Colin Botfield

@LukePollard ordered any ships ? still giving them away ? disarmament!

Rearming Britain. Working with allies. Standing firm against aggression. 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇺🇸

@LabourHome_ all talk and distraction not a single extra soldier, sailor , ship or tank or aircraft just more admin !! lawyers don’t stop wars

Labour is strengthening Britain’s security at home and abroad. A landmark defence pact with Poland will deepen cooperation, support European security, and help keep Britain safe in an increasingly uncertain world. Read more 👇 labourhome.co.uk/labour_forges_…

@ron_dickinson the energy is produced by private companies who pay tax you oaf and not produced by Scotland …

Keep asking Keep demanding We have the ENERGY We just need the POWER

@Gillian_Mackay1 @4Day_Week Greens are lazy !!

Too many people feel trapped in a system where life revolves around work. A 4 day week, without loss of pay, would transform how we work, helping people spend more time with families. I asked if the First Minister would commit to expanding the 4 day week in the public sector.

@AlistairCarns nah Labour just give out benefits for their lazy to sit about smoking and committing crime !! taxing workers to pay for it !!

Too many young people in Selly Oak are out of work or education. Local businesses can change that and Labour is backing you to do it: → £5,000 grants to hire a young person → Fully-funded 6-month placements business.gov.uk/recruit

@ModernNavy @Telegraph cut the civil service

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is weighing up a borrowing option to fund critical defence spending, @Telegraph understands. He is considering several options including borrowing or Whitehall cuts to pay for the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan #DIP archive.is/2026.05.29-191…

@LukePollard @Saab but did you order any kit ?? you are a talker not a doer !!

It was great to visit the team at @saab in Fareham this week. World-class radar systems, built by brilliant people right here in the UK, are exactly the kind of British capabilities we need to be backing.

@JohnSwinney only 41% votes for Indy parties !

We cannot let Westminster off the hook in their attempts to deny Scottish democracy. It is a fundamental right of people in Scotland to choose their future, and we must have that choice.

@DerRohlSouness @murdo_fraser Scotch is whisky old boy?

@murdo_fraser Do one of you realise the network that operates in Scotch politics?! Get your researchers to dig into it. Look at Kenmure Street and the 2 Indian chaps who were.subsequemtly ignored after serving their purpose. Look at everyone.involved...

Nicola might want to reconsider her choice of lawyer after all this. Just digging a deeper and deeper hole for her. thescottishsun.co.uk/news/16314113/…

@DrChrisParry yep @HantsPolice sent out the spin doctor temp DCC who was not a witness instead of the two suspects of gross negligence manslaughter , cowards

Utterly shameful - the political and operational leadership of Hampshire and IoW police needs to answer for the appalling culture that allowed this tragedy to happen. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/2…

@DrChrisParry @RoyalNavy @RoyAnavy @LukePollard for you !

It's appalling that there are more ex-@RoyalNavy frigates serving in foreign navies than in the Royal Navy. There are also more @RoyaNavy frigates awaiting disposal than are serving.

@glasgowswestend @RuthDavidsonPC police are hopeless and ingratiating to SNP Fiona McQueen not charged !

@RuthDavidsonPC Incredible how little faith Tories have in the police. Why would you comment on an ongoing police matter? A lot of tweets verging on defamation. In their hysterical glee some may find themselves open to being sued. Irrelevant dafties.

They are just taking the piss now, aren't they?

@IBallantyn possibly at the time it was quickly overshadowed by losses at Crete but also undermined Hitler confidence in Kriegsmarine surface raiders abilities

Something for the Bismarck Action anniversary: 'The Bismarck and her pursuers' bismarckbattle.com/the-bismarck-a… ‘Morale at the time was already low and on a point of honour we knew we were going to have to sink Bismarck.’ Lieutenant Peter Wells-Cole, aboard the battleship HMS Rodney. ‘We aren’t going to let Adolf get away with sinking Hood.’ Swordfish aviator Sub Lieutenant Alan Swanton, 820 Squadron in HMS Ark Royal. Pic: German battleship Bismarck in the Atlantic, late May 1941 - down by the bows due to a shell hit by HMS Prince of Wales during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Photo: US NHHC. #WW2 #bismarck #history

@MhairiHunter Swinney decision to appoint Murrell even more questionable !!

We seem to have got to a bit of a crazy place now. PR politics, of course, means parties must seek alliances & agreements. But there isn't a country anywhere else in the world where a social democrat government would *voluntarily* reach out to the hard right.

@IBallantyn yes and they could have emerged either side of Iceland , I think Tovey split his fleet as best he could but perhaps fortunate Rodney and Ark Royal could make vital contributions

As you can imagine such things were looked at in my 'Killing the Bismarck' book - along with the fact that a major driver behind Admiral Tovey ordering the Home Fleet out in groups and not as a unified force was a deployment earlier in 1941 when two German raiders slipped through and caused havoc. Therefore, he wanted to cover his bases, stay attached to the comms link to the Admiralty at Scapa, holding KGV and others back for a bit, sending out carrier Vic and cruisers in their group sep from Hood + Prince of Wales (and destroyers) to try an intercept. Holland for his part will have not wanted to let B and PE slip through if he failed, so did his own bit of covering the bases by sending his destroyers ahead at distance. Did not call the cruisers in, I should imagine, as he wanted Norfolk and Suffolk to maintain shadowing on the two enemy ships and so enable the other groups to engage if lunge failed. Which is why they looked on aghast at what then happened, but then resumed shadowing with back-up of the injured HMS Prince of Wales.

This morning, 85 years ago, the British battle-cruiser HMS Hood was destroyed by fire from German battleship Bismarck, the culmination of an 8 min fight in the Denmark Strait. Last year I attended the annual dinner of the HMS Hood Association to commemorate the loss. Couldn't 2026 but here's a display from 2025 of men & boys among 1,415 lost in the ship, also pictured, & some rivets from Hood (which landed aboard HMS Prince of Wales after the fatal explosion). Just 3 survivors. #lestweforget

@Mylovanov @nadhimzahawi The West just talks !!

Petraeus: Ukraine went from 3.5M drones last year to 7M this year. If it finds enough pilots, it can reach 20,000 drones a day. Next come truly autonomous systems and drone swarms — and the West does not really have a solution yet.

@Mark1957 @WalterWhite444 he’s polarising , stands for skivers not strivers

John Swinney 'talks the talk' about being First Minister for all of Scotland. Yet more than a year after their famous victory at the UK Supreme Court - Swinney is still refusing to meet with For Women Scotland to discuss the importance of single sex spaces for women and girls

@NavyLookout @air_maritimepic fit out way too slow , trying to delays spend into next years budgets ! MoD Finance Director needs sacked

HMS Glasgow in sunny Scotstoun today. Still plenty of work to be completed before sea trials in late 2026 or early 2027. Via @air_maritimepic

@ruth_wishart only 41% of 58% voted for Indy Parties and thenGreens said free buses more important than Indy !

How about getting more seats than everyone else put together?

@CMochan @PaulJSweeney don’t think you can blame class if they pay more tax and better educated have had other jobs , politics is one to all

No one who has ever been elected or worked at Holyrood can deny this reality. It’s a Parliament largely made up of middle class people and some well above that - the policy it develops tends to reflect the concerns of that class.