Gretch

@SangitaMyska I was the Neighbourhood Beat Officer (GMP) for Ashton in Makerfield and can assure you it’s in Greater Manchester

My husband, a Mancunian, is having a right laugh as reporters who rarely leave Westminster slowly realise Makerfield is in the borough of Wigan not Greater Manchester.

@michaelscase @AvaSantina Part of North Ashton is in Merseyside - I was a Neighbourhood police officer there - on certain roads we’d ask the caller what colour their bin was to work out which force attended

@AvaSantina What Merseyside wards? Thought it was all Wigan?

@Brick_Cop @TopGunMovie I worked at Currys back then and this was the VHS tape we had to play to sell the latest Panasonic TV with quad speakers - I no longer want to go to the danger zone!

40 years since the iconic @TopGunMovie was released! 🎬 Excitement, heartbreak and redemption; it remains the best air combat film of all time, probably only rivalled by its sequel, a few years ago. “Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a fly by!” #TopGun40 #TalkToMeGoose 🫡

@SkyNews @annemcelvoy Lisa Nandy is very unlikely to stand in the next GE. She may be tempted to stand aside for Burnham if they can promise her a cushy well paid job

Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner says Keir Starmer should allow Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham back into parliament. POLITICO's head of podcasting and co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne's @annemcelvoy reacts. trib.al/kbSdNde 📺 Sky 501 and YouTube

🧵 It’s an open secret that policing is in trouble. Many think that this is unfortunate and an accident of societal change. I think that it started as a deliberate ideologically driven plan by the Tories under David Cameron. I will outline my thoughts in this thread.

@InspGadgetBlogs A friend of mine ticked the wrong box on a survey to say he was of Chinese origin, he got dozens of emails inviting him to promotion seminars etc. He was, in fact, a white ex farmer from North Yorkshire - HR were not happy when this was discovered

I know a man who pretended to be gay to get promoted to Ch Inspector. This worked for two reasons. First the force was 'under-represented' by LGBTQ+ in senior ranks. Second, they dared not fail an openly LGBTQ+ candidate. Only non-police followers will not believe this.

@YardleyShooting It’s a government subsidy to the car industry

Motability = no cost car and insurance. People benefitting from Motability scheme typically end up with much better cars than those on low wages who may not even be able to afford a car at all.

@JJMMHH80 @YardleyShooting The average Civil Service pension is less than £10k per year. You are being deliberately divisive for clicks

@YardleyShooting Civil servants have a decent pension because you're never gonna earn massively. Everyone knows private sector pays more

All those knocking 'triple-lock' on pensions don't seem to mention how meagre UK pensions are, or the MASSIVE cost of pensions for civil servants & other state employees. Something is pushing blame on normal pensioners but not exploring some very foolish govt spending elsewhere.

@YardleyShooting From your bio, you left the army after a year or so but if you had stayed and become a career soldier - you would be reliant on your military pension. Would you seek to remove it from your old comrades?

@sizzler836 @YardleyShooting …. and in work benefits. If employers paid a living wage - we could take 15% off the benefits bill.

@YardleyShooting Largely driven by the ageing population and pensions rather than shirkers.

For the first time, welfare spending now exceeds income tax revenue. In the last financial year, the Treasury raised approx £331 billion in income tax but spending on welfare was £333 billion. No country can sustain this. Millions play the system and/or are trapped within it.

@ExInspectorBDS @James_Treadwell I did work with some prison officers and their C&R was very good but they don’t have the same dynamics as cops deal with. I was taser trained and have confronted a knife wielding suspect. My actions we’re very similar to these officers

@James_Treadwell Well I've never trained with prison officers. But they do get to work in a controlled environment. But, since you've made the claim that their use of force is better than ours, can you provide some evidence of this?

There actually is a valid point in all this, police and prison training is not exactly the same, it is different, but the legal framing is the same, and what I expect police won't accept is that prison officers use of force is often actually far better than theirs.

@drewsparkley @THERussellGrant @RealCounties Wasn’t it in Lancashire in 1944?

@THERussellGrant Barrow, Lancashire - excellent and accurate @RealCounties

Everything you need to know about the bell 🔔 HMS Trump (pennant numberP333) was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow, Lancashire and launched on 25 March 1944. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy(RN) to bear the name Trump. She spent the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron based in Australia. She was kept in service following the war and was refitted for greater underwater performance, and was the final RN submarine to be posted in Australia, departing in January 1969. She was sold off and broken up for scrap in August 1971.

@patrigby2 I tutored quite a few probationary PC’s. Ex forces were not outstanding. The two best were a former bank employee & an air stewardess

Why the obsession with ex forces joining the police

It’s worth bearing in mind that not one single head of any of our three armed forces, joint staff or Permanent Secretary over the last 20 years has resigned over the relentless hollowing out and catastrophic decline of the UK’s readiness, resources and capability.

@DominicMcGregor Perhaps we shouldn’t charge stamp duty for pensioners downsizing homes?

I’m 32 years old and I want to change the state pension. With the triple lock, based on historical growth (4.5%) when I reach my pension age. The state pension will be £30,100 a year. This would account for £512bn a year. The current government budget is 1.2Trn. This would be 3x the current NHS budget. The triple lock is unsustainable. Now the debate, no one is saying that pensioners shouldn’t recieve support. That goes without saying. But there shouldn’t be a non-means tested, non contribution based pension which gives everyone blanket support. Especially when you consider 1 in 4 of over 60 years are asset millionaires. My view is, we need to have a means tested only state pension. Which is reassessed every 3 years. There is no “pot” people pay into, national insurance is just a tax - there is no ring fenced fund for a state pension. It comes directly from taxation ever annum. Without changes like this, young people will suffer while older people - who receive their pension and political protection because they actively vote - will continue to have a glorious quality of life.

@ExInspectorBDS @PoliticalStacy There must be some misunderstanding with our American cousins - because I’m fairly sure I went out shooting 2 days ago with a centre fire rifle (c/w a sound mod) - and am clay shooting this afternoon 🤷‍♂️

@PoliticalStacy Brits did not surrender their firearms in 1997. There was an amendment to firearms laws, which affected the tiny minority of Brits who were members of gun clubs.

Brits surrendered their firearms in 1997. Less than 30 years later, they're being arrested for Facebook posts. That's not "safety." That's the speed of tyranny once a government knows its citizens can't push back. When people are disarmed, the state no longer fears the people. And when governments have zero fear of the people, they do whatever the hell they want. History proves it over and over: an unarmed population is a compliant one. The right to bear arms isn't just about hunting or sport, it's the final check against a government that forgets it's supposed to serve, not rule. The Second Amendment isn't about muskets. It's about maintaining the balance of power between citizens and the state. Never give up the means to defend your liberty. Because once it's gone, the slide into authoritarianism happens faster than most people expect. May this never happen here.

@MMonMonday @RobertJudd4 @BBCPolitics I can’t comment on insurance but in police terms this corresponded with the closure of local custody facilities, the gutting of neighbourhood and response teams after austerity & the recruitment freeze

@FazerGretch @RobertJudd4 @BBCPolitics Curious as to the why “do not engage” became a thing. Wondering if this is linked back to corporate insurance and it’s an easy cost saving by just passing on to the consumer.

#bbcaq @BBCPolitics #shoplifting I was a team leader arresting 2000 shoplifters per year in a London Borough.Contrary to popular belief police did not directly arrest the shoplifter, the shop in cooperation with other shops & council CCTV detained the shoplifter, police then arrested the detained shoplifter. What has changed is the police team I ran was dedicated totally to these high crime shoplifter areas, we were not extracted to other tasks & shops were confident of police response. Police were removed from these areas only responding to 999 and shops realised that police response was not coming. Today shops are not detaining or reporting shoplifters.

@nicholadrummond Before all those (very sensible ideas) we need to increase pay for service personnel, improve MoD housing, promote 25% more officers from the ranks. We could also write-off student loans for anyone who signs on for 10 years.

20 UK DEFENCE INVESTMENT PRIORITIES 1. Rebuild munition stockpiles across all three services 2. Ensure that the Dreadnought SSBN programme is delivered on schedule 3. Acquire a ballistic missile defence system 4. Get on with the Type 45 destroyer PIP 5. Acquire additional land-based SkySabre Air Defence systems (minimum of 48 launch sets) 6. Equip all three forces with a full range of UAS, UGV, USV, and UUV for surveillance and strike tasks 7. Order 4 additional Type 26 frigates 8. Ensure that all 7 Astute Class attack submarines are ready and deployable 9. Ensure that GCAP / Tempest is fully funded 10. Accelerate the Bowman replacement programme, including investment in AI and a Starlink equivalent satellite system 11. Accelerate programme to replace Crowsnest with a UAS-mounted AEW&C system 12. Continue to invest in Boxer, including artillery version, but refocus it around 1st (UK) so that we field fully deployable brigades sooner (See note below) 13. Invest in land-based SHORAD including Stormer HVM replacement and 35 mm cannon system. 14. Invest in a wheeled GMLRS system like HIMARS 15. Fund development of a UK equivalent of GMLRS ER and PrSM 16. Loan or lease 5 additional C-17A transport aircraft from wherever we can (or buy 10 additional A400M) 17. Ensure that at least 4 Multi-Role Strike Ships are funded for the Commando Force 18. Acquire 24 additional F-35B to provide a surge capacity for the carriers and to reduce attrition risk 19. Increase Army headcount to 80,000, and Navy headcount to 35,000 20. ……(What have I missed?) (Note: I’m an advisor to KNDS so my Boxer recommendation (No. 12) is not impartial - but I still think it is the right thing to do!)

Doesn't pay any tax in the UK because he ran away to the Tax Haven Singapore to escape the effects of the Brexit he helped create. Then he bought up hundred of millions of pounds of farmland to avoid tax, then cried when it was made taxable. James Dyson is a scumbag.