Best Of

https://x.com/johnrentoul/status/2035323538601636006

British politics in a nutshell, by @mrianleslie ian-leslie.com/p/against-intr…

I’m quite confident Sir Keir will outlast May.

You're more likely to be right than wrong, but only because a leadership election called in May would not be decided until June or July depending on the timetable, and Starmer's political instincts are so lousy that he might choose to contest the election rather than stand down in the face of the inevitable. He needs zero nominations from MPs to be on the ballot paper.

BTW for all Colonel Blimp fans/detractors, I saw today that it’s on iPlayer.

It is a brilliant film, well worth a watch, not just in its technique but also for its positive depiction of the Germans in a wartime film. General Winstanley comes over as out dated, but always as likeable, loyal and kind hearted.

It’s definitely one of my all time top films. “Blimp” always reminds me of one of my grandfathers and old school headmasters with the combination of discipline, good heart and no-nonsense.

It’s actually quite a sad film when you think about the evolution of the characters, youth to age, superiority to being broken, useful to mocked as useless.

If these figures are correct, why are we bothering to deploy any fast jets to the region ?

While high-end assets like THAAD and the F-35 grab all the headlines, a "blue-collar" hero, as I like to call it, is quietly winning the drone war every night. The RAF Regiment’s Rapid Sentry system, deployed around Erbil, Iraq, has notched an incredible tally of ~50 Iranian drone intercepts since February 28. To put that in perspective, Rapid Sentry has downed roughly 10 times as many drones as the RAF’s fighter jets in the same theater! It’s the ultimate goalkeeper: a VSHORAD designed exclusively to tackle low and slow threats like the Shahed-136...
https://x.com/RealAirPower1/status/2035389347248148717

The fast jets should be used to intercept cruise missiles and similar, rather than drones.

Also, Rapid Sentry is a VSHORAD (very short range air defence) system, and doubtless you'd need several orders of magnitude more of them to defend everywhere. A fast jet is fast - it can get to where the threats are heading - and so it can cover a wider area.

The Ukrainians operate a layered air defence system against drones and business. You certainly wouldn't want fast jets to be the backbone of it, but they'll be part of it.

Statement from 20 countries including UK and UAE on the Straight of Hormuz.

https://x.com/mofauae/status/2035326341596446810

TL:DR F*** off Iran and allow free passage of vessels.

Yes, but what are they going to do about it?

"…to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait."

Now that the incoming drones and missiles have reduced significantly in recent days, expect the GCC nations to move towards a more offensive phase of their operation. They have navies specifically built towards this problem, and if the US can keep the Apaches and Warthogs flying over the Hormuz area it shouldn’t be massively difficult.

More important is the insurance issue for civil vessels, AIUI Scott Bessent is working on this at the moment, with presumably Lloyd’s of London also involved.

I presume the GCC nations would rather the US and Israel just fucked off now and a peace deal was done?

A peace deal with who exactly?

Because it definitely won’t be anyone to do with the Iranian regime that’s been bombing them for the past 22 days.

US and Israel are saving the GCC countries a lot of ammo at the moment.

They only need that ammo because the US and Israel started bombing Iran!

I’m sure the GCC are happy to see Iran being taken down a notch, but the war isn’t exactly unfolding to their advantage. A quick end to the war, Iran damaged, the straits of Hormuz open again, that seems like a good result for them. Ongoing war with no clear war aims, is that what they want?

They’re been waiting and preparing for this month for the past 47 years. A little disruption is worth it to see Iran finally defeated once and for all.

US and Israel are very much the good guys, and Iran is very much the bad guy.

100%.

It is quite depressing how many people here have an inverted sense of who is good and who is bad here.

The Iranian regime have killed thousands of civilians, the Israeli regime have killed thousands of civilians.

As @Foxy said, it's Alien v. Predator...

Iran killed unarmed civilians.

Israel fought armed terrorists in Hamas.

Two completely different things.

But the Israeli regime still killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in their blood lust.

Alien versus Predator.

No, they didn't.

They fought in a war against an armed enemy and people died as happens in all wars.

That's not blood lust.

Only one nation involved has deliberately murdered tens of thousands of unarmed civilians as opposed to fighting a just war. Only Iran has done that.

It is blood lust. Nothing but blood lust, just like with the Iranian regime.

Hamas slaughtered in one day well over a thousand innocent unarmed people.

Going to war over that is not blood lust, it is self-defence.

Only if you believe it to be repeatable. Self defence refers to anticipated future injuries, not past ones.

Israel's appallingly complacent border security let the terrorists in - it should have toughened up there, rather than gone in killing tens of thousands in exchange for the thousand or so dead, while negotiating for the release of the hostages.

Of course that would have needed saintly levels of self-restraint, and a PM who didn't need a war for his own political survival, so it was never going to happen. But just because something was never going to happen doesn't mean it shouldn't have. But invading Gaza only turned world opinion against Israel, while creating tens of thousands more recruits for Hamas, so even in its own terms it was totally self-defeating in the long-run.