Tom Tugendhat

Is it possible that I am saying what I think and you just don’t agree? I appreciate that some aspects have shifted and politics have moved. We are not going to go back to the growth of the 80s and 90s, or the free spending of the 00s so we have to make different choices.

That’s a fair rebuttal!

Join the Lib Dems or Labour or whoever you want but complaining that politicians let you down from the comfort of your sofa is pointless. Politics is about compromise and what is possible. The voices that matter are the ones that turn up.

Are you a member of any party? If you won’t support those who you claim to want or hide in an echo chamber like this don’t be surprised when no one listens to you. Democracy works for those who take part - not just tweets or voting every 5 years.

Poor @keirmathermp.bsky.social. I am so sorry to see you so besmirched. I am sure you will age better and expand less!

I have never ever recommended engagement with the Taliban. You have no idea what you are talking about.

We need to keep watch - while they’re weakened they’re not out. But for our security, and our allies, the fall of Tehran’s proxy militias and governments is positive.

Anyone who truly believes in decolonisation should celebrate the crumbling of the ayatollah’s evil empire. 15/

The Islamic Revolution has been a catastrophe for Iran, the region and the world.

For the UK, it would relieve the threat of terrorism on our streets. 14/

We need to hope that the wall that started to crumble almost five years ago will finally collapse.

For Russia, it would deprive them of allies and drones.

For China, it would threaten their energy supplies.

For North Korea, it would weaken their outlets to the world. 13/

That would be a moment of liberation felt across the region and see Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and many other countries freed from the threat Tehran has brought.

It would also relieve the threat of nuclear escalation. 12/

Now is not the moment to give them space to recover.

Increasing pressure and standing with the Iranian people who have been tortured and murdered by this hateful government will help bring down the ayatollahs and their corrupt IRGC. 11/

And in Yemen, the Houthi army will find itself questioning the support.

The end of the Assad regime would be a devastating blow for the ayatollahs and demonstrate the weakness at the heart of the state. 10/

Now Aleppo has fallen and it looks like Damascus is next.

It won’t stop here.

In Iraq the militias that have relied on Tehran will find themselves more exposed. The Kurdish groups will no longer have to face Assad and be freer to face them. 9/

Murdering thousands of Israelis was only the start. They misjudged their strength completely.

In Syria, the regime fell out with its Russian sponsors because Putin didn’t find Assad deferential enough or responsive to Russia’s needs. 8/

But he was killed in Jan 2020 under President Trump’s orders.

Without him constraining Hamas at the same time as he was supplying weapons, the pressure to act grew and with their leaders safe in Qatar, they overreached. 7/

As their proxies crumble and the entire strategy collapses it’s becomes clear that one action may have set the dominoes toppling - the killing of Qasem Soleimani.

For years as the head of the IRGC Quds Force, he has run the regime’s terror empire as a private army. 6/

He turned to captagon - a fentanyl-like drug - to destroy lives in other countries and keep the $s coming in.

It looks like the end may be coming. Not just for Assad who gassed, raped, tortured, murdered and forced so many into exile, but for the Tehran regime itself. 5/

Not just in Lebanon. Hezbollah was Iran’s proxy army to sustain the Assad regime in Damascus.

100s of thousands of Syrians were murdered but these terrorists to keep Assad in power. 4/

In Lebanon, Hezbollah was one of the world’s biggest drug dealers and child trafficking networks to make the money to buy weapons and influence.

Hezbollah corrupted and tortured the whole region to maintain the ayatollah’s reach. 3/

But the regime has never had popular support. Violence and intimidation were the only way its empire could be sustained.

Amongst Palestinians, murder was used daily to keep Hamas in charge. Thousands were killed to keep control and aid stolen to enrich their leaders. 2/

Over the last few months we’ve seen the complete collapse of Tehran’s strategy for control in the Middle East.

From their support for Hamas and Hezbollah to threaten Israel, to their puppet state in Syria, the Iranian regime has controlled territory and terror for decades. 1/