Prime Minister Starmer did not waste any time in claiming credit for helping Donald Trump "behind the scenes" to cobble together the 20-point Gaza so-called peace plan. Maybe he also takes credit for the choice of Tony Blair as co-supervisor with Trump on the Gaza "Peace Board". Not that Blair is likely to make it onto this Board. Nor is it likely that this new and somewhat farcical attempt to impose the same old settler colonialism and denial of Palestinian autonomy will be fully implemented - if implemented at all. As one or two critics have asked the question: do these westerners really think they can control Gaza and its people by remote control?
At the time of writing, it seems the "ceasefi re agreement" may well be unravelling anyway, as Israeli ministers accuse Hamas of not returning hostages fast enough and threaten to "make them disarm" if they don't do so voluntarily, etc., etc... The Israeli state immediately started blocking half of the aid which was meant to enter the strip. At the time of writing the Israeli army, behind the yellow line, is killing Palestinians who stray over it and has already launched a strike on Rafah. Trump and Starmer obviously have more in common than meets the eye. Certainly Starmer, like Trump, never stopped supporting Netanyahu's Israeli Zionists; the token recognition of a Palestinian state on 21 September this year, on the same day as the Canadian, Portuguese and Australian governments, was just that: a token.
The rationale for this was apparently "before it's too late and Gaza has ceased to exist", which the respective political leaders said would make their cherished "two state solution" unviable. Not that it was ever viable in the sense they mean it. Indeed one could say that two states already exist, with control of both in the hands of extremist Zionists.
Nobody can deny that Israel's "war" as it was (is?) called, was (is?) really a one-sided relentless extermination. And yes it could indeed be called a "genocide", by defi nition, but who needs "legal" legitimacy for defi nitions. And all under the pretext of getting rid of the small guerilla army of Hamas and even smaller other nationalist "resistance" fi ghters. The 7 October 2023 escape from Gaza-Alcatraz, the one-day terror attack and hostage-taking by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fi ghters was an outrage which warranted, in Keir Starmer's eyes, the starvation and cutting off of Gaza from water, fuel and power. It shouldn't be forgotten how he concurred at the time with Israeli Defence Minister Gallant. Anyway, quite transparently, the cynical "recognition" of a virtual "Palestine" based on two states is certainly to place themselves in the running, alongside equally cynical Gulf states (which did not lift a fi nger to defend the Palestinians when it came to the IDF slaughter and destruction) for reconstruction contracts worth billions...
Britain and Britishness unbroken?
The political parties' "conference season" was over by mid-October. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves had spent their time on the platform trying, on the one hand to disprove that "Britain is broken" - which his opponents and much of the right-wing press allege - and on the other, to prove Labour is the real party of "Britishness". Continuing the theme established over the past few years, but only much more so, the conference hall was bedecked with Union Jacks, and this time also the England flag, or Cross of St George - which has in the past always been associated with the far-right. Now Labour is "reclaiming" it. Along with several of their policies...
Far from being "broken" Reeves boasted that the British economy grew faster in the first two quarters of this year than any of the G7 group of rich countries; so by definition, of course, the economy is not in recession. And apparently thanks to her strict "fiscal rules", at least government debt (at 95% of GDP) isn't as high as France's (at 104%) - or indeed the USA's (at 98%). In other words, the economy is no more "broken" than the rest of its peer group of countries in this period of decaying capitalism!
However, it's an open secret that Reeves' next budget will cut public spending - attacking welfare benefits and pensions. And if she does increase taxes, which pundits say she will have to, she maintains this will not be those taxes which affect "working people" thus sticking to the promise made in Labour's election manifesto.
Starmer's latest popularity rating according to the Times newspaper (17 October 2025), which takes an average of all polls is minus 46%, the lowest of all party leaders. Tory leader Badenoch is on -26% and Reform's Farage on -11%. However, the Times points out that "Starmer may be unpopular now, but his net favourability score is higher than Johnson's during party gate, and Sunak's when he was booted out of office". It adds: "He can find solace in the fact that he remains more popular than both his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn (-48% in early 2020), and Liz Truss (-66% at the end of her 45-day tenure). But, the gap is closing"!
The chart showing "voting intention" shows Reform at the top with 31%, with Labour on only 20% - a loss of 14% since the election, when its share of the vote was 34%. The right-wing populist Reform has of course replaced the Conservative Party, if not in Westminster (it has only 5 MPs compared to the Tories' 119) at least in opinion polls; it is also winning local seats in councils and already has two elected mayors.
To counter this, the Labour leadership is trying to out-Farage Farage, by crudely adopting its paraphernalia and its policies. Right (literally) from 7 October it stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Netanyahu and continues to condemn pro-Palestinian activity as anti-Semitic - all the more so after the Heaton Park Synagogue attack. Starmer's love-in with Trump seems even to have displaced Farage from the Oval Office. He has more or less adopted US foreign policy as his own...
Moreover, harsh anti-immigrant, but also unprecedented authoritarian policies are being adopted - like for instance the attack on free speech and proscription of the protest group Palestine Action. Of course, this latter may well be reversed, since the group has just been granted a judicial review. So former Home Secretary - the unpleasantly reactionary Yvette Cooper, who is now Foreign Secretary, may live to regret her right-wing opportunism. As for the new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, she too, boasts of migrant deportations and closures of migrant hotels, claiming to stand for "British jobs for British workers", the old National Front slogan of the 1970s, even if, so far, she steers clear of actually saying the words...
Yes, these are wretched polices from wretched politicians!
Who's threatening whom?
Parliament at Westminster re-assembled on the 13 October - and Prime Minister's Questions, opened with a China spy scandal, offering yet more opportunities for Starmer and Kemi Badenoch to strike nationalistic postures and, moreover, raise the fiction of a "China threat".
In fact the real responsibility for this whole sorry episode lies with the Tory China-phobes themselves - since the alleged spies originate in their so-called "China Research Group". This CRG - now dissolved - was established in April 2020 by Tory MPs Tom Tugendhat, Neil O'Brien and Alicia Kearns, with the aim of collecting evidence of the Chinese state's wrong-doings, in the context of its "increasing political and economic importance" - i.e., possible competitive threat... Not that British business has much weight in this respect, but never mind.
Apparently the already-existing organisation known as the "Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China" (IPAC) in which Tory MP, Iain Duncan Smith plays a prominent role as the Big Daddy of China-haters, wasn't enough for Tugendhat. That said, IPAC and Duncan Smith can claim quite a few "successes"! Like, for instance, preventing China's Huawei from helping to upgrade Britain's mobile phone technology to 5G, since, maintained Duncan Smith, spy equipment might be inserted somewhere inside it... And then in 2023, he helped stoke the hysteria over Chinese "spy balloons" - when in fact these turned out to be weather balloons which had blown off course - which didn't prevent at least one of them from being shot down over Canada by an equally paranoid US fighter jet.
Duncan Smith supported the launching of the CRG, of course. And its researcher, now alleged spy, the unfortunate Chris Cash, was made a director, and given the job of digging dirt on China. Having taught there and with a knowledge of Mandarin, he was considered well-qualified for the job. And it was in China where he had met his co-accused and close friend, Chris Berry with whom he remained in close contact.
How exactly Cash and Berry came to be accused of being spies isn't clear; the case was brought by the police and the Crown Prosecution. Neither is it clear what exactly the Chinese state is supposed to have learnt from them. The 3 witness statements from Matthew Collins, the Deputy National Security Advisor, released by Starmer after Badenoch demanded them at PMQs, reveal nothing more than the (usual) allegation that China is a "highly sophisticated and capable cyberthreat". In fact Collins exhibits the same kind of paranoia and conspiratorial thinking in this statement - turning the innocuous into something suspicious and noxious - displayed by the crazy Kearns, Tugendhat, Duncan Smith and the rest. But even so, what Collins concluded was not judged by the CPS to be adequate for a conviction.
Nevertheless, the Tories are pressing for the government to reopen its case against Cash and Berry, saying it should never have been dropped. The original case turned on a question of semantics, say the Tories... that is, what does the word "threat" imply, if applied to China's relationship with Britain... But they go further - labelling China an "enemy". Tom Tugendhat fulminated in the Commons, when Starmer's spokesperson stated the government's position on the case, shouting "whose side are you on?"!
Beyond the accusations and counter-accusations exchanged between Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and PM Starmer for the sake of political one-upmanship, there is a general context, however: the escalation of hostile anti-Chinese rhetoric as China retaliates against Donald Trump's tariffs - and for once it holds the cards when it comes to critical metals/rare earths.
Obligingly agreeing with her Tory opponents that China poses a "threat", Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves has explained that Britain and Europe are trying to reduce their dependence on Chinese rare earths, just as they are trying to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas... So now, for the likes of Tom Tugendhat, well-schooled by Iain Duncan Smith, it's probably much easier to argue against all relations with China - even if it's self-harming for the British economy.
And now for the truth...
There is little doubt that Cash and Berry are innocent. Cash has explained: "I routinely spoke [to] and shared information with Christopher Berry about Chinese and British Politics... he was my friend and these were matters we were both passionately interested in. I believed him to be as critical and concerned about the Chinese Communist Party as I was. It was inconceivable to me that he would deliberately pass on any information to Chinese intelligence, even if that information was not sensitive".
He said that Collins' statements, were "devoid of the context that would have been given at trial", where they would have been subject to a "root and branch challenge". And this is probably the most important point of all - that Collins' assessments "would not have withstood the scrutiny of a public trial". He said that his reports to his friend could in no way be construed as "providing information to the Chinese intelligence services, nor is it tenable that the provision of such material could, in any sense, be considered for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state". He added: "This would have been one of many issues raised with the jury during a trial".
And there's the rub! In other words, the government's case would have been blown wide open had this case actually gone to trial! The huge embarrassment this would have caused was thus avoided by dropping it. Now the Tory China-phobics want to re-open it - which is hardly in their own interests, nor in the interests of Starmer's government - that is, if the case is conducted honestly. But there is no guarantee of that, given the long record of British injustice! Cash and Berry could well be falsely convicted and imprisoned.
China's embassy said: "We have emphasised from the outset that the allegation about China instructing the relevant British individuals to 'steal British intelligence' is entirely fabricated... We urge certain individuals in the UK to stop this kind of self-staged anti-China political farce". One can only agree. Especially after Alicia Kearns took this farce to an even higher level when she told the Daily Mail newspaper that she had "felt a chill" after detectives questioned her about her recent trip to Taiwan: "you can't be sure that the room hasn't got a bug or a camera somewhere. There could be photos of you walking around your hotel room naked"! Yes Chinese spies, exposing Alicia Kearns... literally!
As for "China" spying and hacking, presumably the Chinese state, just like the British state (from whom all others have learnt their A-B-C) has experts who routinely listen in whenever they can, in order to accumulate information... Just as MI5 does (and MI6, the CIA, the French secret service etc., etc!). Isn't the government's "listening-in" operation at GCHQ in Cheltenham devoted entirely to spying on friend and foe alike? In fact it has an army of Chinese speakers to listen in, hack and translate Chinese "state secrets"! But who is complaining about that?
17 October 2025