Richard Bishop

@bugsandfishes @joshi If you don't like her first two signatures, don't worry she has a third.

@Richardbishop @joshi I mean, the signature I use to sign books as an author looks nothing like the "public" signature I use for official things, that is pretty common? (Obviously agree the two in the Mail are wildly different from each other though).

If you decide to sign two critical election forms this differently, you ideally do not want them blown up on page 2 of the Daily Mail.

The Tories cut defence spending. Especially between 2010 and 2016 — a shaming 22% in real terms. Now, can you show me where, during these six years, the Labour opposition fought against these cuts? And can you tell me how much defence spending has increased in the past two years? No. Thought not.

We’re so short of warships that we’ve had to ask the Royal Dutch Navy to monitor a Russian ship 30 miles off the Suffolk coast. Aren’t you embarrassed and ashamed @Keir_Starmer @JohnHealey_MP ?

This Thursday the country will go to the polls to vote on the bin collections in Gaza.

Far, far worse than anything under Liz Truss. Media? Silent. Starmer and Reeves ...who called for Truss to resign? Silence.

@BenGrahamUK It's what they do and they know that they'll never be held to account, when the local authorities, councils, quangos and governing bodies are all under their control. Just like Starmer's #Beergate , he gave the PCC a lucrative contract and she found him "not guilty".

The law is clear: schools must not promote partisan political views and must ensure balance (Education Act 1996, s406–407). If Angela Rayner has given one sided political messaging days before an election, that’s not education, it’s a potential breach of these standards.

Man, I wonder why Scottish Water's greedy shareholders allowed this to happen

Miliband 🤡 won't allow new exploration drilling in the North Sea and is dragging his feet approving Jackdaw and Rosebank. Meanwhile Norway is reopening old gas fields.

Thank you Germany 🇩🇪and Britain 🇬🇧 for sacrificing your economies to save the planet. China appreciates you exporting your manufacturing to provide jobs for their citizens.

@robertshrimsley I feel sorry for @CarolineLucas we come from different political spheres, but the way she's seen her party taken over by cranks and Islamists must be very upsetting.

Two faces of the Green Party. The new Green party membership has a message for its old leader Caroline Lucas.

Green candidate in this week’s council elections says the White House should be blown up, described Hamas taking ‘filthy hostages,’ and denies that anyone was raped by the terror group on 7 October. Feda Shahin, a Green candidate in Bournemouth, was first exposed – for different extremist statements – by The Spectator on 21 April. We disclosed she had said that ‘the Zionists killed 20 million Christians’ and that ‘Zionists are trying to control the world.’ She is ‘secretary general’ of a local pro-Palestine group, the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which earned national notoriety after it staged a night-time picket of an MP’s private home. Now there are some more to report. In a thread from mid-March, discussion turns to the Iran war. ‘I hope Iran can destroy Israel and leave no-one there,’ writes another member of the group. Shahin replies: ‘Iran should hit the Whitehouse. It is the headquarters for evil.’ ✍️ Andrew Gilligan Article | spectator.com/article/the-gr…

@GailWelshie @Adrian_Hilton @darrengrimes @AngelaRayner @Nigel_Farage You say, "she didn’t have any evidence to respond to his remark in an intelligent manner! " As well as that, "she didn’t have enough intelligence to respond to his remark in an intelligent manner!"

@AngelaRayner is a vile piece of 💩 Telling a young boy that @Nigel_Farage is “terrible” and “really dangerous” and that her “son would probably done dead” if he were PM is not politics, just because she didn’t have any evidence to respond to his remark in an intelligent manner! To lie and manipulate children like this is not politics at work, it’s the ranting of an unintelligent woman whose political awareness is non-existent and who thinks it’s acceptable to try and scare children!

This boy quite bravely says Nigel Farage would be better than Keir Starmer. Instead of engaging with his reasons and inviting others to comment, Angela Rayner crushes him, saying Farage is “really dangerous” and “terrible”, and her son would probably be dead if he were PM. It's an appallingly manipulative way to treat nascent political engagement. If I were this boy's father, I'd be writing a robust letter to the headteacher. If I were Nigel Farage, I'd be writing him a personal letter of thanks.

It turns out that Reeves’s levy on homes worth more than £2 million is already costing hundreds of millions before a penny of the new tax has even been collected. There shouldn’t be any surprise about that. Wealth taxes, which is what the mansion tax amounts to, always backfire. This is just the latest example. Introducing an extra tax on homes worth more than £2 million, with a sliding scale up to £5 million, is turning out to be a lot more complex than expected for the Treasury. It has been reported that Treasury officials estimate that, in the three years between Reeves announcin the levy and it coming into effect in April 2028, there will be a £230 million fall in stamp duty and inheritance tax revenues as values drop to around the threshold at which the tax is levied. Identifying and valuing all the homes that will have to pay the new tax is likely to cost another £150 million. Add the two figures together, and the mansion tax will end up costing the government £380 million before it raises any cash at all. ✍️ Matthew Lynn Article | spectator.com/article/reeves…

@AngelaRayner Local elections have nothing to do with the NHS, Gaza, Defence, Benefits or Taxation. It's about local representation, politicians of all persuasions need to stop conflating national and local issues.

Reform UK would destroy our NHS, and make working people pay the price with an American-style insurance system. Vote Labour on 7th May 🌹

It is becoming abundantly clear that a decision has been made to run-down the British Armed Forces. Almost every single programme, project or plan is being slowed, put out on hold, indefinitely paused, or cancelled entirely. The world is arguably more unstable than any time since the 1980s or perhaps early Cold War. Recent years have shown us all that the unexpected WILL happen. And yet…the British governing establishment chooses welfare and narrow vote chasing spending over defence of the realm. At what point…at what point do we have the right to assume that the governing establishment as a whole are actively working to undermine national security?

@joshi Could do, but if I look back at my signatures on old documents, it hasn't changed in 30 years. She's had 2 or 3 in the last 12-15 years and it changes twice in one year if we're to believe her.....

@Richardbishop Yeah I’m unsure - does her official one look a bit like signature one?

Establish 100 world-class technology schools in 100 towns in the Uk, each one with 1,000 pupils and open purely to merit, on a par with the best in Germany/Austria. Aim to place each pupil on graduation into the very best apprenticeships, like BAe, Rolls Royce, Airbus, or STEM university courses. Double the fees for anybody who wants to do media studies at university 😂

The fact that retiring MPs (some after just 1 term) are given a valedictory debate before every general election but the hereditary peers were given no time to commemorate their 50+ years of service and the nearly 1000 years of service by their ancestors is utterly shameful.

@YBattleaxe15846 @rodbishop15 Hmm, they could have committed to ordering additional frigates to replace the ones that Norway is getting.

@rodbishop15 Nothing to do with Starmer. The 'frigate gap' has been known since about 2020. Delays in ordering the replacements (under the Tories) meant that the new ships will not arrive in time. Labour can't really do anything about this. No amount of money will help.

#Starmer is dismantling the military week by week. Today it’s the #RoyalNavy. We are now down to just 5 frigates as the #IronDuke is withdrawn. This follows the embarrassing performance of #HMSDragon & our broken aircraft carriers. The #Army is also way below needed numbers & our best soldiers are leaving the #SAS. How much more can we take from #Labour

@rodbishop15 Yes but hopefully he'll find time to have a defence review once he's given away Chagos, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. He's giving the EU £1bn as well, so perhaps once all that's done he'll find time and (if we're lucky) money for national security. #WeLiveInHope