Don't give up 🇬🇧🇺🇲
Oxford, England
Joined May 2021
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John retweeted
Poland is what the UK used to be like before it was intentionally destroyed by the very people who are trying to destroy Poland right now.
John retweeted
This is how civilized people in Poland, who love their country,
protest. Nothing is destroyed, no one is hurt.
John retweeted
Not a single comment on the ongoing slave Labour of the Uyghurs. Not a single comment on the Arab slave trade, but give him an opportunity to bash Britain and he will grab at it with both hands.
John retweeted
Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.
If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?
On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.
There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again.
This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.
John retweeted
Are BBC Licence Fee Payers Funding the Government's Immigration Policy?
On Thursday 29 October, the Government opened applications for a refugee sponsorship scheme, allowing approved organisations to help bring refugees to Britain. The following evening, the BBC broadcast the final of The Celebrity Traitors. Two contestants emerged victorious, each winning £41,500 for their chosen charities. Sebastian Croft selected Choose Love. Romesh Ranganathan chose the Refugee Council. Both support refugees. One already has a formal role in a government-backed resettlement programme. The timing raises questions.
The first concerns the money. Who provided the £83,000 awarded to these charities? Was it drawn from the BBC's programme budget, funded by production company Studio Lambert, or supplied through another arrangement? If licence fee revenue contributed, viewers are entitled to know. The BBC has obligations to account for how its money is spent. Charitable donations may be worthwhile, but the source of the funds and the arrangements governing their distribution should be transparent.
The second question concerns the charities. The Refugee Council serves as a principal sponsor under the Government's Communities for Afghans programme, working with Action Foundation on resettlement. Choose Love provides humanitarian assistance to displaced people internationally. Neither has yet been confirmed as an accredited sponsor under the new scheme. Will either apply? Has either discussed participation with the Home Office? And were the BBC's producers aware of the Refugee Council's existing government role when the contestants' choices were approved?
Then there is the timing. The programme was filmed months before the Government opened applications, and the charity choices preceded the broadcast. Those facts matter. They make suggestions that the outcome was arranged to coincide with Thursday's announcement difficult to sustain. Nevertheless, the proximity warrants a question. Was there any communication between the BBC, Studio Lambert, the Home Office or the charities about the announcement or broadcast date? If there was none, all parties should have little difficulty saying so.
These questions arise amid wider concerns about the BBC's relationship with Whitehall. Recent disclosures revealed that serving civil servants, paid by government departments, had been seconded into BBC newsrooms, helping prepare coverage of migration, crime, elections and other contentious subjects. The BBC insists its journalists retained editorial control. Yet some officials' contributions appeared without their civil service positions being sufficiently clear. Public confidence depends on knowing where government involvement begins and ends.
The BBC also faces questions about compulsory funding. Ministers are considering extending the licence fee obligation to households using streaming services, including those who never watch BBC programmes. The corporation should therefore demonstrate that its editorial decisions and charitable arrangements remain independent of government policy. Viewers should be able to distinguish a contestant's personal charity choice from any institutional endorsement by the broadcaster.
There may be straightforward explanations for the prize funding, charity selections and timing. The evidence does not establish coordination or improper use of licence fee money. But transparency should be expected of a publicly funded broadcaster. Who paid the prize money? When were the charities chosen? What contact, if any, took place with government officials? And can the BBC show that licence fee payers are funding independent entertainment rather than, directly or indirectly, the promotion of government policy? Those are questions the BBC should answer.
"The first concerns the money. Who provided the £83,000. [...]. If licence fee revenue contributed, viewers are entitled to know."
John retweeted
When politicians openly lie and the media not allows them to lie but also repeats their lies the is a systemic rot the political and media establishment who will do anything to protect their status quo. And it’s a well known fact that I’m no Reform supporter.
More footage has emerged that Nigel Farage didn't even touch Lib Dem MP Caroline Voaden let alone "sent her flying"
@CommonsSpeaker please investigate this behaviour.
John retweeted
BRITISH PUBLIC: Please stop immigration, we have been voting against it for decades.
GOVERNMENT: The best we can do is make it easier for immigrants to come here.
Joke.
John retweeted
31st October, 2004
Staff Sergeant Denise Michelle Rose, aged 34 from Liverpool, and of the Royal Military Police, died from gunshot wounds at the Army base at Shatt al-Arab Hotel, Basra, Iraq
Lest we Forget this brave lady who gave her all 🏴🇬🇧
John retweeted
Stop projecting your own bigoted thoughts Dan. I didn’t mention foreigners, you did.
Shambles.
John retweeted
Tucked away on page 118 of the Budget document the Treasury announced a lowering of salary requirements to make it easier for businesses to hire immigrants rather than recruiting and training Brits.
This is totally wrong-headed. Alan Milburn’s interim report into Neets explicitly warns that too many employers have become accustomed to looking overseas for workers.
And Labour’s own immigration white paper, published last year, promised to RAISE salary requirements and ensure that recruiting from abroad never becomes a cheap alternative to paying people properly. In the paper’s foreword, Starmer wrote: ‘We will wean our national economy off its reliance on cheap labour from overseas…That is what our economy needs. It is what people want.’
Clearly Burnham/Healey don’t agree. And apparently the government’s solution to having a million young people doing nothing is to find somebody else to do the jobs.
I go into all the detail in my latest: spectator.com/article/the-bu…
John retweeted
October 31st, 2009
Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid GC, aged 30 from Truro, and of the Royal Logistics Corps, was killed whilst defusing an IED in Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan
Lest we Forget this brave man, awarded a posthumous GC for disabling 70 IEDs on one tour 🏴 🇬🇧
John retweeted
What’s not to like about Teddy?
There must be someone out there for him.
This handsome lad is still waiting for a new home.
Can you please share?
Teddy is a 5 year old male Mastiff mix - he is available and looking for a new home.
He eats Ava sensitive skin and stomach mix from Pets at Home.
Teddy is good in the car but only use to short journeys.
He sleeps in the kitchen at night but would sometimes also sleep in his owners bed.
He is registered with the vets and can be left on his own if you need to go out.
Teddy is a big boy, he may knock small kids over, so he would suit a home with older dog savvy kids 10+.
He loves people and is good once he gets a clap, but he is wary of men wearing hats.
Teddy walks well on the lead and he use to go walking with a dog walker and was fine.
Teddy loves a ball rope, he likes to chew on the rope until it's untied.
He likes treats.
There isn't much that Teddy doesn't like, however he doesn't like the sound of metal/shutter noise as he got a fright when he was a puppy.
Teddy loves lying in bed under the covers. He would be best in a home with no other pets or cats.
He isn't really fussed by other dogs when he is out walking.
Teddy knows basic commands.
For more information or to offer Teddy a new home please email [email protected]
Sorry we are unable to accept messages to the page regarding pets for rehoming, please email the address above.
John retweeted
Perhaps worth remembering that Alastair Campbell not only sent British troops to fight and die on the basis of a lie, he subsequently mocked them in a rant he made on social media in which he strutted about like a toy soldier wearing an army tie and military medal.
He was subsequently asked to remove his video from social media by the veterans charity Help for Heroes who were concerned about the offence it was causing to veterans.
That is the sort of man Alastair Campbell is.
