Steve Darrell

Our cover this week. Says it all

Now don't complain, he has "concepts of a plan" you know.

"Kill them all. God will know his own." Nice to know they're taking the Albigensian crusade and the Thirty Years' War as learning experiences.

YouTube video by Jonathan Pie WAR in IRAN

WAR in IRAN.
Tickets to see my new live show at: JonathanPie.com

youtu.be/iAcgIMDQsog?...

SWANSEA: Child sent home for being drunk after coming to school as Dylan Thomas for World Book Day A Swansea primary school has confirmed an eight-year-old was sent home this morning after appearing to be drunk while attending World Book Day dressed as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The child, who arr…

'the pupil announced he was “working on something important about Swansea” before lying on the playground tarmac to “feel the rhythm of the town”.

...explained to a confused Year 3 class that the sea was “restless and unforgiving”.

#WorldBookDay

dailyswansea.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/s...

1/
Fox News praised US “AI superweapons” allegedly used in Iran.

But the footage they aired shows Ukraine’s STING interceptor drone, developed by Ukrainian engineers from the @WildHornets.blusky team.

Ukraine noticed quickly.
www.kyivpost.com/post/71361%E...

The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.

🧵 1/5

Qatar warns war will force Gulf to stop energy exports within weeks Gas producer says it will take ‘weeks to months’ to restore deliveries after Iranian drone strike

This is not only a response to circumstances but a major bid by Qatar to pressure the USA to end hostilities ( 🎁)

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Qatar warns war will force Gulf to stop energy exports within weeks

Anyone who wants Britain to join the war in Iran needs their head examined They don't know what they want to achieve, why they're doing it or what the consequences might be. They are lost in the void.

Anyone who wants Britain to join the war in Iran needs their head examined open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

We paid an ex-Tory MP to lobby for our fake Chinese firm - and authorities did nothing Investigation finds no rules were broken. It just goes to show how few rules there are.

Last week, UK lobbying regulator closed investigation into ex Tory MP Ben Howlett

We offered Howlett money to work for a fake Chinese investor. He introduced us to a dozen Labour MPs

Regulator didn't even speak to us. Our system is broken

New, by me: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/we-paid-an...

🛢️ Russia is currently benefiting from situation on the Middle East. The price of Russian Urals oil has risen sharply to $70 per barrel.

Russian budget for 2026 sets the price of oil at $59 per barrel. Reuters noted, for Russian budget to become deficit-free, price of oil must exceed $90 per barrel.

Nissan warns of Sunderland closure if UK excluded from ‘Made in Europe’ rules EU proposals presented on Wednesday require vehicles for corporate fleets and small EVs to be assembled within the bloc

Nissan Sunderland production only running at 30% capacity + Nissan has been shutting down plants even in Japan, so this is not an empty threat. Nissan warns of Sunderland closure if UK excluded from ‘Made in Europe’ rules - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

If there is evidence of irregularities at some polling stations at the Gorton and Denton byelection, then that evidence should be properly and promptly investigated in accordance with due process by the proper authorities. And that is what is being done. Any denunciations of the election result should thereby await the result of this process. The losing party spokesperson candidly admitted the day after the election that any irregularities were not enough to have affected the result, which was emphatic. But this did not prevent the losing party’s leader from loudly promoting grave allegations of sectarian voting, corruption and dishonesty. Yet if the irregularities are not upheld on investigation as invalidating the result, it is unlikely that those findings will be shouted about. And such a response is irresponsible. Parts of the United Kingdom have a history of sectarian violence. Parts of the United Kingdom have histories of racial tension. Responsible politicians should not exploit such allegations for partisan advantage. Making such allegations is to play with fire, literally. Responsible politicians should be careful to avoid subverting the very fundamentals on which a functioning democracy rests. Such “poisoning of the wells” is familiar to those following the politics of the United States, and it lay behind the lethal violence that took place in Washington DC on 6th January 2021.

New

The poisoning of the wells

Why discrediting election results without waiting for due process is unhealthy for a democracy

This week's Weekly Constitutional by me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

"President Trump presented this as a historic generational opportunity but it's actually looking like a historic generational disaster."

Sanam Vakil (@chmenap.bsky.social) joined the BBC's Jeremy Bowen to discuss the impact of the US-Israel military strikes on the people of Iran, via BBC News.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

"Churchill was well aware that wars and interventions could produce unintended consequences. Reflecting on his experiences as a young officer during the Boer war, he later wrote that once the signal for conflict was given, statesmen lost control of events. War became subject to “malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations”. This was not the sentiment of a pacifist. But it was the observation of someone who had seen how quickly political decisions could unleash forces that no government could fully control."

"Churchill observed that war, once unleashed, rarely follows the tidy paths imagined by those who start it. That warning may be as relevant as any of his more famous phrases."

Good piece by @richardtoye.bsky.social on Churchill analogies and Trump's war on Iran.

Reform are in denial about why they lost by 12% in Gorton & Denton (60% white, 80% UK-born) after losing by 11% in Caerphilly (98% white, 98% UK-born) to Plaid Cyrmu

Both seats unusual in seeing more people vote than at last Welsh Senedd/last GE: more voters turned out to stop Reform than supoort

'Operation Epic Fury – as it happened' Donald Trump takes on the world and loses - as imagined by Henry Morris

💥EXCLUSIVE

💥Operation Epic Fury...

💥AS IT HAPPENED

12:14pm

Karoline Leavitt addresses concerns that Donald Trump doesn’t have a long-term strategic plan by announcing that David Hasselhoff will be Iran’s next Supreme Leader.

www.thenewworld.co.uk/henry-morris...

Sun headline about £500k compensation for migrants, discussing human rights, and public outcry over payouts.

Did you see this headline?

Did you feel the requisite anger and rage at asylum seekers that The Sun was asking of you?

Did you maybe blame Starmer because.... um... it was probably his fault🤷‍♀️

Would you like to know the reality behind the headline?

Course you would!😜

Let's take a look

🧵

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This is one of the reasons 40% of British people who could vote do not vote. Not voting is often called “apathy.” When I have talked to non-voters they are NOT apathetic. They are pissed off!

If you go for longer records: coldest Jan day, hottest month, year, ever: the gap between hot & cold records is even more stark. @metoffice.gov.uk sometimes get challenged on why we “only report the hot records”. Well it’s because we’ve barely see any cold ones at least since I joined in Dec 2018

Gloucester History Festival - bringing unique History to life The Gloucester History Festival is for everyone. Including the Spring Weekend in April, Autumn Festival in September and King's Talks.

Gloucester History Festival Spring weekend line up is out.
www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk

Price of oil is up.
USA is running down stocks of Patriot Missiles.
European states are deploying force outside of Europe.

Yep, the only real winner so far from Trump's decision to bomb Iran is.....Vladimir Putin.

Funny that.

Who could have foreseen that the president who lies about literally everything, no matter how large or small, would lie about his intentions for war? I for one am as shocked as when mommy disappeared behind her hands only to reappear moments later

If you ever want to read a paper for free and can't find it otherwise, email the lead author and politely ask for a copy. You will not be bothering the person. You will in fact make their whole entire day. I have had scientists get so excited I asked they sent me everything they ever published.

Sell those people invisible leeches?

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it.

The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform.

If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

🚨The Chancellor highlighted positive steps taken so far to tackle hunger in today’s #SpringStatement

We welcome these, but with 6.8 MILLION people facing severe hardship, the UK government must make more plans to tackle hunger in the upcoming Autumn Budget. 🧵

Green MP Ellie Chowns on the elections bill last night: "It is really quite extraordinary that the Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne has been allowed to donate £9 million to Reform UK. I notice that its Members are still not here" (2/3rds of the way into the debate)

Lessons from an Early Iron Age Mass Grave: An Archaeodeath Perspective on Gomolava For the third time this year, I have been asked by the media for comment on a breaking archaeological story. As this becomes more commonplace, I continue to reflect carefully how if and how I respo…

Lessons from an Early Iron Age Mass Grave: An Archaeodeath Perspective on Gomolava howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/27/l...