Alan Sked

Emeritus professor of international history at LSE. Author of key works ‘The Case for Brexit’ and ‘Scotland. A Unionist History’. His views are his own.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

https://t.co/M7tPZHu0Sl

[Alan Sked @profsked]

Poor Burnham is absolutely delusional on foreign affairs. He believes he can bring about a two-state solution in the Middle East and overcome the supposed defects of Brexit by getting close to rejoining the EU.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

@AgentP22 What a joke. See my ‘Scotland. A Unionist History.’

[Agent P @AgentP22]

Deny everything.

Forget everything.

Pretend you didn't see or hear anything.

Your lesson is now complete.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

Burnham’s conference speech was full of emotional blather and of grand schemes without any details of how to fund them. He also committed Labour to electoral reform which if ever implemented would mean a permanent coalition government of left-wing loonies and extremists.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

https://t.co/qYVUCGsNx5

[FeelGoodThoughts @feelgoodtale]

The famous Italian diver Enzo Maiorca dove into the sea of Syracuse and was talking to his daughter Rossana who was aboard the boat. Ready to go in, he felt something slightly hit his back. He turned and saw a dolphin. Then he realized that the dolphin did not want to play but to express something.

The animal dove and Enzo followed. At a depth of about 12 meters, trapped in an abandoned net, there was another dolphin. Enzo quickly asked his daughter to grab the diving knives. Soon, the two of them managed to free the dolphin, which, at the end of the ordeal, emerged, issued an “almost human cry” (describes Enzo). A dolphin can stay under water for up to 10 minutes, then it drowns.

The released dolphin was helped to the surface by Enzo, Rosana and the other dolphin. That’s when the surprise came: she was pregnant! The male circled them, and then stopped in front of Enzo, touched his cheek (like a kiss), in a gesture of gratitude and then they both swam off.

Enzo Maiorca ended his speech by saying: “Until man learns to respect and communicate with the animal world, he will never be able to know his true role on this Earth.”~

[Luciano Mondino @lcmondino_]

La guerra contra Irán cristalizó una relación que venía tomando forma, desde hace tiempo, entre Emiratos Árabes e Israel. La cumbre entre Bin Zayed (foto de la izquierda) y Bibi Netanyahu es premonitora por la asistencia de los representantes de Jordania, Marruecos y Arabia Saudita.

Frente a la amenaza que irradia desde Teherán y los Hutíes que ponen "en jaque" la economía del Golfo, no son pocos los países árabes que, aun suplicando ayuda a Israel, se niegan a aceptar públicamente cualquier acercamiento con Jerusalem.

Esto en los Emiratos Árabes no va más hace mucho tiempo y la cercanía con Israel es cada vez mayor.

[Sabrina F. @itsmeback_]

John Clauser, Premio Nobel per la Fisica 2022: «Posso affermare con grande certezza che non esiste alcuna emergenza climatica.
Per quanto ciò possa turbare molte persone, il mio messaggio è chiaro: il pianeta non è in pericolo.
L’anidride carbonica e il metano in atmosfera esercitano un effetto del tutto trascurabile sul clima.
Le politiche finora adottate dai governi risultano quindi inutili e andrebbero semplicemente abbandonate. Finora abbiamo identificato in modo completamente errato il processo dominante che governa il clima: tutti i modelli climatici si basano su una fisica incompleta e scorretta.
Il meccanismo principale è quello che definisco “termostato di riflessività nuvole-luce solare”. Le nubi, essendo bianche e altamente riflettenti, rimandano nello spazio circa il 90 % della luce solare incidente: rappresentano così l’elemento più cruciale, e al tempo stesso più trascurato, del sistema climatico.
Due terzi della superficie terrestre sono occupati dagli oceani; il solo Oceano Pacifico copre circa metà del pianeta.
La copertura nuvolosa media globale è del 67 % (circa il 50% sulle terre emerse e il 75% sugli oceani). Sostengo che proprio queste proprietà evidenti e determinanti delle nubi costituiscano il pezzo mancante del puzzle climatico.
Una volta compreso il ruolo di questo meccanismo termostatico naturale, appare chiaro perché non vi sia alcun rischio di collasso climatico.”
Bisogna smettere di vivere nell’ansia permanente di un’apocalisse climatica che non esiste. La Terra non è un paziente in terapia intensiva: è un sistema robusto, governato da meccanismi naturali potentissimi come l'attività solare, gli oceani, le nubi, i ghiacci, ecc, che da milioni di anni stabilizzano il clima senza bisogno di panico, di politiche punitive o di sacrifici inutili. L’unica vera emergenza è quella di tornare a ragionare con la scienza vera, non con la paura.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

Tens of thousands of Christians have been slaughtered by Islamists in Nigeria.

Not a word at the UN General Assembly.

Weird.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

The UK Labour government put sanctions on Israel for “occupying Palestinian land.”

Meanwhile, the prime minister proudly meets with Erdogan who is currently occupying half of an EU member nation.

[Marcus @Marcus___007]

When Labour MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter was trying to get elected, she couldn't wait to be seen in an English pub, pulling pints, she even posted it on her X account.
But now she needs the Muslim vote , her own time in a pub *checks notes* never existed, as does her love of dogs.

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

Hamas terrorists are firing missiles from homes in civilian clothing.

When Israel kills them, Hamas claims they were just innocent civilians.

It was all propaganda from the beginning.

[The Spectator @spectator]

You know things are going well at a party conference when you have to order your members to clap.

In Liverpool today, a diktat went out to applaud at the mention of welfare in Chancellor John Healey's speech. A member of Labour's ruling body, Abdi Duale, gave the instructions in a leaked message: 'Chancellor is going to mention welfare in his speech, clap as hard as you can.'

Unfortunately for Duale, he sent this to a WhatsApp group which included several political journalists.

✍️ Steerpike

Article | https://t.co/SffLxvwwoQ | @MrSteerpike

[Mor Edge Insight @MorEdge_Insight]

I spent over two decades in counterterrorism and I’m still involved in many ways, so here are my views on what I see has happened over the past 24-36 hours in the UK:

Five British men in their twenties were arrested on Sunday near RAF Fairford on suspicion of explosives offences and the preparation of a terrorist act. On Monday they were released on police bail.

That’s not what the terrorism clock looks like when the investigators are still in charge of it.

Under ordinary UK criminal law a suspect can be held for 24 hours, stretched to 36 by a superintendent, and to 96 hours by a magistrate.

But under section 41 of the Terrorism Act the first hold is 48 hours, not 24 hours. A judge can then extend it, in stages, up to 14 days without a charge. If the case merits it, it can even be pushed to 28 days. That 14-day cap exists for exactly this kind of file of vans, an airbase the United States uses, a possible foreign hand, explosives (if there were any) and interviews that are not finished on the first night.

Counter-terrorism police said the inquiry isn’t over. They said conditions apply. They said a state link has not been ruled out. Those sentences he said only make sense if the evidence trail was still live. A live trail is why Parliament built the two-week window.

But watching the guy read out the statement showed me in his body language, tone and eye movements that releasing those five men was NOT his or his department’s decision.

Walking five men after roughly a day is what you do with a pub fight, not with a suspected terrorist attack on a bomber base.

I’ve sat in enough interrogation rooms to know the difference between a custody clock and a political ceiling. Nobody had to shout an order down a phone. Someone in the political building above the investigators decided that charging British nationals on Monday, with Iran already denying it, Washington watching the runway, and a Labour conference where the main topics of discussion were prioritizing Palestinian and other refugees settling in the UK, was uglier than bail and a holding statement.

The law allowed them to keep the door shut. Yet the door opened anyway in half of the most minimum time.

That’s the story. That for me is the only story here. Not “they were innocent.” Not “the case collapsed.” The statute was not exhausted, but the appetite was.

The real question is who, and most importantly, why?

[Evan @daviddunn177]

These are the Cornell faculty members who decided the 7 rapists should write essays as a punishment.

[James J. Marlow @James_J_Marlow]

Liverpool vascular surgeon Dr Muhammad Khalil, who qualified from Cairo University in 2001, has been suspended from the British NHS for nine months, after a medical tribunal found 5 antisemitic Instagram post, with one supporting violence.

One post threatened: "We, the Arabs, are going to wipe you completely from the face of the earth! You can shove your Torah, your Talmud, your Moses and all your prophets up your stinky a**."

Another said "death to Israel".

And these people work within the British National Health Service.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

@AgentP22 See my ‘Scotland. A Unionist History’.

[Agent P @AgentP22]

The SNP can produce a constitutional grievance before breakfast. Ask it why drug deaths rose 11% and all we get is finger pointing elsewhere.

[Alan Sked @profsked]

https://t.co/3wGzipQjZ1