Tim Checketts @CheckettsTim

Pure ignorance or wilful damage control? Lt Gen Anna-Lee Reilly telling the Public Accounts Committee that 33 soldiers getting ill — vomiting, shaking, headaches — on Ajax during Exercise Titan Storm was simply because troops “didn’t operate or maintain it properly” is disgraceful. This is the same Ajax programme that’s eight years late, billions over budget, repeatedly paused for excessive noise and whole-body vibration causing crew harm since at least 2018. Initial Operating Capability was declared in November 2025, only for training to be halted weeks later after soldiers fell ill. Another pause hit in December 2025. IOC was formally withdrawn in early 2026. Multiple safety investigations are still ongoing. Yet here’s a senior officer claiming “no safety concerns when operated as designed and within specs.” If the specs are so fragile that real cross-country runs, changing track tension, and actual armoured exercises break them — forcing constant stops and checks — then the vehicle is unfit for purpose, not the soldiers. The Army doesn’t need officials gaslighting the troops who’ve risked their health for over a decade of procurement failure. It needs vehicles that actually work in combat conditions, not excuses that protect the programme and contractor. This isn’t leadership. It’s embarrassing. @afneil @Osinttechnical #AjaxSaga #ArmyProcurementFail

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@sharpe_le I think it translates into ‘ they showed me how their new drone worked’?

@FTusa284 Perhaps having a senior officer in the procurement chain who had ever operated an AFV would help?

@RupertLowe10 Labour care much more about a class war against the countryside rather than anything about animal welfare, otherwise they would ban brutal halal slaughter!

@NJ_Timothy If the Government really cared about animal welfare and suffering they would outlaw the barbarically halal meat trade!

@thinkdefence FFLAV of course preceded them all.

@JamesMelville Paid for many millions of times over by the £Bs in US $ inward investment it helps attract!

@HQARRC @BritishArmy Spain who gave up on CJTF7 in Iraq in 03 when it got too dangerous and now sides with Hamas rather than the only democracy in the Middle East?

@englandcricket ECB to hang their heads following the month of cricketing bilge that is the 100!

@henrymoeranBBC Pity the quality of cricket was such dross!

For every retweet of this post, I will donate £1 to the @VC_and_GC_Assoc up to £50,000. Time is running out following @I_W_M’s decision to close the Lord Ashcroft Gallery. Visit while you still can, to honour the bravery of those who risked so much to protect our great nation.

As the sun rose over Dunkirk, I called the French police. Ten hours of tracking had established that a group of migrants were hiding in a cemetery just yards from the beach, waiting to cross the Channel. Surely this was the moment for the authorities to sweep the beach or search the streets to find the migrants and their smugglers? You know, to “smash the gang” I had found. “I will pass it on,” came the first response. I pressed - this was urgent. “The police will probably not come,” the 112 handler said, dismissively. No further details sought. No interest shown. I’d come to northern France to see for myself what is really happening as Channel crossings surge and communities back home bear the intolerable consequences of broken borders. Just me and a cameraman - no French minders, no protection. What I saw in the camps, streets, and beaches was sickening. The reality is worse than I have ever seen. The whole racket is a disgrace, and the French are aiding and abetting it. Take the camp near Loon-Plage: half a mile from tidy villages sits a lawless, dangerous space. Someone was shot dead there last month; stabbings are common. It is strewn with litter, ramshackle tents, and menace. Almost all the migrants are young men. They sit on the ground, scrolling their smartphones, waiting. No police. No officials. Those willing to speak were clear: they are coming to the UK for jobs, housing, benefits, and free healthcare. None said they were fleeing persecution - they are already in France. None had a trade or profession to offer. They will be a huge strain on already struggling UK public services. Some were polite; others threatened violence. One man pressed his face close, telling me to leave. Another began hurling glass bottles - one smashing beside me, another flying past my head. Do you want men like this in your community? I don’t. For saying this, I’ve been called a “xenophobe” on the BBC. But I doubt those levelling that smear have been to this camp, seen those men, and imagined them outside their children’s school gates. This is a national security emergency. And the French? We’ve given them £800m and get dismal theatre in return. They could stop this tomorrow. Instead, they stick two fingers up at Britain - and literally bus illegal migrants towards the beaches. That afternoon, I saw 40–50 migrants with lifejackets, marshalled by smugglers, walking along the railway. They headed to a public bus stop by a supermarket and boarded. Imagine that outside your local shop - lifejackets in hand, plain as day. Authorities know exactly what’s happening, yet facilitate it. We followed the bus into Dunkirk. The migrants walked towards the beach, one even in a wheelchair with a lifejacket on her lap. By nightfall, they were camped beside the cemetery. We checked on them through the undergrowth. A few hundred yards away, Dunkirk beach was empty of police or patrols, despite all the “special equipment” UK taxpayers fund. At dawn, they were gone. Their rubbish littered the ground. Binmen arrived to clean the mess up - but not the migrants. I rushed to the beach, convinced a launch was imminent, and called the police again. Still, nobody came. Sitting there, I felt anger at the French farce and shame at our own weakness. State visits, “landmark deals,” and hundreds of millions wasted. The French stop fewer boats than last year. Two thousand migrants have crossed in the last week alone. It’s all in plain sight. We are told this is “too complex” to fix. It isn’t. Change the law. Leave failed treaties. Deport illegal migrants. We are an island nation for goodness sake - we can end this. And end it we must.

@melissagstory @bbctms After a quite brilliant test series, here comes the dross.

@Ryanair Is your website down?

My monologue on @TimesRadio 1pm today: The man who promised to stop the Ukraine-Russian war on Day One of taking power has instead on Day 42 decided to stop all further US military aid to Ukraine. The war, of course, continues to drag on.  President Trump says his arms embargo will only be lifted when he’s ascertained that President Zelensky is ‘serious’ about peace.  Exactly what he has to do to convince Trump is not clear. But I think we can be sure Trump will want it to involve a lot of grovelling and kissing of the ring.  Either that — implies the White House — or Zelensky should make way for a Ukrainian leader who IS prepared to bend the knee.  What happens next is anybody’s guess — it always is in Trump World. But amid the chaos and confusion it’s important not to lose sight of some pretty fundamental facts.  First, this is the worst crisis in the long and successful history of NATO and the Atlantic Alliance. It might not survive.  A pact which has kept us safe and secure for as long as most of us can remember is crumbling, for no good reason other than the capricious whims of a man in the Oval Office.  Second, it is being demolished on a litany of falsehoods. Trump says America has given Ukraine $350 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid — with nothing to show for it.  Wrong. America has spent $120 billion. And the dividend has been to thwart Russia from taking all of Ukraine then going on to threaten the rest of Eastern Europe, consisting of America’s NATO allies.  Trump says America has given Ukraine a lot more than Europe. Wrong. European aid combined totals $138 billion, almost $20 billion more than the US.  Trump claims European aid is mainly in loans and it will be repaid one day whereas American aid is in grants. Wrong. The bulk of European aid, like American aid, is in grants.  Thus is NATO in danger of being dismantled on a tissue of lies.  But it gets worse. It’s increasingly hard to avoid the conclusion that Trump is a better friend of Russia than he is of NATO or Ukraine. That when it comes to a choice — Russia or NATO — Trump chooses Russia.  It is hard to credit that it can be so. Yet Trump is cutting off arms to Ukraine while Russia’s war machine continues unhindered and Iran, North Korea and China ramp up their support. The Trump administration is even preparing plans to drop sanctions on Russia before a peace deal is struck, adding to the concessions Trump has already indicated he’ll make to the Kremlin in advance of any talks. So much for his ‘Art of the Deal.’ As Trump tries to discombobulate us with all manner of stuff and nonsense it’s worth holding on to some other fundamentals.  There is an invader — Russia —  and a victim — Ukraine. There is a democracy — Ukraine — and a dictatorship — Russia.  There is a country who wants to be a European democracy and a Western market economy — Ukraine — and another that hates democracy, freedom and everything else the West stands for — Russia.  That we have a US president who sides with the invader and penalises the victim is proof that our world has turned upside down.  The US arms embargo will not undermine Ukraine’s war effort immediately. But it will take its toll as we head into summer.  Europe must do all it can to fill the gaps, as it’s already starting to do. But it cannot replace everything America is now denying.  Of course Trump may yet pull back from the brink. He wants that mineral rights deal with Ukraine. Zelensky may be prepared to abase himself. Things would be back on track. Sort of.  But not really. For what lunacy might Trump get up to next in pursuit of his own self-interest and ego? What hope of the Atlantic Alliance when its head is a better friend of Russia than Europe?  Whatever happens Europe must prepare for a future without America. It was already starting to realise that before Trump pulled the rug from under Ukraine. It can now be in no doubt — and must rearm accordingly.

If you agree with this opinion in the ⁦@dailytelegraph⁩ I would appreciate a repost…

British MPs have taken down another picture of Nelson, the greatest naval commander in history, a man who died for his country, and put up a picture of Yvette Cooper who cannot even control our borders. It is a powerful symbol of all that is wrong with Britain.

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Yarden Bibas has asked that the horrific details of what was done to his beautiful baby boys is made public. Lest there be any doubt. Please honour the wishes of Ariel and Kfir’s father and share this as much as you can: 💔

Tracy-Ann Oberman MBE @TracyAnnO

a year ago

Share this widely please. We cant rely on @BBCNews @Channel4News @SkyNews etc to cover it.

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