Author: Richard

So Israel is banning UN Personnel from entering tjhe country as it does not like what Guetes has said! Have western democracies been negligent in not bringing Israel to account earlier? Israel seems to believe it has a carte blanche to wreak whatever atricities it likes on Palestinians with impunity. Any criticism is soon met with a mention of the holocaust. Israel has now attacked Syria – almost goading them into a reaction. Is this in the hope of the west then endorsing them even more.

If you are just joining us, here are some highlights from Tuesday’s UN Security Council meeting in New York. I fully agree with Guterres statement.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire to end “epic suffering” in Gaza and that “no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law”

• He also said the Hamas attack on October 7 “did not happen in a vaccum”. That drew an angry response from Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who wrote on X, describing Guterres’ statement as “shocking” and “disconnected from the reality in our region”. He added that he would cancel his meeting with the UN chief
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that every country has the right to defend itself and that “we must unequivocally condemn Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack against Israel”. But he added that “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza
• Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for a ceasefire, expressing “regret” over the Security Council’s failure to adopt a resolution calling for one

I am ashamed to say tat I have suffered from war fatigue. I have turned over the news to avoid hearing about the deaths of civilians in Gaza. The Israelis are trying to keep the public aware of the horrific attacks by hamas with a constant trickle of new evidence – layest was body cams footage. Corbyn is correct in that there needs to be a ceasefire – a comment also fordefully made by Stephen Flyn of te SNP. Starmer seems scarred by Labours past disputes with Zionism and basically echoes a watered down version of whatever Sunak says.

Only with a ceadefire can wider conflict be avoided – Israel has already bobed targets on the West Bank whilst confict with Hezbollah in lebanon is never far away. Will Israel provoke Iran and thus cause a major confrontation. The oil price is creeping up suggesting that this is a possibility.

Sadly unreported by most papers the Covid Inquiry continues to throw up scandals! The current Governments Chief Medical Advisor referred to Sunak (Then Chancellor) as Dr.Death regarding his eat out to help out initiative. The Mail was also referred to for the pressure they put on the government to get people back to work to enable more newspaper sales! Only Matt Hancock came out as OK yesterday! He commented that calls for more people to wear masks was premature as there were not enough masks available and demand might take them away from nurses and care home workers who needed them.

Tories routed in two ‘safe’ seats. What will happen now? Sunak has never looked weaker – his trip to the Middle East has shown his lack of any semblence of statesmanship. Quite why he flew out there is puzzling – maybe he was hoping recalcerant conservative voters in Mid-Beds and Tamworth would turn out and vote tory. No such luck! The majority of tory M.P.s will be aware that he is unlikely to lead them even to an honourable defeat.

We know that there is a sizeable group around Truss – probably about 60+. however it is unlikely that they will coalesce behind her. She had her chance and blew it! Other front runners like Mordant, Braverman and Badenoch are probably too extreme for the majority of conservative voters. i wonder if we will see yet another leadership farce?

Is this a sign tat the majority of voters swinging into the middle. Starmer did not raise the Labour vote, it was more a case of tories not bothering to turn out? However as Labour firm up policies they are likely to increase their votes. Sunak seems to be putting his hopes on telling the electorate that the government for the past 12 years has be a disaster and he will change things for the better. However he seems to lack the political nous, gravitas or ability to convince people. Unless they work incredibly hard it is unlikely that either of last nights winners will win again in a General Election.

It was also heartening that the vote for the right wing groups was small, although totalled 8.1% in Tamworth. With tactical voting we could indeed see an armeggedon for the tories at the GE. Will those ‘true’ tories start to be more vocal – those in the centre have been too long in the shadow of the right wing (perhaps this is down to the lack of press coverage, who love the rapid right). In many ways British Politics needs a strong opposition?

I was brought up to respect the police. However it is getting increasingly difficult. A 13 year old boy was knocked off his bike by armed police and then had a sub-machine gun pointed at him whilst he was handcuffed. His crime? Playing with a bright blue water pistol with his younger sister who had a bright pink one. And yes, he was black! Would a white child have been subjected to the same police action? It is of concern that the police, who had enough time to follow and knock the child off his bike, could not tell the difference between a pistol and a brightly coloured water pistol. And still the Met.Police Commissioner maintains, despite now 2 reports to the contrary, that the Met Police are not institutionally racist! The investigation has found no fault in te police officers who also criticised the mother for getting angry with them. I realise that the armed police have a difficult job that requires instatant decision making (hopefully they are trained to do this), but this does seem to be a bit over te top!

Elsewhere Geta Thunberg was arrested for demonstratiing to save the planet, and our wonderful government has just realised that the prisons are full and they are having to let some prisoners out early! And baroness Monet is still free!

Proving that he is no statesman, and not a leader of all the people of this country. He has the aroange of priveldge that permeates the Conservatibve Party. He believes that he is always correct. As leader of the UK he should have chosen his words much more carefully to represent the views of all communities in the UK. Of course he should condemn the actions of Hamas – but he should also strongly support the ending of the humanitarian crisis that Israel is creating. Israel has for too long believed that it could act with impunity with regards to Palestine.

Some members of the Israeli Government are promoting the killing of Palestinians. Sunak is supporting this. Is there no one calling for a cessation of hostilities? Israel has now killed approx 3000 Palestinians with no evidence that any of them were Hamas terrorists.

Surely it is totally naive to think that the last 70 years of Israeli occupation can be wiped from the equation.

Those who perpetrated the 7-10-23 massacre should not be alowed to walk freely amongst us. Hostages should be freed, but Israel should not only halt the bombings but also agree to meaningful talks about the future. British politicians talk about supporting Israels right to defend itself – by which I interpret as its borders – but where are its legal borders? Continued annexation of the West Bank is a desired policy of several cabinet ministers in Israel.

So Sunak’s answer as ever involvred money. His response to the crisis in Gaza is to state that he is allocating £10 million in humanitarian aid. He knows this is meaningless as there is no way in or out of Gaza at present. At least Starmer sounded statesman like at PMQ’s, calling for international law to be observed. It is action not £ or $ that are needed to halt the humanitarian crisis.

It also seems that, with press being barred from the area, we are dependant upon dodgy internet sites. The latest tragedy in the hospital may have been an Israeli air attack (possibly inadvertent?) or a Jihad group missle failure.. The internet was quick to fill with people stating certainty. To be honest neither side has my trust. Hamas has conducted a most heineous crime and Israel has killed hundreds of civilians, many children, in revenge attacks.

Many politicians still refer to a two state solution. My daughter has suggested that it is nationalism that is atnthe root of the problem and whilst I agree with her I am not sure this is practical. My solution would be a federal state with guarantees of veto over certain issues – but any hope of any negotiation seems totally implausibe at present.

Obviously this inquiry is overshadowed by the events in the Middle East. But the brief bits I have copied below means that when Johnson appears before the inquiry the spparks should fly! As many suspected at the time we had a government without a clue and driven by ideolical dogma rather than science. It is worth noting that Truss, Coffrey,, Sunak (resigned in2022) Jenrick, Shapps, Barclay, Raab, Cleverly, Gove were all part of the shambles. I wonder what their WhatsApp will reveal together with Hancocks. The government already trailing Labour by 23 points in opinion polls will not be looking forward to the appearance before the Inquiry of these figures. Sunak in particular gets a bit flustered when interrogated. Johnson will hope to btrazen it out with carefully scripted sound bites until he goes off on one! His political career seems to be over anyway, although the remaining party faithful who have not died still prefer him to Sunak, Truss or basically anyone else as they believe he is the only one who can win an election! Johnson and Sunak may try to claim that they were not guilty ofthe partygate scandal, despite having paid the fines.

WhatsApp messages from 2020 released by the Covid inquiry have revealed senior civil servant Simon Case complaining about the influence of Carrie, the partner of then-PM Boris Johnson.In exchanges with a Downing Street adviser at the time, Dominic Cummings, Mr Case jokes that Mrs Johnson was “the real person in charge”.In a later text Mr Case also says the government looks like a “tragic joke”.The messages came as the Covid inquiry heard evidence on political governance.The screenshot of the WhatsApp group chat from autumn 2020, provided by Mr Cummings, was displayed on screen during a session in which the senior lawyer for the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC, was drawing attention to what he called “dysfunctionality” at the heart of government.