āThe company collapsed like a house of cards, punctuated by a final lie: that ā¬1.9bn of its cash was āmissingā. In fact, the money never existed and Wirecard had for years relied on a fraud that was almost farcical in its simplicity:ā
Jun 23 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
Wakefield predictable but Tiverton & Honiton has to overturn a majority of 24k+.
A huge ask.
There are only 40 Tory seats that have larger majorities than Tiverton and Honiton, so if LDs win, taken with Chesham and N Shropshire that looks like a strong strong trend.
Those three constituencies were all āforever Toryā seats. With large majorities.
Tiverton is the constituency with the largest majority to overturn.
N Shropshire was just under 23k.
Jun 23 ⢠5 tweets ⢠2 min read
What is the current state pension & how much it will increase under the triple lock
Do remember, when you see 10% rises mentioned that for most pensioners their current state pension is £7,400 pa
Only post 2016 pensioners get Ā£9600 pa & if FULLY paid up apple.news/AhgIpKuzbRTeQ_ā¦
Those in the 2016 onwards scheme have to pay in for more years and that affects a lot of women who took career breaks to have and look after children and care for elderly relatives.
They would not get the full state pension unless they continued to pay NI stamps.
Jun 23 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
āBritain risks becoming a ārule takerā from Brussels after the government chose not to give the competition regulator powers to set codes of conduct for big internet groups such as Google and Facebook, the watchdogās outgoing chief executive has warnedā ft.com/content/bfc7a3ā¦
While the UK is now outside the EU and sets its own rules, Andrea Coscelli said that in practice companies were already investing to adapt to the laws set by Brussels, making it harder for the UK to diverge later because of the āundue costā on corporates
Jun 23 ⢠4 tweets ⢠1 min read
āany suggestion that the Bill maintains the same level of protection as the HRA is ultimately doomed to failure because, for reasons hinted at above & developed below, the Bill significantly diminishes the level and forms of domestic protection afforded to the Convention rights.ā
Ifā¦this results in more applications to (& UK losses in) the Strasbourg Court, the Gov will then face a stark choice between accepting the Courtās judgments-exploding the myth that the Bill magically enabled the UK to loosen its international obligations via domestic legislation
Jun 22 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
Politicians and commentators in Berlin have reacted with dismay to remarks by Olaf Scholzās foreign policy adviser, Jens Plƶtner, who said the media should focus more on Germanyās future relationship with Russia than on supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons ft.com/content/e1deaaā¦
Speaking at a debate at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), he said the discussion about helping Ukraine was driven by a āfeverishness that misses the big issuesā.
Iād say being bombed to smithereens is a pretty damn big issue.
More of a Plƶnker than a Plƶtner
Jun 21 ⢠5 tweets ⢠2 min read
This #RMT strike issues vignette from @BBCRosAtkins is really fact packed.
Large šŗšø Veteran Affairs study.
Over a Quarter of a million with at least one infection.
Nearly 40k with two or more infections.
Over five mill with no record of infection.
Jun 21 ⢠14 tweets ⢠3 min read
āItās a fact that ought to be so obvious as to be banal: the most effective way to help people who donāt have enough money is to give them more of it.ā
Itās efficient and they will spend it (going back into the economy) not hard it like the rich.
ft.com/content/2925daā¦
Studies show that they give better life outcomes, improve mental health, alleviate stunted growth among children and increase the number of women and girls in education.
And thatās just if we restrict our analysis of cash transfers to those given by rich states to poorer ones.
Jun 20 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
So human beings who own second and more properties and rent them out can whack up their income by £4,800 pa per property. Cost of living & all that
BUT NOT
Nurses
Doctors
Care Workers
Teachers
Criminal and public lawyers (the poorly paid end of the profession)
Civil Servants
It isnāt just š¦ hunting (althoā certainly that in part).
It is looking straight in the eye the wholesale misrepresentation of the nature of āsovereigntyā and its necessary relationship to power/clout that they failed to understand that is a problem for quitters.
āJohnson may not want his party ārelitigatingā Brexit but neither does Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour party, around a third of whose supporters voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.ā
To state the bleeding obvious. That means TWO THIRDS DID NOT.
Jun 19 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
Have we forgotten that š¬š§ gov failed to equip šŗš¦ with lethal ordnance in the decade leading up to the invasion?
A Sunday Times Insight investigation included an interview with a former UK defence secretary who said that the government in Kyiv was ādesperateā to buy š¬š§ weapons.
ā[They] wanted almost everything. They were not able to resist the incursions into Donbas. At times they had little more than rifles,ā Michael Fallon said.
Cameron
Fox
Johnson who far from providing weapons sought to ānormaliseā relations with the Kremlin
All failed Ukraine.
Jun 19 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
What is @SwanseaUni doing employing Andrew Tetterborn as Chair of Law when his grasp of law, published for all to see in the Mail, is so startlingly poor.
Arron Banks almost crushed me in court. Instead, my quest for the facts was vindicated | Carole Cadwalladr
Banksās claimed that his āsole involvement with the Russians was a boozy six-hour lunchā. A statement Justice Steyn found to be āwholly inaccurateā theguardian.com/uk-news/commenā¦
She examined all the underlying documentation, including evidence newly revealed in the case, and concluded āhe had at least 4 meetings, including 3 lunchesā. She added: āIt would be wrong to expect a journalist to refrain from identifying such an inaccurate statement⦠as a lieā
Jun 18 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
Russian spies could be 'active at all levels of British society', MI5 believes - Mirror Online
āSources claim Putin has spies in all areas of British society, from top public schools to staff in the civil service and the House of Commons.ā
āThis could be anything from what sort of weaponry is being sent to the Ukraine ā & how much of it ā to the sexual antics of the countryās political & military leaders.ā
Spoilt for choice in the Tory Party.
One spy arrested
Jun 18 ⢠13 tweets ⢠3 min read
Disappearing Times exclusive claiming Johnson wanted to give Carrie Symonds -his then mistress- a £100,000 role
Several striking things about this.
1/ Did none of his aides consider the affair a security risk with a Foreign Sec hanging out with Lebedev? theneweuropean.co.uk/boris-johnson-ā¦2/ Did any/all of them report this obvious security weakness to MI5/ MI6?
3/ If they did how did the agencies respond, given MI6 reports to none other than the Foreign Secretary - Johnson
4/ What about the circumstances of Carrieās exit under a cloud from CCHQ in the same year
Jun 18 ⢠4 tweets ⢠2 min read
The question is, by how many.
Two different calculations in this article.
But do remember, when looking at this Gov current figures, that the temporary pandemic scheme that recruited 12k nurses (unclear how many Full time equivalents - FTE), comes to an end in September 2022.
One calculation suggests the target will be missed by nearly 12k FTE nurses, calculating that 7.8% will leave by 2023 and 8.5% by 2024
The other suggest the shortfall will be 5715
Jun 18 ⢠4 tweets ⢠1 min read
Before the invasion, only 3% of private flights departing Russia flew the United Arab Emirates, primarily to Dubai.
That figure rose to 6% in the weeks after the invasion began, and 14% by May
The sanctions are repositioning the Russian rich listās habits nytimes.com/interactive/20ā¦
Multinational companies such as Goldman Sachs and Google have relocated Moscow-based employees to Dubai since the invasion.
McKinsey has set up base in Kazakhstan.
One of Russia's best-known restaurateurs is working on a new project in Dubai.
Jun 18 ⢠4 tweets ⢠1 min read
That statement should be accompanied by another
āHOWEVER the risk of getting Covid increased immensely partly due to Omicronās increased immune evasion & infectivity & partly due to the lifting of all restrictions, ensuring million more people caught itā
Sharpish rise in the 50-69 age group. Probably longest time lag since being boosted.
Turning up in all Regions.
SE still highest prevalence but West Mids, SW and London playing catch up.
Watch hospitalisations.
Jun 16 ⢠4 tweets ⢠1 min read
It is NOT that Starmer is dull. I think that is untrue. It is that he does not want to commit to what Labour stands for save in the most wishy washy terms..but repeatedly says what it DOESNāT stand for.
Voter alienating messages
ft.com/content/ff8930ā¦
It SO does not want to commit to saying we would be better off within the EU.
Or even in the SM
This is so dumb because even IF people have not grasped the small print they KNOW we are in deep shit.
And politicians who say āWe can tinkerā are not believed.