Paul Nettleton

The BBC website is leading on an opinion piece. I’m not a Labour supporter, just a retired journalist. This is a contentious decision given the privileged position of our national broadcaster during an election campaign.

Sad news that Andy Kershaw has died. A seriously good DJ who became a seriously good news journalist. Flawed, but we all are. Impeccable musical taste.

I doubt Pope Leo XIV will lose any sleep over this, before he begins his pilgrimage to Africa tomorrow. But the rest of us should. Because it is unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian. Is there no bottom to this moral squalor?

In 2023, @KemiBadenoch hosted an Iftar at Lancaster House. I was there. Here’s what happened: • Call to prayer ✔️ • Men and women prayed separately ✔️ • She stayed, participated, ate food, and raised no issue ✔️ Fast forward to now and she claims Ramadan events with gender-separated prayer are “wrong” and should never have happened. So what changed? Not the practice. Not the format. Just the politics and her principles. If it was acceptable when she was in government hosting diplomats and business leaders, why is it suddenly “wrong” when it involves ordinary British Muslims? You can’t have it both way

@HParf @BenInRushcliffe @Mhwsaracen Exactly the argument made in parliament. The private sector would make the investment that the public sector could no longer afford. I covered some of the debates on gas and water privatisation for the Guardian.

In 2017, British Gas decided to close the UK's largest gas storage facility because it needed expensive repairs and wasn’t profitable. The Conservative government refused to subsidise the repairs or intervene, arguing the market would provide enough supply....

I thought the main argument of Farage, Badenoch, the Mail and the Telegraph etc is that we are a sovereign country — and now they are all saying we are an American satellite and need to get into line.

Mike Tapp "this is about a secure border". MPs say: This is about people, British citizens.

This Anthropic and Pentagon standoff is not getting enough attention. Anthropic is prepared to walk away from a $200M contract because they’re concerned about how the Pentagon wants to use their tech for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. We are at a dangerous intersection

Tory peer Ruth Davidson reads a quote from Robert Jenrick: “I like Nigel. I think he’s a good bloke to go to the pub with but I’m not so sure I want him running my kids school or looking after our hospital” Robert Jenrick takes a gulp that can be seen from out of space #Peston

Conservative shadow education secretary @LauraTrottMP has claimed the UK’s youth unemployment rate is the “highest in Europe”. That’s not correct. It’s now higher than the EU average, but several European countries have higher rates. fullfact.org/economy/laura-…

Farage had an opportunity to call this out. He chose not to. His followers see this, it means this afternoon I’m receiving the worst stuff to date. His party put a target on my back, then say they care about violence against women. Actions speak louder than words.

@OliDugmore @hazr198 This

The justification for charging tuition fees, with reverse triple lock interest, and resulting 9% extra income tax, is the graduate premium. This, you are told, is the extra lifetime earnings from which you will benefit as a degree holder. And we believe that to be between £100,00 - £150,000 over the course of your career. But “believe” is the operative word. The thing is, we don’t know. But the government does. That’s because they have something called LEO data - Longitudinal Education Outcomes. And it tracks the university, course, and earnings of nearly 40 million people. Here’s the kicker: they won’t release the full data to the public, to you. Only to pre-approved researchers. And even then, they don’t get the whole dataset. That’s because pressure groups that represent universities have lobbied for it to remain private. They say you can’t measure the value of an education in a salary. That it’s about the soul and the mind and enrichment and growing up. And I agree with them, if only for the fact that they did have a really specific idea of the value of an education when they were taking my money. And indeed the government does too: +9% on my marginal tax rate. So the ask is simple. Release the records. Let graduates make an informed choice about the actual value of their degree. They just have to press publish. What have they got to hide? x.com/lfg_uk/status/…

@LibDems Private equity has milked our public services for excessive profits for far too long. Ending this exploitation for SEND children is a step in the right direction

Parents of SEND children are constantly fighting for the right support, all while private equity firms cash in and siphon taxpayers’ money offshore. The Lib Dems will cap profits at 8% and treat SEND as critical national infrastructure.

A new case of #Brexit collateral caused by arbitrary Home Office action apple.news/AYPIfNNwPTVWtN…

UPDATE: A former Trump attorney has now publicly stated that he believes Kasparov has summarized Trump's intentions *perfectly*: what the convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and pedophile protector-in-chief is planning is the end of democracy—a fascist regime—this year or next.

@BBCBreaking Sorry, not sorry.

Man Utd co-owner Jim Ratcliffe sorry his language "offended some people," after he said UK had been "colonised" by immigrants bbc.in/4kAhJfm

I think there’s truth in this. And the problem is that once you’ve both confidently predicted something and advocated it, you have a real interest in it coming true

Team is a bit of a strong word in either case

This week the government quietly published a 'Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security assessment': gov.uk/government/pub… Meant to be out last year, but rumoured to be blocked by Number 10: theguardian.com/environment/20… The judgements are stomach-churning