The WIRECARD story is extraordinary

And @danmccrum really knows how to write the story.

I’ve just started “Moneyman”

Nothing dull about this true life financial thriller.

This is just one vignette from it.

https://twitter.com/lotofmoderation/status/1540662854759628801

“The company collapsed like a house of cards, punctuated by a final lie: that €1.9bn of its cash was “missing”. In fact, the money never existed and Wirecard had for years relied on a fraud that was almost farcical in its simplicity:”

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.

https://twitter.com/chriscurtis94/status/1540074486782984193

Those three constituencies were all “forever Tory” seats. With large majorities.

Tiverton is the constituency with the largest majority to overturn.

N Shropshire was just under 23k.

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 £9600 pa & if FULLY paid up apple.news/AhgIpKuzbRTeQ_… 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.

“Britain risks becoming a “rule taker” 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 watchdog’s outgoing chief executive has warned”
ft.com/content/bfc7a3… 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 “undue cost” on corporates

“any 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.”

https://twitter.com/ProfMarkElliott/status/1539754635220488192

If…this results in more applications to (& UK losses in) the Strasbourg Court, the Gov will then face a stark choice between accepting the Court’s judgments-exploding the myth that the Bill magically enabled the UK to loosen its international obligations via domestic legislation

Politicians and commentators in Berlin have reacted with dismay to remarks by Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser, Jens Plötner, who said the media should focus more on Germany’s future relationship with Russia than on supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons ft.com/content/e1deaa… Speaking at a debate at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), he said the discussion about helping Ukraine was driven by a “feverishness that misses the big issues”.

I’d say being bombed to smithereens is a pretty damn big issue.

More of a Plönker than a Plötner

This #RMT strike issues vignette from @BBCRosAtkins is really fact packed.

Excellent.

Well worth 6 minutes of your time.

https://twitter.com/bbcrosatkins/status/1538952108065554434

And I shan’t be taking lessons on belt tightening from the Party that just hosted its summer ball selling tables of 10 for £20k.

That’s £2k per person. (And people spent more on top).

Nearly 8% of an annual increase for the average rail worker involved in the strike.

Given your Twitter poll @ArisKatzourakis you might be interested in this

Also @Kit_Yates_Maths @chrischirp @dgurdasani1 and @SGriffin_Lab

⚠️ I haven’t dug into the underlying data

But the subject seems topical.

https://twitter.com/ganyborg/status/1539218849719111681

Large 🇺🇸 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.

“It’s a fact that ought to be so obvious as to be banal: the most effective way to help people who don’t have enough money is to give them more of it.”

It’s efficient and they will spend it (going back into the economy) not hard it like the rich.

ft.com/content/2925da… 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 that’s just if we restrict our analysis of cash transfers to those given by rich states to poorer ones.

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

https://twitter.com/AvaSantina/status/1538867925993627648

Get it?

https://twitter.com/RhonddaBryant/status/1538841113594830848

It isn’t just 🦄 hunting (altho’ certainly that in part).

It is looking straight in the eye the wholesale misrepresentation of the nature of “sovereignty” and its necessary relationship to power/clout that they failed to understand that is a problem for quitters.

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1538787995167469568

“Johnson may not want his party “relitigating” 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.”

To state the bleeding obvious. That means TWO THIRDS DID NOT.

Have we forgotten that 🇬🇧 gov failed to equip 🇺🇦 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 “desperate” to buy 🇬🇧 weapons.

https://twitter.com/grahambsi/status/1538593902583742464

“[They] wanted almost everything. They were not able to resist the incursions into Donbas. At times they had little more than rifles,” Michael Fallon said.

Cameron

Fox

Johnson who far from providing weapons sought to “normalise” relations with the Kremlin

All failed Ukraine.

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.

Students of Law at Swansea University, take note.

https://twitter.com/RupertMyers/status/1537355768386691073

Instead pay attention to successful lawyers specialising in the field of immigration law such as @ColinYeo1

https://twitter.com/colinyeo1/status/1523586858181361666?s=21&t=_P6xlui14u3H_gllOZrMIw

Arron Banks almost crushed me in court. Instead, my quest for the facts was vindicated | Carole Cadwalladr

Banks’s claimed that his “sole involvement with the Russians was a boozy six-hour lunch”. A statement Justice Steyn found to be “wholly inaccurate” theguardian.com/uk-news/commen… She examined all the underlying documentation, including evidence newly revealed in the case, and concluded “he had at least 4 meetings, including 3 lunches”. She added: “It would be wrong to expect a journalist to refrain from identifying such an inaccurate statement… as a lie”

Russian spies could be 'active at all levels of British society', MI5 believes - Mirror Online

“Sources 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.”

Mmmmm

mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/r… They gather intelligence & provide it to 🇷🇺 .

“This could be anything from what sort of weaponry is being sent to the Ukraine – & how much of it – to the sexual antics of the country’s political & military leaders.”

Spoilt for choice in the Tory Party.

One spy arrested

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-… 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 Carrie’s exit under a cloud from CCHQ in the same year

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.

https://twitter.com/shaunlintern/status/1538126935758454784

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

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 list’s habits nytimes.com/interactive/20… 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.

That statement should be accompanied by another

“HOWEVER the risk of getting Covid increased immensely partly due to Omicron’s increased immune evasion & infectivity & partly due to the lifting of all restrictions, ensuring million more people caught it”

The study suggests so

https://twitter.com/kamleshkhunti/status/1537771099773190151

So in the 3 months wen Delta was peaking here there were roughly 3 million cases.(Sept, Oct, Nov 2021)

In the 3 months when Omicron was peaking (mid Dec 2021 to mid March 2022) there were over 8 million cases. More than double.

ONS 🦠 surveillance for week ending 9 June 2022

BA4/5 dominance causing ⬆️⬆️ 43% rise

1.4 million people infected

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 1 in 30
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 1 in 45
NI. 1 in 45
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 1 in 50

https://twitter.com/ons/status/1537752288789467136

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.

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 DOESN’T stand for.

Voter alienating messages

ft.com/content/ff8930… 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 “We can tinker” are not believed.

Death to trust.