Martin Elliott

Donor suspended from Tories pays £50,000 for dinner with Kemi Badenoch Exclusive: Rami Ranger, who was suspended temporarily in 2023, makes successful bid at party fundraising event

Donor suspended from Tories pays £50,000 for dinner with Kemi Badenoch.

That is 2+ years of minimum wage.

Monies at this scale are paid to buy influence and favours.

Criminalizing purchase/sale of political parties and legislators is a necessary step for ending political corruption.

Sign the Petition Protect Kensal Green Cemetery from Irreversible Harm

Kensal Green Cemetery in London is the burial place of hundreds of famous Victorian figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins and Harold Pinter. It is under threat from developers bit.ly/4rtv0ZE say local campaigners

This lawsuit seems appalling to me, honestly. I feel for people whose student experience was lousy due to Covid but that's not the fault of universities. "I wanted in-person study." I'm sure you did. Nobody gets what they want in a global pandemic

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.

It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

We pay £1.5mn a year until 2033 to Prince William, whose Duchy of Cornwall owns the prison, for an unusable empty prison bit.ly/4bje5DV This deal done in 2022 by previous Conservative govt.

Picture of Feargal Sharkey quoted in The Guardian in January 2026: “Ministers have failed to grasp the underlying issue, which is corporate greed. The only people who will be paying for this are customers and bill payers.”

The government's new White Paper on Water won't do what it says on the tin. Not while our water is controlled by private profiteers.

The government should be bolder. Fine England's water companies into oblivion, and take them into public ownership.

Doctors’ union may yet save the NHS from Palantir There is power in the union.

This article is interesting doctorow.medium.com/doctors-unio...

Britain’s Labour government feels the heat over Palantir contracts The U.S. data company is taking fresh flak in the U.K. — as the country’s reliance on U.S. tech firms shoots up the political agenda.

Exactly right @sianberry.bsky.social: UK has “sleepwalked into a situation that carries enormous risk” by relying on U.S. tech companies"

www.politico.eu/article/brit...

Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health The White House calls it the largest deregulation in US history, but environmentalists say it will prove costly for Americans.

Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health.

A pay-off for fossil fuel bosses who funded Trump's election campaign.

Science and common sense plays no part in Trump policies- just money.

US auto makers will produce cars that other countries won't buy.

The UK has been sliding down the corruption rankings since 2015 — now down to 20th.

Transparency International points to big money in politics and huge donations. That corrodes democracy and damages our society.

#CleanUpPolitics #EndDirtyMoney

Just beyond parody at this point

The great Ministry of Defence-to-Palantir pipeline Senior defence officials are moving into Palantir roles as the company secures ever-deeper footholds across government

A senior MoD official helps shape defence strategy, then joins Palantir.

Months later, Palantir lands a £240m MoD contract without tender.

No laws broken – just the revolving door doing what it does best.

‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record

This is absolutely insane. The sort of Kafka-esque nightmare you would find in a Philip K Dick book set far in the dystopian future. A window on America tumbling into autocracy.

www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

Trump and Starmer’s deal is terrible, it’ll cost the NHS billions, and I think everyone should be talking about this (free access if you click below) 👇

open.substack.com/pub/jujuliag...

Nigel Farage tells GB News that Keir Starmer's decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador shows his judgement is "seriously wrong" and he should stand down as Prime Minister.

Here's what Farage said when Mandelson was appointed

Obviously

So we are just allowing forward passes in rugby now ?

🖕

#SixNations

#France #Ireland

Four More States Weigh Bans on Private-Equity Interference in Medical Care After California and Oregon passed laws last year, more lawmakers want to strengthen bans on corporate medicine.

Four More US States Weigh Bans on Private-Equity Interference in Medical Care.

UK handing more of healthcare to PE parasites
Hospitals
GP surgeries
Dentists
Care homes
Children's care

PE has no long term interest in anything. It profiteers by devouring.
archive.ph/xBUyI

🚨 The gov has agreed a #NHS drug price hike with Trump’s administration - and neither the public nor MPs have had a say in it.

This deal could force the NHS to pay BILLIONS more for medicines, pushing other services to breaking point. Watch, share, and tag your MP. 👇🏽

The private equity firms cashing in on Britain’s special needs crisis Specialist schools are a source of income for investors and a financial burden on cash-strapped councils

Curse of Private Equity.

PE firms cashing in on Britain’s special needs crisis.

Councils paying £90,000 - £104,614 a year for day-pupils with complex needs to Abu Dhabi controlled entities. Council spending £2.2bn a year.

No curbs on profiteering.
archive.ph/LdXqs

Banks poised for bumper bonuses this spring Complete the FT’s bonus survey and see how your payout will measure up

UK banks poised for bumper bonuses. Good news for some.

Banks could reduce profit margins, pay more on savings, but don't.

Banker bonus cap abolished, capital requirements being reduced, recklessness enriches.

No govt would let big banks collapse. What would the next bailout cost?

This hasn’t aged well..

Morning all...

This government is now responsible for allowing one of the most CRUEL, INHUMANE & MONUMENTAL INJUSTICES of the past half-century - the shocking #IPPscandal.

Whipping against Lord Thomas's amendment was an act of sheer political cowardice.

Trump withdraws US from dozens of international organisations: White House The White House said the organisations promote "radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programmes that conflict with US sovereignty and economic ⁠strength".

Trump withdraws US from dozens of international organisations

that promote "radical climate policies"

That is what happens when morons rule
We are unleashing climate hell as Earth heats up locking us into a climate that last existed 5 million years ago
www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-...

No foxes here so far, but owls a-plenty

Pothole claims up 90% in three years, says RAC Research from the motoring group also finds that only one in four claims results in a payout.

Tory Curse.

Pothole compensation claims made to councils in Britain rose by 90% between 2021 and 2024.

Only 26% of claims led to a payout.

A friend, night-worker had to replace 4 tyres this year, pay for steering damage.

Boosts GDP but destructive.

The favoured method to reduce inflation seems to be to allow billionaires to extract money and keep it unused offshore.

Influx of cheap Chinese imports could drive down UK inflation, economists say As Trump’s tariffs take effect, Britain is likely alternative destination for cars, telecoms and sound equipment

Influx of cheap Chinese imports could drive down UK inflation, economists say.

Stupid strategy. UK Govts deindustrialised, increased foreign dependence; cut real wages, create job insecurity and poverty.

Why not control inflation by removing cash from the rich through selective taxation?

Print featuring a homestead in snow by a large central tree under a clear blue and cold night sky

' #Winter night' by Canadian born printmaker and artist Carol Collette #WomensArt ❄️