Rob Lyons

Peter Magyar promises even tougher policies than Orbán on migration, but wants to cut a deal with Brussels. Isn’t this a contradiction? Welcome to “populism without sovereignty”. Me for @brusselssignal

AOI's @JakeRWeston on horse racing, Zack Polanski and elitism in politics...

@OldRoberts953 @jo_bartosch When you're an MP and your surname sounds like it's a double entendre, what else you gonna do?

@jo_bartosch ‘Lifelong sex education’ - imagine sinking toward the grave and she comes racing up waving a dildo.

Suffice it to say, I have 'things' to say about this desperate bid for attention. The first is, what sort of moron needs to be 'taught' how to have sex- 'we ain't nothing but mammals' after all. politicshome.com/news/article/l…

@johnstretch @fharris2011 @Mazza6069 @DiscePuer @clim8resistance Brother had a Talbot (ex-Chrysler Coventry car). Stopped the car at Five Ways, busy roundabout in Birmingham. One of his front wheels, on the other hand, didn't stop and went sailing out into the traffic.

@fharris2011 @Robspiked @Mazza6069 @DiscePuer @clim8resistance Yes the Marina wasn’t one you boasted about down at the Pub

Can anyone cast some light on why this might be? I was thinking this morning as you do when you’re knocking on 80’s door (only 78 but 80 next year) In 1960 you could post a letter in Glasgow for 3D (those old Pence) and it would be delivered in London the next morning on one of two deliveries. 3D is equivalent to around 39P today allowing for inflation. A 1st Class Stamp is now £1.80. More than 4 times the 1960 price If you post a 1st Class envelope in Glasgow today I think you’d be lucky if it was delivered in London tomorrow. How can it be that with Postcodes, Barcodes and fancy scanners things have not just got more expensive but a poorer service as well? Does it represent a general decline in our work ethic and society in general? I don’t know but it sure is puzzling

@fharris2011 @Mazza6069 @DiscePuer @clim8resistance @johnstretch Our 19-year-old Audi A4 has recently had a spate of first-time replacements (starter motor, clutch) after 140,000+ miles. Otherwise, no problems with it. Always starts. (And no stupid onboard computer screen binging and bonging every five minutes.) And cars are *much* safer now.

@fharris2011 @Mazza6069 @DiscePuer @clim8resistance @johnstretch And British-built cars could be hopelessly unreliable. Back in the 1970s, family friend (a priest) had an Austin Allegro. It was always getting fixed. Traded for a Datsun Cherry, much better.

@guy_herbert I just hope for the sake of your mental health he was at least running a red light at the time or signalling right after cycling along the pavement.

If I don't tweet much today, it's because I am recovering from the shock of seeing a young man on a 'forest' hire bike signalling a right turn just like we were taught in cycling proficiency in the 70s.

@NeilChalmers_ @BBCScotlandNews Extending to Hawick might make sense. Carlisle? Nah. Making the A7 less of a shitshow would be better, though the A9 dualling is a cautionary tale.

@BBCScotlandNews It’s not financially viable. The Scottish and UK Governments both know this. Stop wasting money on studies and business cases to save face.

Borders Railway extension business case due by late 2027 bbc.in/4cyWfwR

Gentlemen's Relish may be going, but alternative brands are available

On my visits back since I left in 2016, I find Peckham messy and annoying in many ways. But this is, at best, half the picture. It ignores the chain stores beyond the bridge and skips past all the trendy gentrified stuff. And Khan's is both amazing and slightly bonkers.

@SimonMagus @markchristie The idiocy of millions spent on 'active travel' schemes and LTNs (based on experience of Edinburgh, London and Fife) that nobody uses or few want while the roads disintegrate is particularly appalling.

@markchristie This is because the less control councillors had over the things councils are supposed to do, the grander their schemes and debates became. I watched this happen in slow motion over 25 years.

I believe that getting council visible services - litter picking, street sweeping, park planting, road maintenance, waste management and so forth - properly provided would resolve more than half of the problems people describe as the collapse of society.

"The British state is terrified that if people have the right to say what they really think, to protest how they wish peacefully... it will lead to chaos"🪧🫢 The @SpeechUnion's @_ConnieShaw @ #BattleFest "Free-speech emergency: how can we fight back?"💬🥊 👇

The intersection between extremism and academic freedom is certainly a grey area and one I really struggled with at uni. As a Jew(ish) student, with Israeli family members, university could be academically lonely. I'll never forget when I walked into my first dissertation meeting and was met by a professor with two huge Palestinian flags on his wall. How was I to balance my genuine desire for academic freedom with the disorientating effects of a professor so brashly advertising his political loyalty to a movement that seemed to have such hatred for my family? I was never harassed and never experienced the effects of encampments or boycotts as a feature of university life - but I know those who were less fortunate and their access to education was unquestionably diminished. Part of me welcomes government action against extremism on campus - but a lot of me knows how difficult it is for controversial speakers to access campus as it is. Despite of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech act, universities use safeguarding to effectively ban speakers through bureaucracy. Want to invite somebody vaguely right wing? That will be a 6-week process where your paper work will be lost, lists of attendees will be demanded weeks before, and other students will socially ostracise you. So if you want to tread the line between extremism and free speech, tolerating intolerance and dodgy government strategies, then do register for the 14th 👇 open.substack.com/pub/livingfree…

@OldRoberts953 Ooooh! Done!

FLASH SALE!!! For today, Tuesday 7th, only - the ebook of Middle Class Holes Vol 1 - my guide to the 25 Most Awful Semi-Posh People In Britain - is a SNIP at only 99p! Link to get your copy below ⤵️

What can we do about 'lawless Britain'? "So the whole nation watched on aghast as swarming youth seemed to act with impunity, without police intervention. And oh, what an irony that our 54-year-old heroic thief-tackler worked in Waitrose in Clapham Junction branch in south London" @Fox_Claire & @Future_Cities 👇

Remember the good old days when a new financial year meant checking what the new income tax threshold is? Five years since it was last raised. It's still £12,570. If it had gone up in line with CPI it would be £15,700. With NI, that's £838 per annum in extra tax.

For regime change, we need to deal not just with the political figureheads who formally lead but also the 'revolutionary guard', the many thousands of people who benefit from the system and/or have internalised its ideology. Well, enough about the UK. What should happen in Iran?

Calocane, Clapham, and further NHS rationing point to the fundamental hollowing-out of the British state. But this is worse than mere decay - as things fall apart the state increasingly seeks to blame us. Me for ⁦@acadofideas⁩ academyofideas.uk/p/the-hollowed…

@mattwridley Saw Hamlet at the Barbican 10 years or more ago. Okay, I'm a wee bit Mutt & Jeff, but the inability of experienced screen actors to project was very surprising.

What's happened to the Royal Shakespeare Company? I've had fabulous experiences watching their plays over the years but last night's Hamlet in Newcastle was poor. The Titanic set was clever. Ophelia was good, Polonius OK. Claudius and Gertrude projected their voices well. But Hamlet (Ralph Davis) was mostly inaudible from the middle of the stalls. Without close-captioning it would have been pointless to stay. If he cannot project, why not give him a microphone? His range of emotions went from miserable to very slightly more miserable. His delivery of great lines was rushed - where I could hear them at all. If that had been my first Hamlet I would have concluded it is a bad play. Desperately disappointing.