Feature writer at The Telegraph, author of Looking for Eliza
Joined May 2012
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leafarbuthnot retweeted
A movie is dull and one moves on; but I saw one so arrantly, actively bad (every aspect, from images to script, from performances back to the basic idea, misjudged, inflated, ponderous, vague, banal), that it besmirches the cinema itself, makes the tools and the very format of...
I wrote about the ceasefire in Oleshky and Melania's reinvention as a peacemaker telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
the chain!!
John Healey claimed his first Budget 'for working people' would help Britain navigate global 'storms' in the short term and create the conditions for growth. What does former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane make of it?
Follow updates: ft.trib.al/q4vK7Er
leafarbuthnot retweeted
I predict
1 it will now become permanent
2 the pension will go up in real terms
3 the personal allowance will go down in real terms.
So in say ten years this will become a serious disincentive to people in their late 60s working part-time.
what is so sad too is that her kid may watch her films and not recognise her
Jennifer Lawrence gets real about her past plastic surgery and future facelift plans: ‘I want to be a sexy mom’ trib.al/CFSHMOA
"over and out" - what an amazingly annoying thing to say
Amazing: journalist does journalism to discover something, and because everyone is so used to people living by press release, they literally can't believe the journalist found it out on their own.
holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2026/…
leafarbuthnot retweeted
This budget does very little to the overall level of tax, and the overall level of tax is going up significantly.
Here's the tax increases over the next few years, in 2026 £. You can just about see today's changes in green.
leafarbuthnot retweeted
Here's the real story of this Budget, the can being kicked down the road. This Labour government is apparently planning spending cuts on most areas of public service spending of 2.6% per year between 2028-29 and 2031-32.
Pull the other one. It's got bells on.
leafarbuthnot retweeted
Harry Kane’s words to his family, One of the most beautiful #BallonDor speeches ever: 🤍
All those years, the sacrifice, taking me to training, coming to watch me play all around England... There was never any pressure to become a footballer. It was always about working hard.
leafarbuthnot retweeted
SPECIAL REPORT: Russian military victory over Ukraine is not inevitable. It is extraordinarily unlikely, in fact, unless Western support for Ukraine collapses.
There is simply no inevitable correlation between the relative size of combatants and the outcome of a war — particularly when the war is existential for the smaller state but not for the larger one, as is true today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is nevertheless trying once again to breathe life into the myth of inevitable Russian military victory in order to persuade the United States and other supporters of Ukraine to compel Kyiv to surrender.
Ukraine, not Russia, has actually held the initiative in key sectors of the frontline for much of the year and has developed a number of ways of offsetting the overall Russian manpower advantage.
Russia’s population and relative (but diminishing) wealth will let Putin continue his war for a long time, to be sure. But Ukraine can also continue fighting for its existence as long as Western support continues.
leafarbuthnot retweeted
This is madness.
The Soho Society has struck again.
It is now…
Objecting to the redevelopment of an abandoned building in Soho.
Why?
It could cause “over activation”.
Twentieth Century House, right in the middle of London, vacant for 5 years.
There’s a plan to bring it back to life:
🏢 Affordable workspace for small businesses.
🛍️ New shops.
🍽️ A courtyard with bars and restaurants replacing an empty alley.
🚶♂️➡️A public walkway connecting Dean Street to Soho Square.
The Soho Society would rather it remain DERELICT.
They hate the idea that people might want to have fun in the capital’s prime nightlife district.
We disagree.
Westminster councillors have the final say. They should prove they are pro-growth & approve it.
What do you think?
leafarbuthnot retweeted
I checked this and - almost unbelievably- it is true.
Our problems in the west are so much more extreme and profound than most people acknowledge.
I don’t believe all those bovine students genuinely celebrate something so categorically monstrous, but that is almost more frightening. It means they think the acceptable position is to celebrate the murder of a terrified little girl, and so they meekly do.
Myriam was a 7-year-old French Jewish girl. She witnessed a terrorist break into her school and kill two of her classmates.
She tried to run but tripped while grabbing her schoolbag, causing her ballet slippers to fall out. She stopped to pick them up. He chased her and grabbed her by the hair, shooting her in the head at point-blank range.
The man was Mohamed Merah, and a rap song honoring him and other Muslim terrorists has become the unofficial anthem of the ‘student protests’ in France.
leafarbuthnot retweeted
My @thetimes column: An incredible tale of how an ancient royal charter charity founded to look after London’s bridges was hijacked by left-wing causes
We may not have feral youth on the street, but make no mistake: this is looting
With @lfg_uk
times-comment.com/3b6d00ae
A great pleasure and honour to interview Kate Bingham for yesterday's Telegraph. We talked about civil service reform, AI, hope for the big diseases and more telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
