Anti-Brexit; interested natural resources governance; development; business ethics. Trustee: Edward Heath Foundation. Cyanide Management Institute. Views my own
Joined February 2016
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Edward Bickham retweeted
@carlbildt spot-on here. Europe (EU + UK) has GDP roughly 10 times Russia's. Putin's aggression is an existential threat to democratic Europe . Leaders should say honestly to voters that helping Ukraine & boosting defence means sacrificing other desirable spending
Europe faces a major challenge financially supporting 🇺🇦 with the unrelenting 🇷🇺 attacks taking a heavier toll on the economy of the country. It’s big numbers, but in reality the 0.2% or so should be perfectly possible within the 5% of GDP already committed for defence. It’s a question of political will.
Edward Bickham retweeted
Andrew, the failure wasn't Dublin. It was the British government's failure to use it.
Between 2015 and 2018, Britain made 18,953 requests to return asylum seekers to European countries, but completed just 1,395 transfers — barely 7% of requests.
A 2016 independent inspection exposed missed deadlines, abandoned cases, shortages of removal escorts and poor Home Office management.
My friend Lord Kirkhope, who helped draft Dublin, identified the problem in 2019: a lack of “political determination and proper allocation” of responsibility.
Then Brexit abolished Dublin without securing an equivalent replacement. The result? Just 38 asylum seekers removed under the post-Brexit inadmissibility arrangements between January 2021 and June 2025.
So Britain had a legal mechanism, failed to operate it effectively, and then surrendered it.
That's not evidence that Dublin was worthless. It's evidence of successive British governments failing to make proper use of the powers they possessed.
No surprise there. The state is incompetent.
Edward Bickham retweeted
'Over 2 billion people worldwide are using or benefiting from a piece of research that came from Oxford… That’s impact.'
In her 2026 Oration, Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey reflects on Oxford’s impact and looks to what comes next.
Read more ⬇️
ox.ac.uk/news/2026-10-06-vic…
ALT A group of University of Oxford officials in academic dress, including Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey, standing outside.
ALT Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey delivers her 2026 Oration from a lectern inside Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, with University officials seated beside her.
Edward Bickham retweeted
At the EU reception at the @Conservatives Party Conference.
As underlined by Shadow Foreign Secretary @TomTugendhat: “we share an extraordinary past and an extraordinary future.”
In an increasingly contested world, the EU and UK are stronger when we stand together.
An important 'wake up and smell the coffee' warning from the German Foreign Minister
German FM Wadephul on the horrible consequences of Russian occupation:
It’s not as if, the moment the Russians arrive, the Ukrainian flag simply comes down and the Russian one goes up and life just carries on as normal. Instead, the Russians abduct children to Russia, simply taking them away from their rightful parents and commit rape, murder, torture, and killing; all of this happens in the Russian-occupied territories. That is the reality.
Edward Bickham retweeted
NEW: Oxford has been named the world’s number one University for a record-breaking 11th consecutive year in the @timeshighered World University Rankings.
Oxford has held the top spot since 2017 – the longest run at number one in the rankings’ history.
[1/3]
ALT Aerial view of Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera and surrounding University buildings at sunset. Text reads: ‘Oxford named best university in the world for record 11 years in a row.’
Great evening with @DrSteveTibble at @Arundells on Friday night. Sell out event discussing the brilliance and the demise of the Templars. Thank you Steve for sharing your knowledge and insights
Edward Bickham retweeted
“Once we say that this or that person isn’t really English or British because they are not white, then we are on a very slippery slope”
Rishi is right.
I couldn’t have said it any better.
So this is what £72 million in political donations helps to buy. Crypto serves no useful national or social purpose. It is favoured for money-laundering and tax evasion. Rather, it should be discouraged not facilitated
Reform to hand crypto investors hundreds of millions in tax breaks
@Independent
independent.co.uk/news/uk/po…
This is really important data.
NO ‘UNITING THE RIGHT’.
Lord Ashcroft's latest polling confirms what we’ve said all along - any thoughts of ‘uniting the right’ to try and win power are based on a flawed interpretation of voting intentions:
- A Conservative-Reform pact would poll 13 points below the sum of its parts and Conservative voters would bear the cost.
- A joint ticket would poll 28 per cent against a combined 41 per cent for the two parties separately: a 13 point loss.
- That gap has widened since last year, when it was 10 points, so Conservative voter resistance to a pact has hardened, not softened.
- The Conservative-Reform ceiling is 33 per cent. The Conservatives' own ceiling is 38 per cent, the highest of the three. Going it alone leaves the most room to grow.
- Conservative voters are far more likely than Reform voters to oppose working with the other side, so the damage from any deal falls disproportionately on us.
- A pact only trims Labour's lead from 7 points to 5. It does not deliver a winning position.
- Reform's poll lead has disappeared, and by-elections in Gorton and Denton, Caerphilly and Makerfield showed voters will vote tactically to keep Reform out. Their path to a majority is pretty much impossible.
- Conservatives are now equals rather than the junior partner, which removes any argument that we need Reform to be competitive.
- An alliance would be doomed to fail and the Conservatives have much more to lose from trying.
Our approach has been consistent all the way through. We stand on our own record, our own values and our own plan and we compete for every vote.
conservativehome.com/2026/09…
The economic case for membership is important but the political case is decisive. Trump has shown why we need to build a stronger Europe to promote our collective interests. We need to get on with it!
"support for Rejoin is at highest level..seize the opportunity or it will all come to nothing"
@UKLabour
@andyburnham 🔽🔽🔽
Edward Bickham retweeted
Remember Nathan Gill? When he was arrested at Manchester Airport he was on his way to a Conference in Moscow about elections (strange subject in Moscow). Gill’s presentation was about the electoral role of crypto currencies - funny that…. bylinetimes.com/2025/10/17/w…
Britain is not for sale to you and your crypto billionaire cronies. Nor is our country 'broken'. It could be better but it is a decent, tolerant place with low crime and passable public services
Thanks to the generosity of Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, Reform will now be able to fight and win the next general election on a level playing field.
Britain is broken. Only Reform has what it takes to fix it. telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Edward Bickham retweeted
A sea of blue 🇪🇺flags, more than ever, 10 years on - at The Last Night of the Proms
Not sure I've often seen so many EU flags in the actual EU ! And this on the day a US President calls for the break-up of the UK
Europe, where Britain's true friends and future are
🇬🇧🇪🇺
The 'Establishment' doesn't exist it is a useful fiction for populists to use. The people who have been exposed, or now disclosed, as Reform donors play no constructive role in society or the economy and many are associated with criminality
This is a crucial point. Trump's transactional approach is a betrayal of both the international rules-based order (designed to keep us safe) and of US's own responsibilities/obligations
Edward Bickham retweeted
But I think you misjudge voters. You can't just add Conservative & Reform supporters to get some imaginary total. Polls indicate perhaps half Reform voters would never support a Conservative candidate & a comparable number of lifelong Tories (I'm one) would never vote Reform
It is also clear that Farage and his stormtroopers resemble many of Trump's tactics to break constitutional safeguards and checks and balances. We have been warned!
So Nigel Farage has declared Reform would declare a national emergency on day one so that they can overrule the judiciary and force legislation through.
This seems to be remarkably like the enabling act that Hitler and the Nazis used to grab power. share.google/HZlcMaYHj1VDknt…
