I’ve escaped the confines of Westminster to discover one of Britain’s most enigmatic and beautiful coastlines, the South West Coast Path.
#Edgeland
paperback is out on 6th June and can be ordered here:
I know
@DominicRaab
and although he is not as flashy as others and not a particularly good media performer, he is highly intelligent and will be working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the show on the road. He is decent and he is modest.
It is not up to the Government whether we kiss or hug our loved ones. It’s a gross overstepping of its remit. This is getting silly and overly authoritarian.
If Ukraine has proved anything it is that Brexit Britain still demonstrates substantial power and influence on the international stage. Also, we are still in the room and at the table in Europe. Sorry Remainers.
I can’t believe I’m a member of a small selective group who has a vote to choose the next Prime Minister of this country. It’s completely bizarre and very possibly wrong.
This blatant undermining of Boris and Cummings on
@peston
by
@AmberRuddUK
and
@YvetteCooperMP
both Remainers, and of course Peston is best friends with Amber Rudd’s brother, Roland who ran People’s Vote. All still desperate to thwart Brexit.
Have to take issue with this. The Bamfords have been personal friends of Boris for yonks. And quite frankly they are so rich, there is absolutely nothing Boris can give them that they haven’t got already. Implying it’s a corruptive relationship is crazy.
EU threatening not to offer same terms to Britain as to Canada as they previously promised. Agree with Boris, better to accept tariffs than rules if it comes down to it. The EU via Barnier is badly miscalculating Boris’s resolve.
Just came across this fantastic archive image from 1982: Gurkhas greet defence secretary John Nott aboard hospital ship SS Uganda on its return to Southampton. Slightly nervous grin on his face...
#Falklands40
Non essential Shops not opening until the end of April? I know this is a self interested comment but surely if food shops remain open with little evidence of transmission so can bookshops. Let’s get our high streets moving again.
Ok, I’m going to say it, having just watched that netflix documentary to the end, I actually think Meghan is a truly remarkable and resilient woman. I’ve completely changed my view of the couple.
Penny Mordaunt, on former Chancellor Phillip Hammond, noting that ‘given his reputation for being able to rain on any parade, suck the oxygen out of the room and put a dampener on things, civil contingencies are about to deploy him to Australia’.
Meow 😸 Meow 😻
Re Boris, we need to look at the bigger picture: he ended restrictions in summer, got boosters out before winter, called it right on Omicron, introduced and utilised lateral flow tests making them freely available. These were big decisions, called right.
Has it actually occurred to anyone, that all this debate about taking the knee is actually dividing the nation not healing it of racism, which surely, wasn’t the point.
Dominic Cummings is determined that there be no extension for Brexit. Even if the virus escalates he wants us to leave on the appointed date with or without a trade deal. The remainers Know this, that is why his removal from office became almost hysterical.
The remainers on
@Peston
tonight are desperate to remove
#cummings
, their new tactic is to get a Brexit extension and their number one removal target is the man who led it. It’s so bleeding obvious. The urban elite never give up!
Can someone just tell me when a journalist is actually going to start investigating Tony Blair and his lobbying activities, because, to be honest, I think they might be a lot more interesting than David Cameron’s.
I think we must be very careful, journalists and politicians alike, to promote the shaming of words that are not usually deemed to be inflammatory like ‘surrender’. It is a very slippery slope and it denigrates our Language to do so.
”No one voted for No Deal” is the bog standard Remainer line these days but politicians from David Cameron and George Osborne to Dominic Grieve and Hilary Benn repeatedly warned voters that voting Leave would lead to Britain leaving the EU after two years, deal or no deal.
It’s as if all those who have enjoyed high office just don’t care about their party anymore, it’s all about them, their image and what career comes next which involves loads of cash. Letwin. Duncan. Hammond. It’s just appalling. I’ve never seen such disloyalty.
Totally Agree. Bolton is positively against
@DominicRaab
because he was a diehard remainer. I sat next him at dinner once and he said as much to me. He is letting his prejudices get in the way of reporting a national crisis. Peston is doing the same with his tweets.
#COVID19
Not helpful or accurate for
@adamboultonSKY
to say UK govt is in “crisis”. PM has indisputably passed his oversight responsibilities to
@DominicRaab
for time-being and immediate priorities/work programme for Cabinet and ministers are clear. We don’t need the media stirring things
Look everyone, he said, she said, is absolutely pointless now. Stop re fighting the bloody referendum. Brexit is happening, it's actually happening, so why don't we try and make a success of it instead of trying to pull everything down the whole time.
Rishi has pulled off a blinder. With him at the helm, it’s way too early to write off the Conservatives. No surprise either that Boris wasn’t in chamber. Looks like he will have to find another cause to sink his nemesis.
What a biased load of shit on
@Peston
. My god! what has happened to journalistic impartiality? Why doesn’t
@Peston
get
@maitlis
on as well. Conservatives, don’t watch this stuff, it will enrage you!
Everyone should watch
#BrexitBehindClosedDoors
, its shows up the Brussels bureaucrats utter contempt for Britain. Watching it you should give up any assumptions they will be reasonable in negotiations. They want to destroy us!
‘If we hadn’t had nuclear weapons, I really do believe that we could never have resisted the Soviets.”
John Nott, who served as Margaret Thatcher’s defence secretary, tells
@MattChorley
what it was like to navigate both the Falklands War and the Cold War in the 1980s.
Isn’t it time we looked at reopening our cottage hospitals ensuring they have social care beds. I know there were issues with funding, staff etc but the model was loved by communities and provided relief for the big hub hospitals.
I sat next to someone who is a close friend of Starmer’s who told me he is fundamentally left wing not a centrist at all. This is a good column explaining how he might lowball the electorate.
Starmer may be more left-wing than he lets on
Sorry, but the royal family giving honours to themselves is embarrassing. They don’t need them, they are already at the top of the hierarchy. Honours should be for the people done good.
Camilla, William and Kate receive royal honours - BBC News
I am a tribal Conservative, I believe in its principles, and I will vote Tory because I don’t want Starmer to have a huge majority. But am I embarrassed by what has been going on? yes, I am. All I want now is for my generation to leave the stage and for a new one to come through.
Liz Truss is toast.Hunt is the Trojan horse; he has entered No 10 in disguise to win the war for Sunak. It’s just a matter of time before he opens the gates of this securely protected bastion for the rest of Sunak’s army to enter. And so the countdown begins, tick tok tick tok
There is something fundamentally distasteful about Ms Miller and her equally wealthy backers and cheerleaders using their financial muscle to try to prevent the enactment of the largest act of democracy in UK history.
Brexiteers are being treated like scum, from both the media, the Chancellor, the remain wing of the party, but Never forget they are the ones with the mandate.
I’ve never been a slavish fan of
@BorisJohnson
but I’ll say this of him, he is by far the best candidate for PM, he is a one nation Tory, he will surround himself with capable and clever people, he will get Brexit done. Everything else is irrelevant.
Everyone needs to understand that the Home Office is intrinsically anti-Tory. As a dept it actively works against it's SOS. Look what they did to Amber Rudd. If Patel is throwing her weight around its because they are up to their old tricks again.
Who are the dumb people in no 10 who thought it clever to take on
#DominicCummings
. A maverick yes, a little tonto yes but let me tell you, he is a whole lot cleverer than a lot of them there. He also knows where all the bodies are buried. I’d make peace with him pronto.
This is a bad by election result but this is no time to change leader, in the middle of a national crisis. It would make the party look self indulgent. Besides, there is no obvious contender waiting in the wings.
Call me old fashioned but shouldn't the electorate decide Boris’s fate rather than a bunch of newly elected MPs who have barely been in Parliament. I think the whole Westminster world has gone completely mad.
The way I see it: Boris Johnson delivered Brexit but he’s a messy politician, a chaotic one, doesn’t do detail. Sunak has come in behind and tidied up the mess after the party ended.
If Conservatives lose the next election which they might well do, I hope my idiotic party keep Sunak on as leader of the opposition. There are very few people in the wings as likeable and on top of the detail as him.
Went to the Conservative Winter Party at the Savoy last night. Didn’t feel like a party in its death throes. Energy in the room was palpable. Sunak was a fireball of energy and ideas. I have spent 26 years attending this event and for once I actually enjoyed myself!
I’m with Cummings on this one; get the election over the line before delivering Brexit because a) electorate never grateful if Bill gets passed and we will lose the Labour leavers. B) remainers will attach too many amendments and wreck it.
1. re Osborne interview. Boy George is actively trying to thwart Brexit. He and Cameron meet up regularly with Blair and the likes of Amber Rudd who he considers his protégée. He is an ardent and active remainer.
How undignified for a former PM to attack a present PM and one who has to deal with such an unprecedented crisis. Can you imagine if Theresa May was still in charge herself and the chaos which would ensue. She should have left the stage at the last election.
I know
@AnnelieseDodds
is a clever, over educated woman with a career in academia but she has never had a job in the real world. It’s difficult to listen to her economic lecturing when she is devoid of any business related experience at all.
I am soooooo bored of partygate. Wrong has been done, apologies have been made, fines have been issued, there is no deep criminality here……can we just move on, there are far more important things to deal with at the moment.
Spare a thought, for just a moment, of the burden of weight being placed on politicians shoulders at the moment, most notably
@BorisJohnson
and
@MattHancock
.These are life and death decisions and they deserve our respect not our ridicule.
I know Matt Hancock and he is a cocky creature but....For the rest of his political career and probably life he will be defined by this crisis, blamed for it probably, and up before public enquires. He is working exceptionally hard to keep us safe and we must remember that.
Compare Ben Wallace (I’m a fan) at centre of diplomatic action against Russia; busy airlifting anti tank weapons, training Ukraine forces and contrast Liz Truss (I’m not a fan) sending Instagram shots and slogans about global Britain from Down under. She should be at her desk.
I have no knowledge of Dominic Raab in the workplace but outside of it he is charming, funny and good company. I have always considered him a politician of integrity and I can’t say that of many of them.
Raab’s a grafter. Millennials can’t cope’
It’s so depressing how the media reduce an important political story to a an anti image of a minister. The idea that this man wasn’t working around the clock to resolve the situation is absurd. Can we just please give these people more respect for the work they do.
We should be vaccinating throughout the night. A 3am jab is no different to getting an easy jet flight in August. We mustn’t let the bureaucracy of the NHS get in the way. Anyone can stick a needle in someone’s arm surely. Come on Let’s do this!
On
#holocaustMemorialDay
this is a picture of my Slovenian grandfather, Lujo Vlahovic, who was interned in Dachau concentration camp where he died after helping anti-Nazi partisans and Jews escape the terror.
#NeverForget
PR leads to political stalemate (Germany & Israel) gives the minority voice the largest power, rewards failure at the ballot box, cuts out the electorate from backroom deals between the elites. First past the post is imperfect but effective via
@MailOnline
I’m worried about this
#BBC
bashing. It’s one of our great British institutions and I don’t find it particularly biased aside from
@BBCNewsnight
The key to its future is not to dumb it down. No other channel or streaming service caters for the viewer so intelligently. Fact.
I know politics is all about perceptions but The Afghanistan debacle was a US led operation as was its pull out. Finding scapegoats amongst British ministers is pointless. We could never fill the void left by the US anyway we simply don’t have the military means.
Remember everyone Corbyn was only put on the ballot to placate the lefties then he went and bloody won it! Then Labour thought, never mind, he won't last a minute and hey! He’s still there! Don't dance with the devil. He would destroy this country quicker than a managed no deal.
..
@michaelgove
is good on his feet, a natural, but the thing about him is you have to get behind the front, when you do you find he is one of the most machiavellian operators out there. Trust is his issue not talent.
no apologist for Boris Johnson - read my diary - but this is not the time to shaft him. He did as well as any leader could in the pandemic, probably better, now he needs to get Britain back on its feet. If he fails he goes. Electorate should decide, not media or Cummings.
We mustn’t judge Liz Truss by her stage performances, she is not and never will be a celebrity politician like Boris. It’s her plan we need to watch. And it’s going to be different. It’s going to be brave.
Very glad Truss is banning solar panels on grade 1 farmland. If you live in the country they are an absolute eyesore and probably damage the quality of the soil. Much better they are placed on roof tops or designated parks.
Raise a glass for Virginia Giuffre, A woman ill equipped in background,education and resources, who was abused and exploited and trafficked, who was the first woman to take on Maxwell/Epstein and their power machine. She should be commended for her extraordinary bravery.
This is such a great pic from Andrew Parson, the Conservative’s photographer of choice. He has documented all the great moments over the last decade in and out of No 10. His absolute access is down to his absolute discretion. A true pro.
Really can't listen to
@Jeremy_Hunt
running commentary on
#coronavirus
when he was one of the longest serving health
secretarys. If we are short of ventilators, PPE, ICU beds, don't blame
@MattHancock
ask Hunt and Simon Stevens. They clearly didn't prepare for a pandemic.
Fact: In the last Conservative leadership election
@DominicRaab
came sixth only because he was considered Boris’s main rival. Boris’s backers lent other candidates their votes to eliminate him from the contest. He promptly backed Boris. The PM has always respected and trusted him
The clerks keeping their heads down through embarrassment. What an absolute plonker
#Bercow
is. We should table a vote of no confidence in him and for once the Conservative party should be united in ensuring his removal.
#BercowMustGo
Soon People will be calling for David Cameron to come back. He does increasingly look like the most stable and serious of the Conservative leaders over the period.
I think the idea that Parliament should decamp to Buckingham Palace for 20 years while the Westminster estate is restored is a brilliant one. King Charles doesn’t even live there so it wouldn’t be a hardship. Besides, state rooms could still be used for state occasions.
Behind the hullabaloo of partygate, Good old Jesse Norman is quietly tabling an amendment to the higher education bill that universities declare all donations over £50,000 from foreign donors thereby exposing the companies which have close links to the Chinese state.
Reading this and it is quite shocking how EUROPEANS will lose out if we leave with No Deal. Barnier and pals don’t look quite so smug now!
Europe’s workers fear a chaotic departure
Reading the papers this morning and have to conclude Labour is well and truly screwed. Not even Labour like Labour. You might be surprised by me saying this, but its a bad thing not to have an effective opposition at Westminster, one that holds government to account.
£115,000 a year for life, a chauffeur, body guards, a season ticket to all the best gigs in town, all for screwing up the country in just 44 days. Nice work if you can get it!
Take away second job earnings and you will have a chamber filled with ex councillors. Professionals, Ex prime ministers or anyone of consequence and talent will not go near the place. The Commons is richly diverse and should remain that way. Careful what you wish for!
Fab project fr
@SkyNews
&
@tortoise
- compiling all publicly avail data on MPs' earnings.
More than £17m raked in fr 2nd jobs since 2019: £15.2m to Tory MPs.
Top 3 Theresa May (£2.5m), Geoffrey Cox (£2.2m) & Boris Johnson (£1m) who earns £32k an hour.
2. George is intrinsically urban, he has no understanding of views outside his comfort zone. He cannot perceive the idea that people feel they have been left behind by his sort of politics. He is intellectually arrogant.
This defection might have quite the reverse affect and rally MPs around Johnson. I’m a long watcher of politics and floor crossers are never respected, even by the side they cross to. It’s a political moment but a moment is a moment only.