Alan Bell

@NotFarLeftAtAll Have you been to IKEA for an ice cream recently?

Japan … 🍦

@68PAD @afneil So why do I pay twice as much than a person in Italy?

@afneil The fact remains , we rely on imported gas , traded on the international market and bought at a rate we have no control over

As I was saying …

@afneil @TimesRadio Free (paid for by tax payers) breakfast clubs. What about that. Never mind the defence of the nation, we need to provide a bowl of cornflakes to kids that parents can’t be arsed to feed their children.

My monologue from today’s The Times at One with Andrew Neil @TimesRadio FAILURE TO INCREASE DEFENCE SPENDING A NATIONAL SCANDAL. The failure of the Starmer government to increase defence spending by anything like enough is becoming a national scandal.  The need has never been greater in peacetime. Wars are raging in Ukraine and the Gulf. A revanchist Russia bears down on Eastern Europe. The Strait of Hormuz is in Iranian hands — and closed.  President Trump has gone from rightly demanding NATO’s European members do more for their own defence to wrongly threatening to pull America out of NATO altogether.  Yet the Starmer government sits on its hands doing next to nothing.  It sensibly commissioned a Strategic Defence Review when it came to power in the summer of 2024. That review reported in June 2025.  The government accepted all 62 of its proposals to reconfigure our military and rearm the country. It promised a Defence Investment Plan by the autumn to show how we’d pay for it.  Almost a year later there’s still no sign of it. Neither the PM nor the Defence Secretary can tell us when we will see it.  Meanwhile defence spending stutters, wholly inadequate to the tasks at hand. Trump’s War in the Gulf has exposed just how hollowed out our armed forces have become  — a diminished Navy, most of which cannot be deployed at sea  — an airforce short of fighter jets — a minuscule army incapable of mounting a major armoured fighting force — a country without its own ballistic missile defence.  Yet none of that can be put right on current or planned levels of defence spending.  Of course Labour’s inheritance was a terrible one. Fourteen years of Tory government were marked by a clear deterioration in our military prowess.  In the Cameron/Osborne years between 2010 and 2016, defence spending was cut in real terms by 22%. A fatal fall. Subsequent upticks did little to fill the hole that cut left.  But blaming the Tories only gets you so far. Rather than making up for lost ground the Starmer is largely standing still.  It inherited defence spending in its first year — 2024/25 — of £60 billion. It increased that by a mere £2 billion for 2025/26 — a pathetic amount in a dangerous world. And that’s in cash terms, without taking inflation into account.  It’s added only £3.5 billion — again in cash terms — for the upcoming financial year 2026/27. It barely takes the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP.  Yes, there are bigger rises in the years after that. But it’s still too little, too late — and barely moves defence above 2.5% of GDP.  Starmer has vaguely committed to 3% in the next Parliament — ie the early 2030s — and to 3.5% by 2035, which would be the next parliament after that. But these are only ambitions. There is no roadmap, no blueprint, no budget plan to get there.  Defence spending needs to be ramped up far more quickly than that. Instead, sleight of hand is exaggerating what small increases there are. Ministers try to slip in the intelligence services when counting defence. The cost of helping Ukraine. Unfunded pay rises for the military.  It all means that in real terms even the small uptick in defence spending is not as big as it seems.  There was a time when, as a share of GDP, Britain spent more on defence than any other NATO member bar America. It is a measure of our military decline that we’re now 12th — and still slipping.  The money is there if only there was the willpower to move it to defence — from the massive profligate expense of net zero, from the ballooning welfare budget, from a new time-limited tax, perhaps on luxuries, if that’s what it takes.  Other countries get the need to rearm — Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, Canada, even the peace-loving Scandinavians. But not Keir Starmer’s Britain.  It is his single biggest dereliction of duty. He needs to put it right. Before it’s too late. Or it will be forever the blackest of marks on his tenure in power.

@HoodedClaw1974 He should get a medal but in reality he will be arrested.

Machete wielding man tries to rob bike, but man in a Land Rover had other ideas. 👇👇 Should he be arrested or get a medal?

@ukhomeoffice Why not sell them or give them to the Sea Scouts or something. Im sure that sailing clubs would love to have a few small boats.

Every small boat that reaches the UK is destroyed within 44 days. A specialist enforcement team examines boats and engines to identify upstream patterns, enabling supply chains and smugglers to be disrupted before Channel crossings are launched from the French coast.

@Super_Sam_Tec @LeilaniDowding The US coastguard could defeat the Royal Navy in its current state.

@LeilaniDowding One royal navy ship could defeat the US navy, it's a complete joke 🤣🤣🤣

We need our Royal Navy in the English Channel stopping the illegal Invasion, not dying for their wars …

@NotFarLeftAtAll This is not in the UK, unless he’s driving a left hand drive car.

This panic buying of petrol and diesel only benefits the greedy oil companies. My daughter rang today and said all the petrol stations in her area have run out of fuel. It’s because people normally don’t fill their tanks right up! But in recent days everyone is = petrol stations run out quicker than normal.

@PaulEmbery @JuliaHB1 I’m looking at this video and something stands out but I can’t put my finger on it.

A second night of mayhem in Clapham. These are not angry young people making a political statement. They are thugs, pure and simple. There should be mass arrests.

@piers_J_morgan @afneil When a ship is docked in it home port for whatever reason, the aircraft are normally flown off. They don’t sit on the ship if it’s in for repairs.

@afneil We currently have around 42 F-35B's. Which are operational but are part of our carrier fleet so...

Are the F35-Bs non-operational?

@lady_valor_07 I’d say 1974

Based on the entirety of this photograph, what is your best estimation of the year it was taken?

@honeymoon250 Who gives a sh1t?

Is this appropriate attire for 56 year old Jennifer Lopez to be performing on stage

@MarciusCoral @NotFarLeftAtAll Some vehicles that use the road don’t pay tax.

@DingbatBell @NotFarLeftAtAll But you only have to pay it if you use your vehicle on the public roads. Therefore it is a road tax.

Should Road Tax be halved considering the state of the roads ?

@PicturesFoIder He’s says his wife has lived 40 years and the kids are just starting but then he saves his mother, who presumably is older than his wife and lived longer. I’d have to save my wife over my mother if that was the situation

Would you save your wife or your kids if your house was on fire ?

@PicturesFoIder I don’t understand why people would keep art locked away where they can’t see it.

Singapore's secretive vault for the ultra-rich.

@EcoFlowTech How can I get a quote to install a suitable solution in my house?

Power that speaks for itself. See what they’re saying about #EcoFlowDELTAProUltraX. Or hear from real users in the EcoFlow Forum: social.ecoflow.com/12086 #PowerDifferent #HomeImprovement #SmartHomeEnergy

@NotFarLeftAtAll Krispy Kreme BOGOF is finishing.

🚨 Something is going down in London Anyone know what?

@WrenKitchens Wren Kitchens security assault photographer youtu.be/3MOUD7WPCSo?is…

Wren kitchens

@Mr_Husky1 Walk away. Don’t be with anyone that make demands and threats.

I am about getting married, my husband to be knows I own a car and house of my own, he insists I sell the car and house and we use the money to open joint account, or no marriage, I am 38 yes old already, what do you think or advice me to do. Credit - winnieaigbojie