Michelle Lowe

🚨 UPDATE: Chris Kennedy shared posts describing the attack on the Jewish ambulances in London as a "false flag" He apologised and removed the shares then pulled out [@billcurtis0]

Some people talked about reducing net migration, I did something about reducing net migration.

Side note. To the Labour MPs who shout “Liz Truss” whenever the economy is discussed, should note that the UK 10yr bond yield under Truss peaked at 4.7% This morning, because of Reeves’ and Starmer’s ineptitude the 10yr bond yield is 5.02% Labour crashed the economy.

We don’t allow polygamous marriages in the UK. We shouldn’t support polygamy in the benefits system. The more I dig into Welfare, the more I find to fix.

In 1927, the last wild European bison was shot in the Białowieża Forest on the border of Poland and Belarus. By that point, every European bison left on earth was in captivity. Zoos. Private collections. A handful of animals, scattered across the continent, descended from the last wild populations that had survived in Eastern European forests until the First World War. A Polish zoologist named Jan Sztolcman convinced the International Society for the Protection of the European Bison to attempt a restoration. He had twelve animals to work with. Twelve. Every European bison alive today is descended from those twelve. The population now stands at approximately 9,500, split across free-roaming herds in Poland, Belarus, Germany, Romania, and a handful of other countries. The Białowieża Forest alone carries over 700. They have reclaimed their ecological role. The forest clearings they maintain support plant communities that had started to disappear in their absence. The soil they disturb with their hooves is more fertile than the surrounding woodland floor. The scratching posts they create, where they rub off their winter coats, have become habitat for a specific assemblage of insects and birds. Twelve animals in 1927. An ecological keystone species, restored, within a century. This is what happens when a ruminant is allowed to do what a ruminant does. It did not require a startup. It required twelve animals and patience.

This is a fantastic video

The Man Nobody Is Talking About. His Name Is Sir Philip Barton. Buried inside Tuesday's committee testimony, beneath the headlines about constant pressure, bullying and secret job searches, is the detail that may prove the most consequential of this entire affair. It concerns not Olly Robbins, not Morgan McSweeney, not even Keir Starmer. It concerns the man who was there before all of them. The man who said no. The man who then left his post eight months early. Sir Philip Barton was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office when Peter Mandelson's appointment was announced in December 2024. He was, in other words, the most senior civil servant in the building at the precise moment the machinery of state was being directed to place a man with documented links to Russia and China into the most sensitive diplomatic posting in the Western alliance. What Robbins told the committee on Tuesday is this. Barton pushed back. When the Cabinet Office argued that vetting Mandelson was unnecessary, that a peer and Privy Councillor did not require developed vetting, Barton refused to accept it. He insisted that vetting was a requirement. He had to be, in Robbins's own words, very firm in person. He also voiced reservations about the appointment to Jonathan Powell, the National Security Adviser, reservations that were noted and not acted upon. He was worried, Robbins suggested, about exactly the same reputational risks that had been detailed to the Prime Minister before the appointment was announced. Then Sir Philip Barton left his post. Eight months before his tenure would otherwise have concluded. The question Richard Foord put to Robbins on Tuesday was the right one. Why did Barton's tenure end early? Robbins said he did not know. He suggested ministers may have felt it was time for a change. That answer is not an answer. It is the absence of one. Consider what the timeline now shows. A senior civil servant pushes back against the appointment, insists on vetting when the Cabinet Office wants to bypass it, raises reservations with the National Security Adviser, and departs eight months ahead of schedule. His replacement arrives to find the appointment already treated as a fait accompli, the vetting process under constant pressure from Downing Street, and the question of outcome entirely subordinate to the question of speed. If Barton was removed because he stood in the way of this appointment, then Robbins was not the first civil servant sacrificed to protect it. He was the second. And the question of who else was moved aside, overruled or silenced in the months between December 2024 and the moment the security services finally said no, becomes the most important question this affair has yet produced. Starmer sacked Robbins for following the rules. The Foreign Affairs Committee will now call Barton to give evidence. What he says will either confirm what the timeline already suggests or provide an alternative explanation that the evidence does not currently support. There is a pattern here that goes beyond process failure. Process failures are random. They point in different directions. What this affair has produced is a series of events that point consistently in one direction. Officials who comply are retained. Officials who push back depart. The security services are bypassed. The vetting is treated as an administrative inconvenience. And the one question nobody at the top of this government will answer is why this appointment, this man, this post, mattered so much that every obstacle was removed to make it happen. Barton apparently asked that question. He left eight months early. The country deserves to know why.

Rare picture of a tree sneaking out of the woods.

It looks like councils were bullied, and threatened with funding cuts if they didn’t “ask” for their elections to be cancelled. I have demanded answers from Steve Reed about his conduct through this process. He must answer fully, or resign. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…

I’ve had more sophisticated answers about geopolitics and international relations from children I speak to on primary school visits. This is what happens when politics becomes about vibes and feels, rather than about decisions and results.

Keir Starmer will put up your taxes. Bookmark this tweet.

🚨Local Elections to go ahead🚨 I’ve always said these elections should go ahead. Steve Reed’s credibility is now completely gone. This botched cancellation & U-turn will have cost local government £millions, I don’t think this funding will cover those costs. Labour is a joke

London has been Labour run for over a decade. It’s the UK’s biggest city, key to the whole UK economy, but Labour are failing on housebuilding (both private and social). Doesn’t help when the Housing Secretary opposes home building in his own constituency.

Damn right we have

Robert Jenrick criticises @Conservatives over immigration and housing. Wait till he finds out which Conservative was responsible for immigration and housing.

Not sure I need Nigel Farage to tell me how to manage my business so as to be most productive & best retain my staff. I'm sure he's good at lots of things but I'm pretty sure I'm better at managing my business than he is.

Green sea turtle populations are rebounding—up 28% globally. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially downgraded the green sea turtle from Endangered to Least Concern—a major conservation milestone. After decades of intensive protection efforts, green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) have shown a remarkable recovery. Since the 1970s, coordinated global measures—including strict bans on hunting and trade, protection of key nesting beaches, establishment of marine protected areas, and widespread use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in fishing gear to reduce bycatch—have driven substantial population increases across multiple ocean basins. In many regions, nesting numbers and adult populations have climbed to levels not recorded in over half a century, allowing these iconic marine reptiles to resume their critical ecological roles: grazing on seagrass meadows (helping maintain healthy beds) and contributing to nutrient cycling in coral reef systems. Conservationists and marine biologists agree that sustained international cooperation, continued habitat protection, bycatch mitigation, and vigilant monitoring are essential to lock in these gains and prevent future declines.

In 1917, at Passchendaele, Captain Jack Seely’s horse, Warrior, stumbled into a shell crater and became trapped in mud and barbed wire. Under heavy fire, Jack refused to abandon him. For forty-five minutes, he cut wire, dug with his hands, and spoke gently to calm the panicked horse. Warrior, who had carried Jack through countless battles, trusted him completely—and Jack trusted him in return. Against all odds, they both survived. Warrior became one of only 62,000 horses to return home from the one million Britain sent to the war. He lived out his days in comfort and was buried at Jack Seely’s estate, near where Jack himself requested to be laid to rest. True bravery, Jack wrote, is not just survival—it is compassion for those who lay down their lives for us. From this Story Spielberg directed "War Horse," It was later made into a stage show.

I am sorry to see the KCC Cabinet Member for Local Government Efficiency @CllrFraserMoat has resigned following a "lapse of judgement" when he admitted Reform at @Kent_cc had not found significant savings or inefficiencies. I suspect his only crime was speaking the truth.

Despite all the accusations of inefficiency and incompetence throw at us during last year's local election, ReformUK at @Kent_cc have now admitted that DOGE has found no mismanagement or excessive spending.