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@tomhfh DWP

If Reeves gets another Cabinet role, which will it be?

@Fremond_ @Discoplomacy Yankee parvenus don’t know the first thing about culture. Twas ever thus.

Too many people in tech at the moment want to pontificate about Western civilisation, “taste”, or how cultural institutions have been taken over by the wrong people. But talk is cheap. If they truly cared, one of these tech millionaires and billionaires could make a recurring donation of $250k to the Vienna Philarmonic to ensure access to good culture to Europeans. They could then have influence to reform these cultural institutions. But they won’t do it. slippedisc.com/2026/06/vienna…

@HanbaoDynasty @RoryStewartUK You need talent but you also need massive amounts of capital to splurge and that’s where the US has always had an edge. Size is part of it, but Brits are incentivised to stash their wealth in property rather than equities.

@RoryStewartUK I've been watching so many lectures on it, and most of the leading minds are British.. Geoffrey Hinton was born in London.. He basically founded it, if not him Turing.. What are we doing.. We have the talent, this country is so frustrating.

The world is being encouraged to build its entire economy, public services. security and defence on US AI foundation models - which a US President can switch off - or deny access to - at will. • The idea that we have the leverage to prevent this happening is fantasy. • Tackling this dependency will be ruinously expensive. • But denying it and doing nothing is fatal. • The rest of the world has no alternative other than to try to develop far more A.I. autonomy - whatever it costs.

@Schilted @thomasforth Yep, and it works great for them. Shows that what really matters is the incentive structure rather than the ownership model.

@Magnus_Bishop @thomasforth Japan's railway companies are landlords first, railway companies second. They own all the land around the tracks and around the stations, so they make vast amounts of their money from that.

"Public ownership can't work" say the tired British commentators while pointing at publicly owned football stadiums in cities with municipally owned water and electricity networks having flown in to municipally owned airports.

@tejparikh90 @James7Holland @FT Rare honest take from the FT

Rejoining the EU is no panacea. My latest column for @FT: Rather than attempting to reverse Brexit, Britain should focus on its domestic economic growth agenda as.ft.com/r/abe87fa8-874…

@ChrisO_wiki I’m guessing this is AI but it’s pretty funny

O Lord our God, Who in Thy boundless mercy didst create the petroleum deposits of the earth and didst see that they were good — look down with compassion upon Thy servants, who stand in great queues, engines idling, burning the very fuel they seek. Thou Who didst part the Red Sea, part now the line at the filling station. Thou Who didst provide manna from heaven, provide now unleaded from the forecourt. And if it be Thy will, let the price per litre not cause Thy people to faint. Restrain, O Lord, the hands of the commodity traders, and soften the hearts of the refinery owners, that they may not add sorrow unto sorrow. Confound the speculators and bring low the profit margins of those who grow fat upon our misery at the pump. And if in Thy wisdom Thou hast decided that we must walk — grant us, at least, comfortable shoes. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the 98 octane, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. **Amen.**

You want a space engineering challenge? Try and figure out the ascent stage for a manned Venus landing. Its got to be an SSTO and a submarine all in one. Good luck.

@thomasforth Yeah when it inevitably runs into political opposition a spad will quote this report at a minister as if it’s gospel and the minister will cave and block it.

It says a lot about Britain's problems that the UK central government is doing big value for money exercises on an airport expansion that should be fully privately funded and the decision of the local/regional government, not it.

@FranklinVH2 His main issue was that he was just a bit shit

Usually, it’s natural to be gracious with outgoing PMs. Often, they’d have tried something, it hasn’t worked, and they’ve paid with their post. Starmer sold us everything and did nothing. Bye bye 👋

@ChrisRe11417905 @GregHands @UKinGermany @GermanEmbassy @BCCGeV @andrewjonathanm @jillgallard @guenterkrings @VedralBobby @AuswaertigesAmt @DLidington Which airport? They let brits through the e-gates at Nice when we went

@GregHands @UKinGermany @GermanEmbassy @BCCGeV @andrewjonathanm @jillgallard @guenterkrings @VedralBobby @AuswaertigesAmt @DLidington Definitely not doing this in Firenze, we went a two weeks ago, and we queued for almost two hours to get through immigration, which was the same time it took to fly from London to get there..🤔🥱

Italy 🇮🇹 showing how it *can* be done! Here at Roma-Fiumicino airport, British citizens using the e-passport lane! Germany 🇩🇪 and others take note. It’s now ten years since the Brexit vote and you don’t need to keep on needlessly punishing the Brits!

@peterrhague You need to explain the ‘why’.

For my space inclined followers - I’m working on a presentation on space colonisation for absolute normies, no prior interest or background knowledge assumed - what should I include in it? Aiming for a 30 minute or so talk with 10-15 slides

@Twelfthulhu @HaydenJame15136 @kirawontmiss It’s really weird and cringe. The only thing there that isn’t ubiquitous in Europe is air-conditioning which is fair enough. Perhaps they’re too poor to travel? Idk.

@HaydenJame15136 @kirawontmiss Europe has most of these, but of course the average american wouldn't know because they never left their country.

Europeans visiting the USA for the World Cup are enjoying the experience 😭

@adhib @barlow_lov11346 @PolitlcsUK I realised the country had gone to pot when one of these appeared in my local Sainsbury’s

@barlow_lov11346 @PolitlcsUK It's a slope we're sliding down. If you look at where the New York subway has ended up, you'll see how it requires all of us to move through a world being managed like convicts. The only bulwark against this is social solidarity.

🚨 NEW: The Government is installing upgraded ticket barriers across the country to reduce rail fare evasion

🚨NEW: Britain spends a third more on transport infrastructure than its peers, but because of high construction costs ends up with a 5th less. Britain has a 65% cost premium compared to peers like France, Germany, and Spain. In other words, the UK needs to spend £1.65 to get what a £1 buys elsewhere. If Britain’s cost-premium over European peers was eliminated, our £21bn of annual investment (average 2015-2023) in transport infrastructure would secure 65% more infrastructure per pound spent. Over the course of a Parliament, Britain would, in effect, have £41.5bn more of actual transport infrastructure for the amount it already spends. Here’s an idea of what £41.5bn could fund: - 🚋Trams for Leeds, Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Coventry, Plymouth + a Southampton–Portsmouth line (plus 20 miles worth of extensions to existing systems): £13.1bn at £87m/ mile - 🚟 190 miles of rail electrification per year: £5bn - 🚅Major rail bottlenecks fixed in Manchester (Castlefield Corridor) and the South East (Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme): £12.9 - 🚘Major road schemes revived include dualling the A1, A120 Braintree–A12, A303, A358, Arundel Bypass, Acle Straight dualling and a Third Menai Crossing (£10.5bn) What do you think we should fund if we eliminated the cost premium and had an extra £41.5bn to spend? Read the full @BritainRemade /@BritishProgress paper: britainremade.co.uk/moreforless

@shaheedeazam02 @hoffman_noa Not beating the allegations pal

EXCL: As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is a struggle for the future of the Green party between its various official ‘Special Interest Groups’ and its leader, Zack Polanski. On one side, Polanski and his officials are at least trying to appear to be dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism and extremism within the party. On the other, a powerful affiliate group, the Global Majority Greens (GMG), is accusing its leader of creating a ‘hierarchy of racism’, with allegations of anti-Semitism taken more seriously than other complaints. Polanski, it claims, has failed to be truly anti-racist because he has not backed the ethnic-minority Greens who have been suspended over alleged anti-Jewish rhetoric. Most extraordinarily of all, it believes the Greens – yes, the Greens – are too pro-Zionist. Crucially, the group is formally backed by Mothin Ali, who serves both as deputy leader of the party and GMG treasurer. Ali has endorsed official reports compiled by the GMG accusing Polanski of a litany of crimes against racial justice. In private WhatsApp groups, documents and Zoom calls leaked to The Spectator, Ali’s disdain for his boss’s conduct is plain. Included in the leaks is a scathing draft GMG report that will be presented at the Green party AGM later this month. It accuses Polanski and his team of ‘performing anti-racism’ without putting it into practice. The report, which covers the first year of Polanski’s leadership, condemns a ‘serious governance problem inseparable from institutional racism’. Specifically, it criticises the party for suspending members accused of anti-Semitism – even though in most cases the evidence of anti-Semitism is clear-cut.

@Cryptopedia123 @hikingshawty Ty

@Magnus_Bishop @hikingshawty Lake district. Langdale. The peaks are Pavey ark and Harrison Stickle

England i love you

@peterrhague Yanks are very susceptible to engagement farming

I live in the arse end of Cambridgeshire, we have a Taco Bell there, and the food looks basically the same as that.

@ajlamesa @Fremond_ @b_judah I mean he also said that we should join the euro to bring down gilt yields which is bonkers on so many levels.

@Fremond_ @b_judah follows you, so perhaps you're familiar with his compelling arguments (I agree with them) that it's incredibly dishonest to suggest the EU will demand Schengen or € for rejoining?

Bizarre and condescending to suggest Europe's future depends on the largesse of American millionaires. The EU has 450 million people (add Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland in the Single Market), the UK wants to rejoin (70 million), and there's also Ukraine and the Balkans. Meanwhile, the U.S. has no plan for North American integration or liberalizing immigration across the Americas (Canada is looking across the Atlantic).