David French

Executive coach ( Chair, Y Care International ( Reformer, convener and compulsive activist.

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

One teaspoon of the neonicotinoids pesticide could kill 1.25 billion bees. And yet the Government could be about to let it back on English fields. Sign the petition: tell Ministers to keep this ban on bee-killing pesticides in place. https://t.co/8O2LeqDGCM

[Hanan Ashrawi @DrHananAshrawi]

It isn’t just displacement; it’s a brutal, deliberate, vicious, unrelenting daily slaughter of whole families, & the targeting of health workers, first responders, journalists & all means of survival.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is being intensified in the north with no accountability or curbs, only support & rewards.

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Petition: Introduce 16 as the minimum age for children to have social media https://t.co/FAd5Zr8K4t

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Saving the swift: read James’ call! https://t.co/79oKYGWfal

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Marmalade award founder honoured by Japan https://t.co/xy2GBGnDjI

[Robert Peston @Peston]

There seems to be significant faux outrage from Tory leadership candidates Cleverly and Tugendhat about the Starmer government’s transfer of the Chagos islands to Mauritius.

Official sources tell me the transfer would have happened in materially the same
way at roughly the same time if Sunak had somehow won the election.

The point is that the transfer was being negotiated on the recent Tory government’s watch - including by Cleverly as foreign secretary and then by Cameron - and the deadline was in effect set by Washington.

I am told that President Biden wanted the deal done before the 5 November presidential election. Biden wanted certainty about the future of the US military base on the Chagossian island of Diego Garcia, just in case Donald Trump were to win the election.

For confirmation that the deal was clinched on a timetable and in a style to suit the US administration, see Biden’s statement that “it is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome longstanding historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

Biden pointed out that the agreement between the UK and Mauritius meant the US had secured “the effective operation of the joint [military] facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.”

It is therefore curious Tugendhat should describe the transfer as “leaving our allies” exposed when the UK’s most important ally, America, has welcomed it.

And Cleverly’s denigration of Starmer as “weak, weak, weak” for formalising it seems eccentric when the negotiations with Mauritius were in full swing when he was in the cabinet.

As for Liz Truss’s assertion that Boris Johnson is to blame, I am told that Johnson was the last PM to wholly oppose giving up sovereignty over Chagos, and that the talks did not start properly till she was PM.

If anyone in the Tory party wants to know the nitty gritty of all this, possibly they could ask for an introduction from the former minister Lord Frost - because his spouse Harriet Matthews has been the lead official negotiator for the foreign office on the Chagos treaty with Mauritius.

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a shocking leak, Donald Trump just told the leaders of Project 2025 that his most exciting work with them lies ahead. Donald Trump is openly admitting he will implement Project 2025. Retweet so all Americans see this

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Whatever your politics this is how it should be done.

[Tobias Ellwood @Tobias_Ellwood]

Saying goodbye to Parliament after 19 years.

Thank you Bournemouth.

[Pelham @Resist_05]

We all understand now, it’s called zionism

[Pelham @Resist_05]

Settlers burnt down a 92 year old Palestinians olive farm…🫒

This man was born 16 years before the Rothschilds invented Israel..🇮🇱

[Jessica Simor KC @JMPSimor]

How a river should look in the middle of a city…

[Britain Palestine Project @BritPalProject]

Like Ireland and more than 140 other countries, it is time the UK recognised the state of Palestine
Article in The Independent, 27 May 2024

https://t.co/QNnGCyiGfi

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

The real face of the Deep State via @FT
As good an analysis as it gets of the shameful truths behind the repeated failures of the British state: NHS contaminated blood, Post Office, Windrush etc. https://t.co/SNerCMEju3

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Well said indeed!

[I NO LONGER HAVE A NAME @antipsychiatric]

The law is the law. It applies equally to our allies and our foes. We expect our foes to feel the full force of the law when they transgress. We expect our allies to obey the laws which we - and they - employ to hold our foes to account. We create independent courts to enforce those laws impartially, without fear or favour.
It is incumbent on countries which call themselves democracies to support the laws we apply to others. If an ally is accused of breaking those laws by the independent courts, that ally can defend itself in those courts. We can support them.
What we cannot do, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, is undermine, ignore or negate the court and its due processes.
Because once we do that for an ally, our foes have won.

[Charles Lister @Charles_Lister]

It's revealing that some policymakers, experts & commentators demand the ICC charge the likes of #Putin & #Assad -- and celebrate it when they do -- but then condemn it when others are charged who they happen to sympathize with.

Suddenly it's not justice, it's "politics."

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

What a thoughtful, quiet, balanced commentary. Worth listening throughout.

[Sulaiman Ahmed @ShaykhSulaiman]

BRUCE ROBBINS JEWISH PROFESSOR AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TELLS YOU WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE CAMPUS

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Thoughtful and disturbing report:

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

A disturbing report about the conditions under which detainees from Gaza are held by the Israeli military. Most were arbitrarily gathered inside the Strip during ground operations, including my sister-in-law's brother & her brother-in-law, who were captured in Khan Younis three months ago and have not been heard from since. Men were routinely gathered, separated from women/children, and sent to Israel for interrogation. Many languish in horrendous conditions and face no clear charges or justifications for their continued detention beyond broad suspicions; they experience beatings, deprivation, abuse, and neglect. There needs to be transparency and fair justice to either let them go or provide clear evidence for their suspected crimes and imprisonment. Regardless, their conditions must be investigated and addressed to ensure that they are held in accordance with Israel's own laws, which prohibit abuse, torture, and mistreatment for vengeful reasons.

It goes without saying that Hamas is a vile criminal organization that does not respect international humanitarian law and mistreats inmates, detainees or captives, Palestinians and Israelis. But as a democratic country, Israel should not look to Hamas for setting the bar - it can and must do exponentially better when it comes to this issue. Israel should avoid the mistakes of the US during the occupation of Iraq, in which these detention facilities ended up being breeding grounds for future insurgents and extremists - either try detainees for specific crimes with evidence or release them immediately and stop the mistreatment and abuse.

@IDFSpokesperson @LTC_Shoshani @Israel_MOD @IsraeliPM @Israel @IDF @yoavgallant @ICRC_ilot @ICRC

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

A serious and thoughtful review of the UK’s place in the world deserves a lot better than this facile response from The Spectator.

[The Spectator @spectator]

'Throughout the document, thoughtless language produces thoughtless thinking. The co-authors write, as if it is a bad thing, that ‘all too often the National Security Council looks at the world through a security lens’. What?'

✍️ Angus Colwell https://t.co/TYtKyHnwr0

[David French @ConvenerDavid]

Retweet and retweet the indomitable Miriam Margolyes!

[Jewish Council of Australia @jewishcouncilAU]

The indomitable Miriam Margolyes OBE has a message in support of the Jewish Council! She calls for all of us Jews to “shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire”

[Chris Doyle @Doylech]

Should Start Polak, the Hon President of Conservative Friends of Israel be sacked from the House of Lords or at least the party? @SirAlanDuncan thinks so. Is there a case? A year ago he criticised the Foreign Secretary for refusing to meet Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the most racist, extreme and homophobic ministers anywhere. I cannot find one example of Polak condemning Israeli war crimes, use of torture, collective punishment, home demolitions, denial of food to a captive population, detention of Palestinian children without trial, violations of UN Security Council Resolutions, Fourth Geneva Convention, other human rights conventions. He did though arrange an illicit trip for Priti Patel to Israel behind the back of the UK PM, Theresa May for which she was sacked. Nothing happened to Polak.