Steve Peers

Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom Trump is basically calling up every journalist in his phone to workshop different timelines and goals for his war. In the past two days: @washingtonpost : the aim is "freedom for the people" of Iran @axios : maybe we can "end it in two or three days" with a deal @nytimes : might be "four to five weeks", I have "three very good choices" who might take control in Iran @abc : actually, nevermind, we killed those choices He doesn't sound convinced by any of it. He's throwing spaghetti at the wall. Ultimately I suspect he just wants to say he "solved" a problem that has vexed every American president since Jimmy Carter. But there's no clear idea what that looks like and no plan for how to get there. And there are plenty of possible scenarios in which Trump declares victory and leaves the region with an absolute mess

The Mad and Senile King is just using reporters as a sounding board to see what might sound good in the press.

There wouldn't be much Reform vote left if pensioners didn't vote! Presumably he's having a dig at students and the unemployed

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

Here's Mahmood's written statement to Parliament on changes to the treatment of refugees - as morally bankrupt and evidence-free as you might expect.

A few initial thoughts > 1/

The Orwell quotes write themselves

213. The Federal Tort Claims Act One of the reasons why it's so hard to sue the federal government for damages is because, even when Congress *has* authorized such suits, it's imposed limits that are increasingly difficult to defend.

Today’s “One First” uses #SCOTUS’s ruling in Konan to focus on the Federal Tort Claims Act—and “how a statute that was designed and intended to make it easier to sue the federal government for damages has, thanks to subsequent Supreme Court decisions and statutory reforms, in fact made it harder.”

Among the many, many reasons this is nuts: the bulk of British Muslims are Sunni, while Iran is a Shia theocracy. Sunni-Shia rivalry and mutual hostility goes back roughly a thousand years and has played as large a role (if not larger) as Protestant-Catholic rivalry/conflict in Europe

Equal parts obnoxious and stupid - are we really expected to believe that 40% of those voting are all not working?

Lots of worrisome signals about what next, but the idea that the U.S. can just destabilize Iran and then wash its hands and walk away unscathed is particularly so.

"The military actions obliterating Iran's nuclear capacity once-and-for-all were becoming more frequent."

Council of Europe Commissioner alerts to human rights risks in upcoming EU Returns Regulation - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int Strasbourg 2 March 2026

The upcoming EU Returns Regulation risks impacting on the human rights of migrants and asylum seekers across Europe.
Proposals on weakened remedies could result in exposing people to serious, irreparable harm. 1/3
Read my Observations 👇
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...
#HumanRights #asylum #migration

Abbott posted then deleted a clip from a video game.

Now on SSRN, the draft I've been teasing forever on here: Law and Petro-Masculinity. I would be so grateful for feedback on this piece from the brilliant law and climate communities on Bluesky!
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Facebook post by the Daily Mail: 'I'm not only trappedin a warzone, but I'm going to get fat again as well." "I'm trapped and under attack in Dubai - but worst of all, I left my Mounjaro pen in the fridge"

It's Private Eye I feel sorry for. How do you spoof The Daily Mail these days?

Sometimes parties get squeezed in by elections...

The Trump Administration is Testing Conversion Therapy By Medically Experimenting on Trans People in Prisons The Bureau of Prisons is subjecting trans people to conversion therapy and denying them care with the goal of helping them "recover." It's trying to prove dangerous conversion practices can work.

Under a new policy released Thursday, the Trump Administration will test conversion therapy on trans people in prisons. It explicitly states that it aims to help trans people “recover,” all the while forcibly detransitioning them both medically and socially.

transitics.substack.com/p/the-trump-...

So AI can easily replace historians, right? Right??

Please read this thread as a 'micro-example' of what is going so wrong with the English court system - and note the 'butterfly' effect point.

Our court system is so rackety and improvised, one slip and so many other things will go wrong.

David Cameron, 2011: “I am not a naive neocon who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at ten thousand feet.”
Kemi Badenoch, 2026: “The only reason not to back this war without caveat is if you’re looking to get support from the Mozzies!”

The President of the European Commission and the President of the Swiss Confederation sign a broad package of EU-Switzerland agreements Today, on 2 March 2026, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin signed a broad package of agreements aiming to deepen an...

EU and Switzerland sign package of new treaties
ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

But previous attempts at changing Middle East govts by military force have gone so well! /s

A battle with Reform over Islamophobic voters?

Some people seem to be buying the 'upturn' shtick for now

Badenoch is like a facebook algorithm that has been designed purely to exploit whatever conflict it encounters in pursuit of more heated emotions, without any actual interest in the conflict as such

But not quickly or loudly enough for her liking

Everything about Badenoch can be understood through the fact she sees the world through the lens of her “ethnic enemies”: a totalising worldview that will always, always, make the people who hold it say and do stupid things.

Again - and without in any way making this a personal attack on them, because they are victims here - but I must ask what it feels like to be a Muslim Tory MP at present. Your party leader is absolutely and repeatedly signalling she hates you.

This is cheap and pathetic from Badenoch - concerns about the wisdom of involvement in the Middle East conflict and participation in American wars go well beyond Muslim voters, and it's simplistic to assume all Muslim voters oppose UK involvement

I know what this guy needs, an oil shock