Stephen Bates

Views my own

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Tea tasting better already! #angelofthenorth

[BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight]

“We're not going to solve our problems by breaking windows.. we have to listen to the Nowak family and respect them and tone things down.”

Anti-knife crime campaigner Martin Cosser criticises some of the rhetoric and violence in response to Henry Nowak’s case.

#Newsnight

[David Cameron @David_Cameron]

Today’s decision from the Health Secretary on prostate cancer screening is a missed opportunity - too timid, too slow, and lacking the bold ambition that we so desperately wanted to see.

As I set out last week, I fundamentally disagree with the National Screening Committee’s advice on a future screening programme for prostate cancer, which is far too narrow. I strongly believe that if we are really to get on top of prostate cancer - the most common cancer in British men - then a proper, targeted screening programme for all those at higher risk is needed… and needed now.

I welcome expanded provision of focal therapy, which I benefited from last year with my own cancer; this must be an urgent priority to make available across the NHS. And the recognition that more work is needed to screen at risk groups, such as black men, is important.

But this was an opportunity for bold, decisive, life-saving action - action that would help save the heartache of too many families losing a loved-one to this disease. That, sadly, has been missed. We will continue the campaign to urge the Government to go further, faster and put in place a progressive policy that includes a proper screening programme for the most at-risk men.

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Heart-wrenching from Henry Nowak’s father on behalf of a grieving family.Police heads must roll;DEI dogma must be done away with in our institutions&businesses;and most importantly,this senseless murder must be a transformative moment uniting us all vs the scourge of knife crime.

[Southampton Times @sotontimes]

Henry Nowak’s father gives an emotional speech outside court asking the government to treat knife crime as an emergency

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Incisive summary of #Labour by Pat McFadden:“Every meeting I have is ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others’. They’re asking the wrong questions”. Whilst important to support those in need, it’s evidently clear most Labour MPs simply don’t get business or the economy!

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

Cabinet minister Pat McFadden says Labour MPs were asking “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others” during welfare bill row…

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Having worked in the food industry for most of my career,this whole segment on #Newsnight tonight-a round table with four of the UK’s leading lights in hospitality-is SUCH a terrible indictment of the Government’s economic policy at this time.Treasury policy needs to change;fast.

[BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight]

"It is the hardest it has ever been... one or two [of my businesses] are running at 115% costs, which means we are stagnant, sat still or losing money."

Restaurateur Tom Kerridge tells @katierazz about the challenges facing the hospitality industry.

#Newsnight

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

That’s a fantastic achievement for #Palace tonight-and so good for English football on the back of Villa too. A tough one for the Arsenal on Saturday, but how great it would be if it was an English clean sweep! (And hurts all the more that #NUFC didn’t even make 8th!)

[UEFA Conference League @Conf_League]

🎉 Crystal Palace's crowning moment 🏆

#UECLfinal

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Weighty intervention from #Blair today,most of which with I agree. At the risk of putting politics over policy, its also clear to me little will be resolved by today’s #Labour Party and we badly need a fresh new #Conservative govt intent on radical reform from the centre (right!)

[BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today]

"If we carry on like this... we're going to create a situation where economically we're not able to grow."

Sir Tony Blair says the current welfare and pension triple-lock policies are 'not affordable', and argues for change in the NHS.

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Couldn’t agree more. The public must be arbiter of who is in charge of our country. It just doesn’t wash to say people vote for party,as if the leader matters not.I’d go further & say any MP changing party during a Parliament must also by law,seek a new mandate from constituents.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

Given the ridiculous volume of Prime Ministers that Britain’s endured in recent years, I think it should now be law that if a PM quits or is forced out during his/her term, it automatically triggers a new general election. That might concentrate their minds to do a better job.

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Wu-nderful spectacle at the #Crucible - right down to the wire - fantastically well done #WuYise 👏🏻

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Good day out campaigning in #Cranbrook for local @weald_kent @Conservatives candidate Alex #Ellison - and admiring the resplendent rhododendrons along the way! Please remember to vote this Thursday in the local elections and please #VoteConservative 🗳️🔵

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

"During the eve of our 250th year of cherished independence, we turn to the sovereign embodiment of our British heritage & say sincere thank you to our friends... May our two countries stand together forever for liberty, for justice, & for the glory of God." 🇺🇸🇬🇧

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

A second brilliant - and historic - speech of the day. Quite excellent from #KingCharles . Valuable truths underpinned by deep-seated ties. Long may that continue for the betterment of both counties and when lock-step together, for the whole world 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🌎

[Bloomberg @business]

King Charles III called on the US to maintain its leadership role in the world in a speech to Congress in which he argued for preserving the alliance with the UK https://t.co/DMEOxfDhWD

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Very well said indeed @POTUS 👏🏻🇺🇸🇬🇧

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

Profound words from @POTUS this morning:

"Long before Americans had a nation or a Constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our Independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts — moral courage — and it came from a small but mighty kingdom across the sea.

For nearly two centuries before the Revolution, this land was settled and forged by men, women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here, on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain's distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride — and that's what it is, glory, destiny, and pride.

The American Patriots who pledged their lives to Independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.

In recent years we have often heard it said that America is merely 'an idea' — but the cause of freedom did not simply appear as an intellectual invention of 1776. The American founding was the culmination of hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood, and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fate drew a long arc from the meadow at Runnymede to the streets of Philadelphia that ran through the lives of people born and bred on the British code that 'no man should be denied either justice or right.'

American Patriots today can sing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty' only because our colonial ancestors first sang 'God Save the King.'"

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

The House of Lords has defended the weak and the vulnerable and upheld important, long held principles of British society. Well done @UKHouseofLords 👏🏻👏🏻

[Kit Malthouse MP @kitmalthouse]

The House of Lords has disgraced parliament. Their existence is based on trust, now roundly abused by a small group of unelected zealots. Time for a serious look at who these people are, and how they are allowed to govern us. The X trolls will be jubilant, but we will be back.

[emily m @maitlis]

Whatever the outcome of this committee hearing #Robbins is coming across as a brilliant civil servant - who is entirely in control of the facts, the sensitivity, the code and the principles of his job. And he is exposing the PM as a leader who either didnt grasp the facts, ignored smart advice - or has chosen to appear outraged when he should not have been.

[Standard News @standardnews]

Exclusive: Senior London Labour figures charged after criminal investigation into alleged vote rigging https://t.co/9MVesXj02i

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

👀

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

🚨NEW:
* Vetting led to Mandelson agreeing ‘mitigations’ to deal with security concerns
* He was not allowed unsupervised access to former clients
* All this was agreed and known about by Downing Street = no need for Robbins to block security clearance https://t.co/JPVxva5N2u

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

💥This is the key quote. Keir Starmer will now face questions over whether he has been fully transparent over the process.

At a press conference on February 5, the PM said that there had been “security vetting, carried out independently by the security services which is an intensive exercise, that gave him [Mandelson] clearance for the role.”

[Stephen Bates @votebates]

Important contribution from ex-Labour Secretary of State for Defence and former NATO Secretary General #LordRobertson .Time for the country - and this #Labour Government in particular - to get real.

[Financial Times @FT]

Lord George Robertson, author of the British military review, said that there was a gap between the prime minister’s rhetoric and action on defence — saying Keir Starmer was ‘not willing to make the necessary investment’. https://t.co/5he56Enq7e