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George Grylls Profile picture
George Grylls
@georgegrylls
Washington Correspondent @thetimes. DMs open. Email george.grylls@the-times.co.uk
2 subscribers
Nov 29, 2024 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
To understand Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, it is worth rewinding to a key UN vote in 2019.

China and Russia - with the support of Syria, North Korea and Belarus - said the dispute was a matter of "decolonisation".

They won.

A thread/ Image
Image Let’s start with the history.

In the 1800s, Britain grouped the Chagos Islands with Mauritius into a single colony, even though the archipelago is 1,300 miles away from Port Louis.

When Mauritius was granted independence in 1968, the Chagos were carved out and kept by UK. Image
Jun 1, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Baroness Hallett wrote to Boris Johnson on February 3 with a list of 150 questions about the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Some of them are pretty savage – basically asking Johnson why he didn’t sack Hancock, why he didn’t attend Cobra in Feb 2020. Some of the best... "In relation to the response to Covid 19, did you have any concerns regarding the performance of any Cabinet Minister between January 2022 - February 2022?

(...) did you receive advice from the then Cabinet Secretary that Matt Hancock MP, should be removed from his position?"
May 30, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Exc - An escalating subsidies war between the US and China is set to cause serious damage to the UK economy, according to leaked internal government documents seen by the Times.

thetimes.co.uk/article/us-chi… The documents, circulated among a small group of cabinet ministers, say the Inflation Reduction Act demonstrates US determination to defend its key industries against China, even if the protectionism comes “at the UK’s expense”.
Dec 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
An FOI tale in three parts.

Earlier this year, I requested all Whatsapps between Boris Johnson and Lord Brownlow about the funding of the Downing St flat refurb.

In August, @cabinetofficeuk said there were no Whatsapps.

Surprise, surprise, we now learn there were Whatsapps. @cabinetofficeuk Downing Street was asked today if they would release the Whatsapps.

They refused.

PM's spx: “The Prime Minister is acting in accordance with the rules and you’ve got Lord Geidt’s report.”
Mar 3, 2021 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
A Towns Fund thread:

Robert Jenrick’s constituency has just received the maximum amount of money it could have possibly received from the Towns Fund.

1/ Jenrick has denied that he had anything to do with his department's decision to select Newark. But here he is at the 2019 election.....2/

Oct 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Conservative backbenchers are up in arms over Robert Jenrick's housing reforms.

Thanks to @GeorgeGreenwood we have a map to show why they're so furious.

Blue = no. of houses increase
Yellow = no. of houses decrease

1/5 The argument is over a "mutant algorithm" that determines where 300,000 homes/year will be built.

Rural constituencies in the Tory shires get whacked - look at Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Kent, etc.

So, for example, the Cotswolds sees 739 more homes a year. 2/5
Sep 19, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Left Out by @patrickkmaguire and @Gabriel_Pogrund is a cracking yarn.

Feel I have to draw attention to the brilliant character sketches/assassinations.

So here’s my quiz for Labour nerds. Simply identify the person from the description. No cheating!

amazon.co.uk/Left-Out-Insid… 1. Which Change UK member is a “gangly, fresh-faced former evangelical pastor”?
Sep 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 No 10 plans to create online ID cards 🚨

-Everything from buying a pint to registering with a new GP to be done through online verification in future
-Govt. plans to "remove regulatory barriers"

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/d… Here, incidentally, is Cummings on GDPR:

"One of the many advantages of Brexit is we will soon be able to bin such idiotic laws. We will be able to navigate between America’s poor protection of privacy and the EU’s hostility to technology and entrepreneurs."
Aug 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW analysis by me + @oliver_wright has shown that over half of appointments to departmental boards this year have gone to allies, colleagues and university friends of cabinet ministers

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/t… Non-executive directors are appointed to departments through “fair and open competition”. They were introduced by the coalition government in 2010 to recruit external voices from the world of business with a focus on delivery.

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/t…
May 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Whitty and Vallance not allowed to answer questions about public health implications of Cummings-gate.

This is what one behavioural scientist advising the government said about the issue earlier this week: Image This is what a second behavioural scientist advising the government said about the issue earlier this week: Image
May 20, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Intriguingly Jeremy Hunt was one of rebels on today's amendment Image That means he rejected govt proposal to install its own choice Bernard Jenkin as chair of the liaison committee
Apr 24, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A sad farewell to @NewStatesman after 6 months. But it's a good excuse to pay tribute to my favourite pieces the politics team has put out in that time. You’d be mad not to subscribe.

newstatesman.com/subscribe It’s worth saying again because we take him for granted - @stephenkb is absurdly good. Hindsight invariably proves him right - as this column on BJ’s leadership style and COVID 19 proves:

newstatesman.com/science-tech/c…
Apr 4, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If you want to know why the NEC results (coming out at 12) are so important and why Keir Starmer will be looking at them so closely, here was my bit on the most important announcement Starmer made during the campaign...

newstatesman.com/politics/labou… From a pre-corona time... Image
Mar 11, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
No new social care policy. One Tory MP told me earlier today that they recently met with Downing Street officials only to be surprised when they found out a social care policy "wasn’t imminent" Instead the budget says Hancock "has written to parliamentarians to begin building cross-party consensus on reform"
Jan 31, 2020 • 10 tweets • 14 min read
Brexit isn't done. So what happens next? For the next week we're looking sector-by-sector at the Brexit trade negotiations. We begin today with Fishing w/thanks @LukePollard @gwcarpenter @IvanSeafood

If there is one industry to benefit from Brexit, surely it is fishing? Well, it turns out things are not quite so simple....

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
Jan 29, 2020 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
A lot of the upcoming EU trade negotiations will probably end in fudge. Here’s an example 1/8 The UK aerospace industry relies on certifications by EASA (European Air Safety Agency). UK contributes a whopping 40% of expertise to EASA rules 2/8
Jan 21, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
@JT12G @NewStatesman Right I am going to fully answer this because I am getting some messages. I can’t speak for others, but I can speak for my own distaste. 1/many @JT12G @NewStatesman From about 8:00 in this video Hitchens attacks the intolerance of Islamic fundamentalism

Oct 19, 2019 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Today was my first day in House of Commons. Yes, really. One v small observation: @Keir_Starmer is getting a lot of love for his performance. But a crucial part might not have been visible on TV