David Winfield retweeted
Anyone who is feeling nostalgic seeing James Richardson at the San Siro tonight should really check out my first book!
ebay.io/m/zkW3sn – at Calafell, Spain
David Winfield retweeted
Oct 31, 1918. The Austro-Hungarian Navy gives its flagship away to a brand-new country. Hours later, two Italian divers sink her without knowing she'd changed sides.
Viribus Unitis was the pride of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, a modern dreadnought. In 1914, she had carried the bodies of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife home from Sarajevo after the murders that started the war.
By late October 1918, the empire was falling apart. Its peoples were breaking away to form their own nations. On Oct 31, Emperor Karl handed the entire navy to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the forerunner of Yugoslavia.
That evening at Pola, the Austro-Hungarian flag came down. A Croatian officer, Janko Vuković, was made admiral and given command of the fleet. Viribus Unitis was his flagship.
Nobody told the Italians.
That night, two Italian officers, Raffaele Rossetti and Raffaele Paolucci, slipped into Pola harbor riding a strange invention: a torpedo with no warhead, steered by two men in rubber suits clinging to its back. They called it the Mignatta, the leech.
For hours they worked past the harbor defenses in freezing water and sleet. Just before dawn, they reached Viribus Unitis and fixed an explosive charge to her hull, timed to go off at 6:30.
Then they were spotted, pulled from the water, and brought aboard the very ship they had just mined.
They told the new admiral what they had done. Vuković had them sent safely to another ship and ordered his crew to abandon the flagship.
The charge exploded. Viribus Unitis rolled over and sank. Vuković stayed aboard and went down with her, after just a few hours in command. Estimates of the dead range from dozens to several hundred.
The two Italians had sunk a ship belonging to a country that hadn't existed the day before. Four days later, the war in Italy was over.
Their leech was the ancestor of the human torpedoes the Italian Navy would use with deadly effect in World War II.
David Winfield retweeted
JD Vance's cousin, Nate Vance: I came to Ukraine to do humanitarian work. Then I saw how the Russians behaved.
Bucha is what pushed me to join the Ukrainian army.
I was there after its liberation. I decided: if I found a unit, I would go and serve. 1/
David Winfield retweeted
HAPPENING NOW IN TEL AVIV: tens of thousands of Israeli citizens, Jews and Palestinians, are marching to demand a Jewish-Arab government after winning against Netanyahu - Ben Ggovernment on Tuesday.
David Winfield retweeted
Serb students are cleaning the graphitis and cleaning up their city
They are calling this “real patriotism”
David Winfield retweeted
The reason that everyone under 65 cannot really appreciate the magnitude both economically and socially of Thatcher's destruction, is because they weren't there before it.
They cannot appreciate how low State owned bills were and the service received.
David Winfield retweeted
The Tories are the key reason why there is such a large debt. They left a documented national debt of £2.8 TRILLION. You are still being Conservative with the truth. Untrustworthy, unelectable. Shut up and sit down you deceitful clown
David Winfield retweeted
It will never not be funny that in their 250th year of independence from being a colony under a mad king, the USA decided to embark on a colonial war to appease their mad king.
David Winfield retweeted
October 31, 1917
The Southern Palestine Offensive begins with the Battle of Beersheba. General Allenby's Imperial forces assault and take the Ottoman strongpoint at Beersheba, capturing almost half of the garrison.
Unusually for the Great War, the battle was decided by a late afternoon cavalry charge by the Australian Mounted Division.
Although the Gaza line would not be fully overcome for another week, the loss of Beersheba would be the first crack in the Ottoman line.
ALT By Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 au, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21153956
David Winfield retweeted
🚨Poundland is a scandal. Here’s why:
People have attacked me for taking up this fight, saying ‘businesses go under all the time, that’s just the free market’. Sure, but this is *crony capitalism* and the 12,000 workers deserve better.
This is what’s really happening:
Poundland’s owners, an American outfit called Gordon Brothers are trying to put the business into administration. They bought it for £1 and have a £30m loan out to it, which they want back.
It’s a tough sector, suffering from fierce competition, battered by Labour’s tax increases and customers feeling the pinch. However, the business is solvent, sales grew 6.7% in the last year and 8.4% in the first three weeks of October. It’s about to see the best trading weeks of the year approaching Christmas. This is not a business that has to shut its doors.
What’s more, if Gordon Brothers want to walk away, there are others keen to take it on, as a going concern. I’ve spoken to two, highly credible parties today, who have attempted to buy the business. Both tell me they have the money. One, a hugely successful British retail entrepreneur, didn’t even get a response from Gordon Brothers. They would keep the stores intact and keep the positive momentum going.
I’ve been inundated with messages from staff and suppliers, all saying how hard they’ve worked in the past year to turn the business around.
Instead, Gordon Brothers are risking 12,000 jobs just before Christmas (and retail isn’t an easy industry to get another job in right now) and potentially another 10,000 amongst the suppliers. Poundland has a number of suppliers that only or largely supply them, and who will face an uncertain future without them.
Then there’s the loss to the landlords, the rates owed to local councils, tax due to HMRC and the lost footfall on our high streets if 600 stores shut.
The wage bill of Poundland is close to £500m, so you can imagine the cost to the taxpayer in benefits if 12,000 people lose their jobs.
Could it be that Gordon Brothers, far from being a real ‘turnaround specialist’ is just trying to look after themselves and make a profit at the expense of literally everyone else?
Might they be using the administration process to protect their loan?
And the advisors who handle administration will also pockets millions in fees. Naturally.
Could we see a decent business run down, shelves slowly emptied and then folded, with everyone losing out bar them? Thats what happened with another, similar business, Poundworld.
It’s not for nothing that loyal staff emailing me are calling them ‘Greedy Brothers’.
Should politicians be interested in this scandal? Too right they should. Frankly I’m shocked more aren’t. It shows how little Westminster cares about working people. You can be pro business, but anti crony capitalism. Reform UK is.
The Business Secretary needs to ask searching questions of Gordon Brothers and this administration process, before a 35 year old mainstay of our high streets and 12,000 jobs are destroyed by them.
David Winfield retweeted
The 'Halloween derby' is coming... and it's such a crucial match for both teams! 🎃
Watch AC Milan vs Inter Milan on BBC Two and iPlayer tonight from 7.40pm
David Winfield retweeted
It’s the cover up that is almost worse than the scandal.
🔴 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…
David Winfield retweeted
🇨🇳🇺🇦 Chinese volunteer Jin Ruxin has reportedly been killed while fighting for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, according to Memorial International Volunteers for Ukraine.
He reportedly stood alongside Ukrainians in their struggle for freedom, choosing to oppose Russian aggression far from his homeland.
His death has not yet been independently confirmed.
If confirmed, his sacrifice deserves to be remembered and honored.
Ukraine will never forget those who came from across the world to stand against Russian aggression.
🕯️🇨🇳🇺🇦
David Winfield retweeted
There’s a common perception that Britain is somehow an exceptionally high-tax country. And, judging by some of the comments here, apparently £126,000 is a relatively modest income compared with what Americans earn.
But let’s get into the real world.
£126,000 is approximately $168,000. That would put you in roughly the top 10% of full-time, year-round earners in America. And remember, America has some exceptionally high earners bringing up the average. You’re earning more than around 90% of the country’s full-time workforce.
And the taxation.
Take that same £126,000 salary and compare what you’d take home after tax in three locations:
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: £6,966 per month.
🇺🇸 California: £7,038 per month.
🇺🇸 New York City: £6,953 per month.
Once you account for all the layers of taxation, federal, state, local and payroll taxes in America, the take-home income is virtually identical.
The US has a much higher GDP per capita than the UK, but that’s because it has a number of enormous global companies and some exceptionally wealthy individuals. The US has extreme wealth inequality, far more so than the UK.
David Winfield retweeted
HUGE: Democracy for Sale have obtained a comprehensive list of the ministers who referred companies to the “VIP lane” after a five-year freedom-of-information tug of war:
democracyforsale.substack.co…
ALT Raab recommended a Cambridgeshire toy maker who had only a single employee at the start of the pandemic. Jenrick, now Reform UK treasury spokesman, is listed as ‘possibly’ referring an export packing firm. Graham Brady, then chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, referred an interior design company near his Altrincham and Sale West seat. Brady told Democracy for Sale that he had “no recollection of this but given the location, I assume I was passing on an approach from a constituent. I have no involvement with the company and never have had.” Owen Paterson, who later left parliament after a lobbying scandal, referred a Birmingham biotech firm working on pregnancy complications. None of these firms were given contracts. Then health secretary Matt Hancock is named against 27 companies, three of them marked ‘possible’. Former Conservative party chairman Lord Feldman is recorded against 21 (three ‘possible’) and Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew against 14 (four ‘possible’).
David Winfield retweeted
If #Palace win at #Tottenham today, we’ll send one lucky over 18 year old a case of our Red Star Disco Piss lager
