MichaelIngle

Blocked by the Housing Minister and kept out of cosy events in Parliament, we’re taking our message direct to the people. Spoke with Dan Knott on why leaseholders cannot afford the Government’s disastrous two-tier approach... and why the rebellion has only just begun. 6 April.

Need to end leasehold first. Leasehold flats are 36% of London stock, LDN has 24% of UK market (£2.64tn), > the combined market cap of all FTSE 100 companies. Many millennials are in negative equity, will exasperate generational divides & damage economy & social mobility further

In China’s Guilin, high-speed trains have become a sightseeing attraction.

I've so far avoided dramatics because I would be accused of bias. To be clear: this is the worst energy crisis of our lifetimes, well beyond what any sober mind could have envisioned, with no end in sight. The level of complacency to me is astounding.

An evasive word salad from the defence secretary. Why not just level with people & say: Iran is working on satellite launch vehicles that might eventually give it the ability to strike mainland UK, we have serious gaps in ballistic missile defence, but NATO helps fill those gaps.

Worth reading my exchange with Defence Secretary John Healey about whether Iran has the capability to strike London SR: Israel has said Iran has missiles that could strike London. Is that true? JH: We have no assessment of Iranian plans to strike London. We have a defence of Britain that isn't just about what we have for ourselves in and around Britain. Our defence of Britain is part of the layers of defence of NATO nations... SR: I don't understand what that means, that you 'don't have an assessment'. Does that mean you don't have an assessment at all so we don't know? Or does that mean that your assessments don't suggest that? JH: I understand the concerns that British people will have, but we have the resources and we have the alliances in place to be able to protect Britain. And we do that not just because we've got first class forces, but we have an alliance with 31 other NATO nations, and it's together that we defend NATO and British airspace, NATO and British homeland. SR: Do we know if Iran has the capability to strike London? JH: Look, what I'm saying, and trying to reassure people, is that we've got no assessment that Iran has any plans to attack, but we have the resources, we have the alliance in place to be able to defend Britain and we do that with allies, and we do that with NATO. And as far as Iran goes, they're demonstrating a capacity to hit across the Middle East. We see the same tactics and technologies that we see employed by Russia in Ukraine and this is the hidden hand of Putin in both conflicts. And I'm releasing today our latest defence intelligence assessment, which says that Russia was almost certainly providing training, sharing intelligence with Iran ahead of this conflict, including on types of drones, including on electronic warfare.

Reflecting on his 5 years as Chancellor, Denis Healey said, 'I had accomplished most of the labours of Hercules. The Augean Stables I had inherited from Tony Barber were cleansed. The Golden Apples of Hesperides were now stored at the IMF'.