POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on Starmer's latest move to persuade us he is governing effectively.....
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said a new phase for his government will begin this week, under what he calls a "plan for change" for Britain. Writing for the Sun on Sunday, external, Sir Keir described the strategy as "the most ambitious yet honest delivery plan in a generation" as the government was "knuckling down" on delivering its election promises. He said ministers would detail "measurable milestones" by which the public could track the progress of the government towards its commitments. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "Keir Starmer is having to relaunch... because Labour had no plan for government".
I hate to say it but Ms Badenoch might have a point. There has certainly been some stumbling and sooner or later he is going to have to drop the line "It's all the fault of the Tories" even though that is undoubtedly largely true.... Is this week's speech going to cut it? Don't hold your breath.....

[Stanley]

I struggle to find anything exciting in politics and we are about to enter the dead pool which is the Xmas break. Everything will go on hold until well into January......

[Stanley]

See THISnews report from Afghanistan.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued a new directive barring women from attending medical and semi-professional institutes, effectively cutting off one of the last avenues for higher education available to women in the country, sources confirmed on Monday. Sources said that Akhundzada’s order was communicated on Monday by the Taliban minister of public health during a meeting with the heads of medical institutes in Kabul. “Girls will no longer be allowed to study at these institutions,” one source reported, citing remarks made at the meeting.
A final blow to education
This decision marks yet another severe restriction on women’s education in Afghanistan. Following the closure of universities to women in December 2022, many had turned to medical institutes as their only option for continuing studies. Now, with this latest directive, even that path has been closed. Women in Afghanistan have been barred from attending secondary schools for more than three years, and this ban effectively eliminates their opportunities for professional training in healthcare, a sector critically under-resourced in the country. Afghanistan faces a dire shortage of medical professionals, particularly female doctors, nurses, and midwives needed to provide essential services to women. Experts warn that the ban will exacerbate an already fragile healthcare system, leaving countless Afghan women without access to adequate care. Observers note that these policies not only decimate educational opportunities for Afghan women but also deepen the ongoing humanitarian crisis. “The Taliban’s ban on education for women is not just a blow to their rights but a devastating setback for Afghanistan’s struggling healthcare system,” said one health policy expert.
Rory Stewart, speaking on WATO says the bald truth is we abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban and have completely lost control....
Are we really that helpless? This is a disgraceful position.

[Tripps]

Are we really that helpless? This is a disgraceful position.

Read some history perhaps. This is not a new situation. . .

Anglo - Afghan Wars

Speaking of educating girls - nearer to home Eton Star Academy. It was proposed at the last Council meeting that this school be single sex - boys only. It was voted down - but why was it even suggested?

Let's look more closely at the Eton Star schools programme

The Chief executive of Star Academies is one Sir Mufti Hamid Patel, CBE

What could possibly go wrong?

[Stanley]

I've read the history and still think it's a disgrace......

See THIS report for details of a rather large hostage to fortune.
The chancellor has said she will not need to raise taxes to "top up" public spending, after facing pressure to spell out her future tax plans. Rachel Reeves made headlines last week by telling a business conference she would not be "coming back" with tax hikes in the coming years.
Every now and again you can hear politicians making promises that you know are going to come back and bite them but they still do it.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the headline political news.....
They are not perhaps the most elegant duo of words, but they get to the heart of what the prime minister wants to set out in a wide-ranging speech on Thursday - what senior folk in government describe as “measurable deliverables". In other words, Sir Keir Starmer's "plan for change" to be revealed later will include half a dozen understandable, digestible promises and a deadline - the next general election. It is a plan not without risk because while success, against those metrics at least, would be transparent, so too would failure. There will be six targets - or as Labour will put it “milestones” - in the PM's remarks.
My comment..... It's another hostage to fortune!

[Stanley]

Forget about set piece speeches promising jam tomorrow. Read THIS and recognise just how badly our political leaders have served us.
The regular British army could be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict, a defence minister has warned. Alistair Carns said a rate of casualties similar to that prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being "expended" within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the importance of having reserves in order to be able to fight in a "war of scale". Official figures show the army had 109,245 personnel on 1 October, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel who is also a reservist, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers, killed or wounded, a day.
This is the real world and I see no evidence that our political leaders know or care.

[Tizer]

A recent 2-page essay in The Times analysed our current military capability and it's enough to make you want to surrender right now and get it over with! What I would like to see is more attention to `hybrid' warfare and the ability to disprupt enemy electronic communications. We're told we have GCHQ and similar things full of techie people but we need to gather more creative people from all and any background, like we did with Bletchley Park. At the moment our enemies, real and potential, are getting ahead of us in these areas and effectively disabling our infrastructure. Intelligence and creativity are going to do more good for us than aircraft carriers, submarines and bombers.
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Here's an example of our enemy eating away at our European neighbours...
`Romania's far right presidential frontrunner vows to end Ukraine aid' LINK
Calin Georgescu, the fringe nationalist politician leading the presidential race in Romania, has told the BBC that he would end all support for Ukraine if elected. He is facing a second-round run-off in the elections on Sunday, where he will run against Elena Lasconi, a former TV presenter who is campaigning on a firmly pro-EU platform. Georgescu, whose only election campaigning has been on social media, said he would make "the Romanian people" his priority. But he denied that his surprise success so far was the result of a Russian-backed influence operation, saying he did not care about the "lies" of his country's intelligence agencies as he was working with God and the people. On Wednesday, in a highly unusual move, Romania's outgoing president published declassified documents that detailed what was called a massive and "highly organised" campaign for Georgescu on TikTok co-ordinated by a "state actor". The papers included an intelligence assessment that Russia was carrying out hybrid attacks on Romania, which it sees as an "enemy state".

[Tizer]

A lot changed within an hour or so of my post above about the Romanian election...
`Romanian court annuls result of presidential election first round' LINK
Romania's constitutional court has annulled the result of the first round of voting in the presidential election just days before the second round was due to take place. It means the process will be restarted from scratch, with the government due to decide a date for a new vote. The first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an almost unknown far-right Nato-sceptic who has previously praised Vladimir Putin. The court's decision comes after intelligence documents were declassified, suggesting Georgescu benefitted from a mass influence operation – conducted from abroad – to interfere with the result of the vote. Outgoing Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court's decision to annul was "the only correct solution after the declassification of the documents... which show that the result of the Romanians' vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia's intervention".

Why do countries in the West still allow TikTok which is used by China to spread disinformation? Could it be because, as with TwitterX, our politicians and celebrities are in love with it? All European, NATO and AUKUS countries should declare TikTok a danger to our security and ban it.

[Stanley]

I am reminded of the Brexit debate. We were all arguing on Oneguy that it was a disaster and giving the reasons why. Now it has transpired that we were right and the Brexiteers had it totally wrong.
Are we right again and are we again going to be ignored as little people whose opinion is worthless?

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest.... See THIS BBC report on Justin Welby apolgising for another massive error of judgement.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised for causing "further distress" after Church of England abuse survivors criticised his Lords farewell speech for making light of serious safeguarding failures. Justin Welby said his words, delivered to the House of Lords on Thursday, had caused further hurt to those harmed by the "heinous abuse" perpetrated by prolific child abuser John Smyth. It comes as three lead bishops for safeguarding in the Church of England described the speech as "utterly insensitive" in a letter to some abuse survivors. Mr Welby resigned in November after the damning Makin report into the abuse found he "could and should" have reported Smyth to police in 2013.

[Tizer]

After my comments about TikTok yesterday I'm pleased to see this about the US but other Western countries including the UK need to do the same...
`TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal' LINK

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On a different matter....A couple of months ago I wrote an email to BBC Americast posing a question. They said they'd use it in the next episode but never did. I'd asked them to explain, in the light of Russia's joint support with Iran for beating Assad in Syria, what might be America's reaction if Russia were to join Iran in its support for Palestine and Hezbollah against Israel. In short, could we see Russia fighting Israel.

They didn't use my question but it's becoming more relevant as time passes. I see in a BBC news article today: The Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement, backed by Iran, has fought alongside the Syrian regime army but has been severely weakened by its conflict with Israel. Israel, concerned by what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" in Syria, has launched air strikes against Syria's military. So we might soon see clashes between Israeli planes and Russian planes. Russia has a naval base and airbase in Latakia: Netanyahu is mad enough to bomb them.

The links between Russia and Iran go deeper and wider than we see on the surface. This article is by Dr Ghoncheh Tazmini, Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science...
`Russia and Iran – a strategic alliance or something more?
Russia and Iran have a long history, but is their current alliance based on pragmatism or ideology? Ghoncheh Tazmini’s research suggests that more lies behind their partnership than economic or political gain.' LSE

[Stanley]

All I can say Peter is that the prospect frightens me to death. Perhaps it's because I am old but I feel we are teetering on the brink of global wars.....

Looking at home politics I am sorry to say that I am now almost certain that Starmer and his Labour Administration are making the same mistakes Blair made when he moved the Party to the Right after the 1997 landslide. I hear a lot of pious hopes and promises of jam tomorrow and I see that the Tories left our economics in a dreadful state but I look back to where we were at the start of WW2 and what we did then. Despite being broke we fought a global war and in the end succeeded. We ditched political conflict and fought together using the full benefits of deficit financed capital and it worked.
I'm not suggesting a mirror image of that now but we need the same imagination and willingness to try new policies all of them underpinned by principles and a clear goal. I see no signs of any of these things..... I have no evidence that the mechanism of Cabinet Government inside Number 10 is functioning.
Above all, Starmer is an insipid character who speaks badly and cannot grip an audience as he should be able to do.
Sorry but I have given up on him. If you think I am wrong, say so. The Labour Party has not found the Leader it needs and until it does and changes course it is doomed to flounder on as a Tory Light Lookalike and make room for something quite awful like the resurgence of the Tories or, worst of all, the triumph of Reform. It's that bad!

[Tripps]

I feel we are teetering on the brink of global wars.....

Very perceptive and well spotted - I've had the feeling for months.

I'm told that these are "moderate rebels" but perhaps that's because we don't disagree with everything they do.
I have to shake myself and remind myself that Bashar al-Assad used to be a doctor at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and quickly brush up on what an Alouite is.
*******

If only Labour had adopted Ed Miliband's proposals - but rather than have him sectioned, they made him responsible for implementing Net Zero., which is impossible, and moves in that direction, which are well underway, will ruin the country.

edstone.jpeg

[Stanley]

I see that Assad is in Moscow and it has been officially announced that he will be given asylum.
In Damascus, the leader of the rebels sounds to be sincere and an improvement, we can only wait and hope to see if he does what it says on the tin!

[Stanley]

THIS assessment of the problems posed by events in Syria written by Chris Mason is worth reading.
Incidentally, am I being over sensitive or is Lammy's language frequently a tad more colourful than we should expect from a minister of state?

[Tizer]

Although Assad is in Moscow Putin refuses to meet him - not surprising when you think Assad has now caused him so much embarrassment. And Putin, like Trump, hates `losers'.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft have been bombing all the sites in Syria they say harbour chemical weapons. They've also bombed the airfields - I wonder if Putrin got his jets out in time? And Israeli tanks are rolling towards Damascus - said to be 40km away this morning.

[Tizer]

Later news on Syria and Israel from the BBC live news feed...
Turkey has joined some Middle Eastern nations - including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - in accusing Israel of exploiting the downfall of Assad. The Israeli military has acknowledged its troops are operating in Syrian territory, beyond the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights

The Israelis have also destroyed the Syrian navy's fleet at Latakia. And more here about President Erdogan of Turkey; he says his country will stand against any attacks on the "integrity of (Syria's) lands"....
"From now on, we cannot allow Syria to be divided again... Any attack on the freedom of the Syrian people, the stability of the new administration, and the integrity of its lands will find us standing against it," he adds. His comments come after the Turkish foreign ministry earlier denounced the Israel Defense Forces for entering a the demilitarised buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. "When the possibility of achieving the peace and stability that the Syrian people have desired for many years has emerged, Israel is once again displaying its occupying mentality", the ministry said in a statement, reiterating support for Syria's "territorial integrity".

[Stanley]

See THIS report confirming the attack on Syrian ships. ....
Israel has confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet, as part of its efforts to neutralise military assets in the country after the fall of the Assad regime. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its ships struck the ports at Al-Bayda and Latakia on Monday night, where 15 vessels were docked. The BBC has verified videos showing blasts at the port of Latakia, with footage appearing to show extensive damage to ships and parts of the port. The IDF also said its warplanes had conducted more than 350 air strikes on targets across Syria, while moving ground forces into the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights. Earlier, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it had documented more than 310 strikes by the IDF since the Syrian government was overthrown by rebels on Sunday. In a statement, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IDF was aiming to "destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel". He added that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a "great success".
Katz also denied there were any tanks heading for Damascus. He said such reports were false.
Meanwhile.... SEE THIS report about efforts to get some normality on the ground.....
The prime minister of Syria's new transitional government has said it is time for people to "enjoy stability and calm" after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, was speaking to Al Jazeera after being tasked with governing until March 2025 by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies. Bashir chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by members of his new government and those of Assad's former cabinet to discuss the transfer of portfolios and institutions. It came as the UN envoy for Syria said the rebels must transform their "good messages" into practice on the ground. The US secretary of state meanwhile said Washington would recognise and fully support a future Syrian government so long as it emerged from a credible, inclusive process that respected minorities.
I hope they can succeed.... Israel isn't helping and sooner or later something is going to have to be done about them!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report about medieval practices inside modern health care.....
Women experiencing painful health issues are told to "put up and shut up," a 32-year-old awaiting surgery for a "horrific" gynaecological condition has said. Gabriella Pearson started her periods aged 10, calling them "painful from the start". She is no longer able to work and she cannot have children naturally. She said she had learned to "just get on with it because that's what you're told your whole life - especially as a woman". She spoke to the BBC as MPs warned "misogyny in medicine" was "leaving women in pain and their conditions undiagnosed". Women with conditions including heavy periods, endometriosis and adenomyosis are being dismissed when they ask for help, members of Westminster's Women and Equalities Committee concluded. Chairwoman Sarah Owen said women were being "fobbed off" and said "it would not happen if it was a man".
I don't doubt that Ms Owen is correct and it's a sad commentary on modern thinking that a situation like this can be tolerated.
I had some experience of this because for many years I had occasional bouts of Cystitis, normally a condition associated with women. I learned how painful it can be, I have seen it drop me to the floor in agony. But I was lucky enough to be treated by a lady doctor who understood the problem and she cured me. None of my male doctors had done anything to help, indeed it was almost seen as a joke that I had 'a woman's complaint'.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC article for the latest example of the urban/rural divide.
The government is not "waging war on rural England" with plans to force councils to allow more homes to be built in their areas, the housing minister has said. Matthew Pennycook hit back at Conservative claims the government was "concreting over" green belt land. He told MPs new housing targets for local councils were focused on parts of the country where housing was least affordable - and it was "wrong" to say rural areas would bear the brunt of the changes.
It doesn't matter who is in power, we are going to see more and more of this argument. Cities are expanding and rural communities are in decline. It all comes down to the fact we are a lot better at making babies than providing for them!

[Tizer]

More `hybrid warfare'...
`North Korea made millions from remote work scheme, US says' LINK
A federal court in St Louis has indicted 14 North Koreans for allegedly being part of a long-running conspiracy aimed at extorting funds from US companies and funneling money to Pyongyang's weapons programmes. The wider scheme allegedly involves thousands of North Korean IT workers who use false, stolen, and borrowed identities from people in the US and other countries to get hired and work remotely for US firms. The indictement says the defendants and others working with them generated at least $88m (£51.5m) for the North Korean regime over a six-year period...

.... "While we have disrupted this group and identified its leadership, this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Ashley T. Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI's field office in St Louis. "The government of North Korea has trained and deployed thousands of IT workers to perpetrate this same scheme against US companies every day."

[Stanley]

"Infamy, Infamy. They've all got it in for me...." Unfortunately it's getting to the stage where it's true.

See THIS for an example of history repeating itself.
The UK does not have enough construction workers to build the 1.5 million homes the government keeps promising, industry leaders have warned. Tens of thousands of new recruits across bricklaying, groundworks and carpentry are needed to get anywhere near the target, they told the BBC. The Home Builders Federation (HBF), along with the UK's largest housebuilder Barratt Redrow said skills shortages, ageing workers and Brexit were some of the factors behind the shrinking workforce. The government confirmed there was a "dire shortage" of construction workers but said it was "taking steps to rectify" the problem.
When the government initiated a massive programme of house building after the Great War (Homes Fit For Heroes) it hit this problem and again in the house building programme after 1947. In both cases increases in demands for labour and materials forced prices up as well. I keep saying they should read their history, it might have been useful here.....

Have a look at THIS report about Prince Andrew....
The Duke of York has been dogged by questions about two overlapping problems - his judgement and his finances. It is an issue that goes back to the loss of Prince Andrew's status as a working royal, stepping down over his association with the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It has been raised again with the controversy over a Chinese business contact, accused of cultivating financial links with the prince in a way that could be exploited for "leverage for political purposes". Responding, Prince Andrew's office said he had "ceased all contact" with the businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government, and nothing sensitive was discussed. It is a reminder of how the royals can be targeted by those wanting to build links either for their own personal ambition or for a strategic political agenda. Getting close to the royals is seen as a way of getting influence.
The question is do we really need these people? In another topic Peter raises the question about links with Qatar and shopping bags full of cash.....
I can never forget the fact that our present adulterous king is the product of a union between a Germanic descendant and a Greek father. These things are never discussed and it is bad manners to raise them but I have read the history. Sorry....

[Tizer]

`Milei, Musk and Maga: Is Argentina influencing the US?' LINK
Later in this article Marcelo J García, Buenos Aires-based director for the Americas at global consulting firm Horizon Engage: ...argues that while Musk's own business interests would benefit from less government regulation, that's not necessarily what Trump wants. "I'm not sure that the Trump platform is compatible with a Milei-type chainsaw small government," he told the BBC. He points out that Trump's policies "require big government in some areas", such as the building of border walls and mass deportations of illegal immigrants. "You can't do those kinds of massive programmes with small government."

[Stanley]

That's an interesting article Peter. My own view is that whenever you see an administration 'cutting waste' by devolving power and reducing subsidy it is as much about divesting itself from responsibility as fiscal efficiency. I believe that Nye Bevan was right when he talked about retaining control of the commanding heights of the economy. We have seen the UK sell all the family silver (to quote Harold Macmillan...) and it has done nothing for the economy but weaken it.

[Stanley]

THIS is what qualifies as 'political news' at the moment.....
Kemi Badenoch has robustly defended her dislike of sandwiches, telling the BBC she was "happy with my unique choices". In an interview with The Spectator,, external the Conservative leader said: "I'm not a sandwich person. I don't think sandwiches are a real food, it's what you have for breakfast." Her comments sparked a mini-political row with the prime minister's spokesman defending sandwiches as a "great British institution".
All I can say is Good Grief!