David Lidington
@davidlidington.bsky.social
Chair: RUSI, Conservative European Forum, Koenigswinter Conference & Aurora Forum. Trustee, Institute for Govt. History, singing & hill walking enthusiast. Ex-Minister & MP.
A lot of common sense and measured judgements on the future of the Western alliance from @davidlidington.bsky.social in this @rusi.bsky.social podcast with Neil Melvin. A worthwhile listen.
Can the Transatlantic Alliance Survive the Trump Presidency?
Podcast Episode · Global Security Briefing · 21/01/2026 · 57m
podcasts.apple.com
A new moderate centre-right Tory group launched today. Worth looking at the list of supporters including @davidgauke.bsky.social @davidlidington.bsky.social, Ruth Davidson, Malcolm Rifkind &many others known to 1) be quite pro-European 2) have no time for culture wars prosperuk.com/meet-the-team/
Prosper UK - Meet The Team
Prosper UK is bringing people together who share our values, care about the future of the country, and want politics to work better.
prosperuk.com
New UK parliamentary report wants gov to go further with EU but within political red lines, while EU partnership is ranked „alongside US and Commonwealth“. The intro alone is testament to how tight the UK’s room for manoeuvre is. Deserves thorough reading. publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...
From a Common Understanding to Common Ground: Building a UK-EU Strategic Partnership fit for the future
publications.parliament.uk
Could centrist politics finally be making a comeback? Rory talks about the new movement, Prosper UK.
This deserves more attention than it has received. Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working". Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...
Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers
Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.
yorkshirepost.co.uk
A thought as I pondered whether just to pay my tax early this year so I know where I stand. Why doesn’t HMRC incentivise early / over payment of taxes by paying a competitive rate of interest on any monies deposited and advertising this? Surely this would be better than nagging emails?
Darren Jones as CDL plus Chief Sec to PM is a v sensible move designed to secure more effective & energetic cross-departmental implementation of policy. Also means titular DPM is different from the de facto one! V clear signal to Whitehall that Jones speaks with PM's authority
'A video posted on [FB] congratulated whoever "did this to the mosque"...and attracted hundreds of comments expressing anti-Muslim sentiment. But the South Lakes Islamic Centre, which is behind the building's construction, said it had displayed the flags itself, to symbolise "our shared belonging".'
Anand Menon@anandmenon.bsky.social · last yr.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Misperception about UK cases before ECtHR. Judgments against UK are rare. Since 1980, ECtHR found UK decision to extradite or deport would violate ECHR 13 times. 4 of these concerned family life. In respect of UK immigration rules, ECtHR ruled against UK 3 times in 45 years": Oxford Uni research
This is vile. Local guy speaks to Sky News about the impact of asylum seekers protests. Watch what happens and share widely
@jamesrball.com and @writesbright.bsky.social have confirmed they're also banned from this year's Reform UK national conference. They were informed today. So Farage explicitly told Congress that he doesn't ban journalists from Reform events on the exact day that he banned journalists from events.
Democrat @raskin.house.gov excoriates Nigel Farage for banning journalists from Reform UK events: "I'm asking you a direct question. Why do you ban journalists who oppose your views from coming to your events? Why did you tell local government not to do interviews with your local newspaper?"
2 September 1582: Mary queen of Scots, at Sheffield, has now learned of events in Scotland. She writes two letters to the French ambassador in England, Castelnau, one rather dull one mainly about her business affairs, and another recently deciphered one about the Raid; clearly ... 1/ #earlymodern
Deciphering Mary Stuart’s lost letters from 1578-1584
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
tandfonline.com
Trenchant & sobering analysis of UK's record in Afghanistan by army veteran @edrusi.bsky.social @rusi.bsky.social
Ed Arnold@edrusi.bsky.social · last yr.After 2 tours and seven years' focused solely on Afghanistan, this was a hard piece to write. I think it is very important to reflect on past failures so they can be avoided. Especially as Coalition of the Willing planning ramps up. www.rusi.org/explore-our-...
Elon Musk is a radicalised extremist openly championing the most racist faction who would deport the Foreign Secretary, the Leader of the Opposition, the Justice Secretary and the last Prime Minister The govt silence about such a level of extremism is craven: infinite tolerance of racial hatred
That PX report on the Good Friday Agreement is breathtakingly disingenous. Just waves away all the immense political and practical problems with a bunch of semantic obfuscation.
The big question the media haven't noticed or started to ask is why none of the trouble & disorder in summer 2025 (most of the sporadic disorder is in London suburbs & southeast Epping, Cheshunt, Hillingdon/Heathrow, Canary Wharf) & v little protest of any scale is where riots happened a year ago
Angry at insinuations that judges who granted or overturned Epping injunction were politically biased. I've known both Cons & Lab lawyers who've become judges. Whatever their previous politics they take seriously their judicial oath to do justice without fear or favour
PODCAST 🎙️ Starmer and Macron: Le spécial relationship? Former Europe minister @davidlidington.bsky.social joins the podcast team to assess the state of UK–French relations. PLUS: The Leveson review of criminal courts and the new bill on devolution www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/insi...
Starmer and Macron: Le spécial relationship? | Institute for Government
Former Europe minister David Lidington joins the podcast team to assess the state of UK–French relations.
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
Happy to share some great news! I just started a new job - with Helsing, the AI Defence Company. Helsing is at the forefront of the fight to develop the emerging defence tech we need to deter authoritarian threats & compete long term by attaining tech leadership. helsing.ai
Helsing | Artificial intelligence to protect our democracies
Artificial intelligence to protect our democracies.
helsing.ai
We take tariffs on our beautiful Heard Island very seriously. We will be consulting all mammals and flightless birds and will make an announcement in the near future detailing our response. #heardisland #tariff #mcdonaldisland #trumptariff
No, Britain did not get off lightly in the Trump tariffs. And no, it is not much of a vindication of Brexit. Or at the least seeing it is an economic dividend is to conveniently look away from the more substantial economic costs. New writing from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
No, Britain has not escaped lightly from Trump's tariffs
And it is not a very convincing vindication of Brexit.
open.substack.com
In my latest for @alphaville.ft.com I discuss why the new Trump tariff measures are a recipe for … crime! (Yes, I’m writing about rules of origin again.) on.ft.com/44cO71p Trump’s new rules (of origin)
Trump’s new rules (of origin)
It ain’t where you’re at, it’s where you’re from
on.ft.com
NEW: The leaders of every major political party in Greenland have united in a joint statement against Trump. "We cannot accept the repeated statements about annexation & control of Greenland. We find this behavior unacceptable. “Greenland is one country that everyone wants to stand behind." 🇬🇱🇩🇰
Trump on NATO: "If the United States was in trouble and we called them. We said, 'We got a problem, France.' Do you think they're gonna come and protect us? Hmm. They're supposed to. I'm not so sure." (Literally the only time NATO Article 5 was invoked was after 9/11 on behalf of the US.)
She is giving regular master classes on political communication and crisis management, and I hope global leaders are taking notes. The pitch perfect substance and tone match her policy posture of being willing to work with Trump, but on condition of mutual respect and honesty.
PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · 2y agoMexico President: 🇲🇽 "US Customs and Border Protection data show that 80% of those arrested for fentanyl trafficking at US ports of entry were US citizens" #cdnpoli
