Graham Dearman

Liz Truss says she hates handouts. So why is she collecting her £115,000 a year ex-PM pension, for the shortest, worst ever premiership? She even said she wouldn't collect it. But of course she does.

One Year On: The Greatest Economic Own Goal in Living Memory A year ago, Donald Trump stood in the Rose Garden, surrounded by charts nobody understood, and declared war on mathematics. He called it Liberation Day. The Financial Times, along with every economist who has read more than a bus ticket, is marking the anniversary with a verdict that should be carved into marble: it failed. On every single front. Spectacularly. Completely. Embarrassingly. Let us be precise about this. Measured against Trump’s own three stated goals, making foreigners pay for doing business with America, narrowing the trade deficit, and punishing China, the tariffs have clearly failed.  Not partially failed. Not failed with asterisks. Failed the way a man fails when he drives a Reliant Robin onto a motorway and acts surprised when it rolls. And everyone said so. Economists said so. Trading partners said so. His own party said so. The entire field of international trade theory, developed over roughly two centuries by people who actually read things, screamed it from the rooftops. But Donald Trump, a man whose relationship with economics appears to consist entirely of gut feeling and cable television and 6 casino bankruptcies knew better. The average American household paid an extra $1,700 due to tariffs. Over 65 percent of Americans reported that everyday goods became significantly less affordable.  This is what happens when you run the world’s largest economy on instinct and vibes. One year after the Rose Garden ceremony, factory jobs are down and inflation is up.  The precise opposite of what was promised. With extraordinary confidence. Then the lawyers arrived. The Supreme Court found that Trump had exceeded his authority, ruling that the declared emergency bore no rational connection to the trade measures imposed.  In other words, the legal foundation was nonsense. The government had collected $166 billion in tariffs from over 330,000 businesses on grounds the Supreme Court found unconstitutional. The refund process is now underway.  One hundred and sixty-six billion dollars. Collected illegally. From American businesses. The financial markets, bless them, responded with the only appropriate tool available: mockery. The meme “Trump Always Chickens Out” refuses to go away, and the TACO index is now actively used by analysts to price in the president’s chronic habit of retreating.  Every serious voice warned this would happen. Trade economists. Former Treasury secretaries. The IMF. The WTO. The EU. Canada. Japan. Basically anyone who had spent more than forty minutes studying how global trade actually works. The man who ignored all of them had previously run a casino into bankruptcy and considered that a learning experience. He was not, it turns out, a fast learner. One year. Zero of three goals achieved. One Supreme Court ruling. One $170 billion refund. One economy paying more for everything and making less of it. Liberation Day. What a name for it. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

Lets break it down this way, Joseph, Its supporting yourselves as Spurs fans, you don’t want to go down right ? So the best way to help keep the club up is by supporting it and all aspects of it for this absolutely crucial period , til end of season, then you can vent mate !

And all of that absolutely, 100%, totally illegal. No doubt the Environment Agency will be issuing a warrant for the arrest of the CEO and board first thing this morning.

🚨 The Canadian Premier League will conduct a 'daylight offside' trial in cooperation with FIFA when its season starts on April 4. The trial is led by FIFA and approved by IFAB. It is designed to favour attackers. 🗣️ FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger: "This is an important pilot. By testing this new interpretation in a professional competition, we can better understand its impact, including in terms of improving clarity and the flow of the game and promoting attacking play. "We look forward to analysing the results of the trial phase. We thank the Canadian Premier League and the Canadian Soccer Association for their willingness to support FIFA with this pilot and for providing their competition." An attacking player will be considered onside if at least one part of their body that can legitimately be used to score in line with (or behind) the second-to-last defender. A player will only be ruled offside if there is a gap – or daylight' – between themselves and the defender. In effect, attackers must be fully beyond the second last defending player to be penalised. FIFA add by "introducing a clearer visual threshold, the trial is aimed at restoring a greater attacking advantage and boosting the flow of matches."

Look at this bullshit. This is what football supporters have been cowed into accepting in their game by television. Fuck off television. And every single vampire creep who is an apologist for this nonsense

So Tory zero, Claire Coutinho, reckons Britain needs to be more dependent on its own oil and gas. Slight problem. Her party sold it all off. It's now owned by foreign state backed corporations and multinational companies. @ClaireCoutinho @KemiBadenoch @Conservatives @MelJStride

This is Lord Rothermere the owner of the Daily Mail. He lives in a massive mansion in the English countryside, but he pays no tax here because he identifies as French. While the Daily Mail is registered in Bermuda and pays no tax anywhere. That is his ‘Patriotism’.

Nigel Farage took £585,000 from GB News. His MPs declared another £770,000. Four billionaires have spent £170 million building the media machine putting Reform in your living room every night. Today the Guardian exposed them and what they expect in return. This is a political project funded from the top. #ReformUK #NigelFarage #GBNews

Tesco are making £4bn a year in profit. About 50% of their staff are on Universal Credit. Why don't we crackdown on this unneeded benefit for billionaires?

🧵 THREAD: How Britain gave away the North Sea In 1970s Britain 🇬🇧 discovered one of largest oil windfalls in modern history. Harold Wilson initially saw it for what it was, a once-in-a-generation chance to build national wealth. The idea was simple: Use North Sea oil to create a sovereign wealth fund 👉 Like Norway later did 👉 To invest for future generations A long-term national asset. 🧵

In 2023, @KemiBadenoch hosted an Iftar at Lancaster House. I was there. Here’s what happened: • Call to prayer ✔️ • Men and women prayed separately ✔️ • She stayed, participated, ate food, and raised no issue ✔️ Fast forward to now and she claims Ramadan events with gender-separated prayer are “wrong” and should never have happened. So what changed? Not the practice. Not the format. Just the politics and her principles. If it was acceptable when she was in government hosting diplomats and business leaders, why is it suddenly “wrong” when it involves ordinary British Muslims? You can’t have it both way

@henrywinter @HughWoozencroft So, surely it must be to do with TT's perception of TAA's attitude or behaviour around the camp.

@HughWoozencroft good points, Hugh. It's just bizarre. England's best passer over range, imagine those switches to Gordon or Rashford

It's one thing when you have a fit Reece James or Trippier and Walker at their peak... but this...

North Sea Oil was sold off by the Tories and is sold on the open global oil market so it would NOT be cheaper. Helen Whately calls it “our own gas” no it isn’t Helen .. your party sold it off for a fraction of its worth. Stop misleading the public @BBCNews

@henrywinter One can only surmise that TT doesn't like TAA's attitude or the way he behaves around the England camp.

Trent Alexander-Arnold plays right-back for Real Madrid. Started home and away against Manchester City. He won the Premier League and Champions League at right-back with Liverpool. He’s used to dealing with pressure. He’s taken a decisive tournament penalty. He’s played in the World Cup before. He has occasional defensive deficiencies but he brings a long-range passing skill that few possess. Are England that blessed at right-back that they don’t need Alexander-Arnold? That he isn’t amongst the best 30 outfield players available to Thomas Tuchel?

Class act acknowledging the performance of Archie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

£6tn of North Sea oil and gas was sold by Margaret Thatcher for £6bn. If you are going to get angry about the North Sea get angry about this massive theft.

Spurs got 86 points in 2016-17 - very high for a non-champion A Chelsea propelled by these payments beat them That changed history could have transformed Spurs’ present - which is all too relevant now independent.co.uk/sport/football…

The BBC's silence on Tice's tax scandal speaks volumes, they'll chase a Labour slip for weeks, but a Reform leader avoiding £600k? Rayner did it accidentally, Tice did it intentionally. Media silence. Funny how that works. #bbcbreakfast #bbcqt #r4today