Ex-Nato commander defends Starmer after Trump’s ‘no Winston Churchill’ jibe
Britain cannot become embroiled in a war “without a clear end point”, a former senior Nato commander has said, as he defended Keir Starmer after Donald Trump’s jibes that he was “not Winston Churchill”.Trump was “another American president who had launched a war of choice,” said Gen Sir Richard Shirreff, as a minister insisted that the UK prime minister had acted “with a cool head” by not allowing British bases to be used for initial strikes.The US president launched a deeply personal attack on Starmer over his refusal to let Washington launch initial strikes on Iran from British bases, telling reporters on Tuesday in the White House: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”In his latest extraordinary salvo, Trump said he was not happy with the UK even though Starmer eventually agreed the US could use the Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos Islands for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.Asked in a series of interviews on Wednesday morning about Trump’s comments, the chief secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said: “The prime minister took the decision he did in the national interest.
“He’s approached this with a cool head, with a real clarity of purpose, with a real focus and a determination to do the right thing for the British people.”Shirreff, who was Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander Europe, was among those who supported Downing Street’s approach, saying: “Britain has to do what is right for Britain.“There is absolutely a case for getting involved but it should not get involved in any shape or form with an operation where the end stage has not been made clear, there is not a clear strategy and yet again where we have an American president who has launched a war of choice with no clear understanding of how this thing is going to end,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“We have been here before with Iraq in 2004 and we don’t want to be going back again into a situation like that.”However, opposition politicians on the right in Britain seized on Trump’s attack, with the Conservatives claiming that the prime minister’s stance had made it more difficult to protect the UK’s national interest.
The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, told Fox News: “The takeaway of all of this is that in a very uncertain and dangerous world allies matter, and no ally matters more to our country than the United States.“To have ended up in a situation because of the way the prime minster has played support to the US around Iran, where Donald Trump is really questioning the relationship he has with us, is a serious situation.”Stride also suggested that the time it was taking for a British warship to reach the seas near RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus would also cause the Cypriot government to question the role of having a British military presence on the island.The prime minister said this week that HMS Dragon, a Type 45 Destroyer, was being sent to the region as the US-Israel war with Iran continues.A suspected Iranian drone hit the British base at Akrotiti overnight on Sunday, causing no casualties and what the Ministry of Defence described as “minimal damage”.
Two more drones heading for Akrotiri were intercepted on Monday, according to the Cypriot government, while there was also a fresh alert on Wednesday morning,However, the British government has been accused of being caught unprepared amid reports that the ship’s departure had been delayed and that a French vessel would reach the area first to carry out similar defensive operations,Murray told GB News: “HMS Dragon and Wildcat helicopters are going to be out there as soon as possible, but they build on the defensive capability that we’ve been increasing in recent weeks,”
South West Water admits criminal offence over Devon parasite outbreak
A major utility company has admitted supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasite outbreak in Devon made almost 150 people sick.South West Water (SWW) pleaded guilty to the criminal offence relating to the cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Brixham, Devon, which affected 2,500 homes.Almost 150 cases of illness were confirmed in spring 2024, with some people needing hospital treatment, and many residents say the impacts of the outbreak are still being felt.During an hour-long hearing at Exeter magistrates court, the company pleaded guilty to an offence under the Water Industry Act 1991. It will be sentenced in June and faces a fine of hundreds of thousands of pounds
UK motor fuel prices rise since Middle East conflict began, and energy bills could jump 10% in July – as it happened
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The dust is settling after Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast statement yesterday, which showed that growth will be weaker than hoped this year while unemployment will be higher.While the chancellor claimed the UK could ‘beat the forecasts again’, economists are concerned that the ongoing Middle East crisis will hurt the economy, and household finances, badly.The Resolution Foundation have just released their overnight analysis of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast.The good news? The UK is set for a “decent”, one-off increase in living standards this year, and a bumper rise for lower-income families
Joy of teaching English in the age of AI | Letter
Your long read (Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI, 3 March) provides human insight into both the craft and purpose of English teaching in the era of developing AI expertise in language. There is no doubt that if the article were fed into AI models often enough, the teacher’s words and techniques could, at some level, be replicated by AI online teachers.However, reading and writing, especially that which explores the writer’s thoughts and feelings, are surely uniquely human activities.As the writer comes to recognise, exploring human experiences through the written word is a highly valuable communal experience. Reading literature aloud in the classroom is the gateway to discussing personal responses to the author’s words
Union tries to seize control of works council at Tesla’s German factory
Europe’s largest trade union is trying to gain control of the works council at Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory near Berlin, in an industrial relations showdown marked by lawsuits and mutual accusations of slander.The works council, an elected body of employees that negotiates everything from working hours to pay deals with a company’s management, is considered an entrenched aspect of the German corporate world, particularly in the car industry.But it was a bone of contention at the Tesla plant in Grünheide, about 20 miles (30km) south-east of Berlin, even before the gates opened almost four years ago.There have been regular clashes at the plant – which employs about 10,000 workers and is the US electric carmaker’s only production site in Europe – between the turbo-capitalist approach of Tesla’s management and Germany’s tradition of a social market economy, which relies on worker representation and collective bargaining.Voting in elections to the works council, which is now controlled by non-trade union members, began on Monday and will close on Wednesday
New Zealand demolish South Africa to reach T20 World Cup cricket final – as it happened
South Africa won every match they could afford to lose in this tournament and then lost the first one that they had to win. They were completely marmalised by New Zealand, who won the first semi-final by nine wickets. Finn Allen ripped through South Africa’s feared fast bowling attack, and hit an unbeaten hundred off just 33 balls. It was the fastest century in the history of the competition, and, as Allen said himself, the innings of his life. Only two batters have ever hit a faster ton in international T20 cricket
Finn Allen’s record ton blasts New Zealand past South Africa into T20 World Cup final
South Africa won every match they could afford to lose in this tournament and then lost the first one that they had to win.They were completely marmalised by New Zealand, who won the first semi-final by nine wickets. Finn Allen ripped through South Africa’s feared fast bowling attack, and hit an unbeaten hundred off just 33 balls. It was the fastest century in the history of the competition, and, as Allen said himself, the innings of his life. Only two batters have ever hit a faster ton in international T20 cricket
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