Blue Pineapple Pictures

@alibastian in the setting sun... #actress #portrait #headshot

Interviewed my lovely friend @alibastian for this. Pics by the ever brilliant @BluePineappleP1 Hollyoaks' Ali Bastian, 42, has breast cancer and will undergo mastectomy ok.co.uk/celebrity-news…

Dyson sued the Mirror for calling him ‘the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore.’ (He lost.) bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

🚨 BREAKING: Rishi Sunak is set to become the first prime minister in history to lose his seat at the election 🔴 Labour: 516 🔵 Conservatives: 53 🟠 Lib Dems: 50 🟡 SNP: 8 🟢 Plaid C: 4 ⚪️ Other: 1 Via @Savanta_UK

Nobody has done more to undermine British values than Nigel Farage.

Deeply uncomfortable with the Conservatives use of “Christian values”… Their austerity has killed hundreds of thousands Their ideology is to hoard wealth among the richest Their policy is to detain & deport those in need …ain’t nothing Christian about that.

This is Henry Staunton’s reply to Kemi Badenoch. Firstly, with regard to the comment made to Mr Staunton by the senior civil servant to the effect that he was to stall on compensation payments to Horizon victims and on spend on the Horizon replacement so the government could “limp into the election” with the lowest possible financial liability. Mr Staunton stands by this comment which he recorded at the time in a file note which he emailed to himself and to colleagues and which is therefore traceable on the Post Office Server. Secondly, Mr Stanton stands by his characterisation of the conversation with the Secretary of State in which he was informed of his dismissal. Thirdly, with regard to the alleged failure to observe due process in respect of the proposed appointment of a senior independent director, this is once again a mischaracterisation of the situation. What happened was that the Government via the UKGI had proposed for the post an external candidate with Whitehall experience. Initially the Board acquiesced, but when it came to the Board for discussion, because so much had happened in the intervening four weeks the Board voted 6-2 to express clear preference to appoint a well qualified and in their view better qualified internal candidate, Andrew Dafoor who was already a director, and understood the issues. The 6 included the chief executive. Of the two dissenters one was the UKGI representative. Mr Staunton informed the Board that they would now have to go through a due process including a nomination committee, Board and shareholder approval process and could not simply impose their preferred candidate. This was all at an early stage in the consultations, and could not be characterised as a breach of due process. Fourthly, with regard to allegations of bullying behaviour, this is the first time the existence of such allegations have been mentioned, and Mr Staunton is not aware of any aspect of his conduct which could give rise to such allegations. They were certainly not raised by the Secretary of State at any stage and certainly not during the conversation which led to Mr Staunton’s dismissal. Such behaviour would in any case be totally out of character. With regard to the appointment letter which the Department has chosen to publish, it should be noted that the reference to settlement with claimants is one of a number of issues arising out of the Horizon issue that are listed and not necessarily the most prominent. It should also be noted that if indeed the Secretary of State were concerned about the lack of urgency with which it was being addressed, this was never raised in any of the quarterly review meetings to assess progress against these objectives. These meetings were fully minuted. Last but not least, it should be noted that the Secretary of State has admitted that a letter was sent by the Post Office CEO to Alex Chalk setting out a legal opinion stating the reason so few sub-postmasters had come forward to have their convictions overturned was because they were “guilty as charged”. That letter was set after the ITV documentary was screened and after the government had set out a pledge to bring forward legislation to exonerate the postmasters. As chairman, Mr Staunton championed the cause of the postmasters who he saw as the real backbone of the organisation and the best hope for the future. As a number of recent press articles have indicated, historically postmasters were treated with contempt by much of the Post Office hierarchy, those attitudes were deeply entrenched and Mr Staunton fought hard with their representatives on the Board and others including the CEO to change that culture. Mr Staunton said: “It was in the interests of the business as well as being fair for the postmasters that there was faster progress on exoneration and that compensation for wrongly convicted postmasters was more generous, but we didn’t see any real movement until after the Mister Bates programme.”

BREAKING Bombshell mega-poll predicts TORIES WILL BE WIPED OUT with just 80 SEATS after General Election. Massive poll of 18,000 voters using the accurate MRP form of statistics (predicted 2019 election to within a seat) BRING IT ON 💪🏼 mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

🚨 BREAKING: Leaked documents show Rishi Sunak had “significant doubts” about the Rwanda plan as Chancellor and thought the “deterrent won’t work” He wanted to *scale back* the plans - a revelation that will likely anger his MPs [@BBCNews]

@kaneoliverparry Are you still in Portsmouth? 😉

70% of Grimsby voted for Brexit. Grimsby was set to receive 150 million from the EU in 2020. (It got nothing) How much has it received from Westminster? 20 million over 10 years. 😒 Homelessness & Poverty In Destitute Seaside Town 🇬🇧 youtu.be/AAQgngfpA2I?si…

2020: Boris Johnson criticises Brussels which he says is neither elected nor accountable 2023: Boris Johnson appoints Charlotte Owen as an unelected and unaccountable person

Uxbridge & ULEZ 1. ULEZ was initiated by Boris Johnson long before Sadiq Khan. 2. The Conservative government under Grant Shapps made expanding ULEZ a condition of providing financial support to TFL during covid. 3. The Conservative government have provided funds to cities such as Birmingham (with a Conservative mayor), but not to London (with a Labour mayor). Clean air is good, we need more of it. Underfunding from the Conservative government which has caused the ULEZ charge is the problem. - Billions given to bankers in tax cuts, billions wasted in PPE/covid fraud, billions wasted on refugee bargees. We need a different and better government. A pity the people of Uxbridge voted for more of the same.

Hi @Independent would you mind editing or removing this Facebook post, it suggests I’m the person in question and frankly the comments are disgusting.

Hello @thecarolemalone, On TV just now, you said: Brexit got us the fastest vaccine rollout I replied: Stop peddling that lie You said: What are you talking about? So… Here is the CEO of Govt’s own agency to explain why it’s a lie So, please stop

Just heard the awful news that the world has lost @Rtreatwilliams. Such a wonderful person... such a gifted actor... such a treasured friend. I'm gutted. #RIP_Pal 💔

Cannot believe I'm going to wade in on this, as I suspect there is little good faith on the subject but if my mother had been killed in a paparazzi chase when I was a child I suspect I may have a different perception (trauma response) to a similar event occuring, than others.

What actually happened VS what the BBC aired. Tell me again how the BBC is unbiased? Why have they cut that out? @siobhni @scottygb

So the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury & a former head of the British Army have all condemned the appalling Rwanda 'policy'. It makes you wonder what these 'values' that Suella Braverman thinks she's upholding actually are...

Rebecca Frecknall's interview in @TheStage has prompted me to break out a thread I have sat on for a while. It breaks down what I think is the biggest obstacle in theatre but the least openly discussed... Pay So here is the THEATRE PAY MATHS THREAD 🧵👇 thestage.co.uk/news/rebecca-f…