????

! WTAF !
😡

No wonder she’s taking time off because she’s “burnt out” ... all that piss taking must have been so exhausting.
😡😡😡

[Sharron Davies HoL MBE @sharrond62]

This is bonkers. Live in the uk abide by Uk law

[Helen Whately MP @Helen_Whately]

Polygamy is illegal in the UK.

But if you’ve married 4 wives overseas and moved here, you could claim up to £78,000 in benefits. Paid for by British taxpayers.

That is absurd. Conservatives will end this.

[Dr Svilena Dimitrova @NeoDoc11]

So glad this is finally public so I can comment on it openly.

I have seen a fair number of HR investigations over the years. In my experience, whistleblowers are often formally investigated before they are pushed out, or as a way of “teaching a lesson” to anyone who challenges the status quo. This is actually one of the most competent internal investigation reports I have seen.

What surprised me most was the outcome. Usually, management plays an active role in managing out people who raise concerns - such as Lucy, who was clearly DATIXing poor standards and practices within the neonatal unit. Dr Brearey and Dr Jayaram were in management positions at the time and therefore carried responsibility for patient safety and culture within the department. So that would have been a pretty major motivator to want her out if she was shining the spotlight on their managerial/leadership failures.

Lucy Letby was never going to be safe returning to a workplace where she was clearly being bullied by a group of colleagues (most of whom were consultants and thus in a position of power over her) unless individual accountability followed. At the very least, that should have meant formal warnings, apologies to Lucy, and mediated discussions. Management could have supported her with a temporary redeployment to another clinical unit so she could continue practising while matters were resolved. Clinical work was clearly what Lucy wanted to continue doing. Some people in these situations , where redeployment is necessary during HR investigations, choose to remain in management or leadership roles instead, but that wasn't what Lucy wanted.

So in essence the hospital made a strong start with doing a competent HR investigation - but by failing to follow through properly, the situation escalated to the point where consultants went to the police.

What nobody seems willing to ask is this: if the consultants genuinely believed Lucy was murdering babies, why did they only go to the police after they were found to have bullied her? If you truly believed a nurse was a serial killer, is it reasonable to accept that a consultant would really think that internal Trust procedures were an appropriate way to deal with it?

UK trained consultants are NOT politically naïve. Consultant appointments are highly political positions, and consultants understand very well how NHS systems actually work. It stretches credibility, and that's a generous description, to claim the consultants genuinely believed reporting concerns over a serial killer internally was what they thought was the right thing to do. If they truly thought Letby was such a prolific killer, were they not concerned she might harm children outside work as well?

This entire case is a national disgrace, and I suspect it will remain in history as one of the most consequential modern witch hunts in British healthcare. Witch hunts within the NHS are unfortunately, however, very common - often carried out through internal employment procedures or GMC processes. But turning that common dynamic (whose root cause is toxic leadership practices) into the conviction of a serial killer is something else entirely.

An extraordinary outcome, enabled by a broken medical "expert" system and sealed by an inadequate police investigation and criminal justice system. What a world we live in.

I hope everyone involved in this MoJ - or anyone who knew what was happening and could have helped but chose not to - gets what they deserve.

@LucyLetbyTrials @drphilhammond @PrivateEyeNews @NadineDorries @ClarkeMicah @peter__duffy @MartynPitman @willcpowell @DavidDavisMP @DavidRoseUK @PeterElston1 @Michelehal7344 @Voice4theDead @reasonoverfear @Oversig58651516 @Seagreen2707 @RexvsLucyLetby

[Rt Hon Nadine Dorries @NadineDorries]

The four areas of new evidence confirm that Lucy Letby is innocent.
It would take only one to overturn her conviction but all four should be heard in court.

https://t.co/HWYVtf5CZv

[Nick Timothy MP @NJ_Timothy]

Starmer's new "special envoy" already hard at work, handing out peerages.

Message since deleted, but this was sent to Labour's defeated leader in Oldham.

They never change.

[Cat Brown 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🚜🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇪 @MrsBr0wn_82]

Myra Hindley appointed as Minister for Children and Families 🥴

[DJBURNS_was 🇬🇧 @Politically__OK]

Diane Abbott, visiting a school. She noticed a boy in the field standing alone, while all the other kids are running around having fun. She took pity on him and decided to speak to him...

“You OK?” she says.

“Yes” he replied.

“You can go and play with the other kids” she responds.

“It's best I stay here” he replied.

“Why?” said Diane.

“Because I'm the goalkeeper” 😂😂😂

[The Trials of Lucy Letby @LucyLetbyTrials]

❝
She didn't confess.
She wasn't caught red handed.
She wasn't cold and unemotional.
She wasn't there when every baby died.

All these things have been blown to pieces by experts, over and over again, since her conviction.
❞

@ClarkeMicah on the crumbling of the Lucy Letby case

[Matthew Scott @Barristerblog]

"For nearly two years experts – statisticians, engineers, highly-qualified doctors of neonatology, former police officers, a retired Sup Ct judge and 2 former cabinet ministers – have been over this case & found it wanting." @ClarkeMicah on Lucy Letby.
https://t.co/8suxL9QpwK

[Richard Horrocks @RichardHor54460]

It's inevitable that Lucy Letby's case will be looked at again by the Court of Appeal. Does the CCRC really need to procrastinate and be part of the system that effectively denies her the right to a family life?!

[Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat]

🚨NEWS: Norway has begun RE-OPENING North Sea Oil sites to meet growing demand from the UK

In case you weren't aware of just how stupid the UK Government is, they are BLOCKING permits to drill while PAYING Norway to drill oil from the North Sea instead

We are led by clowns

[Tony Balmforth @tonybalmforth]

Fantastic final but what a bunch of utter morons were allowed into the audience this year. Or is this how it's going to be from now on? #snooker

[Dr David Berger BSc MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACGP-RG DTM+H @YouAreLobbyLud]

It's got to the point where I almost can't read any more about Lucy Letby. The suffering that poor young woman has endured is beyond comprehension.

[Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat]

He says he won't serve Reform supporters in Wetherspoons.

Does he not know who pays his wages?

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

In the midst of all the news today, and with Parliament prorogued, many people may not have noticed that this was the final time the hereditary peers sat in Parliament before being forced out by Labour.

I want to pay an extra special tribute to them.

Combined they had 1784 years of parliamentary experience, wisdom and service to this country. That is not something easily replaced, and it should not be casually discarded.

Most were Conservatives. All were public servants.

They have brought to public life judgment shaped over decades, deep expertise, institutional memory, and a sense of duty that has strengthened Parliament and, very often, improved legislation in ways the public will never fully see.

Their record speaks for itself. They have served in war and peace, in government and opposition, in defence, diplomacy, farming, business, science and public service. They have not merely occupied seats in the Lords, they have contributed to the life of the nation.

That is why what has happened matters. Hereditary peers are a living part of Britain’s constitutional inheritance that Labour is casually tearing up.

Labour has rubbed away another part of our heritage, not to strengthen Parliament but to replace it with political appointees, four of whom it has already had to suspend the whip from because they were so inappropriate. That contrast says rather a lot.

At a time when public trust in politics is fragile, I think it is worth saying plainly that experience, seriousness and tradition still matter. Service still matters. Duty still matters.

So today, as an era closes, I want to put on record my profound gratitude and admiration for our hereditary peers. Britain has been better governed because of them. The Conservative Party has been stronger because of them. And Parliament will be poorer without them.

Their contribution will long outlast the petty politics that has brought this moment about.

[Sarah Knapton 🐳 @sarahknapton]

This is a big deal. New scientific evidence is a clear reason for a case to go back to the Court of Appeal. The CCRC cannot ignore this. https://t.co/zZtxebn0aF