Sir Oliver “Olly” Robbins is a clever, well-informed person. He’s also ambitious & diligent. Sir Keir Starmer & his team now have a potentially highly dangerous enemy. Not because Sir Oliver wants revenge (though he might) but because of the facts of the Mandelson case.
A long 🧵. Have a cuppa! /1.
Thank you for your courage to publicly address abusive language.
When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”.
Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform
Today is the 251st anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British troops.
I want to take a moment to share an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence's grievances against King George III.
Remind you of anyone?
5 years after bottom trawling was banned across more than 300 km² of seabed off southern England, early signs of ecosystem recovery are emerging. Mussel beds are re-establishing, fish populations are increasing, & conditions are improving for kelp forests. buff.ly/vnOTVLk #ShareGoodNewsToo
A VCR never sold my private info to a nazi
Fantastic journalism. And there was I thinking Farage and cronies were going to save me from the evil global elite.
Bereaved family members of Covid victims write to Nigel Farage urging him to sack his Croydon candidate who said COVID was a "staged event" by the US military, with vaccines used to control the population.
Reform has not responded to our story revealing his views
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/15/r...
Let’s focus on Jeff Bezos because he’s much more of a classic case. Jeff Bezos started his own business. He owns a dominant amount of the stock. And over the course of the years, he has taken a salary that is no higher than $82,000. It’s been more than 20 years now, and his salary is always capped at $82,000. You might say: Well, why would it be? He started the company — he’s the man. Why isn’t he taking a huge salary to reflect all that he put into the company? The reason is: Salaries are for suckers. When people take a salary, they’re subject to high income taxes and payroll taxes, and Jeff Bezos and a lot of our other multibillionaires have no interest in paying those taxes. So instead, they take their benefits through the growing value of their stock — and their stock has grown enormously. And that massive growth of stock happens entirely tax free — with no time frame under our current system in which that stock will ever be subject to tax. That is because we only impose a tax if the stock is sold, and Bezos never has to sell the stock because he can simply borrow against the stock and use that money to support his lifestyle and to pay any interest that’s due on the loan.
Key passage: why you and I pay tax (which is ok), but people like Jeff Bezos don’t (which is not ok).
The American gestapo abducted an 85 year-old widow.
Was she one of the worst of the worst? No, her step-son, a retired Alabama state trooper, got ICE to put her in a detention center to deport her because he wanted all of his father's inheritance.
Sounds like the son is the worst of the worst.
This is an extraordinary saga that Sunder is pursuing indefatigably. The BBC has repeatedly tried to excuse itself from responsibility for allowing Nigel Farage to lie egregiously about immigration without challenge. It is illustrative of a much wider malaise & so very important. Thank you, Sunder.
So no, he wasn't struck off for asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil.
He was struck off for multiple counts of serious misconduct, including lying during an official investigation, followed by working 17 times while suspended, and THEN refusing to engage with the GMC about returning to work
St Kemi Badenoch sounding all “preposterous” about all of Starmer’s problems on #r4today skating carefully around her own preposterous Iranian warlike ambitions of late
Emily Thornbury on Channel Four news however, has a far more interesting take on the FO
www.channel4.com/news/scrutin...
Horrifying footage of a Russian drone strike in Chernihiv overnight.
Farage thugs manhandle man with pacemaker after he objects to the Reform leader's chauffeur parking in disabled bay that he needs to use.
Lovely People.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
**AFFORDABILITY CHEQUE** **Last August Reform UK's coffers were boosted by a generous £100,000 donation from the UK franchise of Sotheby's International Realty.** It isn't hard to see why the property agency, whose UK and Dubai franchises are owned by businessman George Azar, would be interested in supporting Reform. Not only is it the estate agent used by the party's treasurer, Nick Candy, but Reform is hoping its planned tax exemption for multimillionaires prompts wealthy people to relocate to the UK, which would boost the luxury property market Sotheby's deals in. Less clear, however, is how Sotheby's was able to afford its donation to Reform. Its accounts for 2023 show the company was heavily in debt, with net liabilities of more than £12.8m. The company's accounts for 2024, which might have shed some light on the matter, were due by 31 December 2025. But, more than three months on, they still haven't been filed, which is a criminal offence under the Companies Act. Alas, whether Sotheby's had made sufficient profit from its UK operations to fund its generous gift remains, for the time being, a mystery.
Pretty terrible that heavily-indebted Sotheby's has donated to Reform UK. Via Private Eye
The BBC boasts of a 95% public reach, during this Charter Review period.
On this high profile issue, > 80% of people don't even know whether immigration is rising or falling.
So our public service broadcasters are struggling on core mission to inform, educate
bsky.app/profile/sund...
Alternative headline:
Vulnerable people exploited by profiteering fraudsters who stand to make millions by posing as legal advisors.
As I wrote in 'Anywhere But Here', these advice sharks have networks as entrenched as smugglers. Nothing is being done to stop them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Every single day for the past three years, the people in #Sudan have been suffering from the horrors of war. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk & l agree: those responsible for atrocities must be held to account. 🇩🇪 is supporting the UN Fact-Finding Mission. -
@aussenminister.diplo.de
Got the squid communication 🦑🦑🦑🦑 #caribbeanreefsquid #reefsquid #cephalopodsofcoralcity #squid #coralcitycamera
Not quite going the way the Daily Mail hoped. Excellent. Feel free to join in... www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
James Bembridge on X: Hate is too weak a word for what I feel towards the NHS. I'd tear it down and salt the earth upon which it stood.
Lovely people, these Reform UK candidates for the upcoming election, and great to know they're on our side.
🚨BREAKING PMQs🚨
Sir Keir Starmer: "I've made it very clear that I think our national interest lies in close relationship, with the EU on defence, security, energy and the economy."
"We have another summit, this year, where I intend to go closer to the EU in the relations that we have."
The McSweeney strategy - which was always meant to be judged by its ability to maintain public support - is a complete and utter failure, remarkably so, and that fact should be drilled into Labour's consciousness as a warning to the future.
Not in article:
Register of Interests: George Robertson has paid roles from defence contractors & military linked firms incl:
Cohen Grp
Weir Grp PLC
Smiths Grp PLC
BP
Equilibrium Global
He received payment for speaking at events for groups, incl the Canadian Defence Contractors Association
#r4today
These NY Times oral histories—of what the Trump administration is doing to federal agencies—are a public service. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Analysis of MAC data shows any fiscal savings of the settlement reforms would be a small fraction of the billions cited by ministers.
Research from FoI request by @jdportes.bsky.social
The govt must now show its own workings to inform MPs on policy choices
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
