Will ministers EVER understand the harm being caused by them taking the public for fools?
Truth and lies
WILL those ministers and officials running our public bodies ever understand the harm which is being caused by them taking the public for fools?
Left-wing ideology has infected the civil service so much that anyone questioning the wisdom of allowing millions to arrive from overseas is automatically considered a 'far right' threat by the Prevent programme.
1
Meanwhile, police still fail to properly record crimes committed by foreign nationals, or have to be forced to come clean by brave opposition politicians.
The latest example of trying to warp reality concerns the ongoing chaos at Britain's borders.
Appearing on BBC Question Time, Treasury minister Darren Jones made the totally false claim that small boat migrants are mainly 'women, children and babies'.
Yet — far from correcting the record — Downing Street tried to shut up shop.
The reality?
Some 70 per cent of those illegally arriving here by dinghy are men, many of them economic migrants.
The overwhelming majority of Brits are decent, tolerant and warmly welcoming people.
Those in charge would do well to treat them as such.
Not seek to suppress debate or massage away uncomfortable truths.
Starmer 'loses control' as over 1,000 migrants cross Channel in biggest daily total of 2025 – as French cops watch on
A just mission
ISRAEL was entirely justified in launching its surgical strikes on rogue terror-state Iran.
The mad mullahs in Tehran are hell-bent on developing nukes and then wiping out Israel.
Iran — bank-rolling both Hamas and Hezbollah — has repeatedly failed to comply with the UN on its uranium enrichment programme. And ignored Donald Trump's ultimatums to stop.
How else was Israel supposed to react to this intolerable situation?
Our Government should recognise another breathtaking Mossad operation has done well to take out the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Ordinary Iranians will be silently giving thanks, too.
Britain and America now have a duty to stand by Israel.
The destruction of Iran's nuclear ambitions would do the world a great favour.
Gongs & arrows
The King's Birthday Honours this year celebrate Britain's finest achievers — from the youngest to the oldest.
Luke Littler, just 18, deservedly gets an MBE for his darting heroics.
There's a gong, too, for 99-year-old war hero Geoff Roberts, a veteran of the Arnhem campaign.
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The Ukrainian president told journalists in Kyiv that the surge in oil prices threatens Ukraine's position on the battlefield, especially because western allies have not enforced effective price caps on Russian oil exports. 'The strikes led to a sharp increase in the price of oil, which is negative for us,' Mr Zelensky said. 'The Russians are getting stronger due to greater income from oil exports.' Global oil prices rose as much as 7% after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks over the past 48 hours, raising concerns that further escalation could disrupt oil exports from the Middle East. Mr Zelensky said he planned to raise the issue in a conversation with US President Donald Trump. 'In the near future, I will be in contact with the American side, I think with the president, and we will raise this issue,' he said. He also expressed concern that US military aid could be diverted away from Ukraine towards Israel during renewed tensions in the Middle East. 'We would like aid to Ukraine not to decrease because of this,' he said. 'Last time, this was a factor that slowed down aid to Ukraine.' Ukraine's military needs have been sidelined by the US in favour of supporting Israel, Mr Zelensky said, citing a shipment of 20,000 interceptor missiles, designed to counter Iran-made Shahed drones, which had been intended for Ukraine but were redirected to Israel. 'And for us it was a blow,' he said. 'When you face 300 to 400 drones a day, most are shot down or go off course, but some get through. We were counting on those missiles.' An air defence system, Barak-8, promised to Ukraine by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was sent to the US for repairs but never delivered to Ukraine, he added. The Ukrainian president conceded that momentum for the Coalition of the Willing, a group of 31 countries which have pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, has slowed because of US ambivalence over providing a backstop. 'This situation has shown that Europe has not yet decided for itself that it will be with Ukraine completely if America is not there,' he said. The offer of a foreign troop 'reassurance force' pledged by the coalition is still on the table 'but they need a backstop, as they say, from America' Mr Zelensky said. 'This means that suddenly, if something happens, America will be with them and with Ukraine.' The Ukrainian president also said the presence of foreign contingents in Ukraine would act as a security guarantee and allow Kyiv to make territorial compromises, which is the first time he has articulated a link between the reassurance force and concessions Kyiv is willing to make in negotiations with Russia. 'It is simply that their presence gives us the opportunity to compromise, when we can say that today our state does not have the strength to take our territories within the borders of 1991,' he said. But Europe and Ukraine are still waiting on strong signals from Mr Trump. Without major US sanctions against Russia, 'I will tell you frankly, it will be very difficult for us', Mr Zelensky said, adding that it would then fall on Europe to step up military aid to Ukraine. In other developments, Russia repatriated more bodies of fallen soldiers in line with an agreement reached during peace talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Russian officials said on Saturday, cited by Russian state media. The officials said Ukraine did not return any bodies to Russia on Saturday. Ukraine's Co-ordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed in a statement that Russia had returned 1,200 bodies. The first round of the staggered exchanges took place on Monday. The agreement to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of soldiers was the only tangible outcome of the talks in Istanbul on June 2. Continuing a renewed battlefield push along eastern and north-eastern parts of the 600-mile front line, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Saturday that its troops had captured another village in the Donetsk region, Zelenyi Kut. Russia launched 58 drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said its air defences destroyed 23 drones while another 20 were jammed. Russia's Defence Ministry said it shot down 66 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Telegraph
12 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How the fate of endangered swifts has become a political battleground
As thorny issues go, the plight of the humble swift may seem an unlikely controversy to split political thinking. But, a proposed new law to make including a single 'swift brick' – a block with a cavity for a bird's nest – compulsory for all new homes is now at the heart of a pitched Westminster battle. Reform UK is hoping the environmental cause celebre for the 50 million-year-old species – backed by unlikely allies Jeremy Clarkson and Chris Packham – will help garner them support within the countryside's traditional Tory heartlands. Richard Tice recently posed holding a sign calling for the bricks to be used to help endangered cavity-nesting birds, such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings. The Reform deputy leader, who was once a housing developer, used social media to declare his support for the scheme and asked: 'why won't the Government act?' He wrote: 'The Conservatives rejected swift bricks in government, and now Labour is backtracking despite supporting them in opposition. 'Swifts – one of Britain's most iconic birds – are in steep decline, along with other cavity-nesting species. All they need is a brick with a hole. It's simple, low-cost, and essential.' The party's five MPs are now backing an amendment to the Government's planning Bill in a bid to make the £35 bricks compulsory. The amendment, tabled by Barry Gardiner, the Labour rebel, and backed by the Green party, Liberal Democrats and some Tory MPs, was revised to incorporate the bricks into building regulations, said to be the only way to ensure developers fit them to new dwellings. Although Labour supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled in Conservative government legislation which failed in 2023, it has now reversed its position. Instead of legislation, Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, wants guidelines to encourage, rather than compel, developers to fit the bricks. Hannah Bourne-Taylor, a 38-year-old former model and now environmentalist who has campaigned tirelessly on the issue – as well as walk nearly naked to Whitehall to promote the cause – believes her campaign has split the Right. She said: 'The swift bricks issue has become an unlikely political battleground. It is now a dividing line between Reform, who have declared their unequivocal support, and the Conservatives, who repeatedly failed while in Government to introduce a law to make them mandatory. 'The Tories are traditionally the party of the countryside. It remains to be seen whether they will pass it through the House of Lords where they have a majority. 'If they don't, the Tories will have killed off this amendment and have turned their backs on an issue that should be their domain. 'As for any fears Sir Keir Starmer may have that this scheme could scupper their plans to 'build baby build'; it seems remarkable that a brick used to do just that – build – could be seen to block developments.' The issue is to be debated in the Commons again during the report stage of the planning and infrastructure bill. The Conservatives failed to respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: 'We've always been clear that our ambition to get Britain building and deliver the 1.5 million homes should create a win-win for nature recovery and development. 'Swift bricks are a simple and effective way to prevent the decline of an important bird species, without impacting building delivery ambitions.'
South Wales Argus
22 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
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