Ian Birrell

No decent person should mourn the Ayatollah's death But this does not mean the fall of the Iranian regime - America should know from experience

Don’t mourn the death of a despotic cleric but fear for the future of his country and beyond. My @theipaper.com column on history, regime change and Trump’s hypocrisy inews.co.uk/opinion/no-d...

Shame on our government

No decent person should mourn the Ayatollah's death But this does not mean the fall of the Iranian regime - America should know from experience

Don’t mourn the death of a despotic cleric but fear for the future of his country and beyond. My @theipaper.com column on history, regime change and Trump’s hypocrisy inews.co.uk/opinion/no-d...

Very sad to learn about the death of Paul Conroy @reflextv.bsky.social - a brave man, brilliant photographer, generous operator in the field and true friend in places such as Libya, Syria and Ukraine. Hard to believe he’s gone

Give thanks that this vile and disingenuous bigot was thwarted from becoming an MP

1 in 25 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 49 may have been killed or severely wounded since start of the Kremlin’s disastrous full-scale war four years ago, claims new @economist.com study

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

Green Party got 47% in the Gorton & Denton by-election

their previous highest by-election result anywhere, ever, was just 10%

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

These tech giants should be held responsible for all content on their sites. Instead they keep shrugging off or denying responsibility while spreading toxicity

I certainly think many of their other policies, including their ridiculous stance on NATO, are absurd

‘Every administration for 50 years has exposed its citizens to more violence, more incarceration and more death rather than confront the basic economics of drug markets. The evidence isn’t wrong. Our policy is.’

Roland Fryer, Harvard economics professor, in today’s Wall Street Journal

I am no fan of the Greens or @zackpolanski.bsky.social. But the backlash against their sensible approach to drug reform has been utterly pathetic given the lethal failure of prohibition

Choice is always best to find most suitable for each pupil

Behind the spin, these inadequately-funded SEND reforms empower schools, teachers and bureaucrats over pupils and their families, who are having their vital protections weakened. Inclusion is an admirable ideal but it is not always the best solution for individuals. And far too much missing detail

Behind the spin, these inadequately-funded SEND reforms empower schools, teachers and bureaucrats over pupils and their families, who are having their vital protections weakened. Inclusion is an admirable ideal but it is not always the best solution for individuals. And far too much missing detail

The Paralympics is being used to bring Russia in from the cold  - it’s grotesque This marks the disturbing end of Moscow’s sporting exile

The Paralympics is being used to detoxify Russia even as the Kremlin kills and maims Ukrainians.

My ⁦‪@theipaper.com column‬⁩ on sinister - but highly symbolic - efforts to bring Putin’s murderous regime in from the cold inews.co.uk/opinion/para...

Zia Yusuf says Reform will outbid Trump by proposing largest ever expulsion people with permanent status [over 250k] since 1970s dictator Idi Amin threw 80k Asians out of Uganda + deport over a million other more recent legal migrants too. Despite rhetoric of control, its a recipe for chaos+cruelty

Reform is just a Trump tribute act

The Paralympics is being used to bring Russia in from the cold  - it’s grotesque This marks the disturbing end of Moscow’s sporting exile

The Paralympics is being used to detoxify Russia even as the Kremlin kills and maims Ukrainians.

My ⁦‪@theipaper.com column‬⁩ on sinister - but highly symbolic - efforts to bring Putin’s murderous regime in from the cold inews.co.uk/opinion/para...

Reform trying to mimic everything done by Trump

It's time to talk about who could replace the monarchy This is a valid question following the arrest of a foolish former prince

It’s time to talk about who could replace the monarchy - my ⁦‪@theipaper.com column on a royal family in crisis and possible presidents. inews.co.uk/opinion/mona...

It's time to talk about who could replace the monarchy This is a valid question following the arrest of a foolish former prince

It’s time to talk about who could replace the monarchy - my ⁦‪@theipaper.com column on a royal family in crisis and possible presidents. inews.co.uk/opinion/mona...

Former BBC royal correspondent @peterhunt.bsky.social has been superb on this crisis on Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today - not least with his condemnation of media complicity in its ‘reporting’ on the royal family

At least one former Tory MP is fighting nobly to protect freedom and democracy

(while his former colleagues defect to join Farage, a man who admires Putin and spreads Russian propaganda)

Presume Reform has not bothered to appoint any defence or foreign affairs spokespeople since they just follow the Kremlin lead?

The NHS in Dorset paid a private firm 1/3rd of savings if it could find ways to slash or end care funding for vulnerable patients.

The latest story showing how the state is attacking people with disabilities and complex conditions to cut costs, not dealing with its own systemic failures

Presume Reform has not bothered to appoint any defence or foreign affairs spokespeople since they just follow the Kremlin lead?

Rishi Sunak - an adviser to Microsoft and artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic - claiming today that AI will be a great democratising force for society.

Remember when they said the same about the internet during the dawn of the digital age?

My recent column on these proposed reforms ianbirrell.com/starmers-sen...