The UK's economy has stagnated since 2008 🇬🇧

In terms of GDP per capita - economic output divided by the number of people in a country - we've actually gone backwards.

A short 🧵 on the countries that the UK was richer than in 2007, but which have since overtaken us... 🇬🇧 UK GDP per Capita, 2007: $50,397
🇸🇬 Singapore GDP per Capita, 2007: $39,432

🇬🇧 UK GDP per Capita, 2023: $48,866
🇸🇬 Singapore GDP per Capita, 2023: $84,734

In 2007, the UK was richer than Singapore, southeast Asia's Lion City - today, it is much, much poorer.

The British Museum often comes under fire for its extensive collection of foreign artefacts 🇬🇧

But without the museum's careful stewardship, many of these artefacts would be lost, damaged, or destroyed.

A short 🧵 on just some of the history preserved by the British Museum... 🇮🇶 ASSYRIAN COLLECTION 🇮🇶

The British Museum hosts some of the world's finest examples of Assyrian reliefs and sculptures, from sites such as Nimrud, Nineveh, and Khorsabad.

The reliefs from, say, Ashurbanipal's Northwest Palace at Nimrud are more than 2,800 years old.

In just fifty years, Dubai has transformed from an obscure fishing village into a city of global significance 🇦🇪

And despite popular misconceptions, oil revenues contribute less than 1% of Dubai's GDP today.

A 🧵 on the remarkable story of Dubai's development... You read that right - unlike nearby Abu Dhabi, Dubai's economy is not powered by oil revenues.

In fact, Dubai's remarkable growth is the product of shrewd investments, business-friendly tax and regulatory rules, and an uncompromising approach to political stability.

Cheap flights are a civilizational marvel 🛫

Ryanair can take you from London to Italy for less than £15.

But have you ever wondered how budget airlines actually work?

A short 🧵 on how European budget airlines can afford to deliver such cheap flights... European budget airlines - like Ryanair, WizzAir, and EasyJet - continue to record impressive operating incomes despite rock-bottom prices.

From March 2023 to March 2024, Ryanair recorded €13.44 billion in revenue, with a net income of €1.92 billion.

Increasingly, soft-touch Britain looks like a European outlier when it comes to immigration 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Many of our traditionally liberal neighbours in north and western Europe are shifting to the right on migration and integration.

A 🧵 on Europe's rightward shift... 🇳🇱 THE NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱

After the anti-Islam, anti-migration Party For Freedom (PVV) emerged as the largest party at the country's November 2023 general election, the Netherlands has a new right-wing government.

The coalition will see the PVV govern alongside three other parties.

Alongside defence and border security, maintaining law and order is one of the first duties of any state - but in the UK today, many laws are just not being enforced.

A short 🧵 on the UK's law enforcement crisis - and the signs that private security is emerging to fill the gap: When we talk about law and order in the UK, we often talk about a few distinct but related issues:

- softening of the law around some crimes
- soft sentences
- inaccurate data reporting
- generalised disorder
- non-enforcement of the law

Today, I want to focus on the latter.

The question of how to "manage multiculturalism" is back on the agenda here in the UK.

Singapore is often touted as an example of how multiculturalism can be made to work 🇸🇬

A short 🧵 on Singapore's approach to multiculturalism, and why it probably won't work in the UK... At first blush, Singapore is a perfect example of harmonious integration.

The city-state's three major groups - Chinese, Malays, and Indians - coexist harmoniously, united by a shared Singaporean identity.

In reality, things aren't so simple.

When we talk about immigration, we're often told that we need immigration because our public services, like the NHS, are reliant on it.

A short 🧵 on why this is nonsense - and why we shouldn't let the NHS be a thought-terminating cliché when discussing migration: Let's start with a basic point - most migrants don't come to the UK to work in the NHS.

In fact, according to analysis from @BernoulliDefect, just 2.6% of the 1.22 million migrants who came to the UK in 2023 did so using the Health and Social Care Visa route.

When we see disorder in the news, there's a risk that we become accustomed to this as a 'new normal' - a classic case of boiling the frog 🐸

It's useful to see these incidents lined up side-by-side.

A short 🧵 on declining law and order in the UK, over the past three weeks: JULY 11: LABOUR ANNOUNCES THAT 5,000 PRISONERS WILL BE RELEASED EARLY IN SEPTEMBER

In order to ease prison overcrowding, 5,000 prisoners are set to be released in September, having served just 40% of their sentences.

Once home to the largest port in the world, London's Docklands had fallen into disrepair by the 1970s.

Today, the Docklands is one of London's most modern, attractive areas, home to a leading financial district and even an airport.

A short 🧵 on how the Docklands were saved... Throughout the 19th century, London's Docklands grew rapidly, starting with West India Docks in 1802.

Ships with goods from around the world, particularly from across the British Empire, were onshored and processed here. By 1900, London's docks were the busiest in the world.

Birmingham used to be one of the world's greatest cities. From 1954-64, service businesses around Birmingham grew faster than any other part of the country. In 1961, West Midlands households earned more on average than any other British region.

A short 🧵 on how we ruined it...

https://twitter.com/adam_stewart/status/1811519329017418154

The West Midlands was one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution. The region was the birthplace of the steam engine, while Birmingham itself was regarded as one of the world's foremost cities.

In 1890 it was described by Harper’s as “the Best-Governed City in the World".

There has been plenty of condemnation of The Muslim Vote's demands at this election, and rightly so - but this explicitly sectarian 'Hindu Manifesto' is just as pernicious. The British millet system continues apace.

A short 🧵 on their anti-free speech, pro-migration demands...

https://twitter.com/Ameet_Jogia/status/1801910832432873688

Individuals who criticise Hindu doctrine or who commit "microaggressions" against Hindus to be prosecuted, and for organisations that do so to be proscribed.

NB: 'anti-Hindu hate' is already a criminal offence under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.

Reports that the Met Police has been using a 'Turkish Police Association' to manage gang crime in north London have reignited fears that 🇬🇧 is developing a 'millet system', in which communities police their own affairs.

A short 🧵 on the emergent British millet system... WHAT IS A MILLET SYSTEM?

A 'millet' was the term used by the Ottoman Empire to refer to courts in which confessional communities were able to settle 'personal law' disputes (such as divorce) under their own religious legal codes, such as Muslim sharia or Jewish halakha 🇹🇷

The UK has a rule of law crisis.

Police are failing to enforce the law. Official statistics are increasingly unreliable. The state's desire to create new rules is increasing, as its ability to enforce those rules declines.

A short 🧵 of examples of Britain's rule of law crisis: MET POLICE STOPS ACTION AGAINST FARE EVASION (May 2024)

"Since this incident happened, we have stopped our involvement in supporting Transport for London fare evasion operations, but we continue our presence on the bus network tackling violent crime."

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

In Britain, we like to think of our institutional infrastructure as very old. As a result, we're often cautious about reform.

The OBR is a great example - this view is wrong!

A short 🧵 on just how new many of the most important parts of the modern British state are:

https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1763887319663149071

2013 - Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority, our major economic regulators

2011 - Charities Act, which entrenched our activist-friendly charities regime

2010 - Office for Budget Responsibility

2010 - Equality Act, the foundation for DEI in Britain

Who could have foreseen this?! Lutfur Rahman's Tower Hamlets Council has been placed under review by government inspectors over concerns about its financial and professional conduct.

A short 🧵 on the third-world levels of corruption in Tower Hamlets.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… Let's start with the man in charge, Lutfur Rahman.

Rahman served as Labour's council leader, 2008-10. In 2010, he was replaced after an investigation linked him to the fundamentalist Islamic Forum for Europe (IFE), which has called for the implementation of Sharia in the UK.

As Israel continues its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, a thread on John Bagot Glubb - a.k.a. Glubb Pasha -, the British officer who led Arab troops against Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. 🇬🇧🇯🇴

A tale of intrigue, betrayal, martial prowess and, of course, the desert...🧵 John Bagot Glubb was born in Preston on April 16 1897, the son of Maj. Gen. Sir Frederic Manley Glubb - who would serve as chief engineer in the British Second Army during the First World War - and Letitia Bagot, who hailed from Co. Roscommon.

As Britain carries out strikes against the Houthis, a thread on Lt. Col. Colin Mitchell - a.k.a. "Mad Mitch" - who led the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in Yemen during the Aden Emergency of the mid-1960s 🇬🇧

A fascinating and flamboyant figure of the late British Empire... 🧵 Colin Campbell Mitchell was born in 1925 to Scottish parents, in Croydon. His father's family had been Argyllshire fishermen, and his mother came from Glaswegian farming stock. Though he spoke with a cut-glass English accent, Mitchell always self-described as "a Scot" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿