A Small Island Man

The following principles are personal standards for engaging on social media. They are not imposed on others, but reflect a code of conduct that I aspire to follow. 1. Integrity of Posts Posts should never be deleted. If a post is found to be factually incorrect, a correction or addendum should be added. If something causes hurt or offense, an apology or clarification should be appended rather than erased. Edits should not change the original intent or meaning of a post. Spelling, grammar, and typographic errors may be corrected. The goal is to leave a visible audit trail of what has been said, transparency over revisionism. 2. Respect for Others' Contributions Comments or posts made by others should not be deleted or hidden. Every contributor has the right to their words, even in disagreement. 3. Exception: Safety First All rules may be overridden in the interest of safety . Posts that include identifying, private, or sensitive info...

Letter to My MP, Pippa Heylings Dear Pippa Heylings, I am writing as a constituent in South East Cambridgeshire to express my deep concern at reports that the UK is deploying RAF jets to the Middle East at the request of the United States, following Iran’s retaliation for Israel’s recent airstrike on Iranian territory. Keir Starmer’s apparent support for this move (as reported by the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqg440v0gxo ) is deeply troubling. Let me state plainly that I was appalled by the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. The murder and abduction of civilians are indefensible. Yet Israel’s response — the wholesale destruction of Gaza, mass civilian casualties, the encouragement of illegal settlements in the West Bank, and strikes in Lebanon — has been profoundly disproportionate. Its recent attack on Iranian soil is not an act of self-defence but a dangerous provocation, further destabilising an already volatile region. Israel’s actions go far beyond the remit of leg...

On the eve of Donald Trump’s birthday, timed with a military parade and the national celebration of No Kings Day , I watched in horror as a video surfaced showing Trump’s thugs physically assaulting Senator Alex Padilla.  Watch it for yourself . This is not hyperbole. This is happening. This is not the America that was once held up as a beacon of liberty. This is America sliding, eyes wide open, into authoritarianism. Make no mistake, the Trump regime no longer even pretends to abide by the rule of law. It does not uphold the law; it declares the law. Whatever it says is legal, is legal. Whatever it opposes is crushed. Tomorrow, thousands—perhaps millions—will take to the streets in protest. Against tyranny. Against fear. Against a presidency that treats dissent as disloyalty and democratic opposition as treason. And Trump is ready. The National Guard is already deployed. Military forces are standing by. However, tomorrow unfolds, peacefully or not, Trump will use it to entrench hi...

Israel launches missiles in a preemptive attack on Iran. So Israel, in the name of defending its citizens following the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7th, has laid waste to the entirety of Gaza. Now it launches a preemptive strike deep into Iran, once again claiming to act in defence of its people. This does not end well, not for Americans, not for Iranians, and certainly not for Israelis, and least of all for Jews around the world. Had Netanyahu been a man of peace, he would have sought a measured and proportional response to the atrocities committed by Hamas. He might have tried to pour oil on troubled waters. Instead, a man clearly consumed by his own demons has chosen to pour burning oil on everyone around him, pursuing a scorched earth policy not for the good of his people, but in service of a warped ideology and a deeply personal agenda.

 

A personal message about freedom, identity, and solidarity 🏳️‍🌈 I am a straight, cisgender man. I don't belong to the LGBTQ+ community, but I stand with them, now more than ever . Why? Because what we are seeing in parts of America, and increasingly in UK political movements like Reform, is not just conservatism. It’s suppression. It’s authoritarianism wrapped in the language of "tradition" and "order." Let’s be clear, being LGBTQ+ is not a crime, it’s not a threat. And there is no evidence to suggest LGBTQ+ people are more dangerous to others than anyone else. On the contrary, they are more likely to be victims of violence and discrimination. 📊 [Source: US CDC, FBI Hate Crime Data, Human Rights Campaign] 🧷 https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2023 🧷 https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs-statereportbook.pdf What’s under attack isn’t just LGBTQ+ rights, it’s the right to exist openly, to express love, to l...

tRump has reshaped the global order, and not for the better. Once, America stood as a trusted ally of Europe, grounded in shared values of democracy, cooperation, and mutual respect. That era is over. Under tRump, the United States has veered off course, abandoning its historic alliances, and embracing hostility, isolation, and autocracy. tRump has openly declared that the European Union was created to “rip off” America, a stunning rejection of decades of partnership. Now, he has taken another step further, publicly endorsing Viktor Orbán, an authoritarian leader widely condemned for obstructing EU objectives, and dismantling democratic institutions in Hungary. Make no mistake, tRump’s backing of Orbán is not some quirk of diplomacy. It is exactly the same as Putin’s support for Brexit, a calculated move to divide Europe, weaken democratic norms, and empower those who seek to rule without accountability. Putin and tRump are not allies in name, but in strategy, in method, and in am...