groovy gravy

200,000 people in 8 years. That is only 0.29% of the UK population over 8 years. Yet it’s in the news every single day. In that same time 4,000,000 people have emigrated away from the UK (twenty times as many people). The news is in league with Farage. Sadly it’s working.

@PolitlcsUK Idiots, personal political gain over the rise of borrowing (gilts) for a leadership change.

🚨 BREAKING: 60 Labour MPs have now publicly called for Keir Starmer to resign Clive Betts Sarah Owen Connor Naismith David Baines John McDonnell Ian Lavery Clive Lewis Jonathan Brash Louise Haigh Anneliese Midgley Simon Opher Richard Burgon Olivia Blake Paula Barker Ian Byrne Neil Duncan-Jordan Apsana Begum Chris Hinchcliff Kim Johnson Ruth Jones Andy McDonald Kate Osborne Jon Trickett Nadia Whittome Beccy Cooper Catheine West Tony Vaughan Barry Gardiner Abitsam Mohamed Josh Simons Irene Campbell Cat Eccles Anna Dixon Justin Madders Terry Jermy Imran Hussain Euan Stainbank Graham Stringer Rachael Maskell Debbie Abrahams Peter Lamb Brian Leishman Julia Buckley Paulette Hamilton Catherine McKinnell Navendu Mishra Bell Ribeiro-Addy Emma Lewell David Smith Chris Curtis Luke Myer Markus Campbell-Savours Alan Gemmell Fred Thomas Lorraine Beavers Jas Athwal Sarah Smith Jo Platt Tonia Antoniazzi Alex Ballinger

The cathedral in this video is only standing because of one man. In 1906, a deep-sea diver in a 200-pound suit climbed down into pitch-black water under the building and started laying bags of cement by hand. Six hours a day. In total darkness. For five years. His name was William Walker. By the early 1900s, the cathedral was sinking. It was built in 1079 on what used to be a riverbed. The medieval builders knew the ground was soft, so they laid the foundations on wooden logs. That worked for 800 years. Then the wood rotted. Cracks opened in the walls. Some were big enough for owls to roost in. Stones started falling from the ceiling. The architect's report said the east end was going to collapse. The fix was supposed to be simple. Dig out the rotted wood. Pour concrete. But every time workers dug a trench, it flooded with groundwater. Even powerful steam pumps couldn't keep up. So the engineer in charge, Francis Fox, suggested something nobody had tried. Send a diver down there. A man in a sealed suit, breathing through a hose from the surface, could lay sacks of cement at the bottom of the trench. Once the cement set, the water could be pumped out and bricklayers could finish the job. Walker took the contract. He worked 20 feet under the surface. The water was so muddy that even at noon he couldn't see his own hands. He worked by touch. By 1911 he had laid 25,800 bags of cement, 114,900 concrete blocks, and 900,000 bricks under the cathedral. All of it by himself, in the dark. Every weekend he cycled 70 miles home to South London to see his wife and kids. Every Monday he took the train back and got back in the suit. When the work was done, King George V handed him a silver bowl in front of a packed cathedral. Walker said the whole thing made him uncomfortable. He died six years later in the Spanish flu pandemic. His gravestone in London reads: 'The diver who with his own hands saved Winchester Cathedral.' The statues in those alcoves were also carved much later than the building. They went up in the 1880s and 1890s. The medieval originals had been smashed in the 1540s. One of the new statues is Queen Victoria. So that feeling of 'this is incredible for something 500 years old' is only half right. A lot of what's in that frame is from the 1880s. And the building holding it up is only still standing because of one man and a hose.

BOBBBBBBBYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! 🤯

Trump, MAGA, Farage, Reform and GB News hate the UK and want us to believe the UK is a failing state compared to the USA. The facts disagree. On practically every measure of quality of life, health, safety, education, environment, the UK would rank as the best state in America. The land of the "free " (where people get yanked off the street by masked men) is also the land of half a million medical bankruptcies a year and the world’s largest prison population. This is the reality.

The deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, owns a property company - Quidnet REIT. From 2020 to 2022 it paid Tice and his trust £600k in dividends. Quidnet should have paid £120k of tax on those dividends. It didn't. A 🧵 with evidence from the company's own filings:

@AberconwyMS @hannahhjjarvis bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… lest you forgot.

Plaid Cymru have propped up the Welsh Labour Government for 27 years.

@PeterFox61 @hbaldwin @WelshConserv History ifs.org.uk/publications/c… not good reading.

Fantastic to welcome @hbaldwin to Usk today. We discussed the impact of Labour's constant tax raids on businesses, and how the Conservatives will undo the damage. Only the @WelshConserv have a plan to get Wales Working!

As Jeremy Hunt’s chatting shit again, a timely reminder… nobody mispronounced his name… ever

WATCH: Ed Davey obliterates Dubai tax exiles in Commons

The Welsh Government has just announced Christina Harrhy will be the new head of the Disused Tips Authority for Wales. Haven’t heard of her? She used to be the chief executive of Caerphilly Council. When she left the council she was given a £209,000 settlement after previously being absent for almost a year… The absence was initially through sickness for 2 months but she was off for 9 months more despite being deemed fit to work after raising concerns relating to former council leader Sean Morgan and a senior officer. A majority of councillors present at a meeting at the time voted in favour of the £209,000 settlement rather than pursue a lengthy and potentially costlier formal investigation or arbitration process. It does seem bizarre that the taxpayer has paid a woman £200k to leave her job for which she was absent for 9 months (while able to work) only for her to be given another very well-paid role at the taxpayers’ expense. I don’t know Ms Harrhy or have knowledge of her competency levels. Perhaps she is fantastic. The Welsh Gov say her appointment was following a rigorous and highly competitive appointment process But the ability of some figures to bounce around well-paid public sector jobs doesn’t always strike me as a robust system open to new ideas and change.

Reporting referenced in my below statement: technopathology.substack.com/p/neil-gaiman-…

@PeterFox61 Why is the M48 still 50 mph (which is ignored and not enforced)? The English side isn’t and the barriers were put up at the same time? How many years will we wait?

An update on the A4042 road works. Member of the Senedd for Monmouth, Peter Fox, has welcomed much needed clarity on the A4042 works. Read more here 👉 tinyurl.com/ycyjcuv7

I’m so devastated to hear about the sad passing of Catherine O’Hara 💔 There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t reference this iconic wine commercial she done as Moira Rose in Schitts Creek. Rest in peace to a once in a lifetime icon💔

@DarrenMillarMS @PeterFox61

🚨POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 A Welsh Conservative Government will give working families a choice:   ✅ Nominate a grandparent to receive up to £4,800 per year to care for their grandchildren   OR   ✅ An extended childcare offer - 30 hours for all 9-month to 4-year-olds   #FixWales

@WelshConserv @PeterFox61 @KemiBadenoch This isn’t going down very well. What’s your policy on Ukraine? x.com/alundaviesms/s…

Today, @KemiBadenoch is in Wales supporting the only serious party with a credible plan to #FixWales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧

@AndyBurnhamGM You get in, I’ll not vote for Labour. Is your own vanity so much more important than helping the government?

I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election. Read my letter here.👇🏻

@WelshConserv @PeterFox61

Only the Welsh Conservatives will abolish Stamp Duty on your home. 🏡 Our credible plan will benefit young people, older people and our economy. ✅ #FixWales

@ToriesWales @DarrenMillarMS @PeterFox61 Cardiff Airport is difficult. Do you just let private enterprise fail with the impact on supporting roles? Does Wales just become a user of Bristol? This looks like a U.K. discussion that’s not been had ever. Maybe everyone just wants Heathrow runways.

@bonsors @DarrenMillarMS @PeterFox61 Scrap overseas embassies, scrap the Nation of Sanctuary plan, reverse the 60% increase in the size of the Senedd, ensure government funded employees use buildings they're supposed to work in or sell/end occupancy of the buildings. Sell Cardiff Airport. Just a few⬆️

Once again we see another Plaid-Labour stitch up.   Welsh Conservatives offered a tax-cutting agenda and to cut wasteful spending to get our economy moving. Labour and Plaid's deal will mean more wasteful spending. Only the Welsh Conservatives have a credible plan to #FixWales.