simon edwards

@donmcgowan Spot on

So Andy Burnham, huh? Why would he pull such a risky stunt, if he didn't think he was nailed on to be the next PM? I'm not sure if it's so simple. In his first failed leadership bid in 2010, after Gordon Brown's loss at the General Election, he came fourth behind the Miliband brothers and Ed Balls. And in his second attempt, after Ed Miliband failed to win the GE in 2015, he came a VERY distant second place behind Jeremy Corbyn: 59.5% — 19%. So his track record in this game is not exactly stellar, and you have to wonder … why now? There is a realistic chance that he could stand, and Starmer sees him off in a leadership challenge. We have to look at the economy for the main reason that Burnham might fail. A dull, grey, but vital part of a Prime Minister's remit is holding an even keel in the choppy waters of global finance. And, despite the clamouring of the right-wing press, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer are seen as a steady pair of hands. Their combined charisma stats would probably register as an 8 in D&D, but they hold respectability within the markets. And that is crucial. Especially right now, as we are about to enter a maelstrom — the Iran crisis is looming on the horizon, and it's too late to sail around it. There was an instantaneous fall in the pound on Burnham's announcement yesterday. He's not designated as a safe pair of hands within the financial markets. He said last year, “we've got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets”. Whilst a laudable ambition, it just doesn't match up to our fiscal reality. The government must have, at all times, one eye on the markets — see Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng for further information. And here in lies the rub — Burnham is personable and likeable, something hugely in his favour in this time of populist politics, but he comes with baggage, and it may weigh him down. To the point of halting his aims. Starmer may poll terribly within the country, but I'd hazard a guess that he could pull together enough numbers to make it a close run thing with Burnham. The King in the North could be deposed before his march on the wall begins. All of this is purely hypothetical, of course, and depends on him winning a by-election in a region that overwhelmingly voted Reform UK at the local elections recently. The odds are not in his favour. If he takes this shot and fails, Labour lose a seat in the House of Commons and potentially control of Greater Manchester. A self-inflicted shipwreck on a scale we have never seen before in local politics. Like being wrecked on the rocks, managing to sail away and then hitting an iceberg and sinking. Right. Enough of the tortured sailing metaphors. Have a lovely Friday. 😃

@07Simmo @henrywinter Easily

@henrywinter How can you vote Rice over Bruno 🤣

Congratulations to Bruno Fernandes voted Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year. Superb for Manchester United in a tough season. I voted Declan Rice for driving Arsenal to within touching distance now of the Premier League & Champions League. The game’s about glory.

@Charlie533080 While I agree with you in principle, I am beginning to think that Ukraine must be our main foreign policy focus and that we play a significant part in keeping the US on side and avoiding a stitched up deal with Putin - hard though this is to stomach

There was a strong argument for US military basing in the UK during the Cold War, but no such justification for allowing the UK to be used for US power projection in support of this utterly insane war. It should be withdrawn until Trump has gone and the US is a rational partner.

@piersmorgan A great time for China to hit Taiwan

I repeat: this is madness.

@campbellclaret What can we collectively do to ensure that Ukraine is not forgotten?

While the world’s media obsesses over every spit and fart from the White House over Iran, and Trump’s endless commentary on talks and deals and negotiations, the 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 war he said he would solve in 24 hours continues unabated … and in addition to benefiting from the oil price rise and lifting of sanctions Putin has also unleashed the largest 24 hour aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began. Almost 1000 drones. A UNESCO world heritage site hit. A maternity hospital hit. Residential buildings hit. Several killed. Dozens injured. Barely registers on the news. This war must not be forgotten

@Charlie533080 Well said Charlie. Who will rid us of this turbulent pair?

Think you meant to say Pete, ‘Never in history has a major country been so humiliated as the US has.’ A global laughing stock, as a result of its blind support for Netanyahu. Embarrassing. Dangerous. Utterly pathetic.

@canadiancarol1 🤣🤣🤣

Boris was an honourable man and a great orator. Keir doesn't even come close

@Rus_Khairullin But utterly soulless

Let me be honest about Dubai. No income tax. Zero. You keep everything you earn. Safest country on earth - Numbeo 2025. Crime index 16. London is 45. Paris is 50. Sun 365 days a year. The city never sleeps. Infrastructure that makes European capitals look like they’re still in 2005. You can build a company in a free zone with 100% foreign ownership and zero corporate tax on most structures. World-class hospitals. Best malls. Restaurants from every corner of the planet. You want a Michelin-starred dinner at midnight - done. Every major crypto exchange, fund, and Web3 company is setting up here. The ecosystem is real. And the people? 200 nationalities living in the same city. Nobody cares where you’re from. Only what you’re building. People ask me why I came back here after the recent situation. The question should be - why would I leave? There is no better city on earth right now for someone who wants to build, earn, and actually live well. That’s not marketing. That’s just the reality of living here. 🇦🇪

@piersmorgan @_DeclanRice Can anyone explain why he isn’t captain - and of England?

Running out of superlatives for this guy. Bossed the game, scored another worldie goal, and led the team like a General. Take a bow @_DeclanRice - brilliant, BRILLIANT performance. 👏👏

@maddenifico Well do something about it!

I have never witnessed a US president who is more disconnected from reality than Trump. Megalomania, malignant narcissism, and insanity in someone with this much power is a recipe for disaster. As a country, we are in the midst of Orwell's nightmare. 😳👇

@Independent Just think of the fuel we are saving

Close analysis by The Independent indicates that Heathrow Terminal 4 has lost one in three of its passengers since the US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February. Terminal 4 lies south of the southern runway, cut off from the more central Terminals 2, 3 and 5. With onward connections tricky, it has turned into more of a point-to-point terminal – with flights out to key Middle East hubs its main speciality. The Independent's Travel Correspondent Simon Calder reports.

@Charlie533080 It is extraordinary how a democracy can allow a senile old man with no attention span or judgement to continue to wield a power that is bringing the world to its knees. For goodness sake remove him

Trump and Netanyahu’s disastrous war against Iran will reverberate for decades. The Iranian negotiating position - the threat of global economic disruption - will not now disappear. Arguably leaving them stronger than ever before.

@KayBurley Died not passed!

Remembering my mum today who was 59 when she passed. Alexander just eight months old at the time. 32 years later and I still remember when I could speak to her half a dozen times a day. Laughing, crying, quarrelling, seeking her words of wisdom and unwavering love. I know she would have been proud of her grandson. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who still miss your mum everyday.

Sums it up

In a sea of mainstream media bullshit narratives, it is rare,and truly refreshing,to hear someone bluntly state the obvious truth....

@Osint613 No terms. Just go. We shouldn’t reward failure

NEW: UK Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald is understood to be negotiating the terms of his departure from 10 Downing Street, which would make him the third senior member of staff to leave in recent days. He is expected to follow Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan out the door, according to The Guardian.

For all of my life Russia has tried to decouple Europe from America and break the North Atlantic Alliance. It never succeeded. Instead it lost the Cold War, leaving NATO more powerful than ever.  But now success is staring the Kremlin in the face. All thanks to Donald Trump.  Denmark’s Prime Minister says that if Trump tries to take Greenland by force it would destroy NATO. He’s right, of course. The problem is President Trump doesn’t seem to care.  Previous Presidents have toyed with the idea of acquiring Greenland. Harry Truman even made an offer in 1948 — $1.5 billion in today’s money, since you ask. The Danes turned him down.  But Trump is the first President to threaten force if he can’t get what he wants by negotiation.  Nobody should underestimate the catastrophic consequences for NATO if its leading member annexed the territory of a smaller member. It would be the abnegation of everything NATO is meant to stand for.  Nobody denies Greenland is gaining in strategic importance to America. Melting ice is opening up new sea lanes around it of growing geopolitical and economic significance. It sits almost midway in the Arctic region between Russia’s northern coast, with its intercontinental ballistic missile bases, and the US mainland. It is on the approach route to America should these missiles ever head this way. It’s why America already has a crucial Space Force base in Greenland.  So when it comes to Greenland the US obviously has skin in the game. But the crucial point is that, in security terms, America can have whatever it wants in Greenland without annexing an ally against its will.  After it turned down Truman, Denmark signed up to the 1951 Greenland Defence Agreement (renewed in 2004). It gives the US the right to build as many bases as it wants and station unlimited numbers of military folk there. During the Cold War around 15,000 US person were based in Greenland. It’s now 200.  Trump claims Greenland is under threat from imminent takeover by China and/or Russia. It isn't, of course.  They haven’t seen a Chinese ship up there for 12 years. But if Trump truly believes it, there's nothing to stop him from ramping up US military assets in Greenland back to Cold War levels or more. Moreover his European Nato allies are on side – the defence of what's being called the 'High North' does need to be bolstered. That's why they sanctioned some extra troop deployments to Greenland last week, a small first step to increase Nato resources in the Arctic.  But instead of welcoming the move, Trump inexplicably saw it as a threat to America, designed to thwart his ambition to grab Greenland.  So he slapped penal tariffs on the UK and seven other NATO allies. He always puts higher tariffs on America’s friends than its enemies   The Trump administration depicts Greenland as a defenceless frozen waste in danger of being picked off by NATO’s enemies. It’s a nonsense.  Greenland is a self-governing Danish protectorate. As such it is fully covered by NATO security guarantees, including the all-important Article 5 — which says an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Yet Trump still wants to grab Greenland, all part of his mission not just to be Imperial President of the USA but Imperial Overlord of the whole Western Hemisphere.  In an almost deranged message to Norway’s prime minister today he even suggests he’s keener than ever because Norway denied him the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no dealing with such nonsense. Europe and Canada will need to start preparing for a NATO without America, embracing all the extra defence spending that will entail.  Under Trump America is on the brink of becoming the enemy, not our most important ally. As a lifelong supporter of the US it is chilling to write and say such words.  The stakes could not be higher. As I speak there is despair in European capitals and delight in Moscow. That should tell you everything about the dangerous watershed we’ve now reached.

Christmas Day internet winner! 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 🇺🇦

@EdwardGLuce @adamboultonTABB It is difficult to believe that Europe or NATO are truly committed to a victory for Ukraine. Do they fear a Russian defeat? Or is it now impossible for a liberal democratic government to mobilise their electorate’s psychologically and practically for potential war?

Anyone who cares about Europe's future and who loathes Putin should want this plan to succeed. It's the single most important decision Europe could take. ft.com/content/3c2391…

@stephenpollard @ChurchTimes Until you accept the truth of this you will remain a very unhappy man

The @ChurchTimes has published one of the most explicitly antisemitic pieces I've ever read in a supposedly mainstream publication. A taster: "Jewry today is loathed because of Israel’s merciless onslaught on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank." #Echobox=1760693346" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/…