Andrew Lomas

Whitley Abbey Comprehensive 2nd choice goalie, 1995-2000. Occasional barrister. Sky Blue.

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

Britain spent a decade choosing to be smaller in the world.

Right now the rules on communications, energy and trade are being rewritten. By China. By Russia. By countries that take their own security seriously. We need to be at that table. That's a choice we must make.

Strong countries get cheap energy. Weak countries pay whatever the strong ones decide.

[David Edgerton @DEHEdgerton]

'the “fifth largest defence budget in the world” bought nowhere near the fifth most capable armed forces' - a must read with more zingers from @edwardstrngr65 .https://t.co/JygjOQPfe8

[Dominic Cummings @Dominic2306]

Came across this quoted by RV Jones in his second book. From Churchill re him and Lloyd George fighting Admiralty over convoys.
The same has played out with drones and LEO satellites. Higher echelons resisted reality pre Ukraine and have maintained despite Ukraine totally absurd budgets and procurement and priorities. The senior MoD want to plough the cash into the things they spent their careers on. The junior people can see war changing fast and hard. Special Forces have seen it live in Ukraine and told their bosses ‘this expensive stuff will get vapourised’, and the bosses say ‘shut up, more bigger tanks!’

Same with LEO satellites when I forced their purchase in 2020.
Senior MoD: No!
Junior forces: Yes!
SiS: Yes!
We bought.
Starlink then proved the point in Ukraine.
So Whitehall unloaded them to a bullshit European venture because it was embarrassed at the idea of Britain being in the lead on a technology…

A massive cull of generals and admirals is needed in MoD as well as lawyers and officials. It needs the Elon-twitter treatment and rebuilding with new leadership building forces of future, not defending careers of people who failed in GWOT…

—-

No story of the Great War is more remarkable or more full of guidance for the future than this…The politicians were right upon a technical, professional question ostensibly quite outside their sphere, and the Admiralty authorities were wrong upon what was, after all, the heart and centre of their own peculiar job.

A second fact is not less noteworthy. The politicians, representing civil powers at bay and fighting for the life of the State, overcame and pierced the mountains of prejudice which the Admiralty raised and backed with the highest naval authority. In no other country could such a thing have happened… In the naval service the discipline of opinion was so severe that had not the channel, or safety-valve, of the Committee of Imperial Defence been in existence, these opinions [of junior officers] could never have borne fruit or even come to light. The firmly-inculcated doctrine that an admiral‘s opinion was more likely to be right than a captain’s, and a captain’s than a commander’s, did not hold good when questions entirely novel in character, requiring keen and bold minds unhampered by long routine, were under debate.

[Dominic Cummings @Dominic2306]

Former Commanding Officer of SAS on the resignations --

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

I think the interesting question is the extent to which what comes next mandates power-sharing or not and / or how likely (or not) this makes reunification. What’s the point of Irish nationalism if it’s just about open borders?

Aside from anything else, reunification would be fascinating because the population sizes aren’t an order of magnitude different(1.9m vs 5.5m)… can you imagine the impact on Dublin politics by suddenly having a sizeable (and p*ssed off) Unionist bloc?

As much as I’m a unionist, the ideal outcome is probably reunification in exchange for some common security agreement, not least because Ireland can’t defend itself and that’s a threat to British security interests (sub-sea cables, etc).

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

@AaronBastani Both numbers are astonishing for the actual output. The MoD just needs bulldozing the and the earth it stood on salted.

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

@DXW_KC It’s all deeply depressing…

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

Rob Edwards back to Boro then?! #utb

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

Does anyone seriously believe the Iranians and Russians are involved with events in Belfast?

Are the Met actually this delulu?

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

Well.

[John Healey @JohnHealey_MP]

My letter to the Prime Minister

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

Country sliding into low-level civil unrest and they’re still banging on about this…

[Emily Darlington MP @emily4MK]

My statement on the Motion of Regret regarding the EHRC Code of Practice.

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

My abiding memories of USA’94: (a) missing a chunk of Ireland v Netherlands because some old lady up the road got firebombed and the plod turned up to ask me (11, into model trains) where I was at the time; (2) Packie Bonnner. You wouldn’t get away with a name like that today; (3) Hristo Stoichkov scoring a worldie against Germany; (4) Houghton lobbing Pagliuca / Italy having a stinker yet still getting the final; (5) Sweden(?) being pretty tidy.

[joe @spinningjoe]

harry kane sounds like a pokemon that can only say his own name

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

@jtworr @FUDdaily I’ve tried to have a think about this (and some other things) here… https://t.co/J7xUljhBER

[camilo @AscendedYield]

Gerry Adams says no to violent political expression

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

@aswren Aside from the social issues, the economy is cooked

[Colin Brazier @ColinBrazierTV]

The MSM is in denial tonight about events in Belfast. They pay lip service to the story, before swinging into full ‘organ of reassurance’ mode. The story demands they suspend their obeisance to the cult of open borders, globalisation and ‘all cultures are equal’ multiculturalism. They can’t do it.

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

@BovrilG Which also had an amazing soundtrack… Goldfrapp’s Lovely Head, the works

[Andrew Lomas @whitleysnumber2]

"Some people thought that the worst thing about the scenes in North Belfast was their use by English, right wing politicians to further their own ends, but I disagreed"
"You disagreed with that?"
"Yeah, I thought it was the attempted beheading..."

[Colum Eastwood @columeastwood]

The horrific scenes in North Belfast should not be used by English, right wing politicians to further their own ends. I don’t ever remember them commenting on any of the other hellish things that community has experienced over the years.

[Madeline Grant @Madz_Grant]

@aswren We're gonna need a bigger youth club