Robin Potter
@robinpotter.bsky.social
Academy Associate, UK in the World Programme @chathamhouse.org. Former Labour staffer and civil servant. Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/robinjpotter
Fond memories of Grant’s appearance at the daily N10 press conference where he encouraged people to write in with any issues on flight refunds and cancellations Cue a deluge of correspondence with officials roped in from all corners of the department and a months long battle to clear the backlog
Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 7d agoTried to explain to my kid what travelling abroad was like in the pandemic and it started “well there was this guy called Grant Shapps,.. every Thursday before your holiday he would post on… this thing called Twitter… his personal account… then you’d cancel your flight”. And you just sound MENTAL.
Also useful to be part of some kind of cross border co-operation on civil emergencies with our nearest neighbours perhaps
EU deploys wildfire support to face multiple fires across Portugal and France
As Europe is fighting wildfires in several Member States, the Commission is swiftly mobilising assistance via the EU civil protection mechanism. France and Portugal have activated the mechanism.
civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu
Hush-Kit aviation news, history & satire@hushkit.bsky.social · last wk.UK will need a strong aerial firefighting force by 2035. Buggerall serious consideration for it yet.
Reform UK donor and Farage ally George Cottrell carried a fake Swiss passport under the name ‘Oscar Drewitt’. Cottrell was hired under the name by the future Reform treasurer Mehrtash A’zami. A’zami later vetted Cottrell’s mother's donations to Reform, now the subject of a police investigation
‘Posh George’, Two Passports, and a Fraudulent Identity: Convicted Fraudster and Nigel Farage Funder's Connections to Reform UK’s Murky Financial Structures
Why did Reform UK change from being a privately-owned company to a non-profit company limited by guarantee in 2025? Nafeez Ahmed investigates a fraudulent identity used by George Cottrell – and how hi...
bylinetimes.com
So much to unpack here. Long on conjecture and short on facts. But anyway here’s that “military-civilian imbalance” and “profligate military”..
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoDefence is the one public budget we dare not question – will Andy Burnham break this cycle? | Andy Beckett
At a press conference on Thursday, the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said the threat from extreme-right wing terrorism was rising and had been a key driver of the decision to raise the national terror threat level from substantial to “severe” in May
More strategic communications from the police on foreign interference by hostile states Good - about time!
Lizzie Dearden@lizziedearden.bsky.social · 3w agoRussia is inflaming the debate on immigration in Britain as part of “increasing ambitions to disrupt our way of life”, counter-terror police and experts say It has directly and indirectly paid right-wing influencers to spread messages that align with its political goals inews.co.uk/news/putin-i...
Russia is inflaming the debate on immigration in Britain as part of “increasing ambitions to disrupt our way of life”, counter-terror police and experts say It has directly and indirectly paid right-wing influencers to spread messages that align with its political goals inews.co.uk/news/putin-i...
How Putin is inflaming immigration tensions to spark disorder in Britain
Counter-terror leaders reveal the tactics Russia is using to sow division in the UK
inews.co.uk
Comms from London’s Met Police on rise of foreign state proxy attacks Inclusion of Starmer arsonists, and reference to ‘El Money’ directly implicates a hostile state - Russia Even if short of legal threshold for attribution, government could still politically attribute - clearly call taken not to
The rise of foreign state proxies: confronting the growing threat facing the UK
YouTube video by Metropolitan Police
youtu.be
Round-up of my recent activity with some extra thoughts over on Substack 👇
Security briefings, defending territories, and national conversations
Hello!
robinjpotter.substack.com
Thinking this myself the other day Little diversity in most of the senior Westminster team
Byline Times@bylinetimes.bsky.social · 4w ago📌 ICYMI — Why has BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme Never Had a Black Editor or Presenter? — Jaldeep Katwala The absence of non-white journalists on the BBC's flagship news programme is not just a symbolic failure – but one of diversity in power, authority, and leadership, writes the director…
Hostile states are targeting the UK's political stability and societal cohesion. Sabotage, intimidation, hostile reconnaissance, cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns are increasing. A new prime minister must inform the public and build a societal response. My latest for @chathamhouse.org 👇
Will the UK’s next prime minister finally have a ‘national conversation’ on defence?
The Defence Investment Plan recommits the UK to a national conversation on defence and security. The failure to deliver one so far undermines public trust and leaves the UK vulnerable to hybrid threat...
chathamhouse.org
Spent years building up a big following on Twitter, essential for publicising my aviation blog, which I live from. Desperate to leave it & publicise on nicer platforms, but I have too few follows. If you want to help me escape, do give this a share. Much obliged. My blog here: hushkit.substack.com
New research by @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social, Jun Du & Xiaocan Yuan highlights how Manchester’s strong productivity growth has been fuelled by attracting high-value foreign investment & channelling it into knowledge-intensive sectors such as digital, R&D & professional services. shorturl.at/rT3SM
Keir Starmer’s time as prime minister has been consumed by foreign affairs. Any new prime minister will face a relentless deluge of international issues and challenges.
Any UK prime minister faces deep foreign policy challenges – whether Starmer, Burnham or another
Whoever is leading the country must deal with a fundamental shift in the UK’s most important relations – with the US and Europe – in an increasingly dangerous world.
bit.ly
Whilst I still can't find any mention of gunfire in the COLREGS as a valid alternative to five blasts on the horn (though god knows many skippers have felt like it), I do have sympathy with any officer of the watch faced with a yachtie who thinks two degrees is "an obvious change of course"
Russian warship fires warning shots near UK-registered yacht in Channel
The retired couple tell BBC Newsnight they tried to show the warship they had changed course in the English Channel before the shots were fired.
bbc.co.uk
Interesting to contrast comms and attribution in defence sphere (John Healey: "Putin, I say this: we see you, we see your activity") vs home affairs (silence) Also a marked contrast to e.g., the Skripal poisoning response Struggle to believe BBC and FT uncovered info that Met and MI5 unaware of!
Rachel Cunliffe@rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 2mo agoI've spoken to several Russia experts over the past year who were very clear the arson attacks on properties associated with Keir Starmer were Russian-based. They talked about “Dark TaskRabbit” - online spaces on the dark web where the Kremlin comissions these sorts of "mischief-making" attacks
a lot of people out there need to take the threat from Russia a LOT more seriously
Josh Spero@joshspero.ft.com · 2mo agoProxies, drones, and collusion with organised crime are now key vectors of asymmetric state threat toward UK and other Western European nations Intimidation of political and military targets, sabotage of critical civilian infrastructure more likely than conventional attacks in a future crisis
Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia
Handler was affiliated with a pro-Kremlin hacktivist group
ft.com
If Keir Starmer leads Labour into the next general election*, a seventeen year old will not be able to use YouTube to watch party political broadcasts and their screen would cut out half an hour into the debates, but they can vote in the election afterwards. *He won't but bear with me
James Ball@jamesrball.com · 2mo agoIt is the official stance of the UK government that you're mature enough at 16 to vote in general elections, but not mature enough to go on YouTube after dark.
I just can’t understand how muddle-brained and/or obviously un-led Government can be as to reach the point where this 17-year old is mature enough to vote on who represents them, but can’t be trusted to stay up making jokes about the result as it comes in.
We are, basically, at war. It might be a grey zone, hybrid version, but it's happening as our chief ally has abandoned us and as our own politics are being manipulated and torn apart by hostile forces. And the PM has lost the confidence of the armed forces.
Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 2mo agoNEW: John Healey quits over defence funding. Devastating letter for the government and Keir Starmer: “You have been unable and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.”
Yes to all of this, but also let's not forget Jeremy Hunt, laying a trap (that Labour shouldn't have walked into) that basically salted the earth and has left the country weaker and less able to defend itself as an electoral gimmick
Twlldun@twlldun.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe pledge not to raise general taxation is basically this government’s original sin and a synecdoche of everything that’s wrong with it - timid, and forced into a series of unpalatable, harmful and unpleasant manoeuvres that please literally nobody because of its timidity.
Since John Healey mentioned the Strategic Review: It is worth repeating that this study warned that the post-war order was desintegrating, &that Britain needed a “whole-of-society approach to defence”. In a normal world this would have triggered a national debate led by the PM. But Starmer didn’t.
Question raised more than once in discussions I've been party to is whether UK's politicians actually believe threat assessments of a possible Russian attack on NATO by 2030 The only explanation for the lack of rearmament, or action to prepare society Appears John does, PM and Chancellor don't
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2mo agoBreaking news: UK defence secretary John Healey has resigned, saying that the government has been 'unwilling' to commit sufficient resources to protecting the country ft.trib.al/MMdGl9e
Potentially illustrative of the relative decline of British power that a foreign businessman can foment unrest and promote the far right yet HMG is unwilling to do more than wag a finger That or they are clueless about the nature of the transnational culture war in which they find themselves
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo agoSir Jeremy Hunt on Newsnight says any politician who seeks to exploit the horrendous Belfast stabbing is "utterly despicable", citing Tommy Robinson. Hunt goes on to say of X's Elon Musk "he is using his money in a totally despicable way to foment problems that he will never have to deal with"
The idea English identity is confined to ethnicity & ancestry is more niche than abolishing monarchy/joining Euro But media elites skew & overcompensate to an imaginary caricature of public = weird assymetry: venerate niches on right as 'authentic' but would lecture progressives about median voter
