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 ✈️🚁

Surreal interview with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia - the company whose chips power much of today’s AI. He says he doesn’t think it matters if children forget basic maths. I love AI as much as the next person, but the head of an AI company arguing that children don’t need the skills to question AI should worry us all.

Fiona Bruce, "Rejoining the EU doesn't cost us nothing" #BBCQT "We used to pay £7.5 billion to the EU" "There are estimates ranging from £20 billion a year to £40 billion a year" My view: Fiona Bruce is right about one thing: EU membership did not cost nothing. The UK’s net contribution was roughly £7–7.5bn a year once you deduct our rebate and the EU funding returned to British farmers, regions, universities, businesses and public services. But she then cites “estimates” of £20bn–£40bn a year as though they are the cost of rejoining. They are not. No one can honestly give a definitive annual price for rejoining because the terms would have to be negotiated.

Pope Leo praises France for "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" "These are not just words we see on monuments, but it's also a commitment to universal values, rooted in the gospel" "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed here in Paris.. Creating a general consciousness of inalienable rights to dignity" "Others said this document was a prayer on the path to progress for humanity" My view: Pope Leo’s praise for liberté, égalité, fraternité matters because it rejects the idea that universal rights, compassion and faith are competing values. Dignity is not conditional on nationality, wealth, race, religion, sexuality or whether someone is politically convenient. The Universal Declaration was born from a Europe that had seen what happens when human beings are ranked as more or less worthy. Progress is not abandoning those values when they become difficult. It is defending them, at home and abroad, and making them real in people’s lives.

You know the joke: “Find someone who looks at Mamdani the way Trump looks at Mamdani.” We can now add: find someone who looks at the Pope the way Macron looks at the Pope. And honestly, it’s lovely to see Macron smiling like the Cheshire Cat 😁

At yesterday’s Holborn and St Pancras Jewish community hustings, Zack Polanski said, “I am an anti-Zionist.” Keir Starmer, who formerly held the seat, said, “I support Zionism without qualification.” That difference is another reason I want Polanski to win the by-election. Polanski says the word “Zionism” means different things to different people. He opposes Palestinian displacement and what he describes as genocide in Gaza. His criticism is directed at the actions of the Israeli state, not at Jewish people. British Jewish communities must be able to live openly and safely, attend synagogue, send their children to school and express their views without fear. No Jewish person in Britain should be blamed, threatened or made to answer for the policies of Israel’s government. Antisemitism, like Islamophobia, or any other form of discrimination must be confronted wherever it appears. I want a just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians can both live safely and prosper. The Greens have backed a two-state solution, and Polanski has said the people affected should shape their own future.

Lady in green, "With Canada and the EU forging closer ties. Is now the time for the Uk to rejoin the EU within the next ten years?" #BBCQT My view: On the economy, the OBR estimates Brexit will leave UK trade around 15% lower in the long run than if we had remained in the EU. Less trade and lower productivity mean a smaller economy than otherwise - less income, less tax revenue and less money for households and public services. On trade, the EU is still our biggest nearby market. Fewer barriers would make it easier and cheaper to buy, sell and invest across Europe. On politics, Britain is affected by EU decisions whether inside or outside. Membership would mean having a vote in shaping them. On security and defence, the UK and EU already cooperate on Ukraine, sanctions, cyber threats and defence. Closer integration could deepen that. On people, freedom of movement would restore easier opportunities to live, work, study and retire across Europe. That 15% trade hit is not abstract: a weaker economy means less money to spend, invest and fund services.

The Conservatives want to restrict people on benefits from buying alcohol. Yet they’re uninterested in restricting the cheaper alcohol sold in Parliament’s bars and restaurants. Why is one use of public money treated as morally unacceptable while the other is apparently fine?

Josh Babarinde, "It's one thing to protest, it is another thing to intimidate and abuse our volunteer lifeboat crews" "These are people who put their lives on the line for us. And anyone who gets in their way is pathetic, patriotic, and unBritish" My view: The right to protest is fundamental in a democracy, including the right to oppose government immigration and asylum policy. But that right does not extend to intimidating, abusing, threatening or obstructing volunteer lifeboat crews who are trying to save lives. Direct your criticism at the politicians making those decisions, not at volunteers responding to people in danger at sea. And a huge thank you to the RNLI volunteers who keep turning out, often in difficult and dangerous conditions, to save lives without fear or favour.

Jonathan Reynolds, "I agree that we have a situation where too many people are going onto long term sickness benefits" #BBCQT My view: Jonathan Reynolds complains that too many people are ending up on long-term sickness benefits, but COVID is part of that story. ONS found that people reporting long COVID 30–39 weeks after infection had 45.5% higher odds of being economically inactive than before infection, rising to 71.2% among 50–64-year-olds. Long COVID can also contribute to fatigue, breathing problems, neurological symptoms, pain and mental-health difficulties, conditions that increasingly show up among people too ill to work. It isn’t the sole cause, but it is an important and probably undercounted one. Yet Labour’s autumn 2026 vaccine programme in England is limited mainly to over-75s, care-home residents and immunosuppressed people, while there is still no comprehensive clean-indoor-air programme. If ministers want fewer people on sickness benefits, they need to stop treating illness only after it happens. Repeated COVID infections mean repeated opportunities for long-term harm. Prevention - vaccination, cleaner indoor air and reducing transmission - has to be part of the answer.

Helen Whateley explaining the Conservative's latest policy idea of restricting purchases of cigarettes and alcohol for people on benefits on #BBCQT "Supermarkets can have a code which stops people from purchasing a particular (item)" then cites "Aspen cards used by failed asylum seekers" My view: Helen Whately says supermarkets can use a code to stop people buying particular items, then cites ASPEN cards as proof. But ASPEN cards don’t work like that. They’re used by asylum seekers as well as some failed asylum seekers, and their restrictions largely work by merchant type — for example blocking certain categories of business — not by identifying individual products in a supermarket basket. There is currently no ASPEN mechanism that simply spots cigarettes or alcohol among someone’s groceries and refuses those items at the till. And we’re talking about support of around £49 a week, which has to cover basics such as food, clothing and toiletries. So Whately cites an existing system that doesn’t actually do what she says her proposal would do. To make this work, supermarkets would need product-level restrictions, new checkout systems and staff dealing with disputes over what people are allowed to buy. After 14 years of Conservative crackpot ideas in government, here’s another one - this time from opposition.

Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, "The Bank of England was set up by Tony Blair" My view: The Bank of England was founded in 1694, during the reign of William III and Mary II. It was created primarily to raise money for the government’s war against France. A group of investors lent the government £1.2 million, and in return they were incorporated as the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, with the right to conduct banking business. It was originally a private bank, not a government department. It was only nationalised in 1946, and it was granted operational independence over UK interest rates in 1997.

Good morning, happy Friday ☺️

Helen Whateley, daughter of a surgeon (father) and physician (mother), who attended private schools and then Oxford university, "When I was younger, I worked as a waitress, I worked as a cleaner, I did all sorts, being a receptionist, they were not my dream job, but they were a way of earning some money" My view: Whately’s work mattered, but presenting it as a moral lesson for young people is deeply disingenuous. She was the daughter of two doctors, privately educated and Oxford-educated: a young person with a considerable safety net and exceptional access to opportunity. Her experience of taking temporary jobs cannot be used to accuse today’s young people, facing scarce entry-level vacancies, insecure hours, unaffordable rents, ill health and far fewer routes into Europe, of laziness. Anecdotes from a privileged starting point are no substitute for a serious plan to create decent opportunities.

Josh Babarinde, "The Conservatives cut student grants, cut youth centres, cut access to work, live and play in Europe, now they want to cut their benefits" "They way you help young people into employment isn't by punishing them, its by investing in them" #BBCQT My view: Young people have been handed fewer opportunities at every stage: less support to study, fewer safe places to go, weaker routes into work and fewer chances to build a life beyond Britain’s borders. Now the Conservatives’ answer is to remove the small amount of security left. Britain should be backing young people with skills, jobs, housing and hope, not punishing them for the failures of the country they inherited.

Andrew Neil, "The big problem we face is 6.7 million adults of working, who aren't working, and living on out of work benefits" #BBCQT My view: Andrew Neil’s 6.7 million figure is real, but it does not mean 6.7 million people are able to work and choosing benefits. Of those 6.7 million, 4.6 million, 68%, are not required to look for work, mainly because they are ill, disabled or caring for young children. Of the remaining 2.2 million, many have health conditions that limit what work they can do. Only 71,000 are on Jobseeker’s Allowance. So using the 6.7 million total to imply Britain is full of workshy people is simply wrong.

Labour's Jonathan Reynolds slams Conservative Helen Whately on #BBCQT "Frankly there's no evidence to suggest that unemployed people spend all their money on fags and booze" "It's just a way of you saying you don't like poor people" My view: Whately shakes her head in disagreement, but why else would a party be so cruel to those in need if not because it sees poverty as a moral failure? There is no evidence that people on unemployment support are frittering it away on “fags and booze”. It is a tired stereotype used to make cuts sound virtuous. Benefits are already too low for many people to cover food, rent, heating and basic dignity, and as the cost-of-living crisis deepens, those cuts will mean even more hardship. Is this really the country we want to be: one that responds to people in need by making them suffer even more?

Ash Sarkar, "Every time we've had these squeezes on welfare recipients, what we've actually seen, rather than dealing with issues like long-term unemployment, is an increase in child poverty, and in-work poverty as well" "Half of all NEETs are not receiving welfare of any kind.. There's a crisis of opportunity and a crisis of purpose" "There are 140 applicants for the average graduate job opportunity.. That's the worse it has been since 1991" "It's up to successive governments that have failed to create opportunities for young people in this country" My view: It's been around 10% for decades Britain cannot punish its way into prosperity. If work is meant to be the route out of poverty, it must be available, secure, accessible and pay enough to live on. For too long, governments have responded to economic failure by blaming those locked out of opportunity. The real solution is investment in decent jobs, skills, healthcare, mental-health support and affordable homes, not cutting support and pretending hardship is an employment policy.

Conservative Helen Whately, "Our welfare bill is out of control.. We can't afford it.. We have a problem of long term unemployed.. Living a life on welfare" #BBCQT My view: Whately wrongly bundles pensions, disability support and unemployment together as “welfare”. Over half of the £323bn total goes to pensioners, including £146bn for the state pension. Much of the rise is due to an ageing population and the triple lock—not people choosing benefits over work. PIP is not an out-of-work benefit: it covers the extra costs of disability, and around one in six claimants works. In fact, 5.6 million disabled people are already in work. The real issue is why disabled people face a 29-point employment gap: NHS delays, poor mental-health support, long-term illness and employers failing to make workplaces accessible. Cutting support will not cure illness or create jobs.

BBC News, "A few years ago.. Labour would be expected to win comfortably.. But the Greens have been eating away at their vote" Zack Polanski, "I don't see this as a test for my leadership because this is a safe Labour seat since 1983" "Voting Green in Holborn & St Pancras is a vote to reduce the cost of housing, reduce people's bills, putting more money into people's pockets" My view: I’m supporting Zack Polanski because this was Keir Starmer’s supposedly safe seat, until he used it to reach No 10, then abandoned the people who repeatedly elected him despite promising he would not stand down. A Green win would be a deserved embarrassment for Starmer and a warning to Labour: you cannot take progressive voters for granted, break promises, dilute action on housing, bills and inequality, then expect loyalty on demand. Voting Green is a protest, but a purposeful one: backing Polanski’s case for lower housing costs, lower bills and a government that puts more money and power back in people’s hands.