Tom Bennett

@maxwell_marlow @wallaceme If you had a single, relatively simple, levy going to the local authority, large developments could offer a shopping list various additional infrastructure on a commercial basis, and the LA could choose which they want, and how much of the money to spend elsewhere.

Here’s why you should vote Conservative on Thursday 7th May 💙

Today we launch the 2030 Prosperity Alliance. Chaired by Rick Haythornthwaite, Chair of NatWest Group, and Paul Johnson CBE as Chief Economist & Head of the Secretariat, it brings together FTSE chairs and leading thinkers to help chart a path for long-term prosperity in the UK.

Usually 5 or 6 domestic murders a year. Last 12 months? Zero. By using Palantir, Bedfordshire Police identified 1,000+ women whose partners had a history of domestic abuse - and warned them they could be in danger. “This feels like prevention in action at scale,” said the Chief Constable. How we balance the benefits of very powerful technology, like Palantir, against the risks is one of the most important debates of our time. This piece by @RSylvester1 in @ObserverUK captures much of this debate’s complexity.

@thomasforth The Knights Templar, group not person of course. Wetherspoons now closed too, but it was quite something when it was open.

All of this new town name chat has got me thinking,... has anyone else than Sir Titus Salt had both a new town and a Wetherspoons (sadly now closed) named after them?

The Government will collect £331bn in income tax this year, and spend £333bn on welfare. In other words, we now spend more on people not working than we raise from those who do. And the cost? Debt per person has risen from £11.5k in 2000 (inflation adjusted) to over £41k today.

Wear an extra jumper — just don’t ask for an energy bailout thetimes.com/article/d164a6…

Britain was early in banning slavery. But, unlike other countries, it did not stop there. It poured blood and treasure into a campaign to stamp out the foul business globally. It signed treaties with African kings, who were determined to keep the institution alive, and enforced those treaties. Even while engaged in a life-and-death struggle with Bonaparte, it diverted gunboats to hunt down the slavers. It closed down the traffic in human beings from East Africa to Arabia. Abolitionism became a popular cause, with working-class families donating to missions. Between 1808 and 1867, Britain spent 1.8 per cent of its GDP on anti-slavery operations, the most expensive moral foreign policy in human history. What recompense does it get today? What recognition? Its reward is to be targeted by every shakedown artist, Third Worldist, grifter and halfwit. It is now seriously proposed that the country that stamped out the slave trade should pay reparations to the African states that took the slaves. Truly no good deed goes unpunished. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…

For those of you interested in jury trials, this is Parliament at its best. 👇

If you want to see the best and worst of the Commons, watch Catherine West's snippy response to Geoffrey Cox. Disoriented by a rare display of brilliance in the Commons, she can only call him patronising (inevitably, before reading off a sheet) and her colleagues can only jeer

@CemKemahli I imagine it takes an enormous amount of effort to make a building that ugly.

Why is it so hideous?

Remember this speech and this moment “We will end identity politics in the state - no racial preferences. Protected characteristics will not be used as criteria for hiring, promotion, admissions or procurement.” “Our curriculum should tell a coherent national story, one that is inclusive of the many people who have come to Britain, but without the grievance or the guilt which is corroding our cultural confidence. We will not teach our children that all cultures are equal. Instead, we will teach them why Britain's civic culture matters.” “Alongside this, I'm commissioning work on Islamist extremism and how it feeds on separatism, so that we tackle both the ideology and the conditions that let it grow.” 🎯

when there won’t be a second date but at least now he knows why rent control doesn’t work

Infill development in Ludlow, 2006, built on the site of a commercial shed.

Richard Tice is a key deputy of Nigel Farage in the Reform party. Here he tries to make the case for Russia against Ukraine—and conservative British journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, well, doesn't hold back This was one of our most popular videos in the past year, the fourth year of Russia's full-scale war. I think it was refreshing for pro-Ukraine voices to sense Hartley-Brewer's energy in defending Ukraine—and to realize that when under even a bit of scrutiny Western arguments in favor of Russia collapse into incoherence. But what do you think?

How about this

I think it's reasonable to want to promote a domestic industrial base (including steel production) for a number of reasons including national defence, but focusing on subsidies/nationalisation as the default answer to the sector failing is a mistake, IMO. Even if you end up concluding that the sector does need ongoing state support, the first focus should be on why it has become so uncompetitive and inefficient and what we can do to reduce its input costs. That doesn't necessarily mean laissez faire. The problem with subsidies and nationalisations is that they probably make their recepients even less efficient and productive by insulating them from competition and other forces that force companies to become better. That ties up talent and resources that would be better used in more productive enterprises, including other industrial ones. If your goal is (say) to have a domestic steelmaking industry for the purposes of wartime production, you should be terrified at the prospect of having a steel industry that is the industrial equivalent of the NHS in terms of wastefulness and dysfunction. And there is a related *political* opportunity cost: by treating these as the key intervention, other more effective interventions may be neglected. For example, maybe part of the answer is to exempt these sectors from green energy policies or strike deals with (eg) Qatar to get them cheaper oil and gas. Or to write off student loans for engineering graduates from good universities. Or to pursue narrow trade deals getting specific sectors easy access to foreign markets, and preferred procurement status for foreign govts/militaries. Or to give them extremely fast approvals for licensing, certification, permits, before we try to improve those economy-wide. I don't know if any of these ideas are actually good, to be clear! The point is that there are lots of interventions that could actually make the sector more productive instead of just "keeping it alive" as subsidies do. And if you still concluded that you needed to subsidise it after cutting its input costs to the bone, at least then you'd be supporting a much more efficient industry than if you treated direct support as the first and main solution. x.com/suellabraverma…

That is an enormous improvement. @marksandspencer should take note. The argument is not development vs stasis. It is more simple: better vs worse. Most people can see this proposal elevates Oxford Street while the M&S proposal diminishes it.

Now hire a good architect. Otherwise this will become a future slum.