Ian Donaldson

6.9K posts

Ian Donaldson

Ian Donaldson

@DonaldsonIan

Middle aged bloke. FFC since 1981

Katılım Ağustos 2011
581 Takip Edilen238 Takipçiler
Happy Hussar ll
Happy Hussar ll@Happy_Hussar2·
I despise antisemitism and its rapid rise is deeply concerning. But why are we talking about banning #KanyeWest from performing here when those wankers Bob Vylan and Kneecrap are repeatedly given a platform to spew their Jew hate!
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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@afc_stoneham Massive well done to Mark, James and all the team and Purps supporters!
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AFC Stoneham
AFC Stoneham@afc_stoneham·
Full Time | Bemerton Heath 1-3 AFC Stoneham ⚽️ Duarte Martins 43' 83' ⚽️ Tyrrell Sampson 55' WESSEX PREMIER DIVISION CHAMPIONS!!! 🏆 #upthepurps 💜
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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@ReemAmirIbrahim The green belt is there for a reason. Who on earth are you to say that those seeking to defend “Englands green and pleasant land” should have their pensions revoked?
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Reem Ibrahim
Reem Ibrahim@ReemAmirIbrahim·
NIMBYs should have their state pension revoked
Reem Ibrahim tweet media
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Rachel Reeves
Rachel Reeves@RachelReevesMP·
Minimum wage rising 📈 State pension increasing 💷 Two child limit abolished 🏡 Child poverty falling 📉 Rights at work strengthened 💪🏻 Labour promised change. We are delivering change. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
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Sifi (Kenso)
Sifi (Kenso)@SifiReturned·
The boomer cries out in pain as they sell your inheritance for another three week holiday in France.
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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@mikegalsworthy No it’s just the EU increasing the burden of rules and regulations as per normal!
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Jamais Vu 🏉
Jamais Vu 🏉@boot15_vu·
🚨 Pensions Thread wrap-up — thanks for the incredible engagement. This conversation has been one of the best I’ve seen on here. Hundreds of thoughtful replies, real context added, and a clear shift in understanding. Most people now get it: - The current system is unsustainable. - Governments have treated our National Insurance like a slush fund for decades while still enforcing the “you paid in” rules. - The public/private pension polarisation is stark and unfair. - And above all — the division is deliberate. Governments broke the intergenerational contract, spent the money elsewhere, then turned around and pitted old against young to justify cutting the scraps that are left. Enough. Direct your ire where it belongs: at the governments that sold us the contributory promise, raided the pot, ignored demographics, and now gaslight everyone with generational warfare. The public knows best what to do with its own money. That’s why the long-term fix has always been the same: honour the promises already made to those who paid in, cut the real waste first, then move to proper individual named accounts (Singapore CPF style) with real investment growth and iron-clad ring-fencing. No more mediocrity. No more accepting a race to the bottom. We’ve exposed the deception. Now let’s stop helping the people who caused it. Thanks again for the quality discussion — this one’s done for now. #StatePension #TripleLock #DeceptionByGovernment
Jamais Vu 🏉@boot15_vu

🚨 Pensions Follow Up: Thanks for the outstanding engagement on the state pension thread — hundreds of thoughtful replies, and some excellent extra context. This conversation is cutting through the gaslighting. Key examples people have highlighted: • Keir Starmer’s 2013 Platinum-Plated DPP pension — Parliament quietly passed bespoke regulations giving his scheme full inflation protection and exemption from the lifetime allowance cap that applies to everyone else. • Public-sector gold-plated final-salary schemes (and MPs/civil service pensions) — generous defined-benefit deals funded by the same NI system, while millions in the private sector had little or nothing until auto-enrolment kicked in. • Broader broken promises — earnings link severed in the past, qualifying years still strictly enforced while the National Insurance Fund was treated as a slush fund, elite schemes quietly protected with better uprating, and the triple lock now painted as “unaffordable generosity” after decades of short-termism. • Recent analyses (e.g. Fidelity Nov 2025) rank the UK last in the G7 on pure state pension replacement rate (just 22% of pre-retirement earnings vs Italy 76% or France 58%). This is often spun as proof the system is “too generous” — but it actually highlights how the UK deliberately built a minimal state floor and pushed the rest onto private saving. Higher public pensions elsewhere come with much heavier payroll taxes during working life. • The forgotten social contract & demographic shift — We all remember the one-earner family model that worked in decades past (women raising families as society expected). Now both parents often scrape a living, struggling with housing and costs to afford kids. Meanwhile, Blair-era open-door policies accelerated mass immigration and expanded welfare access. Today, significant Universal Credit spending goes to migrant households (including unemployed foreign nationals — over £10bn in an 18-month period recently), and higher fertility in some migrant groups contrasts with native birth rates at record lows. This hasn’t fixed the worker/retiree ratio as promised — it’s added pressure on the very system pensioners paid into. All of this flows from the same root: governments sold National Insurance as a contributory scheme — “pay your stamps for your pension,” just like road tax was meant for the roads. They ditched the ring-fencing (1937 for roads, gradually for NI), turned it pay-as-you-go, spent surpluses on NHS/welfare/whatever suited the day, ignored collapsing birth rates and demographic reality (mass immigration didn’t fix the worker/retiree ratio), then rebranded the whole thing as a “transfer from poor young to rich old.” How we fix it going forward — practical steps: Short term — honour existing promises: - Maintain the triple lock for current retirees and those near retirement who paid in under the old expectations. - Cut wasteful spending first: illegal migration accommodation, Net Zero subsidies, foreign aid that doesn’t deliver, and welfare bloat that drains the NI Fund. Long term — build a system that actually works: - Phase in individual named accounts modelled on Singapore’s CPF: NI contributions go into personal pots with guaranteed returns and real investment growth, not spent immediately. - Expand and strengthen auto-enrolment so every worker builds a decent private/workplace pension alongside the state safety net. - Legally ring-fence the National Insurance Fund properly — no more treating it as general taxation. Stop pitting generations against each other. The young are paying into the same flawed system their parents did. Honour the contract for those who upheld their side, then reform so we don’t repeat the failure. What other examples of this broken promise (or practical fixes) have you seen? Keep the ideas coming — this is the discussion we actually need. #StatePension #TripleLock #DeceptionByGovernment

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Lee Hurst
Lee Hurst@LeeHurstComic·
The bloke on the left licking his lips clearly thinks he’s next in the queue.
Lee Hurst tweet media
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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@DeborahMeaden What, you want us to stopping discussing idiotic, non value adding, rules the EU spends its time and money obsessing over….. Yeah right
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Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦
Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦@DeborahMeaden·
Can we stop with the marmalade thing. We can still use it it’s just we need to add “citrus” to marmalade as other fruits are used in the EU. Hardly newsworthy…
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Nicole Pizza
Nicole Pizza@justaphag6·
@Nelia23893053 @SandyofSuffolk no just live off your own money! sell your house and downsize. If you aren’t a millionaire or can’t afford to live as a pensioner, then you should get a pension!
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Nicole Pizza
Nicole Pizza@justaphag6·
Pensioners get free prescriptions. Pensioners get free public transport. Pensioners get their benefits locked. Pensioners get “OAP” discounts at most establishments. 1 in 4 Pensioners are Millionaires. Young working people get fucked, taxed, and then fucked again.
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Politics UK
Politics UK@PolitlcsUK·
🚨 NEW: Marmalade will have to be sold as "citrus marmalade" under the upcoming UK-EU food deal This is because EU rules from June will broaden the definition of "marmalade" to include non-citrus spreads
Politics UK tweet media
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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@MelJStride Mel, the problem with the Conservatives, is that they are just Liberals in disguise!
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Mel Stride
Mel Stride@MelJStride·
Reform UK talks big and promises bigger, but when it comes to the numbers, it always comes up short. The problem with Reform is not just a few dodgy sums. It is a pattern. A mindset that treats the public finances as an afterthought and the public as fools. If you want a stark demonstration of that, look at the manifesto they have put out for the elections in Scotland. They propose sweeping tax cuts, reducing all income tax rates in Scotland so they are 3p lower than in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with no credible proposals to pay for it beyond vague references to cutting quangos. The cost of this policy alone would, in their own words, be equivalent to “only 3 per cent” of the Scottish Government’s total budget. For context, the equivalent if extended across the UK would be a cost of around £40bn. But it’s all fine, Reform claims in its manifesto document, because it will all conveniently pay for itself. They say that the tax cuts will generate economic benefits of £8bn over 10 years and “this will easily repay the £2bn up-front cost four times over”. Except, of course, that it isn’t just an up-front cost. It’s an annual cost. A £2bn tax cut for 10 years costs £20bn. Oh dear. This is not complex economics. It is basic maths. @TheIFS has given a damning verdict on the plans, describing the “self-funding” tax cuts as a “mirage created by misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the current devolution settlement and incorrectly comparing cumulative and annual figures”. It’s a Farage mirage. Overall, they say of Reform’s plan: “This is not credible.” We do absolutely have to get taxes down. Under Labour we’ve seen huge tax hikes and they are crippling our economy. But a plan for lower taxes has to be credible. If not, then it will only mean more borrowing and more debt. That is the road Reform would lead us down. And this is the thread that runs through everything Reform does. They make bold claims and promise huge giveaways without doing the deep thinking about how the sums will actually add up. In that sense, they are laughing in the face of the public, believing that disillusionment will paper over the need for economic rigour. A few weeks ago, Reform unveiled a plan to support the hospitality sector. What they did not say was that it would blow a £10bn hole in the public finances, on top of a growing pile of unfunded commitments Reform had already made. They claimed the package would cost £3bn. The real figure is closer to £13bn. That is not a rounding error. It is the equivalent of adding 2p to the basic rate of income tax. It tells you everything you need to know. This is not a serious economic plan. It is fantasy economics that would cost families and businesses across the country. When challenged on the numbers, Reform said their policy had been misrepresented. Their new Treasury spokesman even argued their tax promises were only meant to apply to pubs, not the whole hospitality sector. But their own published policy on their website makes it very clear that the proposed VAT cut clearly applies to the whole of the hospitality sector. The truth is that Reform are simply making things up as they go along. It is laughable to hear Reform claiming to be a fiscally responsible party. Their plans don’t stand up to even the most basic scrutiny. When asked to explain the hospitality black hole in a BBC interview, their chief whip responded: “I’m not interested in the numbers.” That tells you everything. A party that is not interested in the numbers has no business running the economy. The unanswered questions go further. Reform has never clarified which of the £140bn in unfunded promises from the last election still stand. Voters are left to guess what is real, what is rhetorical, and what will quietly disappear. 🧵1/2
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Jonathan Brash MP
Jonathan Brash MP@JonathanBrash·
Talks us down with his bare faced lies at every turn. This man is a nasty little traitor. A puppet of foreign leaders.
Sky News@SkyNews

In an interview with Sky's @AliFortescue, Nigel Farage reiterated his longstanding support for America's war with Iran, criticised the current state of the Royal Navy, and suggested Britain should “turn the other cheek” in response to an insult from Donald Trump.

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Ian Donaldson
Ian Donaldson@DonaldsonIan·
@NewsonTed I have no issue with SP review but only after: 1) Benefits for immigrants are removed 2) Foreign Aid reduced to nil 3) Net Zero spending eradicated including all subsidies 4) Chagos deal removed as there is no benefit Don’t forget pensioners have contributed all their lives
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Ted Newson
Ted Newson@NewsonTed·
To the pensioners who were howling at me discussing scrapping the triple lock last night I have just two things to say: Shouldn't you be nicer considering that my salary pays your pension? The state pension is a safety net, not a way of life. You've had years to save privately.
GB News@GBNEWS

‘It’s incomprehensible to me.’ ‘That is a lie!’ Dennis Reed and Ted Newson go head-to-head over whether the triple lock should be protected for pensions. 📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604

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Ineluctable Chris
Ineluctable Chris@BoveFromAbove·
Anybody ever wondered why Reform don’t support a wealth tax?
Ineluctable Chris tweet media
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Ed Conway
Ed Conway@EdConwaySky·
👀Britain went into this energy crisis with one of the lowest levels of physical fuel stockpiles - both kerosene (jet fuel) and diesel - of any developed economy. The only major economy more exposed is Australia. More in the video👇
Ed Conway tweet mediaEd Conway tweet media
Ed Conway@EdConwaySky

📽️THE TANKER There's an extraordinary race underway on the high seas, as nations vie to secure increasingly scarce shipments of fuel. In our latest on the economics of this conflict we track one such ship & ask: why is Britain so exposed? The answer is not v reassuring. Watch👇

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Gideon Rachman
Gideon Rachman@gideonrachman·
Extremely feeble “argument” - ignoring the massive economic and diplomatic damage Brexit has done to Britain. Covid vaccines are your clincher? Because of course they never got those in Europe. They’re all dead now. Such a tragedy.
Sebastian Payne@SebastianEPayne

Couldn't agree more with @CitySamuel today - I too was a reluctant Remainer, but everything that has happened since confirms we made the right decision to Leave. Exiting the EU is a prerequisite for any national revival thetimes.com/comment/column…

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Happy Hussar ll
Happy Hussar ll@Happy_Hussar2·
@HasAhmed_ @HasAhmed_ maybe we let too many unskilled foreigners come here to sponge off the hard work of others while their minging dusty shit holes remain in the medieval era…..
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