Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Beth Rigby calling on Starmer to apologize to people on the base in Cyprus who were left unprotected. Watch their media mates shuffle quietly away from any responsibility for the state of the defenses. This wouldn't even be brought up if they were still in Government. It would all be "Labour fail to look like a government in waiting" if they did what the Tories are doing.

They're not going to give out till they've forced out Labour, are they? Did Mrs Thatcher get asked to apologize to Falkland Islanders (they actually got invaded, not just fired at)

Another reason we need stricter rules on media ownership in the UK. Who owns Comcast?

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 1:37 pm Can't win, can they?

On this stuff? Not really, but no need to make it worse with speeches that upset your base. Get it done, if you have to, then give a speech about how (just within Shabana's own brief) you're going to make the Police more efficient.

By the by, this article popped up on the home page of our favourite paper.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... regulators

June 2025

Starmer’s promised ethics commission may repackage existing regulators

Government sources say ‘umbrella’ structure now more likely after plans for independent body found to be too complex

This followed earlier in June

Keir Starmer facing scrutiny over failure to establish new ethics watchdog
This article is more than 8 months old
Commons inquiry to examine lack of progress in fulfilling manifesto pledge to set up ethics and integrity body

You get the message right? There he goes again, shifty old Starmer!

What's this?

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org. ... commission

September 2025. Note the source isn't The Guardian.

Ethics and Integrity Commission
The government has established its new ethics regulator, the Ethics and Integrity Commission.

With more powers than the bodies it replaced too.

Like the CSPL, the EIC does not investigate specific cases. The EIC has taken on new responsibilities, including:
A formal leadership role to convene ethics and standards bodies in central government and in parliament;
Delivering an annual report to the prime minister on the overall health of the standards system;
Engaging with public sector bodies to help them develop “clear codes of conduct with effective oversight arrangements”.2
The government has also committed to responding to all EIC reports “in a reasonable timeframe”;3 governments have responded to CSPL reports in the past, though in some cases this has taken several years.

So, manifesto promise kept, independent oversight strengthened.

How long before anybody has a word with the journos who keep predicting stuff that doesn't come true, and whose errors always seems to show the Government in bad light? Or perhaps that's what the high ups actually want, you think?

Another one here. I posted this article before where George Monbiot managed to create a Jacob Rees-Mogg policy on dangerous chemicals from a consultation and some rhetoric about saving costs for business.

Want to import toxic chemicals into Britain with scant scrutiny? Labour says: go right ahead


Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Tory fantasy of a post-Brexit bonfire of regulations is coming true. Our bodies and ecosystems will pay the price

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... egulations

Well, the consultation is done, and the Health and Safety Executive responded last month. As far as I can see, there's been nothing at all on this. It's purely about generating the outrage, not informing. Doesn't matter how many footnotes Monbiot puts in his articles on his website. This is what his game is, increasingly.

This looks good...

Turns out it was Ed Miliband who stopped us joining in Trump's war.

Looks like Starmer's dead inline with the public...

Has Polanski even called for limited defensive military action Green voters appear to favour? Looks like Starmer's cleaning up on support for this crisis.
And reporting that Trump called Starmer a loser isn't the big win the media and Farage think it is. Woeful.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 6:28 pm Turns out it was Ed Miliband who stopped us joining in Trump's war.

It's actually... The "War Cabinet" as a whole.

We've have all thought Richard Hermer was the main blockage. Actually it was Milband, Reeves, Cooper and Mahmood. A PM who can't carry his own war cabinet

Or a PM who reached a decision that is overwhelmingly supported by the public. "Weak" though.

Have they shifted position there? I thought these people wanted us all in with the US and Israel. Now they're quibbling over attacking Iranian missile bases on Friday as opposed to Sunday?

Youngian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 7:14 pm Has Polanski even called for limited defensive military action Green voters appear to favour? Looks like Starmer's cleaning up on support for this crisis.
And reporting that Trump called Starmer a loser isn't the big win the media and Farage think it is. Woeful.

Well, it's worked for Polanski so far. Why start acknowledging complexity now?

In other news, Mothin Ali is deeply upset that the demonstration he went to has been misrepresented. Only some of the groups who attended were lunatic Iran apologists, and says the misrepresentation has put him in danger. Luckily he's always punctilious with the words he uses, and it's inconceivable that anyone could be put in danger by them.

Edit- this is a bit flippant. Obviously I don't think it's OK he's in danger, but he needs to be much more careful with who he associates with.

More of this, please.

The defence secretary, John Healey, has accused opposition politicians of deliberately undermining the UK’s relationship with Donald Trump, saying it was “unpatriotic” for MPs to seek to turn the US against Keir Starmer.

Healey, speaking to the Guardian at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone strike over the weekend, said he had been shocked at the way politicians like Nigel Farage had sought to “undermine” the UK’s relationship with the US.

Mothin is very green fingered and runs his own gardening YouTube channel. I haven't encountered racist gardeners being white but Ali has and hasn't kept his head down over it.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 7:29 pm

Youngian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 7:14 pm Has Polanski even called for limited defensive military action Green voters appear to favour? Looks like Starmer's cleaning up on support for this crisis.
And reporting that Trump called Starmer a loser isn't the big win the media and Farage think it is. Woeful.

Well, it's worked for Polanski so far. Why start acknowledging complexity now?

In other news, Mothin Ali is deeply upset that the demonstration he went to has been misrepresented. Only some of the groups who attended were lunatic Iran apologists, and says the misrepresentation has put him in danger. Luckily he's always punctilious with the words he uses, and it's inconceivable that anyone could be put in danger by them.

Edit- this is a bit flippant. Obviously I don't think it's OK he's in danger, but he needs to be much more careful with who he associates with.

Mothin was more than happy to help to hound out a Rabbi out of the University of Leeds.

https://www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-bal ... t-on-iran/

At first glance, Keir Starmer’s response to Donald Trump’s war on Iran looks like a summation of everything that is wrong with his government. Instead of a clear, marketable decision, Starmer has managed to find an extraordinarily nuanced and complicated position.

The UK forbade the US from using its military bases to launch its first strikes against Iran over the weekend, largely on the basis that those first strikes had no basis in law – Donald Trump had made no attempt to get Congressional approval for the invasion, had no UN authorisation for it, and had offered no consistent public justification for his actions.

Trump has been upset by that decision. He has publicly criticised Starmer, going so far as to say he’s “no Winston Churchill” – a huge shock to everyone who thought he was. Both the Conservative Party and Reform, along with most right-wing papers, have jumped on these attacks, lambasting Starmer for not joining these initial strikes.

But rather than carve out a clear anti-war position, on Monday Keir Starmer appeared to engage in yet another u-turn: the US could, he said, now use UK bases for strikes, provided that they were against Iranian missile launch sites. The UK might also participate in those strikes.

Starmer’s decision here was grounded in international law. The first strikes by the US and Israel were illegal. Very few people are trying to argue otherwise: supporters are merely saying that this doesn’t matter, and that international law is a relic of a bygone era. But once the US and Israel have started a conflict that puts British bases, interests, allies and citizens at risk, the UK has a legal right to defend itself.

James conveniently ignores the fact that British bases came under attack.

How difficult is it to accept that when events develop your stance might have to change?

From an American I follow on Twitter.



I don't think this is fair or accurate, but it represents a big problem Labour has with the narrative that it is a failure.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 10:56 pm From an American I follow on Twitter.

I don't think this is fair or accurate, but it represents a big problem Labour has with the narrative that it is a failure.

The government's biggest failure to date has been failing to control the narrative.

Thing is Labour is mostly in line with Spain and the Democrats in the US. I don't know the French position but I expect it to be similar. Trump isn't very popular over here even with flagshaggers. Involving yourself full throttle in this would be utterly crazy.

It's a war that within 6 days has gone from being over in 4-5 days to 4-5 weeks and now the latest is mentions of September, I assume by next friday discussion of 4-5 years will be mentioned.

The US will "win" the battle but like Iraq and Afghanistan there is no plan to win the "war" and hes already talking about invading Cuba. Venezuela seemed so easy I think he drank too much kool aid on the back of that.

Anyhow perhaps we have an Iran war post, as I fear its going be a long one.

Intriguing...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2lvp9vk5ro