Susanna 🇪🇺

Iran War Update 3 Events from the last 24 hours

Where we are now.

At most they will be able to say: They started it because it was fun. They like thumping things and this was a thing they could thump. They were insane with the most degenerate notions of what it is to be a man and ended up accidentally converting it into a foreign policy. What disturbs me most is the total inability of people to accept the reality in front of their eyes. I don't mean Trump and his people. I expect nothing of them. I mean those who should damn well know better. I mean the people on right, left and centre who should have the capacity to analyse this situation with something approaching realism, but settle instead for a shared hallucination of normality.

It was what we saw this week from Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, from the British press, from world leaders like Mark Carney and Friedrich Merz. They all fought as hard as they could to pretend that we were living in a world of sanity, a world which operates according to the normal rules of motivation and intent and geostrategic alliances. They refused to accept that that world is gone and that their traditional political machinations therefore have one outcome and one outcome only: to force us all into the fire, alongside Israel, Iran and the United States of America.

There’s a kind of mass hysteria on the right: a howling insistence that they must be obeyed. They’ve lost whatever minds they had in their populist raging. It’s a cult. A total collapse of morality, independent thought and responsibility. God knows why anyone else would join in.

Majority of media undermining our PM as our country teeters on the edge of war. They shout ‘dither’ and ‘underprepared’ but it was the Party that they supported without question for 14 years that lead us to where we are.

They disgust me.

Satellite images from NASA Worldview on March 5 reveal the extent of the blackout in Cuba. A failure at the most important power plant, combined with the US blockade on fuel shipments in the country has left nearly 70% of the island's inhabitants without power.

Both Badenoch and the again Shadow Foreign Secretary, Priti Patel, have made horrendous and disgusting comments this week.

At a time we need all of Parliament to pull together, the Tories have made it extra personal with disgusting attacks. They have sunk to a new low.

Nigel Farage loves quoting polls. Just not this one. ❌

Fantastic council by-election result.

Labour gain from Reform, with increased vote share for Labour.

This is an area where Reform have been in charge for 10 months and it's seeing votes switching from Reform to Labour.

Exactly as we said would happen when people experienced Reform!

I've been the UK explaining-the-madness correspondent for Late Night Live for eight years. This week, for the first time, I went into the studio. It was oddly moving. It's been such a privilege being a small part of this great show.

No oil tankers have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, Bloomberg reports.

Qatar's energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could "bring down the economies of the world", predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within weeks and drive oil to $150 a barrel. Saad al-Kaabi told the FT that even if the war ended immediately it would take Qatar "weeks to months" to return to a normal cycle of deliveries following an Iranian drone strike at its largest liquefied natural gas plant. Qatar, the world's second-largest producer of LNG, was forced to declare force majeure this week after the strike at its Ras Lattan plant. While Qatar only exports a small proportion of its gas to Europe, the energy minister said the continent would feel significant pain as Asian buyers outbid Europeans for whatever gas is available on the market, and as other Gulf countries find themselves unable to meet their contractual obligations.

The Iran War could “bring down the economies of the world”, Qatar’s Energy Minister tells the FT.

If you would like to find out more about the shocking #IPPscandal follow @trapped-ipps.bsky.social and listening to their hard hitting documentary Podcast series here👇

shows.acast.com/trapped-the-...

Tate was trying to get to Dubai on a bus.

When they got to the Saudi border everyone was told to get off for passport and baggage checks and Tate decided to stay on - presumably because the bus was air conditioned and he didn't want to stand in a queue.

He then got detained by Saudi guards.

Defence secretary accuses Tory and Reform MPs of ‘unpatriotic’ behaviour John Healey lambasts opposition politicians for seeking to turn Donald Trump and the US against Keir Starmer

Defence secretary accuses Tory and Reform MPs of ‘unpatriotic’ behaviour

John Healey lambasts opposition politicians for seeking to turn Donald Trump and the US against Keir Starmer

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

We're investigating a firm called MP Estate Planning, which sells trusts to save elderly people from the "modern threats" of divorce, bankruptcy, care home fees and inheritance tax.

We believe the trusts don't work.

If you've come across the firm, please get in touch.

YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic 🚨PARLIAMENT TO DEBATE A PETITION FOR BY-ELECTIONS TO BE TRIGGERED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN MP’S DEFECT

🚨ON 16 MARCH PARLIAMENT WILL DEBATE A PETITION FOR BY-ELECTIONS TO BE TRIGGERED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN MP’S DEFECT

Contact your MP NOW and ask them to attend and support the petition

youtu.be/LPO_ZWlyb7Q?...

This is what Badenoch, Farage, the Murdoch press, and Paul Marshall's stable of GB News weirdos want us to get behind, and you know what I'm good, thanks...

Reduced bills for around 300,000 households in WaterSure reform Around 300,000 low‑income households will see lower water bills thanks to the biggest overhaul of WaterSure in nearly 30 years.

Thousands of low‑income households will see lower water bills thanks to the biggest overhaul of WaterSure in nearly 30 years.

The changes will expand the eligibility criteria to include disability benefits, meaning a further 53k low-income households will see significant savings.

Thank you Labour!

It's proper dystopian stuff going down in UAE.

A strange totalitarian Truman Show in the sand where everyone is acting on through.

A year ago, the Labour government instructed Louise Casey to carry out an Independent Commission on Adult Social Care.

This is a major piece of work to fundamentally transform the care sector and will take a long time.

But Baroness Casey said she would feedback with any immediate actions...

1/3

BREAKING: “Its reported cabinet was divided about allowing US to use our bases. Was cabinet divided?” - SKY’s Kamali Melbourne

“I don’t recognise those reports and I think it’s a travesty anyone should report from a national security council.. I hope that is properly investigated - David Lammy

I love a really good fake quote.

This one has all the ingredients because it sounds nothing like Orwell, is poorly written, and incredibly dumb.

"But if you attach a famous name and deliver it with whispered gravitas, there will always be dumbasses who'll believe it."

~ Keith Harris (and Orville)

Anyone who wants Britain to join the war in Iran needs their head examined They don't know what they want to achieve, why they're doing it or what the consequences might be. They are lost in the void.

Anyone who wants Britain to join the war in Iran needs their head examined open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

Here is the PM talking to us after yesterday's COBRA meeting and before the press conference on the Middle East.

So good to have a sensible, intelligent, grown up PM during this crisis, after years of terrible PMs.

The thought of any other current party leader dealing with this really scares me.

A Long-tailed Tit is captured mid-flight, silhouetted against the golden light of a rising sun. Its delicate wings are fully outstretched, glowing amber at the edges as the sunlight filters through. The blurred outline of trees forms a dark contrast in the background, framing the bird’s graceful ascent. A perfect moment of movement and light, reflecting the lengthening days of early spring.

Brighter mornings, a lighter step, and a Long-tailed Tit soaring towards spring...

Happy #FlyDay!

📷 @andrewfusekpeters.bsky.social

Billionaire brothers who backed Tories give Reform £100k Oliver Wright Extracts Britain's second-richest family have begun giving money to Reform UK after years of supporting the Conservatives. A company linked to the property tycoons David and Simon Reuben donated £100,000 to Nigel Farage's party the first time the brothers have given to any party other than the Tories. Reform has also received £3 million from Christopher Harborne, 63, an entrepreneur who now lives in Thai-land, adding to the ty million he gave in August. At the time, that was the biggest single donation to a UK political party by a living donor. In the last quarter of last year, Reform received more than £5.4 million in do-nations, the Conservatives were given £2.4 million and Labour received £1.9 million. The Reuben brothers - David, 87, and Simon, 84, who own property including Millbank Tower and Admiralty Arch in London — have donated almost El million to the Conservative Party since 2008. They also supported Boris Johnson after he left No 10, giving him office space worth £85,000. Their family wealth was put at £26.87 billion in The Sunday Times Rich List last year. Reform UK has its headquarters in Millbank Tower, but it is not known whether the brothers donation linked to reduced rent payments. Other Reform donors include David John Grainger, the co-founder of a biotech firm, and Gary Dutton, a double glazing entrepreneur, who both gave the party £250,000. Reform also received £100,000 from Isabel Goldsmith, sister of the former Tory minister Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park. Her father, Sir James Gold-smith, was seen as the godfather of British Euroscepticism. For the second quarter in a row Lord Bamford, the chairman of JCB, gave £200,000 each to the Conservatives and Reform. At the time of his first do-nation, the company said he was "sup-portive of pro-business political parties that create the conditions for these businesses to grow and prosper".

More billionaire cash bankrolling Reform.
JCB’s chairman, Bamford, said he was “supportive of pro-business political parties that create conditions for these businesses to grow and prosper."

Reform wants to repeal the Equality Act.
Prosperity for them means loss of rights and pay for us.
(Times)

'The Cabinet is absolutely united'

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy tells #BBCBreakfast ministers fully support the Prime Minister's decision not to join the initial US-Israel strikes on Iran

Israel has been carrying out a “broad-scale wave” of strikes on Lebanon’s capital Beirut while the IDF also launched its 14th wave of attacks on Iran.

The US says strikes on Iran are about to “surge dramatically”.

'Yes, we can take down sites that are anticipating attacking our people'

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy tells #BBCBreakfast 'defensive action' could include targeting military positions in Iran that could hit UK interests in the Middle East

UK counterterrorism police have arrested one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals on suspicion of spying for Iran. They allegedly carried out surveillance of the Jewish community.

Russia sending election operatives to Hungary to prop up Orban, media reports Sergei Kiriyenko, a powerful Kremlin aide, has reportedly been tasked with overseeing the Russian operation in Hungary, applying the same set of methods deployed during Moscow-backed meddling in Moldo...

Russia is sending election operatives to Hungary to prop up Orban. The dirty tricks to support Putin’s puppet in the EU will be off the chart.