Sarah Patey

@lewis_goodall This seems to me to be an excellent argument for the Additional Member System used in Scottish elections. As I understand it (from East Anglia, I'm not in Scotland) you have 2 votes: 1st vote for a local MSP and 2nd vote for a party. Better balance overall.

Spot on. We’ve come to fetishise “local representatives” far too much, a symptom of our politics becoming smaller and more parochial. What we need is quality national politicians. If they have to be “parachuted” in, and they spend more time in SW1 than the constituency, so be it.

@labourpress Yet he does claim expertise on other forms of tax youtube.com/watch?v=SA8T29…

Nigel Farage repeatedly misled the public by claiming he bought a house in his constituency. Today he admitted it wasn’t true. Given he's had a lot to say on tax this week, it's time he put the full facts on the table over this housing arrangement. It reeks of double standards and hypocrisy.

Nigel Farage has had a lot to say about other people's tax recently. But why doesn't he like talking about his own?

@flypie @MrTibblesNewEra @BylinesEast Thanks for that. In the end we got a different photo and were able to use that. Yes, we republished that article about birds on solar farms and it did very well. So far it's had 3,742 reads. Are you involved with it?

@SarahJP_N @MrTibblesNewEra @BylinesEast If you want. Did you cover. cam.ac.uk/www.cam.ac.uk/…

Careful now, down with this sort of thing. Poss 300 here. #Norwich

@flypie @MrTibblesNewEra Is this your photo, @flypie? Might you be willing to let @BylinesEast use it in a report on the events of last Saturday in the Eastern Region, please? We'd credit you, obvs.

@MrTibblesNewEra Bout that. I thought the counter protestors demonstrated why they alienate the working class so much.

Excellent- this is exactly the kind of provocation we need Greens to make towards Reform. Well done ⁦⁦@AdrianRamsay⁩ ⁦⁦@TheGreenParty⁩ Nigel Farage Branded a 'Con Artist' by Green Party Leader Who Challenges Him to Climate Debate bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/nig…

What a day it's been, and what an incredible five years. Thank you to everyone who has made Yorkshire Bylines (and the entire Bylines Network) possible. Here's to another five years! #HappyBirthdayYorkshireBylines #TruthToPower

Hey @realDonaldTrump, have you seen this?

@CER_Grant @threadreaderapp please unroll

That would of course upset EU leaders. Parts of the UK security establishment might favour a 'US first' strategy. But in my view the substance on Ukraine, trade and climate will matter, so it's unlikely that Starmer will line up alongside Trump's special friends in Europe. /ENDS

Some thoughts on Trump & UK & EU. The big concern of top people in BXL is to maintain unity. The pro-Trump faction will be bigger than in 2016: Hungary, Slovakia, soon Czechia, Poland's president, the dominant party in Dutch govt and the biggest parties in Austria & France. /1

@OxonJames @ProagriLtd @FarmersWeekly @NFUtweets @NFUPolitical Share this article from Bylines eastangliabylines.co.uk/farming/will-i…

Retailers & farmers don’t always agree, but the editorial in the latest edition of The Grocer, the retailers’ bible, on the scandal of the #FamilyFarmTax, is scathing of the government. When farmers & retailers are both saying you’ve got it wrong, it might be time to listen.

@edwinhayward This article explores the distinction you mention. eastangliabylines.co.uk/farming/will-i…

The problem with farming, as with so many things, is that we seem incapable of nuance in Britain. The issue isn't the value of real farms doing real farming, no matter how high their notional paper asset value. None of them are coining it. Not at the ridiculously low rates of return they operate at. Theirs is a thankless task for very little money in their own pockets. The problem is all the non-farmers abusing the IHT by cloaking themselves as farmers. A proper sensible fix would be to learn to distinguish the two groups much more clearly, and come down like a tonne of bricks on the latter while fully protecting the former. But that would take effort and joined-up thinking, not to mention understanding the real situation in the first place. Far easier to vilify all farmers and spank them across the board. Point the finger at enough people exploiting the system while pretending they are exemplars rather than exceptions, and the public will end up cheering you on. Meanwhile the real proper genuine bonafide family farms will disappear one by one, usually without a fuss or anyone other than their neighbours noticing. While in the aggregate, our food security strides towards the precipice. All because government bean counters refuse to lift a finger to distinguish between people actually farming and people stockpiling agricultural land.

City of London chief says Brexit 'disaster' cost 40,000 finance jobs. Think of the lost tax take on that. Dublin was the main beneficiary, but other European capitals also benefited. uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/city-lond…

Apparently at WH Smith station bookshop at Milton Keynes Central ... Fine work, people. Fine work.

A perfect take down of Boris Johnson’s book and his Brexit blame game Johnson threw the country under the Brexit bus for nothing but personal gain.