Graeme Archer retweeted
Local piemaker explains how Burnham's first Budget will make things much worse:
"I don’t qualify for the business rates relief because I’m multi-site… I’ve got two shops, so I don’t qualify. The minimum wage has increased. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay staff. I’m saying we can’t afford to pay them…
All my staff have been with us for years. So I’m going to have approximately a £700 a week increase. My suppliers are having an increase too. My supply bills are around £20,000 to £30,000 a week. That’ll go up 10%, so £2,000 to £3,000 a week. So that’s £4,000 a week I’ve got to find…
That’s about 20,000 to 30,000 pies a week. So my costs have gone up. I’ve got no business rates relief. The National Insurance is crippling me. The energy crisis is crippling me. I’m going to have to put my prices up,
Customers are going to get mad. I’m going to get less profit. As a family, as a director, I’ve got to take a 2% cut. So my family, my one-year-old girl. I’m taking a pay cut. The business is taking a pay cut.
How is that breathing room for me? Where’s my breathing space? John Healey, if you’re listening, where’s my breathing space? You promised me. You promised the UK breathing space. Where is it?"
Graeme Archer retweeted
We need to know TODAY who the 5 men arrested near RAF Fairford are. Nationalities. Immigration status. This is potentially a scandal capable of bringing down a government and the authorities cannot hide behind "process" just because Labour is holding its conference or Ed Miliband just shook hands with the Iranian foreign minister.
Graeme Archer retweeted
So.. a known Hamas operative named Mohammed Naim applied for asylum in the UK, was granted indefinite leave to remain, gained British citizenship, changed his name numerous times, proceeded to orchestrate acts of terrorism, and was then granted 100 years of anonymity. And we don't know the name of any minister, caseworker, lawyer, special unit, or tribunal judge who advanced his case, carried out vetting, or made any of these decisions. And we only know about him now because of the determination of an intrepid journalist and newspaper. Why hasn't he been stripped of his British citizenship and deported? Why are we giving sanctuary to known terrorists? Why are we protecting their identities for a century? Are we mad? This is not a conspiracy with no names, so who exactly is responsible?
EXCLUSIVE: The former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, was given asylum and citizenship in the UK — then “plotted” huge foiled terror attack targeting Jews in Europe last year
Mr X had legal anonymity for 100 years: Sunday Times quashed this
thetimes.com/uk/crime/articl…
Graeme Archer retweeted
This is a proper WTAF story. This country has a death wish. Stop letting in Islamists and people likely to support them. It’s really not terribly complicated.
In this case a judge gave a Hamas man 100 years of anonymity before it was challenged by the Sunday Times. Utterly retarded. The courts are a conspiracy against the nation.
Indefinite leave to remain granted under Theresa May as Home Secretary. Ye Gods.
Read it and weep
EXCLUSIVE: The former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, was given asylum and citizenship in the UK — then “plotted” huge foiled terror attack targeting Jews in Europe last year
Mr X had legal anonymity for 100 years: Sunday Times quashed this
thetimes.com/uk/crime/articl…
Graeme Archer retweeted
Dominic Grieve chaired the Government's "anti-Muslim hatred/Islamophobia" working group.
I asked him at the time if the MCB or Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organisations were involved, and he refused to answer.
There's a cover-up: the Government now says it has deleted all the records.
But Dominic can just clear this up. Did his working group receive representations from any of the following organisations?
Muslim Council of Britain
Muslim Association of Britain
The Cordoba Foundation
The UK Islamic Mission
The Islamic Forum for Europe
Or any organisations that are affiliated to these bodies?
teapaw.org/dominicgrieve_/status/…
This post is significantly misleading.
To start with, there has been no definition of "Islamophobia" at all or any attempt to do so. The working group which I chaired on the matter specifically declined to adopt the term. The suggested definition was about what might or might not properly be considered to be unjustifiable anti Muslim hostility.
It is certainly not a blasphemy law. There was no new law suggested and it was outside the terms of reference of the working group and specifically excluded. I would not have chaired the working group if there had been any question of it, as I actively campaigned to get rid of the existing law on blasphemy when an MP and my views have not changed since. The wording used cannot create one or restrict legitimate freedom of expression,including the right to criticise Islam as a religion. To suggest this on the clear evidence of the wording and the text is nonsense.
During the course of its work the working group met with a number of individuals and representatives of organisations. As the present government has kept the policy of its Conservative predecessors, no meetings took place with any groups or individuals who had been identified as having expressed unacceptable views incompatible with a free democracy.
There was a call for evidence that allowed anyone to submit their opinion. Many did including, it was clear, individuals with views right across the political spectrum, including extreme hatred of Muslims. These were not considered individually.
It was always for the government to decide what to do with our advice which was private to government. Whether or not the deletion of material received by us during the course of our work follows government guidelines or not is not for me to comment. We did not request it.
Nick Timothy needs to decide whether he is a serious politician or a rabble rouser mingling valid points with entirely disreputable and unsustainable ones.
Graeme Archer retweeted
Some photos from the morning dip. There is nothing like a run into the sea, it's a shake of the fist at the inevitable quietus and the indifference of the Universe. I shout "I'm alive" (inside my head, usually, but not always) and feel it, alive, more than any other time of day.
Graeme Archer retweeted
London's Fourth Plinth is one of the most exciting public art commissions in the world. Today we welcome ‘Lady in Blue’ by @Tschababala Self - a symbol of confidence and purpose and an excellent addition to Trafalgar Square
Graeme Archer retweeted
Meanwhile the government remains dead set on paying the Mauritian wallet inspectors to take over the Chagos Islands - funding for which will come *straight out of the defence budget*
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to be led by people who hate their own country
🚨BREAKING – The Army has been ordered to stop training in an historic blow to Britain’s defences as the MoD runs out of cash.
thesun.co.uk/news/40262988/a…
Graeme Archer retweeted
🗣️ Some of the personal attacks on Graham Linehan this week for telling the obvious (and very visible and sad) truth about Jon Ronson, very much seem to prove his point. Worse, I suspect many of those attacking Linehan know that he's right, but feel they have to stick with the tribe.
fify
Graeme Archer retweeted
I remember my dad who loved new things his entire life, because the new things were worth experiencing. (Sometimes, as a teenager, this embarrassed me - my loss.) I find myself re-listening to the music I liked in the 80s and 90s, but when he was my age now, he was mixing his John Denver, Cat Stevens and Beatles albums up with Blondie concerts and Pet Shop Boys albums (my parents went to a PSB concert - I did not; that I do remember.)
The culture then was *worth* this. We went together to hear that "Zombie" band, Cranberries, do a gig in a church in Glasgow, I remember. He loved music, but the point is that there was constantly new music he wanted to experience, new but embedded within a continuum he recognised. I don't think that's the case any longer.
(Mum and Dad also liked Mozart which is where I got my intro to the classical music I love. Even there: in the 60s-90s, I think it was totally normal for average working families to listen to classical music, so their children were exposed to it. A slightly different topic that, but another strand of "Our culture was richer before the turn of the century.")
Graeme Archer retweeted
The Tory Shadow Chancellor, @griffitha, has more private sector experience than the entire Labour Cabinet….combined.
Wild.
