aka @timbale.bsky.social Teach politics at @QMPoliticsIR. New book: "The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation"
Suntrap of the South, Sussex.
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Peter Bale. Born Bristol, 12.7.1937 Scholarship boy. Aircraftman. Botanist. Biology teacher. Exercise physiologist. Wing three-quarter. Opera-lover. Sun-worshipper. Liberal-socialist. MS-patient. My Dad. Died Eastbourne, 15.7.2020.
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You're 23 (twenty-three) times more likely to be prosecuted for benefit than tax crime, even though tax fraud and error costs an estimated £20bn a year compared to £2bn in benefit fraud and error. (h/t @paulwaugh) taxwatchuk.org/tax_crime_vs_…
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Folk (including @BBCr4today) are (rightly!) celebrating diversity in the 'great offices of state'. But it's maybe worth noting that Kwarteng, Cleverly, and Braverman were all privately-educated. Fact is that, nowadays, the real lack of diversity in Parliament is class-based.
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I've got a great idea: let's abolish all speed limits on England's roads and just rely on people using their 'common sense'! Come on, who's with me?
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Anyone keeping a precise tally of how many MPs are prepared to debase themselves in order to save the PM’s skin?
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If only there were a bunch of people paid £81,932 a year by the UK taxpayer whose job it was to examine this stuff really, really carefully before the government committed to it.
To avoid their own budget black hole, the EU gets £39billion as a “divorce payment” from us, reflecting our share of the current EU budget. But it gets worse. Buried in the fine print, unnoticed by many, is the fact we remain hooked into the EU’s loan book. (2/3)
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Bukayo Saka achieved four A*s and three As at GCSE. I'll just leave that there.
Please remember, whenever you read a ‘heartfelt statement’ from a high-profile footballer, it has almost certainly been ghost-written by a press officer. Not a criticism, but we should recognise how these things work.
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We're at quite a pivot point/historic hinge here. If nothing happens and we all move on, then political accountability in this country - at least between, if not actually at, elections - is essentially over. Anybody in a position of power will be able to do pretty much anything.
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BREAKING: Bloke who reckons he can cut government waste by billions spaffs £144k on work that never got done.
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Frankly, I don't know why Labour, instead of continually talking bollocks about the Tories wanting to flog the NHS off to the highest bidder, don't just stick this on posters, leaflets and social media every week and leave voters to draw the obvious conclusion.
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Probably the most profound paragraph about British politics you'll read throughout this whole sorry election campaign. By Robert Crampton in the Sunday Times thetimes.co.uk/article/why-d…
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Of all the f*cking stupid quotes in a f*cking stupid year, this has to rank as one of the most f*ucking stupid.
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Something's changed - he sounds *way* better than usual.
Today, Ofgem have announced an energy price cap rise that almost triples bills since last winter.
This rise will be devastating to people across the country.
Labour has a fully costed plan to freeze energy bills, meaning people won’t pay a penny more this winter.
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Careful @BBCr4today, you're making Mike Pence out to be some kind of hero here. He's an enabler who's jumped out of the car just before it goes off the cliff.
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Hang on - so he was removed from the conference hall with the aid of Greater Manchester Police (18 seconds in)? Would be interested to know from @gmpolice on what grounds their officer felt obliged to get involved?
'There's no such thing as gender ideology... this is trash'
A heckler is removed from @SuellaBraverman's speech at the Conservative Party Conference itv.com/news/2023-10-03/huma…
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Sure, most of us expected a whitewash. But a cover-up? telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
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Chr*st the cosplay never stops does it? He's going to be pulling this sh*t all summer - and we're all paying for it.
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This is now standard practice: 1) Try to tough it out; 2) When that fails, promise to change things; 3) Wait a few months and then quietly water down or drop those changes when the caravan has moved on. theguardian.com/politics/202…
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"The Tory Brexiteer and former U.K. negotiator admitted both sides during the 2016 referendum campaign had underestimated the impact of Brexit upon the island of Ireland." *Both* sides? *Both* sides? Unmitigated bollocks - a complete rewriting of history. politico.eu/article/david-da…
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Am I seriously listening to Iain Duncan Smith being invited on @BBCr4today to talk supposedly weighty nonsense on the science again? Perhaps he studied it in his no-qualification language course at 'The University of Perugia'.
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This afternoon I will be mainly enjoying remembering that it was James Slack who wrote this front-page splash.
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Gotta say, I'm really looking forward to the autumn, by which time we'll all be paying no tax whatsoever and the NHS, education, policing, and everything will be even more fantastic than they are now. #LeadershipContest
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To all those Tory MPs who reckon that stripping Johnson of his pass is too harsh: some 69% of voters say it's inappropriate for him to be allowed his Honours List, while 66% think he should lose the £115,000 annual allowance paid to ex-PMs! omnisis.co.uk/polls/boris-jo… via @omnisis
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"So, Nissan, what first attracted you to the millions of pounds of subsidy on offer from the UK government"
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🔥🔥🔥 “If I do a history degree and I end up working in a shop, does that make my history degree worthless? Or does that make working in a shop worthless?” That's got to be one of the most brutally unanswerable questions @susannareid100 has ever asked. Almost felt sorry for him.
'People should be getting higher & higher wages and that would be the definition of a good outcome [to a degree], right at the time when you're saying don't ask for higher wages because that's going to wreck the economy?'
＠susannareid100 asks the Education Minister how the Govt can prioritise high wages for a successful degree when they're encouraging people not to ask for a pay rise to reduce inflation.
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"SPOTTED: Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak back in town, and sharing a hug and a chat with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves at Bloomberg’s swanky Tate Modern party last night." And people wonder why ordinary voters hate politics....
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WTF. Is Number Ten really so short-staffed that they couldn't have found someone to run off a separate letter to each family? Or did the PM not have time to sign more than once? Just inexplicable.
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It's hard - no impossible - to think of a more counterproductive thing for the Chancellor to do. #WhenYoureInAHoleStopDigging bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-6…
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Sorry but WTF did these people expect? express.co.uk/news/politics/…
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This, for me, is @alexmassie's killer paragraph in a column stuffed full of them. I honestly don't think I've read anything so devastating in the @spectator since Iain Macleod wrote about the Tories' "magic circle" back in 1964.
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Until it was reintroduced by Twitter in 2006/7. nitter.app/FXMC1957/status/880674…
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Really powerful stuff - & correct public health messaging. The Tories haven't got another communicator who can come within a million miles of this guy when he's on top form and (like most of us in the UK, I'm very relieved to be able to say it) he's on frankly amazing form here.
It is hard to find the words to express my debt to the NHS for saving my life.
The efforts of millions of people across this country to stay home are worth it. Together we will overcome this challenge, as we have overcome so many challenges in the past. #StayHomeSaveLives
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If I'm not very much mistaken, @henrymance has come up with what will become a bit of classic quote in the @FT today (ft.com/content/a4721386-3a2a…)
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The more these pressers go on, the more you get the feeling that the scientists are being used as human shields, with the politicians chucking them questions that are clearly meant for them but for which they have no satisfactory answers.
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"BBC Question Time: analysis of guests over nine years suggests an overuse of right-wing voices" finds @Matt_Walsh theconversation.com/bbc-ques… via @ConversationUK
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Spot-on from @bbclaurak on @BBCr4today: The UK Parliament, which tore itself apart over teeny-tiny details for four whole years, is about to ratify a 2000-page FTA with little or no scrutiny.
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To those who have a problem with what @maitlis says here: are you disputing the literal truth of what she says or are you disputing her right to speak that truth to power?
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That sound you woke up to? It's the barrel being scraped. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-6…
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Absolute 🔥@SayeedaWarsi on @SuellaBraverman - and a well-judged word of warning to @RishiSunak theguardian.com/commentisfre…
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16 July: @MarinaHyde: "If this was a proper cult, all the delegates and everyone at the next Trump rally would also stick pantyliners to the sides of their heads." theguardian.com/commentisfre…
18 July......
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"Nigel Farage spotted using disabled parking space for 45 minutes while he did some shopping." Can only imagine the furore had, I don't know, Angela Rayner been caught doing this: would have been all over the broadcast news, too. telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05…
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Hard not see Johnson's Resignation Honours List as basically one big "F*ck You" - to the prime minister, to his party, and, indeed, to the whole country.
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Take a look. It doesn't. It really doesn't. 🧵1/n dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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Wondering why the Conservatives seem to have lost so many voters lately? With a little help from polsci, the @FT's data-wizard, @jburnmurdoch, has one answer for you. ft.com/content/d5f1d564-8c08…
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You are doing it *AGAIN* @BBCRadio4 - allowing a businessman to play amateur/armchair epidemiologist (this time on @BBCr4today). WTAF are you guys playing at? You urgently need an editorial-level discussion on this: it's a life or death public health issue.
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And we'll remember you stooping so low as to put your party brand on something that belongs to all parties and none. Truly contemptible.
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"The media coverage gifted to Steve Baker and the Tory CRG is reminiscent of - and just as dangerous as - that gifted to the tobacco lobby and climate change deniers in decades past." Discuss.
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It's striking this morning that the Tory-supporting media in the UK is more into rubbing left-liberals' noses in it than worrying about the dire implications for Britain's national security after the big boost to Putin's Russia provided by Trump's return. telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11…
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"It is a measure of how [Giorgia Meloni] has shifted her policies towards the centre-right that Rishi Sunak feels comfortable attending this meeting" (8AM News, @BBCr4today).🙄There is, of course, another way of looking at this....
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It was inevitable, but it's also, it has to be said, very, very well done. First Downfall video of the campaign. vimeo.com/950085130 #BGE2024
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So, just to be clear: we've got one Tory leadership candidate who thinks British soldiers are murderers and one who thinks that British civil servants are criminals?
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Just so you know; "If Truss is destroyed, the alternative won’t even be social democracy: it will be Labour, the hard Left, the full gamut of punitive taxation, including of wealth & housing, & even more spending, culminating rapidly in economic oblivion." telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10…
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Interesting: left me wondering what would've happened had Labour just said, "If you think we're going to give up on a policy that will improve thousands of kids' lives just to try to win a by-election, forget it. We're just not that kind of party." opendemocracy.net/en/uxbridg…
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Just in case anyone not involved in actually marking university students' work is wondering, this is complete and utter b*ll*cks.
I heard this from students quite regularly at @Conservatives conference. Groupthink getting marked up, critical thinking being marked down.
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Looks awfully like she's preparing to resign fairly soon on 'a point of principle.' That way, she doesn't have to take responsibility for policy failure, nor for any general election defeat - after which she can say to the membership, 'I told them so!'. thetimes.co.uk/article/suell…
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PM's popularity after their first 20 months in office
Source: @spectator (and @IpsosMORI)
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"The less people have been educated the more they are likely to be positive about the PM and the more they have been educated the more it is likely that voters will be negative about him." @MSmithsonPB
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Commentary on last night's C4 #ToryLeadership debate: tl;dr. All you need to know is that @BorisJohnson avoided having to face @RoryStewartUK. As long as Rory is eliminated before the BBC debate on Tuesday evening then it's job done for Boris. If he's not, then he has a problem.
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Can't believe I'm actually going to make a serious point about activities and entertainment in care homes, but they often seem to revolve around music from the 1930s and 40s, when many of the residents will actually be into much later stuff. So good on 'em (and @EdwardJDavey).
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A stone-cold classic of a graph. Things don't quite add up? Simple! Just use two completely different vertical scales and then turn one of them up to eleven! Truly a must for all research methods classes! thesun.co.uk/news/22304001/m…
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Hope you're all enjoying Rishi in tetchy mansplaining mode as much as I am. @BBCr4today
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Don't know about you but I'm old enough to remember when a 'technical recession' was called a recession.
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Len McCluskey dismissing Peter Mandelson's views on the grounds he 'should go into a room and count his gold'. And people wonder why Labour under Corbyn had an antisemitism problem......🙄
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Really, @thetimes, I would have expected better, much better, of you than this. If you can't see what's wrong with the way you've framed this story, then I'm speechless.
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There is *still* a widespread but *mistaken* assumption that, should Johnson survive a vote of no confidence, he is safe for another year. Yet, thanks to those who sought to defenestrate his predecessor, we know that this is *not* in fact the case. Chapter and verse in this 🧵1/4
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Is there any more depressing phrase in the English language right now than "Boris Johnson is to hold a Downing Street coronavirus press conference this afternoon."?
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What do you mean, you're not sure this would have been the Mail's splash if a *Labour* government had presided over a record rise in net migration?
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If a picture's worth a thousand words, then a video's worth a million. How Rishi Sunak's going to escape accountability for waving through a gong and a peerage for a couple of the attendees, I honestly do not know.
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Don't know about the rest of you but I'm really looking forward to the next time the Conservatives hold their Party Conference in Manchester.
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Would that be the same Gavin Williamson who assured Theresa May when she was PM that he hadn't leaked anything from the National Security Council - before she then sacked him following an inquiry?
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Ah, yes. Rishi Sunak (before anyone had ever really heard of him). Radio 4's Today Programme, 9 Dec 2019.
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Turns out the catering firm that hosted Boris's oven-ready photo-op has closed down. Not sure of the circumstances. But possibly a metaphor for something.
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That wouldn't be the same James Bethell who "replaced his mobile phone before it could be searched for information relevant to £85m of deals that are subject to a legal challenge" (theguardian.com/politics/202…), would it?
Former health minister James Bethell was on R4 just now arguing the Covid inquiry needs limiting lest it might also want to look at the WhatsApp messages for his kids' school parents' groups in case they are relevant, which doesn't sound hugely likely to me.
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That @BBCWorldatOne coverage of the inheritance tax on owners of farmland was absurdly skewed. Talk about 'producer capture'! The correspondent, the farmer, and the MP were all sympathisers; not one tax expert or economist to counter them. Badly done @BBCRadio4 , badly done!
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As this utterly absurd obsession drags on and on (and on), I can't help feeling that most people would actually support blue-lighting a global superstar musician over some random politician they've never heard of from abroad. But there we are... thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
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'The UK has experienced the largest increase in relative child poverty between 2014 & 2021 of any advanced economy, according to estimates by Unicef. At the same time, 3.3mn children in the UK still live in “absolute” poverty.' @pmdfoster & @amy_borrett ft.com/content/55072b2c-539d…
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Today we had to say goodbye to Ruby, who we were lucky enough to have in our lives for nearly 10 years. She was such a special little thing who brought us so much fun and happiness. The house already seems so empty without her. Hard to believe she's gone. We'll miss her terribly.
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Could it be because...THEY KNOW WTF THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT????telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09…
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There's none so blind that will not see. Tory MPs on Brexit - compared to all Brits and Tory voters. (Source: yougov.co.uk/topics/politics…)
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Bl**dy hell. This is a bit scary. You can put in your postcode here addresspollution.org/ and find which of the various WHO pollution limits are broken in the house you live in. 🧵1/ theguardian.com/environment/…
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Oh, for the love of God! The 👏SDP 👏did 👏NOT 👏help Margaret Thatcher win thumping majorities in 1983 and 1987 by "splitting the centre-left vote". In fact, she might have won even bigger victories had ex-Labour voters had nowhere else to go. See Crewe & King p.290
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I'm no expert but perhaps handing over 'a very large sum of money' to a vetting company who then 'didn't do the job properly' doesn't exactly bode well for a party planning to finance its programme by eliminating waste in government. (PS Ed Balls face is a picture).
'How can you defend 41 candidates for your party found to be social media friends of a Fascist leader?' - ＠susannareid100
Nigel Farage says there will be a story coming out at lunchtime today where people will hear how Reform UK paid a large sum of money to a reputable vetting company that didn't do the work.
But Susanna points out it doesn't take a vetting company to check who's whose friend on Facebook.
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It's MMXXII, FFS!
EXCL: Boris Johnson plans to announce imperial measurements will be revived to mark Queen's Platinum Jubilee and boost flagging support among Brexit voters. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/b…
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