Tim Featherstone-Griffin

I am retired; this will not have any effect on me. What should have an effect is the state recovering a larger chunk of my accumulated wealth when I die. That's where the focus should be.

If you think that group is the one that should be paying to redress what years of austerity have brought, I can't help but question your thinking. The oligarchs and the moneyed families are over there ->

People with serious incomes > £200k will not be affected by it, because of the taper rules around pension tax relief. People with significant assets will not be touched by it. It hits directly at a group who, in the main, will be no more than comfortably off.

It's not an excuse: it's misguided and will not achieve what it claims it will, along with storing up problems for the future. Higher rate tax is a very poor measure of 'wealthier people' - the societal inequity that is the real challenge is accumulated assets, not income.

Plus it breaks a basic commitment of the state that you will not be taxed on income you divert to bolstering your retirement provision, in order to encourage people not to be dependent on the state in their old age. It's just misguided

Most people paying higher-rate tax at the end of their careers are nowhere near 'the richest'. Few wealthy (assets or income) people will be impacted by this proposal at all, because tapering annual allowances already mean their relief is limited. This is way off target for 'equalisation'

Many, many people earn enough to receive higher-rate tax relief, particularly in their last working years when they seek to maximise their pension provision, against still very poor state provision. We should be seeking more from the very wealthy, not the squeezed middle-classes.

We really can’t get enough of these

Daily Mail owner strikes £500m deal to buy Telegraph titles Acquisition likely to trigger in-depth investigation by regulator after agreement between DMGT and Redbird IMI

On the upside, they'll be able to standardise on a single editorial policy of racism, hatred and bile.

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Newmarket MP Matt Hancock gave a £37bn Covid testing contract to Jockey Club director Dido Harding, who subcontracted it to Grand National sponsor Randox, employer of Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose late wife chaired Aintree racecourse. That's how the Tories handled the pandemic.

Covid inquiry live: ‘Inexcusable’ delays under Johnson led to 23,000 deaths Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds

Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

"An inspired piece of genius."
Los Angeles

All PMs are flawed but I think if you have no coherent vision, no ability to make decisions quickly, no humour or charisma when addressing the public, no strong roots in your party, no talent for charming MPs and no control over your own office, then you are unlikely to be able to turn it around

A real president does this.

Thank you to every veteran who’s worn the uniform and carried the weight for the rest of us — just respect 🇺🇸

Honestly, I did NOT have "punching the air and going HELL YES to Chris Patten" on my bingo card today. But what he says is SO rarely said and needed saying SO badly!

"How shall we treat Mr Farage's concerns? Shall we hail Brexit a tremendous success? Something that has cost the country billions?"

Donald Trump Preparing To Sue BBC For £1 Billion Over Panorama Speech Row The US president has sent a letter to the corporation threatening legal action.

Just wtf is this?

I can’t think of many more unifying causes than standing up for the BBC against this absurd threat from Trump.

And Farage will be on his side, snivelling along like the school-bully-errand-boy that he is. Traitorous little bastard.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald...

BBC Gives Israeli Deaths 33 Times More Coverage, New Study Reveals | Novara Media An analysis of over 35,000 broadcast segments and articles found that the BBC referenced the 7 October attacks in at least 40% of its coverage - but only 0.5% of articles referenced Israel’s decades o...

Yes, absolutely there is an impartiality crisis at the BBC. But it's not the one the billionaire media insists it is. novaramedia.com/2025/06/16/b...

Bang on.

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.

This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.

iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.

Lest we forget that all that matters to Nigel, is Nigel.

Quite. Pretty much the entire non-MAGA world saw what Trump did, yet the BBC is allowing itself to be crucified over a marginally injudicious edit that really made zero difference to the broad truth of the whole documentary. It won't end well.

OnlyFans beckons...

Clever, these experts. Very clever.

Exactly this 👇

A rain-slick backalley containing two men, both tall and dressed predominantly in black, each walking a cat on a leash

Took the cats out for a walk with my brother and accidentally created a 90s Britpop album cover

BBC News bulletins leading on the story of an Algerian man being mistakenly released by the prison service.

Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government

Manhunt latest: Foreign prisoner on the loose after mistaken release from HMP Wandsworth A manhunt is under way for a foreign prisoner after they were mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth. Our national correspondent Tom Parmenter reports that the error happened just five days after the...

The bias here from all mainstream media makes me sick to my stomach.
Should it happen? Of course not. Was it a regular occurrence under the Tories? Yes. Yes it was. Do you ever recall being alerted to it? No, me neither.
I’m sick sick sick of it.

news.sky.com/story/manhun...

Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

She is telling an accurate story of recent history - the triple punch of austerity, Brexit and covid. It's spot on. But it is terribly strange to say it now in government when you were not prepared to say it in opposition.