Guardian: "Initially it was believed the strike came just hours after Starmer had announced UK had allowed US to use Brit military bases to attack Iranian missile sites. But an MoD assessment found it happened before the PM's announcement." Dunno if that clarifies but am ending my end of this thread
Yep.
That's a parody news site.
Staggers nicks my headline 🙄
Starmer no Churchill? Well, Trump is definitely no FDR. Only a few months ago this draft-dodger besmirched the UK's fallen servicemen and women. Shame on those voices in the British media who are taking his side over their own government's.
An RAF base was bombed. No responsible PM can ignore that. But Starmer rightly refused to join the blitzing of Iran's schools and hospitals. Sad these events are misrepresented by right-wing media determined to oust Labour from government and replace it with fascist ReformUK. Starmer's our best bet.
In my view, as a layman,Trump has broken international law, and the conventions of U.S. governance. Starmer is different. He is legally defending UK citizens and assets.
I taught journalism at City St George's, University of London and Bedfordshire University. I led media ethics modules and have a PhD in psychoanalytic studies. But I'm no lawyer. Are you? Interestingly most of the flak Starmer is getting is for not joining the Bibi/Trump war on Iran from the get-go.
Self-explanatory.
Obviously.
He did the opposite.
Making the right calls in the right order. Being calm and decisive. Not sending our forces out to risk their lives on an illegal premise, yet still protecting UK citizens in the region. Being truthful, dignified and principled. Attending to nuance, diplomacy and the law. All that boring old stuff.
Anybody who reckons that any of the proposed replacements for Sir Keir Starmer - inside or outside the Labour Party - would do half as good a job of steering the UK through the current geopolitical crisis is kidding themselves.
Facts are fact. Words mean what they mean whatever you and skewed commentators choose to read into them.
There is no shame in delaying the proposed equalisation in response to feedback. And I did 'try it' a lot before I became an indentured trainee reporter about 1,000 years ago 😉
A delay isn't a u-turn.
@mrjamesob.bsky.social Please do not call reported changes to Starmer proposals to equalise minimum wage for youngsters 'a u-turn'. It is a sensible adjustment in the light of emerging facts. No shame in it, as there wasn't in so many misreported Labour adjustments.
Great book. I've listened to it four times. It's accessible and authoritative. Hard trick to pull off.
@mrjamesob.bsky.social Once again the Government has allowed a fase narrative to dominate news. Starmer had not 'prevented local election', he allowed councils to postpone them. Tory-run Suffolk County Council will now spend millions on May elections knowing it will be abolished next year. Madness.
Great analysis by superb multilingual journalist Katya Adler: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Agreed.
Looks like Manchester's Gorton and Denton Parliamentary by-election on February 26 could be a closer three-way split than most shouty commentators would have us think 🤔
Polly back on track. I disagreed with her last piece about Keir www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
pressgazette.co.uk/news/kelvin-... Shock horror! Two journo giants who both influenced my career and enraged people in different ways.
@pronouncedalva.bsky.social Magical thinking applied to replacing Starmer by voices I respect. If unlikely 81 Labour MPs publically call for contest: Streeting won constituency by 500 votes so too big a risk. Rayner & non-MP Burnham would scare too many horses to win for Lab. Mahmood? Don't think so
Sadly, it's not just the poorly informed. I've heard centrist US voices I respect take the UK's 'lack of freedom of speech' and 'endemic street crime' as a given. It shows that if the zone is flooded thoroughly enough it permeates public sphere's bedrock and infects all discourse. Very disturbing.
Yep. Labour won popular vote by almost a full one per cent in its 1951 defeat. Fun fact: Churchill never won a general election popular vote.
DMGT should now be allowed to buy the Telegraph. They are a natural fit who, frankly, deserve each other. And, in this age of media behemoths and dwindling newspaper sales, they do not comprise a dangerous monopoly.
