The Elizabeth Line hit a new daily record of 738,000 users last week. Pre-pandemic projections were between 350,000 to 460,000 users per day. Other figures suggest a net gain of 140,000 public transport journeys across the capital a day
But apparently it's a white elephant
To people squealing about Ed Miliband approving 3 large solar arrays: the countryside around me is littered with pony paddocks + golf courses, upland Britain is covered in grouse moors, suburban front gardens are tarmaced over for driveways
I don't see you complaining about that
This is from
@ElectionMapsUK
and is just for fun of course, but according to its latest prediction it would be possible to walk the length and width of England and not set foot in a Tory seat
#GTTO
#ToryWipeout2024
Britain has dropped from the 5th largest exporter in the world to the 14th in six years.
#Brexit
is the economic horror show so many of us predicted so it's time to look to the future
#BrexitBrokeBritain
1/12 Now that the dust has settled on the
#GE2024
let's take a look at the results of some particularly pro
#Brexit
MPs, starting with Marcus Fysh in Yeovil (who took his defeat so well he's resigned from the Tories)
People NOT bleeding the country dry:
James O'Brien
Rejoiners
Cyclists
Les Dennis
People bleeding the country dry:
Tax-exile press barons
Right wing think tanks
Non-doms
People with offshore trusts
It's the London Mayor election in a few months time. I'd like to make it clear that London has no major public transport projects pending, but I support:
Bakerloo Line Extension
West London Orbital
DLR to Abbey Wood
Tramlink to Sutton
Victoria Line to Streatham
Crossrail 2
@mrjamesob
I love my European holiday costing more when I'm abroad because the £ has gone 🔽against the €
I love paying more for my flight because we're out of the European Open Skies agreement
I love having to remortgage my house to use my phone in the EU
Because I'm a tit 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Contrary to what Nasty Nigel says, we don't have a social housing shortage because of immigration. There were 7 million council houses in 1979, now there's 4 million social houses in total. We sold them off, we knocked them down, we didn't replace them.
Blame Thatcher
1/x Trickledown economics - a short thread. Over 100 years ago, John Maynard Keynes, while working for HM Treasury, did a load of research into money flows throughout the UK economy, and in particular the top 1%
At this time of National Emergency
▪️ Do not panic buy - production and distribution of groceries is unaffected and there will be enough in the shops for everyone in the coming weeks
▪️ Support your local independent convenience stores, takeaways, butchers, bakers, bookshops
@mrjamesob
It takes a minimum of three years to train a doctor or a nurse, for some specialisms it takes eight years. It costs the state £70,000 to train a nurse, £162,000 to train a doctor - so why wouldn't you accept trained staff from abroad? It's a huge gift to the country
It's possible that now Lee Anderson has resigned and returns to the back benches he might start shooting from the hip and make some off-colour remarks.
Hard to believe I know, but just watch out for it
I heard a rumour this weekend that the Government is determined to stop East West Rail from reaching Cambridge. This is a project already well advanced. It's a crushing disappointment for public transport pretty much every week nowadays
#ToryCriminalsUnfitToGovern
@MichaelTakeMP
Can't believe she's taking so long to throw her hat in the ring! Maybe it's a dramatic pause because she's a downstreaming expert. I back Nadine to:
🇬🇧Win the war in Alaska
🇬🇧 Level up the North i.e. Hemel Hempstead + High Wycombe
🇬🇧 Open the sea in the Summer
6/x To be an advocate of trickle down economics in 2022 means that either you are incredibly stupid and know nothing about what drives good economic performance or you're a shill for the top 1% - they bankroll you or you supply goods/services to them
@mrjamesob
Brilliant, get rid of all the EU product regs so UK-produced goods and services lose their CE certification and can't be sold into the EU.
Absolute genius
@mrjamesob
By being a successful, tolerant and welcoming country (before the Gammon takeover) we managed to blag our way to Gold-plated immigration from W Europe - 62% of migrants have a degree. We couldn't consciously replicate this with a 'controlled immigration' policy if we tried
Another day, another light hearted knockabout photo op. Why is
@EdwardJDavey
doing this? It's because
@LibDems
are media homeless, get no partisan media support and very little airtime. If this offends you, demand a different media landscape and check the policies on our website
Reform bled the UK dry with Brexit. Now it wants to destroy the NHS, make climate change worse and the
@TheIFS
said its economic policies are Truss 2.0
Only vote Reform if you hate yourself, hate your life and hate the country
The Tories had a net loss of 251 seats at
#GE2024
and 75 Tory MPs stood down beforehand. This means so many of the architects, instigators and implementers of
#Brexit
are no longer in parliament.
This is an extremely good thing
I'm hearing more and more ex-Tories are going to vote
@LibDems
tactically across the South, just to give Labour a decent opposition
#GeneralElection2024
. This from
@BNHWalker
's Britain Predicts model, how much amber will be on this map when it's updated?
What a thoroughly nasty man Rishi Sunak is, despite not being elected he wants to change the fundamental relationship between the individual, their employer and the NHS, but in a punitive way
#sicknote
@petertimmins3
@steveclewer
To add:
- There won't be a European Army
- Parliament actually is sovereign
- We control our money, it's the £
- European unemployment has been falling for 6 years
- Europe can sign better trade deals than we could
- UK civil servants wrote single market and Article 50 rules
Seeing a fellow journalist attack John Sweeney today . . . I notice that
@johnsweeneyroar
@mrjamesob
@carolvorders
and
@MarinaPurkiss
get far higher twitter viewer numbers than the Times and Telegraph accounts. Right wing ppl are clearly worried 🤨
Policies that set the
@LibDems
apart from the big two:
🔸Raising Universal Credit to eradicate deep poverty
🔸A route map to restoring our relationship with Europe
🔸Drugs law reform
🔸Electoral reform
🔸Free personal care
🔸Build HS2 in full
🔸Reform failing Blue Light services
Eliud Kipchoge name-checks Roger Bannister after running the first sub-2 hour marathon. Well done you've just redefined what we thought was humanly possible
#Eliud159
The new
@LibDems
target seats list just dropped. Sevenoaks is in at 14 with a bullet, having campaigned every weekend for 10 months,
@SevenoaksLibDem
slashed Laura Trott's majority from 21,000 to 5,500. Competitive!
If you really want to boost growth in the economy:
🔸Rejoin the EU's single market and customs union
🔸Invest in fast growing clean tech sectors
🔸Spend significant £s on improving infrastructure
Both Labour + Conservatives have cancelled or abandoned the above
@MichaelTakeMP
I wish people would get off Mark Menzies' back. The only crime he's committed is falling in love with several men on the same night.
Look at his stellar record in government instead
Why I joined a political party: A Thread - So I rejoined the
@Libdems
recently and I thought it might be of interest to explain the context to my less political followers as to why I joined a party . . .
People NOT bleeding the country dry:
James O'Brien
Rejoiners
Cyclists
Les Dennis
People bleeding the country dry:
Tax-exile press barons
Right wing think tanks
Non-doms
People with offshore trusts
Policies that set the
@LibDems
apart from the big two:
🔸Scrap the two-child benefit cap
🔸Scrap all voter suppression measures
🔸Scrap business rates, introduce commercial land tax
🔸Reinstate maintenance grants for students
🔸Giving disabled ppl the right to work from home
Policies that set the
@LibDems
apart from the big two:
🔸Build 150,000 council houses a year
🔸Establish safe routes, let refugees work
🔸Free school meals for all primary school children
🔸Windfall tax, restore Banker's levy, share buy back tax
🔸£1Bn farming rescue plan
1/7 Rishi Sunak and the bad boss syndrome. A thread, many of you will have noticed our Prime Minister launch the NHS Workforce Plan yesterday. While there is x-party agreement that there is a staff shortage crisis, some of the details of the plan are alarming . . .
@LBC
@mrjamesob
Funny how Nissan, Honda and Toyota built car plants in the UK despite us being in the EU at the time, and that Dyson, Ineos, Tesla and Rivian have decided not to since we left.
I wonder why? 🤔
@LBC
@mrjamesob
Just extraordinary that Raab describes supporting disabled people properly as a childish fantasy but he's happy for his Government to give £3.3Bn a year to the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency and £6Bn to Trident. Interesting set of priorities 🤔
@EmmaKennedy
Oceans of empathy from Bridgen there for the departed and for those with Long
#COVID19
, which in many cases is as severe as a stroke.
Shows you how much he values human life and wellbeing
Under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 you could receive an unlimited fine or go to jail for up to 10 years for modification of content via hacking. Kemi Badenoch did exactly this to Harriet Harman. If Britain was a meritocracy Badenoch would not have a career
@Jo_WhiteheadUK
Could still happen if
@UKLabour
decides to reverse the decision quickly,
@LibDems
have made it clear they support building it in full. You can't sell parcels of land off and then build on it within 10 months
A
@YouGov
poll show 8 out of the 10 most popular manifesto pledges are
@LibDems
ones. We've been picking up endorsements across the spectrum from pressure groups too
For the first time ever there are
@LibDems
MPs in Kent, Essex, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire!
🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸
#HomeCounties
#GE2024
If you've heard about the lates Tory benefits 'crackdown' I'd like to point out the
@LibDems
pre-manifesto For a Fair Deal includes:
🔸An instant reversal of the £20 Universal Credit cut
🔸An end to the benefit sanctions culture
🔸Long term rises in UC to eliminate deep poverty
Just a reminder of the background of a few prominent Reform UK guys:
💸 Nigel Farage - Dulwich College
💸 Richard Tice - Uppingham School
💸 Rupert Lowe - Radley College
💸 Ben Habib - Rugby School
Real men of the people, sticking it to the establishment every day
I thoroughly recommend the Votes for Women exhibition at the
@MuseumofLondon
- A scrapbook shows a Cheshire/Lancashire Liberal meeting in 1909 hosted by Churchill that says 'No women permitted' on the ticket, good to know Men Only meetings are a thing of the past eh
Lab - Lib contests have become extremely rare in recent elections, but could we see
@LibDems
gains in:
🔸 Cambridge
🔸 Leicester East
🔸 Sheffield Hallam
🔸 Bermondsey and old Southwark
#GE2024
🔸We used to be the No 1 investment destination in Europe - now we're not
🔸London used to be the No 1 financial centre in Europe - now it isn't
🔸We used to be top of the G7 growth league - now we're bottom
#BrexitBrokeBritain
1/ Yesterday evening I got home to find this leaflet on my doormat after walking 14 miles into Dartford to buy some inner tubes for my bike. A major reason I walked is because of bus cuts . . .
@lordbonkers
Just to add, when I studied A-level Politics at the end of the 80s it was pointed out that 10 years of Monetarist Thatcherism wiped out 90 years of income convergence 1890 - 1980. We haven't converged much since 1990. Giving more money to the rich in that context is ridiculous
2/x What Keynes discovered was that the top 1% tend to hoard their wealth, this was something HM Treasury was already worried about and their fears were confirmed. One might say this was an early stab at what we now call behavioural economics
@WeNeedEU
Oh are they referring to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Patriots who marched the spine of the country to celebrate
#Brexit
, blocking the A roads for miles and miles everywhere they went?
3/x The top 1% having too big a share of the nation's wealth overall is socially unjust but is also a massive break on economic performance. When this became obvious the Asquith and Lloyd-George gov'ts adopted progressive taxation as a means to counteract this
4/x Progressive taxation structures work, and have been adopted throughout the world. Furthermore, the idea of allowing the rich to keep their money, when they have so much to spare they neither spend or invest it is a terrible idea
@PhillipsPOBrien
If by 'peter out' you mean Russia's long defensive line stretching from Kharkiv to Kherson is breached, they suffer a succession of crippling defeats followed by a disorderly retreat - I'm all for that 😀
@mrjamesob
@em_westlondon
I'm really looking forward to being able to smoke on petrol station forecourts again, a freedom denied us by ridiculous EU health & safety laws 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
5/x The behaviour of the super-rich hasn't changed since Keynes' time, a sense of entitlement and unlimited greed means they will always look to increase their wealth and not share it with anyone
Lots of eyebrows being raised at Sinn Fein supporting independent Unionist Lady Hermon in
#GE2019
however this is not the 1st time they have supported a unionist recently (see below), and shows the depth of feeling about
#Brexit
in NI
How They Broke Britain sold more this week, the 8th since release, than any other. Over 100,000 in total. Given the content, it was guaranteed to be mostly reviewed negatively or not at all so I have word of mouth to thank. Thank you so, so much, you beautiful word of mouth, you!
@HughFW
Thanks for your support Hugh, means a lot 👍. As you know both
@TheGreenParty
and
@LibDems
support PR so you are voting for a future where you won't have to vote tactically
@secrettory12
I've met Secret Tory at several non-specific locations and seen him campaign against the poor and the eco-friendly, and talk openly about bribes on many occasions. I can confirm he is 💯 % genuine
Meet
@CooperGeoff
- Geoff is
@LibDems
Parliamentary Candidate for Romsey & Southampton North. Romsey & SN is one of three key target seats for the Lib Dems in Hampshire, the others are Eastleigh and Winchester.
Everybody follow Geoff!
Policies that set the
@LibDems
apart from the big two:
🔸Immediate restoration of the UN aid level
🔸Big venue levy to support small music venues
🔸No deportation of asylum seekers
🔸Fastrack visa agreement with EU
🔸Plant 60 million trees a year
🔸Abolish OFWAT
@mikegalsworthy
Also:
NHS dentist crisis
Lowest payments in the history of the Welfare State
£ at 30 year low
Record low consumer confidence
Slump in business investment, car production lowest since 1956
Two million familes using foodbanks, seven million adults on anti-depressants
😤
This extraordinary map makes me think of all those complacent lazy Tory MPs who thought they had a meal ticket for life in a safe shire seat. They've either been voted out or are in a marginal constituency and will actually have to do some work now 🔸⚒️🔸⚒️🔸
#GE2024
Remember that in 100 seats the
@LibDems
are best placed to beat the Tories. We don't have the money, media support or club network the big two have, so volunteers make a big difference
#GTTO
The Tories had a net loss of 251 seats at
#GE2024
and 75 Tory MPs stood down beforehand. This means so many of the architects, instigators and implementers of
#Brexit
are no longer in parliament.
This is an extremely good thing
Before entering politics Helen was head of financial reporting at British Gas/Centrica, if you're going to listen to anyone about the economics of oil and gas co's it should be Helen!
A proper windfall tax would raise £60bn over 3 years and provide crucial relief to vulnerable households.
Even the CEO of Shell has admitted it's the right thing to do.
Yet the Tories are forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for their economic chaos 🤦♀️
Here's a screenshot of local council control across the South of England courtesy of - I'm hoping/expecting to see a lot less blue on this map come May 5th
#LE2023