31 years since my dad sent me to the shop for a tin of red and white striped paint and the shopkeeper sent me back to ask him if he wanted horizontal or vertical, and i sussed out on the way home what was going on and then kicked the front door so hard it broke.
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Tom Peck
@tompeck
East, East, East LondonJoined February 2009
Tom Peck’s posts
People aren’t keen on Elon’s Twitter but the “readers added context” feature is genuinely excellent.
Here’s the actual prime minister of the United Kingdom being quite correctly called out for his massive lies.
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I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years.
The plan 
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ALT
Readers added context
All of these things could be done while the UK was a member of the EU. Minimum allowed duty on beer in the EU is less than 10% of what is charged in the UK.
taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/taxation-1/exc…
Replying to
I quite want to be there when his teenage daughter reads this and asks him ‘did you really leave mum because you couldn’t work out on your own what to give a five year old for lunch?’
Like, what is actually wrong with us as a country that we allow this to happen? Absolutely nowhere else does this.
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You have to think that one of the many reasons the Tories are so utterly doomed is because Tory columnists have been reduced to wanting to starve more people so it’s fair on their other victims.
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While 4.2million Brits live in food poverty those aboard the Bibby barge eat til their hearts content..
One in ten British children don’t even have breakfast while illegal migrants fill their bellies like a Cruise holiday buffet
Eggs, cheese, meat, cereal, toast and jam -… Show more
Why spend money on a new rail line when you can spend it on two hundred midnight taxis from
Preston to Edinburgh?
Absolute scenes here.
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I’m not quite sure how to explain what’s happened tonight, because it’s still happening - but here goes…
At 4:40pm I jumped on a train from London to Edinburgh..
It was comfy, it was quiet
In hindsight, too good to last…
In which the education secretary gets annoyed with the media for not having done enough to thank her for everything’s she done with regard to hundreds of schools having to close on the first week back because they’re not safe for children.
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Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded on camera saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and shares frustration about not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’
itv.com/news/2023-09-0
0:24
It is just so ridiculous that we have a system in which failed prime ministers hand out jobs for life to their chums on exit. It makes no sense on any level. We are drowning in these people now, entirely because the Conservative Party has been so stunningly useless.
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Boris Johnson's former aide, Charlotte Owen becomes a peer.
She is 30, and as the oath says her peerage is literally "for her life", she could be in the Lords for SIXTY YEARS.
If we’re bringing back national service, why not have a fortnight of ‘civic exploration’ for the over 65s too? They could learn such things as how to set up an iPhone, or how to tell the difference between things on Whatsapp that are true and things that are not.
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Penny Mordaunt has 16-year-olds in mind when she suggests bringing back national service. But she’s missing a trick, writes @tompeck
#NationalService
independent.co.uk/voices/nationa
Just two weeks ago, Gillian Keegan was busy telling heartbroken eighteen year olds that no one will care about or remember your A Level results in ten years time.
But I reckon people will remember her two F***s and an A*** for the rest of her life.
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Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded on camera saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and shares frustration about not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’
itv.com/news/2023-09-0
0:24
I sort of can’t really believe that a train service was voted on and approved, that would reduce London to Leeds from 2hrs13 to 1hr21 will now, at very best, take 1hr53 plus another metro train from suburbia into Central London - ie a worse service that you’d actively avoid.
Have really come to enjoy this new tradition of a prime minister flying into a large, powerful country, which is traditionally an ally of the UK, and acknowledging that the much hyped trade deal with them will in fact not happen.
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Rishi Sunak warns trade deal with India may never happen as he jets into New Delhi mirror.co.uk/news/politics/
: @singharj
: @singharj
Absolutely none of these have got anything whatsoever to do with inflation going down. Like, none of them. Two of them haven’t even happened.
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Replying to @RishiSunak
Second, we’re tackling the causes of inflation that drive prices up.
Backing oil & gas in the North Sea to secure our energy supply
A huge new childcare package to help parents back into work
Keeping people in work with a £1 billion tax cut on pension contributions.
Backing oil & gas in the North Sea to secure our energy supply
A huge new childcare package to help parents back into work
Keeping people in work with a £1 billion tax cut on pension contributions.
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When I covered Fifa, the key to understanding it was that they had all liberated themselves entirely from their own shame.
They threw $10K wedges around in public, they stuffed it under one another's doors, because they had let go of their own moral decrepitude.
That is Boris.
Genuinely worse than Boris Johnson.
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Labour:
Ban new oil and gas licences
Rely 100% on imports
Protect Russian jobs
Risk UK security
Conservatives:
Back new oil and gas licences
Power more of Britain from Britain
Protect British jobs
Strengthen UK security
thesun.co.uk/news/politics/
Ban new oil and gas licences
Rely 100% on imports
Protect Russian jobs
Risk UK security
Conservatives:
Back new oil and gas licences
Power more of Britain from Britain
Protect British jobs
Strengthen UK security
thesun.co.uk/news/politics/One more year of this relentless bullshit and they’ll have fucked off for good.
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Today we are saying no to @JustStop_Oil and their political wing the Labour Party
We will power ahead with new oil and gas because it’s in the best interests of the British people, of our economy and of our national security
What a truly outstanding person Sarina Wiegman is.
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"I would like to dedicate this award to Spain's women's national team"
"They deserve to be celebrated and listened to"
UEFA Women's Coach of the Year, Sarina Wiegman with a beautiful message 
#UEFAawards
#UEFAawards
1:10
Replying to
This tweet now in sketch form. Boris Johnson is now best understood as a cry for help. And it might even be in our interests to listen. independent.co.uk/voices/boris-j
It's not been widely pointed out that this letter was also the most cynical moment of the whole campaign. Gove knew Cameron would always veto Turkey, but he also knew he couldn't publicly say so, because of terrorism related intelligence sharing commitments. Utterly shameless.
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Boris Johnson said "I didn't say anything about Turkey in the referendum". But he put his name to this letter warning about Turkey joining the EU a week before the vote voteleavetakecontrol.org/letter_to_the_
Replying to
I will, however, die regretting not going to the press conference and saying it there.
Definitely up for a referendum on net zero, just so long as the voting age is lowered to five and everyone gets one vote for every year of remaining life expectancy.
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Sunday Telegraph leading article calls for referendum on net zero telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/0
Low grade politics is probably here to stay but it’s the constant denigration of lawyers that’s so objectionable, it’s been going on for a long time now and it should stop. Politicians make the laws, if they’re reduced to attacking lawyers they just reduce themselves.
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This is what we’re up against.
The Labour Party, a subset of lawyers, criminal gangs - they're all on the same side, propping up a system of exploitation that profits from getting people to the UK illegally.
I have a plan to stop it.
Here’s how
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
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Replying to @lindayaX
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
Highly enjoyable, this. Tories seem to have blocked out, mainly as a psychological coping strategy, that Rishi Sunak is arguably the worst campaigner in British political history. Played 1 and Lost 1 - to Liz Truss.
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Rishi Sunak’s going to have to find a better way of talking to voters.
If he repeats today's @lbc performance in a general election campaign, that Labour landslide will be even bigger.
Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is in your inbox.
inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-
If it turns out you can’t build a “high wage economy”, what you can do instead is tell everyone their degrees are worthless.
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Too many students are being sold a university education that won't get them a decent job at the end of it.
So I'm cracking down on rip-off degrees and boosting apprenticeships to ensure students get the best deal possible.
Widening access. Boosting jobs. Growing the economy.
I honestly thought that time he was on the media rounds on Barnard Castle weekend, desperately trying to discuss the widening of the A66 was the biggest tit of himself Grant Shapps would ever make.
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I’ve written to @Keir_Starmer to request he pays for the criminal damage the Just Stop Oil attacks on the Energy Security Department caused this morning
As the political wing of Just Stop Oil, it is the Labour Party not the taxpayer that should be paying the bill
All this stuff ever boils down to is the same old thing - which is that to people who’ve only ever known the world from a position of immense good fortune, the slow rise of fairness feels like oppression.
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‘The weird thing about this movement is they think they are downtrodden. They think they’re the underdogs.’
The View from 22 | Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) on the ‘oppressed’ establishment
youtu.be/TYVR6nsT6Y0
1:11
Absolutely can't get enough of the national broadcaster, through the medium of and using the throwaway link line, "If you're feeling as lonely as a Chris Grayling brain cell"
I made this point on TV once, and the other panelist, an actual expert, told me that, (I think), 40 per cent of global emissions come from countries who themselves account for between 1 and 2 per cent of emissions. If they all abdicate responsibility in this way, we’ve no chance.
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That poll that said they’ll get 90 seats - I honestly think it could be less. They have a leader who is as bad a campaigner as it’s possible to be. And also, this is all they’ve got.
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Dear people under the age of about 30,
I swear the world wasn’t always like this. For a little while, maybe twenty years or so ago, it was kind of normal. Not sure it’s ever going back.
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Luis Rubiales’ mother has been taken to hospital from the church where she was on hunger strike. Angeles Bejar started the sit-in protest at the Divine Shepherdess church in Motril near Malaga on Monday.
She was due to be holding a press conference at the church this evening. She… Show more
. is in Uxbridge where he’s just said the words “Where people have an issue of substance to vote on they vote Conservative.”
You have to think he’s going to be quite shocked to learn that there are other issues of substance out there, beyond levies on diesel cars.
You are aware that you will still be able to? It’s not either or. And your journey to Old Oak Common will be far more pleasant if the Elizabeth line has not been overrun by every single hs2 passenger, none of whom will have any alternative options.
All the public goodwill these guys built up when they targeted Wimbledon, The Ashes and various priceless works of art has just been completely undone now they’ve gone after George Osborne’s wedding *and* a Tory think tank.
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BREAKING: Just Stop Oil Paint Policy Exchange Think Tank HQ
This morning, 2 Just Stop Oil supporters have painted the climate criminal think tank @Policy_Exchange orange.
Sign up to slow march at juststopoil.org
1:15
Replying to
Just because everyone absolutely loves a pedant, Liz Truss became Tory Party leader a year ago today. She became prime minister a year ago tomorrow.
The longer they focus on this issue the clearer it becomes, for all to see, that they simply can’t sustain any of their wrong arguments for long enough to conceal the obvious truth - that the mess is their fault and no one else’s.
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Immigration minister Robert Jenrick says if you process the claims of asylum seekers more quickly that encourages more people to come.
He's admitting that leaving asylum seekers in limbo, in temporary accommodation, not allowed to work, not able to restart their lives, for years… Show more
1:42
Half a million quid to sack someone over a petty historic grievance. And then another fifty billion or so when they’re not around to prevent you setting fire to the economy because you don’t understand what you’re doing.
Pricey times, the Truss weeks.
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Replying to @MrHarryCole
BREAK: Sacked Treasury Perm Sec Tom Scholar received a f £335,000 severance payment and £122,000 in lieu of annual leave.
He was paid more than half a million last year in total.
Replying to
The House of Lords does noble work and can just about be defended on a practical level. But it will have to be abolished now and it will be just another thing that was touched by Boris Johnson and so left ruined.
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Not criticising the MP or any of the people present in the slightest, but if young people wonder why they get relentlessly, relentlessly screwed over by politics…
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Another busy ‘house meeting’ last night in a Talbot Woods. Lots of topics came up and another opportunity to engage direct with constituents. I don’t know who will come or what issues will be brought up in advance. Always grateful to generous hosts opening their homes for us.
Just rise out your seats, stand and applaud for , who is on Sky News right now saying the words “People see Labour in charge and they see them botching things and making a hash of things.”
People are laughing but this happened to me once. I came back from waitrose with a turkey with no kidneys. They’d been cut out and just left inside it in a little plastic bag. Horrifying.
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I know of two British women in a well known London hospital who came back from Turkey with no kidneys. Their organs were literally stolen while the women were under anesthetic.
The deals luring Brits to Istanbul for cosmetic surgery mol.im/a/12151565 via @MailOnline
Replying to
Do you have a view on what’s worse? An MP clearly making an innocent mistake, or the actual Tory press office account rebranding itself as a “fact-checking” service?
amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/
Watching #stateofchaos as it cuts between Raab, Dorries, Hancock and Sir Gavin, as they worry that they might not have a grip on things. And then there’s the calm voice of reason Helen MacNamara, the ethics advisor later fined for bringing her karaoke machine to a lockdown party.
Replying to
Can you blame them? Large numbers of MPs and former cabinet ministers keep telling them it will be fine and that there's nothing to worry about.
This process has taken three full years. A full parliamentary term is five years but more commonly four. More recently it’s been two. Completely absurd.
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MP Margaret Ferrier, who broke Covid lockdown rules, loses Westminster seat after constituents vote to remove her bbc.in/3OE92SS
Lovely stuff. If they can string this out to an entire election campaign they might lose by less than three hundred.
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Labour are no longer the party of working people. Weak on union demands, border control, & supporting families. We are the party of free childcare, 11 million workplace pensions, a million businesses, fair fuel, & protecting the public. Labour's record is more Beach Ken... 
1:38
Theresa May’s ‘abuse of power’ is a intriguing new form of autobiography, in which the author writes about herself through the medium of instead writing about only the people who wronged her, through having the temerity of not doing exactly what she wanted them to do.
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Theresa May's new book is a page-turner for all the wrong reasons, writes @tompeck. She may not be particularly interesting, but she is thrillingly delusional
independent.co.uk/voices/theresa
This, yes, but also Brexit.
Mainly Brexit. This is just a tower block.
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This is how countries become steadily poorer. twitter.com/Taj_Ali1/statu…
Replying to
I have no strong feelings about the incident but I do have strong feelings about the idea this is in any way comparable. Labuschagne spent whole overs batting out his crease to nullify the lbw. It was a tactic, so this was fair game. Not the same, at all.
Absolute scenes
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Replying to
The people I know who refuse to fly, who don’t eat meat, if you ask them why they do it, knowing it makes no difference, they tend to say so that they have something to say when their children ask them what they did. Grant Shapps can just show his this.
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Today we are saying no to @JustStop_Oil and their political wing the Labour Party
We will power ahead with new oil and gas because it’s in the best interests of the British people, of our economy and of our national security
Someone told me once that in a meeting between Philip Hammond and Wolfgang Schauble just after Brexit, Schauble said Germany wouldn’t try to steal the City of London, because they wouldn’t actually want it. They’d worked hard to have a balanced economy and equitably spread wealth
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NEW: America is a rich country. Britain is a poor country with one wealthy region.
People love to compare the UK to Mississippi, but it’s far more informative to look at UK subnationally, too.
London ranks fairly well, the rest of the country does not ft.com/content/e5c741
ft.com/content/e5c741
Can’t really cope with any more pieces that idly conflating ULEZ with net zero. ULEZ is about air quality in London, not global warming. And the political debate about it is about whether it’s *really* about that, or actually just a revenue raising con (which is a fair question).