Sally Mahon

@believeinscot Three out of five. You missed out those folk who want an independent England, and those who want an independent Northern Ireland.

🇮🇪 - Could have a unity referendum for 2030 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - Majority support for independence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - On it’s journey to independence

@edwinhayward Just "Project Hail Mary" to go; but I've read the novel. All great stories.

4 brilliant fun and thoroughly uplifting films about problem-solving... Science Fiction: The Martian Project Hail Mary (now in cinemas) Science Fact: Hidden Figures Apollo 13 Have you seen them all?

@Dame4VT @TerribleMaps @MattWelch It invites retaliation, though.

@TerribleMaps @MattWelch Brilliant. This forces the Embassy to have every piece of mail to bear the name of these people they would like to forget

No one does street name trolling quite like Prague

@SimonCalder We voted to abolish freedom of movement. And suddenly freedom of movement is abolished. I'm shocked. #Brexit

Tougher rules on pet passports end ‘EU citizen’ loophole for cats, dogs and ferrets. Residents of England/Wales/Scotland must get an Animal Health Certificate every time they take their pet to Europe. Northern Ireland pets can still get an EU pet passport. independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@N84773Novak @MatthewStadlen 5th biggest economy, not 5th best. Our GDP per head is much lower than many European countries.

@MatthewStadlen Well if we are to believe Labour, we have the 5th best economy right now. So what was the failure of Brexit?

Since the Brexit referendum 10 years ago, we’ve had six Prime Ministers (including Cameron). The sixth, Starmer, is wobbling. It’s been a decade of immense instability, and the idea that the chief architect of Brexit, Nigel Farage, would improve things is one of the most audacious claims in British politics.

@rogersharrison4 @AriFleischer True, but GDP on its own has little significance. With so many recent immigrants, Britain's economy is bound to be enlarging. "GDP per capita" is a more accurate sign of an economy's strength. On that measure, Britain is in long-term decline.

@AriFleischer If that’s true, it’s surprising that the UK has moved up to 5th place in world GDP rankings.

“Charles Krauthammer famously said that “decline is a choice,” and the British have chosen it. These trends didn’t begin with the Starmer government, but they have accelerated under its hapless leadership.” Britain Is Dying Under Keir Starmer nationalreview.com/2026/04/britai…

@footballontnt Playoffs are unfair. They're a gimmick; nothing more. Imagine awarding marathon medals the same way: - 1st: Gold - 2nd: Silver - 3rd: next six to finish - can you sprint a hundred more yards, please?

Final game of the season. 1st vs 2nd for automatic promotion. Crazy to think York City could finish with 107 points and still be in the National League next season...

@veeanalytics Rochdale v York City ... at 12:30am? Are you sure? Hope the floodlights don't conk out.

NATIONAL LEAGUE TITLE DECIDER THREAD Final day drama incoming!m. After 45 games, it all boils down to #Rochdale vs #York City this Saturday. One automatic promotion spot to League Two + the title on the line. No other games matter. Pure theatre! 🧵

@TheBritishIntel Utterly not true. And I live here.

English families wanting to fly the St George’s flag on St George’s Day are now facing fines of up to £2,500. Councils are warning homeowners they must follow strict local planning rules before displaying their own national flag. You can fly pretty much any other flag you like - but show England’s flag on England’s day and they’ll hit you with a massive penalty. This country has gone completely mad.

@dxnthfc Fair enough. I've forwarded your message to next year's League One teams. #thfc

Dear Championship teams, We are not the same Tottenham Hotspur that left 48 years ago. Mark my words. We are a very different club. You’re not ready for what’s coming. Bookmark me. #efl #thfc

@TS_Minstermen Playoffs are unfair. They're a money-grabbing gimmick. That's the whole point. But wouldn't it be funny if Olympic Marathon races were judged the same way? - 1st: gold - 2nd: silver - 3rd-6th: an extra hundred-metre sprint-off for bronze ...

It’s absurd 100+ points and it still comes down to playoffs for either York or Rochdale One game decides it Oldham were 27 points behind last year Southend could be 30+ behind this year Not a dig at Oldham or Southend - they’ve earned their place. That’s the system. But how is that fair? How is that competition? #YCFC | #RAFC | #3UP | York City FC

@DannyWazza0 @floboflo Yes, makes me wonder how Richard Tice et al are doing in their Arabic lessons, over there in tax-dodging Dubai.

@floboflo If they can’t speak the mother tongue they should fuck off home 🇬🇧

I don’t see the relevance here.

@DrOsitaMba @Peston "Literally"? Really?

@Peston Literally a government spin doctor 🤦🏼‍♂️ Whatever happened to independent journalism 🤷🏼‍♂️

Hours after President Trump announced a two-week cessation of hostilities against Iran, I travelled to the Gulf with the prime minister and his team, in the official government plane. We have just landed in Saudi Arabia. For diplomatic and security reasons, I have been asked not to disclose our itinerary or Starmer’s schedule of meetings with government heads. But it does not take enormous intellectual effort to deduce that the first set of talks will be with arguably the most powerful of the Gulf leaders, Saudi’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The most pressing question in all Starmer’s meetings, including with MBS, is whether the ceasefire between Iran and America and Israel can endure long enough for there to be meaningful talks on a sustainable peace - which are scheduled to start on Friday in Pakistan. According to British sources - and frankly this won’t surprise you - the ceasefire is real, holding so far and very unstable. One source of anxiety is Israel’s somewhat ambivalent commitment to it - and notably that Netanyahu is explicit the hiatus does not restrict the Israel Defence Forces’ aggression in Lebanon. Another is that the devolved structure of Iran’s military, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the absence of a centralised power structure in Iran brings the risk of continued sporadic and unlicensed attacks by Iranian militia on Gulf countries - and also means that very few shippers of oil, gas and other vital commodities will yet take the risk of moving their tankers and ships through the precarious Strait of Hormuz. As one intelligence source put it to me, Israel’s assassination of so many Iranian leaders makes it incredibly difficult to know who is in charge in the country, if anyone. On the more positive side though, there may be a little more underlying common ground between Tehran and Washington than their public positions on their “non negotiable” aims for any peace settlement would suggest - though I don’t have a clue how their respective positions on Iran’s nuclear ambitions or Iran’s determination to be turnpike keeper of the Hormuz Strait can be bridged. Because the Hormuz Strait is the supply route for a fifth of the world’s carbon energy, and therefore a kind of oesophagus for the global economy, much of Starmer’s focus in talks with Gulf leaders will be a continuation of British diplomatic activity with 40-odd other nations in recent days, namely whether there is any practical way to make the Strait safe for commercial traffic. But his other message is bound to be along the lines of “when this chaos is finally over, don’t forget who your true allies and friends are.” The point is that - like Starmer - none of the Gulf states wanted Trump to attack Iran when he did. And although the UK’s military has been exposed by both the Ukraine and Iran conflicts as depleted and unequipped for this era of drone wars, the UK has been deploying planes and weapons to protect the region from Iran’s assorted uncrewed aerial threats. In the eyes of Gulf leaders, the UK - and Europe more widely, including Ukraine with its formidable drone capabilities - presumably looks a less intimidating friend than either America or China. They have a material interest in strengthening ties with Britain. This is important because Trump’s Iran war is re-configuring the global balance of power in a fundamental way. For Starmer and the UK there are risks, especially if the US were to precipitously withdraw its military umbrella from our continent. And to be clear, there is no sign of Starmer unilaterally abandoning the UK’s historic entente with America, even if Trump is an unreliable, and sometimes abusive, friend. 1/2

@RadioGenoa @MontgomeryToms For someone who can't speak out, this chap is doing an awful lot of speaking out in this video.

British man, @MontgomeryToms, protested politely at Pride and was arrested by 11 cops. In UK, if you're white and British, you don't have the right to speak out.

@c_kennaugh @MaxNordau Yes, I agree. I'm puzzled as to why Ivory Coast politicians are so insistent on this point.

@MaxNordau I feel the same. I only write Ivory Coast as 'Côte d'Ivoire' when writing in French (or 'Elfenbeinküste' in German).

By the way: I'm never going to spell Turkey as "Türkiye" unless I'm writing in Turkish. I don't write "Deutschland" or "中国" or "ایران" or "Magyarország." Turkey is Turkey.

@talkSPORT I'm probably the last football fan in the country who really, really doesn't like playoffs at all. League tables are sacrosanct. They don't lie. Top three up, bottom three down, that's it.

Adrian Durham urges Premier League to reintroduce relegation play-offs #Echobox=1775216205" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">talksport.com/football/41590…

@edwinhayward Ah well, too late for me. The deed is done; I read the book on its release, a while ago. Reading the book first, though, has meant that I've imagined "Rocky" in my own way, from Andy Weir's written description. So I'm looking forward to the film.

Going into 'Project Hail Mary' fresh? Watch the film then read the book. That way, you'll be delighted twice over.

@carryonkeith By the time the World Cup Finals roll around, most of Europe's professional players will be stale. They've all played far too many games this season.

I worry about how long all these Arsenal players will be out for. Could completely derail their season. Or not.

@kroketrendang I wonder whether francophone media in the Ivory Coast refer to "England" or "Angleterre". It ought to be the former, for consistency.

Turkey and Ivory Coast forcing everyone to use Türkiye and Côte d'Ivoire is silly but honestly Georgia should make everyone say Sakartvelo. It can be done. Like with Ceylon/Sri Lanka and Burma/Myanmar.

@TiceRichard "Our" country? Dubai?

PLEASE REMEMBER The clocks go forward an hour this Sunday, which means we will have one less hour of Labour ruining our country 💥