Jim Pickard

Ask the public what services they want to cut, or what services they're happy to be rubbish, and you get a very different set of answers.

They'll say cut foreign aid, ofc, but that's all but gone already. What next?

I get the strong sense that the bulk of media are calling Starmer's position on Iran entirely wrongly right now. I simply don't believe that most people out there are either as hawkish as the Tories or as anti-everything as the Greens. Being conflicted in the middle seems about right to me.

If I was trying to elicit sympathy I probably wouldn't go for Russian UFC teams and crypto guys. But that's just me.

This is important. Reform keep taking positions that are only supported by the 25% of the electorate they already have and in doing so are negatively polarising everyone else against them.

apparently he believed he could be a moderating influence on the US in relation to the Middle East, I've no idea if that was the strategy

probably more accurate to say "this is not Tony Blair that we're dealing with"

Parliament

Telegraph censured for fabricated story of banker’s struggle to pay school fees Watchdog upholds complaint it breached code with article about impact of VAT on a family that did not exist The Telegraph has been reprimanded by a press standards watchdog after it published an entirely fabricated story about a wealthy banker complaining of the impact of school fee increases. Ian Fraser, a freelance journalist and author, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) that the Telegraph had breached the editors’ code of practice in an article headlined: “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays.” Continue reading...

Telegraph censured for fabricated story of banker’s struggle to pay school fees

Surely all the returning influencers will drive a record tax take.

the backdrop to Rachel Reeves's 12.30 spring statement is roiling financial markets

stock market down nearly 3%
gilt yields spiking
pound has fallen 0.8% against the dollar

The 10-year gilt yield has jumped 0.14 percentage points to 4.5 per cent, reversing a rally that had reduced some pressure on the UK public finances

www.ft.com/content/b750...

Just for reference

Laura Loomer and the far-right ultra-hawks cheering on Trump in Iran Maga figures drown out opponents of conflict with loud support for the president

fascinating split on the American right:

enthusiastic support for the war evinced by people including Levin and Loomer is not shared by the vast majority of Americans

One survey over the weekend found only 27% of all adults polled backed the president’s attack on Iran

www.ft.com/content/31ed...

Starmer is pandering to Muslim voters, blasts Trump as war of words escalates DONALD Trump has suggested Keir Starmer is pandering to Muslim voters by not backing his war against Iran — warning Britain is “not such a recognisable country” anymore. In an astonishing broadside…

narrator:

only 12% of UK people polled by YouGov thought the UK government should praise the air strikes

21% thought the UK government should condemn the strikes

much larger proportion don't have a strong view either way

www.thesun.co.uk/news/3838953...

Inside the plan to kill Ali Khamenei Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and monitoring bodyguards ahead of the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

incredible insights from my FT colleagues on how the Israeli/US operation was planned

"Nearly all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, their images encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel"

www.ft.com/content/bf99...

good morning

it’s behind a paywall so that we can pay our reporters tbf

'Donald Trump showing up just what an indecisive loser Keir Starmer is on Iran' This is yet another headache our fence-sitting Prime Minister simply wants to go away.

I have a feeling that the British public are closer to the Starmer position on Iran than this gung-ho commentary suggests

www.express.co.uk/news/politic...

Post Nigel Farage @Nigel_Farage We don't need to take foreign policy advice from the American President. The last time we did that it was called the Iraq War. 6:29 PM Jun 7, 2015 338 replies 2.3K shares 2.7K likes https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/607600226774482945

Nigel Farage MP @Nigel_Farage The Prime Minister needs to change his mind on the use of our military bases and back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran! 10:34 AM Feb 28, 2026 4.7M Views 8.1K replies 5.4K shares 35K likes https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2027693784310710744

Full Farage

This one remark seems like quite a major pivot by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer:

"This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.”

Starmer’s cost of living tsar calls for ‘interventions’ to help households Iceland boss Richard Walker tells FT he will work with ‘sprint team’ in Downing Street to help lower bills

we’ve interviewed Richard Walker, Iceland chief and Starmer’s new “cost of living champion”

www.ft.com/content/cb69...

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said although Khamenei was a “brutal dictator” Trump had launched a “unilateral unlawful war”.

“We have seen before what happens when an American president launches an illegal war with no idea how or when it will end and we fear for what comes next.”

Sir Keir Starmer rejects Kemi Badenoch's argument that the UK should have joined in the initial bombings by the US and Israel:

“I will not countenance committing our military personnel to action that does not have a lawful basis, that is not a fair thing to do to our serving personnel,” he said.

This is a big reason European states are getting drawn in. Iran can keep chucking drones at Gulf states for longer than they can shoot them down.

Dan, I'm happy to announce you have passed the vital customary insults section of the UK citizenship test with flying colours, bravo @dankaszeta.bsky.social

Gas prices soar as Iranian attacks force shutdown of Qatari production Saudi Arabia also closes an oil refinery after strike

The threat of a new natural gas crisis sent prices soaring by almost 50 per cent on Monday after Qatar was forced to halt production following attacks from Iran

www.ft.com/content/dac7...

Hegseth: "Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force ... no stupid rules of engagement."

The idea that British Muslim voters are greatly motivated by the survival of the Iranian regime feels quite curious. It's also fair to say that worries about the UK being potentially drawn into a wider, goal-less Middle East conflict are traditionally shared well beyond that group.

feels like the first sunshine in about three months

I have questions