12 angry men, full of sound and fury…

Some unsolicited thoughts on local election results in my native SW & Starmer’s native SE England.
TL;DR Don’t doubt 🌹 will win a GE majority off the red wall and cities but few signs of Tory rout in rural/suburban south, by 🌹 at least.
🔶&💚 doing very nicely, though, thanks.

My reflection on three days of election coverage is that journalists are more out of touch than politicians are

A third of voters don't want to choose either Labour or Tory

But journalists continue to analyse politics in terms of the two party straight jacket

Much to disagree with in Macron’s Sorbonne-II speech, but also many home truths and a willingness to think big and strategically that is missing in this and other European capitals.

🚨New on 🇬🇧 military spending🚨
The paradox of UK defence policy since 2010s has been rising global commitments, escalating threats in Europe, staggering nuclear costs & largely static overall budgets.
Richard Reeve analyses a crisis of British exceptionalism.
rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2024/04/24/a-c…

Wow. “the government has not reviewed whether Israel is committing IHL violations since 29th January in the context of arms export reviews, and it has not received any legal advice on whether Israel is complying with IHL since 29th February.” Just wow.

Some thoughts from me on the increases in military spending promised by Sunak and Starmer and the politics of UK defence.

rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2024/04/24/a-c…

Driving from London to Devon via the coast road you pass for miles beside the ‘Great Wall of Dorset’. I used to wonder who & what was secured within and how anyone could afford to assemble these two million bricks. I guess I should have asked a Barbadian. theguardian.com/world/2024/apr…