Jack Kirwan

🚨 BREAKING: The City finally admits it 👉Brexit broke Britain’s money machine. Treasury’s new figures show: 💸 UK productivity has crashed since Brexit. 🏦 £1 trillion in banking assets have fled to the EU. 📉 City output once the driver of UK growth is now dragging it down. 💔 Result: a £20 billion hole in the public finances. Even Chancellor Rachel Reeves now admits Brexit caused the slump but refuses to fix it by rejoining the Single Market. This isn’t just about bankers. When productivity falls, everyone pays: Lower wages 💷 Higher taxes 📈 Worse public services 🏥 Brexit didn’t take back control, it took away Britain’s future earnings. The money machine is misfiring and Labour’s red lines mean it stays that way. theguardian.com/business/2025/…

We're all very tired right now. We work beyond our capabilities. We dream of having enough sleep, enough rest - but the time for that hasn't come yet. There are no weekends and days off during the war because time is someone's life. Friends, to everyone who's stubbornly doing their thing and works towards peace - hang in there. We must remember there's a lot of us. We will manage. We know why we're doing it. As a Ukrainian poet once said, "Keep fighting, and you will overcome." May God help us.

🚨NEW: National Public Radio has announced that the organization will not sign onto the new Pentagon press policy that seeks to restrict what journalists can report. RETWEET to thank NPR CEO Katherine Maher for standing up for our democracy!

NEW: The British politician, his Russian intelligence handler & a Kremlin plot against the US & Ukraine. My new piece about Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage for @thenerve_news in which we ask: Why, even now, is no-one asking questions?

I have received A LOT of questions about Nathan Gill, having sat as a Brexit Party MEP alongside him in Brussels and Strasbourg. He was also the Reform leader in Wales. For those who don’t know, he has pleaded guilty to taking pro-Russian bribes over a number of months. Obviously, I had absolutely no idea. I was new to the European Parliament, Nathan had been there for years alongside Farage - they were very close. He was the head of the delegation of our MEPs, so with the whip ran the day-to-day affairs of our grouping and organised activity in Brussels/Strasbourg. He was one of just two MEPs from the previous term Farage allowed to stand again. He seemed particularly interested in Russian/Ukrainian developments which I found peculiar. There was one event, right at the beginning of our term, which he asked me and other MEPs to attend. Due to his position in the grouping, I agreed. It had a very pro-Russian slant, with individuals who claimed to be close to Putin there. For obvious reasons, I did not attend another such event. I thought his obsession with that part of the world was strange, but given his years in the Parliament and position in the party, I didn’t think there was more to it. Other MEPs also found it unusual, but we just got on with job. So to journalists asking, there is my response. It is disgraceful behaviour, treasonous behaviour. I am ashamed to have ever sat alongside him.

@UndisScot The uniquely identifiable castle of Castlebay on the southern end of the isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. We've visited more than once, and it was a feature of the original movie "Whisky Galore" in the 1950s.

WHERE IN SCOTLAND? Where is this? This is part of an image that appears somewhere on Undiscovered Scotland. Please reply with your answers. We'll award kudos to the first correct response before posting the next in the series tomorrow.

I haven't said much for ages - but this is starting to like being another really good season for LFC.

Happy Monday… Have a great week ahead… Remember, all of life is about timing… #StillBringingSunshine 👓☀️♥️ #MorecambeAndWise #EricAndErnie

BREAKING: Massive bombshell drops in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal as metadata analysis reveals that the footage released by the Trump administration of Epstein's prison cell was likely "modified" with software. And it gets so much stranger... According to analysis by WIRED and independent video forensics experts, the 11 hours of footage released by the MAGA Justice Department does not appear to be a "direct export from the prison’s surveillance system." They reached this conclusion by reviewing metadata embedded in the footage. The video footage was likely "modified" using Adobe Premiere Pro, which is a popular professional editing tool that is often used on big budget Hollywood blockbusters. "The file appears to have been assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website, where it was presented as 'raw' footage," data reporter Dhruv Mehrotra wrote in WIRED. Not only that, but the file "appears to have been assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website, where it was presented as 'raw' footage." While this evidence doesn't tell us what if anything was changed, it is deeply suspicious when considered alongside the erratic behavior of the Trump administration and the flustered manner in which Trump himself responded to an Epstein question earlier this week. When Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked about a missing minute from the footage between 11:58 PM to midnight, she gave a difficult-to-believe explanation. "The video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide," she claimed. "And what was on that, there was a minute that was off the counter and what we learned from the Bureau of Prisons is every year, uh every night, they redo that video," she continued. "It's old from like 1999. So, every night the video is reset and every night should have the same minute missing." "So we’re looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein," she added. WIRED explained that their metadata analysis could be explained by the footage having been "processed for public release using available software, with no modifications beyond stitching together two clips." At this point though, only a fool would grant the benefit of the doubt to Trump and Bondi. Trump himself was close friends with Epstein at one point and Elon Musk has alleged that Trump is in the Epstein files. For those interested in the specific technical details of the analysis, WIRED provided great transparency— "Working with two independent video forensics experts, WIRED examined the 21-gigabyte files released by the DOJ. Using a metadata tool, reporters analyzed both Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) and Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data to identify signs of postprocessing," wrote Mehrotra. Adobe software embeds traces in exported files, meaning that the analysis was relatively point A to point B once the experts got under the hood. The conclusion drawn by the analysts is that the footage is "not a continuous, unaltered export from a surveillance system" which was what the DOJ implied by calling it "raw" footage. "If a lawyer brought me this file and asked if it was suitable for court, I’d say no. Go back to the source. Do it right. Do a direct export from the original system—no monkey business," Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who researches digital forensics and misinformation, told WIRED. He also questioned why the video's aspect ratio seems to randomly change throughout the footage. The Epstein scandal surged back into headlines this week after a Justice Department memo leaked which claimed that the Epstein client list does not exist, that there is no evidence that the billionaire pedophile blackmailed powerful people, and that there is no reason to believe that he was murdered. Previously, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that the Epstein client list was waiting on her desk to be reviewed. At this point, only complete transparency will do. The Trump administration must immediately release everything it knows about Jeffrey Epstein. Please retweet and ❤️ to demand the release of the Epstein files!

@MarinaPurkiss But ... why only 2%?

Imagine that… A policy that not only plugs the treasury gap but also unites left and right And yet…

@mikegalsworthy If Iceland (and the Azores?) join the EU, it'll be creeping up on the US! What will Donald Trump make of that? 😎

▪️Firstly, Norway & Iceland are IN the Single Market. Switzerland effectively is, by a raft of ever-updated agreements. ▪️Secondly, the Single Market is not a customs union. This guy is a leading Brexiteer. Could explain a lot. ▪️Thirdly, Iceland is looking to join the EU.

@MarinaPurkiss Hear, hear.

I am so tired…. People like me speak out because children are dying Not Israeli children Not Palestinian children Just children. Innocent. Terrified. Gone. We’re not politicians. We don’t have power We’re just doing our best to call out a genocide This isn’t about “taking sides” It’s about taking a stand for humanity and for the basic principle that no child should be bombed, burned alive or starved So when we speak out and are met with accusations of antisemitism, and when our grief is twisted, our intent questioned, and when we are called terrorist sympathisers because we can’t bear to see another lifeless little body It’s not just offensive It’s f*cking depressing We’re not driven by hate We’re driven by horror And we’re using the only tools we have - our words, our platforms, and our refusal to look away Because if we don’t speak now, we become the silence that history will condemn.

@Anna_Soubry Well... I remember Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and ... the Beatles!

It may be an age thing but comparing The 1975 last night on #BBC #Glastonbury and now #JarvisCocker #Pulp - how utterly brilliant is the latter and so v average the former …..

Wake-up call… Lincolnshire has suffered some of the worst flooding in its history in recent years Lincolnshire’s newly elected Reform council has abolished the flooding committee This is who they are Please wake up to this. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@Linda_Pizzuti Good owners are not idiots (Moshiri), sugar-daddies (Mansour, Abramovich), vain autocrats (Boehly, Ratcliffe) or leeches (Glazers). They are astute, principled and informed (FSG). Thanks tocall of you, and keep it going!

What we are watching is Trump’s tariff-induced crash turning into a Truss-style fiscal crisis. The collapse in US government long bonds, Treasuries, is startling, scary. It is precisely the opposite of what Trump and his advisers expected and wanted. It partly reflects heightened fears of US recession - which would see ballooning of US deficit - and may also be revenge selling by sovereign holders in tariff-hit countries. This bond market turmoil also increases risk of margin calls and forced sales by over exposed institutional investors. Another huge day. If the US government struggles in its auctions when selling new government bonds to fund its current deficit, at that juncture surely Trump capitulates to market pressure. The other actors to watch are the central banks - the Fed, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank - and whether they are obliged to act intervene by cutting interest rates and providing liquidity

Mark Kelly is a ferocious warrior for truth. His icy anger is of course born from his own patriotic service. Here he has Gabbard and Ratliff impaled and squirming on their dishonesty and incompetence.

@GermanEmbassy @GI_London1 @GI_Glasgow @ukgconnection #ShoutOutForGerman 1. Not quite German, but an old theory for dinosaur extinction: PaleoWeltSchmerz. 2. Staying with my friends Heinz and Barbara in the lovely town of Münster. 3. I only did six months of German at school, but Mr. "Otto" Bottomley was very good.

This week let's celebrate the German language! 👉 Your favourite German word? 👉 That incredible trip to Deutschland? 👉 Your German teacher, aka the best teacher of all time? Use #ShoutOutForGerman and show everyone what German means to you!

@Peston It's only a few weeks since Man Utd supporrters were saying much the same about their team. Actually, their mood was much, much more despondent then. Things can change fast in football.

For Arsenal to lose two cup games at home, in such quick succession, is devastating. The heart has gone out of this team. The absence of Saka is not any kind of sufficient explanation or justification. I am a great believer that managers need to be given time and consistent support. But I cannot see any kind of strategy from Arteta and his colleagues that would transform us into trophy winners from our current status as honourable runners up