Will Israel's strikes on Iran lead to all out war?
We spoke to former British ambassador to Iran Richard Dalton, and Annelle Sheline from the Quincy Institute, who is a former foreign affairs officer at the US State Department.
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Western Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Pembrokeshire activists join 4,000 strong March to Gaza
Jim Scott, a tree surgeon and activist from Mathry, and Tamsin Nash, a Pembrokeshire art curator and mother of four are joining the Global March to Gaza. The march involves more than four thousand people from 54 different countries walking on foot on a three-day, 30-mile hike through the Sinai desert to the border crossing at Gaza. They aim to demand a stop to the genocide and demanding that Israel re-opens the border to allow a humanitarian corridor to be established. (Image: Jim Scott) The campaigners set off on Friday, June 13, aiming to reach Rafah by Sunday, June 15. Pembrokeshire campaigner Jim Scott joins the march as part of the official delegation from CND Cymru. 'I am aware that by marching 30 miles on foot through the Sinai desert to the Rafah border we may face arrest, detention, deportation or imprisonment,' said Jim. 'A worse outcome might be that if we do reach Rafah which is a militarised zone, we may face military aggression and could even be killed ourselves by the Israeli army.' Upon his arrival in Egypt Jim published an open letter sent to Pembrokeshire's Labour MP, Henry Tufnell, Eluned Morgan MS and other elected representatives in Wales including secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens heavily criticising them for inaction over the Gaza genocide. 'As one of your constituents and as a citizen of the United Kingdom, I feel I must act where you have not acted and take steps to prevent the further genocide in Gaza where your government has failed to do so,' the letter begins. 'As the British government and yourself have failed in your international duty and legal obligation to effectively oppose and prevent war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide in occupied Palestine over the last 19 months, I feel I have no choice but to take action myself. 'Only those of us who resist, oppose and fight back against Israel's crimes now will be on the right side of history.' (Image: Jim Scott) The letter concludes by imploring politicians to demand that a humanitarian corridor to be opened via Rafah and criticised the UK Government for not taking meaningful steps such as ending arms sales and proper economic sanctions on the entire Israeli state. Pembrokeshire mother of four, Tasmin, described herself as an 'empathetic human', when asked why she'd travelled to Egypt to join the delegation. 'Yesterday I saw four bewildered children bleeding on a hospital bed, from another bomb attack. How can I carry on as normal?' she said. 'With tens of thousands murdered as Israel continues to destroy and burn people alive, I cannot rest. I cannot stay silent. 'We have witnessed atrocities enacted with impunity for 20 months. Poets killed, journalists assassinated, children snipered, fathers murdered for being hungry, newborns denied critical care and left to die, children orphaned, women shot - the crimes are colossal. I have protested, lobbied, fundraised, talked, disrupted." "Now is the time to mobilise our passion and humanity. Alongside the 12 hearts aboard the Freedom Flotilla I endeavour to do what our governments have failed - rise and move to show it's the people who will make the difference. "We are united for justice and solidarity for Palestine." (Image: Jim Scott) The members of the delegation said they were moved by the high levels of support offered from many people who have pledged to donate to a crowdfunder to help with the costs of attending the march. A spokesperson for CND Cymru said: 'We are proud to support this important march by sending a delegation. 'In the face of the genocide of the Palestinian people, western governments have been silent. In being part of this march, we are telling the Palestinian people we bear witness. And we will not forgive those who have committed these acts of brutality. 'As the Madleen and Conscience carried both material aid and the hope and goodwill of the people of the world, so too does this international march.'
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Paul Johnson: The spending review was ‘incomprehensible'
Rachel Reeves's spending review was the 'most incomprehensible speech I've ever heard from a chancellor', according to Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He spoke to me on today's edition of Coffee House Shots. In this special episode, I was also joined by Ruth Curtice, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, to take a wider look at Britain's fiscal and economic problems. Why, despite record tax levels, do our public services feel as if they're in managed decline? Why do voters' expectations of the state seem so out of whack with what we actually deliver? We discussed whether Ruth's predecessor, Torston Bell, was right to claim Labour has ended austerity, and how much the lingering effects of Covid still shape where we are today. Paul and Ruth examined whether our economic doom loop – the endless chatter about tax rises and spending squeezes – are explained by structural problems in the British economy. Are tax rises inevitable? Or do the public need to get on board with a smaller state. Finally, I asked what they would do as Treasury dictators with a free hand to reform any policy they like. Listen below.
The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Churchill won the war but lost the peace - was that inevitable?
Plus ca change. The popular history of the Second World War - as pushed by newspapers and the media in general - is usually the story of Churchill. He is the Second World War in the popular imagination. The fact that he was a much more divisive figure back then is often written out of the story, as is the fact that he was leading a coalition government which included many of those who would be part of the radical Labour government of 1945; a government that would essentially create the world we have been living in for the last 80 years; the NHS, the welfare state, nationalised industry (now largely gone, of course) and the postwar consensus that has been fraying since the Thatcher era and is now in the age of Trump perhaps about to disappear. Read more The 1945 election is the subject of historian David Runciman's new 20-part Radio 4 series Postwar which has been stripped across the week from Monday to Friday and continues over the coming weeks (though as I write this many of the episodes are already available on BBC Sounds). These short, sharp historical nuggets paint a more detailed picture than the broad sweep, romanticised history that we get in VE anniversary broadcasts. And it explains why the newspapers got it so wrong. In 1945, Churchill may have been respected and admired, but the British people didn't want him any more. They wanted change. Labour embodied that change. And so ushered in the most radical government of the 20th century (whatever Thatcher fanboys might tell you). 'Why did the man who won the war, the hero of the hour and a hero for the ages, find himself so decisively rejected by the electorate?' Runciman asked in the first episode on Monday. His argument was that Britain had already changed because of the war. It was being run by a coalition government which had taken control of employment, prices, health, education, food. In other words, it was not very Tory, despite the man leading it. 'The new world was already here,' Runciman pointed out. 'It had been created during the war, the question was … who could be trusted with it.' Not Churchill. His reputation in 1945 was less black and white than it is now. He was seen as a man of war, not of peace. And a gambler who was willing to take risks. Many still remembered his gamble at Gallipoli in the First World War that had led to the death of thousands of British soldiers. Perversely, his opponent, Clement Atlee was seen as more conservative and therefore more reliable. (Atlee had fought at Gallipoli and actually approved of Churchill's gamble.) The country was still at war when the election was held. The previous election was in 1935. That meant that in 1945 no one under the age of 30 had voted in a British election (the voting age was still 21). But many of them had fired a gun. The Labour manifesto of 1945 was that rare thing in politics, a genuine bestseller. Voters were hungry for postwar Britain to begin. Kenny Logan (Image: Royal & Awesome) The problems were hardly over, of course. The dismantling of empire and the construction of a postwar peace both loomed large. And the new Britain that emerged was very far from perfect. But it aspired to make a better world for its citizens. However flawed the result, there's a heroism in that. But that's a story we rarely tell ourselves. Postwar deserves credit for doing so. Over on Radio 2 Kenny Logan - of Scottish rugby and Strictly Come Dancing fame - was guest on Vernon Kay's Tracks of My Years slot this week. In between his record choices he spoke about his dyslexia, his prostate cancer diagnosis, farming and Strictly (natch). But the most moving part of the conversation came at the end of the week when he talked about the late, great Doddie Weir, his team mate who battled motor neurone disease in his later years. You could hear the catch in Logan's voice as he spoke about Weir. But the joy too as he recalled a day out with Weir bouncing over a hayfield in the car singing along to Amy MacDonald's This is the Life. In the end we are the memories we leave behind. Listen Out For: Private Passions, Radio 3, Sunday, June 15, noon Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega is Michael Berkeley's guest on this Sunday's edition of Private Passions. Given that The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon was also a recent guest I can hear a few Radio 3 refuseniks seeing this as another sign of the station dumbing down. But listening to Vega is always worth your time and her musical choices do include Debussy, Bartok and Philip Glass.
