Mark Nichols

@BanterCapitalLP @markgoldbridge Name checks out

@markgoldbridge You’re wrong on this one Mark. He moved back onto the pitch. Martinelli right to be annoyed.

Martinelli what a prat. Pushing a player off the pitch who might have a bad knee injury

@GMK1706 Did you say the same about James Anderson when he initially came into the side?

@Mikelacbe Looks like a real player. Great balance, straight bat, nothing rushed.

Barely got a run but already Bethell is showing more than Pope. Looks solid. Not trying to score off every ball. Actually playing fairly maturely. Build an innings young man

@KemiBadenoch Shouldn't have thrown away the burger, should you

Leaving the EU but joining a customs union is like throwing away the burger and eating the napkin, said the Conservative peer Lord Hannan. He’s right. Recent weeks have seen a bizarre push by some Labour and Lib Dem politicians – including in major newspaper interviews – to rejoin the EU’s customs union. Most of these MPs were not present during the political chaos of 2017–2019 that followed the Brexit referendum, during which many in Westminster fought to overturn the vote. And those Labour MPs who were there, and who now want to rejoin the customs union, clearly learned nothing. The only people advocating for such a policy – and here I include the trade union bosses who have also proposed it – do not understand what a customs union actually is. As a former Trade Secretary, I know that trade is about hard choices. You defend British interests. You say no to deals that are easy to sign but bad for the country. Yet Labour, despite all the dramatic changes to the global trade system this year, have still not grasped one simple lesson. Trade policy is power: lose control of it, and you lose the ability to govern yourself. This is why the renewed chatter about dragging Britain back into the EU’s customs union should worry us all. It is not a sign of pragmatism – it is a symptom of Labour’s weakness. It’s now painfully obvious to everyone that Keir Starmer entered government without a plan. The list of humiliating U-turns is so long that, I hear, Labour MPs now think twice before supporting a policy announcement in case the PM scraps it a week later. From winter fuel payments to freezing income tax thresholds and the Family Farm Tax, Labour haven’t just broken their pre-election promises, they’ve inflicted untold damage to the British economy while doing so. And now the government is weak and has no plan or new ideas, it has re-opened old Brexit wounds in the vain hope that doing so will make it more popular. It won’t. Going back into the customs union would make us all poorer and damage British business and British farming. Four major benefits of Brexit would be lost: we would no longer be able to set our own tariffs, negotiate our own trade deals, maintain the deals we’ve signed as an independent nation, or reject deals struck by others, even when they harmed our interests. Worse, the bloc would demand even more concessions from us to rejoin – and this hapless Labour government would no doubt surrender. Keir Starmer’s previous attempts at ‘negotiating’ with the EU have been one humiliation after another. The PM gave up our fishing rights to get into an EU ‘defence fund’ that we still don’t have access to, and then paid almost £600million to rejoin an Erasmus scheme we’d decided was too expensive at £100million and was mostly being used by EU students studying here, not young Brits going abroad. Starmer’s trade agreement with President Trump, though considerably worse than the deal the @Conservatives had ready to go with America, is nevertheless clearly better than anything the EU has managed to agree with the world’s most important economy. Why would we give up the trade deals we’ve negotiated, all structured to work for British businesses, to join a customs union designed to benefit firms in EU countries, with vastly different priorities? Britain is in a slump. Talk of a customs union is a distraction. I’m not here to make excuses for previous Conservative governments: we got things wrong, or we’d still be in government. However, we did leave Labour the fastest-growing economy in the G7, record levels of employment and inflation on target at 2 per cent.

@UttyLfc @LFC Ah yeah, the double Frimpong

@LFC Positionally Alison;Frimpong, Konate,Van Dijk ,Robertson;Gravenberch, Jones; Frimpong Szobozlai,Wirtz, Ekitike

Lining up for the first time in 2026 💪 #LIVLEE

@Dollywaggon @BarristerSecret This is a quite perplexing takeaway. Do you not think that these issues are political and arise out of the system which, insofar as you are correct to say lawyers are digging their oars in, they are trying to change?

@BarristerSecret It’s amazing to see an increasingly activist legal profession poke its oar into all kinds of issues at home and abroad, whilst sitting amidst the chaos of a crumbling institution and seemingly powerless to address the very practical problems on its own shabby doorstep.

Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇

@MTCason @Peston The scandal that nobody meaningfully complained about for almost a year? That's the greatest scandal in the BBC's history?

@Peston That 'legal advice' will not hold up in court. The BBC is not a private corporation. It is a government-owned, government-answerable, ultimately government-run enterprise. The government is at fault in this greatest scandal in the BBC's history and will be held accountable.

The legal advice to the BBC I am told is that President Trump was not meaningfully damaged by Panorama’s manipulation of his 6 January speech, and that therefore there is no legal necessity to pay him compensation. The BBC board is therefore likely to resist and fight his demand to be “appropriately compensated” out of court, and will risk him carrying through on his threat to seek $1bn in damages by going to court.

@DaveSan41468926 @FabianChair @vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott I didn't deny it had happened, I denied that Grok provides anything like proof, or even good evidence, in these situations

@MarkWNichols @FabianChair @vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott bostonvibe.co.uk/2025/04/11/pol…

THIS was earlier this year, on a Friday afternoon in Boston, Lincolnshire. Police rushed to the scene. Later, the gentleman was found not guilty of any offence. Just let that sink in.

@DaveSan41468926 @vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott Hey look, I can do it too!

@vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott

@DaveSan41468926 @FabianChair @vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott Grok suggests that it's being carried concealed in the trousers. That is clearly wrong, and is in itself sufficient to show that AI is not much help here

@FabianChair @vinoveritastic @IsabelOakeshott It’s proof enough given the poor quality of the picture.

@OrjiFrance @I_IPascal @Wizarab10 Can't you put that down to luck as he always played in exceptional defences? Same argument you're making with Neville.

@I_IPascal @Wizarab10 Azpilicueta has 62 career goals and 72 assists While Walker has 8 goals and 36 assists. Azpi even has more clean sheets than him if you rate them as just defenders.

Drafting a Premier League all time 11 is a hard job. But I'll go with this. Cech Neville. Terry. Vidic. Cole. De Bruyne. Lampard. Scholes. Salah Aguero Ronaldo. Bench 1. Van Der Sar 2. Kante 3. Rooney 4. Henry 5. Gerrard 6. Kompany 7. Yaya Toure

@MikeTho04795078 @ArchRose90 At least someone on this thread has described Jenrick appropriately

@ArchRose90 Like a fly buzzing round a cow’s arse.

Robert Jenrick ignores Emily Maitlis five times. It’s exactly what she deserves.

@RobertJenrick Well done Robert, I think you made two people laugh

We all knew Keir Starmer would be a bad Prime Minister…

@Pucadonwanna @CharlesNzeh @Tristan_T_I Not really the point. He still became one of the league's greatest players. Expensive or not, it can take time.

He's actually a freak

@CharlesNzeh @Tristan_T_I How many games did it take Henry to get his first goal or assist for Arsenal?

@Tristan_T_I How come no goal or assists in a comp....the last time I checked, he isn't a defender....lol

@Occidentalvalue @Ericthedog34 @OperaSocialist They aren't external rights, they're an act of Parliament. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/… Yes , they're based on a multinational convention (as are a HUGE number of our laws), but that's because we agree with them, not because they're imposed on us by another body.

If you want to leave the ECHR which of these rights are you happy to give up?

@basilthegreat 1065?

Can we go back to a time when we didn't see foreigners sword fighting in the streets?

@markgeveritt @OWS1892 @keanespirit Because we used it to drive down taxes and spend in the short term, whereas Norway invested it

@OWS1892 @keanespirit The comments about oil and Norway are quite revealing, don't you think? Why doesn't Britain have "a lot of cash" like Norway despite the same oil reserves. Hmm 🤔

GBNews: "Mr President, please slag off Starmer so we can use it to undermine the govt." Trump: "He's a fine gentleman." GBNews: "Splutter... No he's not, Britain's shit!"

@june_mummery @arabin_patson @reformparty_uk That resource was worth less than the lawnmower industry to our economy

@arabin_patson @reformparty_uk Our waters and a rich lucrative resource.

Hastings, Rye is a fishing town. Governments past & present have shafted our seaside towns. Brexit was a golden opportunity to rebuild towns just like Hastings. @reformparty_uk is the only party that has & is fighting for the UK fishing Ind & our coastal communities 🐟🇬🇧