Profile picture
Sam Coates Times @SamCoatesTimes
, 16 tweets, 7 min read Read on Twitter
Huge amount in today’s Times about the most turbulent political period with @oliver_wright and @hzeffman
P1 - Two weeks to go before Philip Hammond’s awkwardly timed budget - and we ask what tax rises Hammond can get through the Commons.
Floating cuts to pension tax relief caused immediate backlash

thetimes.co.uk/article/abc2e5…
One ally of Philip Hammond has questioned whether it was wise to bring forward budget from early December to this month. In avoiding one problem, has he created another?

Tory rebels vow to block Hammond pension raid

thetimes.co.uk/article/abc2e5…
Senior figures in government already worrying how to get thru budget if DUP do withhold support. Last year the Tory whips used an unusual device not deployed since Churchill to avoid revolts

Tory rebels vow to block Hammond pension raid

thetimes.co.uk/article/abc2e5…
Meanwhile “30” Tory MPs are demanding £2bn per year more for universal credit, reversing George Osborne’s cuts

McVey’s bid to silence benefits critics condemned

thetimes.co.uk/article/16a2b9…
On cue, George Osborne pops up on the new @GaryGibbonBlog podcast to defend those cuts he made in 2016 now causing Philip Hammond a nightmare
Meanwhile discussions are taking place in government about whether in the end Theresa May May have to face down the DUP, ending confidence and supply agreement

Senior Whitehall source say they only “hope” DUP will support backstop proposal but...

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
Others around Westminster candid that Tory-DUP relations dreadful.
- Sammy Wilson saying she shd go and the party had no confidence in her
- DUP objecting to variants of backstop No10 think protects union

May could dump DUP to break deadlock on Brexit

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
Meanwhile there’s a proposal to extend Article 50. That looks like a very tricky domestic sell.

May could dump DUP to break deadlock on Brexit

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
Key fact being weaponised by government: only 2/5 of the £1 billion for Northern Ireland has so far been allocated

Dump the DUP confidence and supply deal and will Ulster lose out?

May could dump DUP to break deadlock on Brexit

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
Big warnings from NI experts in gvt that you can “stuff the DUP pockets with gold” to sort out brexit differences. Politically unsustainable in the province - they’ve turned it into an existential constitutional q

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
One Tory close to DUP-Tory discussions said people are getting “massively fed up” with the DUP.

General assumption in Westminster DUP always bluffing on everything. But some beginning to contemplate what if they aren’t

thetimes.co.uk/article/4705d5…
Brilliant @oliver_wright @BrunoBrussels profile of Olly Robbins today

PM’s ‘Rasputin’ charms Brussels and splits Tories

thetimes.co.uk/article/0a7b34…
Meanwhile no deal brexit means Eurostar could stop and the lights in Northern Ireland couldn’t go off, according to the government’s own technical notices

Eurostar on the line if no deal is agreed

thetimes.co.uk/article/d41694…
Meanwhile the latest on HS2 will cheer opponent Boris Johnson

Damage from HS2 ‘will be worse than thought’

thetimes.co.uk/article/8a0778…
Today’s Times leading article, meanwhile, calls on Philip Hammond to reverse the £2bn p.a. cuts to Universal Credit

Good luck with the budget, Phil!

thetimes.co.uk/article/2046b8…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Sam Coates Times
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @SamCoatesTimes see all

Profile picture
Times exc

What next on brexit?

In today’s Times I do a roundup of what people across Westminster - and beyond - are saying at the start of the new term.

A thread below on my conclusions, including details of “Operation Figleaf”

thetimes.co.uk/article/62a2f4…
1. The meaningful vote is set to be either on Tue Jan 15 or Wed Jan 16.

A decision hasn’t been made yet

It partly depends on whether the Commons sits next Friday and Tories have a three line whip to attend the brexit debate - which is unusual
2. Theresa May wants to focus briefing on domestic issues - the NHS? - this weekend

I’m told one advanced plan is for May to appear on the @AndrewMarr9 on BBC 1 on Sunday to launch the 10 year NHS plan, spelling out how the ££ announced over the summer will be spent.
Read 14 tweets
Profile picture
NEW

European leaders Varadkar and Merkel discuss how to help May to get through Withdrawal Agreement in a 40 minute call

"It was an opportunity to kind of brainstorm a bit as to what we could do to assist prime minister May" - Varadkar
Varadkar suggests that clarifications, not changes, on the table from the EU side

"We are happy to offer reassurance and guarantees to the United Kingdom but not reassurances and guarantees that contradict or change what was agreed back in November"
Varadkar suggests next 2 weeks key

“This is something we will have to see develop over the next week or two. Bear in mind the UK government has approved this agreement. The difficulty is UK government appears unable at this point in time to secure ratification from the Commons"
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
FCO announcement:

The UK government and its allies are holding responsible elements of the Chinese government for an extensive cyber campaign targeting commercial secrets around the world.
Along with its allies, the UK has announced that a group known as APT 10 acted on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security to carry out a malicious cyber campaign targeting intellectual property and sensitive commercial data in Europe, Asia and the US.
"This campaign shows that elements of the Chinese government are not upholding the commitments China made directly to the UK in a 2015 bilateral agreement. It is also inconsistent with G20 commitments"
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Trump the Indestructible nationalreview.com/2018/10/donald…
The entire febrile effort to delegitimize President Donald Trump continues to be based on the ability of the Trump-hating media to confect or unveil a Trumpocidal deus ex machina every two weeks.
The optimism about defeating that nomination is fading, and the sobering passage of a few days is melting the ardent hope that the fragile and completely uncorroborated account of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would sink that candidacy.
Read 21 tweets
Profile picture
Does AUSA Moira Kim Penza, prosecutor in the fed. #NXIVM #RICO criminal racketeering case, realize that her indictments of #NXIVM leader, Keith Raniere aka "Vanguard," last March, may have affected the outcome of the 2018 Mexican Presidential Election? #ArizonaMafia #Democrats
Moira Kim Penza is 1 of the main prosecutors in the federal #NXIVM #RICO criminal case. A #RICO case is very serious; it is 1 of the most complex types of prosecutions the U.S. Government can initiate. Moira's boss is Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. Atty for the Eastern District of NY.
Penza is a smart lawyer. According to publicly available information, she studied at Cornell Law School, a private Ivy League University located in Ithaca, New York. Cornell was ranked the #13 law school in America, out of 203 law schools, by U.S. News & World Report, in 2018.
Read 117 tweets
Profile picture
Okay then, I am in a hotel with two weeks worth of groceries for a family of four (really don't ask about my day) but there is wine and I've been putting this off so welcome to this evening's cultural activity! It is a reading of Amy Chua's book Political Tribes! There's wine!
I need a few minutes to breathe and start everything charging and figure out this food situation because ironically I have stuffed this mini fridge to capacity and also have nothing I could actually eat for dinner. There has to be pizza delivery to the motel near nothing right?
For those of you new to my feed, I often do things so you don't have to, and reading books that you should know exist but shouldn't spend time or money on is one of them.

Eventually I will prejudge a book wrongly and feel very chastened but I keep spinning that wheel!
Read 178 tweets
Profile picture
The news on our side of the world is fundamentally grim these days, but at least I can shed some light on people's lives that are fundamentally grimmer.
Sigh. Where oh where to begin? I guess here, because it's the first photo I found from my time there.

This is Hebron in the West Bank.
Hebron is the home of one of Islam's holy sites, the Ibrahimi Mosque.
It also happens to be a Jewish holy site named after Abraham as well.

Because of course Judaism and Islam (and Christianity) are fundamentally linked with Abraham. aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/r…
Read 94 tweets
Profile picture
1/ In 2016, we were attacked by the Russian government. The Department of Homeland Security notified 21 states that the Russians attempted to penetrate their voting systems, and some state voter registration rolls were penetrated. nbcnews.com/politics/elect…
2/ One expert described the attack to me as the most serious attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor. Another said that it was a “probing attack,” meant to gain intel to enable a more serious attack in the future.
3/ We haven’t heard much from our president or his Administration about this attack, and sadly that isn’t surprising. Trump is more critical of NFL players than he is of Putin.
Read 9 tweets
Profile picture
THREAD/ Each and every person who had a hand in crafting and passing the #TaxScamBill’s monstrous transfers of wealth to the super-rich must be held accountable.

Here are some of the conspirators who merit special attention:
corporatepresidency.org/tax-scam-namin…
GARY COHN decided the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to make history by cutting taxes for the rich was too great to pass by. Cohn is on record saying, “The most excited group out there are big CEOs about our tax plan.” thehill.com/policy/finance…
DONALD TRUMP once said, “This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing. Believe me. Believe. This is not good for me.” Then went on to champion a #TaxScamBill that could save his family a billion dollars or more.
Read 10 tweets

Trending hashtags

#brownballoffury #NXIVM #Sense8 #Reality #millionaires #PermitPatty #BBQBecky #internet #Irak #Focus #political #right #NAFTA #woman #USA #TaxScamBill #TalesFromKlaus #legal #Democrat #RICO #repeat #OOPS #WilburRoss #badpressawards #Today

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!