Ems Barr

Rarely agree with @DrRosena but a thousand times this - “if you are a man with power and money you can get away with anything” it’s not just Labour it’s happening everywhere.

Very good news

@redditchrache Rachel you were amazing i have never been more relieved waking up at 5am on Saturday morning having finished at midnight Friday than that day when I read in summary “the Minister has handled it we will call at 7.15” of many difficult moments in DfT this has stuck with me 💪

Very good piece and chimes with many of us who have been ministers. A little story. One Friday night as we were emerging from the pandemic I got a call from my private secretary. I was a junior transport minister. He said that the driving test site which had just re-opened had crashed. If you remember, driving tests couldn't happen during Covid, meaning that people couldn't drive at all - including those who had to get re-tested (older people, HGV drivers etc). There was a huge backlog of people desparate to get tests. Well obviously once it opened, so many people logged on it couldn't cope. The transport secretary had been dealing with it all day but by 10pm he had enough and as the most junior minister I was asked to take over. MPs were shouting at us because their constituents couldn't get tests, couldn't take up jobs, were losing income, etc. I said to my private secretary, get me the Chief Exec of the Driving Test agency on the phone to brief me and tell me what he's doing to fix the problem. "Minister, I can't do that" "Why not?" "Its 10pm on a Friday night". Silence. More silence. "Can you ask him to get on a call with me?" "Minister, we have asked, and he's not minded to" Gentle expostulation on my part. "But I'm working at 10pm on a Friday night. I am certainly not minded to, but it is his agency that is causing us the problem?" "I know minister. But I still can't get him on the call". Cut to the end, I pushed through. He came on the call an hour later. I got him to brief me with regular updates starting at 7am Saturday. We got the thing open and working by lunch time. But really! Without being rude to many of my former colleagues, I know many of them wouldn't have bothered. But more to the point, as a minister, why should you have to! If people were doing their jobs as they should, they should take ownership of precisely these problems. Small story, but repeated time and again. Side note - its not just the core civil service that are the problem but the myriad of ALBs (arms length bodies) and NGAs (non governmental agencies) that are even harder. Civil servants themselves have no control over what those guys are doing let alone ministers.

This is one of those moments that will be recorded in history

@WestminsterWAG @neilseanshowbiz The 94 bus is more often terrifying than not now.

I took the 94 bus home from dinner with an old school friend tonight. I was harassed by a man, while another sat next to me apparently in hysterics at what was going on. It was fine: I’m far too long in the tooth to care about a couple of dickheads. But had I been younger, I would have been quite scared. It’s not right that women should have to put up with this bullshit. Not right at all. London is not safe. @SadiqKhan

But @Keir_Starmer you didn’t take the question from @politico with their hand up or any not pre decided ? Why pretend it wasn’t a stage managed q&a - either you’re being purposefully misleading or different parts of your teams aren’t speaking to each other. Both are terrifying

So proud to be English this evening after watching @EnglandRugby - best performance against adversity this tournament I have seen and best captaincy by @maroitoje - no one could miss the leadership he showed #sixnations

@CharlieSimpsonA Too few journalists would post this or similar regardless of the circumstances when they didn’t have to. Well done @CharlieSimpsonA

Katie Lam's aide has said the following to me: "Any rumour that Katie has been in talks with Reform about joining them is categorically untrue. Katie is not going anywhere and fully backs Kemi who is doing a great job both as Leader and of demolishing this disastrous Labour government."

Katie Lam is now in advanced talks with Reform UK about defecting, sources close to both her and Reform have told me this morning.

An extremely grim sight to watch Labour MPs vote to remove trial by jury because the whips told them to, after a debate in which expertise& learning were laughed at. This form of governance, the ill-intentioned leading the ill-informed, is sadly our future spectator.com/article/david-…

Well done lads. How many victims of sexual assault do you think pulled out of ongoing cases today?

Yes Prime Minister (1986) was an uncannily prescient documentary about Keir Starmer’s premiership

It's got everyone talking - listen to @petercardwell's clash with fiery caller Joanne.

This makes me feel so proud but at the same time parts are hard to watch. The huge tackles that result in serious impacts for both players. Al’s brain scans with all the areas of damage sadly make even more sense watching this. My husband was a warrior of a player 🙏 @WorldRugby

How many times did anyone - not just @Conservatives also @LibDems and @reformparty_uk to have to beg @UKLabour to make a decision rather than just reacting

Everyone has to wear their pass in Parliament it doesn’t matter if you’re an MP or a staffer. Where are their passes and why are the police who rightly stop people at random not enforcing that clear breach of security? @metpoliceuk

Dancing in Parliament. Reform UK MP Lee Anderson told the Daily Mail: 'I walked into Portcullis House this morning and thought I'd walked straight into Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. 'Whilst the world is on the brink of World War Three, these dancing MPs have made it quite clear that the lunatics have taken over the asylum. 'At least we've got a 5 per cent pay rise to look forward to,' Mr Anderson added, in a reference to the inflation-busting salary hike that MPs will get in April. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

The idea you can’t comment on what is happening in the UK if you don’t live there is beyond absurd from @CalumMillerLD @IsabelOakeshott

I would rather members of a parliament concentrated on running the country

We all knew @Keir_Starmer