GW

@PolitlcsUK Trump/ Iran ' the straights are opening ' Keir 'hold my beer'!

🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer is travelling to the Middle East today to hold talks on reopening the Strait of Hormuz

If these are Trump’s 15-points and Iran’s 10-points, it should be quite an negotiation. The gaps are planetary distances apart. 🪐 Trump 15 demands to Iran 1. Dismantle all major nuclear facilities 2. End all uranium enrichment on Iranian soil 3. Transfer enriched uranium stockpiles out of Iran 4. Accept intrusive international inspections everywhere 5. Permanently renounce any nuclear weapons pathway 6. Suspend ballistic missile development 7. Stop production of long-range missiles 8. End drone transfers and military exports to proxies 9. Cut support to Hezbollah 10. Cut support to Hamas 11.Cut support to Iraqi Shiite militias/proxy groups 12. End weapons transfers to Houthis 13. Fully reopen and secure the Strait of Hormuz 14. Stop threatening regional shipping and Gulf states 15. Accept a broader regional de-escalation framework, including limits on military escalation with Israel Iran’s 10 demands to Trump 1. A binding guarantee that the U.S. and allies will not strike Iran again 2. A permanent end to hostilities, not just a temporary ceasefire 3. An end to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon 4. Full lifting of U.S. sanctions 5. Protection for Iran’s regional proxies and allied militias 6. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian conditions 7. A transit fee reportedly around $2 million per ship, shared with Oman 8. Compensation or reconstruction support for war damage inside Iran 9. Recognition of Iran’s regional security interests.  10. A broader framework for long-term negotiations without immediate surrender of core strategic capabilities.

Exactly this. We need a drastic reduction in welfare in the UK so that we can: A) start reinvesting B) start paying down our best Any politician who tells you otherwise is simply lying to you.

Why oh why doesn’t our establishment accept that its only moral obligation is to the British state and the British people? Not to global welfare. Not to international liberalism. To us, and our country, and our self-government. That is it. The moment they do that, so many of the issues which plague our society become easier to manage. Immigration is no longer a question of benefitting the largest number of global citizens but about boosting the British economy while keeping British people safe. Foreign relations is not about promoting obscure minority rights in far off lands but about securing British interests wherever necessary. And most of all we drop the idea that every culture in the world is the same and therefore anybody can fit in here, and celebrate the fact that Britain has a highly distinct, highly evolved culture all of its own that we want to cherish and protect. What’s so difficult about that?

The UK did it with Hong Kong. It now needs to take its own advice and apply it to the UK to set us all free and turn the decline around: - smaller state - lower taxes - less regulation - cheap energy.

@CreativeDeduct @Plaid_Cymru @RhunapIorwerth @LSRPlaid @Gwlad_Gwlad thoughts on this for an independent Wales?

In the aftermath of WW2, Hong Kong was a bombed-out British colony of 600,000 refugees, with no natural resources and a per capita income lower than many African nations. But by the 1980s it had become one of the richest places on earth. The man most responsible was John Cowperthwaite, Financial Secretary from 1961 to 1971. Cowperthwaite refused to plan the economy. He cut taxes to a flat 15 %, scrapped tariffs and subsidies, rejected industrial policy, and even stopped collecting detailed economic statistics - lest civil servants use the numbers to meddle. “I did very little”, he said. “All I did was to try to prevent some of the things that might have been done.” Government spending stayed below 15 % of GDP. Markets, not ministers, decided what to produce. The result was explosive growth: poverty collapsed, skyscrapers rose, and Hong Kong’s income overtook Britain’s. Today, most Western governments still strangle their economies with taxes and regulations, ignoring the lesson Hong Kong proved: the surest path to prosperity is to get out of the way.

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“The breakdown of society is happening very, very fast. I don’t know if we can survive it.” Dr. Iain McGilchrist warns that we can’t keep smashing our own culture with a sledgehammer and expect people to still see anything worthwhile in it. The most tolerant societies in history created the openness that’s now being weaponized against them. When one side claims absolute moral certainty, nuance dies and anything can be justified. It feels like a return of the Puritan spirit — convinced of its own righteousness and intolerant of everything else. What do you think — are we tearing down more than we’re building?

“What I loved about @Plaid_Cymru but why I left.” Dr Stephen Morris is Head of policy and research at GWLAD. He is a physicist by training, with a PhD from Cardiff. He spent 10 years from the mid-1990s working in Silicon Valley, after which he returned to Wales. Having at one time been secretary of Plaid Cymru’s Wrexham branch, he joined Gwlad in 2018. He is an evangelical Christian, and has published English translations of the classic Welsh novels Rhys Lewis by Daniel Owen and Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd (A Week in Future Wales) by Islwyn Ffowc Elis.

Things we don't need: Wind turbines Solar panels BESS 5G towers AI data centres SMART meters Facial recognition cameras Things we need: Farms Roads Railways Reservoirs Dual waste water systems Coal, oil, gas power Nuclear power

The HMS Dragon has been forced back to port because it can’t produce fresh water. This is the Royal Navy that once ruled the seas. Now it can’t even handle the basics. We’re becoming a joke on the global stage.

Crime rates per 1,000 people: UK cities 🇬🇧 London: 102 Birmingham: 136 Manchester: 178 Liverpool: 153 Japan cities 🇯🇵 Tokyo: 17 Osaka: 30 Yokohama: 13 Nagoya: 6 How has the UK become so unsafe compared to Japan, who have a much higher population?

Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back. Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-mul…

🚨BREAKING: For the first time in British history, the UK’s total welfare bill (£333bn) has exceeded income tax revenue (£331bn) in 2025-26 forecasts! Starmer’s government is accelerating a Socialist Fabian Agenda that is bankrupting the UK economy - exactly as planned ⚠️

In my latest blog post I look at @KemiBadenoch's plans to cut £200 from energy bills and find that, unlike @UKLabour's £300 promise, her numbers actually add up - I break them down in the post I then go on to look at the dire state of the economy and post a range of charts demonstrating how the key economic indicators have all gone in the wrong direction since the 2024 General Election Labour is refusing to listen. Not just in energy but more broadly. It is openly hostile to business, ignoring concerns over fiscal and regulatory change impacting them, and then expressing surprise and disappointment when those policies deliver the exact adverse outcomes business groups warned about Time and again we hear the same complaints - the Government isn't listening. Not to business, and not to just about everyone including their own union paymasters, on energy and North Sea drilling The impression is of a Government that is inherently mistrustful of business, seeing it not as the driver of economic growth but a bunch of self-interested profiteers who are only good as a source of tax receipts As a result we now have the highest tax burden since the 1940s, yet the welfare bill exceeds income tax receipts. Inflation, unemployment, energy bills and gilt yields (government borrowing costs) are all higher than at the 2024 General Election We're now facing not just an energy shock but a wider economic shock from the war in Iran, and Labour's immediate response was to accuse fuel retailers of profiteering with absolutely zero evidence any such thing was happening. Ministers are behaving as if it's inevitable, despite the fact that retailer profits make up 6% of the pump price of petrol while tax makes up 53%!! Instead of listening to credible strategies that would mitigate the impact of the Iran war, ministers are too busy pointing fingers at phantoms and jumping at shadows This isn't just "student politics" it's frankly childish. Ministers need to grow up and have a much more mature engagement with business. They must stop paying lip service to "growth" and actually implement policies that have a chance of delivering it, rather than doing the exact opposite @Ed_Miliband @Keir_Starmer @ClaireCoutinho @AndrewBowie_MP @griffitha @DavidGHFrost @cmackinlay @mattwridley @Iromg @AllisonPearson @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky @afneil @mattotele watt-logic.com/2026/04/07/ene…

Ban Kosher and Halal slaughter. Only the most humane practices should be used in keeping with the highest animal welfare standards.

I'm not a commie or some hippie environmentalist, but there is something wrong with an economic system that encourages the destruction of over 50,000 sq. miles of Indonesian rainforest to produce palm oil. That's an area the size of Pennsylvania, the only habitat for endangered orangutans, being destroyed so we can produce billions of Oreo cookies and millions of jars of Nutella.

Moscow is extremely upset with Ukraine’s rapid strengthening of ties with the Gulf countries in the wake of Iranian air terror. They understand that Ukraine’s unique experience has dramatically changed its role in the region. Thus, they turned to propaganda to try to undermine Ukraine’s contribution. They spread fakes about Ukrainian experts being hit or Ukraine not fulfilling its obligations and so on. We expect more of such nonsense in the coming weeks. This propaganda will not succeed. Our partners in the Gulf perfectly know how Ukraine supports the development of a modern, high-tech, and cost-efficient protection. President @ZelenskyyUa’s visit has laid a solid foundation for a multi-year mutually beneficial cooperation. We take this Russian disinformation campaign as a proof that Moscow admits Ukraine’s success and its own failure.

When income tax rates were 83%, the best-paid 1% contributed just 14% of all income tax. Now, the top 1% pay 29% of all income tax. If you care about outcome rather than signalling (or just bleeding the rich) today’s lower rate leads to more revenue; better results.