China’s new AI, DeepSeek, claims to provide ‘balanced and factual’ information—until you ask about the CCP. Then, suddenly, it knows nothing. Censorship is built into the code. An AI that refuses to discuss history isn’t intelligence, it’s propaganda. #AI #Censorship

@LordAshcroft @MailOnline @AshcroftAcademy Strong schools—whether academies or independents—should be supported, not constrained. Labour’s reforms risk centralising control at the expense of what works. We should focus on raising standards for all, rather than limiting the freedoms that drive success. #EducationMatters

@Eastreadingcom @StuartMaggs @LaurenMaeve I’d add that there may be deep insecurity among politicians and advisors. To be blunt, they may be too afraid to revisit the issue for fear of appearing weak. There also seems to be a real mistrust between the executive and Labour—something that isn’t unique to farming policy.

@TWBFarms @henrycooke As a potato cold store operator, I’d expect it’s cheaper to empty stores early than hold until the northern harvest. NZ has legacy hydro/geothermal power with <10p/kWh wholesale prices, while we’re at 26p/kWh—mostly due to our (ahem) unique policy choices.

Adam Smith backed state support for shipbuilding due to its strategic importance. The same logic applies to farming: food security, rural stability, and environmental standards matter. Supporting UK agriculture isn’t protectionism—it’s common sense. #FoodSecurity #UKFarming

@ShepherdWales Oh, they are looking at it, but following the £150 they want over £400 to “de-energise the system” which I suppose in olden days would have been to drain the fuel tank.

@joshglancy I’ve been reading the Sunday Times since the 1970’s. You’re doing great work and it’s amazing that despite all of the pressures you keep up the standards.

Labour’s growth plan isn’t just about productivity—it’s about forcing farms to sink or swim in a system built for big business. Cutting IHT relief, BPR & subsidies will push family farms out, making land ‘more profitable’ for other uses. A feature, not a bug. #Farming

@AlexHeffron20 Interesting take, Alex. Labour’s push for competition & ‘creative destruction’ could well accelerate farm consolidation. But do you think they actively want to reduce ag land, or just see farm failures as acceptable collateral in their growth strategy?

Juliet Samuel sees the wreckage of an industry abandoned to China’s mercantilist ambitions, while Tim Lang warns of a government so complacent that it assumes the market will always provide. It will not. The barns will stand empty, and when crisis comes, the cupboard will be bare

Labour, in its infinite wisdom, seeks to improve education not by elevating the weak but by hobbling the strong. Private schools must be punished, academies must be shackled, and the state, in its lumbering omniscience, must reign supreme. Excellence? An inconvenient relic.

@JRDSills Bank lending data, farmer surveys (NFU/AHDB), and machinery sales are reliable indicators—but they take time to gather. Immediate feedback from lenders and farm suppliers could help show the Treasury the post-Budget freeze on investment.

@OurWestgate @RosieP4 @NewCor18146 Could do with a fence around the non developer’s fields to keep their contractors out when their satnavs lead them astray…

@OurWestgate It’s a slippery slope. A certain land agent, in relation to objections to the Shottendane Farm site, called local objectors “mouth breathers”.

@OurWestgate It says further down: “Customers ordering vehicles off public roads do so at their own risk and accept full responsibility for any damage”. Someone is using the wrong postcode so this can happen again and again because it’s not their problem. Negative externalities strike again.

A lorry driver mistook our farm—currently hosting archaeological trenching—for the Shottendane Road housing development site. Now it’s stuck! A small but telling reminder of how local developments impact and intertwine with the surrounding farmland and community.

@OliverKamm Scripture has been co-opted by all manner of ideologies, but to dismiss Jesus’s teachings as irrelevant is to miss the radicalism. The call to mercy and justice, so alien to the ancient world, has shaped moral frameworks—secular humanism included—in ways we can scarcely overstate

“There was never good reason to believe that Labour knew what to do. The Chancellor has not changed: she is now, as she was in opposition, an empty vessel. The Prime Minister has not changed: he is still today, as he was when opposition leader, bereft of ideas.” (Matthew Parris)

Paul Johnson: All of which leads to the question: what is this government’s “theory of growth”? In a brilliant piece (extract above) published last week, the eminent Oxford political scientist, Professor Ben Ansell, posed that very question and concluded that there was no answer.