James Ball (@jamesrbuk) / X

James Ball

1,676 posts

James Ball

@jamesrbuk

London

jamesrball.com

Born March 12

Joined May 2009

James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Sep 3, 2025
Nigel Farage just repeatedly denied – under oath! – to @RepRaskin ever banning journalists he doesn’t like from his party’s conventions. This happened to me *literally today*.
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Sep 3, 2025
Nigel Farage is about to give evidence to the US Congress about threats to free speech in the UK. Ironically, his political party has just banned me – an accredited UK journalist – from attending its party conference this week. So…is Nigel Farage pro-free speech, or not?
473K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Mar 4, 2025
Hard to overstate quite how badly this kind of comment goes down with US allies in Europe – whose own troops fought and died in America’s wars, not least those that followed the USA triggering NATO article 5 after 9/11.
Antonello Guerrera
@antoguerrera
Mar 4, 2025
Bad news for Starmer and Macron. Vance confirms the only US security guarantee in Ukraine will be the mineral deal. He also plays down British & French peacekeeping troops as “20k troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
JD Vance
00:00
JD Vance
162K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Sep 3, 2025
Nigel Farage is about to give evidence to the US Congress about threats to free speech in the UK. Ironically, his political party has just banned me – an accredited UK journalist – from attending its party conference this week. So…is Nigel Farage pro-free speech, or not?
748K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Mar 22, 2025
Let’s leave aside actually reforming the structure of council tax. It is absolutely *astounding* that in 2025 we have a tax based on home values in *1991*. That’s 34 years of governments who won’t even just do a basic revaluation. It’s just outrageous political cowardice.
Paul Johnson
@PJTheEconomist
Mar 22, 2025
Another scandal that govts of all colours have lacked courage to tackle. Council tax is outdated, regressive, and grossly unfair to those living in poorer regions and in cheaper properties. It needs updating and making proportional to current value thetimes.com/article/642218…
164K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Feb 12, 2025
This is the biggest shift in US foreign policy since 1945. It'll probably barely make the front pages.
Mike Martin MP 🔸
@ThreshedThought
Feb 12, 2025
🚨End of an Era 🚨 “I’m …. here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe,” US Secretary of Defence, 12th Feb 2025
115K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Mar 21, 2025
Lockheed Martin stock dropped about 6% the moment Trump said this.
Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦
@jurgen_nauditt
Mar 21, 2025
We will sell simplified versions of aircraft to our allies, because they may cease to be our allies, — Trump
36K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Mar 2, 2025
Probably not the main topic here but it’s been *decades* since the best curries in London were to be found on Brick Lane…
Politics UK
@PolitlcsUK
Mar 2, 2025
🚨 NEW: London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he wants to take Donald Trump for a 'good curry on Brick Lane' to show 'the joys of London's diversity' on his state visit [@LBC]
140K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Jan 28, 2025
The golden rule of local government is pretty much “don’t fuck with bins”.
Calgie
@christiancalgie
Jan 27, 2025
It's almost impressive how consistently shit Green Party-led local councils are. And how quickly it takes for everything to go to shit. Is it genetic somehow?
60K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Feb 18, 2025
Once spent nine hours waiting in Moorfields Eye Hospital because my referral slip had fallen out of the relevant in-tray, with the heavy implication that my not knowing/noticing this was somehow to blame for it. (I was, at the time, unable to see).
Lucy Easthope
@LucyGoBag
Feb 18, 2025
Replying to @LucyGoBag
One profound difference between private and NHS care is that I am never victim blamed when private. Today they have just told me off for choosing a seat that’s a little further away from the reception which apparently has meant they did not notice me until now….
81K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Apr 6, 2025
Allowing student loan repayments to kick in at the minimum wage is an absolutely disastrous bit of treasury brain – needing to find a few billion to balance a spreadsheet. Totally destroys the logic of sharing in the earnings upside of a degree, if you get it.
Tom Calver
@TomHCalver
Apr 6, 2025
🧵 NEW: The erosion of the graduate premium The minimum wage is now £25k on a 40-hour week. From next year, £25k is also the threshold for repaying new student loans There are many good reasons to go to uni - but does it still pay in the financial sense? 1/8
68K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Mar 31, 2025
The country might be more functional if the government stopped setting policy priorities based on tv shows. If nothing else, it guarantees they’ll be years behind where they should be even on the issues they actually tackle.
Politics UK
@PolitlcsUK
Mar 31, 2025
🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer will host an ‘Adolescene’ roundtable today with the creators of the Netflix drama, a group of charities and young people
29K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Feb 14, 2025
Skipping a meeting with the serving political leader of a conference’s host nation (an ally, to boot) to meet their far-right opponent is a very public statement for a vice-president to make. It can’t help but be noticed across Europe.
Tom Nuttall
@tom_nuttall
Feb 14, 2025
The German press reports that JD Vance met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel after his speech in Munich today. (Vance refused to meet Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor.)
43K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Feb 20, 2025
This is a pretty astonishing result.
YouGov
@YouGov
Feb 20, 2025
Britons tend to say it is more important to support Ukraine than to maintain good relations with the US More important to support Ukraine: 48% More important to maintain good relations with the US: 20% Neither: 14%
43K
James Ball
@jamesrbuk
Feb 6, 2025
The government’s line on this is raising a *lot* of eyebrows among people who know the ITU (international telecoms union), which is an organisation that moves glacially slowly and through consensus. And which can’t magically shut off access to the spectrum anywhere on earth.
Alex Wickham
@alexwickham
Feb 6, 2025
NEW: Keir Starmer’s spokesman says: “The electromagnetic spectrum at the Diego Garcia base would not be able to continue to operate without a deal. This system enables secure communications in the region. It's something that the UK and the US have currently got unique access to,
28K