Barry Cinders

Worth reading my exchange with Defence Secretary John Healey about whether Iran has the capability to strike London SR: Israel has said Iran has missiles that could strike London. Is that true? JH: We have no assessment of Iranian plans to strike London. We have a defence of Britain that isn't just about what we have for ourselves in and around Britain. Our defence of Britain is part of the layers of defence of NATO nations... SR: I don't understand what that means, that you 'don't have an assessment'. Does that mean you don't have an assessment at all so we don't know? Or does that mean that your assessments don't suggest that? JH: I understand the concerns that British people will have, but we have the resources and we have the alliances in place to be able to protect Britain. And we do that not just because we've got first class forces, but we have an alliance with 31 other NATO nations, and it's together that we defend NATO and British airspace, NATO and British homeland. SR: Do we know if Iran has the capability to strike London? JH: Look, what I'm saying, and trying to reassure people, is that we've got no assessment that Iran has any plans to attack, but we have the resources, we have the alliance in place to be able to defend Britain and we do that with allies, and we do that with NATO. And as far as Iran goes, they're demonstrating a capacity to hit across the Middle East. We see the same tactics and technologies that we see employed by Russia in Ukraine and this is the hidden hand of Putin in both conflicts. And I'm releasing today our latest defence intelligence assessment, which says that Russia was almost certainly providing training, sharing intelligence with Iran ahead of this conflict, including on types of drones, including on electronic warfare.

This whole McSweeney phone theft business is beginning to stink. The timing is incredibly convenient for a government that wants to cover up. Why did McSweeney report the theft to the police himself?Surely Downing Street security should have been immediately alerted — and they would handle it from there. Did McSweeney want to establish a record of him reporting it? Why did McSweeney never correct the police when it was clear they thought the theft had been in the East End and, of course, it happened in Westminster. Did McSweeney relish the confusion? Why did McSweeney not make clear the national security significance of it being his phone to the police? Was he worried they’d then take it seriously, unlike most phones thefts?