Author, and former Daily Mirror/Express/Star sports reporter. My book “The Great Adventure” still available from Pitch Publishing. All views are mine.
Joined November 2009
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Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
What a sad little post.
The queen of diplomatic dressing! Kate dons green Alexander McQueen coat to welcome Sultan of Oman in a nod to the country's flag - and also honours Diana with a 160-year-old brooch trib.al/YI0NtRb
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
He wanted to be PM in order to be PM. He didn’t expect there to be work. His narcissism persuaded him we would all love living under him & laughing at his ‘jokes’. He was a perfect, one-man argument for the abolition of Eton.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
We're told by politicians, we must all be prepared for war, we all must make sacrifices and times are hard for us all.....meanwhile 👇
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
I don't think Matt Hancock was too bothered that his covid decisions were killing old people. He had his hands full at the time...
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Life President Ken Friar OBE.
Since our formation in 1886, there have been many inspirational individuals who have driven our club forward, but no one has had an influence on Arsenal Football Club quite like ‘Mr Friar’ and he leaves an extraordinary life of service to the club as his legacy. One that will surely never be matched.
Rest in peace ❤️
ALT Image of Ken Friar OBE to commemorate his life with the following text: It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Life President Ken Friar OBE. Since our formation in 1886, there have been many inspirational individuals who have driven our club forward, but no one has had an influence on Arsenal Football Club quite like ‘Mr Friar’ and he leaves an extraordinary life of service to the club as his legacy. One that will surely never be matched. Rest in peace.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
When it was either Johnson (the clown) or Corbyn, the BBC decisively chose Johnson. When it was Scottish independence the BBC chose ‘no’.
The BBC is NOT impartial when something (in its statist, English, upper middle class view) is at stake. If you think otherwise you’re not paying attention.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
The free bottle of milk on every British school desk was put there by a 4ft 10 redhead from a Manchester slum, who was dead within 6 months of doing it.
Ellen Wilkinson grew up in Ardwick in the 1890s, in a house with no bath, and caught every illness going. She got out on scholarships. By 1935 she was MP for Jarrow, a shipbuilding town where the yard had shut and 7 men in 10 had no work.
She had seen what that did to the children. They were small, bow-legged and grey. In 1936 she walked with 200 of their fathers from Jarrow to London, nearly 300 miles, to hand in a petition. The Prime Minister would not see them.
In 1945 she was made Minister of Education. She had one thing she wanted above the rest. The Treasury told her the country was bankrupt and it could not be afforded.
In August 1946 a third of a pint of full cream milk became free for every schoolchild in Britain, every day, whatever their parents earned.
That winter was the worst of the century. Her ministry had no coal. She worked in her overcoat with bronchitis, and on 6 February 1947 she was found dead in her flat, aged 55.
She never saw a single class of those children grow up. They turned out the tallest and straightest generation the country had ever produced.
If you drank it, warm, through a paper straw, you were her life's work.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
Today, the Met has submitted all files to the Crown Prosecution Service for charging decisions relating to the Grenfell Tower fire.
This marks a significant milestone in the investigation into the tragedy that claimed 72 lives, and we have updated the bereaved, survivors and residents.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
About a year ago I changed my Twitter settings only allowing replies from people I follow and the ones they follow because this place had become a cesspit of hate and vile language.
Today I opened up replies and wow 🤮
Below is a selection of the level of “engagement” on this platform.
I presume most are state sponsored bots- because surely no sane human being can be this bitter and twisted 👇🏽
Happy Monday people
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
UPDATE: BBC Sport cutting 41 jobs (5 new roles) and will focus on "most-read" stories on website using audience data.
Will cause concern for those who believe should have broader coverage of sport.
NEW: BBC to axe sports bulletins and tell staff they may have to reapply for jobs. Some cuts to staff numbers.
thetimes.com/sport/football/…
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
Chris Balderstone of Carlisle United
On 15 Sept 1975 he batted for Leicestershire against Derbyshire scored 51 n.o., drove to Yorkshire, got changed in his car, scored for Doncaster in their 1-1 draw with Brentford, drove back to Chesterfield and completed his century the next day
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
I’ve lost confidence in billionaires
Billionaire Man United owner says he has lost confidence in the UK bbc.in/3Vo0FAF
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
If only we had as many articles citing British people fed up with billionaires as we do billionaires fed up with Britain.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
Former hedge fund manager Crispin Odey losses appeal and is banned from City for life and fined £1.53 million bit.ly/4Ab4lWv
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
Imagine discovering that, while you were fighting for answers about your son’s death, a government minister was discussing how to isolate you.
That is what happened to me.
In 2024, I was shown WhatsApp messages reportedly sent by Nadine Dorries to Matt Hancock while I was campaigning for a statutory public inquiry into mental-health deaths in Essex.
One message read:
“We aren’t going there… I’m picking off the other families and speaking to them one by one to get them on side to isolate her.”
I was “her”.
I was a bereaved mother asking the Government to investigate how my 20-year-old son, Matthew Leahy, died while detained in an NHS mental-health unit.
During the parliamentary debate on 30 November 2020, Nadine Dorries also stated that Matthew had taken his own life. Barbara Keeley MP immediately challenged this because Matthew’s inquest returned an open narrative verdict and I did not accept that account. Hansard was later formally corrected to say that Matthew “died by hanging while he was in the care of the NHS”.
After more than 105,000 people supported my petition, the Government established only a non-statutory inquiry—without the power to compel witnesses to give evidence. It eventually became unworkable because of poor staff cooperation and was not converted into a statutory inquiry until 2023.
No bereaved mother seeking the truth should ever be viewed as someone to be isolated, managed or silenced.
I was not the problem.
I was exposing the problem.
I am still here. I am still asking questions. And I will continue fighting for truth, accountability and safer mental-health services.
For Matthew—and for every family who deserves answers.
#MatthewsCampaign #LampardInquiry #MentalHealthReform #PatientSafety #Accountability #JusticeForMatthew
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
This time, four years ago, Very Smart People all knew that Liz Truss was Obviously a Very Good Politician. Press send.
Tony Banks 💙 retweeted
Published today and available in all good bookshops or so I'm told!
geni.us/TheBoyWithTheKnapsac…
