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Israel - our ally

Extract from Spectator online - "Will no one acknowledge how Mossad helps Britain?"Jake Wallis Simons21 November 2025, 11:24am'Let’s imagine that an international jihadi network, with cells in London and Europe, had just been busted, with dramatic arrests in Britain, Germany and Austria. Let’s imagine that the group had been planning a string of atrocities, with a weapons cache discovered in Vienna.Let’s imagine that security services had unearthed ‘tens of thousands of Euros in cash, numerous data storage devices and mobile phones, gas pistols, firearms, ammunition, knives, and related literature’. You’d have expected such a story to make the news, right?Wrong. On Monday, the Israeli prime minister’s office announced that this precise scenario had unfolded, with Mossad handing intelligence to MI5 and European agencies that enabled them to bring the jihadis to justice and foil their murderous ambitions. The name of the gang? Here’s a clue: it coordinated with leaders in Qatar and Turkey. You guessed it.In a statement that would chill the heart of any Briton or European were they to have heard it reported, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office warned: ‘Since the October 7 massacre, the Hamas terrorist organisation has been working with renewed vigour to build infrastructure and recruit terrorist cells in Europe and other arenas, similar to the Iranian regime and its proxies.’When people talk of Iranian ‘proxies’, they are referring to groups such as Hezbollah, the Houthis and less well-known terrorist gangs in Syria and Iraq. Over the decades, Tehran built these up into a ‘ring of fire’ around Israel, which was only dismantled after the Mossad pager operation last year, followed by Israel’s airborne humiliation of the Iranian regime during those fateful 12 days in June.That is what the Israelis are saying that we are starting to face here. A network of proxies. A nascent ring of fire, preparations for a 7 October of our own, awaiting activation.'Why does our MSM not report this ?Why don't we wake up and smell the coffee (Turkish ?) and be forearmed as well as forewarned.

John Hawkes ● 114d28 Comments ● 20d

Journalists in 2026: we're shocked that the Labour right smears people

"The prime minister has ordered the Cabinet Office to investigate claims about Labour Together after the group was accused of commissioning a report that investigated the background of a journalist.Labour Together, which helped Sir Keir Starmer get elected as Labour leader, paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to "investigate the sourcing, funding and origins" of a Sunday Times story about undeclared donations at the think tank before the 2024 general election.Sir Keir said he "didn't know anything" about APCO Worldwide's investigation adding: "It absolutely needs to be looked into."Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Labour Together's behaviour "shows a worrying contempt for the free press".He added: "With its close and widely known links to the heart of government, serious questions must be answered about who was aware of these actions, including whether senior figures around the prime minister knew."The party said Labour should suspend its links with Labour Together until the allegations had been independently investigated.It is understood the government's propriety and ethics team will be responsible for the Cabinet Office investigation.The SNP's Westminster deputy leader Pete Wishart said a Cabinet Office investigation amounted to "the Labour government trying to mark its own homework" and called for a cross-party parliamentary inquiry.The party has also called on the prime minister to sack Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons, who commissioned the report, named "Operation Cannon", when he was head of Labour Together."https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q3wx2j3x1oGosh, who'd believe that about "Labour Together", a major force behind Starmer's victory?

David Ainsworth ● 28d0 Comments ● 28d

Assisted Dying Bill

Lord Falconer, who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill to the Lords, has accused objectors in the House of filibustering. He has even threatened to invoke the Parliament Act and force the Lords to accept the Commons Bill unamended. In fact he has no power to do this. It is not a government measure but a private member's bill. The government cannot force the measure through without breaking its declared neutrality and adopting the Bill as Labour policy, which it has no mandate to do.Charles Moore in today's 'Telegraph' lists some of the objections to the Bill which have been raised by peers:how to judge the mental capacity of each candidate for assisted suicide, including people with learning difficulties, Down's syndrome and autismhow to detect coercion by greedy relatives or over-zealous doctors;how the doctors deciding on the panel, who would not be familiar with the candidates, could judge their state of mind;who should sit on any review panels (at present the proposal is to include a KC, so Keir could have a go):the uncertainty of a prognosis and sometimes even the diagnosis of a terminal disease leading to death within six months;the cost to the NHS of finding the professionals to deal with an expected number of at least 6000 applications each year;the question of whether a pregnant woman should be allowed to apply;the problem of language and literacy difficulties with certain candidates.I think peers are right to raise these issues and they should not be accused of filibustering.

Steven Rose ● 44d13 Comments ● 39d

Cuts to ODA budget

As a Borgen Project Ambassador and Putney constituent, I am writing to express my concern and repulsion at Labour’s announcement to slash the ODA’s foreign aid budget nearly in half (from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3%). The latest round of cuts threatens to strip an estimated £150 million from programmes fighting tuberculosis, AIDS, and malaria—diseases that continue to kill millions and disproportionately affect the world’s poorest communities. These abhorrent cuts follow the dark path set out by Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, who’s governments slashed the ODA and USAID budgets, also resulting in massive global deaths from disease and hunger. I think it’s important to clear up a few common misconceptions around foreign aid spending. Surveys show that Britons routinely overestimate how much we spend on foreign aid, with many believing it accounts for 10% of national spending when, even at 0.7% (now 0.3%), it was less than a penny in the pound. In addition, there’s often a notion that foreign aid is a leftwing or progressive concept, in truth, both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher strengthened development efforts, recognizing that stability abroad furthers security and prosperity at home. Wandsworth is proudly “the Brighter Borough” and “the Borough of Culture,” these slogans reflect our shared values of compassion, openness, and outward-looking values. Standing up for foreign aid means standing up for who we are. I’d like to commend my local MP, Fleur Anderson, for upholding these values through her work opposing these cuts and championing effective, life-saving development assistance. I encourage her to continue and urge her colleges to join in her courageous efforts.The Borgen Project works to ensure communities like ours speak up for smart, humane foreign policy. Wandsworth should continue to lead that effort.Oliver Lefferts

Oliver Lefferts ● 52d10 Comments ● 45d