Optimist, European, Leftish 🇺🇦🇪🇺🏳️🌈
Devon, UK
Joined June 2011
- Tweets5.6K
- Following1.7K
- Followers438
- Likes28.1K
Pete Devonish retweeted
Avanti was always going to be nationalised in March 2027. You announced it yourself when Starmer was PM – at Montrose, Scotland
Tomorrow at @UKLabour Conference, I will announce that we will nationalise Avanti West Coast train services at the first opportunity.
We are building a railway Britain can rely on.
thetimes.com/article/b68f649…
Pete Devonish retweeted
Delighted the Government is going ahead with the regional water boards I first agreed to set up in July 2025 when I was Defra Secretary.
theguardian.com/business/202…
Exclusive:
Mayors are to be given powers to control water companies under Andy Burnham’s plans to increase state control of utilities.
The Prime Minister is planning to announce nine new regional bodies to oversee water firms, with local political leaders sitting on them alongside public health and environmental officials and customers.
The policy, likely to be announced as a central part of Burnham’s “10-year plan” later this year, will be his first attempt to define his plan for “public control” of water and energy firms.
It is borrowed from the Cunliffe review of the water sector earlier this year, which first recommended regional boards. The idea was not taken up by the Starmer administration.
The plan would see a new layer of regional water bureaucracy, with a significant role for local mayors, set the objectives of water companies, collate public feedback and hold bosses to account.
It follows months of investor uncertainty, after Burnham said in June he would support full nationalisation in some cases.
Since then, the cost of debt for British water companies has soared and bosses have been left unsure whether they can legally be taken over in a state buyout.
Pete Devonish retweeted
Be clear. Reform now has the resource to buy every billboard in the UK, blanket wall to wall advertising across written and broadcast media and saturation leafleting. The British will be blitzed into voting for the ultra right - against every best instinct. It is a dark moment.
Pete Devonish retweeted
The way British democracy is being bought by crypto billionaires is simply obscene - and a direct result of Labour’s unforgivable inaction theguardian.com/politics/202…
Pete Devonish retweeted
Dear @andyburnham,
A £36m donation to Reform
You could have prevented this
You could protect our democracy from being bought like this
So, why did you drop plans to cap donations?
We need you to reverse course on this now
…before it’s too late.
NEW: Reform UK has received a record single donation of £36m from cryptocurrency billionaire Ben Delo in what will be seen as the Americanisation of British political funding.
The astonishing sum comes after Andy Burnham last month dropped his support for capping the amount a person or organisation can give in a single donation. The PM may be regretting that now.
Pete Devonish retweeted
Dear @andyburnham
I greatly appreciate your determination to tackle the issue of mental health.
I simply question why you needed to organise a coup and remove an elected leader just to copy almost everything he said and did.
And this brings us to a matter of integrity. Not only did you deprive the country of the PM people voted for, but you are now taking the country for a ride by presenting as your own, and as revolutionary, policies and achievements that are only possible because someone else did all the work before you.
At some point, this stops being political rebranding and starts looking like a confidence trick.
You cannot remove the person who designed and implemented these policies, inherit the structures, funding and programmes he put in place, strip his name from them, and then present the results to the public as evidence of your own new and transformative leadership.
That is not a new political programme. It is someone else’s programme with a new face attached to it.
The country deserves to be told what is genuinely new, what is inherited, and who actually did the work that made it possible. Anything less is taking the public for a ride.
Pete Devonish retweeted
By-election dynamics always hard to predict. But this was our projection for #Makerfield this morning. @AndyBurnhamGM
will have a fight to win it.
pollingreport.uk/seats/E1400…
Pete Devonish retweeted
Our media fixation with Keir Starmer is becoming a literal drag on the country now.
As I write this, I can already see the replies forming below, accusing me of being a Labour shill etc. but, believe it or not, I am not.
Maybe it's worth setting this out — I have no party affiliation. None. I'm not 'on the right' … but that's as far as it goes.
There are policies and people that I admire across the Lib Dems, Greens and Labour. Conversely, there are policies and people I am vehemently against within each of those parties as well.
There are some decent Conservatives left but fewer and fewer in frontline politics and I can have excellent discussions with those moderate Tories that remain.
Where my line in the sand is drawn though, as I'm sure you're all aware, is the far-right. Reform UK and Restore Britain. I have no common ground with their populism — I see through the propaganda.
This doesn't mean that I think every member of Reform UK is a bad person, far from it, but I cannot rationalise their top-line bravado into credible politics.
So, with all that being said, I think the witch-hunt of Keir Starmer is distracting the public from some far more serious crises.
Since the very day Starmer took office, there has been an onslaught from the media; desperation to try and topple him and his principal team. This played out successfully with Angela Rayner, and they have been vicious and relentless pursuing Rachel Reeves.
I listened to Paul Brand on LBC at the weekend continuously comparing Starmer to Boris Johnson in terms of sleaze.
Have we collectively lost our minds? There is no other Prime Minister in history that compares to Johnson for scandal.
The elephant in the room — Peter Mandelson.
But is it really an elephant still? Clearly, Starmer should never have brought the Prince of Darkness into his team, that was a madness and severe failing of judgement. One for which he has accepted responsibility and apologised on multiple occasions.
The vetting process appears to be, pretty much, a non-story, despite what Dan Hodges and GB News are shovelling out.
So … we should be moving on. Shouldn't we?
Kemi Badenoch and her famously robust judgement felt not yesterday, and spent more of her diminishing political currency by pushing Starmer with six questions at PMQs on the subject. She was met with a well briefed lawyer, that, in all honesty, made her look a bit silly for continuing her defeated line of questioning.
While this continues to dominate the headlines, other far more crucial issues are being missed — we're going to run low on fuel soon, the cost of living is about to skyrocket, holidays will be cancelled imminently.
But mainly ... the cost of living is about to skyrocket.
We saw in yesterday's inflation rise that food is already moving upward, if Trump's ludicrous war in Iran continues, then we're all going to suffer the consequences.
Surely, this is a far more pressing matter? One in which the government should be fully engaged in order to help protect the public — it's number one duty.
It is very telling that Reform UK are spending very little time on the Starmer issue. They sent Lee Anderson out to raise this issue, for goodness’ sake. LEE ANDERSON.
Farage is hyper focused on the local elections, safe in the knowledge that the media is obsessing over Keir Starmer, once again. He's making hay while the S*n shines on Labour.
Jeez! This went on a bit, sorry, but it feels critical to me. We are being led around by the nose by the legacy media outlets. They smell blood in the water, but I really don't think the story is there. Not yet.
And while the sharks circle, Reform UK are flying under the radar, ready to swoop on the local elections [sorry for the weird mixed metaphors — it's early!].
Have a lovely sunny day. 🌞
Pete Devonish retweeted
Absolute bombshell. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirms Donald Trump is desperately trying to blackmail Britain into joining the war on Iran. Starmer completely rejects the threats and refuses to sacrifice his country for the warmongering agenda of the Pentagon.
Pete Devonish retweeted
Dear @bbcquestiontime
Tom Skinner on Question Time is the BBC equivalent of inviting the loudest bloke in the pub because he “speaks his mind.”
Great for viral clips, terrible for actual political debate.
Skinner isn’t there to inform anyone — he’s there because he shouts, he mugs for the camera, and he trends. That’s it. No expertise, no depth, no grasp of policy beyond “common sense” clichés you could hear from a taxi rank at 2am.
Putting him on Question Time doesn’t elevate the conversation.
It drags the show down to the level of a breakfast‑TV soundbite factory.
Every time the BBC hands a seat to a reality‑TV personality instead of someone who actually understands the issues, it proves the show cares more about engagement metrics than meaningful discussion. Not that this is surprising anymore!
If the goal is serious debate, Skinner adds nothing.
If the goal is cheap entertainment, just say that — and stop pretending it’s public service broadcasting.
#bbcqt
Pete Devonish retweeted
Laura Kuenssberg, let us be clear.
The only real divide within the Labour Party now sits on the fringes of the far left, those who have yet to accept that that chapter of Labour’s history has closed. The party has moved on. It is now firmly positioned as a centre left government under Sir Keir Starmer, and that is where the overwhelming support lies.
What has become increasingly tiresome is the conduct of you and your colleagues across the BBC, ITV, and others, who appear more interested in shaping narratives than reporting facts. Day after day, since Labour came into power, there has been a steady stream of misdirection, exaggeration, and at times outright falsehoods, all presented under the guise of analysis.
The BBC Charter is quite clear. It requires balance, fairness, and accuracy. It does not permit the creation of news to fit a narrative, nor the persistent framing of division where it does not meaningfully exist.
The vast majority of Labour voters, what might reasonably be described as the quiet majority, remain supportive of the government and its direction. There is a clear understanding that Sir Keir Starmer holds the mandate, and that leadership should not be undermined by speculative commentary about internal rivals. Figures such as Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner are not the story, and to present them as such is to manufacture distraction rather than report reality.
Governing for a full term is not without difficulty. It requires focus, discipline, and delivery against a manifesto. That is the task at hand, not responding to the constant noise generated by political commentary.
Sir Keir Starmer has demonstrated resilience and steadiness in office. Those are precisely the qualities the country requires at this time.
It would be refreshing to see journalism return to its proper role, to reflect what is actually happening in the country, to engage with the views of the wider public, and to step outside the narrow bubble in which much of this commentary now seems to exist.
Because the greater risk is not disagreement, it is the erosion of trust. And it is this kind of reporting that risks pushing it further.
Pete Devonish retweeted
A new public fountain has appeared in central London, but look closer & you’ll see that it’s a actually a fountain of filth. The water is black, the human victims of the sewage crisis are vomitting streams of liquid, whilst surmounted by a smug water executive with a briefcase stuffed with cash.
The fountain commemorates one of the biggest environmental crimes in British history, where water companies stole tens of billions of pounds that was supposed to be spent on our sewage system, gave it to shareholders and executives and illegally poured billions of lites of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas instead. The channel 4 docudrama about the sewage crisis, #dirtybusiness, starts at 9pm tonight. Watch it, get sad, get angry and then join the thousands of people around the country demanding an end to the sewage crisis.
Pete Devonish retweeted
Says the man colonising Monaco to avoid paying tax in his own country. What an F ing Hypocrite. And wrong on the numbers, immigration is falling fast, its 20% of what it was under the Tories. And btw, immigrants as a whole make a net contribution to our economy, they are not the problem, rich tax exiles are. The super yachts not the small boats. Rich, selfish and ignorant (of the facts).
news.sky.com/story/the-uk-ha…
Pete Devonish retweeted
Has @ChrisMasonBBC gone missing?
Suddenly stopped wetting himself
After an atrocious 7 days of undermining UK democracy and trying to unseat an elected PM. Has the #SackRobbieGibb remit slowed down?
We know it will pick up again, we are waiting for you
#BBCBias
#SackChrisMason
Pete Devonish retweeted
Offensive and wrong.
Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country.
Jim Ratcliffe should apologise.
news.sky.com/story/the-uk-ha…
Pete Devonish retweeted
@bbc5live Viewers and listeners are calling for @ChrisMasonBBC and @bbclaurak to resign. It’s growing in intensity too. Please report.