Len

@JamesMelville Pre-Thatcher, Britain had an energy industry, manufacturing, public utilities, a functioning military, effective social services, council houses, and only £87.7 billion in national debt. 46 years of Thatcherism, we have none of those things and national debt is £2.9 trillion.

My telescope in Texas is currently pointed at this: A galaxy cluster. I digitally removed the relatively few stars to give you a look at intergalactic space. Every object in this photo is another galaxy, containing trillions of planets. Space is incomprehensibly huge.

Ed Miliband has a cult-like conviction in his own climate ideology. He is incapable of admitting that he is wrong – even with mountains of evidence stacking up against him. As the world gets more dangerous, his anti-North Sea fanaticism is making Britain weaker and poorer. Unfortunately, as more and more people sound the alarm, Miliband only becomes more convinced by his own righteousness. Today, the Conservatives will force a vote in Parliament calling for the emergency approval of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea – two fields that could be up and running by the end of the year. Turning our backs on domestic gas that could heat millions of homes would be madness in normal times, but it is sheer lunacy in the midst of a gas supply crisis. In government, I legislated to protect North Sea oil and gas licences and I approved Rosebank, even though I was told it would have put my own personal security at risk from climate extremists. It was controversial at the time, but to say times have changed would be an understatement. From the wind lobbyists at RenewableUK to the chair of Great British Energy - Miliband’s “clean energy” propaganda outfit - the head honchos of the green lobby say we should drill. The great and good of the Labour Left, from the Tony Blair Institute to the unions and Ed Balls, say so, too. The relative geopolitical stability we have had for most of my adult life is not something we can bank on in the years ahead. We need to pass on a country to the next generation that is strong and prosperous. That means making economic decisions based on rationality, not ideology. The North Sea is a blessing for our economy. When gilt markets are charging you a premium because they think we’re borrowing too much and earning too little, it is incumbent on the Exchequer to make the most of all growth opportunities we have. It is a blessing for our energy security, with the gas making up half of our domestic supply. But it is also a blessing for our environment, as the North Sea is much cleaner than importing LNG from abroad. However, for Miliband to admit this would expose the intellectual fraud at the heart of our net zero climate policy. Miliband’s agenda rests on the absurdity that carbon emissions only matter if they happen domestically. It incentivises the replacement of British industry with dirtier imports from abroad. The fact that North Sea gas displaces dirtier LNG doesn’t matter to our climate bean counters because foreign LNG imports aren’t counted in our domestic emissions targets. This is Net Zero irrationality in a nutshell. Fewer jobs in Britain for more carbon in the atmosphere – and yet to the religiously fervent, they will argue that this is Britain’s example of climate success. This is fantasy thinking we cannot afford. We must fast-track Rosebank and Jackdaw and lift the onerous bans and taxes on the North Sea to back Britain’s energy security. Kemi Badenoch knows it and Keir Starmer knows it. Unfortunately, so far, only one of them has had the courage to say so.

This letter to the @Telegraph editor encapsulates the experience of many, many people in the system. Prior experience is almost never utilised in government - you could be a qualified doctor applying to the civil service fast stream and ask to be put in Department for Health to utilise your skill set to the NHS and the country’s benefit. You will invariably have your wishes ignored and be plonked in e.g. HMRC and spend the next decade languishing there and trying to get transferred to somewhere more relevant. It’s a criminal waste of talent

We need to be honest about the fact that in the civil service work from home is widely abused. Government departments are deserted on Fridays. The (very) modest mandate that officials come in at least 60 per cent of the time is routinely ignored by many – and managers are powerless to do anything about it

@Ameer_Kotecha unbelievable

Amidst the current debate about how we find the money to fund greater defence spending, we must recognise that there is extraordinary bloat in Whitehall. Cutting this would not only free up funds but actually make departments more effective. Take the Foreign Office’s “Green Cities Team” sitting in a whole “Climate Transitions Department”. These officials focus on combating air pollution in cities in South America, for example, some of which have better air quality than London. Across the Civil Service, there are countless similar examples, all of which distract from departments’ core purpose.

so with Guru Historian Schama retweeting this guys post . does this say something? But what? Meanwhile yes there are mine clearance issues. There are surprise Iranian missiles still launching, long distance - also. But mine clearance is not beyond the ken of the USA and other nations. And those missiles can be tracked and attacked? And what about China ? Would China support the IRGC to go super escalation if the US marines take Kharg Island? What if it’s in China’s interests to have Kharg kept safe and the Strait reopened with US sanctions permanently lifted on condition of the IRGC agreeing to co-operate for negotiations and to terminate their death to America death to Israel agenda? And finally? What is Guru Historian Simon Schama’s agenda ?

please also add that Iran lied on the range of its missiles. They can go at least 2500 miles so London in range. So was Iran a threat? is Iran a threat to the UK? Iran lied on missile range. They lied on no plan for a nuclear bomb. What else have they lied about? All whilst demanding their followers to believe the Ayatollahs are simply serving the purposes of God. As with past Popes of Rome in the dark ages , with followers believing in their infallibility? So.. deceit is ok if it’s God’s purpose?

@ZackPolanski, Iran fired two ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, the joint US-UK base in the Indian Ocean. Neither hit their target but the significance goes far beyond this engagement. Diego Garcia is a 4,000 kilometres from Iran. Iran's foreign minister said last month that Iran had limited its missile range to 2,000 kilometres. That was a lie. And the implications of that lie are ones that every European leader, every Green Party politician and every opponent of this operation needs to confront. Missiles that can reach Diego Garcia can reach virtually every capital city in Europe. London. Paris. Berlin. Rome. The threat you are demanding Britain appease just revealed it can hit further than anyone publicly acknowledged. Now let's address who started this war since you seem confused. Iran built, funded and directed Hezbollah for thirty years. Iran built, funded and directed Hamas, which carried out the October 7th massacres. Iran built, funded and directed the Houthis, who have been attacking international shipping for over a year. Iran supplied the drones and ballistic missiles Russia has been using to kill Ukrainian civilians. Iran plotted twenty assassinations on British soil in two years, every one of them thwarted by British security services. Iran hit RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Iran has been blockading the Strait of Hormuz, collapsing Gulf oil exports by sixty per cent and driving up the energy bills of the British households you claim to represent. And lest we forget what this regime does to its own people: it has massacred over thirty thousand of its own citizens who dared to protest against it, hanged dissidents in public, executed gay people and imprisoned women for removing their hijabs. This is not a government that deserves the benefit of the doubt. It is a theocratic killing machine that has been at war with its own people and the wider world simultaneously. Iran started this. It has been starting it, in one form or another, since 1979. On the promise of a parliamentary vote: Starmer made that commitment as Labour leader running for his own party's leadership in 2020. He was not Prime Minister. He had no constitutional authority to bind future governments. The convention, as he has explained, is that votes apply to offensive deployments of troops, not defensive operations conducted at speed. You know this. You are citing it anyway because it is the only procedural argument left when the substantive ones have collapsed. You lead a party that has never condemned Hamas. Never condemned Hezbollah. Never condemned the Iranian regime that funds both and has just fired ballistic missiles at a British base. Your concern for British military personnel and civilians rings hollow this morning. The regime you have consistently refused to condemn just tried to hit a base housing British forces. That is the context in which your statement lands. And it lands very badly indeed. "This is not a government that deserves the benefit of the doubt. It is a theocratic killing machine that has been at war with its own people and the wider world simultaneously."

Chris Packham ! another fanatic. what is truth to fanatics?

jess phillips? promote her ! it’s the fastest way to rid the UK of this woke biased catastrophe

ask Starmer

I lived in the United Arab Emirates for 12 years and never saw anything like this. Why was it necessary in Trafalgar Square? What was it trying to prove?

BBC's Chief Correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, pretending to be under Russian attack when an elderly Ukrainian lady walking her dog stops to make sure he's okay

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent just revealed MAJOR DEFECTIONS are happening to the Iranian regime, and he's watching their bank accounts "We're starting to see defections at Treasury. We now know where the Iranian leadership bank accounts are, and those are being frozen." "And we will hold them and see who comes forward in terms of defections!" 🔥🔥 "We're back to the stuff of Baghdad Bob! The regime is in collapse, and the people are starting to turn against them!" "We're starting to see defections throughout the regime, and that's how this ends." "Kharg Island...if you're an oil worker, you don't want to work there. So all the oil workers that are being coerced to stay there, and we will see what happens with whether that eventually becomes a U.S. asset!" @RapidResponse47

Why has Starmer still not banned the IRGC? The biggest sponsor of terrorism worldwide. Even the EU has done it. Why hasn’t he?

Ms Meaden reposting O’Brien of LBC tells you much about Ms Meaden.

Tucker Carlson: "You will never convince me, at gunpoint even, that Keir Starmer is making independent decisions about the future of Britain." "He is taking orders, that could not be clearer." "And I think it's clear to the British population."