Chris Hillcoat

@NotThatRBaxter Where would they put it?

The Olympics have four throwing events, which is too many; they should remove one throwing event from their track and field repertoire, discus(s).

@alexkong1313 @Harpers

Incredible extracts from Nicolas Sarkozy’s prison memoir in the new @Harpers

@EdwardJDavey In a crowded field, this is one of the most absurd things you have ever said.

We rightly expect our Armed Forces to protect British citizens abroad. So it’s right that tax exiles should pay UK tax like the rest of us, whether they’re right-wing political pundits or washed-up footballers.

What ignorant, lazy tweeters who tweet anonymously behind ridiculous monikers don’t realise is that Iran has no missiles that could hit Britain. Even so, our lack of missile defences is a national scandal which Principal Skinner is doing nothing about, especially since top aide, Chancellor Krabappel, refuses to spend more on defence.

@that_stocks_guy @currys I had a similar experience with a faulty washing machine. Phone number automatically forwards to the manufacturer. I had to write to CEO and initiate credit card chargeback to make them do something. Will never buy from @currys again.

#ConsumerRightsAct #Currys #KnowYourRights A rant for @currys, who are currently breaking the law. Normally I'd let it go, but your customer service is a shitshow and your desire to wash your hands of the faulty items you sell is illegal. On 10 October 2025, I walked into your Exeter shop and bought a PCSpecialist computer. This was the birthday present for my 12-year-old. A present they'd been dropping hints about for months with the subtlety of a child who remains terrible at poker. They'd saved their own pocket money towards it. I topped it up. It was, genuinely, a lovely moment. For four months, it was perfect. Homework. Games. The full experience of being 12 in 2025. On 22 February 2026, four months and 12 days after purchase, it stopped working. No final farewell. It just… stopped. My child sat there pressing the power button with increasing desperation, and nothing happened. The machine that had cost a significant amount of adult money, and a not-insignificant amount of 12-year-old pocket money, was dead. Fine, I thought. This is what a receipt is for. I'll call Currys (the shop I bought it from, with my money, as a birthday present for my child) and they'll sort it. Your staff told me that my contract wasn't with Currys, and that I should contact the manufacturer. They also told me to go in-store with the machine to have it looked at. I went in-store. The in-store staff told me to call the number I had just called. I called again. I was given the phone number for PCSpecialist. Phone → store → same phone → manufacturer. A perfect circle of not helping. A masterpiece of redirection. If it weren't happening to me, I'd almost admire it. Now let's talk about the law, because I think someone at Currys may have forgotten it exists. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is not a suggestion. It is extremely clear on this point: when you buy something from a retailer, your legal contract is with that retailer. Not the brand on the box. Not the manufacturer. Not some third party you've never met. The shop. The one that took your money and handed you a receipt. Within the first six months of purchase, the law presumes the fault existed at the point of sale. I don't have to prove the computer was faulty when I bought it. Currys has to prove it wasn't. The burden of proof sits entirely with them. During this window, I am legally entitled to a repair or a replacement, and if either of those fails, a full refund. We are currently inside that six-month window. I bought it on 10 October 2025. I complained on 22 February 2026. I am four and a half months in. The law is not ambiguous about what happens here. What makes this particularly spectacular is that Currys' own published policy acknowledges the six-month framework. It is written down on their website. They know the rules. They have typed them up and put them on the internet. They are simply hoping that their customers are too tired from the runaround to actually enforce them. PCSpecialist are entirely blameless in this story. They manufactured a machine. Currys sold that machine to me. My dispute is with Currys. Directing me to PCSpecialist is the retail equivalent of Tesco selling you a gone-off chicken, and when you try to return it, handing you the farmer's phone number. The farmer didn't sell you the chicken. You don't have to knock on the farmer's door. You go back to the supermarket. This is not a controversial legal position. It is just how shops work. My 12-year-old has been without their birthday present for a few days now. They have been, I have to say, considerably more gracious about this than I have. They haven't complained. They've been patient. They are, in this situation, the bigger person — which is a sentence I never expected to write about a primary school leaver, but here we are. They shouldn't have to be patient. They should just have a working computer. So this is where we are, @currys. I know my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. But before I go down the small claims court route, and start contacting every journalist in my network on a slow news day, I am giving you the opportunity to do the right thing, in the hope that public accountability is more efficient than your customer service helpline. A child saved their pocket money for this. Sort it out.

@dc_lawrence The French spent 700 million to rebuild Notre Dame. We have spent 350 million (and counting) on consultants to *talk about* rebuilding Parliament.

The Palace of Westminster, tired and crumbling in parts, is too good a metaphor for the state of British politics in 2026. But the real symbol of Britain’s structural problems is not Parliament’s falling masonry, but the cost of renovating it. In a new Substack post for @BritishProgress, @johnrmyers & I look at why the cost of repair costs so much (up to £40 billion) and takes so long (up to 61 years), and what can be done about it. We argue that Parliament risks repeating the mistakes of HS2: an over-specified, over-budget and ultimately doomed project. As with HS2, the problems begin in legislation. Theresa May’s government introduced legislation which has led to significant cost on Parliament's renovation without proportionate benefit, including: 🧳 revamped spaces for tourists 🎒 brand new education centre 🖼️ redesigned galleries 🛥️ a river jetty 🌡️ heat pumps & new insulation These are all good things. The key question is at what cost. The risk of making requirements in legislation, with no capped budget, is that a committee is given enormous powers to spend public money, with little democratic accountability. The benefits of ‘Treasury brain’ Many rightly criticise “Treasury brain”, which can refer to obsessing about costs and numerically quantifying the expected value of projects. But in this instance, some Treasury oversight would be desirable. Since Parliament operates independently from the rest of government, it is exempt from the usual value for money requirements typically faced by such public projects. We should learn from: 🏛️ The British Museum, also large and old, has been severely neglected over many years, and faces a renovation bill of just £1-2 billion. 🏰 Buckingham Palace is being renovated at a cost of £369 million, including environmental upgrades, wheelchair accessibility & building safety. ⛪️ Notre Dame, which was actually gutted by fire (not just at risk of it!) and restored at a cost of €700 million (or, if you prefer, about six bat tunnels) So, what can MPs do now to get costs down? We have a plan. Read all about it here: britishprogress.substack.com/p/post-haste-i…

@DanielJHannan You feel powerless but are in Parliament. Imagine how the rest of us feel.

@fionagoddarduk @mendcommunity Thank you for sharing your story. It must require real courage to come forward like this. I am appalled that some people are, even now, questioning and challenging you.

But it was the truth, it was my testimony backed up by evidence. Funny how if I speak the truth about my abuse everyone's in uproar and wants to report it to silence people all over again. The resistance to the truth of what happened in the grooming gang scandal is still so evident and disappointing when its ruined life's or in some cases ended them, and could save future children. It was the second day of eid and my care home noted me going out buying new outfits for the "eid party" and I was going to one of my abusers house, who was a 44 year old man who was logged for abusing children in care for up to 20 years before me, and while there he was pressuring me to ring all my friend to get them to come out cause he was panicking there wasnt enough girls there and his cousins from Birmingham were on their way and they expected a proper party there with plenty of girls. This is the house I was basically kept as a sex slave. The man in question was later sentenced to 20 years for his abuse of me for convictions of rape and child prostitution. Reporting the truth wont change it. And funny hiw there was another case in Birmingham where men were convicted of doing the same to a child on eid, and since they all work though networks it makes sense they were all doing the same appalling behaviour

Action Alert: Complain to OFCOM about GB News GB News recently aired a segment where it was claimed that some Pakistani men celebrate Eid by "inviting families round to rape white women." Please use this action alert to complain about this outrageous segment to OFCOM, the media regulator. View Action Alert Below: mend.org.uk/whats-new/acti…

@GuidoFawkes "I can't believe I hired the 'Prince of Darkness' and he had the temerity to deceive me!" :(

It's the only play. And it doesn't work.

@QcWynter Your use of the word “kippered” is the best description I’ve seen so far of Starmer. Thank you.

Awoken by a revelation. What will have most irked Starmer will have been that Kemi's questioning of him was properly "forensic". His realisation that he had been kippered could be seen in his rapid blinking before he rose to admit "yes, I did". He never thought this could happen.

Hmm. Yes, about that…

@UKLabour Your "Anti-Corruption Minister" has just been sentenced to jail for corruption. I think you should sit this one out.

4 days ago, Matt Goodwin was asked to distance himself from far-right extremist Tommy Robinson who's endorsed him. He's failed to do so.

@PaulEmbery It's a shame that this came out on the same day as the Anti-Corruption Minister being jailed for corruption. Because both are absolute doozies.

Difficult to overstate the gravity of the Mandelson affair. A cabinet minister, during a financial crisis, allegedly leaking highly-confidential and market-sensitive information to a mega-rich financier (and convicted paedophile) who had been personally bankrolling him, while also privately suggesting the CEO of a top investment bank 'threaten' his own chancellor in an effort to force a change of policy. Potentially one of the most serious scandals in British political history, surely?

Over and over and over again. Yes.

@Channel4News They should probably start eating then, right?

Eight Palestine Action prisoners on hunger strike have been warned by doctors they are at imminent risk of irreversible physical damage and death. And Ella Moulsdale, a friend of prisoner Qesser Zuhrah, says she has entered a “deadly period” after collapsing.

@TheTrueVanguard Articulating splines.

Prove to me you’re an old gamer in one sentence. I’ll drop a like if I’m convinced.

@BhamCityCouncil Keeping everyone safe from…?

Big changes for Birmingham city centre! 🚧 We’ve installed hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) bollards and upgraded CCTV at strategic locations to keep everyone safe in the city centre. These measures stop hostile vehicles from entering pedestrian areas, so you can enjoy the famous Frankfurt Christmas Market with confidence. Hear from Councillor Jamie Tennant and Iain Moran from Crowd Guard about how we’re making Birmingham safer. #BirminghamSafe #CitySafety #FrankfurtMarket #SafeBirmingham”

@jonmorgenstern @bscholl @CrusoeAI I came here to post this meme.

@bscholl @CrusoeAI

A new product, a new customer, a new financing! Introducing Superpower: a 42MW natural gas turbine optimized for AI datacenters, built on our supersonic technology. Superpower launches with a 1.21GW order from @CrusoeAI Backstory 🧵👇

@michaelgove BBC?

I think people in this country have had enough of organisations with acronyms that have consistently got things wrong in the past

@theamelia__ Buy moar bitcoin