James Ball @jamesrbuk Twitter profile

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James Ball

10 months

Excitingly, @BloomsburyBooks has made a proper TRAILER for my next book, The Other Pandemic. It’s published 20 July, and you can pre-order from… Bookshop: Amazon: Waterstones:

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Last Seen Profiles

@HighFirstMedia1

@StrongmanBurner

@TUNKSA

@Mm997vip

@graceg116

@REALNIGGAS0SA

@cornerstcre

@micaOlol

@frisky9

@LibertyCommune

@yonaka_nemu

@TeamNoonas

@camila_artwork

@kerby

@mordredsp

@capta11n

@javier_osorio

@Aadil_144

@yazukaclub

@caitlinencinas7

@manbiitesdog

@D_Roopa_IPS

@PITTnation1

@nj_athletics

@Aizencoc

@nanicsgo

@bashar__asad

@PowurPBC

@MikominCosplay

@roothq_

@PaulBrown1911

@DoanDadelen5

@iamlufy

@Vrai_Tacleur

@itstalmi

@TheHindi

James Ball

@jamesrbuk

9 months

The thing that always strikes me with this guy: he does not look young for his age! At all!

New York Post

@nypost

9 months

I’m 45, a billionaire, obsessed with staying young — and hard to date

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

NB: if you wouldn't go out into this storm, it is absolutely not ethical to order Deliveroo/Uber Eats/Getir/etc.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

18 days

Monopoly is a fairly well-designed game that everyone ruins with “house rules” – and then gets annoyed that the game doesn’t work / drags on. Key actual rules: • no free parking money • no double money on go • land on a property and don’t buy it? It gets auctioned

Robert Colvile

@rcolvile

18 days

It's going to go on way too long and the ending will be really obvious an hour out

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

The blue tick death spiral, in three short paragraphs.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Still amazed that Number 10 really tried to say with a straight face that it was essential for Boris Johnson to have “firsthand” experience of flying a typhoon, but not essential for him to attend COBRA meetings. Jesus wept.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

Another term for a “15-minute city” is a village: a small collection of housing with essential/desirable amenities (pub, shop, GP) nearby. Government policy seems to be that villages are woke now.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Everything else aside: if you produced this for the Great British Bake Off you’d be voted off. The sponge should be capable of holding the fruit, so that it doesn’t sink to the bottom. This cake is a disaster. Total failure.

The New York Times

@nytimes

1 year

Will you be watching King Charles III’s coronation? Here's a Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake and other recipe ideas for your coronation party.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

4 months

It’s a rebrand that really gives off “we’re going into administration next year” energy, so well done to all involved

Jack Tindale

@JackTindale

4 months

What an absolutely dogshit rebrand.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Some interesting rumours going around that the talent rebellion at the BBC may be extending beyond the sports department…

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

I got mugged at knife point not all that long ago, by four guys who also beat me up for passwords/PINs. Police promised me it was a “high priority crime” and then didn’t even manage to collect relevant CCTV footage, which both they and I had confirmed existed.

Peter Ruddick

@ruddick

6 months

The government has announced a new 'shoplifting crackdown'. Policing Minister Chris Philp says it represents a 'zero tolerance' approach. Police attendance is now a priority commitment if an offender is detained, if violence has been involved or if evidence needs collecting.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

If it’s true that the government are indeed rushing to sell off the land compulsorily purchased, over years, at HUGE cost, for the sections of HS2 above Crewe, that’s a genuine act of national sabotage – just to make sure a future government can’t override Rishi’s decision.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Channel 4 is publicly owned, not publicly funded. It’s also banned by charter from making any of its own content – meaning any original programming it commissions comes from the private, independent, sector. Those private companies are happy with that current model.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Your occasional reminder that no-one pays inheritance tax on the first £350,000 of an estate. And that around 96% of estates pay no inheritance tax whatsoever. It’s one of the few wealth taxes we have.

The Guardian

@guardian

2 years

I’d like inheritance tax to be abolished, says UK Treasury minister

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@jamesrbuk

2 years

If I were advising Keir Starmer I’d suggest he comes out publicly and says something on the lines of: “If I’m issued with a fixed penalty notice I will, of course, resign. It would be completely wrong to appeal to lead the country having broken the law, even accidentally.”

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

The general pitch seems to be “This government was totally shit. I am tremendously proud of the work I did for it. Vote for me to do something totally different, but not too different.” #itvdebate

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

I am more or less biblically required to stan

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

This stuff can seem minor, but it just emphasises that we have another PM who is entirely relaxed about lying to the public

Paul Brand

@PaulBrandITV

7 months

‘No decision made’. Meanwhile, this was already shot and ready to roll.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

This is a genuinely jaw-dropping stance for a channel to take when it has spent much of the last several weeks chastising the response of the BBC and ITV to accusations of misconduct by prominent presenters.

GB News

@GBNEWS

10 months

'There are dark forces out to try and take this brilliant channel down. And that’s because GB News is the biggest threat to the establishment in decades, and they will stop at nothing to destroy us.' @DanWootton

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

4 months

This might actually be better than the infamous Manchester tableau. It’s got everything.

Jason Evans 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇪🇺

@EvansTheCrime

4 months

📸 The essential "arrest selfie". Astonishing pic by @athenapics

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

“Some countries get 40°C all the time and are fine, why are people making such a fuss”: 1. Their homes are designed differently 2. So are their cities and towns 3. Their residents take heat seriously and plan their days around it

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

A study in contrasts.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

If one in five current blue ticks paid $20 a month that would raise just under $15 million a year for Twitter…Twitter’s current revenues (mostly from ads) are $5 billion a year. Musk’s apparent plan would generate about 30 hours’ worth of annual revenue.

Charging Twitter users for blue ticks would be a disaster

Elon Musk’s latest brainwave risks alienating the users Twitter depends on and would expose it to lawsuits.

www.newstatesman.com

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Coincidences happen but this is a striking one: this isn’t just an outfit worn by Emma Thompson’s populist PM. It’s the outfit she’s wearing in the scene where she introduces concentration camps to Britain. As styling goes: *yikes*.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Quite a lot of serious questions for The Sun in the pipeline. And they apparently had the message from the 20-year-old’s lawyer. Police took less than 24 hours to say nothing criminal. There is clear evidence of harm to Edwards. These are the kind of facts that worry lawyers.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

18 days

Oh yes: rent is still due when the player that owns the property is in prison. That’s also always been the case.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

25 days

THEY ARE JUST SMALLER OVENS FFS. IT IS A FUCKING COUNTER TOP OVEN. GET OFER IT.

Scott Bryan

@scottygb

1 month

Channel 5's new four air fryer series starts next week: - Air Fryers: Sunday Lunch Made Easy - Air Fryers: Entertaining Made Easy - Air Fryers: Takeaways Made Easy - Air Fryers: Batch Cooking Made Easy

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

18 days

@JoelTaylorhack The house rules are what makes the game take forever! People actively create what makes them hate the game.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

4 months

Isn’t it great that we’ll only have this one mainline for the rest of our natural lives now that Rishi’s cancelled HS2?

Manchester News MEN

@MENnewsdesk

4 months

BREAKING: All lines blocked to London Euston from Manchester Piccadilly

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

We finally found what impresses her!

Shania Twain 💎💎💎

@ShaniaTwain

2 years

You know these women will have had to fight for respect from the first moment they picked up the ball - Lets f**king go girls! @Lionesses #lionesses

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

You don’t need Twitter Blue to keep your account secure! 1. Remove SMS Two Factor 2. Download Google’s Authenticator app (iPhone and Android) 3. Set up two factor via Authenticator app on Twitter This is more secure than SMS two factor, and still free.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

9 months

Good, overlooked observation by someone in Labour: Brunel has 20,000 students, currently on summer holidays. Student halls empty. Had this by-election happened in term-time, the story would likely be very different today. And we wouldn’t be talking about ULEZ.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

11 days

Given CCHQ had reportedly been aware of these allegations for three months or more, should we assume he’s losing the whip for being caught by the media?

Chris Mason

@ChrisMasonBBC

11 days

NEW: Mark Menzies has lost the Conservative whip

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Simon Case once again disgraced the civil service. ACOBA was the independent authority here, and made its own ruling. Departments said she hadn’t acted improperly. Publishing this document is a disgrace.

Pippa Crerar

@PippaCrerar

10 months

NEW: Cabinet office inquiry into Sue Gray concludes there was a "prima facie" breach of civil service code when she spoke to Keir Starmer in late October.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

So I’m not sure who the government is trying to convince with this particular announcement, but I don’t think it’s anyone actually living in the UK right now.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

8 months

This is very unfair, they’re really fighting to save a beloved local *checks notes* ………car park.

ianVisits

@ianvisits

8 months

A pensioner day trip to Edgware to protest against young people owning a home.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

Interviewed a woman last week whose independent shop had been raided at night (12k worth of damage). A neighbouring shop had specifically found and saved their CCTV footage of the incident for her. Police never even collected it. But…shoplifting’s a priority now!

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

There is a reason the driver gets as angry as he does, even if what he says gets hard to defend. There is a reason almost everyone hates people who behave like the person making this video behaves. All self-righteousness, no sense and no compassion.

Jeremy Vine

@theJeremyVine

10 months

Every. Second. Of this. I have never seen a cyclist-driver confrontation like this before. And towards the end it seems to jump the shark completely. Thank-you @MikeyCycling for sharing ... more details here

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Learning to fight disinformation with Noam Chomsky is like taking a course on how to be a good doctor from Harold Shipman.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

21 days

The only form of criminal libel that still exists in the UK is posting false information about a candidate during an election period. The penalties are quite severe. The people behind this leaflet may wish to think about that…

Adam Bienkov

@AdamBienkov

22 days

These are the leaflets the Conservative Party is currently putting out in London. Just straightforward disinformation, designed to trick people into handing over their data.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Until today, I thought Musk would be chaotic but ultimately hire a CEO and maybe even end up with a better-functioning service. Today that’s changed: I am rapidly coming to the view that he’s Trussed it.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

5 months

Classic Rishi Sunak incoming: a real cuts to benefits to cut inheritance tax (taking money now from people on the breadline to give it to inheritors of estates worth >£1m), to appease his backbenchers over a fight with the Home Secretary that he installed to appease them earlier.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

I am sick of people making excuses for the phrase “from the river to the sea”. For so long as it is being used by some to mean to abolition of Israel, then there is no excuse for using it to mean something else.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

I don’t think I’ve ever watched a trailer before and then thought the best thing a studio could do is axe the entire project and claim it was an elaborate prank. But now I have.

Letterboxd

@letterboxd

10 months

The official trailer for Wonka is here 🍫

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

This is just vile. This implies adoptive mothers, or parents via surrogate, or all sorts of other people aren’t mothers. The issue with which Duffield has become fixated has blinded her to her own new and hateful stance towards many families.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

I’m not sure why certain slices of the U.K. commentariat have decided to get into a pissing contest with the climate, but it’s a pretty one-sided thing. The sun is a massive fusion reactir, it’s not gonna be affected if you call it a snowflake.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Also: the world doesn't need your "why this is actually NATO's fault" shit. Apologia for dictators is morally reprehensible at the best of times, and this is very much not the best of times.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

These comments show up the people who make them as financially illiterate as well as smug. Not only was loan-to-salary much smaller – meaning 6% today is roughly equivalent to 13% then – but nominal wage growth and inflation drastically reduced the real value of mortgages.

Edwina Currie

@Edwina_Currie

10 months

All the baby boomers who are now mortgage-free home owners went through paying interest rates three times what they are now. 16% was normal. We didn’t have much choice, but home ownership rocketed, and we survived.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

This is an INCREDIBLY dangerous thing to get wrong, as it will mean some people believe it and think they can use as much energy as they want. And then they’ll get the bill.

James Phillips

@jhphllps

2 years

Twice this morning Truss has said that nobody will pay more than £2,500 for their energy this winter. Which isn’t true.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

The government is going to cancel the cheaper, useful bit of HS2 so that some numbers on a spreadsheet look slightly better so that they can manage some token giveaway in a budget next year to try and stay in power. Just flagging that. Again.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

This might help to explain why The Sun hasn’t been naming the presenter involved. It does raise a question or two as to why they ran the story when it’s all this murky.

'Nothing inappropriate' in BBC presenter row - young person's lawyer

Claims being made by the mother at the heart of the BBC presenter row are "rubbish", a lawyer says.

www.bbc.co.uk

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

Americans who saw Jeremy Corbyn as Bernie Sanders with a British accent (and vice versa for Brits) fundamentally misunderstood both men, and the political traditions each represents.

Israel War Room

@IsraelWarRoom

6 months

#BREAKING : Bernie Sanders rejects calls for a ceasefire to benefit Hamas. "I don't know how you can have a permanent cease fire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel. HAMAS HAS GOT TO GO”

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Katharine Birbalsingh is not Britain’s “strictest” anything – she is a cosplayer, a cargo-cult authority figure aiming to appeal to a slice of the country’s public who believe everything was better in the 1950s.

Katharine Birbalsingh: Lessons for an empty head

“Britain’s strictest teacher” is a bizarre cosplay act for those who believe everything was better in the 1950s

www.theneweuropean.co.uk

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

11 months

Absolute bastard move from someone who’s been a professional journalist to resign at 8pm on a Friday. Saturday paper deadlines and print times are the earliest of the week. Boris Johnson will be getting cursed at in every newsroom in the country right now.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

The host of this show is still broadcasting despite multiple serious allegations against him. That he’s being allowed to do so makes a mockery of UK broadcasting regulations, especially when the content is this vile.

Ava-Santina

@AvaSantina

7 months

Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me ?

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

9 months

A note on "I paid in all my life" when it comes to pensions: today's taxes pay today's pensions. So people retiring now mostly "paid in" for pensions at a much lower rate, for lower life expectancies, when pensioner poverty was much higher than now.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

I’d love to take credit for “enshittification” but it’s a @doctorow coinage.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Your occasional reminder that Sue Gray wasn’t the person holding parties at Number 10, nor was she the authority who decided whether or not they broke the law.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

Okay, that’s a clever conference announcement.

Rachel Reeves

@RachelReevesMP

7 months

BREAKING: Labour will appoint a Covid Corruption Commissioner to recover billions lost to waste and fraud. As Chancellor, I will always treat taxpayers' money with respect.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

Not going to engage directly with outrage bait, but there is *something* about Israel that turns off basic thought, let alone compassion, for some even fairly mainstream people on the British Left, and some of the resulting takes today are truly repellent.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

Conservative Party Conference highlights, so far: • cancelling Manchester hs2 *in Manchester* • Liz Truss, the seven week pm, is now somehow the Tory kingmaker • an actual housing minister says not *all* renters are useless antisocial druggies, some vote Tory

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

The diagram in this tweet is wrong, though.

University of Hull

@UniOfHull

6 years

Did you know the #Hull -born logician, mathematician and philosopher noted for introducing the Venn diagram, John Venn, died on this day in 1923? A man so brilliant, we named a building after him!

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Twitter’s chief customer officer, and the person who persuaded Musk to write that reassuring note to advertisers, is out and has left this 🧵

Sarah Personette

@SEP

1 year

Hi folks, I wanted to share that I resigned on Friday from Twitter and my work access was officially cut off last night.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

I could acknowledge that hanging posters of missing people thousands of miles from where they’re missing is somewhat complicated. Ripping them down isn’t. Anyone who gets to a position where they think that’s right has got badly lost. It’s a vile act.

Richard Ferrer

@richferrer

6 months

Leicester Square, London, this evening. @StopAntisemites @CST_UK @antisemitism

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

I still think this is an appalling lapse of judgment on Tim Davie’s part, compounded by the fact Robbie Gibb has on multiple occasions blatantly overstepped his role as a non-exec and tried to interfere directly with content.

Sam Bright

@WritesBright

6 months

So the BBC director general appeared in front of Tory MPs and reassured them that an ex-Tory Downing Street director of communications is reviewing the BBC’s migration reporting policy. This is messed up.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

8 months

Sunak is almost unbelievably bad at politics. Latest example: by trying to claim this, he’s drawn specific attention to the fact the opposition tried to warn them on this. Absolutely idiotic.

Adam Bienkov

@AdamBienkov

8 months

Rishi Sunak says collapsing schools "wasn't even worthy of a single mention" in Keir Starmer's education speech this summer. Here's the section of Starmer's speech back in July in which he specifically mentioned crumbling schools. #PMQs

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

5 months

Alex Jones, who currently owes the families of dead children he repeatedly and sadistically defamed more than a billion dollars, is back on X – after the express intervention of the founder. Who but a crypto scammer or dropshipper would spend even a dollar advertising here?

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

5 months

What an *extraordinarily* stupid thing for the party of government to tweet. How long until it’s deleted, do we reckon? And is someone getting fired?

Conservatives

@Conservatives

5 months

Labour when you ask for their plans to tackle illegal migration.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Hi: just been fairly violently mugged. Please don't trust anything from my accounts for a while

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 months

London is a passable late night city if you build up an encyclopaedic knowledge of which bars have late licences, why, and what vibe they have. Without that, it is woeful – to the point where Londoners have half given up. Our expectations of late London are *low*.

Marie Le Conte

@youngvulgarian

2 months

briefly adding my voice to the "well obviously London isn't a 24 hour city" chorus by pointing out that I'm just finishing my dinner in a restaurant in basically zone 1 and they're actively cleaning the tables and preparing to close as I finish my main, at 9.01pm, wooo London!

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

18 days

@duncanrobinson Always has. Makes the game MUCH faster.

James Ball

@jamesrbuk

18 days

@disappoptimism Almost no-one is, but it’s right there in the rules (and always has been).

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 months

When we talk about needing to improve the quality of MPs, we’re not usually talking about things this completely stupid. But this is still an elected member of parliament sharing one of the most obviously faked documents on the internet.

Andrew Bridgen MP

@ABridgen

2 months

The UN, WHO and WEF are all working to the same goals and I don’t like them and I don’t think my constituents will either, which is probably why they are not getting much publicity in the legacy media.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

At some point it's going to sink in that the take home from today is "You know when we guaranteed a few weeks ago your energy prices wouldn't get any higher than this between now and spring 2024? Not any more!"

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

This is dreadful behaviour. At a minimum, Madeley should be required to offer an on-air apology to Moran.

Saul Staniforth

@SaulStaniforth

6 months

Richard Madeley asks British Palestinian MP Layla Moran if she or her family knew about Hamas's attack before it happened #GMB

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

What’s happened this morning was the completely foreseeable consequences of Rishi Sunak’s actions (up to and including the front pages on his comments today) at least as much as Suella Braverman’s. Absolutely pathetic from them both.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Given the alignment of the dates, gotta reuse what might be one of the all-time greats of marketing memes

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

8 months

I don’t like to overrreact to things, but I do feel the need to insist that whoever did today’s @nytimes Connections is fired and then never allowed to work again. But I’ll stop short of calling of prison time, because I’m magnanimous.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Bit of a gamble, sure, but it would show integrity, be a real point of difference on standards in public life, and totally screw up the current endless line of attack.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Your reminder that Twitter's revenue the year before Musk took over was about $5 billion, the overwhelming majority of which was advertising. Conservatively, Twitter ad revenue has fallen by 40% – c $1.8 billion. Twitter Blue annual revenue so far: under $50 million. Ouch.

Matt Binder

@MattBinder

1 year

researcher @travisbrown has been tracking Twitter Blue subscriptions for months based on the data, there are approximately 475,000 current Twitter Blue subscribers in total at $8, Twitter appears to be making just $3.8 million per month from Twitter Blue

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

The courage of Iran’s team has spectacularly put England’s to shame, whatever happens on the pitch.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

It’s easy to suggest the royal family’s PR team should have stopped the photos happening. But in reality, they should have prevented this trip entirely. But if that's the case, then…what are the royals for?

Awkward photo ops in Jamaica are the least of Will and Kate’s problems

It’s easy to suggest the royal family’s PR team should have stopped the photos happening. But in reality, they should have prevented this trip entirely.

www.newstatesman.com

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Finally, a home secretary who could solve the ID card stand-off – everyone can have as many as they like.

UK Prime Minister

@10DowningStreet

2 years

The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP @grantshapps has been appointed Secretary of State for the Home Department @ukhomeoffice .

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

@weirdlilguys

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

This is one of the weirdest legal notices I’ve ever read. It’s entirely out of line with almost every interpretation of contempt of court I’ve ever seen.

Media Advisory Notice: Russell Brand

The Attorney General confirms the requirement not to publish material which could prejudice any potential criminal investigation or prosecutions.

www.gov.uk

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Half the UK’s editors are currently trying to work out a way of writing about The Email without writing about The Email. The other half are working out how to spike those pitches when they come.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

Final thought on this (more detailed thread earlier on my feed): it is pretty fucking callous to hype a feature as if it’s yours when you fired the team that thought of it, built it, and *did a public beta of it* the day before.

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

1 year

Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Today’s taxes pay for today’s state pensions. The belief that people have paid for their own state pension is a false one – if that were the case they’d be a good deal lower than they are now, incidentslly. When pensions rise faster than income, it is a generational transfer.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Big thing to know/tell elderly relatives this winter: most electronics in your house are still cheap to run. Lighting is cheap (especially with modern bulbs), as are LCD televisions. Kettles and microwaves are fairly cheap, because they’re not on for long.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

3 months

Expand the village? No! Character! New village then? No! Roads! New village and new roads? No! New roads bad! Ten minutes later: why can’t my child afford to stay in the area in which she grew up???

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

3 months

"Controversial plans for a 4000 home new village, between York and Selby, have been put on hold, North Yorkshire Council said." > "campaigners from four neighbouring villages had raised concerns about the impact on traffic." > 😓

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Brand managers: you really, REALLY don’t have to tweet.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

7 months

This is an *immensely* stupid claim for a Home Secretary to make, and it can only have been made against civil service advice. Some of these refugees are people who helped the UK in Afghanistan. This isn’t only a stupid lie, it’s a contemptible one.

Neil Henderson

@hendopolis

7 months

MAIL: Suella: Channel migrants are NOT refugees #TomorrowsPapersToday

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Scotland has a good case for being the architect of empire, but ignores its history to an even greater extent than we do down in England. Which is no easy feat.

Jack Sommers

@jack_sommers

10 months

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

It was 13 years ago, and public debt was less than half of what it is now. I’d maybe stop banging this particular drum.

Greg Hands

@GregHands

1 year

Worth remembering as we start the new tax year. #LabourFail .

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

The UK government thinks WhatsApp and Signal are bluffing when they say they’ll withdraw from the UK rather than comply with the Online Safety Bill From my conversations with insiders, I *really* don’t think they are. And that comes with real consequences

Internexit?

The UK’s storming off (again), blue-checkmate Elon, the dangerous rise of internet points, and more

www.techtris.co.uk

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

The spectacular clown show of Elon’s first ten days at Twitter: • Blue ticks for $8, within the week! • We’ll verify ID though • Actually we won’t • We’ll add an extra mark for some notable accounts • Maybe more than a week • Here’s the official mark • We’ve scrapped it

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

It’s somewhat overshadowed by the leadership contest but the fact the chancellor’s explanation around a trust holding a multimillion pound shareholding in YouGov has changed in several directly contradictory ways this week is a *serious* problem.

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

10 months

Taking over users audio is how you get your app deleted. If I’m listening to a podcast and swiping Twitter, auto-ad audio is a full block. If it’s standard, it’s the thing that gets the app deleted.

Hannah Murphy

@MsHannahMurphy

10 months

New Twitter CEO tells staff they need to deploy “hand-to-hand combat” to win back advertisers Among her plans: - new sound-on, full-screen video ads to run in the TikTok-style video feed - boost in ads headcount - facilitate brand deals for celebs

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

1 year

When mine was nicked last year it was four guys, one of them with a knife, and they kept punching me in the face until I gave over the passwords and PINs too. They tried to use a bank card in a shop with CCTV 20 mins later. Still: no arrests, no action.

Alex Wickham

@alexwickham

1 year

91,000 phones stolen in London last year — another crime effectively decriminalised

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

2 years

Rare speech that lands well when you read it as well as when you hear it

Jim Pickard 🐋

@PickardJE

2 years

here's the core of the Starmer speech about partygate in the Commons today:

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

3 months

This is what YIMBYs are up against: Jonn is having to argue *one single tree* against delaying 300 new homes for years, possibly indefinitely. Icing on the cake: the plans were to move the tree, not just flatten it. No wonder we get nothing done.

jonn elledge

@JonnElledge

3 months

@johnmcternan It's a single tree. Ideally we'd protect it, but every building in the world was on a site that was green once, (up to and including your house!) To house our people, we have to make trade offs, and it's legitimate to think one tree is not a good enough reason to block 300 homes

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James Ball

@jamesrbuk

6 months

Among the very best commentary I’ve seen on this. Agree with pretty much all of it. Saddened by the rarity of statements like these, which you’d think would be something anyone could say.

Daniel Sugarman

@Daniel_Sugarman

6 months

Pink gets it. Wish more celebs could have this moral clarity.

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