PeteM 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 🏴‍☠️

Reform's Robert Jenrick vowed to cut flight tax after getting £40k from airline owner mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

The questions Richard Tice isn't answering about the £120k of tax that wasn't paid by his Quidnet REIT property company: Let's start with a "spot the difference" competition. Here's a dividend announcement from Quidnet. And here's one from another REIT, Glenstone.

@gsmales It's not always about money.

LinkedIn provided this rather depressing picture over the weekend - a lady part-exchanging her immaculate, one-owner, 46k mile Ford Puma Millennium, which is appreciating in value, for a new Ford Puma e-Gen, which is doing the opposite. #Ford #ClassicCars #2000s

The truly preposterous thing about the Daily Mail story about the landlady of the “Rat Inn” complaining about an MP ordering a starter is this: It is not exactly a slow news week. We have a war in Ukraine and Iran.  Plenty of serious issues here at home. So do read on, because I am about to reveal something possibly even more shocking about myself. Apparently we now have a culture where MPs cannot even have a quiet drink or bite to eat without it becoming a national incident. Well, in the interests of full transparency, I can exclusively confirm: I have been into a pub and not ordered a starter. Nor even a pudding. Not even asked for the food menu.  On one particularly egregious occasion, I even had just one pint and nothing else.  I know. Please try to remain calm. Daily Mail, feel free to report this. Front page if you must. For the record, this shocking episode took place at the Marcia Inn in Bishopthorpe, a fantastic pub in York Outer. Lovely place.  Lovely people. The serious point is this. If our politics ends up obsessing over what someone ordered in a pub, rather than the cost of living, fixing the NHS, or defence, then we really have lost the plot. Most people I meet in York are not lying awake at night worrying about appetisers.  They are worrying about their bills, their kids, their parents.  So yes, have a chuckle at the silliness of it all. I certainly have. But to the landlady of the Rat Inn, well done for achieving the truly impossible. Uniting the whole of social media in recognising this as the utter absurdity it is.

How to wreck your own pub. Complain to the Daily mail because someone has only had a starter, moan because she makes her staff rely on tipping and spy on what people are looking at on their mobile phone. Unhinged place. Nice looking pub, unhinged owner facebook.com/theratinn/

Avoid The Rat Inn, Anick, @ratales if you want to keep your phone private, or if you don't fancy appearing in the @DailyMail despite spending £150. [Seems fair to assume service is included, according to other reviews it is.]

@stephen7502 @SamJRushworth I'll tell you what's happened, everyone across parties groups and the Tory and Labour Govts supported the deal until the disgusting Tories realised that it could become a stick to beat Starmer with. Absolute hypocrisy.

@stephen7502 @SamJRushworth Come on, do you really think that Rossindell would continue as Chairman if he fundamentally disagreed with the position of the Group?

Here is my favourite Chagos receipt though. This is Reform MP, Andrew Rosindell, writing to POTUS Joe Biden 6 years ago proposing the UK hands to Chagos islands to Mauritius and rents them back on a 99-year lease.

@JohnRentoul Have a read of the following John. x.com/i/status/20430…

@petermansion No

Chagos deal was a terrible one, but Tories wildly exaggerate cost at £35bn over 99 years; it was approx £10bn, adjusted for inflation

@sussexbiker5360 @JohnRentoul They literally aren't. We administer them, that's it.

@petermansion @JohnRentoul They literally are British Overseas Territory.

@bea_johanssen @BobbyInTheNorth @JohnRentoul Again, why did 11 rounds of Tory talks focus on the lease deal? And why were Biden and latterly Trump supportive of the deal?

@petermansion @BobbyInTheNorth @JohnRentoul Again: Tories walked away from any deal with Mauritius. UK's ownership of the islands is legally watertight - title isn't determined by wishful thinking. hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-06-…

@bea_johanssen @BobbyInTheNorth @JohnRentoul The Tories had 11 rounds of talks that culminated in the lease deal. Biden then Trump supported the deal (until Trump got in a strop over Iran). I suspect.. 1) UK's ownership of the islands isn't as strong as some people think 2) a lease deal is the least riskiest option

@petermansion @BobbyInTheNorth @JohnRentoul The Tories walked away from any deal with Mauritius and the Americans aren't on board with the deal. Presumably Starmer pandering to China was a factor.

@acfisken @JohnRentoul And why were the Americans supportive of the deal?

@acfisken @JohnRentoul Ok, so Cameron stalled the deal but is there any evidence that an alternative deal would've succeeded? I return to my point that there were 11 rounds of talks under Cleverly that were focussed on the leasing deal. They must've had legal advice that it was the best deal possible?

@acfisken @JohnRentoul From Copilot... "No publicly available evidence indicates that Lord David Cameron “rejected” a Chagos deal. What the record shows is more nuanced — he continued the Conservative‑era negotiations but did not finalise them before the 2024 election."

@acfisken @JohnRentoul My mistake. Can you provide evidence that Cameron rejected the deal?

@a_y_y_o @JohnRentoul We have an agreement to administer the islands. That's different from us owning them.

@petermansion @JohnRentoul If it’s not legally ours, then we are immediately in breach of the treaty with the USA.

@acfisken @JohnRentoul James Cleverly (Cameron was gone by then).

@petermansion @JohnRentoul Who was the Foreign Secretary in the last government?

@acfisken @JohnRentoul I hate to break it to you but Cameron is no longer in power. The last conservative government thought that the lease arrangement was a good idea. Or are you disputing that?

@petermansion @JohnRentoul The Tories were not prepared to accept it. Cameron told them to Foxtrot Oscar.