Geoff Maple 🇬🇧🇺🇦

British Jews feel under seige. They don't feel safe on the streets. Now they are being threatened in their homes. Don't be a bystander. Use your voice 📣 Support British Jews 🇬🇧✡️❤️

@robert_lyman @philmcraig I shall certainly search for this episode.

Loved doing this with @philmcraig

I hope you’re not too late to see the Lee Miller exhibition at @Tate Britain. Outstanding. So brilliantly curated.

@London_W4 Completely agree. Our visit to Tate Britain today (actually to see the Lee Miller exhibition) had to include some Turner. The Battle of Trafalgar and Peace. Burial at Sea.

I stood in front of this painting yesterday and everything felt better for a few moments. The Fighting Temeraire, by JMW Turner: the greatest artist ever. What many people don’t think about and what blows my mind, is when you’re stood in front of a painting by Turner, Van Gogh, Monet, Constable or any artist, you are standing exactly where that artist stood. They stood right there looking at their work. Think about it next time you’re stood looking at a painting.

Thanks @NAM_London How it was, how it should be and how it will be. The very best of Allies.

A super visit to the @NAM_London today. Enjoyed the Burma exhibition too.

Today we remember and light candles for the victims of the Holocaust. We must never forget. #HolocaustMemorialDay 🕯

Our Chair @TanDhesi has issued a statement on behalf of the Committee in response to President Trump’s comments on the contribution of the UK and other NATO allies in Afghanistan.

Fact of the Day: General Major Bonespurs meets members of the Household Cavalry who explain what a Front Line looks like to him as part of Operation Tangerine Micro-Mushroom and the 457 reasons why he needs to apologise Photographed from a Canberra

BREAKING: More than 30,000 Iranians, Jews, and British patriots took to the streets today in Central London to show their support for the brave Iranian people. 🇬🇧 UK FLAGS 🇮🇷 Lion and Sun flag 🇮🇱 Israeli flag Absolutely incredible.

Some replies to my notebook crisis! Love it.

The lingering absence of a national plan for the defence of the UK is hard to comprehend given the potential for a wider war in Europe that was triggered by Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine *more than a decade ago*. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the head of the armed forces, told MPs on Monday that the main reason this country has been left so exposed is because successive governments reaped a so-called peace dividend since the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991 and shifted funding into other priorities, such as welfare and health. This is right to a point. But the Conservatives under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak all collectively failed to switch the nation back to the kind of war-footing it was on during the Cold War in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s initial landgrab in Crimea in 2014 and even after his full-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022. Alarm bells were belatedly starting to ring in the spring of 2024 when Sky News first reported the absence of any kind of national defence plan. However, Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour Party then took over and still the sense of business as usual remained across Whitehall – including large parts of the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. There was no mention of the urgent need to rebuild national defence and resilience in the prime minister’s various pledges in his “plan for change”. Defence has finally jumped up the agenda but clearly not far enough to ensure that he instructs the whole of government, led by the Cabinet Office, to focus singularly on drawing up at speed a modern version of the Government War Book – the previous blueprint to prepare the nation for the possibility of a transition from peace to war. Sir Keir says that the UK needs to be ready for war but there is little sign that any meaningful action is going on behind the scenes to prepare the whole of society for what that actually means.

If you claim to support human rights yet can’t bring yourself to show solidarity with those fighting for their liberty in Iran, you’ve revealed yourself. You don’t give a damn about people being oppressed and brutalised so long as it’s being done by the enemies of your enemies.

And so from Le Carre to Treasured at the Weston ⁦@bodleianlibs⁩. Amazing treasures from The Beasts of the Earth a holy conversion of the world from 1511 to the Magna Carta (1217) found stuffed in a book, even nibbled by mice! Wonderful!

A superb exhibition at the Weston Library ⁦@bodleianlibs⁩ in Oxford today. Really interesting and some illuminating snippets about Le Carre’s research, inspiration and methods.

So moving. So inspiring. The human spirit is unquenchable.

The UK is leading the push for peace in Ukraine – building the new deal for European security 🇬🇧🇺🇦

After my comments in Parliament about the Royal Marines I found this on my desk…some good military banter!

The bravery of these people is astounding. They're light in what lately has felt like a very dark world.

BREAKING: Thousands of BRAVE Iranians are taking to the streets on the 11th day of the uprising against the Islamic Republic's terrorist regime. The mainstream media is IGNORING this. Make it go viral. Share it everywhere.