50 yrs E. Africa,Middle East, China, Britain. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Royal Television Society. English Speaking Union. Bhutan Society. Politeia.
Surrey, England
Joined June 2015
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Fred Says retweeted
Katharine Birbalsingh @Miss_Snuffy is not only a terrific head mistress, she is a terrific speaker and writer. Here she laments Britain's schooling.
She has a provocative new book out, Diversity Is Not Our Strength.
She was speaking at the #together event.
Fred Says retweeted
UK exports to the EU are up 22% since 2019, with exports to non EU up 29%. We export more to non EU than EU, we export more services than goods. UK goods exports to EU are under 6% of our GDP, not the key to UK growth.
Fred Says retweeted
🚨📰 TikTok terrorist who prayed for the deaths of British soldiers now resides in a £300,000 three-bedroom council flat in north London.
This surprises me .. I’d have thought he woukd have been given a 6 bedroom house in Mayfair
Labour must have made a MISTAKE
Fred Says retweeted
Dorian Puka, an Albanian national has TWICE bern jailed and deported from Britain.
But here he is again, fighting deportation a third time, while flaunting a £500,000 luxury watch collection under the noses of the Home Office, while saying "I used to be broke".
Not difficult to work out why he isn't now though, is it?
The Home Office have won their case to deport him at the First Tier tribunal.
But they can't touch him until his appeal has been heard AGAIN by the Upper Tribunal.
Here's a thought - how about forget process for ridiculous case like this - just get on with deporting him now, and NEVER letting him back??
Fred Says retweeted
Quite right
Injustices are not solved by sweeping them under the carpet as this Labour government prefers to do
They need to be brought out into the light of day
The judge who remanded Danny Tommo in custody won't be investigated.
Tan Ikram, the deputy chief magistrate, refused him bail at his first appearance. In 2024 Ikram was formally warned after liking an anti-Israel post. The judges' watchdog accepted the like was an accident.
Last month Tory shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy asked for an investigation. Lord Chancellor Alex Norris, who runs the courts, turned the request down and asked Timothy to stop the "dangerous public criticism".
Questions aren't dangerous. Dodging them is.
Fred Says retweeted
The Free Speech Union exposed that all five members of the Working Group tasked with drafting the official definition of Islamophobia had troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and MEND.
The Working Group held a consultation so people could help shape what became the “anti-Muslim hostility” definition. Given the public interest, the FSU asked which groups and individuals had been consulted.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy submitted a Freedom of Information request. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) replied that it had deleted all the responses — in what appears to be against the Government’s own data policy.
The FSU then threatened Angela Rayner’s department with legal action.
Now the department’s most senior civil servant says the responses do exist and remain on its data system, but the department will not disclose who was consulted.
So what is going on? Were we told the responses had been deleted to conceal the fact that Islamist extremists had the chance to influence the definition?
We are now told that an Islamophobia tsar will be announced imminently. Given Rayner and her department’s record, who on earth could it be?
Fred Says retweeted
My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph
Buy a print of my cartoons at telegraph.co.uk/mattprints
Original artwork from chrisbeetles.com
Fred Says retweeted
A Sri Lankan migrant who sued the taxpayer for £7million claiming he needed round-the-clock care has been seen go-karting, going to the gym and doing the school run, a High Court judge has said.
Vengadeswara Raw Gopalakrishnan has been found to have 'deliberately fabricated' claims that he was housebound after he suffered 'serious and long-term psychiatric injury' while detained in a detention centre between September 2013 and February 2014.
He had come to the UK in 2010 before overstaying his visa and unsuccessfully claiming asylum. Gopalakrishnan was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2023.
The migrant later sued the Home Office for more than £7million.
Why is our legal system so open to be made a fool of by foreign scammers and cheats?
dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Fred Says retweeted
So I get an email from @RoyalMail which says “We've now returned your parcel to Your Seller, please contact them for any further information.”
Which would be fine except: Who is “Your Seller”? What’s the parcel? Why is it being returned? Why didn’t you deliver it? How do I contact “Your Seller” about a parcel I’ve no idea what it is. Oh, and the tracking number doesn’t show anything.
What an absurd system. They return a parcel I don’t know to a company I don’t know and tell me I have to contact whoever it is that I don’t know about a parcel I don’t know.
Oh, and Royal Mail’s email address is “no-reply@…” so I can’t even reply to them to find out more.
Royal Mail is a joke.
Whatever the parcel was, I’ll just have to presume I won’t get it because there’s naff all I can do about it.
Fred Says retweeted
SpaceX revenue this quarter alone will be substantially higher than NASA’s entire annual budget!
Fred Says retweeted
🐡🐠🐟 Ed Miliband is reportedly enjoying a relaxing snorkelling trip in the Caribbean while millions of British people are struggling to make ends meet.
My mum can’t afford to heat her home .. while Edwina is using our money to enjoy his “Business Trip” vacation
Fred Says retweeted
Watch: A panel of NHS executives were left FLUSTERED when Rupert Lowe read out their salaries at a Select Committee hearing
Lowe told Sir Jim Mackey, boss of NHS England, that he was ‘making out like Dick Turpin!’ @RupertLowe10
Fred Says retweeted
🚨War Heroes Booted Out Days Before Remembrance While Asylum Seekers Get Priority Housing
Around a dozen British veterans who served in Iraq and elsewhere are being turfed out of Stone Court in Torquay just days before Remembrance Sunday, after the government’s Reducing Veterans’ Homelessness scheme refused to extend their temporary funding, with eviction looming by March.
Referred by the Royal British Legion, men like PTSD-suffering Iraq veteran Scott Marshall and former sailor Maurice Quinlan—who had been sleeping rough—now face the street.
Marshall called it “disgraceful,” pointing out that asylum seekers who have just arrived are being given houses while those who put their lives on the line for the country are shown the door.
Fred Says retweeted
This is the final salary pension ruse that all chiefs of public sector pull. They co-ordinate a final year or two with maximum salary. It’s a massive scam.
Fred Says retweeted
Four men have been jailed for a total of more than 30 years after kidnapping a man in Liverpool, binding his hands, mouth and eyes with duct tape and demanding watches and jewellery from his associates.
The gang also stole £15,200 from his bank account to buy electric motorbikes.
The victim was rescued by police the following day.
Patrick Gray, Connor Kenny, Callum Walsh and Anthony White received sentences ranging from 7 years 6 months to 8 years 3 months for kidnap, blackmail and fraud.
ALT Left to right: Patrick Gray, Connor Kenny, Callum Walsh and Anthony White
Fred Says retweeted
🚨 WOW! Elon Musk FIRES BACK at every Senate and House Democrat planning to target him, saying he will GLADLY cancel any government contract — he doesn't NEED them anyway
"SpaceX contracts with the government are BOTH the best product AND the lowest price! Moreover government revenue will be less than 10% of SpaceX revenue this quarter and less then 5% a year from now. Happy to cancel any that the government doesn’t want. Just say the word!"
Honestly, pushing away Elon Musk is a HORRIBLE move from Dems! His products are incredible and benefit America 🇺🇸
Fred Says retweeted
We're told that schools need to get 14-15 year-olds ready to vote at 16. Has the government thought through the problem of teachers who are political activists canvassing pupils for votes? And what about the obvious contradiction in expecting pupils to independently research who to vote for and the government's social media bans for teens? At the end, I responded to the minister telling me not to worry as 16 year olds will be allowed to get info from TRUSTED sources. Trusted by who? If this is a big expansion of democracy, why is there no impact assessment or proper engagement with criticism?
Fred Says retweeted
🚨 Two Tier Britain Exposed: Home Office Bans Dutch Woman from Entering Britain for Opposing the Boats — While the Illegal Boats Keep Coming
Look at the two random X posts stacked together. At the top, GB News reports Britain is braced for another migrant crossing surge, with hundreds already in the Channel as the weather improves. Directly below, Lucy White says her friend Eva has been banned from entering Britain again. The Home Office ruled her presence is “not conducive to the public good” because she wants to reverse third-world mass immigration and supports remigration. She has no criminal record.
A Dutch woman who openly opposes large-scale illegal immigration is treated as a threat and blocked. At the same moment, the boats she criticises are still crossing, and the people on them—mostly young men—are processed, housed, and allowed to stay.
This is the real 2 tier Britain: criticise the boats and the Home Office locks the door on you. Arrive on the boats and the same Home Office opens the door, hands you a hotel room, and lets you stay. The posts don’t just show hypocrisy — they show a government that treats its own critics as the bigger threat.
Fred Says retweeted
What is wrong with? @RoyalMail For the second time this week I’ve had an email to say that you’ve tried to deliver when there is no one in. On Wednesday, I got the same message about a collection.
Have you heard of this thing called the doorbell? Because I’ve been here waiting on both occasions. And I have a very loud doorbell.
And the parcel that was supposed to be delivered today, was due to be delivered yesterday because I paid for 48 hour tracked delivery.
This is now happening every single time. Everything is broken.
Fred Says retweeted
Nationalised last year, the rail network c2c ( Essex and East London) is so bad even the 3 dimwitted Labour MPs ( they supported the state grab) whose constituencies the trains serve has summonsed the MD to demand answers.
Here are the bloody awful stats;
* Before Labour 94% of the trains arrived within 5mins of the scheduled time. Now it’s 71.5%
* Before Labour c2c cancelled 1% of trains. Now it’s 1.7% with 4.7% in August.
* In mid-August to mid - September the average delay to exiting passengers was 3.5 minutes, the longest since records began.
The same is true of SWR and the Great Northern.
The state are bloody awful at running things, not least because trade unions are involved.