Tim Scott

I was joined by Steve Bray this morning and heard how the UK unemployment crisis is affecting him.

The Uk has a very competitive grocery market, with thin margins. Food prices rise because input costs go up. Government tinkering with price caps is not a serious solution to people on low incomes being unable to afford essentials. Focus on boosting incomes & support with big...

The Makerfield constituency deserves a local champion. I can’t wait to get started. 🇬🇧

Makerfield was Andy Burnham’s back up plan. For Robert Kenyon, it’s his home. This battle will be David Vs Goliath.

THATCHER LIED TO PARLIAMENT AND THE WHISTLEBLOWER WENT ON TRIAL In 1982, Margaret Thatcher told Parliament that the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was steaming toward the British exclusion zone and posed a direct threat to Royal Navy forces when it was sunk. That was the official story. It held for two years. The documents Clive Ponting leaked told a different story. The Belgrano had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, was moving away from the task force, and was outside the exclusion zone when the submarine HMS Conqueror attacked and sank it. 323 sailors died. Ponting was not some disgruntled outsider. He was a young, high-flying Ministry of Defence official with Margaret Thatcher's ear, trusted enough to draft the government's own parliamentary replies on the subject. He recommended that continued secrecy was both unnecessary and "increasingly untenable." His advice was ignored. So he leaked his report, the documents that became known internally as the Crown Jewels, to Labour MP Tam Dalyell. The Defence Ministry identified him quickly. They offered a deal. He confessed and agreed to resign. Senior Thatcherite politicians still considered him a traitor and pushed successfully for his prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. His defence barrister said it at the trial: this case is not about spying. It is about lying, about misleading Parliament. It was, in his words, the case of Thatcher, Heseltine, and Stanley against Ponting. Ponting had brought his toothbrush and shaving kit to court on 11 February 1985. He fully expected prison. The jury acquitted him anyway. The Conservative government responded by amending secrets legislation and introducing the Official Secrets Act 1989. Because if the law does not get the verdict you wanted, you change the law. Ponting resigned. Lost his career. The ministers who misled Parliament kept theirs.