Mike Aley, CFA

Director, Omega Wealth (Pty) Ltd, Independent Financial Planning Strategists

[John Spencer @SpencerGuard]

I’ll bite. Finish the job for the U.S. IMO, destroy Iran’s current ballistic missile stockpile, destroy their ballistic missile building capability (industrial complex), destroy their navy and other means that allow them to threaten the strait of Hormuz, i.e. destroy their ability to project power outside of Iran; destroy all parts of Iran’s nuclear program and obtain their 1,000 pounds of 60% enriched uranium, deny Iran from ever getting a nuclear bomb. The new leadership in Iran discontinues its current and long standing behaviors to develop a nuclear bomb, ballistic missile shield and increasing range program, and use of the strait of Hormuz as a tool of regional and global economic coercion. Many military, political, and economic means and ways (not just military) can be used to achieve these ends.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

By far the best piece I have read on U.S. strategic options in Iran.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

"Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."

That was Keir Starmer's response to a mounting public anxiety about mass immigration and national strain. Not an argument. Not a plan. A reprimand. A serious Prime Minister does not treat a country's deepest concern as a breach of etiquette. He does not police tone when trust is fraying. He confronts the facts, sets limits, restores confidence and governs.

Starmer did none of that. He reached for a slogan. "Proud, tolerant and diverse" is a branding line. It is not a border policy. It is not a housing plan. It is not an integration strategy. It is not a response to the sense, now widespread, that the British public has been sidelined in its own country.

Yes, Ratcliffe overstated figures. Fine. Correct them. But Starmer's reaction was not the calm confidence of a government in control. It was the reflex of a political class that fears the subject itself. Because once you stop arguing about "tone" and start arguing about scale, speed, and sustainability, the whole project is exposed. And here is what the political class refuses to say out loud but the country can see clearly.

They can see parallel societies taking root: communities living side by side but not together, with weak shared norms and thinner trust. They can see how quickly areas change when inflows stay high year after year, while assimilation is treated as optional and even asking for it is branded "racist." They can see sectarianism imported: foreign flags, foreign quarrels, foreign grievances, played out on British streets, with public order trying to manage clashes that have nothing to do with British national life. They can see bloc politics hardening at local level – voting patterns organised around identity and origin rather than shared civic duty – because that is what happens when a common story is allowed to fade.

And they can see the institutional cowardice that makes it worse. Police and councils stepping softly for fear of accusation. Officials speaking in euphemisms while communities live with the consequences. Courts and NGOs widening the gap between public consent and policy reality. The people are asked to absorb change, costs, and tension – and then told their discomfort is the real danger.

This is where Starmer's line becomes dishonest. Tolerance is not surrender. Diversity is not an organising principle. And pride is not maintained by pretending that strain is stability. A country can be open, humane, and decent and still insist on limits, integration, and loyalty. The problem is that our leaders increasingly talk as if limits are immoral and cohesion is optional.

And here is the philosophical warning Starmer seems unable to grasp: a nation is not merely a labour market. It is a moral community. It is an intergenerational contract. It depends on shared language, shared standards, and a shared sense of belonging. When leaders treat that as secondary, when they prioritise moral posturing over cohesion, and optics over consent, they do not create harmony. They create a pressure cooker.

Civilisations rarely collapse in a single dramatic moment. They fray. They thin. They lose confidence in their own right to continue. The laws remain. The institutions remain. The language remains. But the belief drains away. The fatal stage is not when critics speak too plainly; it is when rulers refuse to see what is in front of them. When they respond to anxiety with scolding. When they try to govern by stigma.

That is what Starmer is doing here. He is not answering Ratcliffe's argument; he is attempting to delegitimise it. And in doing so, he is telling the public something they already suspect: that their lived experience will be corrected, not addressed.

And a government that corrects its people instead of listening to them does not calm a nation. It alienates it.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@elonmusk Hope this prevents the same old clips being rehashed and reshown in my feed . Quality has markedly deteriorated over last few weeks .

[Richard Woodruff 🇺🇦 @frontlinekit]

❗️Can everyone please STOP using the hashtag #RussianFuelCrisis because it is causing HUGE tailbacks all across russia. Causing people to panic buy which makes the situation EVEN WORSE.

So 🙏 DON'T retweet and DON'T use the hashtag #RussianFuelCrisis ever again!!

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@nexta_tv So ex

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Trump has been saying for months that Putin wants to end the war. In reality, Putin has only increased strikes on civilians since Trump came to power, while rejecting all of his ceasefire proposals

[Benonwine @benonwine]

Who else is incredibly proud to be English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Repost and Share!

[Mark Gadala-Maria @markgadala]

Forget about AI taking your job.

The real nightmare is AI taking over humanity—and it might kill most of us in the process.

This isn't a distant possibility; it's a ticking time bomb.

Here's why you should be terrified—and what you need to know before it's too late.

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@WarintheFuture Has Russia suffered 900 000 military casualties since the start of the war with Ukraine

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@olddog100ua Grok 3 says Musk is spreading disinformation! ( Zelensky being viewed as despicable )

[Neil O'Brien @NeilDotObrien]

Bang on from @KemiBadenoch - Starmer's argument against an inquiry is that government can't do two things at once - it can't implement previous actions and have an inquiry at the same time
- that's just obviously nonsense.

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@KEdge23 Intention ..culpa?

[mike erwydd. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧🇮🇱✝️ @mikeerwydd1968]

Penalty for illegal entry.

Singapore: 6 months jail.
Russia: 2 years in a hard labour camp.
Pakistan:10 years jail.
India: 8 years jail.
North Korea: death.
Great Britain: free housing, health care, education, food,mobile phone,cash.
Over 1,000 illegals arrived since Xmas day

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@AvonandsomerRob @spectatorindex Does Netanyahu have prostate cancer

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@zakayonoel37 Can my Vivoactive 5 read my blood pressure

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@front_ukrainian YES

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@IvankaNews_ NO

[Mike Aley, CFA @mikealey6]

@TRUMP_ARMY_ NO