Nick Adams-King 🇬🇧🇳🇱🏳️‍🌈

@MartinDaubney Martin. This is rubbish! Conservatives won three out of four local council by-elections yesterday, with one being a gain from the Lib Dem’s.

At the last local election, Reform promised they would “cut council tax.” Now they say tax “has to go up.” You can’t trust Reform.

Our Jewish residents are feeling vulnerable. Let me be clear: Hampshire’s Jewish community has my full support. You are valued, & you deserve to feel safe & respected. Public office is a privilege. Those who seek it must uphold decency, fairness & the values that bind our county.

The report about Reform's mayoral candidate being dropped over offensive remarks about Jewish people is deeply troubling. There’s no place in Hampshire — or public life — for language that targets or demeans any community.

Here are the real numbers for 2026/27: 📷 Total employer pension contributions (excl schools): £63.4m 📷 What proportion of Council Tax income is that? Just 3.4% To put it plainly: For every £1 of Council Tax, around 3p goes toward staff pensions – not 50p.

📷 Let’s Talk About Pensions & Council Tax – You may have seen claims circulating from some opposition parties suggesting that half of Hampshire County Council’s Council Tax income is swallowed up by staff pensions. That figure isn’t just wrong – it’s completely made up.

More Reform misinformation is circulating about Hampshire's 'debt'. So, here once again is an explainer:

We are looking forward to welcoming visitors tomorrow, Saturday, whether for a research visit or to see the exhibition.

Remembrance Day is one of our most cherished civic traditions in the UK. @jcartlidgemp and I, alongside 97 co-signatories, have written to the Prime Minister asking him to support local authorities to waive the cost of road closure fees and support organisations with the costs associated with managing road closures for Remembrance Day parades. No community should ever be without the opportunity to honour the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces personnel, both past and present. Money should never be a barrier to this. See the letter here 👇🏻

A great evening in Preston Candover with brilliant Cllr Juliet Henderson - Only the @Conservatives have a plan to keep #Hampshire special by investing in: • Roads & high streets ✅ • More police & police stations ✅ • And protecting our countryside from overdevelopment✅

In April 1940, Nazi Germany had swept across Europe with terrifying speed. Denmark fell in hours. France would crumble in weeks. And now, German warships were sailing into Norwegian fjords. Their plan was precise, capture the King, install a puppet ruler, and make the occupation look legal. What they didn't plan for was a 67-year-old man who refused to cooperate. King Haakon VII was never supposed to be a wartime hero. Born a Danish prince, he had been elected to the Norwegian throne in 1905 by a people who wanted a modest, democratic monarch — not a warrior king. For 35 years, he had faithfully kept that promise: attending ceremonies, staying out of politics, earning quiet respect. Then April 9, 1940 arrived. German forces poured across the border in the early hours of the morning. Their specific mission: seize the King before he could escape. Fortunately, a Norwegian fortress sank the lead German warship in Oslo Fjord, creating just enough delay for the King, Crown Prince Olav, and the government to board a train out of the capital — with German soldiers racing behind them. They fled through the night. The next day, in the small village of Nybergsund, the German ambassador arrived with Adolf Hitler's personal ultimatum: surrender, and appoint Norwegian fascist Vidkun Quisling as Prime Minister. Germany would handle the rest. Haakon listened. Then he walked into the room where his cabinet ministers were gathered and told them something they did not expect. He said he could not make this decision for them — that was not the role of a constitutional king. But he could tell them this: if they chose to submit, he would abdicate immediately. He would not allow the Norwegian Crown to be used to put a stamp of legitimacy on tyranny. "I cannot appoint Quisling, whom I know has no confidence among our people." The cabinet voted unanimously to resist. Within hours, German bombers leveled Nybergsund, hunting for the King. Haakon and his ministers escaped into snow-covered forests as the village burned behind them. For two months, King of Norway was a fugitive in his own country — sleeping in barns, moving through mountains, always just ahead of German patrols. Norway fought on longer than almost any other invaded nation, but by June 1940, the military situation had collapsed. Haakon and the Crown Prince boarded a British naval vessel and sailed into exile in London. He could have stayed silent. He could have accepted a ceremonial role under occupation, as some urged him to. He refused — again. From a small office in London, King Haakon became the living proof that the real Norway had not surrendered. His voice crackled through illegal radios in hidden basements across occupied Oslo. His "H7" monogram was secretly stitched onto clothing, worn as a quiet act of defiance by ordinary people who had no weapons but still refused to give in. The Quisling regime was never recognized as legitimate — by the Norwegian people, or by the world — because the King refused to say it was. On June 7, 1945 — exactly five years to the day he had been forced to flee — King Haakon VII sailed back into Oslo harbor. The city stopped. People wept in the streets. Not just from relief that the war was over, but from something deeper: the recognition that their nation had never truly been defeated. Its soul had been kept alive in the conscience of one stubborn, principled man who simply would not say yes when the answer had to be no. Norway did not have to rebuild its identity from scratch. It had never lost it. Sometimes most consequential thing a leader can do is refuse to do the wrong thing — even when doing the wrong thing would be much, much easier. He won no battles. He commanded no armies. He simply refused to betray the people who trusted him. That was enough. #archaeohistories

EXCL: Richard Tice avoided £600K in corporation tax after acquiring legal status which experts say is rarely seen for a firm like his Reform MP then channeled dividends to offshore trust, pension vehicle and dormant entities — many of which didn’t pay tax thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

In Reform-run councils across the country, Council Tax is rising. Meanwhile their Deputy Leader, Richard Tice, is exploiting tax loopholes to reduce his own bill. Taxpayers rightly expect better.

Reform promises vs results How it started How it ended

The difference between Reform and the Conservatives is pretty simple: Reform and their cheerleaders think that the goal of politics is to win; the Conservatives believe that the goal of politics is to govern.

🚨 If Reform can’t run Worcestershire… how can they run Britain? Nigel Farage now says Reform “regret” taking control of Worcestershire County Council. No one forced them to stand. They campaigned on cutting waste and reducing taxes. Instead residents got one of the biggest council tax rises in the country – nearly 9%. So what happened? ⸻ Let’s remember the facts. Under the previous Conservative administration Worcestershire delivered around £60m of savings in two years while continuing to invest in services. Reform promised they could do better. Instead we’ve seen: • Internal division • Rushed decision making • A Deputy Leader resigning publicly citing lack of action • And now Nigel Farage saying they wish they hadn’t taken control ⸻ Farage has even described Worcestershire as a “basket case”. Let’s be clear. Worcestershire is not a basket case. It’s a county of hardworking residents, businesses and communities who deserve serious leadership — not excuses from politicians who suddenly realise governing is harder than shouting slogans. ⸻ Here’s another inconvenient truth. The current leader of the council was a Conservative councillor until March 2025 before switching parties shortly before the election. So when Reform claim they inherited a mess… they are effectively blaming themselves. ⸻ Running a council is not the same as running a protest movement. It involves difficult decisions about: • social care • children’s services • infrastructure • long-term finances Serious politicians deal with those challenges. Populists complain when reality arrives. ⸻ Nigel Farage has spent years criticising governments from the sidelines. But the moment Reform has to actually run something — even one county council — the story changes from: “We’ll fix it.” to “We wish we hadn’t bothered.” ⸻ So here’s the question voters should ask. If Reform cannot run one county council without breaking their promises… why should anyone trust them to run the country? ⸻ Cllr Adam Kent Leader of the Conservative Opposition Worcestershire County Council

Britain’s economy is flatlining, battered by Labour’s taxes and regulations. Keir Starmer isn’t thinking about economic growth, he’s too distracted by the Mandelson scandal and clinging on to his own job. We need to cut spending, cut taxes and get Britain working again.

I don’t chase polls. I tell the truth.

On May 7th, Hampshire has a choice * A responsible, experienced team. * Or parties who oppose every saving & promise everything to everyone. This election is about Hampshire’s future; your roads, services, council tax & choosing who will put residents first, not party politics.

👉🏼 Nigel Farage is holding a rally in Hampshire tonight 👉🏼 Why? Because he knows he can win the elections across Hampshire & the Isle of Wight in May 🗳️👉🏼 But, he also knows, only the Conservatives can stop him❗️ ‘Follow’ to stay up to date 📲