Gerry Hassan

On #WorldBookDay & opening day of Kirkcudbright Book Festival worth remembering how many people in the UK do not read a single book. 40% of people had not read a single book in the past year; median number: 3 books in a year; am in the hyper-book category of 51+ over a year!

Kirkcudbright Book Festival opens today: four days on books, ideas, culture, writing, creativity, imagination & fun. Lots of events for every taste & while there are some sold out events most still have tickets available at the door. Fab coverage in the Galloway News just out today. #buyapaper

Trump and Iran. Private Eye's front cover.

US Senate blocks Iran War Powers Act to curtail Trump by 47-53. One Republican votes against Trump's war: Rand Paul; one Democrat votes for Trump's war: John Fetterman.

Trump and Israel's war on Iran and the Epstein Files. From Michael de Adder.

"Miliband led revolt to Trump's Iran war: Minister sided with Cooper and Reeves in refusing to let US use British bases" says the Telegraph as if this was a bad thing. Alongside a photo of the UK political classes dancing like it was 1789.

US military intervention & lying abt it did not begin with Trump:
1. The US lied abt the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 to escalate the Vietnam War.
2. The US lied abt Saddam Hussein & WMDs to launch the Iraq War in 2003.
3. They have repeatedly lied abt Iran & their own motivations to launch this war.

Absolutely bang-on cartoon about a Dubai expat having their "first ever geopolitical thought". Love the humour & work of Stephen Collins who is having yet another golden era. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

The Washington Post declares "Democracy dies in Darkness." Democracy also dies when a kleptocratic corrupt class control the mainstream media making them apologists for corporate capitalism and war.

While the US and Israel wage a regional war against Iran and across the Middle East the British political classes show how clueless & out of touch they are. Engaging in Strictly Come Dancing in Parliament.

Iran latest: Iranian warship sinks; US assassination claim; the phone call that convinced Trump to strike On the fifth day of the war, a US submarine has sunk an Iranian warship, NATO has shot down a ballistic missile approaching Turkey, Israel is striking Tehran and Beirut and Iran is "close" to choosing...

American exceptionalism & stupidity in one statement. Pete Hegseth marks the US sinking of an Iranian ship saying this is the "first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since the Second World War."

On 2 May 1982 British torpedoes sank the Argentinian cruiser Belgrano.
news.sky.com/story/iran-l...

Scot Parl voting intention; SNP ahead; Lab 2nd; Green 3rd on list; Reform 4th on list:
FPTP
SNP: 36% (+1)
LAB: 20% (+4)
REF: 16% (-2)
LD: 10% (+1)
CON: 9% (-2)
GR: 7% (-2)
List
SNP: 26% (-2)
LAB: 19% (+1)
GR: 16% (-1)
REF: 14% (-3)
CON: 11% (-1)
LD: 10% (+3)
Via Ipsos Scotland
19-25/2
Ch 27/11-3/12

Unity is one option; seriousness is the other & surely the basic prerequisite for national leadership.

Kemi Badenoch does not seem to know how to do seriousness & depth even at a time of war. What we get is her "attack dog" style even as she ties herself to Trump's America & its lack of any war plan. All lacking political judgement while clinging to Trump. #PMQs

People can ridicule Starmer's half-way house understandably. But they forget this is the sort of position Wilson took on the US & Vietnam War. Wilson refused to send troops & refused to condemn US involvement: meeting condemnation from left & right. Half-way houses do have logic.

Fascinating column from Danny Finkelstein on Starmer, Trump & Iran. What Finkelstein misses I think is that there are no good options for the UK. Trump's America is not our ally; they have said so. Starmer's position may be ridiculous but he is trying to carve out a middle position.

Who thinks they have the respect and authority to assess that key issue of UK Prime Ministerial competence? For some reason Liz Truss thinks she is that person.

Agree normally. But sadly representative of how the once mainstream right have lost their marbles.

It uses all the usual tropes & smears about the Green victory at Gorton and Denton citing sectarian voting, anti-Zionism and antisemitism. And bizarrely thinks you can enforce "one British culture" in a union of 4 nations which would be the end of Tory unionism.

Kemi Badenoch has said the unsayable on multiculturalism Kemi Badenoch’s latest speech was a crisp break from the omerta that binds together our gutless establishment

The stench of authoritarian illiberalism now defines the UK right including Badenoch's Tories. This Spectator piece takes aim at multiculturalism forgetting the UK is a multinational state of diff ethnicities, cultures & nations. spectator.com/article/kemi...

What is the Trumpian-Netanyahu case for war with Iran?
"We may be unhinged pseudo-religious fanatics, authoritarians & lunatics at war with our democratic & legal norms. But you should see the other side of pseudo-religious maniacs, authoritarians and lunatics in Iran."

The UK's increasingly hysterical right-wing media can have influence without ever being consistent.

Telegraph: "Immigration is not sustainable. It must be reduced!"
Telegraph: "Lower numbers of migrants will be a nightmare for the economy. Labour is trashing the economy!"

Strange isn't that so called British sovereigntists such as Nigel Farage & Kemi Badenoch are intent on outsourcing UK foreign policy to the US & Trump's unpredictable MAGA America. Not sure that is very credible, defensible or popular.

"Keir Starmer is no Churchill" says Trump who is clearly no FDR or like any previous US President. With regard to US Presidents & UK PMs Blair may have been a US poodle going to war but Harold Wilson had the courage to say no to the US over the Vietnam War.

Kemi Badenoch's Englishcentric & English nationalist agenda not only misunderstands the UK. It has forgotten the language of Conservative unionism in Scotland. Badenoch uses the term "separatists" to mean Islamists when it is a trad term of insult of indy supporters by unionists.

The death of British Conservatism plays out every day in politics & media. It has been replaced by a hysterical, illiberal, authoritarianism which has pitched its tent to the gut prejudices of Trump & MAGA true believers: which is not a very popular position with the UK public.

Looking forward to the UK media reducing their endless Reform coverage. And giving proportionate coverage to the Greens who are clearly a new force in the land & have a right to be profiled, heard & scrutinised.

Greens post-Gorton and Denton leapfrog Labour & Tories to move into second place a mere 2% behind Farage. Highest Green vote; first time in 2nd; lowest Labour vote with YouGov.
.

REF: 23% (-1)
GRN: 21% (+4)
LAB: 16% (-2)
CON: 16% (-2)
LIB: 14% (=)
Poll: 1-2 March
(+/- vs 23 Feb)

Another day another Kemi Badenoch speech not understanding the UK. The UK is a multi-national state; therefore it is multi-cultural in several different ways: race, ethnicity, nations. Tories used to understand this. Badenoch talking abt schools is only talking abt England & does not know this.

Link to IPSO judgement on the Telegraph's completely made-up story. www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...