Lewis Goodall just brutally owned Priti Patel over her claims of ‘sectarian voting’ and it’s a simply magnificent watch

Lewis Goodall just brutally owned Priti Patel over her claims of ‘sectarian voting’ and it’s a simply magnificent watch

To the studios of LBC, where one-time Tory leadership wannabe turned shadow cabinet minister Priti Patel has still got the hump over last week’s Gorton and Denton by-election. The Green party’s historic victory was bad news for Keir Starmer but even worse for Kemi Badenoch’s Tories, who contrived to do so badly they lost their […] The post Lewis Goodall just brutally owned Priti Patel over her claims of ‘sectarian voting’ and it’s a simply magnificent watch appeared first on The Poke .

Why the fightback against Reform must involve the middle-aged, fed-up workers of Britain | Gaby Hinsliff

Why the fightback against Reform must involve the middle-aged, fed-up workers of Britain | Gaby Hinsliff

Millions of people aged 50 to 64 are out of work – sidelined by sickness, care duties or ageism. If Labour can’t convince them they’re a priority, Farage will step in Penny Lancaster was 50 when she retrained as a special constable. Wrangling Saturday night drunks and shoplifters might seem an odd fit for the ex-model and wife of Sir Rod Stewart; she got the idea after making a Channel 4 show in which she temporarily swapped jobs with a police officer. But to Lancaster, who has previously disclosed that she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by a senior figure in the fashion industry, it makes perfect sense: she has said her weekly shifts with City of London police are a way of dealing with things that happened to her as a younger woman, where “ the suspects never got found, justice was never had ”. Buried memories have a habit of resurfacing in middle age. But with them sometimes comes a fierce urge to be useful: to make changes in your working life while there’s still time, look out for other people’s kids now your own are nearly grown and pass on life lessons you didn’t realise at the time were valuable. On a policing podcast recently, Lancaster talked about drawing on her experience as a mother of teenagers to talk down a suicidal 19-year-old who approached her on a bridge . Not everything in policing, she pointed out, is about chasing bad guys down the street. Steadiness, patience and emotional maturity matter too. Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Ballistic missile crews targeted - Israeli Air Force strikes Iranian defence positions

Ballistic missile crews targeted - Israeli Air Force strikes Iranian defence positions

"The Israeli Air Force has released footage of a targeted strike against Iranian soldiers operating defence systems on Monday, as tensions between Israel and Iran continued to escalate into open military confrontation. Footage released by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) shows military personnel walking near ballistic missile launchers at an undisclosed location moments before explosions hit the site. According to the Israeli military, the operation focused on neutralising active defence systems and launch capabilities. The latest attack forms part of a broader campaign targeting Iranian missile and air defence assets. In recent days, Israeli forces have reported multiple waves of air strikes aimed at degrading Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities and limiting the deployment of unmanned aerial systems. The escalation follows a sharp deterioration in hostilities between the two countries, with both sides exchanging missile and drone fire. Iranian authorities have previously announced retaliatory strikes, while Israeli officials have stated that operations will continue to target military infrastructure linked to missile launches. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who had held power since June 4, 1989, oversaw the country’s foreign and military policy for more than three decades. As the Islamic Republic’s highest political and religious authority, he played a central role in shaping Iran’s regional strategy and missile programme during one of the most volatile periods in the Middle East’s modern history."