Frank The Dog

@DrHoenderkamp @AllisonPearson @DailyMailUK Not my experience at all. My daughter has to wait close a year for cysts to be removed from her ovaries. I had 3 failed telephone appointments for eye problems and gave up in the end.

Do you feel waiting lists are down or have you experienced what I am seeing… @DailyMailUK today

@cjsnowdon He can’t as his increased burden on businesses means his local has closed down

Just go to the pub.

@Samfr @ObserverUK For me this demonstrates how impotent govt is - an observation not a criticism - as something is invented, the economy & society shifts. Govts can do little but squeal about regulations that, once introduced are obsolete. The kids I teach laugh at social media regulations.

I'm in @ObserverUK today on why a lot of the AI/jobpocalypse debate misses the point. observer.co.uk/news/opinion-a…

@TeleFootball @Telegraph Starmer is doing this to promote the narrative business rips off the general public, rather than his government which taxes them to within an inch of their lives.

Sir Keir Starmer has written an open letter to TNT Sports urging the broadcaster to reconsider its decision to not make the Champions League final free-to-air. This will be the first time since the Champions League’s inception in 1992 that a UK audience will have to pay to watch the final. @DKingTelegraph has the full story ⤵️ telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/…

@Keir_Starmer Your government taxes everything to the hilt and then demands private business delivers their product for free. Hilarious 😆

Football should bring people together, not shut them out. For the first time since the competition began, fans won’t be able to watch the Champions League final for free. That’s not right. This is bigger than wanting to watch Arsenal in this historic final. It’s bigger than one club. Hardworking people shouldn’t have to fork out for a subscription to watch this match. I urge TNT Sports to reconsider and make the final next Saturday free to watch.

@historyrock_ Tangled up in Blue

What’s your favorite song by Bob Dylan?

@JamesMelville Innervisions - Stevie Wonder

Here is another of my regular bank holiday requests where I ask you all for great album recommendations. It doesn’t matter what era or genre. Best album recommendation wins a retweet. 🎶

@a_toots Great role models. But I teach lots of young lads like this, in fact the vast majority are like this, so don’t overstate the moral panic around the likes of Andrew Tate.

If my boys grow up to be like Jo and Kush from Race Across the World we will have done something right. They’re a brilliant antidote to Tate-style toxic masculinity: bright, kind, compassionate, emotionally intelligent, grounded, and culturally aware. PROPER role models for boys.

@Keir_Starmer I’m not advocating for anyone but I don’t need to pretend the St George’s flag stands for anything other than the English nation and its history, however defined. Unity, hatred, decency or division have nothing to do with it. It’s not a vehicle for your political position.

St George’s flag stands for unity over hatred and decency over division. Those are the values I will always fight for. Some try to hijack our flag to spread hate, I reject their plastic patriotism. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

@StephenMorganMP It’s akin to living in the USSR. Go forth comrades and visit the state- sanctioned attractions, your sacrifices have been noted. Marvellous 🤩

We want families to enjoy the things that make life worth living. That’s why the Chancellor has slashed VAT on summer attractions so that families can enjoy cheaper prices at…. 🎢 Theme parks, museums and soft play 🍿 Cinema and theatre tickets 🍽️ Children’s restaurant meals 🚌 Free bus travel across England for kids between the ages of 5 and 15

@PhilipProudfoot Israel is the moral test of the world and much of it has been found wanting

People can easily argue that Palestine is irrelevant to Britain (they’re wrong, on multiple levels, of course ) but Palestine is the moral test of the world It is the centre of everything. How you react, who you defend, and who you abandon is the supreme litmus test of humanity.

Many have noted that Labour are cutting VAT on theme parks while imposing VAT on independent school fees. Here is the fundamental reason why Labour's position is unjustifiable, to put it mildly. 🧵

Brexiteers, and those courageous people who voted to Remain, but freely admit they now regret it, this is absolutely worth 21+ minutes of your time. @ColinBrazierTV on form, on point, on top of the Brexit arguments, then and now. And yes for me too, the word is ‘sacred’ 🇬🇧

There is a very simple reason the Morrisons story is politically dangerous for Labour. It collapses the entire moral story they tell about themselves. Labour wants voters to believe that every tax rise, every employment cost, every regulation and every intervention is really just “standing up for working people”. Then a major supermarket says it is closing around 100 convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, and says government policy choices have made returning those stores to profitability even harder. So who exactly is being protected here? The worker whose job is now at risk? The pensioner who loses the local shop? The family that now has less competition nearby? The high street with another shuttered unit? The customer already paying more for food? This is the problem with performative economics. It sounds noble in a speech. It polls well in a focus group. It gives ministers a line to use on television. But businesses do not operate in speeches. They operate in margins. If a shop loses money, it closes. If staff become too expensive relative to revenue, hours get cut. If compliance costs rise, expansion slows. If government keeps treating employers like an endless cash machine, employers eventually protect themselves. And then Labour acts shocked. The phrase from Morrisons should haunt ministers: “Government policy choices.” Not bad weather. Not bad luck. Not vibes. Choices. A choice to make employment more expensive. A choice to raise the cost base. A choice to squeeze the same retailers you then demand must lower prices. Labour cannot keep pretending there is no connection between the policies it announces and the consequences that follow. The bill always arrives. This time it is arriving in the form of 100 shop closures.

Morrisons just said the quiet part out loud. Around 100 convenience stores are now on the chopping block. Hundreds of jobs are at risk. And the reason given is not “greedy supermarkets”, not “corporate profiteering”, not “Tory austerity”, not any of the slogans Labour spent years throwing around. It is “significant cost increases resulting from Government policy choices”. That is corporate-speak for: Labour made it more expensive to employ people, more expensive to operate, and harder to keep marginal stores alive. This is the basic economic reality the Government pretends does not exist. You can raise employer costs and call it “fairness”. You can increase wage mandates and call it “growth”. You can load more regulation onto businesses and call it “responsibility”. You can demand lower prices at the till while making every input cost higher behind the scenes. But eventually the spreadsheet wins. And when the spreadsheet wins, shops close. Not the imaginary shops in a Treasury forecast. Real ones. Local ones. The ones people use for milk, bread, prescriptions, newspapers, top-up groceries and last-minute essentials. The ones staffed by people who do not have the luxury of working from home while lecturing everyone else about “resilience”. This is the part Labour never wants to own. Their policies are always sold as compassion. But the consequences are brutally practical. A store that was just about viable becomes loss-making. A worker who was just about employed becomes “at risk”. A community that had a local shop now has an empty unit with metal shutters. And then ministers will stand up and blame “global pressures”, “market conditions”, “corporate decisions” or “the legacy we inherited”. NO. Morrisons has named the problem directly: government policy choices. That phrase matters. Because it means this was not inevitable. It was chosen.

@HarryMaguire93 Even if you had been picked you should have been dropped for using of instead of have.

I was confident I could of played a major part this summer for my country after the season I’ve had. I’ve been left shocked and gutted by the decision. I’ve loved nothing more than putting that shirt on and representing my country over the years. I wish the players, all the best this summer 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

@timothy_stanley It may inappropriate to be abusive to each other but I fail to see what her gender has to do with it, unless you advocate for women, as the gentler sex, being treated differently. I expect the Chancellor can look after herself.

I think it's rude and unBritish to shout and swear at a lady.

@timfarron Civility matters, but if politicians use the public space for self-promotion they will react. Ordinary folk dealing with the negative impact of Labour policies is not civil either.

People who ‘want our country back’ and then celebrate people being rude and unpleasant, clearly hanker after a land that isn’t Britain.

@DanielJHannan Civility matters, but if politicians put themselves amongst the public for a photo opportunity they will react to your presence, good or ill. In an age of equality, I’m not sure what her gender has to do with it.

I sense that this is out of temper with the times but, for once, I am on Rachel Reeves’s side. Civility matters in politics and, if we stop policing the boundaries, things slide very quickly. I’m afraid I don’t see it as remotely brave to shout at a woman while you drive away.

@SkyNews 🤣

BREAKING: The chancellor has announced a temporary cut to VAT on attractions including zoos, theme parks and cinemas. Rachel Reeves: 'What matters for families is not just getting by, but being able to enjoy time together without worrying about the next bill.'