Drew Smith

@SamJDean Hey Sam. Did it work though? We could not feed the midfielders all day. Their second came from midfield turnover. We played the ball around at back because we froze and were totally outplayed in midfield (and wingers no outlet). Did Arteta have any answers? Absolutely none.

There is a disconnect here between what Arsenal are trying to do (patient build-up play, move through the thirds, create a less open match) and what the home supporters want them to do.

@londonHenryGB I’m completely on board with this but you can’t just lump in Stamp Duty, which is a one off transaction tax, and pass it off as an annual, recurring unavoidable tax that affects cash flow. That’s plain wrong and makes your figures wrong, hurting the credibility of your whole arg.

Those asking for the maths: On a £150k salary in the UK (with a Plan 2 student loan): Income tax: £50,328 National Insurance: £5,011 Student loan: £11,043 (say what you want but an MP has said they use the interest for general government spending) Direct deductions: £66,382 Then add: Council tax: £3,600 Road tax: £500 Stamp duty: £10,000 Fuel duty (~£300/mo fuel): ~£1,600 Estimated VAT: ~£11,000 Total tax: ~£93,000 From £150k earned, roughly £57k actually ends up in your pocket. It then costs me £700/month (£8,400/year) just to travel to work — from post-tax income. After that, I'm left with about £48k of actual usable money. Effective tax rate: ~62% (≈68% including cost just to get to work).

I am loving seeing this meme take off. However much there is to fix, we must never lose our optimism about the best of country.

@RossKempsell Hopefully a championship fashion brand come May.

Fascinating piece

Borthwick is a decent and honourable man, whose communication has improved massively, but you can’t be completely out of two consecutive test matches in the first half and keep your job. That’s a record loss. Heads need to roll. #SixNationsRugby @SixNationsRugby

@harryricher96 100 per cent agree (it should be the latter)

As an ex-parliamentary staffer, I cannot overstate the amount of MP and staff time that is spent on issues that should be handled by local councils and councillors. We need to give MPs bigger staff budgets or reform our local councils so MPs can focus on legislating.

Very promising and speaks to the strength of the UK’s tech and AI scene.

World's best cities for 2026. 1. 🇬🇧 London 2. 🇺🇸 New York 3. 🇫🇷 Paris 4. 🇯🇵 Tokyo 5. 🇪🇸 Madrid 6. 🇸🇬 Singapore 7. 🇮🇹 Rome 8. 🇦🇪 Dubai 9. 🇩🇪 Berlin 10. 🇪🇸 Barcelona (Resonance Consultancy)

Ignore the online attention seekers and bots looking for clicks (or worse - to deliberately destabilise successful, Western societies). London is thriving and there's nothing the naysayers can do about it @spectatorindex @TomTugendhat

So true. Walked up to Camden tonight from the House of Commons..the Christmas lights, shoppers in Seven Dials, the quiet of Bloomsbury’s squares, Soul II Soul in concert at Koko. No city in the world like it

@connortweetmore @AFCAMDEN Ah. Fair. Good point, by you and for us.

@DrewSmithUK @AFCAMDEN They had a day extra rest. Can't pretend that means nothing

Worst performance of the season? 60 mins against 10 men, should be taking advantage and getting the 3 points. We looked like a team who had two energy sapping games in the last week. Need to reset and go again on Weds.

@csjthinktank @MPIainDS The social contract in Britain really is fraying. Just like the perception that small boat crossings gets you privileged access to public services, I haven’t met anybody who thinks any of this is fair. Not a great time to be a British taxpayer.

🚨NEW: Britain is in the grip of a welfare crisis. An out of work family on combined benefits will now receive £18,000 more than the post-tax earnings of a family on the living wage. 1.5 million children now have workless parents. Read our report, The Benefits Budget👇

@Barney_H_Y The disconnect between Barney’s perspective, which is shared by everyone in my circle, and some of the interesting things the government claims to be trying to do shows two things: 1. Labour are bad at politics 2. You can’t claim one thing and do another and get away with it

Torsten, you know better than anyone this budget did nothing for growth. You spent £16bn on redistribution and increased headroom by ~£10bn. People are angry because you’ve made growth your central mission - then delivered a budget that undermines it. The redistribution isn’t even defensible. You originally scrapped Winter Fuel Allowance because it wasn’t means-tested and transferred wealth from young to old. You cut PIP because it’s the most abused part of the benefits system. That’s where the money went. It doesn’t support growth. It doesn’t redistribute effectively. It just looks bad. On scaleups… as a founder, I can tell you categorically these measures won’t move the needle. The EMI limit increase doesn’t even cover real scaleups. The three-year stamp duty exemption is still worse than the US, where there’s no stamp duty at all. You should have exempted all venture-backed companies listing on the LSE from stamp duty entirely. You backed away from the Tech ISA. You know it would have driven investment and growth. The one thing that could materially drive growth is pushing the BBB to anchor top-tier growth funds - but that was already a multi-year commitment. Lean into it. Push the BBB to anchor the best US and UK funds aggressively. But the real reason people are angry isn’t just policy. It’s the chaos you created in the run-up. The constant leaking… exit taxes, wealth taxes… your ideas. You were pushing them. They’ve caused real economic and reputational damage to Labour. You had exceptional goodwill from founders, business leaders, sensible centrists. You’re burning through it with poor communications and a reluctance to tackle hard problems. We need this country growing again. It’s the only route to better living standards. Stop trying to appease Labour backbenchers. Start making the hard choices that will actually get the UK moving.

@duncanrobinson And yet Labour politicians and their supporters continue to argue they had no choices and their hands were tied by last government. It doesn’t wash and voters don’t like being lied to. They aren’t daft.

Starmer and Reeves run probably the most economically left-wing government of past five decades and yet bleeding support to its left thanks to dumb strategy

This is basic economics and impacts millions of people adversely through higher rents and worse accommodation. Yet after nearly twelve years working in Westminster I’ve never met an MP that gets this or cares despite enormous impact on their constituents #Budget #Landlords

Imagine being a Tottenham fan today having put in this performance in a North London Derby 🤣🤣 @Arsenal #LondonIsRed

Top of the table energy @Arsenal

A gentle reminder of the bench that Arsenal had to face PSG. Please do not tell me we don’t need to invest in depth. Please do not tell me “Ethan can cover RW and AM”. We are a big club. This side is crying out for more powerful runners and impact options. The more, the merrier.

Excellent and detailed FT piece this week on the £100,000 "childcare trap". If someone earns £99,999 and claims the Governments childcare subsidies, then a £1 pay rise can *cost them* £20,000.