Voters of #Cornwall #Devon #Dorset and #Somerset:

Did your MP vote to make pensioners poorer by breaking the #ToryManifesto pledge to maintain the #TripleLock on pensions?

Check this handy guide: (1/5)

#ToriesOnTheTake #PovertyInTheUK These are the #Cornwall MPs who voted to make pensioners poorer by breaking the #ToryManifesto pledge to maintain the #TripleLock on pensions.

George Eustice
Cherilyn Mackrory
Steve Double
Sheryll Murray
Scott Mann

#ToriesOnTheTake #PovertyInTheUK 2/5

Dear .@SirRogerGale

You asked a good question today: to what extent are new trade deals smoke & mirrors?

It deserved a better answer.

JJ was wrong on many points. Fox committed to rolling over 40 FTAs by midnight 27MAR19. THAT was what folk said cldn't be done, and it wasn't.

https://twitter.com/UKTradeBusiness/status/1382602982705991680

As we know, Liz Truss is STILL negotiating some of them over 2yrs later! Disingenuous of JJ to move the goalposts & pretend it was said it could NEVER be done. Those who know about trade know it takes time: roughly 2.8mths per FTA, but yes, should've been quicker for roll-overs.

🧵 on why you should be worried about Cummings ordering MPs to betray YOU by breaking Govt's manifesto pledge to uphold or even enhance our food, #AnimalWelfare & #Environment standards —plus why MPs should listen to you and vote for the Lords Amdts to the #AgricultureBill🚜: Let's look at the numbers:

92% of the British Public want current farm animal welfare standards to be maintained in trade negotiations with the US and other countries.

(YouGov for #WWF, Oct 2020)

#SaveOurStandards

For Tory MPs in *Rural 75* & *Rural 50* seats how you vote on #AgricultureBill Lords' Amdts will prove decisive in GE2024. Don't kid yourself we'll forget. 95% of the public back #SaveOurStandards.

(List of MPs in *R75* & *R50* seats in .@WCountryBylines catchment area follows)

https://twitter.com/lunaperla/status/1314922679506436098

#Cornwall R75
.@scottmann4NC
.@sheryllmurray
.@stevedouble
.@DerekThomasUK
.@thisischerilyn
#Cornwall R50
George Eustice

#Devon R75
.@MelJStride
.@AnneMarieMorris
.@neil_parish
.@Geoffrey_Cox
.@AnthonyMangnal1
#Devon R50
.@simonjamesjupp
.@SelaineSaxby

#SaveBritishFarming 🚜

MONDAY: #AgricultureBill is back in the Commons.

Most MPs are well-intentioned & #BackBritishFarming, but the truth is, unless standards are enshrined in law, there is a high probability risk farming will be undermined. .@Keir_Starmer understands this.

#SaveBritishFarming .@trussliz thinks it's worth undermining our food, farming, animal welfare, countryside & Enviro standards to get trade deals, but has she weighed up the trade-offs? Trade deals gains are tiny compared to losses from trashing our standards —not just £ losses.

#SaveBritishFarming

@RussInCheshire I'm so sorry to hear about your mum. I must say, you're being remarkably stoic about it. I dare say you're in bits inside. Be kind to yourself. 😇

Meanwhile, don't worry about #TheWeekInTory. I've made some notes for you... @RussInCheshire To start off #TheWeekInTory, some good news —possibly because it's got nothing to do with Tories.

19AUG20: The 1st polar bear to be born in UK for 2yrs will move from its Scottish home to an English Park.

Hmm. That might make a good metaphor for something more political...

BILLIONS of Tax-payers' £ spaffed on dubious contracts to Palantir, Faculty, Serco, Sitel, Randox, Public First, Aventis, Pestfix, Ayanda, etc.

Why isn't Govt public procurement abuse + Towns Fund misallocation all over News & MSM newspapers? Extent of #GovtCorruption shocking! If you're not up to speed on what Govt has been up to in procurement, using C19 *emergency measures* to bung taxpayers'£ to firms controlled by chums, often with negligible assets or relevant expertise à la ferryless ferry co, this is a good place to start
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

THE WEEK IN POLITICS
#7MemesFor7Days of political immaturity, incompetence & idiocy —or evil by design?

(Stories tended to break late in the day this week, so I've gone for themes instead of days.)

1. Tory hypocrisy vis-à-vis #NHS laid bare by *clap on Sunday, clamp on Monday* #7MemesFor7Days

2. Johnson made his mismanagement of C19 in #CareHomes worse by BLAMING them for the high death toll —a mistake he's tried to row back from, but refuses to do the one thing that might help: apologise, even tho' Starmer gave him 3 opportunities to do so at #PMQs.

THE WEEK IN POLITICS
#7MemesFor7Days of political immaturity, incompetence and idiocy —or is this evil by design?

1. Sunday: fall-out from Mikey Gove's Ditchley Lecture. Using reaching for FDR's greatness as cover, he revealed he wants radical experimentation without oversight. #7MemesFor7Days

2. Monday: a new, inane 3-word slogan (#BuildBuildBuild) to headline another lacklustre prime ministerial speech. A prelude to more broken promises, more taxpayers' £ down the drain & a dead cat to distract us from the merciless drive towards NO DEAL with the EU.

Have you all read .@michaelgove's Ditchley Lecture?

"The Privilege of Public Service" runs to 139 paragraphs over 69 (double-spaced) pages.

The main topic is civil service *reform* —but it covers so much more & raises interesting QUESTIONS...

/1.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… MG quotes Antonio Gramsci,"The crisis consists precisely of the fact that the inherited is dying—and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."

In our case the inherited was assassinated, the loss an uncompensated diminishment...

/2.

@GoodwinMJ It's not true that the side formerly known as Remain has no ideas. We've been sidelined, ignored & treated as 2nd class citizens in our own country for the past 4yrs, and it's only getting worse.

Here, for what it's worth, is my manifesto for change:

/1. @GoodwinMJ 1. Clean up public life by:

a) making the Nolan Principles a legal duty of care for all elected officials and their SpAds;

b) deepening, broadening & strengthening the powers of the House of Commons standards committee;

c) giving the public greater powers of recall of MPs

@JMPSimor There were initially 2 UK producers, Smiths in Luton and Medtronics in NI.

Smiths formed a consortium with other UK manufacturers, shared its IP & has an order for 30k #ventilators, with an initial 5k to be delivered soon-ish (presumably part of the 12k that's really only 8k). @JMPSimor Here's an article about Smiths:

lutontoday.co.uk/business/luton…

The UK HealthSec - paid £141k+expenses from taxpayers' £ - has chosen to put his #Coronavirus update behind a paywall.

For those of you who don't have a Telegraph subscription, here are the main points.

(Frankly, @MattHancock you should be ashamed of yourself.)

/1.

https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1238960146342084609

"The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest public health emergency in a generation.

It calls for dramatic action, at home and abroad, of the kind not normally seen in peacetime."

Then goes on to express sadness at 21 deaths. All victims had underlying health conditions.

/2.

March-4: .@LukePollard proposed a very sensible motion in response to #UKFloods, calling for an independent review into:
-Govt response
-Flood prevention/defence funding
-Insurance issues
-Lessons learned

Who could possibly vote against that?

You'd be surprised...

/1. Dear constituents of #Telford, esp. #Ironbridge,

Your MP #LucyAllan voted against Mr Pollard's motion.

Instead she backed the watered-down version of the motion, committing to nothing very much.

If you want more than warm words, write to her.
#HoldThemToAccount #UKFloods

/2.

@DPJHodges Just read your piece.

Difficult to cut thru all YOUR hate, scorn & vitriol, but I discern the kernel of an idea — that people want to be respected & *feel* Remainers don't.

That's actually a fair point, but don't you think you'd convey it better if you didn't hate-coat it? @DPJHodges Is it actually *true* Remainers don't respect Leavers, or is it just folk like you putting that narrative out there?

a) you prime your readers' reaction by starting with the word *bitter* & using a string of pejoratives (As BITTER REMOANERS RANT... FRUITCAKES & LOONIES)

/cont.

@LBC @NickFerrariLBC @Nigel_Farage NEWSFLASH: The world has seen us as a joke since 24-Jun-2016. #Brexit, innit?

(Do I really need to provide you with the links to articles from around the world over the past few years detailing what a joke UK is? Surely, being *broadcast journalists*, you've read them already?) @LBC @NickFerrariLBC @Nigel_Farage AUSTRALIA

It is a bit like watching a loved grandparent in physical and mental decline. You care for them deeply. You appreciate all they have done for you. But each day they become more inwardly focused. Their world contracts. They seem increasingly incoherent.

N. Rowley, ABC

@Bebe111 @derekjames150 a) if we stop paying £7.9bn/yr (official figure) to EU dues, we also lose the £80bn/yr in benefits it yields. What's the plan to compensate our economy for that?

b) the UK govt divied up the quotas & OUR fishermen sold them. Those contracts will still apply post-#Brexit.

/cont. @Bebe111 @derekjames150 cont...

Why will those contracts still apply? The #RuleOfLaw is a cornerstone of our constitution. Contract law is local, UK law. Without it nobody who trades or transacts business of any kind could have confidence in engaging in any form of commerce in the UK.

/cont.

Morning, Remainers!

Few of us wanted a GE. We hoped a VONC->GNU wld give us a PV. So far #GE2019 has been grim. Tribalism has reared its ugly head.

STOP! Let's change things up. We cld have so much fun. Imagine waking up on Dec13 having toppled a Brexity Tory🥰

#TacticalVoting Voters in these constituencies can topple a Tory Brexity Beast by #TacticalVoting:

Chingford-Woodford Grn (IDS)
Esher & Walton (Raab)
N.E.Somerset (Mogg)
Richmond Park (Goldsmith)
Shipley (PhDavies)
Uxbridge-S.Ruislip (Johnson)
Witham (Patel)
Wokingham (Redwood)
Wycombe (Baker)

#GetReadyForBrexit

A thread of memes for @ByDonkeys

1. unelected bureaucrat & grand vizier #DominicCummings @ByDonkeys #GetReadyForBrexit

2. Orwellian double-speak

@JohnnyMercerUK @LukePollard Why are you making fun of this?

Your colleague, Matt Hancock, said he couldn't guarantee that people wouldn't die (early) due to difficulty in procuring *some* life-saving medicine post-#Brexit.

#NHS & #BMA have both warned about this.

#NHS ordered a stockpile of body bags. @JohnnyMercerUK @LukePollard Indeed, because your Govt has diverted taxpayers' £ (that's OUR money, not yours) from public services to pay for #Brexit (£6.3bn you're spaffing up the wall, to borrow a Johnsonian phrase), #Brexit has caused some premature deaths already.

I've seen tweets like this:

@alexandrabulat @TonyP12490831 Some of us have been banging on about the loss of this precious right, repeatedly, since this whole #Brexit nightmare fiasco began.

Here's an example of a thread on it:

https://twitter.com/lunaperla/status/1071341437428609027

@alexandrabulat @TonyP12490831 Stripping us of reciprocal #FreeMovement rights shows how regressive #Brexit is.

There are parallels between our country's lamentable treatment of the poor in the past (the Poor Laws from 1587 to 1967) with what the Tories are up to now:

https://twitter.com/lunaperla/status/1047232984712196096