Tomatoes rationed. Egg production at 9 year low. Farmers are being failed by post-Brexit policy just when we need food security.
No surprise Tories are losing the rural vote.
@FT
@NFUtweets
@Minette_Batters
@Keir_Starmer
Even if
@BorisJohnson
isn’t making this up, isn’t it breaking the Official Secrets Act for a PM to reveal conversations with other world leaders? Is any stunt now acceptable to sell books?
There is a fin de siècle feel about Britain’s politics. The government seems to have only two guiding principles: setting political traps for its opponents, and extending the power of the executive.
My latest
@FT
@ftweekend
If you think I was overegging it on
@bbcr4today
by warning the Police Bill is sleepwalking us into a police state - read this by former Home Sec David Blunkett
@BBCr4today
Why did Boris Johnson agree to meet with a Russian identified by MI5 and MI6 as a threat to national security? Why did he meet with him in private? Why won't Johnson disclose what they discussed? Why was Johnson then so insistent he have a seat in the House of Lords?
Powerful stuff from
@LHSummers
“Freedom has its price. But in 50 years, people will remember not whether CPI rose but whether leaders rose to the challenge of defending liberty”
@BBCRadio4
Jesus. You shouldn’t be let loose on protecting our children. You obviously have no idea how the bill will work nor why it’s needed. You’ve clearly fully sniffed up some dodgy briefing from an ill-informed colleague. Educate yourself before you preach if you want to be PM.
Am listening incredulous to
@grantshapps
claiming UK can cut air passenger duty by using “sustainable aviation fuels”. Not sure he’s on the same planet as me
#climatechange
@BBCr4today
What I just said to
@bbcpm
: Boris Johnson was found guilty by a committee with a majority of Conservatives: this was not a witch-hunt, it’s our Watergate.
He has run out of road and his support base in the
@Conservatives
is fading. No humility. No comeback.
Boris Johnson doesn’t seem to realise that trying to distract from the Downing Street Xmas party with his “dead cat” Plan B is enraging his backbenchers even more
@AmberRuddHR
’S anger at “the lack of work and preparation” to get a deal should dismay us all. A deeply decent woman who is a great loss to the Tory party
Exclusive: Amber Rudd
@AmberRuddHR
today announces that she is resigning from the cabinet and quitting the Conservative Party over Boris Johnson’s “purge” of the party and his “failure” to pursue a deal with the EU.
Read the full story here:
(MINI THREAD)
This is a story about (probably) the world’s oldest flight attendant
Meet Bette Nash
After serving for 62 years, she has no intention of retiring
Almost without knowing it, she seems to have been following 3 of the tenets of old-age lifestyle gurus:
@JohnnyMercerUK
Johnny do you not appreciate that what you call “beyond
#brexit
” will be years of negotiation with the EU, after we have lost our negotiating leverage?
#RevokeArt50
As the Conservatives slump to 20% in latest poll, I think I know why.
In four short weeks, they have become The Nasty Party.
@trussliz
has defined almost all of us as the enemy. The revolution is now eating itself
@FT
@PeoplePolling
At 10pm, Lords starting to debate draconian new powers in police bill added by government at 11th hour and not debated by House of Commons at all. Not a good look for democracy
Watching the Covid inquiry this week, having worked in government, I fear the focus on lurid revelations is preventing more important questions being asked.
Clues in Dominic Cummings statement need airing.
@FT
@Dominic2306
#covidinquiry
The story of the
#NHS
is one of good people being thwarted, in a disconnected landscape.
Of directives raining down from on high as politicians try to keep a grip on something they pretend to control but don’t
My weekend essay on the NHS
@ft
🧵
Why have so few liberals defended free speech against the sloppy APPG definition of Islamophobia?
@MaajidNawaz
and
@Policy_Exchange
were right
@FT
@wesstreeting
No this was the executive v Parliament, not Commons v Lords. Last night the government pushed through protest powers using an SI - not a bill. This was unprecedented. Labour’s frontbench caved - perhaps because you’d like to do the same thing in office?
@GreenJennyJones
@IanDunt
This was the most striking thing about
@bbcquestiontime
tonight. An audience which was representative of voting in 2019 are sick of the Tories.
#GeneralElectionNow
Keir Starmer says he wouldn’t have resignation honours list.
“No. There are other opportunities. Tony Blair didn’t have an honours list, it is very hard to justify. If it was reserved for people who have given incredible service… but there are other avenues for that.”
#Today
Public inquiries are one of Britain’s only growth industries.
The Covid inquiry is just the latest example of a gravy train for lawyers which may not serve either victims or taxpayers well.
My latest
@FT
Surreal standing here in the rain listening to a polite but angry Andy Street warning
@rishisunak
not to deter investment by scrapping northern leg of HS2
#CPC2023
NEW: Andy Street, the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, holds an impromptu press conference at Tory conference warning the PM he will be wasting a “once in a generation opportunity to level up” if he scraps the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2.
It’s all going very well …
ChatGPT and
#ai
may mean our kids cheat at homework but it also exposes how out of date GCSEs are.
My kids are sitting the same antiquated memory tests I did: time for a rethink!
My latest
@FT
#edtech
@OpenAI
Today’s the day
@ExtraTimeBook
: 10 Lessons for an Aging World goes on sale in 🇺🇸
It tells the story of how innovators around the world are responding to longer lives
Honoured by endorsements
@ariannahuff
@LHSummers
@davidasinclair
Hope you’ll enjoy it!
Boris should listen to
@jamieoliver
and stick to his ban on junk food multibuys.
We can’t “level up” without tackling health disparities. Don’t let a few MPs hold this government to ransom when obesity is rising and increasing risk of 13 cancers.
@Michelle_CRUK
@tamfry
"Boris, this ain’t alright.”
Chef
@jamieoliver
tells
@krishgm
why he's calling on people to protest outside Number 10 with an Eton mess pudding if the government doesn’t reverse its decision to delay a ban on multi-buy offers on junk food.
The Conservatives face years in the wilderness.
@BorisJohnson
left talented
@KemiBadenoch
and
@TomTugendhat
out of cabinet
The engines of state have ground to a halt: try calling an ambulance or renewing a passport.
@FT
“when I think about it now, I think my goal in life is to keep moving.”
“It’s being kind to people and them being kind to you. A little love and kindness is what everybody needs” she told me
Passengers adore her service
Today I got to fly with the world's oldest flight attendant,
@AmericanAir
's Bette Nash! After more than 61 years in the sky, she's still flying 3x trips a week. And, she's an absolute gem:
My hunch is that
@BorisJohnson
will enjoy the attention for a few days but not actually stand.
We need a
#GeneralElectionNOW
but it’s unlikely.
So Conservatives must focus on the national interest — not Boris’.
My latest
@FT
"Much of the justification for killing civilians is based on a fashionable ideology, 'decolonization,' which, taken at face value, rules out the negotiation of two states ... and is as dangerous as it is false,"
@simonmontefiore
writes:
Feels particularly appropriate to be reading excellent new book by
@CamCavendish
during
#CarersWeek
Many anecdotes & experiences that I can relate to -not least having also, like Camilla, an only child, looked after my parents in the last years of their lives. More follows
We need a clean break from the
@BorisJohnson
premiership.
#toryleadership
candidates who flaunt tax cutting credentials to party members, or stand just to get into next cabinet, fail to reflect the gravity of the situation.
My latest
@FT
Britain must break out of its doom loop. Yes, we face challenges. But pessimism is a trap.
We need to be less Morrissey “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” more
@eltonofficial
“I’m Still Standing”
My latest
@FT
@JamesKanag
"The mental gymnastics required to keep getting Johnson out of scrapes are debasing — for his staff, his ministers, his party and now the police, whose constitutional independence is a cornerstone of our democracy."
My latest
@FT
@ftweekend
Good to see Camilla Cavendish back on
#bbcqt
. I'd forgotten what a great panelist she is. Somebody needed to question the inevitability of AI drivers, mention the necessity of removing both Netanyahu & Hamas + the strategic value of a humanitarian pause in Gaza.
Every big business needs its own Chief Political Officer.
Why? As
@LTGHRMcMaster
once said, geopolitics is back with a vengeance. Governments are more interventionist.
Foreign policy can’t just be left to the generals
@FT
Great piece by
@JananGanesh
lamenting that too many talented folk in Western democracies go into law and finance, not politics. To which I’d only add - and into the media too
@FT
Kwasi Kwarteng trying to win plaudits for the energy package - but this government won’t get credit because of its mistakes. They’ve failed Politics 101
#CPC2022
Referendum and customs union more popular than May deal. If one achieves majority on Monday will she take notice? She’s not constitutionally obliged. Maybe she should put her deal to the People instead
I worked for Tory governments for 18 years. But I still can't claim to understand the party. Why expel loyalists like Soames, Hammond and Gauke - and Ken Clarke who was a Tory minister for 23 years - while allowing all those who rebelled against Mrs May to get off scot-free?
“I dont feel like I’m an old person” she told me.
There are many more Bettes who could be bringing their experience and energy to work, if only we let them
In
#ExtraTime
, there is everything to play for
@ExtraTimeBook
keep active, retain your sense of purpose & connect with people
She began in 1957 at the age of 21
Times have changed - from Lobster, caviar & serving Jackie Kennedy in white gloves on Eastern Airlines’ Bombadiers
Eastern became the Trump Shuttle later American Airlines
Sunak is not a convincing revolutionary. Neither is Starmer. That’s good. The country is exhausted by high drama in office. I’m ashamed to say it, but what I really felt in Manchester was: please can we get on with it and just have an election?
Now perhaps the public can get back to actually running businesses/taking kids to school/planning life, and not having to watch every twist and turn of politics.
@RishiSunak
Thank you for the overwhelming support for Rang-tan!
We’re proud to be sharing the story of rainforest destruction, and its devastating impact on the critically endangered orangutan.
“The future is not yet written…” Do you know what to do?
The arrest of
@charlottelynch
@LBC
is a deeply worrying example of police over reach. The Public Order Bill will extend the power of the state even further: it must not pass
@killthebill_1
'The only question was how I knew to be there.'
After being arrested while covering an eco-protest LBC Reporter
@charlotterlynch
recounts her experience.
Funny I never realised right wingers want to make people less healthy and shorten their lives...The sugar tax has worked - and Boris may find Tory party members don’t agree with him
Boris Johnson has said that he would order a review into the government's sugar tax and veto proposals to extend it to milkshakes, undermining policies being championed by Matt Hancock, the health secretary
I was in America last week. It was sobering how little my pound could buy. But since today’s budget, my pound is already worth 2.25% less. Britain is not an island when it comes to markets
The Interview: Nick Clegg opens up to Camilla Cavendish about his son’s lymphoma diagnosis, his anger at Brexit and life after Westminster
@CamCavendish
@Nick_Clegg
Today she flies the Boston - DCA shuttle
“I thrive on people” she told me while researching my book
Bette is one of the “Young-Old”, who extend an active and healthy middle age into their 70s or even 80s
What’s her secret?
The time has come to purge the rot from Scotland Yard.
The Met has acted like a closed shop, tarnishing good officers and unable to root out bad ones with labyrinthine HR.
@policecommander
@ftweekend
#police
Another Boris Johnson claim which was untrue: he said he’d fixed social care.
Thoughtful report by
@thefabians
for
@wesstreeting
suggests
@UKLabour
will do the job instead. Who will pay? Sounds like insurance.
@FT