BaronScarpia

My monologue on The Times at One with Andrew Neil on @TimesRadio on Trump’s War: Donald Trump woke up this morning to tell Britain to open the Strait of Hormuz without US help and to ‘start learning how to fight’ for ourselves because America ‘won’t be there to help you.’   Well, we learned how to do that in 1940, Mr President, when your country was nowhere to be seen and only Britain stood with its Commonwealth allies to defend civilisation against the greatest evil the world has ever seen.  For those of you wondering if the Atlantic Alliance still has a future, you can stop wondering. As long as Trump is in the White House clearly it doesn’t.  Meanwhile Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio is impatient with media criticism that the aims of Trump’s War are confusing and uncertain. So yesterday on American TV he helpfully listed them. Write them down, he advised, implying this was the definitive list. So I did: 1. The destruction of Iran’s air force 2. The destruction of their navy 3. The severe diminishing of their missile launching capability 4. The destruction of their factories Which is clear enough — except that it’s not the list with which President Trump started the war. That list clearly included regime change and the end of Iran’s ability to develop nukes.  They didn’t make Secretary Rubio’s list. Nor did the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.  There is further cause for concern. IF Rubio’s list is now the definitive one, then Trump could claim war aims achieved, victory declared even with Iran still in control of the Strait of Hormuz, still able to develop a nuclear arsenal.  Not quite the victory anybody envisaged.  Yet that may well be the route we’re now going down. Late last night in Washington we discovered that Mr Trump was telling aides he WAS prepared to end the war even if the Strait of Hormuz was still closed.  That opening it would prolong the war beyond his deadline. That it was up to the Europeans and the Gulf States to take the lead in opening it because they needed it more than America.  Well, thanks a lot Donald. You start a war without consulting your allies, you change your war aims more often than Keir Starmer performs U-turns and now you talk of ending it, leaving us to hold the baby. Just great.  This matters. Because the longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed the more the global economy faces something close to catastrophe. 1/2

@StephenFlynnSNP You abandoned Grangemouth just like you’ve abandoned the Alexander Dennis workers….

Grangemouth produced jet fuel for all of Scotland. The UK Government let it shut. Surely people are realising that outsourcing jobs, investment, emissions and energy security leaves us weaker, not stronger. Scotland’s resources should be controlled by Scotland.

@StephenFlynnSNP You abandoned Grangemouth, just like you’ve abandoned North Sea workers….

@StephenFlynnSNP You could have nationalised Grangemouth 5 years ago. Clearly, you had the money…

Nicola Sturgeon knew about Grangemouth in 2016

🚨No HOPE for VICTIMS during the Sturgeon, Murrell & Swinney years!!! SNP: Stronger For Protecting Predators!! 🚨 #SNPout

Islanders don’t need excuses - they need ferries that work. A Scottish Labour government will fix the SNP's ferry fiasco and deliver change for island communities.

Oil, Gas and the SNP The SNP policy is to leave North Sea oil and gas in the ground of course - Stephen Flynn voted against more land census being issue for more North Sea exploration just last week along with all the other Westminster SNP MPs

A wee truth bomb for our terminally stupid nationalist chums.

Oh Chris, you really should know better than to lie like this. WM doesn’t keep the revenues as you well know.

Cancer waiting time target missed for 13 years in a row. But “Honest” John is proud of progress….

Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie has accused First Minister John Swinney of 'cynically attempting to pull the wool over people’s eyes' over the NHS. “Thousands of people are still waiting for hours longer than they should be in A&E departments, with the SNP having failed to meet their own 95% waiting times target for, shockingly, six years,” she said. “And just this month, the SNP failed to meet their promise to eradicate year-long waits for inpatient and outpatient appointments, despite having promised to do so. “Hardworking staff have also been pushed to breaking point due to SNP negligence, relying on pagers and fax machines because of the utter failure of ministers to modernise the service, never mind introducing a working NHS app. “If analogue John had any ideas about how to fix our NHS, he would have done so by now." 👇 𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘯/𝘗𝘈 𝘞𝘪𝘳𝘦/𝘗𝘈 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴

This promise welcomed with a standing ovation was NEVER FULFILLED WHY SHOULSD SCOTS BELIEVE snp THIS TIME?

If the SNP win a majority on the 7th May, John Swinney will ramp up his push for another divisive independence referendum and keep hiking your taxes while the benefits bill balloons out of control. Stop this from happening by voting @ScotTories with your peach party vote.

𝙎𝙒𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙀𝙔 ... 𝙉𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚!

Scotland's unjust transition continues. Alexander Dennis are electric bus manufacturers who should be central to green economic prosperity but they're closing their Camelonand plant and reducing their Falkirk factory to manufacturing chassis. dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/…

Alexander Dennis’s decision to close its Falkirk factory is a huge collective failure. As I wrote last year, it’s what happens when public money is used to back overseas rivals over Scottish industry: futureeconomy.scot/posts/260-miss…

Dear Seperatists, Swinney has no plan for Independence, nothing ,zilch All he wants is easy money, you ha e been had again.

@AgentP22 It’s like my plan to date Scarlett Johanson. I’ve missed the target. But it’s all “working”. Honestly….

Missed targets. Years-long waits. A&E chaos. But don’t worry — Swinney says it’s all “working.” You couldn’t make it up.