Gill Steele

Good time to remember Blair’s ‘efforts’

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

What a game it was!
#ScoVsFra
#SixNations

2/3 So I'm asking the Great British public to help because NF is seeking to be our master.

Were you at school with NF? Worked with him in the City when he was a tin trader? Met him through politics?

Do get in touch: johnsweeney.co.uk

Fabulous photos. You’ve had a cracking day for it! Love a horse mountain…

These are the 4 things AI can do well:

•Clean up your email inbox (badly)
•Give my shittiest neighbor (Alan) something to talk about at a party
•Tell a 12 yr old to kill himself
•Incinerate a school at 10:16 AM on a Tuesday

You can see why we need to base our economy around it

This is superb, as ever from @bbcrosatkins.bsky.social who should be in charge of political content in the BBC.

Head and shoulders above all domestic political commentators.

Unemotional fact based unpeeling of bullshit

Pretty funny that Michael Gove is dunking on me now he’s editor of the Spectator to promote its ‘bias-free’ reporting when as a politician he wouldn’t answer any of my press inquiries on the massive Brexit fraud he oversaw as Vote Leave’s co-convener

Also available as a podcast for those of us with our head under the duvet on a Saturday morning at 6am!

Pete Hegseth’s barely contained excitement about the death America is inflicting is utterly disgusting.

I mean, imagine if the Government built its own version of Palantir.

It would take a year at most.

And would fund UK developers and SMEs while building UK capability.

If only we had some kind of a government digital service…

Good to get the crampons on on Tuesday and head out in the sunshine onto the Cairngorm plateau with the 18 year old, whilst the snow is still around

If you don’t monitor water quality how can you tell if it’s declining. A baseline is essential for determining any impacts, SEPA monitoring as per the WFD provides that

Absolutely no idea how the EA prosecutes polluters if there isn’t a baseline assessment of water quality for every water body 🤷‍♀️

Also retaining the Water Framework Directive legislation in Scotland post Brexit means that SEPA continues to test all watercourses (chemical/biotic) & publishes the results annually

I can only find Environment Agency data on water quality in England from 2019

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

15 US military aircraft have left the Rota and Morón air bases after Spain refused to allow them to be used for operations related to Iran, Reuters reports.

Awww…we love a vet bed in our house. Virtually indestructible, dogs (and cats) love sleeping on it…..not done an ‘under it’ yet though

I’m washing all vet beds today, one of ours has been in use for about 20 years, been used by three of our hounds so far

The making of modern Scotland | David McCrone, Changing Scotland: Society, Politics and Identity, Edinburgh University Press, review by Alex Law bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/02/t...

Warning UK at risk of being pulled into illegal war

Why is Keir Starmer utterly incapable of saying no to Donald Trump?

Our national security requires us not to be dragged into illegal wars.

The Prime Minister is making us less safe. Did we learn nothing from Iraq?

That’s right, we’re 72 hours in and Trump’s greed has dragged *at least* 17 nations into his war. And that’s just a conservative list. Events are spiraling out of control—and if Trump weren’t a big dumb piece of shit he would’ve listened to those who told him this would happen.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez doing what UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has chosen not to do, criticise the US and Israel for their attack on Iran which breached international law

'Proudly colonised by immigrants': Man Utd fans turn tables on Ratcliffe Minority owner Jim Ratcliffe recently said Britain had been 'colonized by immigrants.'

'Proudly colonised by immigrants': Man Utd fans turn tables on Ratcliffe reut.rs/4rJEqR5

Why Attack Iran? Our Authoritarianism and Our Corruption

How to understand war with Iran? We must get away from propaganda. Facts suggest two interpretive frameworks: a foreign war as a mechanism to destroy democracy at home; and a foreign war as an element of personal corruption by the president of the United States.
snyder.substack.com/p/why-attack...

Right now, hundreds of oil tankers are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.

Keir Starmer says 'British planes are in the skies in the Middle East in a DEFENSIVE capacity'.

Which begs the question... defending from Iranian or US offensive efforts?

Scottish Greens condemn US attacks on Iran Scottish Greens condemn US attacks on Iran - Donald Trump is acting like a gangster on the world stage.

This is reckless and destructive behaviour from a White House that has shown total contempt for human rights, international law and negotiations.

As always it's civilians who pay the price.

Asch had demonstrated three things. First, people will go against the evidence of their own eyes if contradicted by a unanimous group. Second, group pressure is much weaker if even a single person dares to disagree with the group. Third, and most remarkable: it does not matter if the dissenter is mistaken; dissent punctures group pressure either way. People are liberated to say what they believe, not because the dissenter speaks the truth but because the dissenter demonstrates that disagreement is possible.

Great piece from @timharford.ft.com on the famous Asch ‘conformity experiment’. Yes participants conformed with the group. But it only took one dissenter to make the participant much less likely to conform - even when the dissenter is wrong!
Lesson: Let’s value dissent!
www.ft.com/content/f94c...

'The BBC has treated Reform like a government-in-waiting, repeatedly platforming the party on clickbait shows like Question Time, but Reform’s toxic brand was roundly rejected in by-election' || @neilmackay.bsky.social

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘺/𝘗𝘈 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘦/𝘗𝘈

UK Hosts Senior NATO Leaders to discuss Nuclear Deterrence NATO officials discussed the Alliance's approach to nuclear deterrence and Euro-Atlantic security in flagship meeting on 27 February.

The day before the US and Israel bombed Iran, ostensibly to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons, senior NATO leaders met in the UK to discuss their actual nuclear arms strategy.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Carlos Dada, editor of El Faro: “The most important thing journalism can do in a dictatorship is to tell the truth” The Salvadoran journalist will deliver the 2026 Reuters Memorial Lecture. In this interview, he discusses his work and the challenges of reporting from exile.

‘When he has a minor problem, he shifts everyone’s focus elsewhere, creating another political event. We understood his modus operandi very early on. When Bukele wants to direct your attention here, it’s because he’s hiding something elsewhere’

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/carlos-...

According to The Times, two diplomatic sources — one American and one British — suggested that if the situation escalates, the United States would be ready to use the airbase on Diego Garcia as a launch point for its B-2 strategic bombers, with or without the consent of the United Kingdom.