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Do Palestinians want Hamas gone?

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 7d

A deradicalised Gaza is impossible for the same reason a two-state solution is impossible: the Palestinians don’t want it.

Me in the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

Discussion of Donald Trump’s peace proposal for Gaza revolves around one question: who is for it and who is against it?

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Menzies 'Ming' Campbell belonged to a principled age

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 11d

I’ve written about Menzies Campbell for Saturday’s @mailonlinescot.bsky.social. #buyapaper

‘Menzies Campbell was faithful to his conscience and lived a life of public service with integrity at its heart. It was his longest and final race and he won it by a mile.’

Menzies Campbell was in the noble tradition of Scottish Liberalism. In tone, he belonged to an earlier political age, one in which principles were held fiercely.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Nicola Sturgeon is only in it for herself

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Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 11d

‘Nicola Sturgeon has spoken just 12 times in Holyrood in the past 12 months. Half of those were points of order about problems with her voting app. Seventy-five grand for piping up once a month. Nice work if you can get it.’

My latest for @dailymail.co.uk.

Political parties are built to weather storms but people less so, and especially those people in Sturgeon's constituency. They need a parliamentarian who is in it for them. Nicola Sturgeon is only in ...

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Swinney serves up more waffle than an all-night...

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 12d

‘Independence means getting powers and then everything works and you never have to make hard choices and everyone lives happily ever after. This isn’t nationalism, it’s Hans Christian Andersen with flags.’

My @dailymail.co.uk sketch of this week’s #FMQs.

'This is Scotland's first ever Innovation Week,' Russell Findlay told the chamber.

Keir Starmer’s Palestine doesn’t exist

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Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 14d

Why the UK is about to become much, much more hostile to Israel.

Me on Starmer, Cnut, and the illusion of power in @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

In recognising a state of Palestine, Starmer attempts not to halt a tide but to summon a new one which flows counter to history.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: The governing class tells migrants: We'll...

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 16d

‘In a vanishingly short span of time, the UK has undergone unprecedented demographic transformation. At the turn of the millennium, fewer than one in ten Britons was born overseas, today the figure is one in six.‘

My @dailymail.co.uk column is on growing opposition to immigration in Scotland.

Leave it to Humza Yousaf to come within spitting distance of a good point then miss by a country mile.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Douglas Ross chucked a verbal grenade at Holyrood...

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 19d

‘Wait, you’re telling me the SNP can’t manage a budget? Wow. That surprises me. This is my surprised tone.’

My @dailymail.co.uk sketch of this week’s #FMQs.

You could have heard a pin drop, namely the one off the grenade Ross was about to chuck in Swinney's lap.

Politics Notebook #29: Britain’s Defence Academy has banned Israelis. Here’s who they welcome instead.

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 21d

The UK’s Defence Academy will no longer allow Israelis into its Royal College of Defence Studies.

So I decided to take a look at which countries they’re only too happy to cooperate with. Here’s what I found.

No dogs, no Israelis

stephendaisley.substack.com

Holyrood is becoming a part-time parliament. They're devoting...

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 23d

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column is on Holyrood becoming the Palestine parliament and what Westminster should do to reassert its primacy on foreign affairs.

The Scottish parliament doesn't get enough credit for how hard it works. MSPs have been back from recess for just two weeks but my how busy they have been.

Six questions the National must answer

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 28d

Some @thespectator1828.bsky.social thoughts on The National’s keen interest in Scotland Against Antisemitism.

The National must have some kind of early-warning system for incoming criticism of the Scottish Government – the Treason Tracker, perhaps?

Bari Weiss was meant to fade – instead, she’s taking over - The Jewish Chronicle

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 28d

Bari Weiss is putting the mainstream back into mainstream media.

My latest piece for the @jewishchron.bsky.social.

Driven from the New York Times, she built The Free Press into a powerhouse, challenged the legacy media on everything from Israel to free speech, and may soon rise to top ranks of CBS. For America’s p...

www.thejc.com

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Sep 8

How John Swinney betrayed Scotland’s Jewish community.

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column is on the SNP leader’s reckless and unfounded accusation of Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza.

Scots Jews are entitled to a First Minister who acts with...

Leadership is more than taking decisions and exercising power. It is an ethos of character, judgement, temperance, and responsibility.

Britain needs a First Amendment

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Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Sep 4

My take on Graham Linehan in @thespectator1828.bsky.social:

‘You shouldn’t punch people in the balls, unless they ask nicely, and I doubt the police will turn up over a bloke in the ladies’ bogs at M&S, unless of course you tell them he’s in there tying an England flag to the Tampax machine.’

Well, if they’re arresting comedians, at least Nish Kumar is safe. Graham Linehan, not so much. The British like to sniff that Americans don’t get irony. Arresting a comedian fresh off the plane from ...

Middle class types wanting to soothe guilt are to blame for so much

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Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Sep 1

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column performs the vital public service of having a right go at the new leaders of the Scottish Green Party.

Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, the new co-leaders of the Scottish Green Party, fill me with existential dread.

The truth of the British schoolgirl with an axe: STEPHEN DAISLEY

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Aug 27

The Dundee girl video is a snapshot of British poverty and despair and left-behind communities. It shouldn’t be viral content for Twitter grifters or morbid entertainment for culture warriors.

Some thoughts from me in the @dailymail.co.uk.

It is a grim portrait straight from the streets of broken Britain. A teenage girl filmed allegedly brandishing a knife and an axe in Dundee last Saturday.

trib.al

What's really behind Nicola Sturgeon's latest antics: STEPHEN DAISLEY

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Aug 25

‘In one shot, she is seen standing behind a glass wall, peering out intently. Perhaps it was meant as a metaphor for the gilded cage of political life, but I was waiting for her to ask Clarice if the lambs had stopped screaming.’

Me on how Nicola Sturgeon damages the SNP.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I'm beginning to wonder if Nicola Sturgeon is secretly working for Westminster.

Farage, flags and the forgotten English

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Aug 25

I’ve written for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the English, the elites and who exactly is an extremist.

(Which I’m sure will go down really well on BlueSky.)

#raisethecolours

From St George’s Cross to the Union Jack, Britain’s flag debates reveal the gulf between public opinion and elite disdain for patriotism.

Kate Forbes showed real bravery

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Aug 4

Some thoughts on Kate Forbes over at @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

There is a certain worldly cynicism aroused by the announcement that a politician is stepping down to spend more time with their family. It was for a long time the refuge of MPs who had earned themsel...

Álvaro Uribe, Colombia’s former president, found guilty in bribery trial

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Jul 29

Almost every reply, and pretty much every American reply, to this story is about Trump. It’s sort of reassuring that even the most BlueSky-brained resistance libs remain unmistakably American in their cultural narcissism and total incuriosity about any country not featured nightly on Jake Tapper.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Jul 29

Breaking news: Álvaro Uribe, one of the most influential leaders in Colombian history, was found guilty of bribery in criminal proceedings, becoming the country’s first former president to be convicted in a criminal trial.

The influential and controversial Uribe was found guilty in a witness tampering case and is the country’s first former president to be convicted in a criminal trial.

www.washingtonpost.com

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Jul 29

I’ve written about South Park, Trump and retarded faggots for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

‘If you love comedy, the self-serious, woke and anti-woke alike, are the enemy. The dull, scowling, umbrage-taking, laughter-policing enemy. It is your duty to scandalise their soulless sensibilities.’

Do Donald Trump's fans like South Park or not?

It marks the first time the White House press office has responded to an animated series mocking the size of the presidential appendage

The problems with a state of Palestine

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · Jul 25

On the futility of recognising a ‘Palestine’ that doesn’t and might never exist:

‘No amount of recognition can will into existence a Palestinian state or the leadership, civil society, or norms required to build and sustain one.’

Over at the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

France intends to recognise a state of Palestine at the United Nations, which I'm sure will be followed by UK recognition of the same.