David Abbott @dcs_abbott

@I_W_M They both look a bit old??

You fundamentally just wouldn't be allowed to say this on British TV. Well done to Richie Sadlier.

I also asked how @bbcquestiontime intended to introduce Laura Gilbert. She is a paid employee of the Tony Blair Institute. It is funded by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle who has commercial interests in AI in the UK & beyond. She is not, in any capacity, an independent AI expert. @bbcpress did not respond to my query

A message from Pep Guardiola’s daughter, Maria. 👇 “papi ♥️ We blinked and it’s been 10 years. 10 seasons. Hundreds of away games, trips to Wembley, too many Bernabeu nights, and millions of memories. “Football was never just a sport. It decided where we lived, how often we moved, the languages we learned, the friends we made and the emotions we felt. From as long as I can remember it was football stadiums. Moving to Doha, Mexico, Rome, Brescia, Barcelona, New York, Munich and Manchester. Thank you for giving us a childhood built around sport, something so rare and special. “We moved again, for the 8th time in 14 years. Manchester is very hard to put into words. You changed the most respected league in the world. You achieved things and broke records that may never be repeated. And we got to experience all of it from the closest seat possible. “The happiest and saddest tears came from football, because watching you live every second so intensely made us feel everything with you. Those 90 minutes where the world feels like it stops. “We think people forget quickly because football moves fast and a new season always starts. But as time passes, we’ll realise just how impossible those numbers really are. 41 trophies in 16 years. “Years from now people will talk about football and try to explain what this era felt like, they’ll talk about your teams, the way they made people feel. Because beyond the trophies, you gave us memories we escaped real life for. “It has been a privilege to watch and support you for almost 25 years. Thank you for always bringing us close to everything, for including us in it all. The biggest privilege has been to live it all beside you. “As citizens, football fans and rivals we will miss seeing you on our screens every week. Because without realising it there is a final match, a final whistle. And none of us are ever really ready for that moment. “Thank you papi and mami, the beautiful things in our lives always trace back to this game. “For the world these were historic football moments, for us they were family memories, and I don’t think any of us realised while living it, that we were inside football history. And that stays long after the final whistle ♥️” See the full post and photos 👉 instagram.com/p/DYw980viPR4/…

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Yes, this is a key question and why we need an integrated Anti-Corruption Commission for the UK - instead of the ramshackle and fragmented so-called 'checks' currently in place blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…

Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson

4 weeks ago

The bigger question: how many more "personal gifts" there have been, to Farage or any other political players? Does any UK democratic regulator have the power to find out? Crypto kings now dominate US donations. UK aspect only starting to become clear. comment.press/nf55

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With the top four parties on essentially the same vote share, Reform is privileged and Labour trashed in terms of seats - Labour MPs who don’t vote to change the electoral system are headed for complete destruction. “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain”

Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ @LeftieStats

a month ago

‼️POLL | Reform lead by 1pt ➡️ Ref: 21% (-) 🔵 Con: 20% (-1) 🟢 Grn: 20% (-1) 🔴 Lab: 18% (+1) 🟠 Lib: 11% (+2) { Seats } ➡️ Ref: 170 🔵 Con: 161 🟢 Grn: 109 🟠 Lib: 73 🔴 Lab: 52 🟡 SNP: 48 Poll: @LordAshcroft, 23-27 Apr (+/- vs 30 Mar)

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That would be chic!

As I’ve argued so often before, all Labour’s problems can be traced to sleaze and malversation that Starmer, McFadden and Jones have done nothing about, instead believing that they are the somehow ‘virtuous’ masters of a corrupted core executive machine. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…

Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth

2 months ago

.@LSRPlaid: "This is the govt that promised to turn the page on Tory sleaze and restore trust and integrity to British politics. Instead, not once but twice the PM pressured the civil service to appoint friends of known sex offenders to senior diplomatic roles"

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‘Is there anyone else you know who has had a 28.9% pay rose in the last 3 years,’ asks Nick Robinson disbelievingly of an NHS doctor. Last year, Robinson’s BBC pay rose by at least £135k

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BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today

2 months ago

"Is there anybody else you know in your life who has had 28.9% over the last three years?" @bbcnickrobinson presses Dr Jack Fletcher, from the BMA, on previous pay increases and the planned industrial action by resident doctors over a pay dispute with the government.

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@_MikeMcCartney_ Paul McCartney - Days We Left Behind (Lyric Video) youtube.com/watch?v=2n1Ihy… A great tribute to you, your Mum, John, and the days left behind.

"Oh shit, we're f****d." If you can pull yourself away from bloody Iran & read just one article on Ukraine, please let it be this one, by the consistently right @edwardlucas: “We are on a collision course with a fast rearming Russia” General Sir Roland Walker, head of 🇬🇧 army.

@neillancaster66 does anyone know what happened to him?

We should just face facts - the House of Lords is corrupt through and through, and the active peers are principally lobbying or pursuing their self-interest. Becoming a peer under current arrangements is a badge of dishonour. No legislator for life can be legitimate, not a one.

Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick

4 months ago

Matthew Doyle case shows how stupid system is for appointing people to House of Lords - for life. Lords Appointments Commission is totally useless. Proposed peers should be subject to 4 months public scrutiny BEFORE confirmation, not after. Transparency is best disinfectant.

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A letter from today’s ⁦@thetimes⁩ with some fine courtroom humour…

Danish theoretical physicist Niels Bohr's personal diary, examined after his death, contains this entry about his meeting with Anandamayi Ma: “Met an Indian holy woman today. She asked me to explain quantum superposition. I did the observer effect, wave-particle duality, and the measurement problem. When I finished, she smiled and said, "So, your science has finally discovered what we've known for 5,000 years. Consciousness collapses possibility into actuality. The observer creates the observed. You are the universe observing itself." Then she laughed. I couldn't speak. How did an uneducated village woman articulate in 30 seconds, what took me 30 years to understand?

The problem isn't Trump. The problem is the US. When the outside world observes Trump's insane behaviour and his threats against allies, and we at the same time observe that there is no real action from the US public, Congress, the US Supreme Court, or the US media about this insanity, we will all have to conclude that the US accepts this behaviour. The public in the US think the US is entitled to a certain position in the world where there is no room for decent behaviour and where there are no norms and rules. That means that we all have to conclude that the US — not only Trump — has betrayed the international order that the US, with its Western partners, were the main architects of after the Second World War. This is the conclusion that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney so clearly laid out in his speech at Davos yesterday. We simply cannot trust the US to play by the rules any more. Therefore, we also fundamentally have to ask ourselves — should we trust the financial and economic structure which is an integral part of the global rules-based order? Americans live in the illusion that the US can do everything on its own, despite the fact that the US for nearly 20 years has lived beyond its means. US private and government consumption has been funded by, among others, European central banks and pension funds. But we now have to ask ourselves — why would we trade in dollars? Why would we put our savings into US Treasury bonds? If the US is not a rules-based society, we cannot trust the dollar to be a stable currency, and it would be insane to hold dollars. As domestic US institutions are eroded and governance structures destroyed, the US will be turned into an emerging market economy — or more accurately, a de-merging economy. If the US threatens the territory of allies, then the US acts as an authoritarian bully nation. Nobody in their right mind would lend money to the US government. If the US doesn't live up to its international obligations and respect the sovereignty of other nations, why would we expect the US government to honour its debts? If Trump can tariff nations that will not give up their territory, then there is certainly no reason to believe that the US will not introduce capital controls. And if that is a risk, why would you risk investing in the US? It is not a question about Europe standing up to the US. It is a question about being prudent with our investments — about reducing risks. Every day Trump remains in office, distrust of the US increases, and the cost for the US will go up day by day. And this is irreversible. It takes years to build trust, but you can destroy it by your actions in minutes. Europe has now completely lost trust in the US. And so has Canada. It is up to the people of the US to demonstrate that Trump is an 'outlier', and it is up to the American people to stop him. If you don't do that, we will have to assume that this is what the US is about — whether the name of the President is Trump or something else, whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat.

Former Arsenal man, Hector Bellerin's powerful words on modern football 🧠: 🗣️ "In men’s football, there isn’t that sense of unity because there’s no real social awareness. We’re a very privileged group, and many players never question life outside their own bubble. When you grow up in that bubble, it’s hard to leave. I’ve been lucky... I move in both worlds, and I know the problems people face. There’s a big gap between footballers and ordinary people: one idolises the other, while the other doesn’t know how to relate and mistrusts intentions. It creates power dynamics and distance. I made a conscious decision to go out, live normally, and be seen as just another person. You only realise how important that freedom is when you lose it. And since there’s no real closeness, there’s no awareness of each other’s lives."

Absolutely extraordinary unprecedented development in a modern democracy… we are in uncharted territory…

Federal Reserve @federalreserve

5 months ago

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: federalreserve.gov/newsevents/spe…

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@MarcoFoster_ @KathleenIrish75 @colbertlateshow

@Amad16FC Nice car - I mean the one he gets into.