David Marcer

Privatisation, outsourcing or whatever. All same thing. Anyone keen to increase private sector involvement in the NHS would do well to heed the words of my old mate Phil. @wesstreeting @jujuliagrace @premnsikka @richardjmurphy @goodlawproject @europeanpowell. 1/30

@DrNeilStone On the other hand it would raise the average American IQ.

Refusing blood from vaccinated people has zero scientific basis and is potentially extremely dangerous if you urgently need blood

@BladeoftheS Don't tell them that GPs have always been private. It's not something we talk about.

The NHS pays at least £6.65bn a year to private companies who own and 'maintain' its buildings. Or rent as you know it. At least 18% of the rest of the budget goes to Private Healthcare, less than half of that is GPs which have always been Private.

What Privatisation has done for you. Most expensive Energy in the world. Dirtest most expensive Water in Europe in England. Slowest most expensive Mail ever. Slowest most expensive Trains in Europe Least number of Hospital beds ever.

@bmay The apposite term for this sort of person is 'mountebank'.

No idea why anyone thinks this sneering, self-satisfied, contemptible, divisive, and deeply unserious self-publicist would be fit to run even a fairground ride, let alone a G7 economy. He’s just a tedious pantomime baddie in a suit. Idiotic and shallow.

@donmcgowan Or 'traditional publisher' as he puts it. Hilarious.

@donmcgowan He claims to be an academic, but basic mistakes like misquoting Cicero and Livy is a bit, well, unacademic isn't it? 2000 years ago isn't the excuse he thinks it is. And wouldn't a reputable publisher have an editor to check his drivel?

Matt Goodwin has continued the most protracted temper tantrum in documented history with a heavily paywalled article in the Mail today. I read it. 🤨 It's, erm, interesting, let's say. Mainly, he says that those who challenged him did so without data. Sorry, Matt, that's nonsense. See my link below. Talk of woke; natch. His refusal to name @andytwelves, but note that he's agreed to debate a 'prominent left-wing critic'. Ouch. Andy has really got to him. 🤓 He then goes to great lengths to prove that he still doesn't understand statistics and English as a first language — something that he's been widely criticised for. He states, “I strongly suspected the demographic projections I make in the book, would have likely fallen foul of a traditional publisher”. Yes, Matt, because you've made them all up. But my favourite bit is his defence of fabricating quotes from Roman philosophers. The screenshot is below. They 'turned out to be imperfect' is the funniest excuse I've ever heard for 'making something up'. 🤣 I'll end with one of my favourite quotes by Greek philosopher, Diogenes, circa 300 BC. “When you hit rock bottom, stop digging” x.com/donmcgowan/sta…

@DrNeilStone The Israeli regime - quite right.

The best, fairest, most just conclusion to this conflict, and which is most likely to prevent future wars and benefit the greatest number of people in the region and beyond , is the overthrow of the regime.

@drstephencarver Worth a read though if you are on need of an emetic. #campaignforrealhotxbuns

Good to see the Guardian's still at the cutting edge of journalism in these troubled times... #Prats theguardian.com/food/2026/mar/…

@ROSSTOTHEMOON @lawks1 Best not to use a possessive apostrophe for a plural in a post that accuses someone of 'not even bothering to educate yourself'.

@lawks1 But…but I thought they were Tory’s 2.0? This is the main problem we have with Politics in this era. We get people like you who have not even bothered to educate yourself posting nonsense and others that also don’t care about educating themselves just lap it up.

'We're a new party'. No, you've simply changed your name lots of times since the British Union of Fascists, the National Front, the BNP, UKIP, the Brexit Party, now Reform UK Ltd. Same shit, different decade. #politicslive

@novaramedia Odd how the extreme right, which hates big government and (you would assume) is ultra-capitalist pro-free enterprise, sucks so enthusiastically at the teat of corporate welfare. In fact depends on that teat for its hyper-wealth.

The controversial US spytech firm Palantir has been awarded a contract to analyse highly sensitive government data, despite loud opposition from campaigners decrying the firm’s role in abetting the Gaza genocide and the immigration crackdown in the US. Palantir will be paid £30,000 per month to analyse highly sensitive data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), raising questions about what the firm would do with that data – and why Palantir is ever more embedded in the British state. The Miami-based firm already boasts contracts with the UK government worth over £500m, with its technology implanted in the NHS, the police and the military. The latest contract – for which the government named only one, anonymised competitor – is part of the FCA’s drive to clamp down on rule-breakers amongst the 42,000 financial services firms it regulates. Palantir will be given access to troves of financial data and asked to sort it, giving the company founded by billionaire Trump-donor Peter Thiel another view into the inner workings of the UK. Speaking to the Guardian, an FCA insider asked: “Once Palantir understands how we detect money-laundering threats, how do we know that they are ethically reliable enough not to go to share that information?” The multi-billion dollar company has built custom tools for ICE to help it identify targets for deportation in the US and announced a partnership with Israel for battle technology and “war-related missions” in January 2024. Yesterday, MPs urged the Labour government to rethink the latest FCA contract. Green party MP Siân Berry said: “Companies like Palantir should have no place within UK government systems when they are closely involved in President Trump’s illegal wars.” The Greens’ leader, Zack Polanski, launched a campaign against Palantir this January, calling on the government to sever all contracts with the firm. Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat MP and member of the Commons technology committee, said: “We are creating a single behemoth that our UK firms won’t be able to compete against. We should be developing our own industries.” The FCA said that Palantir would not control any sensitive data beyond the scope of the work it will be paid for – and when the contract ends, it will be forced to destroy any data and intellectual property it has seen. Palantir said that it was proud to “support the FCA in their vital work to tackle financial crime”.

@CounsellingSam Now let me think for a nanosecond.

Who's making money out of Trump's Iran War?

@docrussjackson You can't spell.

It's a cult

@1goodtern Because it's bollocks.

An increase in the number of local outbreaks of unusual infectious illnesses is exactly what you would expect in a population whose immune systems have been weakened by multiple covid infections. Why would that even be controversial in any way?

@David__Osland Applies to all 'regulators', including those like Environment Agency.

There are only two problems with 'independent regulators' like Ofcom and Ofwat; they're not independent and they don't regulate

@DeborahMeaden Wait until Farage hears about the whit walks in Lancashire.

He needs to leave Christmas alone…

@Rainmaker1973 Standardise size and shape of glass containers so that they can be cleaned and reused by anyone. Empty containers themselves would then have value.

Glass is a true "permanent material"—it can be recycled indefinitely (100% closed-loop) without any loss in quality, purity, or performance. Unlike most materials, its chemical structure remains unchanged through repeated melting and reforming, allowing old bottles and jars to become brand-new high-quality containers forever. This stands in stark contrast to plastic, which is far cheaper for companies to produce and transport (lighter weight means lower shipping costs, and raw material/energy inputs are generally lower). Yet this short-term savings comes at a steep environmental price: we're degrading ecosystems, landfills, and oceans to cut a few cents per unit. Glass offers genuine sustainability advantages when recycled properly: • Using cullet (recycled glass fragments) replaces virgin raw materials (sand, soda ash, limestone)—one tonne of cullet saves about 1.2 tonnes of new resources. • It slashes energy use dramatically: every 10% increase in cullet reduces furnace energy needs by ~2.5–3%, and melting 100% cullet can cut energy by up to ~40% compared to virgin production. • CO₂ emissions drop significantly—studies show ~580–670 kg saved per tonne of recycled glass (cradle-to-cradle), with up to 58–60% reduction when using high cullet percentages. • Fewer raw material extractions mean less mining impact and habitat disruption. The key to unlocking glass's full potential is clean, color-sorted collection. Mixed colors or contamination (from curbside debris, ceramics, or other recyclables) often downgrades glass to lower-value uses like fiberglass insulation or road aggregate instead of bottle-to-bottle recycling. Proper sorting—by color and purity—keeps it in the premium loop. By improving recycling habits (rinsing containers, separating by color where possible, and supporting deposit-return systems), we can maximize glass's role in a true circular economy. It's one of the few packaging options that genuinely protects resources long-term—let's not sacrifice it for cheaper, disposable alternatives that harm the planet.

@Hosang It's a bit like an iron, isn't it?

Can’t define “irony” either

@edwinhayward Remember how US supported UK at Suez? They threatened to crash our economy.

Is this finally going to be the week that Trump the bully turns around and discovers he doesn't have a gang any more? It's about time former allies find their backbones and tell him where to go. Otherwise he will continue on his ruinous course.

@DAaronovitch You flatter him.

An idiot writes...

Now spring really begins.

@MatthewStadlen England had the chance but preferred others.

Scotland were beautiful at times but Andy Farrell is a mighty and magnificent coach and I wish he was in charge of England.