Colin Williams

@northernassist Sorry, I've just got on a train. Hard to see in bright sunlight anyway.

@ColinWilliams14 Hi Colin, thanks for bringing this to our attention. Have you got a photo of this?

@northernassist Just to report that all the floodlights at South Elmsall Station are on (1152) #netzero

@WG_RumblePants Another reason Richie Benaud was the best is that he knew when to say nothing and let the picture do the talking.

I know many people miss the sound of Richie’s voice on commentary. He’s probably still widely regarded as the best tv cricket commentator. But, if Richie remains at #1, who would you put at #2? I’m genuinely interested to see who people pick. Radio commentators need not apply!

@Nick185172 @UKLabour Shocking. I thought the original deal with student loans was that they would never increase in real terms. That appears to have been abandoned.

@UKLabour Last year I paid of £3000 off of my student debt, it still increased by £7000 to £82000. You are not helping people like me. I had a full maintenance loan coming from a disadvantaged family. You have frozen the repayment thresholds and made things harder than under the tories.

People are rightly impatient to see the change they voted for. It’s our job to make sure that happens. And we’re working day in, day out to see it through.

@RachelReevesMP There must be a sale on. Was £150, now £117.

At the Budget, I said I would cut the cost of living. I said we would cut energy bills. Today, we are. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@mrwilldouglas @CrossCountryUK Totally unfit for purpose.

So poor from @CrossCountryUK. This Train from Sheffield to Bristol oversold and unsafe. No seats. People packed in standing in aisles, toilets and vestibules in between carriages. It cannot be safe to travel like this. Plus the tannoy is inaudible. Stood from Sheffield to Birmingham in packed carriage by broken toilet. 1 working toilet for 3 carriages. No staff on show. One passenger nearly passed out and had to get off. Train now going in reverse back to Brum having been stationary 15 mins in a tunnel. No one has any idea what’s going on because we can’t hear announcements. This train is unsafe.

@Kristofle1983 @lyncey_gilbe @skytv Same here with Halifax. When I was trying to sort out my late mother's Halifax shares they asked "Could Mrs Williams come to the phone?"

@lyncey_gilbe @skytv My bosses mum has been paying a phone contract for her late husband for 8 years because Vodafone refused to cancel his contract unless they speak to him..... Genuinely.

This is @skytv for you, I phoned today to tell them the bill payer (my other half) had died and therefore could not afford to keep it on myself! I was asked if I was on benefits because that might cover the cost or I had to pay £600 because he died mid contract! Utter bastards

@JChimirie66677 Along with a big fat gold plated inflation proof pension. Trebles all round!

Retired With Honour After Evidence Was Fabricated The moment Craig Guildford was allowed to "retire", the truth became unavoidable. This was not accountability. It was an escape. An independent inspectorate found that West Midlands Police fabricated exaggerated and untrue evidence, misled Parliament, inverted the threat, and enforced a decision that excluded Jewish supporters from public life. Those are not contested claims. They are findings. And yet Craig Guildford was not dismissed. He was permitted to step aside on his own terms, pension intact, reputation partially laundered by the language of dignity. That choice did not belong to chance. It belonged to Simon Foster, the one official with the power to act decisively and the one who refused. For weeks, Foster sheltered behind "process", "consideration", and future dates. When the pressure became unbearable, he did not enforce consequences. He arranged a soft landing. That tells you who the system is designed to protect. This is the oldest manoeuvre in British public life. When misconduct rises to a level that cannot be denied, it is reframed as a matter of timing. Removal becomes retirement. Discipline becomes discretion. The institution survives. The individual departs untouched. The public is told the problem has been solved. It has not. If a chief constable can preside over fabricated intelligence, misleading public statements, and the exclusion of a minority from public life, and still leave with pension and honours secure, then the lesson inside the system is unmistakable. Hold your nerve. Wait it out. The worst outcome is early retirement. Notice what did not trigger action. The findings did not. The evidence did not. The harm done to trust did not. Action came only when scrutiny threatened to spill beyond comfortable boundaries. Truth did not force accountability. Pressure did. The political theatre around this has been revealing. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, withdrew confidence yet lacked the power to dismiss. The commissioner delayed until dismissal could be avoided. The office was protected. The appointment was protected. The reputations of those who signed it off were protected. The law was not. Into this fog stepped familiar deflection. Ayoub Khan dismissed exposure of fabricated evidence as a "witch hunt". That matters. Not because it convinces, but because it signals who now feels entitled to police scrutiny itself. When intimidation is reframed as grievance and accountability as persecution, authority has not merely drifted. It has been captured. Strip away the language and the reality is stark. Evidence was manufactured to justify a decision already taken. An AI system was used to conjure a football match that never happened. That fiction was allowed to stand and presented to Parliament as fact. In any functioning system, that ends careers immediately. Here, it ended in a pensioned exit. This is not an argument about one man's guilt. It is an indictment of a structure that converts wrongdoing into inconvenience and then manages it away. Police and Crime Commissioners were sold as the cure for unaccountable policing. In practice, they have become buffers against accountability, absorbing the blast so the structure remains standing. The cost is not abstract. Rank-and-file officers see privilege flow upward while discipline flows down. Communities see equal protection replaced by risk management. The public learns that honesty is optional, evidence negotiable, delay protective. If this is the settlement, then a precedent has been set. Fabricate evidence. Mislead Parliament. Exclude a minority. And if your commissioner holds his nerve, you survive. That is not policing. It is institutional self-defence. Britain tells itself it is immune to sectarian pressure and managerial cowardice. This episode says otherwise. When the moment came to choose between law and convenience, the system chose convenience and called it order.

@PeterStefanovi2 Infantile.

Blimey. Did I really just hear Keir Starmer say this “They had more positions in 14 years than the Kama Sutra. No wonder they are knackered and they left the country screwed” #PMQs

@UKLabour Frozen tax thresholds: a wicked tax rise on the lowest paid.

This year, in every corner of the country, you will start to see the benefits of Labour’s choices.

@LichfieldWolfy That hair has taken a lot of punishment over the years.

Well done to Diddy for preserving these episodes. Might even forgive the barnet #totp

@GinnyA24601 The original deal was that the debt would never increase in real terms. That was quietly dumped

@BLAIMGame Tasteless.

Chris Rea driving home for Christmas

@UKLabour Freezing water bills?

Driving home for Christmas? We've got you covered. We’ve frozen fuel duty, helping to bring down prices at the pumps, and we’re delivering historic investment in our roads to end the pothole plague. This is the difference with Labour.

@RachelReevesMP Water bills?

I know families across Britain who are worried about the cost of living will welcome this fall in inflation. But there is more to do. That is why at the Budget we froze rail fares and prescription charges and will be cutting £150 off the average energy bill next year.

@Keir_Starmer Where I live it's even hard to get a private one, never mind NHS.

Too many children suffer from tooth decay and poor dental health. That's why we're making urgent NHS dental care easier to access and prioritising those with the greatest need. Improving NHS dentistry for millions of people.

@RachelReevesMP @OctopusEnergy @BritishGas It will help pay for the outrageous inflation busting water price increase.

Great to hear that @OctopusEnergy and @BritishGas will pass on the full Budget energy cuts to all customers, including those on fixed rates, meaning all variable and fixed tariffs will be reduced from 1st April. I call on other providers to do the same.

@RachelReevesMP @eonenergyuk So they should. It will help with the inflation busting water bills increase.

Good to see confirmation from @eonenergyuk that they will also pass on every penny of the Government’s energy bill savings to customers from next April.

@SimonCalder I shall not be going.

Going to America? Social media is just the start of what US Customs and Border Protection wants to investigate. The agency plans to demand all the phone numbers used by you and your close family in the past five years. Plus more biometrics – including DNA. independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@10DowningStreet Cutting costs for employers? Like the savage increase to employers' NI last year, crucifying the hospitality sector.

Too many young people are not in education, employment or training. We’re changing that. Investing in more apprenticeships. Cutting costs for employers to hire young people. Launching new training in industries of the future like AI and defence. A Britain, built for all.