Regulatory Consultant (01603 514570 [email protected]) & Tory Cllr (01953 879420 [email protected]). NED. Expert witness. Anglo-Catholic. Beer/Scotch.
Wymondham, England
Joined June 2009
- Tweets11.9K
- Following2.4K
- Followers1.8K
- Likes206K
“He’s gone.
I do not understand.
I only know
That as he turned to go
And waved his hand,
In his young eyes a sudden glory shone,
And I was dazzled with a sunset glow,
And he was gone.”
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Having grown up in the era of Reagan and Thatch when deep conviction was expressed with civility and decorum I find these sorts of tweets genuinely pathetic.
This cancerous toxicity needs to stop and those who engage in it need to be put to the margins where they belong.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Bad policy, bad character make bad politics: erratic tariffs, impulsive Iran war, blanket pardons, apparent corruption, weaponized justice, ICE brutality, mountainous deficits, hiding Epstein, abandoning allies and coddling enemies. Hoping for a course correction, for the country and for my party.
Listening & speaking to what large segments of taken-for-granted people actually think is a good skill in short-supply in politics.
But the skill of actually managing the policy-detail to tackle people’s concerns on difficult issues seems to be in even shorter-supply, displaced by a surplus of narcissism & conspiracy.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
“If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.”
— Ronald Reagan
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Re-tweeting my piece on #CDC in light of @TorstenBell 's consultations
✍️ "The Government is making extraordinary claims about the Dutch-style pensions schemes just as the Netherlands abandons them," writes @JohnRalfe1.
Read more here ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/money/pensio…
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Imagine running a business where every time you overspent, you could simply instruct your customers to pay more.
No need to cut waste. No need to become more efficient. No need to serve your clients effectively.
Just demand more money.
That's what’s happening with the British state. We are all paying the price.
It wouldn’t be Christmas, or indeed early November, if people didn’t draw lots of attention to an advert by complaining about it.
But I’d say the message here is to pay attention at school & make an effort in your career, to ensure your children & grandchildren can get the sort of indulgent Christmas you never had yourself.
And everyone, from Dame Kristin down to the kiddies, looks lovely BTW.
So the plot of the John Lewis 2026 advert is as follows. Grandmother opens door to her obnoxious, rude and badly behaved grandchildren who proceed to trash her house. Motivated to distract them in some way she searches out a cherished Christmas wooden toy from the attic. But that fails to impress the little shits either. So she resorts to buy the entire Christmas stock of her local John Lewis store to bedeck a room in her London W1 townhouse with wonderment costing £ thousands. Only then do the spoilt little brats show any emotional engagement. What message does this put out, eh?
Jonathan Purle retweeted
I’ve ruminated on this for ages.
I paid myself £12k per annum for the first 2 years of our business. I worked circa 70 hours a week; £3:30 an hour.
We had no idea whether our business would be successful, but we had to pay flaky turds with no idea of work ethic several times more p/h.
That’s the risk employers take. What risk do MPs have other than being found out to be thick turds?
Jonathan Purle retweeted
😡 WHAT 😡 THE 😡 ACTUAL 😡 F@@K😡
"Employers aren't working people?!"
@EmmaforWycombe, I sat with 6 business owners this fortnight, one (like you from Codsall), who pays their staff before themselves & lies awake when your tax bills land.
😡 ALL SIX were more worried about their employees than anything else.
😡 So go and say it to their face - they are not employers.
😡 You just think that business is a cashpoint to take your wad from.
😡 This government hasn't the first clue about business.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Voters have had enough of what I can only call Trump’s Third World vibe. His territorial claims on neighbours and his petty insistence on renaming lakes and oceans, his obsession with building monstrous triumphal arches, his refusal to understand the difference between the Nobel Prize Committee and the Norwegian state (“a shithouse country”), his demands that political opponents be locked up; and, now, his overt electoral bribery, his offer to send a $5,000 cheque to every American if the Republicans hold Congress.
Nowhere is the Third Worldery more visible than in the way the president’s coterie has grown rich in office. The gifts from foreign governments, the digital currency racket – these would, until an eye-blink ago, have been unthinkable in the US. A handy test of whether you are in a tinpot autocracy is that the richest people are not entrepreneurs but presidential cronies.
Paywall down.
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.
If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?
On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.
There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again.
This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
I was elected first at 21.
Youth is not the issue people have with this gentlemen.
The way people pile on a young councillor who is only halfway through his second year is unbelievable.
I understand older councillors believe this is an old man’s game and that my party should not even exist. Unfortunately for them, I am here, and so are my fellow young councillor colleagues. We have the grit and determination not to let these pile ons take us down. (And trust me I’ve been victim to a few…)
I work hard for the people who elected me. I will continue to do so, no matter how many attacks come or how many people pray on my downfall.
Reform exists because the old parties let us down. They let the country down time and time again and yet still believe they are entitled to another shot. They must be mad.
I do not receive criticism for making mistakes or doing something wrong. I receive it because someone is offended. Well, I hate to break it to you, but you have the right to be offended and I have the right to offend. What I say is not controversial. I really don’t think it is. It is simply the feeling of millions across my country.
That is why I am so proud of all our younger Reform councillors. Do not give up. No matter how many police investigations they try to throw at you, no matter how many death threats you get, no matter who turns on you, no matter if people betray you, no matter what the fake news says about you, no matter what some rigged standards committees say, you must be brutally persistent and ride the wave forward.
We cannot afford to lose the momentum. We cannot pause halfway. We must keep pushing and keep going. We must be built different.
We have to keep going and still be here fighting after everyone else has quit.
Only the strongest submarines will make it to the bottom. When the enemy tries everything, weaponises systems, breaks every rule and tries everything it can to win?
You can be sure. Your victory is coming.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
I was hoping to be able to announce this in my own time – but the media rumour mill is swirling, I'm being contacted by various reporters and others, and I don't like denying the truth, so ...
I wrote my first "Economic Agenda" column in The Sunday Telegraph 27 years ago, under the editorship of Dominic Lawson – filling-in occasionally during the late-1990s, before being given my own weekly slot from 2003.
Since then, while I've been heavily involved in television, and am perhaps better known as a broadcaster, penning "Economic Agenda" for The Sunday Telegraph each week has been the backbone of my journalistic life.
On Thursday, the @Telegraph rang to tell me my column is being scrapped.
I was asked, and have agreed, to write "Economic Agenda" until the end of November, as per my contract. After that, my Sunday Telegraph column will be no more.
Why this decision has been made, and whether or not my columns were any good, is for others to judge.
All I will say is that, as the first person in my family to attend university, sustaining a weekly column in a leading national newspaper for a quarter of a century has been a source of enormous pride for myself and my family.
Lots of people have been asking me about the future of "Planet Normal" - the hugely-popular Telegraph podcast which I co-created and co-present with the brilliant @AllisonPearson
"Planet Normal" has, over the last 330 weekly episodes, also become a major part of my professional life and my broader identity.
With Allison reportedly leaving the Telegraph as well, there is a lot of speculation about whether or not the podcast will continue to impart "news and views from beyond the bubble" with our usual blend of sharp analysis, humour and occasional outrage !
Well, I am delighted to confirm that Co-Pilot Pearson and myself are deeply committed to our joint podcast – and, above all, to our beloved listeners.
We will, as and when notice periods allow, continue our voyages through space every Thursday – perhaps to "Planet Normal", or maybe to another part of the solar system – so we can "gaze down each week at the madness of Planet Earth", as we have done since the Spring of 2020.
So citizens of Planet Normal, stand ready ! The "rocket-of-right-thinking", the "flying refuge of reasoned views", will soon be launched once again 🚀🪐👨🏭👱♀️🎙️📺
I poured my heart and soul into "Economic Agenda" and "Planet Normal". The Telegraph's decision to scrap them is obviously a huge personal blow. But I will always be grateful for the opportunities the paper has given me.
Above all, I would like to thank the illustrious list of successive Telegraph business editors I've worked with since the late-1990s, many of whom have become and remain good friends - including @Peston @RobertsDan @larmitstead @neilbenet @benjaminmarlow @cg_williams @kamalahmednews @MarkKleinmanSky @jamesrquinn (sorry if I've forgotten anyone, it's been a long time!)
On Friday, even though I almost always write my column from elsewhere, and despite being extremely disappointed by the paper's decision, I decided to go into the Telegraph and write today's column sitting in the newsroom.
I am glad I did - as being at the heart of the paper at such a difficult time allowed for lots of conversations, with everyone from junior production staff to senior reporters and executives, which reminded me that journalism, despite being an industry at the whim of seemingly endless and often brutal commercial and technological upheaval, is not only hugely important to our country, but full of talented, decent people.
See picture below, having just filed my piece, as I was heading out the door ...
Jonathan Purle retweeted
An emotional campaign given the wider context of why we had this by-election in the first place, following the sad passing of my friend and colleague Roger Jackson.
I am delighted to be returning to Newark and Sherwood District Council to play a role in holding the Labour-led coalition to account, whilst delivering for the residents and businesses within the Dover Beck ward.
This one was for Roger!
Lots of people slamming the Chancellor for this. Personally, I think it was probably the best thing he did on Budget Day.
It’s not just a random drink for him after delivering a budget (however bad it was). Large numbers of officials will have gone to the boozer after the budget as well, so only right he shows his face.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
Saying you are not-white so cannot be racist whilst transparently being a racist still make you a racist. That the term has been thrown around a lot doesn’t stop real racism being racism. Saying you’ve always been anti-racist is not a mic drop defence when you are being a racist.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
UK data regulation costs British tech businesses an estimated £5.3 billion a year in compliance alone.
That’s from new research by Freshwater Strategy for CCIA, surveying 113 data-intensive tech businesses. Two-thirds (69%) say compliance costs have risen over the past 5-10 years, while none say they have fallen.
But compliance is only one slice of the ultimate cost to the British economy:
- Half (52%) reported not undertaking a business activity due to data regulation
- Firms are scaling back analytics, delaying products and holding back AI features
- Some are launching new products, including AI agents, offshore to avoid red tape
‘The issue is that business are very frightened of falling into the trap of breaching regulations, so they do not pursue a project because of the risk,’ explained one respondent. ‘Overzealous regulation means that taking that route is simply not worth the risk capital to get the feature up and running – better to place bets elsewhere,’ said another.
62% say uncertainty about enforcement matters more than the rules themselves, while 68% say the risk of getting it wrong is out of proportion to the actual risk to individuals.
The ICO’s newly appointed independent board has an opportunity to shift culture, not just the letterhead.
Jonathan Purle retweeted
I'm a Reformer not a Conservative and I'm not Kemi's biggest fan, but is wholly wrong to refer to her as an 'anchor baby'. Reformers in my personal view should not do it and it is not factually right any way.
Here are the facts. 👇
Kemi was born in the UK to married Nigerian parents - one a doctor, one a professor and lecturer in physiology. Neither of her parents ever applied for British citizenship.
Kemi moved to Nigeria as an infant with her parents. She decided to come to live in the UK amidst sharp political and economic turmoil in Nigeria at around the age of 16.
The term 'anchor baby' is generally viewed as derogstory in nature and refers specifically to the idea that the child born in the UK (or any other country) to foreign national parents acts as an "anchor" securing the parents' ability to remain in the country, under an operating assumption that the child's citizenship by birth will eventually allow the family to obtain legal permanent residency or prevent deportation.
This was never the case with Kemi's parents who returned to Nigeria of their own volition to continue their careers. They never sought to gain British citizenship and never moved back to the UK after their daughter returned.
