BenHurst (@BenHurst) header
BenHurst (@BenHurst) profile picture

Senior Duty Editor (Network Newsroom), ex Reach regionals head of vid, Bham Mail news editor, Birmingham Post head of news. Views my own........

Birmingham
Joined January 2008
Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)Photo by BenHurst (@BenHurst)
BenHurst retweeted
During my 51 yrs at the BBC the mandarins often changed their minds about axeing certain programmes they didn’t value. Hope it’s not too late to reprieve Radio 4’s You And Yours. In these parlous times for vulnerable consumers, a strong programme like this is invaluable.
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🔴 EXCLUSIVE: After *five-year* legal battle, Democracy for Sale has forced the government to reveal who referred firms to lucrative Covid PPE ‘VIP lane’ for 'politically connected' 30+ senior Tories are named, plus ex Duchess of York, and many more 🧵 democracyforsale.substack.co…
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Seems like @Nigel_Farage social media bots are malfunctioning. Same happening with @LeeAndersonMP_ or @RobertJenrick accounts 😂 might have something to do with the fact that Meta backend rolled out a tweak that essentially, for lack of better phrasing, digitally concussed the bots, so they can't completely touch base with the central LLM. So it's defaulted to absurd nonsensicalisms from the bots. Just shows that Reform is basically a bot farm. Something that we knew for a long time.
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"If you need us not to attack Russian refineries for one month, give us Patriots for one month." - President Zelenskyy "Yes. We had several conversations with President Trump about attacks on refineries. We said that we cannot simply not respond after Russia attacks our energy infrastructure, after Russia kills our people, after attacks on our electricity, gas refineries and everything. We said, if you want us not to attack Russia's refineries, then Russia must not attack our energy system."
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Why doesn’t Kushner ask Russia to stop bombing cities? Shopping malls, hospitals, passenger trains, gas stations are all being targeted.
“Kushner told Zelensky that he should pause the strikes because he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff were dedicating a lot of time, energy, and jet fuel to mediating with Moscow, one of the U.S. officials said. A 30-day pause on refineries would be a way for Ukraine to show gratitude, that U.S. official said.” An almost comical thing to tell a nation fighting for its existence. Lay down your weapons because we are exhausted from taking a private jet. wsj.com/world/ukraine-pauses…
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Replying to @Alexarmstrong
Hi Alex. This is a poster that can be used by anyone, such as elderly or vulnerable residents, who do not wish to have unexpected callers or be disturbed. At no point have we mentioned that Halloween can upset "religious or cultural" beliefs.
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Student loan repayment thresholds were not mentioned in Wednesday’s budget 📚 Martin put Matt’s question to the Chancellor. Watch tonight’s full show back on ITVX📺 #MartinLewis
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This is quite something ! Serbian RTV channel starts yesterday's bulletin by apologizing to viewers👇 "For years, we failed to fulfill our duty. We kept silent, turned a blind eye, reported events one-sidedly and failed to ask necessary questions. We owe our viewers an apology”
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BenHurst retweeted
🚨🎙️ Roy Keane on Harry Kane winning the 2026 Ballon d'Or over Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal: "You know what? For once, I am actually enjoying an awards ceremony because we are finally seeing somebody who actually deserves taking that Ballon d'Or trophy home. No PR stunts, no nonsense publicity games—just pure, unadulterated football. This is what it actually means to put the work in and have the results do the talking. Did Mbappé and Yamal deserve to be in the conversation? Of course, the talent there is obvious. But if we are talking about who genuinely earned to be crowned the best in the world, it is Harry Kane. His standards never slipped, not for a single second. Look at what he has done for club and country this season. He went out, scored seventy-three goals in sixty-five appearances, including sixty-one in fifty-one games for Bayern Munich alone. He didn't just pad his stats; he delivered in the biggest moments, netting fourteen times in the Champions League and twelve more with England, including six at the World Cup to lead his nation to a bronze medal. He led Bayern to the Bundesliga title and the DFB-Pokal. He has been an absolute machine. This is what I appreciate about the game. Hard work, relentless consistency, and leading from the front—not off the pitch, but on it. Harry Kane winning it tonight is football at its absolute truest." #BallonDor
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Cufflinks a bit over the top
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🤔Eddie Howe is the manager Manchester United need but do not deserve The former #NUFC boss would get #MUFC trending upwards again, re-engage a disengaged fanbase and get the best out of a fractured squad. Some of the opposition I've seen is not only nonsense but it's disrespectful. chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/fo…
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Free speech king!
This Post is from a suspended account. Learn more
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Replying to @jerryhayes1
Give them 2.54cm and they’ll take more than 1,600m
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BenHurst retweeted
Ten years on, the Brexiters plan to leave the EU and cosy up with the US looks even more disastrous and ill thought out. That their Brexit was boosted by Putin makes it even more historically catastrophic. We mustn’t forget the people who did this or let them near power again
Weird coincidence that I mention @wallaceme. Looks like Lord Ashcroft’s fluffer, doyenne of oligarchs, just happened to retweet a convicted fraudster to attack our journalism. Why? Because we constantly expose his old chums for their Brexit shenanigans bylinetimes.com/2026/06/23/w…
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BenHurst retweeted
The Conservatives would not fund upgrades to the National Grid that currently relies too heavily on renewables, says shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie. "As David Cameron would have said back in the day, cutting the green crap."
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“Trump wants Putin to win.” So said @BenWallace70 on PM just now. Don’t think I’ve ever heard something quite so punchy from a former defence secretary directed the country that is supposed to be our biggest ally
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🚨 Goldman Sachs has put numbers on Brexit choices. Current Brexit deal: +0.3% GDP Customs union: +1% Single Market: up to +5% Full EU membership: up to +6% And Goldman estimates the UK economy is already around 6% smaller than its counterfactual path since the 2016 referendum. Non wonder the debate is changing. The further Britain moves back towards Europe, the larger the potential economic dividend. Brexit was sold as a growth strategy, but now 10 years later, the growth strategy is undoing Brexit asap.
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🇮🇹🇺🇦 WOW! WHAT A SPEECH! WHAT POWERFUL WORDS FROM ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI! Here is the full five-minute excerpt of her speech devoted to Ukraine and Donald Trump. “Russia has launched a new autumn campaign against Ukraine. Unable to advance on the battlefield, Moscow has increasingly turned its attacks against civilians: power plants, residential buildings, hospitals, and even buses carrying people to work, as in the horrific massacre in Kramatorsk. This is a strategy through which Russia seeks to subjugate Ukraine with terror, cold, and darkness, simply because it has failed to conquer it on the battlefield. The facts contradict Kremlin propaganda and those who spread it here. Since the beginning of the year, Russia has captured very little territory, and in September it lost much of what it had previously seized. This halt did not happen by chance. It was achieved through Ukraine’s courage and Western support, including that of Italy. This resistance is the only effective instrument for bringing Russia to the negotiating table. I respect and understand the passionate debate on this issue, including within this chamber, because nobody here wants war. We all want peace. The difference lies in how we intend to achieve it. As I see it, supporting Ukraine is not an alternative to peace. It is what makes peace possible. Because if an aggressor expects its opponent to surrender, why would it negotiate? Surrender is not peace. It is conquest. If Ukraine stopped defending itself tomorrow, as many suggest, we would not have peace. We would be discussing the occupation of a European nation and the return of Soviet imperialism. Personally, I do not miss those times. I do not miss Russian tanks crushing uprisings in Prague and Budapest. I do not miss the Berlin Wall. And nobody will ever convince me that the surrender of those defending their freedom can be called ‘peace.’ The peace we want, and the peace we are working toward, even at the cost of concessions, is a just peace, because only a just peace can endure. Only a just peace can protect Europe and our interests. That is why our government's position remains unchanged: support for Ukraine, with particular attention to civilians, pressure on Moscow, and Euro-Atlantic unity remain the pillars of our actions. In this context, we must address Donald Trump's diesel agreement with Russia. This is a decision I consider extremely risky. Of course, we all recognize the need to contain fuel prices, which place a heavy burden on families, including Italian families. But we must understand that rising prices are primarily linked to the war in Iran, not Ukraine. Legitimizing Moscow, whose bombs continue to fall on Ukrainian cities, providing new revenues to finance the war, and weakening sanctions are all factors we cannot ignore. And they contradict everything Western nations, including the United States, have done to force Putin to the negotiating table. An energy ceasefire is a different matter, one that Italy supports, and we are grateful to President Zelenskyy for Ukraine's immediate willingness to agree to it. Now we expect Russia to stop attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Finally, at such a difficult moment, when so many variables are beyond our control, there is at least one thing that depends on us: We must ensure that Europe does not simply stand by and watch, because the terms of peace will affect our continent and our security.” — Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy
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Looks like selling Royal Mail to a Czech billionaire worked out every bit as well as selling our water system to an Australian investment bank and our steel industry to an Indian multinational
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To understand how the Trump administration behaves and makes (and unmakes) policy, you have to understand that it comes from a constant battle between incompetence and evil. Their policies are usually a combination of both in different measures.
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