
@edwesti
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Writer, the Wrong Side of History substack
London
Joined January 2009
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Good list xitter.cf/RobertJenrick/status/2โฆ
Britain is broke. And to fix it, we need to start growing again.
Thatโs why Reformโs Economic Rescue Plan includes these 64 pro-growth measures Iโd take if I were Chancellor:
๐จ๐ป๐น๐ผ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ก๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ต ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฎ
1. Approve Rosebank
2. Restart oil and gas licensing
3. Legalise onshore exploration
4. Abolish the Energy Profits Levy
5. Restore maximum economic extraction as the North Sea regulator's objective
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป
6. Abolish the Emissions Trading Scheme
7. Halt the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
8. Repudiate AR7 contracts for difference and scrap AR8
9. Implement the Fingleton Review on nuclear in full
10. Automatically approve French and South Korean nuclear designs
๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ข๐๐ฟ ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐
11. Cut affordable housing requirements on brownfield sites
12. Permitted Development Right for brownfield housing
13. Repeal Biodiversity Net Gain
14. Exit the Aarhus Convention
15. Repeal and reform the Habitats Regulations, including Nutrient Neutrality
16. End the boiler ban
17. Legalise air conditioning to meet overheating rules
18. Remove mandatory EPC improvements
19. Revoke the Future Homes Standard
20. Repeal the Renters' Rights Act
๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ป๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ
21. Legislate approval for new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick
22. Auction airport landing slots
23. End 'target-consistent' carbon pricing in project evaluation
24. Ban carbon emissions considerations in planning applications
25. Fast-track all water reservoirs as nationally significant projects
26. Make Development Consent Orders a true one-stop shop
27. Restrict judicial review of ministerial planning decisions
28. Scrap Net Zero construction rules
29. Scrap the social value test in procurement
30. Lift launch limits at SaxaVord Spaceport
31. Open completed sections of East-West Rail
๐๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
32. Review regulatory barriers to AI adoption
33. Permit on-site gas generation for data centres and industry
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ช๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐
34. Cut Employer NI back to 13.8%
35. Introduce a migrant worker levy
36. Repeal the Employment Rights Act
37. Clarify that workplace rights don't require mandatory training courses
38. Let experienced tradesmen work on government contracts without CSCS qualifications
๐จ๐ป๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐
39. Review bank capital requirements to boost lending
40. Rule out Net Zero in financial regulators' remits
41. Repeal climate-related financial disclosure rules
๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด
42. Scrap airport 'surface access strategies'
43. Abolish the electric vehicle mandates
44. Apply domestic GB hours to all UK HGV trips
45. Ban Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods
46. Back the M4 Relief Road
47. Move a new car's first MOT to four years
48. Abolish the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation
๐จ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐
๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ๐
49. Replace GDPR with a New Zealand-style Privacy Act
50. Fully re-legalise Imperial units
51. Review all unchanged EU law
52. Automatically repeal remaining EU law in 5 years unless retained
๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด๐๐น๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐
53. Make quarterly Making Tax Digital reporting voluntary
54. Reduce legal obligations on SME Non-Executive Directors
55. Double permission-free event days from 28 to 56
56. Make pavement dining licences automatic and permanent
57. Let shops open until 10pm, except Sundays
58. Repeal board diversity and inclusion rules
59. Remove the Sustainable Aviation Fuel mandate
60. Abolish the packaging tax
61. Scrap BBC and Channel 4 priority on streaming platforms
62. Remove the Public Sector Equality Duty
63. Five-year sunset on all QUANGOs
64. Five-year sunset clause on all new regulations
And there are more to come!
Britainโs full potential is waiting to be unleashed ๐
100%. Bringing over instinctively moderate but status-conscious people is the only way to avoid further mistakes that make life worse for all of us. (Besides which, Syed has long been critical of high immigration and multiculturalism) xitter.cf/undersneege/status/210โฆ
Newspapers (and magazines pretending to be newpapers) should be applauded for publishing uncomfortable data that goes against how they would like to see the world xitter.cf/ecurrnomics/status/211โฆ
The Economist's estimate of Britain's age- and sex-standardised conviction rates for sexual offences by the offender's nationality
economist.com/britain/2026/1โฆ
What would Hitler do? theguardian.com/tv-and-radioโฆ
Heartbreaking xitter.cf/orthodox_33ad/status/2โฆ
This is Fadi al-Halsa, a young Orthodox Christian (Rum Orthodox) dentist from Karak, Jordan who only just graduated from Alexandria University's dental school this year.
Instead of celebrating his bright future, Fadi's parents and two sisters are now laying him to rest. Fadi was martyred in the Karak Saint George Church terrorist attack in Jordan.
I would have gone for something a bit more subtle in choosing the name dailymail.com/news/article-1โฆ
Ed West retweeted
Replying to @Louise_m_perry
@Louise_m_perry has been having these one-on-ones with @edwest every few weeks on her blogstack's podcasts and they're great. Highly recommended.
louiseperry.co.uk/p/reflectiโฆ
Most of the BBC website could be completely shut down, except for a small hard news section and an archive of documentaries edwest.co.uk/p/the-bbc-needsโฆ
Ed West retweeted
Hats off to Captain Blunt of the Life Guards ๐ซก
Before he sang โYouโre Beautiful,โ James Blunt says he was ordered to overpower 200 Russian soldiers at an airport in Kosovo.
He questioned the order. Then a British general came on the radio.
It was June 1999. Blunt was 25, serving as a British Army officer near the front of a NATO force advancing toward Pristina airport. Russian troops had arrived first.
According to Blunt, they pointed their weapons at his men and warned them against entering.
The instruction he says came down from NATO commander General Wesley Clark was to โoverrun and overpower the Russians.โ
Blunt had armed troops behind him. The Russians were standing in front of them. Carrying out the order risked turning a dispute over an airport into a direct military confrontation.
He began questioning the instructions.
Then General Mike Jackson intervened.
At the Oxford Union, Blunt recalled Jacksonโs words:
โI will not have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III.โ
The troops pulled back and surrounded the airfield.
Blunt says that two days later, the Russians asked to share their food and water. The British response was that they could share supplies if the Russians shared access to the airport.
The wider standoff still required negotiations. It would be misleading to say one young officer settled the entire crisis himself.
But listen to how Blunt tells the story.
He calls it the moment of his life he would most like to be remembered for. Then, after describing the confrontation, he makes a point of giving Jackson the credit.
The famous singer is telling the audience to remember someone elseโs name.
Ed West retweeted
Belgium, you may be interested to know, is tied with Ireland for the #2 spot on V-Dem's Freedom of Expression Index. I love political science.
Belgium is preparing a criminal case against philosopher @nathancofnas that could result in up to 3 years of jail time.
Why jail a philosopher? Because Cofnas has argued that some race differences in psychological traits might be due to genetic differences. And this allegedly violates a new law that Belgium passed a month ago against 'dissemination of racial ideas' and 'incitement to discrimination or racial hatred'.
Here @Rosalind_Arden_ breaks down this strange story of censorship, retaliation, and institutional bullying of scholars who address taboo topics.
Ed West retweeted
Incredible detail about Chris Wickham from his Guardian obit theguardian.com/books/2026/oโฆ
Ed West retweeted
Considering how regularly movies about WW2 are churned out, it's remarkable that this story hasn't been turned into one yet.
In 1941, a Spaniard walked into the British embassy in Madrid and offered to spy on the Nazis.
The British turned him down.
So he went to the Germans instead, pretended to be a loyal fascist, and got hired as a German spy. His plan was to lie to them for the rest of the war.
It worked better than anyone could have imagined.
His name was Juan Pujol Garcรญa. Before the war he had tried his hand at running a chicken farm and a movie theater. He had no spy training. What he had was a deep hatred of both fascism and communism after the Spanish Civil War, and an incredible imagination.
The Germans gave him a codename, invisible ink, money, and orders to go to Britain and recruit spies.
He didn't go to Britain.
He went to Lisbon, Portugal, and made everything up.
Using a tourist guidebook, maps, magazines, newsreels, and a British railway timetable from the library, he wrote long, detailed reports about life in England. Military movements. Morale. Ports.
He'd never been there. He made mistakes. He didn't understand British money. He once reported that dockworkers in Glasgow would do anything for a liter of wine.
The Germans loved him anyway.
Then British codebreakers reading German messages noticed something strange. The Germans were hunting for a convoy that didn't exist, based on a report from some agent in Britain they'd never heard of.
The British went looking for this mystery spy. They found Pujol. In 1942 they finally took him on and brought him to London.
Now he had real help. MI5 gave him the codename Garbo, after the actress, because they thought he was the greatest actor in the world.
Together with his British handler, Pujol built a fake spy network for the Germans. It eventually had 27 imaginary agents. Each had a name, a personality, a job, and a backstory. A Welsh nationalist. A Venezuelan student. A Greek sailor. Some of them recruited their own imaginary sub-agents.
When they needed to explain why one agent had gone quiet, they killed him off. They even put a fake obituary in a Liverpool newspaper. The Germans reportedly paid a pension to his widow.
Who also didn't exist.
Then came D-Day.
Hours before the landings, the British let Pujol send a message warning the Germans that the invasion was coming in Normandy. It was timed so it would arrive too late to matter, but it made him look brilliant.
Three days later he sent the most important message of his career. Normandy was a trick, he said. The real invasion was still coming, at Calais, led by a huge army under General Patton.
That army was fake too. But the Germans believed him.
German forces that could have been rushed to Normandy were held back near Calais for weeks, waiting for an attack that never came.
The Germans were so grateful they awarded him the Iron Cross.
A few months later, King George VI made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
He's one of the only people known to have been decorated by both sides of the war.
After the war, afraid of revenge from surviving Nazis, he faked his own death from malaria in Africa and disappeared to Venezuela, where he lived quietly running a shop.
For decades the world thought he was dead.
In 1984, a British writer tracked him down. Pujol came back to Normandy for the 40th anniversary of D-Day and met veterans who had landed on the beaches.
Some of them thanked him.
Ed West retweeted
The King of Jordan has been a steadfast friend to Christians and helped rebuild the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Greek Orthodox parish attacked in Karak during a funeral(!) reminds us that vile terrorism has never gone away.
The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation. Those who delude themselves into thinking that they can divide Jordanians with their bullets have no chance in the face of our unity. All Jordanians, from north to south, are partners in land and fate, and nothing stands between them. Our deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs and we wish a speedy recovery to those injured.
Every Jordanian life is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation
Ed West retweeted
True in Spain too. Every landlord in Madrid and Barcelona screens the renters now. This is an obvious consequence of rent control. The most vulnerable, ostensible protected by the legislation, are in fact excluded from the rental market: if you cannot be evicted for non payment, then you are too risky a renter.
ืืืืืืืื ืืืืืื ืฉื ืขืืจืืง ื ืคืชื ืืืื ืืจืืฉืื ื ืืืจืื ืืืืจื ืืืืื. ืืื ืฉืืื ืืืื ื ืฉืฉืืืฉ ืืขืืจ ืืช ืืืช ืืกืคืจ ืืืืืื "ืฉืืืฉ" ืืจืืื ื-ืจืฉืื. ืืืื ื ืฉืืคืฅ ืืืืืื ืืฆืืจื ืื. ืืืืืืืื ืืืฆืืื ืืกืืืื, ืคืจืื ืืืืฉ, ืกืคืจื ืงืืืฉ, ืชืฉืืืฉื ืงืืืฉื ืืกืจืืื ืื ืืืื ืืงืืืื ืืืื ืืขืฉืจืื. ืืืืื ืืจืืฉืื ืฉื ืืืืืืืื ืืืืขื ืืืื ืืืฃ ืืืงืจืื - ืจืืื ืื ืืืืืื. ืืช ืืืงืื ืืืฉืืคืืฅ ืืืฆืขื ืืงืืืื ืืืืืืืช ืืงืื ื ืืขืืจืืง ืฉืืื ืื ืืขืืช ืืืื ื
Kennington Bowl Skatepark, a little taste of the Bay Area in south London xitter.cf/lambeth_council/statusโฆ
Four more schools in north London face closure standard.co.uk/news/london/sโฆ































