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@BellaWallerstei … and unlocked!

Nothing like stumbling across a gorgeous and empty 15th century church

@BellaWallerstei Everybody expects instant results these days, like there’s an Amazon Prime option for the economy. Brexit was a shock and it’ll take many years to adjust, just as we did when we joined the EC. The world is changing and bubbles inflating, we should be ready to take advantage.

He’s absolutely right. Brexit didn’t work. I voted Remain and have zero regrets. Everyone knows it and finally politicians are starting to say it out loud

@tnewtondunn Not sure which is the biggest risk tbh.

However bad Keir Starmer is as PM (and he really is bad at it), there's a strong national security argument to keep him in place until June 2. That's the date industry now expects the government to publish its much-delayed Defence Investment Plan. Once a leadership contest is underway, the civil service will insist on suspending any decisions on it for the new PM - so the crucial job of re-building the UK's hollowed out defences will get pushed back yet again, to at least the Autumn and perhaps 2027. That piles more risk on already significant risk. As any serving senior officer will tell you, we are not safe. We'll be even less safe by then.

@KathrynPorter26 Overlooked for so many years.

Larry the Cat for PM I've met Larry and can confirm he has all the necessary qualities. He's resolute, highly focused, highly competent and the ultimate survivor Vote Larry and get Britain back on track 😸

@timothy_stanley He’s not finished yet, still needs to give away the Falklands and lease them back.

We have seen a new side to Starmer this week, arrogant and stubborn - and I have to say, I rather like it.

@Jacob_Rees_Mogg I hear the King has booked an Uber for Wednesday, not worth getting the horses out for this one.

All the King's horses and all the King's men Couldn't put Starmer together again. Watch now: youtube.com/watch?v=7t2_fX…

@timothy_stanley Feels like it after the 14 years of relative stability before the current clown show 😂

Is Britain ungovernable? I certainly hope so.

@christiancalgie I’d say 4 PMs if Burnham is number 3, when the gilt market shows him who’s really boss.

Supporters of Burnham say he has a seat lined up and ready to go. But multiple Labour sources are also warning that picking anyone other than Burnham would very easily lead to Labour having 3 PMs in one Parliament like the Tories. They warn Burnham will continue to agitate for PM if someone else gets the job after Starmer. One ally of Burnham's says he'll become the 'Bullseye' of British politics - 'This is what you could have won'. A senior Labour figure adds: 'You’re going to have this perpetual issue of Andy trying to run. 'The question is whether Andy can run for this leadership contest, probably not. Will he try to continue returning over the rest of the parliament? Probably. ‘And he doesn’t realise the destabilising nature of this.' A Labour grandee added: 'We’re in a worse state than the Tories ever were.'

@afneil @TimesRadio Has Tony Blair been spotted in the No 10 garden yet?

Darren Jones interview just finished on @TimesRadio v significant — strongly indicates it’s the end of days for Keir Starmer’s premiership.

@timothy_stanley Starmer: Just before you go Gordon, are you absolutely certain it’s too soon to bring back Mandelson?

Fans of decline, like me, are in for a treat. This is like Weimar meets the Crossroads reboot (so badly received, it had to go soft core).

@zatzi He’d run out of people to sack, these will be prime candidates in a few months.

Who cares about the Cabinet…. Complete bemusement by voters as to why bringing back old, failed politicians helps or changes anything.

@KarlTurnerMP @AndyBurnhamGM @UKLabour @Keir_Starmer Surely he was just preventing chaos??

Blocking @AndyBurnhamGM from being allowed to put himself forward as a candidate to be considered in Gorton and Denton by-election was the biggest act of self harm @UKLabour has ever inflicted upon itself. @Keir_Starmer hasn’t said sorry for that. He must.

@BellaWallerstei The lesson some of them are deciding to take is that they haven’t done the above fast and far enough.

Labour have spent their time in power strangling business with red tape, hammering hard-working taxpayers, waging class warfare on private schools, selling out farmers and rewarding welfare dependency over work. No one should be surprised the country turned its back on them

@Allybig62 @ChrisPMelvin @johnredwood Doubled down on taxes to ensure it happened in fact.

@ChrisPMelvin @johnredwood Indeed but Labour came in and let it happen. They could have given tax breaks to these refineries but chose to carry on with the carbon taxes.

The UK government made jet fuel shortages more likely by policies which closed 2 key UK refineries. They are now asking for more domestically produced fuel given worries over imports. Change policy by lowering taxes to get our two lost refineries back in action.

@FennellJW No doubt another sleight of hand being worked out for the DIP, give higher funding for the headlines and transfer extra costs to defence so it’s actually a much smaller increase. Inflation rising will help erode their current funding position too.

This sounds about right from the FT. Not sure where the £28bn figure came from, but presumably was MoD's estimate of additional cost of uplift needed for the capabilities put forward by MSHQ to deliver the SDR. We don't know what those are of course.

@Mr_Andrew_Fox Good for them, police should be confident dealing with and speaking facts.

Who put 50p in the Met’s comms department? They're red hot lately.

@declassifiedUK Too many are now harassing people through London streets with a camera in their faces. Yes he is answerable to the public but in the correct way. I say good on him, think Prescott set the best example though.

@PaulEmbery So many useful idiots and foreign governments ready to exploit them, or no doubt in some cases fund them. If we get the economy motoring again other things will start to heal, for that though we’ll need to find a competent government.

Obviously antisemitism is an evil which needs to be eradicated. That goes without saying. But the wider Israel-Palestine conflict seems to be consuming many commentators on this platform and elsewhere as though it is the major faultline in British politics. The debate has become so polarised and binary that in some cases it is dividing people who I'm certain would otherwise agree on so much. Ironically, those who seem most invested in it are often the same people who bemoan the fact that we have "imported foreign conflicts" into Britain through mass immigration. Britain herself has huge problems, and rectifying them should be our priority. Don't lose sight of that.

@ChrisGPackham All those years license fee payers were forced to pay your wages, at least Shell are contributing rather than leeching.

Profiting from illegal wars and burning up our one and only home . . . what a lovely company . . . Shell profits rise as Iran war pushes oil prices higher bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@LOS_Fisher Drill For Victory!

EXC: Starmer scrambling to resolve row re Defence Investment Plan, as part of his ‘reset’ post elections PM met with Chx & other officials last week Wrangling now over two options: £12bn extra or £18bn extra for MoD over 4 years, FT told... not enough to fill £28bn funding gap