1/ Some EU frustration at UK griping over trade problems and suggestions Brussels needs to improve its attitude to make the relationship work better. There's a feeling of déjà vu, that the UK never really accepted the practical reality of the deal it wanted and still doesn't.

1/ Today’s Spending Review delivers on the priorities of the British people.

This thread covers 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 from Departments across Government. #SR20

2/ This Spending Review delivers a historically high @UKHomeOffice budget which will help them to keep people safe and deliver new border and immigration arrangements. #SR20

3/ We’re providing over £76 billion for @educationgovuk to meet the government’s commitment to level up education standards across the country and drive economic growth through improving the skills pipeline; levelling up productivity and supporting people into work. #SR20

4/ We will enable @DWP to deliver efficient frontline services and ensure that support is targeted where it's needed most.

The new 3-year long £2.9 billion Restart programme will provide intensive, tailored support to over 1million unemployed people and help them find work #SR20

5/ @DCMS will increase economic growth and productivity through improved digital connectivity and data infrastructure.

We'll grow and evolve our sectors particularly those most affected by Covid-19 which include culture, sport, civil society and the creative industries. #SR20

1/8 Britain is in almost complete lockdown. Nine months since the first. Europe is closing its borders to the British. Across Europe the pandemic is worsening. The US has over 300,000 dead. Far from getting better, the situation in the West is getting worse. The West has failed.

2/8 At what point will the West wake up to the fact this is an historic crisis of Western government, society and culture? Without a vaccine, the West has shown that it cannot deal with the virus. It has been forced to admit defeat and live with it. And it is losing the battle.

3/8 The West likes to think it is cosmopolitan. Wrong. It is increasingly provincial in its mentality. East Asian societies have conquered Covid-19. We barely even acknowledge the fact. We desperately try to ignore that China has succeeded where we have catastrophically failed.

4/8 If the West was cosmopolitan it would seek to learn from East Asia, ask why it is successful. Yet the worse things get, the less curious the West has become about East Asia. This is the story of the West as a failing, self-absorbed, inward-looking culture and civilization.

5/8 The success of East Asia, with China at its heart, has many explanations including: 1. Competent and strategic government; 2. Great respect amongst the people for government and authority; 3. A deep commitment to society and social bonds rather than selfish individualism.

A short personal reflection on what happened yesterday.

I wanted to wait a bit before saying this as I think yesterday was for those who experienced the sharpest end of the disastrous breakdown between the Labour Party and Jewish people during the past 5 years.

I started talking about Labour antisemitism here in 2017 I think. My key aim was to try and act as a bridge between the left of the Jewish community and the left of the Labour Party. I used my platform on social media to do it and quite quickly I developed some back channels...

... to who I thought were sensible people in Jeremy Corbyn's office and Momentum. I kept those channels going for quite a long time. I found this paragraph from emails I exchanged in Spring 2018 with Laura Murray in Corbyn's office. It now seems quite prescient.

As I delved more into the issues and heard, privately, what was going on in the movement itself, I slowly and regrettably came to the conclusion that the issue was so serious it needed an "independent body" to come in. It was in Autumn 2018 that @antisemitism approached me...

... to assist in making a submission to the @EHRC to try and persuade them to enter the fray. I was skeptical, given the the UK's human rights organisations had stayed almost entirely silent (to this day, to their shame) on the issue, though I knew it was utterly necessary...

The DUP is literally entirely at fault for the Irish Sea Border.

Its MPs held the balance of power when the crucial decisions were made, and cast the defining votes which made sure there would be one.

Let us just remember...

1/6

Shortly after the Referendum a DUP MP went on the radio to say there were no checks and the Norway-Sweden border.

He refused to apologise and accept this error even when he was shown pictures of the checks...

2/6

Another DUP MP then *visited* the Norway-Sweden border and argued the UK-Ireland border could be just like it.

Again, she was told clearly that it would only be like it if the UK were as close to the EU as Norway is.

*She then cast votes to make sure it wouldn't be.*

3/6

DUP MPs were then warned *during a parliamentary debate* that too great a distance from the EU could lead to food shortages.

One literally replied: "We'll just go to the chippy".

4/6

The DUP was also constantly warned that any regulatory border for goods would apply in the Irish Sea, because it is easier to apply these things where vehicles are already naturally stopped. Over and over and over again it was told this.

5/6