Stephen Harte

You never stop! 🙂

With every passing day, the decision of Starmer and his cabinet a) not to join the Iranian war b) to delay access to bases looks wiser and wiser. Trump’s press conference last night shows he has no real idea what the objectives are and its duration is arbitrary.

And so we write to brilliant postgraduate students from Sudan, withdrawing the offers and scholarships they won in open competition with the best in the world. A sad day for the University of Oxford.

To build on this, here are the Gallagher Indices for Scottish Parliament elections, from highest to lowest, including the projected index for 2026. Higher = more disproportional.

2026 is projected to be more than twice as disproportional than the avg of the last six Scottish Parliament elections.

The US is widely reported to have hit the Qeshm desalination plant. The response from Iran suggests they may now use the precedent to justify attacks on Gulf plants. Attacking critical civilian infrastructure is a war crime. The Govt must seek an urgent explanation from the US.

Headline: Tony Blair rebukes Starmer for not backing Trump on Iran - saying when US needs help 'you show up'

Servile ghoul

Autocorrect….yes Ross Greer

Been knocking doors for @scotlibdems.org.uk. A lady was happy to vote for us and explained that the SNP and the Greens were “anti-Christian”. I felt honour bound to tell her that SGP co-leader Ross Green is a committed Christian and Church of Scotland member. Think we still have her vote.

And by "unbothered" I mean "positively fucking delighted."

Well said.

You think that’s bad. Have you had the temerity to say something not entirely positive about the SNP online?

Cat (Barbara) sitting on me while I am in bed

Mine wants fed at 5am…..but only when I’m home. When it’s only my other half in the house she knows not to bother trying.

The Welsh have just changed their electoral system. Do you think there could be a cross party agreement to put Indy to one side for a brief moment and have a review of Holyrood that is not focused on powers but rather how it works and how it is elected?

ian huntley is dead. i'll always remember how the british press attempted to incite hatred against the trans community by reporting he was transitioning, then apologised to him for incorrect reporting instead of apologising to trans people

Important to note that the anti-immigrant protest in Edinburgh last night involved a significant number of people *not* from the local area. It is an established tactic of the racist far-right to have well-funded roving teams of instigators to bolster events across the country. Don't be taken in.

We saw this with the recent sexual assault in Paisley, where racist liars spread the idea that the perpetrator was an immigrant. The suspect, who has now been charged, was in fact a local white man. But these people have no interest in organising a rally against white crime, do they. I wonder why.

I see racists have come to Edinburgh to exploit fears and whip up hate following the knife incident in the Calders. Worth noting Scotland sees over 4,000 serious knife crimes a year, the vast majority of which are committed by white people of British ancestry. Don't let the hatemongers mislead you.

What is missing here, particularly in relation to the UK role in the current conflict, is a clear sense of what our interests and objectives are. If there is a lesson from Iraq, it is surely that wars of choice without a clear objective or endpoint are likely to linger with us far beyond the initial moment of intervention. - Alistair Carmichael

"Every bomb that is dropped on Iran – and dropped by Iran on its neighbours – will create ripples that spread far and wide.

The Prime Minister – and those who would cheerlead us into another war in the Middle East – would be wise to reflect upon that legacy."

@amcarmichaelmp.bsky.social

I literally told a labour canvasser in '24 I was voting Lib Dem, knowing it was a wasted vote, because of the policy that trans folks would be segregated in wards.

I think I was the first trans person they'd knowingly met.

A Normal(ish) "passing" trans person who just wanted equal treatment.

Israel is bombarding, literally bombarding, two Middle East capitals, Beirut and Tehran, killing 100s of civilians, and yet the US and UK media continue to portray Iran as the threat to the region.

Israel has nukes, but Iran is the nuclear threat.

We live in Orwellian times.

If I were bringing in the policies against migrants that Mahmood is proposing, I would try to dress less like a high ranking Gestapo officer.

Had this news been six months later, you could see him heading up the NE Reform list.

There are a few unknowns. Lib Dems are projected to pick up one extra highland seat and it could be as many as four extra on a really good day - all without impacting list. Greens picking up constituency seats could do some interesting thins to the list allocation (w/o benefiting SNP).

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reform manifesto includes a commitment to scrap Holyrood.

I can’t see it coming up in the campaign as the voters (beyond sad people like me) don’t get energised by such discussions. The only way it could work is if the SNP/SGP side agree to keep their powder dry on Indy. The fear of a tedious Indy discussion is what would put off other parties.

The Welsh did a review and will be suing a new system. Do you think there could be a cross party review of Holyrood that agreed to put Indy on the back burner and instead concentrate on improving what we have?

Trump is correct: Starmer is no Churchill.
If Starmer were a Churchill, he would be warning the world about Trump and the rise of fascism in the USA and elsewhere.

It’s so weird that not so long ago, like, less than 20 years, the progressive feminist position was gender de-segregation in sport and other male dominated spaces. Then the terfs came along and convinced the mainstream that the most progressive feminist position is that women are weak and feeble.

This is like a dystopian plotline where insider betting leads to a nuclear apocalypse. Feels like the rapid expansion of the betting industry hasn’t been met with adequate regulation.

This is interesting! 🤓
The net favourability of political leaders among voters who voted Labour in 2024:

🟡 Ed Davey +18
🟢 Zack Polanski +12
🔴 Keir Starmer -16
🔵 Kemi Badenoch -65
🔵 Nigel Farage -82