Retired pharmacist, History and Family tree enthusiast, enjoy walking and being with friends.
Worthing, W. Sussex
Joined November 2013
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- Following2.4K
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Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
It’s a recurring theme, starting with Bridget Phillipson herself, that Labour MPs have either not actually read the draft Bill or just don’t understand it.
There are no protections, exceptions or safeguards in the Bill for parents or faith leaders.
This law will have extraordinary implications and so it is a basic requirement on all legislators that they actually read it and understand it.
So @RachelTaylorMP first thing: it's Falkner, not Faulkner. Attention to detail matters.
In the same vein, please explain where in the Bill we can find the "significant safeguards" to protect "legitimate - even challenging - conversations" with parents and faith leaders. Thanks.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Andy Burnham would rather hand over £450mil every year to cut university fees for EU students, than reverse Labour’s freeze of repayment thresholds for Plan 2 student loans.
Politics is about choices. It seems that foreign students are more important to Labour than English students.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
The words written for you by the Civil Service to repair the damage of your “employers are not working people” line won’t cut it.
The mask has slipped.
You and your Labour government don’t understand or care about small businesses or business owners.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
This is who is behind every small business
Your local bakery
Your local hairdressers
You local farm shop
Real people who are trying to make an honest living
I’ve met Frankie.
She’s fantastic, she cares about her customers, her staff her product.
She wants what is best.
But right now small businesses are spinning so many plates and fighting so many challenges
She is right @EmmaforWycombe need to apologies and resign.
The dehumanising language she uses around business owners that they aren’t “working people”
Shows nothing but lack of understand of 99.9% of UK business.
Labour see businesses as a cow to milk to pay for welfare for others who chose not to work
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Labour have pushed small business owners past breaking point.
Countless livelihoods destroyed by tax raids.
And then they tell us we "aren't working people."
The Fabians in government are about to find out that you reap what you sow.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Minorities who break the law could be treated more leniently under the CPS “race bias” plans.
This ideological change will bring yet more two-tier justice. Charging decisions must be based on evidence, not skin colour.
We will get rid of all this dangerous nonsense.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
I am tired of those who seem determined to apologise for everything in Britain's past, while ignoring the extraordinary contribution this country has made to freedom around the world. In 1807, Britain abolished the slave trade and subsequently deployed the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to enforce that decision. British sailors risked, and lost, their lives fighting the slave trade, freeing thousands of people from slavery.
We should never forget their courage and sacrifice. Our history is not without its faults, but neither should we forget the enormous contribution Britain has made to freedom, justice and the rule of law. We have much to be proud of, and I make no apology for saying so.
🚨"By today's money we spent tens of billions of pounds to end slavery, we owe NO ONE an apology"
Sir Iain Duncan Smith picks apart Andy Burnham giving the Caribbean £40 million in reparations for the slave trade.
@MPIainDS | @jkyleofficial
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
In response to @johnredwood, Labour’s Business Minister refused to rule out NATIONALISING Poundland!
Insane.
The hard truth is that in a dynamic economy, businesses are created, whilst others sadly fail.
We cannot expect taxpayers to step in and solve all of life's problems.
The hard truth is that government must do fewer things, and do them better. It is not there to solve all of life's problems.
Labour and Reform are squabbling over who can be the most interventionist in the Poundland dispute.
Getting involved in Poundland is the opposite of doing fewer things better. In a dynamic economy, thousands of businesses will be created every year, whilst others sadly fail.
Although not a frequent shopper, I’ve always been a fan of Poundland. Mrs Griffith has been known to have to fish me out from wandering the aisles, marvelling at how some of the products are so much cheaper than elsewhere.
Brands of my youth such as Our Price records, Woolworths and Oddbins are no more. Consumption patterns change, new technologies emerge but so long as there are entrepreneurs willing to take and back risks, new growth fills the places vacated by others.
Poundland was founded in the 1990s. It will have taken a place left by other businesses, had that not been allowed it would never have existed in the first place.
The government has a huge role to play in sustaining profitable businesses in the UK, but the bar should be set very high on piling into disputes once a business is already in trouble.
Instead, the government should make it less expensive and risky to employ staff, lower business rates, tackle planning red tape, deliver cheaper energy and lock up prolific shop lifters. All of these would help our retailers.
If there is ever a Poundland ‘post-mortem’, just like the rest of the High Street, I am sure these factors will feature prominently. If I were Chancellor, reducing those burdens, rather than grandstanding on social media, would be my focus.
In this case, some are asking that the government ‘step in’. In reality, that means government deciding what rules apply to whom and telling businesses that politicians know better than them. This never goes well and that judgement is often clouded by political factors.
If we enter a world in which politicians decide the future of businesses, we will find that businesses must put a ‘price’ on the risk of government sticking their fingers in everywhere. The cost of doing business goes up, and fewer people bother at all. We end up in a world where it’s who you know that matters, not what you know.
Investors, who have a choice where to take their money, will demand a higher price to do business here - or stay away entirely. Every well-intentioned regulation or intervention has its unintended consequence.
It sounds harsh, but not every problem has a government-shaped solution. And sometimes the most mature and courageous political position is to stick to those things which government can do to make. That decision won’t always be popular, but it will be based on the truth.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Rachel Reeves must live on a different planet! 🪐
But she sums up Labour’s attitude – tax the ‘bad’ guys.
Whether that’s employers, landlords, private schools or someone else they’ve decided isn’t taxed enough.
Because so few of them have ever worked in the private sector, they simply don’t understand the consequences.
Fewer jobs. Higher rents. Schools closing down.
Rachel Reeves’ Jobs Tax has crushed our employment market.
Vacancies have dropped to their lowest level in 12 years outside the pandemic. There are 176,000 fewer jobs available than when Rachel Reeves entered the Treasury.
That is what happens when you attack employers, tax jobs and increase red tape.
Instead of getting a grip and scrapping some of Rachel Reeves’ terrible decisions in his Budget, John Healey has doubled down. He is making exactly the same mistakes she did, taking the tax burden to a record high.
We Conservatives won’t be making the same mistakes. I’ll be a tax-cutting Chancellor, because you can NEVER tax and spend your way to prosperity.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
📣“When even someone as relatively sensible as Reynolds believes that employers are a class that don’t work for a living but somehow live off the backs of ‘working people’ then it shows the scale of Labour’s inability to grasp even the basics of wealth creation and growth – and thus the scale of the problem for our economy.”
@EmmaforWycombe
capx.co/labours-mangled-sixt…
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Surely just old ideas coming round again. As Shadow Children's Minister I visited amazing homes in Copenhagen 20 years ago and the Education Select Committee produced a report highlighting their great outcomes. One I visited got 50% of their children to university for example
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
To come after any slaving nation for reparations - Dahomey, Mali, Zanzibar, Khmer, the Comanche, the Ashanti - would be wrong.
To single out Britain, which distinguished itself through selfless abolitionism, is utterly bewildering.
🚨"We have absolutely nothing to apologise for!"
Lord Daniel Hannan says Britain shouldn't apologise for slavery and a left-wing establishment choose to welcome reparations talk.
"Slavery was universal on this planet, EVERYBODY did it"
@JuliaHB1 | @DanielJHannan
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Two years ago, I warned that Labour’s first Budget would destroy jobs.
Since then, payrolled employment has fallen and businesses have repeatedly warned that higher labour costs are holding back recruitment.
This year's Budget does nothing to reverse the government's anti-business approach.
Labour knew exactly what would happen when they:
- Increased National Insurance on jobs
- Increased business rates
- Introduced their Employment Rights legislation – at London, England
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
An independent study has found that between 2024 and 2027 the annual cost of employing a full-time worker on the minimum wage rose by £4,462.
Nor does that figure take account of the increased costs
and risk firms face from new employment legislation.
The price of the lack of business experience in Burnham’s Cabinet is paid by other people losing their job.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
The hard truth is that government must do fewer things, and do them better. It is not there to solve all of life's problems.
Labour and Reform are squabbling over who can be the most interventionist in the Poundland dispute.
Getting involved in Poundland is the opposite of doing fewer things better. In a dynamic economy, thousands of businesses will be created every year, whilst others sadly fail.
Although not a frequent shopper, I’ve always been a fan of Poundland. Mrs Griffith has been known to have to fish me out from wandering the aisles, marvelling at how some of the products are so much cheaper than elsewhere.
Brands of my youth such as Our Price records, Woolworths and Oddbins are no more. Consumption patterns change, new technologies emerge but so long as there are entrepreneurs willing to take and back risks, new growth fills the places vacated by others.
Poundland was founded in the 1990s. It will have taken a place left by other businesses, had that not been allowed it would never have existed in the first place.
The government has a huge role to play in sustaining profitable businesses in the UK, but the bar should be set very high on piling into disputes once a business is already in trouble.
Instead, the government should make it less expensive and risky to employ staff, lower business rates, tackle planning red tape, deliver cheaper energy and lock up prolific shop lifters. All of these would help our retailers.
If there is ever a Poundland ‘post-mortem’, just like the rest of the High Street, I am sure these factors will feature prominently. If I were Chancellor, reducing those burdens, rather than grandstanding on social media, would be my focus.
In this case, some are asking that the government ‘step in’. In reality, that means government deciding what rules apply to whom and telling businesses that politicians know better than them. This never goes well and that judgement is often clouded by political factors.
If we enter a world in which politicians decide the future of businesses, we will find that businesses must put a ‘price’ on the risk of government sticking their fingers in everywhere. The cost of doing business goes up, and fewer people bother at all. We end up in a world where it’s who you know that matters, not what you know.
Investors, who have a choice where to take their money, will demand a higher price to do business here - or stay away entirely. Every well-intentioned regulation or intervention has its unintended consequence.
It sounds harsh, but not every problem has a government-shaped solution. And sometimes the most mature and courageous political position is to stick to those things which government can do to make. That decision won’t always be popular, but it will be based on the truth.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Shabana has made a serious mistake surrendering to Labour MPs. So I’m putting people on notice - when we get into government we will scrap this weak policy.
Immigration is too high. Labour are making a bad situation much, much worse.
The Conservative Party is under new management. I accept this problem started under a previous Conservative govt. Many of those in that Cabinet have gone to Reform where they belong.
And I’ve got a proper plan to fix it👇
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
My son is an electrician; he has a small company, employing a few people. He works on the tools, as well as chases contracts and manages workload. And carries all the stress. His company is only worth its current contracts. He is exactly the kind of working person our economy depends on: I thought Labour understood this.
“I don't think employers are working people.”
~ Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds MP.
And there is. A Labour government politician saying the quiet part out loud. This is what Labour really think. They have an inverted snobbery and disregard towards self employed workers and private sector businesses owners.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
No Reparations, Says Burnham. Then Comes £40 Million for the Caribbean.
Yesterday, I warned that Andy Burnham's refusal to pay slavery reparations was becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile with his willingness to fund development projects in countries demanding them. Now comes the announcement. Britain will commit £40 million over three years to Caribbean infrastructure, including renewable energy. The Prime Minister still insists that reparations are off the table. The British public is entitled to ask what, precisely, is going on.
The timing could hardly be more revealing. Caribbean leaders have demanded an apology, financial redress, investment in public services and debt relief. Burnham arrives at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua offering discussions about an apology, support for debt restructuring and a substantial infrastructure package. Ministers insist these are separate matters. Perhaps they are. But after days of argument about historical compensation, the government owes taxpayers more than assurances that everything is unrelated.
Downing Street now says no additional aid allocations will be made beyond existing budgets. That raises questions of its own. Was this £40 million approved before the reparations dispute? Which department is paying? What projects will receive the money? And was the announcement brought forward or presented differently because of the demands being made in Antigua? These are straightforward questions. A government confident of its position should have no difficulty answering them.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says Britain opposes financial payments for historical wrongdoing while supporting practical cooperation on climate resilience, development and economic opportunity. Yet Caribbean leaders have explicitly identified development investment and debt relief as elements of the reparatory settlement they seek. Barbados's Mia Mottley has welcomed discussions about health, education and development partnerships. Antigua's Gaston Browne continues to demand reparations. St Lucia's Philip J Pierre has warned that excluding them makes any dialogue incomplete. The two sides plainly attach different meanings to the same discussions.
Britain has funded Caribbean development for decades. In 2015, David Cameron announced a £300 million infrastructure programme covering roads, bridges and ports. Such commitments should be judged against their stated purposes, costs and results. The present dispute makes transparency particularly important. Taxpayers should know whether this latest package represents established aid policy, a new political concession or some combination of the two.
Meanwhile, Britain faces mounting pressure on its own finances. Families struggle with household bills, public services face serious demands, and the national debt leaves little room for grand gestures. Every pound committed overseas is a pound that must be raised, borrowed or found elsewhere in public spending. Ministers should be prepared to defend those choices openly, especially when historical obligations are being discussed.
Nor should an apology be treated as a harmless diplomatic courtesy. Caribbean leaders have made clear that an apology would be a beginning rather than an end. Burnham may reject financial reparations today, but his proposed dialogue will take place with governments that have no intention of abandoning their demands. The scope, purpose and limits of those talks must be stated before expectations harden into further commitments.
Britain must acknowledge its role in slavery without imposing inherited guilt on today's citizens. Independent nations have their interests. British ministers must defend ours. Burnham rejects reparations while announcing £40 million for Caribbean development amid demands for financial redress. If the two are unconnected, prove it. If they are connected, admit it. Changing a payment's name cannot change its purpose.
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Great news from Emma Reynolds who says employers aren't working people, "they are companies".
So as a company, I've decided to stop working !
Should have done it years ago. I'll be at home from now on, or on holiday, doing whatever it is unemployed people do with their time. Maybe I might even be eligible for some benefit payments now @EmmaforWycombe ?
Good luck to my staff, who'll turn up this morning with nobody to tell them what needs doing, no diesel, no fertiliser and no wages on Friday.
HMRC might notice eventually. I just haven't got round to the PAYE. Or the VAT return. Or the corporation tax. I'm sure they'll understand, I'm not a person, And such tasks just seem a little bit like hard work to me !
If anybody calls chasing invoices they want paying, tell them to speak to the company.
We'll see how that goes........
'I don't think employers are working people.'
@CamillaTominey grills Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds MP, over whether Labour has breached its manifesto pledge in the Budget.
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604
Valerie Turner 💙 retweeted
Another astoundingly ignorant comment from a Labour MP who believes that people like pub landlords, hairdressers, cafe owners, and shop keepers who run businesses and create jobs are not themselves also 'working people'.
Labour's disdain for the private sector beggars belief.
'I don't think employers are working people.'
@CamillaTominey grills Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds MP, over whether Labour has breached its manifesto pledge in the Budget.
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604