Fire alarm in the classroom
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Sky News' deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Anne McElvoy have their guide to the day ahead in British politics.
As Matt Wrack, a former hard-left firefighter is endorsed as the the next leader of one of the two main teaching unions, Sam and Anne discuss the fallout for the government.
Mr Wrack, who is the preferred candidate for the NASUWT is a former general secretary of the fire brigade's union, but he has no professional educational background.
They also discuss the ongoing conversations about defence spending and how Europe will protect itself as both Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer spend their day on defence visits.
Plus, are there plans to remove President Zelenskyy from office? Anne has been speaking to members of the Ukrainian government.
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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
I know the ingredients of Ulster's riots only too well
When I saw images of the homes of immigrant families in Ballymena with loyalist flags placed in their windows to ward off racist mobs, and fearful handmade posters reading 'I work in a care home', I felt as if I was back there. It was all so horribly, desperately, familiar. I grew up about ten miles from the epicentre of the anti-immigrant rioting, in my hometown Antrim. Ballymena and Antrim are like twins. Same people, same problems, same hate. Loyalism runs strong here, as it does in other towns where violence spread: Larne, Portadown, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus. As a young reporter, I covered crime and terrorism in these places. Read more from Neil Mackay: Back then, the towns of County Antrim were dominated by loyalist paramilitaries. Other areas had Republican gunmen and the IRA. Where I grew up, the UVF and UDA were in charge. Though there's always exceptions to the rule. Republican areas had loyalist pockets, and vice versa. Nothing is ever simple in the north of Ireland. My own family history was far from simple. On my maternal side, it was all Irish, Republican and Catholic. On the paternal side, all British, Loyalist and Protestant. Only in a place like Northern Ireland could the term 'mixed marriage' exist into the 21st century. So I got to know what makes both sides tick. I learned to understand – not accept, just understand – their hatreds. When I learned enough, I'd had enough. That's why I left and have lived in Scotland these last 30 years. I couldn't bear the place anymore. Though, in my heart, I still love its beauty, and its people. When my people are good – on both sides – they're very, very good. When they're bad, they're monsters. There's a terrible truth about what has happened in Northern Ireland, which might help folk in Scotland, bewildered by the labyrinthine history and tribal complexity of my country, understand the deep roots of recent events. Read more: The truth lies in what's called the 'siege mentality' of Ulster's loyalists. I deliberately differentiate between loyalism and unionism. Unionism is a perfectly respectable, mainstream political position. Loyalism has much darker shades to it. Everything is on a spectrum in Northern Ireland. There is, after all, a world of difference between an Irish nationalist who believes in gaining a United Ireland through democratic means, and an advocate of the IRA and armed republicanism. Loyalism's siege mentality has deep roots in the past. It goes back to the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s, when mostly Scottish Protestants settled lands once owned by Irish Catholics. In effect, Ireland became the first 'British' colony, and Ulster was ground zero. To take someone's land you must fight them, and that means you must kill them and they'll kill you back. To kill people, you must learn to hate them. Therein lies the source of loyalism's siege mentality. Loyalists just never felt safe on the land they took. Why would someone from Ireland, like me, have a name like 'Mackay'? The plantation is your answer. Sometime, long ago, my paternal Scottish ancestors colonised the land which my maternal Irish ancestors owned. Siege mentality requires a sense of your own supremacy. You must think: this is my land, nobody else deserves it. Wars and bloodshed have come and gone, but such ancestral traits are hard to shake. All of us carry some burden inherited from our grandfathers and grandmothers. The Troubles are over. Such a ghastly euphemism for what it was: an ethnic civil war of neighbour against neighbour. But grievance and supremacy linger on. To many hardline loyalists, this land is still their land and nobody can claim any right to it; others do not belong, just as Catholics once didn't belong. You can see how such deep psychological currents can easily wash up against the shores of present-day racism and anti-immigrant hate. Thus, all those loyalist flags placed in immigrant windows; thus, all those signs saying 'we're local, we work in care homes'. It was an attempt to say 'we don't threaten you', 'we aren't here to take what you believe is yours'. Even after the riots began, politicians from the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice party talked of 'the influx of Roma' and 'very real grievances' among the people of Ballymena. So far, it appears that loyalist paramilitaries are not orchestrating the violence. Yet. Though the burning of homes has called to mind images of loyalist mobs burning Catholics out of Belfast at the start of the Troubles: the trigger for the arrival of the British army. Aaron Edwards, a Northern Irish security analyst and author who I know and whose work on loyalism I respect, says the absence of loyalist paramilitaries 'may not last for long'. The areas where rioting happened are poor. It is easy for violent men to exploit marginalisation and deprivation. Evidently, supremacy and poverty are a combustible mix. Nor can we forget the long links between loyalist terrorists and the British far-right. That truth came roaring into sight during last summer's far-right riots, which spread from England to Ulster. These are dangerous times in Northern Ireland, where violence and hatred are never far from the surface. What we're seeing may look very new – very 21st century – but the tragedy is that this is a very old toxin still poisoning the country that I both love and loathe.
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Russian forces break into yet another Ukrainian region
Vladimir Putin's summer offensive is fully under way: all day and night, Russian infantrymen run at Ukrainian positions in endless waves. Even when struck, the survivors don't retreat or take cover but keep running forward, until there are so many of them that no amount of drones or shells can stop them. That's how Russian troops have broken into yet another Ukrainian region: the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The push came near the village of Horikhove, on the border between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as the Kremlin declared a new phase in its 'denazification' campaign. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary, claimed that the Russian penetration into the region is part of an effort to create a buffer zone in Ukraine, but this phrase is no more than the Kremlin's usual code for territories it has yet to seize but fully intends to.
ITV News
3 hours ago
- ITV News
Emma Murphy: Israel and Iran are fighting for political survival
For months now, speculation has been growing that Israel would strike Iran. 'Imminent,' the much overused word to suggest attacks in weeks, days or hours - in the early hours they came. I understand the UK first got intelligence that something significant was being planned a couple of months back, but the intel was said to be 'woolly'. Only in the last few weeks has it become slightly clearer. In some British government quarters, the more strained relationship with the US is blamed for a lack of clarity. In the last few days, concern had been rising that with Israel emboldened, the attack would be of scale. The actual scale and the timing were not what the British government was expecting, even as late as Thursday, and I'm told there was no prior notice of what had taken place. It's still unclear how much the United States knew of the actual details and timing. What has unfolded is likely to have governments around the world questioning just what this means for global stability and finance. In Iran, the questioning will be more existential. The Iranian regime has a reputation for strategic patience, though now it may not have such luxury. Fundamentally, they want to stay alive and stay in power. What they do next will be with those goals in mind. They have seen the wrecking ball with which Israel hit their great ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing its leadership, tearing through its ranks, resources and stockpiles, and it serves as a warning. But the regime is stronger than Hezbollah, and given the size of Iran, it will be more difficult to degrade its stockpiles of ballistic missiles, which can reach Israel in minutes. They are thought to hold vast reserves. Will this be the moment they decide to use swathes of their arsenal? Will that be enough to deter further strikes by Israel, likely with the US by their side? It is a huge gamble. But it is a huge gamble too by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and represents the act of a leader who feels emboldened. Politically, he is also under threat and taking on Iran without the cast-iron support of the US is new and lethal territory. Let's not forget Iran has had plenty of time to prepare for this. If he has not done enough to finish his great foe, he risks taking the region and the world into another of those Middle Eastern wars that Donald Trump was so adamant to stop. In fighting for survival, they are fighting to the death. As a security source told me, 'What comes next, soon, will not be pretty.'
