Matty B

“Colonization is the reason these countries are so poor!!” Singapore, a former British colony:

“An Illinois city just approved 14 data centers after hearing six straight hours of people begging them not to.” Residents packed the City Council meeting to oppose the project. Public comment went on for hours. In the end, officials unanimously voted yes.

Florin & his family arrived in the UK two weeks ago and the council have found him a 4 bedroom house to move into in Birmingham.

🚨 Only 49% of Tower Hamlets residents pay the full rate of council tax And no, this isn’t just single person discounts. It’s one of the most overcrowded boroughs in the country. Analysis of 138 councils across England, Scotland & Wales in my latest article. Link on profile.

I love the pensioners in my replies (one of many lovely messages I have received recently)

You can buy a nice little house like this in Suffolk with a 5% deposit of £6,000. Nationwide, Barclays and others are offering good deals for first time buyers with only a 5% deposit. But then you'd have to forego your gap year in the Far East and Antipodes or your fancy wedding. Poor you. Boo hoo. 🤣

The grim result of current UK building regs - such as British Standard 8213-1:2004, which requires that all windows be cleanable from inside by women aged 64–75 without the use of ladders or cleaning devices and without stretching.

Our secret weapon? 17 years of no real wage growth

sunbeam napper: orange tabby finds the perfect autumn leaf bed

What makes a pensioner more deserving of protection from market forces than, say, a young family?

For the retired people in the comments claiming "I paid more than my fair share". Actually, most of you didn't. You're being subsidised by me, my peers, and the children we won't be able to have.

Three former soldiers will appear at Belfast magistrates court on April 20th. One is charged with a killing that took place in May 1972. He is not accused of acting outside his orders. He is accused of acting within them. The distinction no longer appears to matter. This is the reality behind Labour's Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, a piece of legislation dressed in the language of reconciliation that functions, in practice, as an engine of persecution. The state that sent these men to Northern Ireland, that gave them their orders, that relied on their judgment in circumstances no minister has ever faced, is now the state that funds the machinery pursuing them through the courts half a century later. That is not a technicality. It is the central fact. Taxpayer money flows to the lawyers challenging the actions of soldiers whose actions were sanctioned by the taxpayer. The government calls this justice. General Sir Peter Wall, who commanded the British Army for four years, calls it something without moral backbone. He is right. The operational consequences are already visible. Elite soldiers are leaving the SAS and SBS rather than face the prospect of prosecution decades hence for missions carried out under government orders. The crisis has become sufficiently acute that reservists are being brought into the regular SAS to fill roles vacated by those walking out. Britain's most capable fighting force is being quietly hollowed out by a bill whose architects appear indifferent to the result. Seven former SAS commanders have warned that the legislation is doing the enemy's work, that operational secrets exposed through inquiries give hostile states a narrative of lawless troops. Moscow, Tehran and Beijing do not need to discredit British special forces. Westminster is doing it for them. The asymmetry at the heart of this legislation is not incidental. It is structural. IRA members were released under the Good Friday Agreement. Many destroyed evidence, stayed silent, or received letters guaranteeing they would not be pursued. Soldiers kept records, gave statements, and remained traceable. Decades later, only one group remains available for scrutiny. Not because they are more culpable, but because they are more reachable. The Coagh ambush of June 1991 illustrates the logic perfectly. Three IRA men were stopped by the SAS on their way to murder someone. A coroner ruled the force used was justified. Years later a family challenged that ruling, arguing the soldier should have paused after each shot to consider whether to fire the next one. A judge described that argument as ludicrous and utterly divorced from reality. The challenge continues, funded by legal aid, heard at the Court of Appeal just days ago. No verdict ends the process. The process is the punishment. Keir Starmer has said publicly he is absolutely confident there will be no vexatious prosecutions. Three soldiers will be in a Belfast court in sixteen days. His confidence has not reached them. The government insists its bill provides robust protections for veterans. General Sir Nick Parker, who oversaw the final operations in Northern Ireland, says ministers do not understand the duty of the state to stand by those who serve it. The duty to stand by those who serve is contractual, not sentimental. A soldier who follows orders in a war the state authorised cannot later be offered up as payment for political convenience. What is being constructed here is not a legacy process. It is a permanent legal industry, sustained by public money, targeting the most traceable participants in a conflict the state itself waged. The soldiers kept their records. That is now their liability. A serious country does not behave this way. This one, apparently, does. "Keir Starmer has said publicly he is absolutely confident there will be no vexatious prosecutions. Three soldiers will be in a Belfast court in sixteen days. His confidence has not reached them."

Today, at the GPO, we gather to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising and remember those who lost their lives.

Good Morning from Germany, a country whose influence on the world stage is fading. Its share of global GDP is expected to fall to 4% by 2030.