Martin McKee

Is anyone asking what is the structure that is coordinating UK and other forces in the Mediterranean and the Gulf? What is the chain of command? Is it a free for all? Or is the US involved?

An excellent thread from my colleague @meganbryer.bsky.social ahead of #IWD2026 this Sunday

Lots below including quotes from some of the women who have served as government ministers, reflecting on their time in office

So does she think such people don’t pay VAT when they go shopping? There are lots of UK people who don’t pay tax, and they live in Dubai (or Thailand, from where they bankroll Reform). But she never sees them as a problem

Also, no evidence US even wants it. Flying into a combat zone outside chain of command is a rapid way to make the RAF even smaller, cf F-15s in Kuwait. And she’s clueless about international law (as well as military operations)

If she ever got near levers of power it would be terrifying. Argues that UK should attack Iran because its bases in Qatar, Bahreïn, UAE are under attack. Yet all those countries have armed forces and none of them are attacking Iran.

Every time a Labour politician tries to present their party as middle of the road, between extremes of Green and Reform, they make it much more difficult for progressives to support them. Do they have no-one who can interpret polling data?

There seems to be a widespread view that adherence to international law is somehow optional. Reminds me of Russian friends who described their situation as “the law is like a gate in the middle of a field. You can use it if you want but don’t have to”. And we know where that went.

Even before the illegal attack on Iran, I was preparing a talk on how climate change, and especially AMOC collapse, could lead to UK population becoming refugees. Little did I know that some of the most xenophobic Brits would be fleeing Dubai just so soon. Always remember, it could be you

New data from @whoeurope.bsky.social sets out the scale of the challenge we face in tackling Big Tobacco. We in @eupha.bsky.social stand with WHO in urging much stronger action.
eupha.org/articles/eup...

Sorry but disagree. Engagement with X is complicity. This is a moral issue above all.

Voting opens today for @rcphysicians.bsky.social elections.

I am standing for Vice President for Education and Training.

It's the first elections where Members will also be able to vote. Please encourage all eligible to exercise their franchise.

More about me here:

tinyurl.com/22j7nypk

Indeed. A point some of us have made repeatedly, and futilely, to people who claim to be able to “make Brexit work”, without a clue about how the EU works

Iranians listening to calls to rise up against the regime today would do well to look at what happened in Warsaw in August 1944

When Starmer says the Greens and Reform are equally extreme, just as when Labour make the same comparison between SNP and Reform, it causes a visceral reaction in me. Not just because it’s stupid. But because it shows a fundamental triviality about the existential threat posed by the far right.

Interesting that the total vote for Labour, Greens and LibDems in the Gorton & Denton by-election was 68% - just as it was in 2024

So, Labour is haemorrhaging votes to the centre and left, not to the right

Remember when Farage made one of his rare visits to the European Parliament and said that nobody there ever held a real job, pointing to Vytenis Andriukaitis, a cardiac surgeon and one of the drafters on the Lithuanian constitution

So is @martinnicholls.bsky.social Allister Heath headline generator now covering all Telegraph writers?

stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app

On BBC R4 Today, chair of Reform suggests Hannah Spencer, victor in Gorton & Denton, may struggle with “nuts and bolts” of the constituency. She’s a qualified plumber FGS

What we have seen in Gorton and Denton is what we saw in Caerphilly in October.

A lot of people really don’t want the hateful politics of Reform and will work hard and smart to try and keep them out.

Labour must now listen to this and stop the grim attempts to mimic Farage.

67.9% voted progressive

No doubt, media coverage of Gorton & Denton will focus on Labour coming third. But surely the most important message is the Reform was thoroughly rejected. We need proportional representation now more than ever.

Disabled Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam was found dead after being abandoned by U.S. Border Patrol five miles from his home in Buffalo. This is horrifying. It cannot happen in America. It must stop now.

Couldn’t resist it …

British-Danish couple say new UK passport rules may separate them from children Family learned of change while abroad, and fear dual-national children will have to stay with relatives while they return to apply for passports

And so it continues - one heart rending story of separation of families after another

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Follow the money … on a long and circuitous route from the American public to Chinese exporters. You really couldn’t make it up. Not, of course, that the Democrats will make any capital from this madness.

A badge of honour!

Home Office denies ‘absurd’ criticism over rule change that may leave dual nationals stranded MPs raise cases of honeymooners and other Britons caught out by new passport requirements as minister rejects calls for grace period

They just don't get it. The Home Office clearly has not engaged with dual nationals affected by this move on passports. If they had, they would never have imposed a £589 fee simply to make an electronic linkage to your other passport.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Those of us who have tried to research public-private partnerships will, I suspect, read these words by @davidallengreen.bsky.social and say Amen

Thank you for all you are doing on this - exemplary journalism. I’m completely mystified why the government is heading towards a car crash with its foot on the accelerator. Mad, bad, or both?

As predicted

bsky.app/profile/lisa...