@BenDC_

Specialist Railway Lawyer | Managing Director of @225Preservation | @RNReserve Officer | Classical Liberal & Opinionated. (RT≠Endorsement)

 London
225.org.uk
Joined September 2012
  • Tweets13.1K
  • Following1.7K
  • Followers1.1K
504Media
A reminder to those still buying Nicola Sturgeon’s book that she defended her decision in the Scottish Parliament to cut the bottom off fire doors during Covid to improve air circulation. Rather than opening them. The fire brigade said that was nuts. Policy abandoned, inevitably.
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UK new minimum wage: £27,456 per year. Higher-rate tax bracket: £50,270. 1.8x difference. In 1997 there was a 5x difference. Mind boggling.
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Ben DC retweeted
Tom Harwood
@tomhfh9h
Remember when Antoinette Fernandez (Green Party speaker of Hackney Council) bemoaned the British bombardment of Lagos, forcing her great great maternal grandfather from power? She forgot to mention the reason why. And you won't hear a single peep of apology from this lot about it.
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When I applied to university, we were told that most of us didn't have to worry about repaying our student loans because repayment would only kick in when you start earning £29,000.
Politics UK
@PolitlcsUKOct 26
🚨 NEW: John Healey will increase the minimum wage for over 21s from £12.71 to around £13.20
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The desire for new railway station and railway lines is phenomenal. Every single one reopened has seen numbers using them being far in excess of forecasts. Incidentally passenger railways now carry 1.83 billion journeys a year - that’s the highest since 1920! Under British Rail it was a 1/3 of that. Was driven by passenger franchising needing to chase growth.
Modern Railways@Modern_RailwaysOct 26
Build it and they will come! More than double the predicted number of passengers used Beaulieu Park station in its first year modernrailways.com/article/b… .

Beaulieu Park easily beats predicted usage figure

More than 800,000 passengers have used Beaulieu Park station in its first year of opening, when the predicted patronage was only 290,000-390,000.

modernrailways.com
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If the minimum wage continues to rise by 50p an hour annually, a full-time minimum-wage worker could cross Scotland's £29,527 intermediate-rate income tax threshold in just over two years.
Douglas Robinson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@DouglasRob023h
Minimum wage is now £27,456. SNP additional tax on "high earners" starts at £29,527
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Israeli security officials said to have become suspicious after one detainee used a “funny accent” at the border crossing.
UK Dispatch
@UKDispatch_Oct 26
🚨: Updated: The two MP who were detained are MP’s Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, Lara Bird, and Green MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians east, Kate Nevens are now both detained in Israel.
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I asked Labour MP Dawn Butler why she's demanding my constituents pay more tax to fund "reparations". She wouldn't answer, but called me a "racist" in the Commons. It's not right to make people pay "reparations" when they've done nothing wrong. Name-calling doesn't change that.
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I wrote this Daily Mail article about how Devon & Cornwall Police left me believing I was under criminal investigation for 13 months, despite closing their case almost immediately. My solicitor requested updates on the investigation every month. None came. 👇
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Banning poppies from Wetherspoons is like if Oxfam banned all Palestinian paraphernalia from their shops. You have to know your audience.
Cllr George Madgwick
@georgedmadgwickOct 25
VETERANS wearing a Poppy are BANNED from from Wetherspoons WOW. Manager of Gosport Wetherspoons states it’s ‘Company policy’ to not allow anyone in with a Remembrance Poppy on as it ‘could be political’ I can’t believe what I just heard from our nations biggest pub chain. Veterans wearing a poppy are banned from Wetherspoons.
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China consumed more coal in the last four years (2022–2025) than the entire world consumed throughout the 19th century.
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For those of you who thought the visit from a Bedford Borough Council official to investigate our daughter Zoe’s (age 12) pretend teddy bear cafe was too ridiculous to be real, here is the arrival of official. This is totally legit. She really did show up at our property to investigate the illegal teddy bears having their coffee🧸🧸☕️☕️
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A new report calling on the Church of England to stop wasting money on "extravagant" Net Zero and reparations projects and refocus on parishes echoes what front-line clergy have been saying for years, says Julian Mann. dailysceptic.org/2026/10/24/…

The Church of England Must Stop Wasting Money – The Daily Sceptic

A new report calling on the Church of England to stop wasting money on "extravagant" Net Zero and reparations projects and refocus on parishes echoes what front-line clergy have been saying for...

dailysceptic.org
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👀 Election fever has already spread beyond Westminster. Last week a Lib Dem councillor told HQ that he had tried to order some new Correx boards - the plastic placards used in election campaigns - only to be told the company could not fulfil the order for another month because it would be using all of November to complete a large order for the Labour Party. From today’s weekend long read with @whazell Story 👇 inews.co.uk/news/politics/in…

Inheritance tax, student loans and pensions: Healey's potential Budget ‘rabbits’

Despite claims of a “nothing to see here” Budget Chancellor John Healey may still pull a rabbit out of the hat

inews.co.uk
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If only the Church Commissioners had an enormous pot of money that they could use to further the mission and ministry of the Church of England...
Madeleine Emerald 🐞@emeraldthieleOct 22
Terrible news today that Southwell Minster could be forced to close its doors as it faces a financial crisis. It needs more than £20m in building repairs, and is thought to have been insolvent in July. The Reverend Canon Dr Stephen Evans, only installed as Dean in April!, has said an emergency meeting was called and a report was lodged with the Charity Commission as no accounts had been lodged with the Charity Commission (for two years prior to his appointment). Southwell is an absolutely beautiful place and the team there, including the Dean, were so welcoming and wholesome to me during my @visualtheology conference this May.
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Good news. Investment in infrastructure makes things better. Who knew? We should try it again one day.
BBC London
@BBCLondonNewsOct 12
Super sewer is cleaning up the Thames, says report ➡️ bbc.in/4yEYmIc
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'Receive legitimate criticism' 'Pretend it was racism' Our broken state. She should not have had her finger on that trigger. Rowley has really been an utter failure.
Metropolitan Police
@metpoliceukOct 22
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has responded to the unacceptable online abuse directed at a Met officer who received an award at yesterday's annual Police Federation Conference. PC Fiona Shaik Umar was recognised for the outstanding contribution she has made for women in policing.
I\u2019d like to congratulate Fiona on this well-deserved award for which she should rightly be very proud. She works in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a frontline unit playing a vital role in the mission to protect our democracy by keeping Parliament and Parliamentarians safe.\u00A0 \u000B\u000BWe are currently advertising for additional talented, brave Londoners from all communities to join us. Every career path is open to you regardless of whether you happen to wear a kippa, turban or hijab like Fiona. She is being celebrated for being an excellent officer demonstrating this reality. \u000B\u000BBut it angers me that not for the first time, a day that should have been a celebration for Fiona was marred by hateful, intolerant abuse online. \u000B\u000BThese people haven\u2019t met Fiona. They know nothing of her important work. They just saw that she is a female Muslim officer who wears a hijab and decided she wasn\u2019t deserving as a result.\u00A0 \n

ALT I\u2019d like to congratulate Fiona on this well-deserved award for which she should rightly be very proud. She works in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a frontline unit playing a vital role in the mission to protect our democracy by keeping Parliament and Parliamentarians safe.\u00A0 \u000B\u000BWe are currently advertising for additional talented, brave Londoners from all communities to join us. Every career path is open to you regardless of whether you happen to wear a kippa, turban or hijab like Fiona. She is being celebrated for being an excellent officer demonstrating this reality. \u000B\u000BBut it angers me that not for the first time, a day that should have been a celebration for Fiona was marred by hateful, intolerant abuse online. \u000B\u000BThese people haven\u2019t met Fiona. They know nothing of her important work. They just saw that she is a female Muslim officer who wears a hijab and decided she wasn\u2019t deserving as a result.\u00A0 \n

Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The vast majority of criticism was not because she is Muslim, but because she was not following very basic gun safety rules. Her finger was on the trigger and she pointed the barrel of the gun at a fellow officer. gunsafetyrules.nra.org hunter-ed.com/muzzleloader/s… x.com/BasilTheGreat/… x.com/WilkieisBack66… x.com/LozzaFox/statu…
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There was no criticism because she was a Muslim. The criticism came because she had absolutely no ability to safely handle a firearm; and the Met somehow felt that was an acceptable photograph to post. It wasn’t.
Metropolitan Police
@metpoliceukOct 22
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has responded to the unacceptable online abuse directed at a Met officer who received an award at yesterday's annual Police Federation Conference. PC Fiona Shaik Umar was recognised for the outstanding contribution she has made for women in policing.
I\u2019d like to congratulate Fiona on this well-deserved award for which she should rightly be very proud. She works in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a frontline unit playing a vital role in the mission to protect our democracy by keeping Parliament and Parliamentarians safe.\u00A0 \u000B\u000BWe are currently advertising for additional talented, brave Londoners from all communities to join us. Every career path is open to you regardless of whether you happen to wear a kippa, turban or hijab like Fiona. She is being celebrated for being an excellent officer demonstrating this reality. \u000B\u000BBut it angers me that not for the first time, a day that should have been a celebration for Fiona was marred by hateful, intolerant abuse online. \u000B\u000BThese people haven\u2019t met Fiona. They know nothing of her important work. They just saw that she is a female Muslim officer who wears a hijab and decided she wasn\u2019t deserving as a result.\u00A0 \n

ALT I\u2019d like to congratulate Fiona on this well-deserved award for which she should rightly be very proud. She works in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a frontline unit playing a vital role in the mission to protect our democracy by keeping Parliament and Parliamentarians safe.\u00A0 \u000B\u000BWe are currently advertising for additional talented, brave Londoners from all communities to join us. Every career path is open to you regardless of whether you happen to wear a kippa, turban or hijab like Fiona. She is being celebrated for being an excellent officer demonstrating this reality. \u000B\u000BBut it angers me that not for the first time, a day that should have been a celebration for Fiona was marred by hateful, intolerant abuse online. \u000B\u000BThese people haven\u2019t met Fiona. They know nothing of her important work. They just saw that she is a female Muslim officer who wears a hijab and decided she wasn\u2019t deserving as a result.\u00A0 \n

Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The vast majority of criticism was not because she is Muslim, but because she was not following very basic gun safety rules. Her finger was on the trigger and she pointed the barrel of the gun at a fellow officer. gunsafetyrules.nra.org hunter-ed.com/muzzleloader/s… x.com/BasilTheGreat/… x.com/WilkieisBack66… x.com/LozzaFox/statu…
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The amount of Brits who are trying to tell me that there is no magazine in this rifle and blah blah blah. Doesn’t matter. Always treat the weapon as if it is loaded. Do not point it at anything you are not willing to destroy and take your frigging finger off the trigger.
Matthew Marsden
@matthewdmarsdenOct 22
I’m not sure which is worse, the fact this woman has her finger on the trigger and she is pointing it at his leg, or that they let this photo go out like that.
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All four in one picture. Very reassuring.
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