Good morning, opening with the Eurofighter, Fursan Al Emarat and a Chinook at #FIA2026 We fly into the show with Blade, meet Joby's test pilot Buddy, chat to a Black Hawk pilot encouraging girls into STEM, and test Soundcore's ANC earbuds with the very loud air display ✈️🚁

Labour's Chancellor John Healy thinks you're stupid, "Now is the time to make the most of our own homegrown energy through production from Jackdraw" My view: John Healey is dressing up a small boost to gas supply as a solution to the energy crisis. Jackdaw is expected to raise domestic gas production by around 6% at peak—equivalent to just under 4% of Britain’s daily gas demand—and operate for up to 11 years. The Government’s £2.9 billion figure is the project’s estimated contribution to the economy over its lifetime, not money that will be handed to households or taken off their bills. And because gas is traded in an international market, producing it in the North Sea does not mean British households get it at a cheaper price. It may add a little to supply security, but it will not shield families from global price shocks or make energy bills suddenly affordable. If Healey’s argument is that Jackdaw provides a limited supply boost, say that. But pretending “homegrown energy” means cheaper energy for the public is the sort of spin the Conservatives used to deliver.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to President Putin, "You talk so much about my President, President Trump, being a humanitarian" "You are a humanitarian also sir. I salute that. I commend you. And I thank you again" My view: Witkoff was speaking after Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American teacher who had been held since 2022 and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison after a closed trial on mercenary charges. His release is welcome. He should be reunited with his family. But there is something utterly dystopian about calling Putin a humanitarian because he released one prisoner after holding him for more than four years. Since launching its full-scale invasion, Russia has killed and injured civilians on a vast scale. By July 2026, the UN had verified at least 16,874 civilians killed, including 820 children, and 51,273 injured, including 3,126 children. Those are verified minimums; the true toll is likely higher. In the first nine months of 2026 alone, the UN recorded another 2,570 civilians killed and 15,211 injured. Russian authorities have also deported or forcibly transferred Ukrainian children. A UN Commission found these acts amounted to crimes against humanity. It verified more than 1,200 cases, and 80% of the children in those documented cases had still not been returned. The Commission said the policy was carried out at the highest levels of the Russian state and that Putin’s involvement was visible from the outset. The destruction is staggering. The World Bank, UN, EU and Ukrainian government estimate $195 billion in direct damage and nearly $588 billion needed for recovery and reconstruction. Fourteen per cent of Ukraine’s housing has been damaged or destroyed, affecting more than three million households. Thank Putin for releasing Hubbard. Welcome his reunion with his family. But calling the man who launched this invasion a “humanitarian” is an insult to the Ukrainians killed, injured, displaced and still waiting for their children to come home. There was a time when America stood up to bullies and defended democracy. Now it is appeasing them — and its own envoy is publicly flattering the man responsible for this devastation. That is a shameful sight, and a sad day for American democracy and the United States.

"‘Jackdaw means we pay our mortgages’: relief in Aberdeen over gasfield approval" Every single person should have been transitioned across to a massive green energy training program and job. No-one employed should have been left behind. Labour's failure to invest at speed in Green tech is a genuine shame.

If a Conservative Energy Minister said one thing in the morning, then a Conservative PM said another thing in the afternoon, Labour supporters would be pointing it out and criticising the Conservatives. But today, a Labour Energy Minister and a PM said opposite things, and Labour supporters seem indifferent. We complain about politicians for inaccuracies, but party loyalty is just as bad, and it demonstrates what people will sacrifice just as long as its their guy or gal, at the helm. How sad for our democracy. nitter.siddz.com/implausibleblog/status…

Left: Kemi Badenoch claimed the UK spends more on debt interest than on schools, the Army and the police combined #PMQs Right: Treasury outturn figures show the opposite. My view: In 2025–26, debt interest was about £111bn. Primary and secondary education, defence and police services came to about £192bn. In 2023–24, it was about £109bn against £171bn. Both comparisons use UK-wide figures from the same Treasury series. So what figures is Badenoch relying on?

Left: Labour's PM Andy Burnham, "Jackdaw will also allow us to do more to help people with bills" Right: Labour's Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, "Jackdraw will not have an impact on affordability and bills" My view: Two different messages from the same government, just hours apart, like a throwback to the glory days of the Conservatives 🤷‍♂️ Jackdraw is projected to have an 11 year lifetime generating £2.9 billion in revenue, or £264 million a year in revenue. One estimate cited in the Wall Street Journal suggests that will translate to an annual profit of £136 million. Spread across 29 million households, that's £4.69 per home. Which is 39p a month, to every household. Fahnbulleh was right, Jackdraw is not going to bring down bills - why did Burnham suggest it would?

£2.9 billion total revenues from Jackdraw's lifetime, increasing climate emissions £4.4 billion in lost output annually due to climate change, which will get worse as the climate crisis worsens

Labour's Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh admits that Jackdraw, "does not have an impact on affordability and bills" My view: What a sad day for Labour. Approving more gas despite saying no new oil and gas, then admitting that it won't actually lower bills, because they know it will be sold on international markets. Instead we get more emissions in a worsening climate crisis, while Burnham appeases Trump. Unions argued for this to protect jobs, but if Labour had even an iota of vision, they would have said every job is guaranteed in a new green energy transition initiative. But they chose not to do this. Some have argued that we need Jackdraw to help fund the £90 billion bill to upgrade gas and electric infrastructure, but Jackdraw will generate £2.9 billion in revenues across it's lifetime, not profits, and not how much will be contributed to the treasury - and based on past North Sea oil and gas contributions, perhaps a few hundred million, which is insignificant. I wonder if the people of Holborn & St Pancras would have voted differently, if they knew that when Labour said 'no new oil and gas' what Labour actually meant was 'no new oil and gas except the new oil and gas we announce.' Another sad day for Labour who were meant to be the change the country needed, but is doing what the Conservatives did before, prioritising profits over public welfare and the climate crisis.

Labour is tying itself in knots trying to justify @andyburnham 's approval of the Jackdaw gasfield. They know it won’t bring energy bills down, but are doing it anyway. Labour’s policy might as well be: No new oil and gas - except the new oil and gas we decide to approve 🤷

Aberfan disaster now on TV. school was buried on Thurs I was 19 My best friend and I were there on Sat At 10 pm we were on a lorry giving out water 2 am we were on the shovel moving slag from the top of a 2 story house Worked through the night. Clocks changed Lives changed

Andy Burnham raises the white flag of surrender. He approves more oil and gas in the North Sea knowing it won't bring prices down in the UK as prices are set on the international market. He could have invested in renewables training and infrastructure to ensure jobs are not lost, instead he chose to worsen the climate crisis. Another shameful Labour U-turn. From no new oil and gas, to appeasing Trump. So much for climate leadership. What a disappointment.

Just heard from a friend who had a heart attack last week, he's ok and resting in hospital in London ☺️ A huge shoutout to the ambulance and police crews (all six of them!) who rushed to the scene and swiftly took him to a nearby hospital 👏 An even bigger shoutout to all of the doctors, nurses, and other staff at the hospital 👏 And despite being massively underfunded by successive governments, we are lucky to have an NHS 🙏

French journalist @CarolineFourest says that the French riots have been fanned by foreign interference from Algeria, Iran and Russia. Foreign interference is making regular protest in democracies considerably worse. When will the UK and EU take action to reduce the impact of foreign interference in our democracies?

The most frustrating thing about watching the Conservative Party decline since 2010, a decline that accelerated around Brexit and was supercharged during Covid. When Labour came in, it may not be anywhere near as bad, but it’s also nowhere near what a Labour government ought to be. That’s not to say there aren’t good Labour MPs, there are. But while I’m not a Labour voter, I just expected a Labour government to be so much more than this.

Remember Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak announced Eat Out to Help Out without consulting the scientists? Turns out Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper proscribed PA as a terrorist org without involving the UK’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell. What a scandal!

The UK's National Security Advisor, Jonathon Powell, was not involved in Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper proscribing a group which has seen over 3,600 non violent protestors arrested 😱 This is looking like a national security scandal @andyburnham - you might want to get ahead of this before it all goes belly up; or make it part of your legacy too.

Jeremy Hunt on who spent 6 years as Health Secretary underfunding the NHS and social care Says that a lack of resources in the NHS and social care is why we had so many covid deaths in social care He then points out that gov prepared for a flu like pandemic and not a covid like pandemic, acknowledging that the two are very different My view: Which begs the question why the Conservatives, now Labour, the NHS, the JCVI and the UKHSA have all pretended that covid is no longer an issue and put focus purely on the flu COVID has not disappeared, yet protection is now targeted at a much narrower group: for autumn 2026, the JCVI recommends vaccination for people aged 75 and over, care-home residents and the immunosuppressed. Why has an ongoing risk been pushed so far down the public agenda, while flu remains a routine focus of winter planning? If the lesson is that failing to prepare costs lives, why are we acting as though COVID no longer deserves serious attention?

Terry Reintke, “Brexit has caused more damage than good.” “I think I'm the 5th speaker in this debate who is quoting Andy Burnham because he's right.” “There has been so much damage economically, politically, but most of all for the people in the UK.” “We have seen two decades of division, because that is what demagogues and populists cause, and this is the only thing that they cause damage, pain, scars, broken promises.” “Building unity and a future, they cannot.” “We can, because that is what the European Union has effectively done over the past decades building unity, making friends out of enemies, creating peace instead of war, freedom instead of oppression, prosperity instead of small minded national competition, together with the United Kingdom for many decades, and this unity is worth fighting for, especially now when we have so many lunatics all around the world in power.” “So first, any move closer is a good move, the better.” “We cannot become the enemy of the good in this.” “Whatever we can, we should do, be it Erasmus, be it Horizon, be it the Customs union, you name it.” “Second, of course, you can come back.” “We do not debate this here at all, because we all agree we want the UK back in the European Union, and thirdly, dear friends in the UK, whether you voted for Brexit or not, know this the European Union is not your enemy.” “It has never been and it will never be.” “Brexit was a mistake and to admit that is not a sign of weakness, but it is a sign of strength, and it is a mistake that can be corrected by all of us, so let's do it.” “Thank you very much.” My view: Brexit was sold as a route to greater freedom and prosperity. Instead, it deepened divisions and left people living with the consequences of promises that were never fulfilled. Admitting that Brexit was a mistake is not weakness; it is the first step towards putting things right. The European Union is not perfect, and closer cooperation will not solve every problem. But it has shown the value of countries working together: building peace, shared opportunity and stronger ties between people who were once set against one another. The UK should never have been treated as Europe’s enemy, and Europe should not be treated as ours. Every practical step closer matters, whether through Erasmus, Horizon or a closer trading relationship. But we should not let “the good” become an excuse to avoid discussing what would serve people best. Britain should be able to consider the full range of options, including rejoining the EU. The mistake can be corrected—and there is strength in having the courage to do it.