Press/policy adviser to ADSS/ADASS 1992-2015. Edited many magazines. Now a good egg. Tries to tell things as they are. RTs not endorsements
London, England
Joined May 2012
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Drew Clode retweeted
David Walliams has just been suspended from the Labour Party.
I don’t think the BBC, ITV or Channel 4 have bothered reporting the political angle.
I mean, why would they? He wasn’t in Reform UK.
Drew Clode retweeted
England has existed for 1,099 years, but our leaders claim it is not an ethnicity. Pakistan has only existed for 79 years, yet it is an ethnicity.
England is conventionally dated as a unified kingdom from 927 AD under Æthelstan, the first king of all the English. Pakistan gained independence on 14 August 1947. In the UK census and official usage, “Pakistani” is routinely listed as an ethnic category, while Englishness is frequently treated as a civic or cultural identity open to anyone rather than a historic ethnicity tied to the long-settled people of England.
Drew Clode retweeted
🚨Burnham Promised to Deport Rochdale Gang Leader Before Becoming PM – 132 Days Later He’s Still Here
On 1 July, before he became Prime Minister, Andy Burnham said “nothing is off the table” to deport Shabir Ahmed, the Rochdale grooming gang leader convicted in 2012 of raping girls as young as 12.
One hundred and thirty-two days later Ahmed remains in Britain under a 1971 law, and Burnham’s spokesman admits there is still “no update.”
The promise that helped him win power remains completely unfulfilled, leaving a convicted dangerous sexual predator free to live in and roam the streets of the UK.
Drew Clode retweeted
Labour’s Lucy Powell, trying to explain why she was complicit on Ed Miliband interview with Brand in 2015, says a)it was before social media; and b) there was no easy way of checking on people in these days.
Which is strange since a) she’d been on social media since 2009 and by 2015 it was in full swing; and b) Google has been available since 2000.
Other than that her explanation is entirely credible.
Russell Brand: The shameful truth about those who turned a blind eye
youtu.be/5hfFwqW_e9s?si=2gXy… via @YouTube
Drew Clode retweeted
They were announced in January. They’re being reannounced today because Big Green (RWE) and Big Capitalism (KKR), who will benefit from the massive state subsidies already being poured into these projects, have demanded more (to cover rising costs of developing offshore wind). So Labour has obliged with another £1 billion from the so-called National Wealth [Destruction] Fund. Life is truly grand for the crony capitalists.
Drew Clode retweeted
BBC Children in Need is rattling the tin again this Friday. Before you give, it's worth knowing where some of the money has gone.
Charlotte Gill has been through the grants. £15,000 for a Belfast campaign about asylum seekers not being allowed to play semi-professional football. £99,000 for LGBT+ youth sessions in Derbyshire. £45,000 to Cumbria LGBT Pride. £120,000 to the Proud Trust for "transgender, non-binary and gender questioning young people."
People drop their coins in the bucket for disadvantaged kids. NOT to bankroll campaigns and identity politics. Ask where your tenner is going before you hand it over.
ALT Pudsey Bear, the yellow BBC Children in Need mascot with a spotted eye patch, smiling in an office with desks and a computer screen behind him. BBC logo in the corner.
Drew Clode retweeted
🇮🇹🇺🇦 WOW! WHAT A SPEECH! WHAT POWERFUL WORDS FROM ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI!
Here is the full five-minute excerpt of her speech devoted to Ukraine and Donald Trump.
“Russia has launched a new autumn campaign against Ukraine.
Unable to advance on the battlefield, Moscow has increasingly turned its attacks against civilians: power plants, residential buildings, hospitals, and even buses carrying people to work, as in the horrific massacre in Kramatorsk.
This is a strategy through which Russia seeks to subjugate Ukraine with terror, cold, and darkness, simply because it has failed to conquer it on the battlefield.
The facts contradict Kremlin propaganda and those who spread it here.
Since the beginning of the year, Russia has captured very little territory, and in September it lost much of what it had previously seized.
This halt did not happen by chance. It was achieved through Ukraine’s courage and Western support, including that of Italy.
This resistance is the only effective instrument for bringing Russia to the negotiating table.
I respect and understand the passionate debate on this issue, including within this chamber, because nobody here wants war.
We all want peace.
The difference lies in how we intend to achieve it.
As I see it, supporting Ukraine is not an alternative to peace. It is what makes peace possible.
Because if an aggressor expects its opponent to surrender, why would it negotiate?
Surrender is not peace. It is conquest.
If Ukraine stopped defending itself tomorrow, as many suggest, we would not have peace.
We would be discussing the occupation of a European nation and the return of Soviet imperialism.
Personally, I do not miss those times. I do not miss Russian tanks crushing uprisings in Prague and Budapest.
I do not miss the Berlin Wall.
And nobody will ever convince me that the surrender of those defending their freedom can be called ‘peace.’
The peace we want, and the peace we are working toward, even at the cost of concessions, is a just peace, because only a just peace can endure.
Only a just peace can protect Europe and our interests.
That is why our government's position remains unchanged: support for Ukraine, with particular attention to civilians, pressure on Moscow, and Euro-Atlantic unity remain the pillars of our actions.
In this context, we must address Donald Trump's diesel agreement with Russia.
This is a decision I consider extremely risky.
Of course, we all recognize the need to contain fuel prices, which place a heavy burden on families, including Italian families.
But we must understand that rising prices are primarily linked to the war in Iran, not Ukraine.
Legitimizing Moscow, whose bombs continue to fall on Ukrainian cities, providing new revenues to finance the war, and weakening sanctions are all factors we cannot ignore.
And they contradict everything Western nations, including the United States, have done to force Putin to the negotiating table.
An energy ceasefire is a different matter, one that Italy supports, and we are grateful to President Zelenskyy for Ukraine's immediate willingness to agree to it.
Now we expect Russia to stop attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Finally, at such a difficult moment, when so many variables are beyond our control, there is at least one thing that depends on us:
We must ensure that Europe does not simply stand by and watch, because the terms of peace will affect our continent and our security.”
— Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy
P.S. I'm moving from Twitter/X to Substack, where I'll continue publishing independent journalism, investigations, and political analysis. Join me there and subscribe for free or become a paid supporter.
mykhailorohoza.substack.com
Drew Clode retweeted
Nationalised last year, the rail network c2c ( Essex and East London) is so bad even the 3 dimwitted Labour MPs ( they supported the state grab) whose constituencies the trains serve has summonsed the MD to demand answers.
Here are the bloody awful stats;
* Before Labour 94% of the trains arrived within 5mins of the scheduled time. Now it’s 71.5%
* Before Labour c2c cancelled 1% of trains. Now it’s 1.7% with 4.7% in August.
* In mid-August to mid - September the average delay to exiting passengers was 3.5 minutes, the longest since records began.
The same is true of SWR and the Great Northern.
The state are bloody awful at running things, not least because trade unions are involved.
Drew Clode retweeted
The Free Speech Union exposed that all five members of the Working Group tasked with drafting the official definition of Islamophobia had troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and MEND.
The Working Group held a consultation so people could help shape what became the “anti-Muslim hostility” definition. Given the public interest, the FSU asked which groups and individuals had been consulted.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy submitted a Freedom of Information request. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) replied that it had deleted all the responses — in what appears to be against the Government’s own data policy.
The FSU then threatened Angela Rayner’s department with legal action.
Now the department’s most senior civil servant says the responses do exist and remain on its data system, but the department will not disclose who was consulted.
So what is going on? Were we told the responses had been deleted to conceal the fact that Islamist extremists had the chance to influence the definition?
We are now told that an Islamophobia tsar will be announced imminently. Given Rayner and her department’s record, who on earth could it be?
Drew Clode retweeted
Labour MPs have accused Andy Burnham of hypocrisy over his ban on drilling for new oil and gas in the UK, saying that importing oil and gas while banning Britain's own drilling is an absurd "act of self-harm". dailysceptic.org/2026/11/05/…
Drew Clode retweeted
London is hosting “The Thinking Muslim Conference” this weekend.
One speaker said he would be willing to carry out a suicide bombing.
Another was described as a member of Al-Qaeda, and met the Taliban.
I have written to the Home Secretary about the obvious security concerns.
Drew Clode retweeted
A 77-year-old King, still in cancer treatment, flew nine days through a region that has spent the year telling him it wants to leave. He stood in a tropical downpour without an umbrella. He went to the one republic whose president had publicly told him to apologise. And he came home with 56 countries agreeing to double their trade with each other by 2030. That is soft power. Nobody else alive can do it.
The Bahamas first. He hadn’t been back in 53 years, not since he stood in for his mother at independence in 1973. He got off the plane and said “I’ve arrived, thank God!” in Bahamian dialect, and that was the tour decided. Danced at Junkanoo. Sat with a youth rally at Clifford Park. Waded about in the mangroves at Bonefish Pond talking coastal resilience with people whose homes depend on it.
Then Guyana. A republic since 1970. President Ali had said out loud that the King should apologise, and the King went anyway. Met him at State House, laid a wreath, sat with the Toshaos, the elected leaders of the Indigenous villages, 26 years after he first walked into the Iwokrama rainforest and became its patron. His Foundation is now drawing up Georgetown’s urban plan with the government. You don’t get asked to do that by a country that resents you.
Then Antigua and Barbuda. The first Head of the Commonwealth ever to set foot there. At the Independence parade the sky opened, Camilla made off under the only umbrella in the stadium and the King stood in the rain miming one until somebody found him his own, laughing. The clip went round the world and did more for the monarchy than a thousand press releases.
Then he gave the speech people said he’d dodge. He didn’t. The slave trade “still casts a shadow” over these islands, he said, and the history fills him with horror and profound personal sorrow. He said the Commonwealth is “a response to the world of today.” Then he got out of the way and let the leaders work.
And they worked. Smallest host nation in Commonwealth history. 3,000 delegates in a country of 100,000 people. $52 billion of bankable projects on the table across 28 countries. Half a billion dollars of new money. A $300 million fund to put skills into 10 million young people. A trade portal, a trade target, a debt agenda the UK will carry into its G20 presidency. And on reparations, the thing everyone said would blow it up, Britain agreed to a structured, time-bound dialogue and Gaston Browne said it would not divide the Commonwealth. It didn’t.
No treaty makes any of these countries turn up. They turn up. 56 nations, 2.7 billion people, a third of humanity, and the one thing they have in common is a man who flies in, listens, gets rained on, and asks for nothing.
A word for Shirley Botchwey too. Her first CHOGM as Secretary-General. First African woman to run the Secretariat, second African after Nigeria’s own Chief Emeka Anyaoku. She promised a summit of ambition and action and then did something nobody had done in 28 of these meetings: she put investors in the room with the heads of government. Ghana should be proud of her. Africa is.
People keep asking what a monarchy is for in 2026. This week was the answer. Not power. Presence.
Well done, Antigua. God Save The King.
@RoyalFamily @commonwealthsec #CHOGM2026
Drew Clode retweeted
There were 14 pension millionaires in the Civil Service last year. Right now, the top mandarins build more pension a year than even the Prime Minister, while paying significantly less towards it. A system made by officials, for officials.
Reform will reward performance and delivery for the British public, not time served.
telegraph.co.uk/money/pensio…
Drew Clode retweeted
Yesterday @EmilyThornberry revealed a Pakistani man who came to Islington to work as carer is "relieved" his family will all be allowed to stay forever. The family has now been joined by "a little boy with a rare genetic condition." She asked @ShabanaMahmood if the lad can have UK taxpayer funded benefits. Of course we all want the best for him but this begs so many questions. Is he their son? Did they just abandon him till now? How many other low paid carers are bringing relatives who are partly or wholly dependent on the state? It's completely unaffordable!
Drew Clode retweeted
🚨 ISLAMIC BLASPHEMY LAW BY THE BACK DOOR 🚨
Kellie-Jay Keen (@ThePosieParker) has been charged with a criminal offence over posts criticising Islam, Muslim cultural practices and Islamism.
The Free Speech Union is proud to be defending her.
In a free society, no religion or cultural practice should be immune from criticism.
Since Labour came to power, the number of FSU cases involving people penalised for criticising Islam has doubled. It is now the single biggest category in our casework.
And now, with a state-approved definition of Islamophobia — rebranded as “anti-Muslim hostility” — things are only getting worse.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Communities Secretary Angela Rayner met Muslim community leaders in Downing Street. Burnham took a swipe at critics of Islam, saying “some of the language” opposition parties use “is unacceptable”, and told the leaders “we need to find ways with you to demonstrate that more and more”.
We now await Rayner’s appointment of an “Islamophobia tsar” who will help enforce the definition.
All five hand-picked members of the Working Group that drafted it have concerning links to Islamist organisations, as FSU Research and Policy Director @DavidRoseUK exposed in his report. We have little hope that the appointed tsar will be good news for free speech.
Meanwhile, the Government is refusing to say who submitted responses to the Working Group, so we cannot know which groups shaped the definition. Islamists may well have had a hand in its drafting.
Support the FSU’s campaign against an Islamic blasphemy law — and the people penalised under it 👇
I have reached an age when I don't mind calling a spade a spade - nor a tosspot a tosspot!
Hullo Will.. ;-)
I’ve reached an age when some people offer me their seat on the tube - and I no longer feel any offence to my dignity. I just say yes gratefully. Except I’ve noticed they have one thing in common - they are almost always people of colour. True Brits.
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Drew Clode retweeted
The current chancellor has NEVER had a job outside of a union or the Labour party.
Let that sink in for a minute.... He is 66 and has never had a proper job!
Anyone surprised that his budget was useless?
Drew Clode retweeted
Why did God create evil? The answer struck me to the core of my soul!
A professor at the university asked his students the following question:
Everything that exists was created by God?
One student bravely answered:
Yes, created by God.
Did God create everything? - a professor asked.
"Yes, sir," replied the student.
The professor asked:
If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.
The student became silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to students for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said:
Can I ask you a question, professor?
"Of course," replied the professor.
A student got up and asked:
Professor, is cold a thing?
What kind of question? Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?
Students laughed at the young man's question. The young man answered:
Actually, sir, cold doesn't exist.
According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy.
Absolute zero (-460 degrees
Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature.
Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.
A student continued:
Professor, does darkness exist?
— Of course it exists.
You're wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness.
We can use Newton's prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can't measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn't it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.
In the end, the young man asked the professor:
Sir. does evil exist?
This time it was uncertain, the professor answered:
Of course, as I said before. We see him every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.
To this, the student answered:
Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It's the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there's no light.
The student's name was Albert Einstein.
You are quite rightly probing at the very edges of debate concerning how 'multiculturalism' impacts the concepts of integrity, impartiality, honesty, communal trust and free speech.. Would we could speak more openly. But free speech is being deliberately eroded. God speed.
Tan Ikram is the Deputy Chief Magistrate.
He is linked to an organisation that dismissed the rape gangs as “so-called grooming gangs”.
I do not make a habit of criticising judges, but his conduct outside the courtroom raises serious questions.
So I asked the Justice Secretary for an investigation.
His response was to tell me to stop my "dangerous public criticism".
I will not be silenced.
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