Andrew Dowd

@ReturnofColin2 @Gillian_Philip People actually voted for her. This both depresses and baffles me.

Being a leftist isn't just about being stupid. It's about showing the world how proud you are to be stupid.

@LarsNotViking @PaulEmbery He talking about the handball penalty from the last game, not this decision.

@PaulEmbery This from the leading newspaper in Britain. NOT OFFSIDE. Maeda's goal was "CORRECTLY GIVEN". Up the Celtic. Up the Champions!! 💚☘️🇮🇪

Let’s be honest, Hearts have been robbed of the Scottish league title because of VAR. Just abolish the damn thing. It’s ruining the game.

The NEC allowing Andy Burnham stand in Makerfield is like the inhabitants of Troy opening the gates to the Wooden Horse, but instead of hiding inside the horse, Odysseus is riding on top of it and being encouraged by the Trojans to ransack their own city.

@Andy_Rower @saniyafatma1278 I was thinking Soul Glo…but Jenks is absolutely perfect 👌

@saniyafatma1278 Darryl Jenks. Maybe just “Jenks” for short.

I Can't Find a Suitable Name For Him…

@ShippersUnbound @SoniaRGallego Everything about this is top tier. The content is well researched and incisive; the delivery is slick, engaging and dynamic; the confidence and authority is off the charts. She didn’t um, err, stutter or hesitate. She is exceptional.

Superb, better than any speech I heard in that chamber as a student and better than all but a dozen or so speeches I've ever heard in the Commons. People will look back on the activism she skewers as nonsensical and damaging

@lewis_goodall If the voters had any self respect, Burnham wouldn’t get a single vote. The process of pushing another MP aside, thinking you’ll walk to victory in the by-election and then simply take over the country shows a jaw-dropping level of entitlement and disrespect for the public.

Really feels that if Burnham wins Makerfield there could be a Labour coronation. We’ll have never seen a by-election like it before. For all intents and purposes, a direct prime ministerial election, in a single constituency.

@moleatthedoor @GSpellchecker Close. No Time to DEI

@GSpellchecker That is pathetic... What's the book called? Tomorrow Never DEI?

I came across this and assumed it must be faked, given how painfully transparent and on the nose this appalling writing is. But it is genuinely from an official James Bond novel: On His Majesty's Secret Service by Charlie Higson. The book was published in 2023.

@AndyBurnhamGM AB: Dear NEC, I would like to abandon my job, trigger a Manchester mayoral election we could lose, steal a parliamentary seat because I’m entitled, then after I win I will try to depose the Prime Minister and plunge Labour into chaos. NEC: Sure thing! Come on in!

I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election. I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics. Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours. I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic. Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics. We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures. However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people. Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place. I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that. Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again. ENDS

@samhfinance The problem, aside from it making too much sense to ever be allowed, is that the only place where those kind of gains are consistently delivered over a generation is the S&P 500. The optics of “Here’s 10 grand for you to invest in America” are not great.

@BurnsideWasTosh The BBC Breaking News alert said “Angela Rayner cleared by HMRC” and it’s only when you open it that they clarify that it’s Rayner herself who says she’s been cleared.

Paying £40k you neglected to pay is not "being cleared".

@wolfy9435 @NeilMcCoyWard 4% of deaths is 4% of the population though, isn’t it? If every year 4% of people who die pay IHT, then ultimately 4% of everyone who dies pays it.

@NeilMcCoyWard Inheritance tax not paid by over 99% of the adult population (4% of deaths is not 4% of the population)

🚨Your pension is about to be raided and HMRC just confirmed how.... From April 2027, pension schemes will be allowed to withhold up to half of your retirement savings to cover inheritance tax. They can hold onto that money for up to 15 months while they work out what is owed Pensions used to sit outside inheritance tax entirely. From April 2027 they get hit with the standard 40% rate like everything else So your family loses up to 40% of what you spent a lifetime saving. The pension company sits on the other half for over a year before anyone sees a penny. Funeral costs, mortgage payments, school fees, none of it can be covered while the money is locked up The policy was announced by Rachel Reeves in the 2024 Budget. The operational detail confirming the 50% withholding rule was quietly published by HMRC this week, with final guidance not due until spring 2027, weeks before the deadline 10,500 estates will be dragged into inheritance tax for the first time. Another 38,500 will pay more. Average extra bill, £34,000 And this is how these things always work. The threshold starts high, the public is told it only affects the wealthy, and the numbers stay frozen while everything else rises The inheritance tax threshold has been stuck at £325,000 since 2009. House prices have nearly doubled in that time Every year, more ordinary families get pulled in without a single rule changing The government calls this closing a loophole. What it actually does is treat your pension like another revenue stream for the Treasury. Money you saved out of taxed income gets taxed again on the way out If you have a pension, this affects you. Check what your scheme is planning before April 2027 arrives Follow me to stay informed

@TorstenBell This is so deeply pathetic I can’t believe you thought it was a good thing to post. Have you got ANY self respect?

Kemi Badenoch - a women who thinks what matters is being rude rather than being right

@BurnsideWasTosh He’s already set the scene for this in his speech on Monday. I wouldn’t put it past him to engineer a crisis

I know what comes after Starmer will be disastrous, but what we have now is disastrous. Disaster comes with the ideology. But there is something profoundly un-British, authoritarian and sinister about Starmer. His instincts are to take the side of whoever hates the country and its inhabitants the most. And a wounded Starmer will be vicious, it wouldnt surprise me for him to make a thing about this weekends march to try and shore up his position with the left.

@shane58452 @canthelpmenow7 That is one of the most disgraceful things I’ve seen on here yet. What a truly nasty thing to say to someone grieving

So I wasn't doing particularly well with my grief. Went to the GP a few weeks ago and he put me on benzo's (which I have only taken one of) Hubby wasn't doing particularly well with his grief. Went to the GP and he was offered sessions with other bereaved people. He goes once a week for 2 hours and there are professionals there as well. Why? Why does he get one option and I got given potentially addictive drugs? And why has it left me feeling so bloody resentful?

@YisraelChaiAdam @ArchRose90

Second ministerial resignation. Of course Jess Phillips has a photo of herself on her resignation letter.

@iagos_monster @FUDdaily This is up there with “It’s nice, isn’t it? The quiet”

One of my favourite tweets of all time. The smug hubris that everyone but him could see, even then. Only a couple of weeks before Southport, too. It will be a perfect relic when the histories of this era are written.

@JeanHatchet @MysteriosoX Neighbour: He was no bother really. Lovely bloke, always kept himself to himself. I was very surprised when the police showed up at 5am to kick his door in.

This sounds familiar. Every man who - how shall I put it - isn’t too pleasant to women, has a mate who will say he’s the most straight up bloke he’s ever met. Never hurt a fly. Pillar of the community. Nothing to see here. Looks like the Greens are already out to defend Mothin’s revealing media outing.

@piersmorgan Every day uncovers a new lie, and every day brings a new apology from Polanski. And following that apology, regular as clockwork, his supporters run damage control, claiming it’s all a smear. How long will it take before they all wake up to the fact he’s a grifter?

Man of the People is a tax dodger.

@LoftusSteve Stadlen is the political equivalent of CNBC’s Jim Cramer, a financial journalist so famously bad at picking stocks that people make a fortune counter-trading his decisions.

Even I didn't expect it to be this much of a catalyst.

***BREAKING: Labour’s soft-left condemns Wes Streeting’s bid for No10 and vows to oust him from Downing Street if he becomes PM*** A senior soft-left source blasts Team Streeting for their public statements calling for a “swift” and “rapid” contest before Andy Burnham can get in. The source says: “If Wes thinks he can pull off some kind of stitch up to avoid a fair process that he will have no legitimacy even if he briefly ends up in office. There would be no support for the government in the Commons and we would challenge him at the first opportunity. He’d be lucky to outlast a lettuce.” It means the Labour Party is in civil war tonight Streeting appears to be trying to force a contest before Burnham is eligible It is causing meltdown among soft-left and left MPs Senior figures on the left of the party are threatening to oust Streeting from No10 if he succeeds in his bid to be PM