Oliver Wates

🇳🇴 Norway took its oil wealth and built the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — investing in pensions, healthcare, and the future. 🇬🇧 Britain sold ours off in the 1980s, handed control to private corporations, and spent the revenues on short-term tax cuts. 🔴 Today, Norway has one of the highest standards of living in the world — while the UK is stuck managing decline. 🔵 Thatcher’s Conservative govt was responsible for handing over control of North Sea oil to private corporations, dismantling public ownership, and prioritising free-market policies over long-term public wealth. Thatcher forfeited long-term public income from oil in favour of short-term privatisation proceeds and tax cuts. 🔴 Norway, by contrast, retained public control and built up the $1.6 trillion Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund from its oil wealth. The UK spent most of its oil revenues on general government spending during the 1980s, with little legacy investment.

Amol Rajan, "Britain today is stuck, isn't it?" Alan Sugar, "It's stagnant" Amol Rajan, "Declining?" Alan Sugar, "It's got a lot to do with Brexit" "Brexit is the biggest disaster I have experienced in my whole lifetime, business career" "Brexit was a total absolute disaster, and anybody who says it's not is deluded" Amol Rajan, "What do you think it would take to get this country growing again?" Alan Sugar, "Go back into the European Union" "I've never met Starmer but if I ever did I'd ask if it's possible? What mechanism would it take to effectively get down on our bended knees and beg to be allowed back in again" "That's what I would do. If I was in charge, I'd beg to get back in again" Amol Rajan, "I've never really associated you with begging" Alan Sugar, "Exactly. That's how bad it is"

In this video montage, JD Vance says: 1. He “never liked” Trump. 2. Trump never “tells the truth”. 3. Trump is a “total fraud”. 4. Trump doesn’t “care about folks” . 5. He “can’t stomach” Trump.

🧵: Here, we'll make it easy for you, here's *most* of the times JD Vance has trashed Donald Trump, all in one place. JD trashing Trump: A Thread

It remains to be seen whether he's got the right answers, but Starmer's right to focus on growth and wealth creation - the country desperately needs both. The last time the UK grew faster than any other country in the G7 was under the Coalition, before the Conservatives crashed the economy with their botched budgets in 2015 and 16, and the disaster of Brexit. The next Govt has the chance to pick up the pieces and kickstart growth. It's been done before and can be done again. (graph via @FullFact)

Yes Minister on bringing back national service

David Cameron in 2015: ‘It cannot be right, that people can grow up and go to school and hardly ever come into meaningful contact with people from other backgrounds and faiths. That doesn’t foster a sense of shared belonging and understanding – it can drive people apart’

LAST YEAR the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child #UNCRC urged the UK government to end the use of religion as a selection criterion in school admissions. TODAY the UK Secretary of State for Education is boasting she will do the exact opposite.

Terrifying that such a highly personal account of distress at the divisions between Palestinians and Israelis should be considered offensive and withdrawn. web.archive.org/web/2024030509…

But is NATO ready for IKEA ..Sweden?

A small outbreak of common sense. Labour says it will not seriously contest Westmorland and Lonsdale in election thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/23986709.…

Cognitive ability mattered in the UK’s vote for Brexit, research shows bath.ac.uk/announcements/…

Fearlessly defying threats and arrests, Sharif University students celebrated their graduation without hijabs, standing up against compulsory hijab. As the Minister of Education issues threats and faculty leaders resign, our resolve strengthens. Iranian women won’t step back. #WomanLifeFreedom.

This is actually a fair question. The short version is: the USA wrote the rules of the international system after WWII in ways that benefit us, including the average American. Consequently, defending the system is good for Joe Taxpayer. The long answer is longer! 1/

Every word of this from @BarackObama

This image has gone viral in pro-Isreal circles, claiming to show a fake Palestinian corpse caught texting on his phone. Let's go through the image verification process step-by-step, using Google's reverse image search. Where does the photo come from and what's the context?

Water privatisation is a con. (Location: Thames Water HQ)

Astonishing piece. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Stop being offended and chill out. We retain the monarchy because it’s convenient and harmless, not because it’s moral. The amount is peanuts, given that the NHS spends three times that every day. The coronation will make a lot of people very happy. Humour them.

They could have brought in proportional representation – the STV multi-member constituencies system would have given every voter an incentive to actually vote and brought continuity into government. Labour still isn't planning to change that most fundamental of fundamentals.