Mark Lucas

@TerraOrBust @eairtap1 Spot on.

Q: Can the UK join the EU without being treaty bound to adopt the Euro? A: No Q: Can the UK join the EU without being treaty bound to join the Schengen zone? A: No Q: Can the UK join the EU without taking 15% of all relocated migrants through the EU migration pact? A: No

@vbspurs If he is actually elect and anointed he should crack on with feet washing, not this pecuniary piffle.

I leave you with this image. Royal Maundy Thursday is an 800-year tradition where the British sovereign commemorates the Last Supper with a church service and alms distribution. King Charles surprised everyone by choosing a church in Wales this year, only the 2nd time it has been chosen for Royal Maundy Thursday.

@GeorgeFoulkes Incorrect George. The English acquired Marmalade directly from our Portuguese Allies. Not via the Frenchies. BTW Marmelada (Quinces/Marmelos) is far superior to Citrus Marmalade.

How ignorant can a Tory get? Marmalade comes from the French word "marmelade" which in turn came from Portuguese. It was first used as a breakfast item by Scots & given by James Boswell, from Auchinleck, to Samuel Johnson in 1773. England followed suit in the 19th. Century.

@ManOfKent15 They ALL reneged on the contract from the moment they started spending the Contributions instead of investing them for the future. Incompetence and Economically Illiterates. And Liars.

The 1946 National Insurance Act was called 'the best insurance policy the British people ever had' by the Labour government at that time. It entitled pensioners to a contribution-based pension that would not be means-tested. To renege on that contract now would be one of the biggest betrayals of the British people ever.

@grahamscheper The Spanish are adept at metathesis. The Portuguese correctly say Pergunta the Spaniards say the erroneous Pregunta.

Several words in English are only pronounced the way they are nowadays because a ‘mispronunciation’ became standard. The word “bird” is a great example; it used to be “brid”, with the /r/ before the /i/, but because of a common tendency to switch sounds around (called metathesis), people started saying “bird” instead. You can imagine a 15th century teacher correcting their students on this pronunciation: “It’s not /bird/, it’s/brid/!” Clearly, their efforts were in vain, as now we all ‘mispronounce’ it.

@nazirafzal Been there. Did that. And I'm still complaining about 2 tier messaging .

Those outraged by King Charles not delivering an “Easter Message” (which he’s never delivered before) & which Queen Elizabeth only did once in her 70 yr reign could, of course, pop into a church & listen to a live Easter message from the pulpit Just ask your satnav where it is…

@miriam_cates Because... the Labour and Conservative Govs stole the money we contributed. Contributions are not taxes. Contributions are for Investing. Taxes are for Spending. All Govs lie. And lie again. And the young believe the lies.

By 2027, there will be 3million pensioners who pay higher or additional rate tax. These people, by definition, are in the top 20% of all UK earners. Yet they will still receive a £12K a year state pension, in a direct transfer of cash from the poorer young to the wealthier old.

@stephenpollard Rubbish chummy. We paid in But, the Govs transferred the loot from the investment account to the current account and blew it. You spout rubbish but politicos lie.

No one has 'paid in'. That's a long-standing fiction as you well know. All you're doing is shattering any credibility when you say Reform is committed to restoring the nation's finances.

@boot15_vu @PeterBleksley All facts as laid out. The Gov stole the contributions and allocated them to current account expenditure. All Govs for 80 years lied to us.

🚨The state pension & triple lock is the hot topic of the day — but almost no one is discussing what actually happened and why we’re in this mess. Instead, governments are dividing older and younger generations with perverse gaslighting. Here’s the truth: National Insurance was explicitly sold for generations as a contributory scheme. You paid your “stamps” to build entitlement to your state pension — exactly like road tax was introduced and meant to fund the Road Fund for building and maintaining roads. Both started with a clear promise: pay in for a specific purpose. Then governments quietly broke the ring-fencing/promise. Road hypothecation ended in 1937. NI became mostly pay-as-you-go — today’s workers funding today’s pensioners, with surpluses spent on the priorities of the day (NHS, welfare, whatever suited the government). Why are we here now? • Collapsing birth rates since the 1960s + longer lifespans. • Mass immigration that failed to fix the worker-to-retiree ratio as promised. • Decades of political short-termism: treating the National Insurance Fund like a slush fund instead of properly ring-fencing or investing it for the future. See Singapore for the gold standard. Now the gaslighting ramps up: “No one paid into a pot.” “It’s just a transfer from poorer young to wealthier old.” “The triple lock is unaffordable.” This is classic deception by government. They collected contributions under one set of expectations, spent the money elsewhere, then rebranded the promise when demographics caught up. Pensioners who worked 40-50 years and upheld their side of the intergenerational contract are suddenly the villains. It’s perverse. Instead of admitting “we broke the funding model,” politicians pit generations against each other. The young aren’t subsidising the old out of nowhere — they’re paying into the same broken system their elders did. Honour the existing promises to those who already paid in. Cut the real waste first (illegal migration costs, foreign aid, Net Zero subsidies, welfare bloat). Then reform properly for the future: move towards individual accounts with actual investment and returns — like Singapore’s CPF. Stop the divisive nonsense. Fix the root causes instead of rewriting history and turning the country against itself. Feel free to engage👇🏽 #TripleLock #StatePension

@RoyalFamily @ClerkofOxford How many feet did he wash?

The Royal Maundy Service took place at St Asaph Cathedral in North Wales this morning. ⛪️ During the service, The King presented Royal Maundy gifts to approximately 77 men and 77 women from Wales and other dioceses across the UK. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Cynhaliwyd Gwasanaeth y Cablyd Brenhinol yn Eglwys Gadeiriol Llanelwy yng Ngogledd Cymru y bore 'ma. Yn ystod y gwasanaeth, cyflwynodd y Brenin anrhegion Cablyd Brenhinol i oddeutu 77 o ddynion a 77 o fenywod o Gymru ac o esgobaethau eraill ledled y DU.

@Proper_Memes Absolutely the same thing here. And the same year 22/23. And the same reply: 52 weeks to resolve it (it's now about 40 weeks and waiting). WT actual F happened in 2022/23 one wonders.

Quite remarkable by the HMRC. In October 2025 I noticed there was gap in my NI contributions for 22/23, which I pay myself as I run my own business. I called the HMRC, waited for ages and eventually got to someone (clearly working from home; bad line, background noise) who said that my payment is seen but it needs to allocated towards my account. I had done the payments exactly the same way years before and after 22/23, yet that year was not allocated towards my account? She said she'll 'push it' to my account now. I asked how long it will take and when can I see it on my records. She she said a few months. I was flabbergasted: months. I checked my records again this week. The gap was still there. I called HMRC again. This time I got through pretty quickly and talked someone who seemed very professional and efficient. He put me on hold for a bit and then got back to me. "I'm going to be honest with you. I can see that your contribution is on the queue and it needs to be allocated to your account by a case worker. The current queue is 52 weeks, so since you initiated the check in October, task would be completed by October 2026." Unbelievable. I follow the rules, I file my taxes on time, do everything by the book, yet the system doesn't work on the HMRC end and it'll take a year to remedy a simple error, yet if I miss my deadline, I'll get fined immediately. The tax processes need to streamlined, the tax code needs to massively simplified and HMRC needs to work for the people, not against them. @RupertLowe10

@PhilJC2 @declanganley @CatholicHerald Stolen art. To be repatriated one hopes.

Our Lady of Ipswich was one of the great English Marian shrines. The statue was smuggled out to Italy and is still there today. A group of us are now trying to facilitate her return for a brief visit. Read @declanganley in @CatholicHerald here: thecatholicherald.com/article/the-en…

@toadmeister What happened to the Thinking part of Education? They have rote learnt all the propaganda by heart.

The National Education Union – Britain's largest teaching union – has voted to combat "racist, fascist and far Right" Reform UK in classrooms and lobby to overturn a ban on extreme group Palestine Action. dailysceptic.org/2026/04/02/lar…

@SBarrettBar 1. He'll try. 2. He doesn't give a damn about constitutional niceties.

He can't take us back inside the EU without a Referendum That is constitutionally settled.

@harryph @WalkerMarcus Heartily agree. Except, that the current King should be withdrawn from the BCP until he pulls his bloody socks up and starts acting the part of head of the Church.

Bring back the Prayer Book!

@miriam_cates Yes, because all Govs lied for 80 years. Called them contributions , our contributions, and treated them as taxes instead. They then spent them as current expenditure instead of investing our contributions for growth. Incompetence and larceny on a grande scale.

No one has ‘paid into’ the state pension. NI payments are spent by the government of the day, not put into a pot with your name on. Using these terms just perpetuates the myth that the state pension is a contributory scheme. It isn’t. It’s a non-means tested universal benefit paid for by current taxpayers.

@miriam_cates You forgot to add... and God knows how because they are receiving the lowest pensions in Europe as a ratio of GDP.

Britain's socialist gerontocracy is alive and well.

@oldspeak_books I would never ever think of taking a dog into any shop.

@GermanEmbassy @NigelBiggar @UKinGermany She would not have approved of the QR code. And, with or without it, it is a shocking(ly poor) piece of design.

Germany is celebrating the late Queen! A special stamp marks what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday on 21 April. It honours her legacy and work towards reconciliation between the UK and Germany.

@DrWill_Oliver71 @JohnCleese We live in England UKGBNI. The language is English. No other public language is acceptable.

@JohnCleese Tesco are a business they obviously want to maximise their sales to people of ALL cultures and religions. This Tesco van was spotted yesterday. But you have made it very clear from several of your X posts now that you are a disgraceful Islamophobe John Cleese:- Bye, bye Cleese!🤬

Bye, bye Tesco