LabourRealists

Earlier this month, Ed Miliband set out measures to reset the British-Israeli relationship. Miliband was right to address the settlement issue. But tying the bilateral relationship to an unachievable two-state-solution risks damaging the strategically vital aspects that endure. As Israel fails to meet the demands made on it, pressure will grow for Miliband to go further. The F-35 programme is already in the sights of campaigners. To his credit, bringing twelve countries on board is a good stylistic example of the hyperactive foreign policy Britain needs. But for coalitions to endure they must have tangible realistic goals that bind their members. Faced by Russian aggression, US withdrawal, and a more dangerous world, this is not a sustainable grouping. One of its members, Finland, is creating dependencies on Israel for air-defence. Miliband argues that the absence of a Palestinian state is at the heart of regional disorder. This misreads the reality of the modern Middle East, where a lack of regional ordering is driven by state competition, not the absence of statehood for Palestinians. It is striking that the twin challenges to UK household bills from the Hormuz and Red Sea crisis have little to no relationship with settler terrorism in the West Bank. Read our full piece here:

British multiculturalism is increasingly built on incoherences that cannot be sustained. Take the attempt to impose an Islamophobia definition: a textbook example of Gray's 'contending projects for the political protection of cultural identity'

The average white British voter is now regularly bombarded with racial-agit prop, some of it false, some of it misleading, but some of it grounded in fundamental fact. What is Labour's unified response?

It is Andy Burnham's actually existing Manchesterism - the appointment of Stephen Watson, his embrace of back-to-basics policing, and the repudiation of political policing, that offers a rare glimmer of hope.

We reject the suggestion that these reforms are "Un-British". It is striking that Angela Rayner, who made this claim, argued for similar reforms last year when she called for migrants with ILR to be stripped of welfare payments. telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…

MPs must ask themselves: would it be fair to saddle the costs of failed Conservative policy onto the British taxpayer? Read our piece in full at the link below: labourrealists.substack.com/…

In our latest piece we argue the government is making the wrong strategic bets on Chagos. It is attempting to align with a US position that no longer exists, and pursuing an outdated vision of adherence to international law.