@zubhaque.bsky.social
Former Dep Director and Head of Research at Women’s Budget Group. Former CEO The Equality Trust; Former deputy & interim CEO of The Runnymede Trust. Member of Independent SAGE. Worked across government and on national inquiries. Views my own
I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.
I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.
1/ Here's what I can share:
Reporter: “You said the war is "very complete." But your Defense Secretary says "this is just the beginning." So which is it”
Trump: “You could say both.”
WE STILL DON'T HAVE A CLEAR ANSWER ON THE MOST BASIC QUESTION ABOUT THE IRAN WAR
WHY did the U.S. go to war?
A Popular Information review of public statements over the last 9 days found 17 DIFFERENT EXPLAINATIONS. Many of which contradict each other.
🧵
Trump's decision to bomb Iran is now the greatest windfall to the Russian war effort on record. If it continues, it might save the Russian war economy.
I'm out of words here
I wonder if a drone has hit Dubai Marina. Or whether it was just
debris from a successful interception.
If only loads of Dubai based accounts, including Isabel Oakeshott's, could tell me.
UN humanitarian chief: “This is a moment of great peril” www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
Hitting desalination plants is so bad. Not just evil but strategically incomprehensible. Without desalination 75% of the entire population of the Middle East will be refugees. Israel and Kuwait depend on desalination for 90% of their water and other Middle East states aren’t far behind.
Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...
Obama: Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day we’re told by those in high office to fear each other. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.
Pretty difficult to refute a single thing in this perfect assessment of where the f**k we are, from @iandunt.bsky.social:
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...
I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.
I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.
Invoking the NHS by mentioning doctors and nurses as being people who are more deserving whilst bashing migrants is breathtakingly cynical, frankly. Moreover, low-skilled workers also contribute, often in jobs that are not easy to recruit to:
Your regular reminder than a large majority of voters - and overwhelming majority of Labour voters - favour giving settled migrants access to the welfare state after five years or less. The Home Secretary is not reforming rules in line with public opinion. She is doing the opposite.
Labour chair Anna Turley has privately warned her party it must tackle immigration – but only “in a way that stays true to our values”
In remarks to campaigners following the Gorton & Denton by-election, obtained by PolHome, she said her party must find "the right language" to combat the Greens
So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for:
- Who takes over;
- Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation;
- How to defend US bases in the region;
- Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and
- How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.
Hegseth: "We are only four days into this and the results have been incredible."
- Middle East engulfed in regional war
- 11 countries attacked by Iran
- Oil & gas prices skyrocketing
- Strait of Hormuz now a conflict zone
- Terrorism threat raised across the world
- No sign of Iran regime collapse
‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’
No notes.
as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...
All I can think about is Jeff Bezos saying that he slashed jobs at the Washington Post — including those of foreign correspondents in the Middle East — based on "the data," and a few weeks later a whole war breaks out in the Middle East that these laid off folks would have covered as true experts.
Thank you @Debbie_abrahams for chairing our discussion on the module 2 report in Parliament today.
Its vitally important we get the @covidinquiryuk recommendations implemented in full.
Doing so will save lives.
This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something
Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used
www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...
Full Farage
NEW: Keir Starmer tells MPs the UK govt remembers the "mistakes of Iraq" and will always operate on a "lawful basis" and with a "viable thought through" plan when it comes to Iran. Clear implication from PM is that he thinks the initial US/ Israeli strikes on Iran were neither.
I spent 6 years of my life writing a PhD about UK policy in Persian Gulf in the 1960s, including the role of the Anglo-American alliance.
Key to the Persian Gulf policy of both countries: AVOID a power vacuum under any circumstances &keep Iran&Saudi Arabia from attacking the smaller Gulf States.
Its genuinely mad that we are, arguably, the most successful multicultural state on earth and instead of celebrating that we...
...keep trying to copy nations who have very evidently done worse at it than us
Delighted to announce that following the consultation, I'm giving the green light to make Oxford Street traffic-free.
Thought his Trumpian temper tantrum was really disgraceful, even by his standards. Just utterly graceless in defeat - Gorton and Denton voters emphatically rejected him, the margin wasn't close - to undermine the legitimacy of a result like that is ugly stuff.
Gorton and Denton by-election result:
GRN: 40.7% (+27.5)
REF: 28.7% (+14.7)
LAB: 25.4% (-25.3)
CON: 1.9% (-6.0)
LDEM: 1.8% (-2.1)
Green GAIN from Labour.
Excellent analysis from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on the MoD contract awards to Palantir
And it looks to me as if the Gov (as with MoD - initially Tory and now Labour) have walked into similar contract traps 🎣 with NHS contracts awarded to Palantir
Woeful
emptycity.substack.com/p/land-and-e...