STEM personal tutor. Retired..STEM teacher training Univ of South Wales. Ex des eng & sec HOD & AST, PhD student Inst of Ed, London. Tai Chi, Beekeeper.
Paignton, Devon
Joined December 2011
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alan rowse retweeted
Q: If the administration has declared war on waste and fraud, can you explain the $420 million overpayment for a prison in Appleton, Minnesota, when the company offered it to the state of Minnesota for $75 million?
BESSENT: That question is a waste of time.
alan rowse retweeted
The entire £83,000 #CelebrityTraitors prize fund going towards supporting refugees and queer displaced people feels bloody wonderful in such wretched times marked by fearmongering and inhumane politics – even more so knowing there will be many right-wingers enraged by that. ❤️
ALT Romesh Ranganathan and Sebastian Croft hugging Claudia Winkleman.
alan rowse retweeted
THE MOST INCOMPETENT WAR IN HISTORY: SARAH PAINE ON TRUMP’S IRAN DISASTER
Dr. Sarah Paine, a leading historian of great-power conflict and strategy, delivers a blunt verdict on the Iran war. She calls it one of the most incompetent wars in human history. The decision ignored basic principles of assessment, put maximum costs on America itself, and left permanent damage to the country’s power and alliances. This is not hindsight—it is the predictable result of hubris meeting reality.
THE CORE VERDICT
➡️ “The Iran war is probably one of the most incompetent wars in human history.”
➡️ A competent war puts the costs on the enemy and minimizes them for yourself.
➡️ This one did the opposite.
THE COST CATASTROPHE
➡️ It trashed the US economy.
➡️ It blew the US alliance system.
➡️ Iran is hurting, but the collateral damage is taking down the world’s economy.
➡️ That transforms the United States from a partner into an annoyance—and for many, a primary adversary—because it is threatening their economies.
➡️ “That’s breathtakingly incompetent.”
THE STRATEGIC BLIND SPOT
➡️ Any serious assessment looks at the enemy’s strengths and your own weaknesses, plus everyone else who might intervene.
➡️ That was absent.
➡️ The first thing Iran would do is shut Hormuz. Narrow seas close in wartime. Ukraine already showed this with the Black Sea.
➡️ Shore artillery, mines, and other tools stop traffic. There is no mystery here.
➡️ The big naval base in Bahrain becomes unreachable. The fallback is Diego Garcia, 2,500 miles away in the middle of nowhere. “That would be a mess.”
THE HUBRIS THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE
➡️ The people making the calls are historically unqualified for the job. That makes them profoundly dangerous.
➡️ Type A hubris assumes all decisions that matter happen in the United States.
➡️ Type B hubris assumes being good at one thing makes you good at everything.
➡️ Half-court tennis: you only watch your own side and never study the other team.
➡️ The Iranians understand Americans far better than Americans understand them.
THE UNFEASIBLE OBJECTIVE
➡️ Trying to “solve” Iran with 90 million people was never realistic.
➡️ Nazi Germany had roughly 80 million and required an occupation force of about 1.5 million just to hold it after the war—before counting everyone else.
➡️ The goal was unattainable. Pursuing it guarantees overextension and a bad ending.
➡️ The lesson the world takes is simple: get a nuke. The war incentivized proliferation.
➡️ This was a pivotal error. The choices that existed before are gone and will not return. “We will never be the trusted partner ever again. It’s done.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Iran war did not merely fail. It maximized American costs, destroyed trust with allies, and handed every rival a clearer reason to treat the United States as a threat to their own prosperity. Competence would have contained the problem at affordable cost. Hubris chose the opposite.
This is what permanent strategic damage looks like.
#IranWar #SarahPaine #StrategicIncompetence #HormuzDisaster #USHubris #AllianceCollapse #CatastrophicMistake
HT: YouTube The Diary Of A CEO
alan rowse retweeted
A Nazi bully at school - @Nigel_Farage denies this despite 34 witnesses to the contrary - he is a bully MP.
He told people he didn't go to the budget because he did not want an altercation with an MP.
It turns out that this is @LibDems' @CarolineVoaden.
Pathetic.
I am not shocked by his shameful behaviour because of the testimony of so many witnesses for my book, The Real Nigel Farage.
Nasty piece of work.
Exclusive:
Nigel Farage's "physical altercation" during the State Opening of Parliament was with the Lib Dem MP Caroline Voaden - and has caused an major row between Reform and the Lib Dems.
Lib Dem sources say Voaden was left "shocked and shaken" after he "shoved" her to secure a place in the procession of MPs to the King's Speech.
Video from the Commons Chamber that day shows Farage and Voaden making their way down from their benches together.
Voaden reported the incident to the Serjeant at Arms and says Farage was asked to apologise - but hasn't.
A Reform spokesman denies any wrongdoing by Farage, saying "it was the Lib Dem MPs being aggressive towards Nigel". Lib Dems say that is "utter nonsense"
Farage said yesterday that the "physical altercation" was the reason he didn't put up a fight to be in the Chamber for the Budget after his prayer card to save a space was removed.
He said he thought that after the row with Voaden, it was "better to avoid conflict".
But in a further twist, a Commons spokesman says Farage's card was only removed because it didn't have a date stamp, which are required to reserve a spot.
Top work by @hope_sapphire here:
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
alan rowse retweeted
"Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw to step down after four and a half years in charge."
In those 4 and a half years Nicola Shaw was paid over £3 million including £1.3 million which was paid via an offshore company.
Everybody say aww!
yorkshirepost.co.uk/business…
alan rowse retweeted
Humbled to have been able to attend the unveiling this morning of a purple plaque rightly honouring Nansi Williams who gave her life whilst shielding five children during the Aberfan Disaster.
Well done to all those involved in making this happen.
💜💜💜💜💜
alan rowse retweeted
Funny that Robert Jenrick failed to mention that Poundland was sold off in 2001 to the Gordon Brothers, a finance restructuring and asset stripping specialist based in the USA…
No wonder it’s £30 million in debt
alan rowse retweeted
Aren’t you the guy who was jailed for beating up a woman, and then downplayed it as a ‘teenage indiscretion’? How on earth do you think you can lecture anyone on this?
I was right there in the Chamber - you can see me. Fact.
I saw Farage put his hands on @CarolineVoaden to shove her out the way. Fact.
Caroline shrieked in shock. Fact.
No physical altercation is featured in the clip that is circulating - it happened in the seconds before. Fact.
Caroline reported this to the Speaker and Sergeant-at-Arms at the time. Fact.
Caroline then got on with her job because she hasn’t got time for this shit. Fact.
I’ve tried to find myself in the video because I remember this pretty clearly.
I think I’m one row back just out of shot on the left of the screen.
It’s completely beyond me how and why Caroline has presented herself as the victim here. She was bloody rude and really quite confrontational and she did it for no other reason than Nigel is Nigel and she wanted to give him a piece of her mind.
Anything other than it being a bit of a rush and a squeeze because of the occasion is nonsense.
From what I remember Caroline was both the instigator and the aggressor.
alan rowse retweeted
Sidenote: the minister didn't actually realise before we pulled him into the studio that he was about to do this on live TV. Fair play to him...
'The minister has very bravely offered to go through some of the charts from the budget'
@dantomlinsonmp joins @EdConwaySky at the screen to talk through the numbers behind today's announcement
trib.al/WOFfeba
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602
alan rowse retweeted
Fair play to @dantomlinsonmp. Can't imagine many ministers being a) having the guts to do this live and b) being so on top of their brief they do it well.
'The minister has very bravely offered to go through some of the charts from the budget'
@dantomlinsonmp joins @EdConwaySky at the screen to talk through the numbers behind today's announcement
trib.al/WOFfeba
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602
alan rowse retweeted
So apparently Jenny 1884 is a bigoted paranoid fearmongering disinformation superspreader who supports Reform UK, and is owned by a cat.
So apparently Nottingham Cathedral could be the first church to close in the Church of Englands 492 year history as it apparently has run out of money.
Am I the only one that thinks this is not coincidental but is intentional?
Just remember this government is giving our money away to all & sundry.
NOT ONLY ARE WE BEING REPLACED IN OUR OWN COUNTRY, OUR CHURCHES ARE BEING REPLACED TOO & WE ALL KNOW WHAT WITH.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Nottingham Cathedral is Roman Catholic. The story refers to Southwell Minster, the Church of England cathedral in Nottinghamshire that may face closure due to financial deficits and a £20m repair backlog accumulated over decades.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingha… bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… thesun.co.uk/news/40847450/…
alan rowse retweeted
Alastair Campbell, "I will say to Zia Yusuf and his friend Nigel Farage"
"Brexit has taken 6-8% out of economy"
"If we had not left, the Chancellor today would have had £90 billion more to spend"
"He could have doubled the defence budget"
Fiona Bruce, "That is a projection Alastair, no one can be sure about that"
Alastair Campbell, "And added 50% to the health budget as well"
"The people who gave us Brexit now want to give you another set of false promises"
"Do not fall for them because they are a bunch of conmen. They're being found out. And its one reason why Nigel Farage will never be Prime Minister of this country"
My view:
Fiona Bruce was quick to dismiss Campbell’s figures as “a projection”. But that shouldn’t be a way to shut down the argument.
Campbell was making a point about what Brexit has cost the country: on his figures, a 6–8% hit to the economy means around £90 billion less for the Chancellor to spend—enough, he said, to double the defence budget or increase health spending by 50%.
And remember what Nigel Farage was saying in 2016: that even without a trade deal, Britain would be better off than it was then. The evidence points the other way.
The OBR estimates that Brexit will leave UK productivity around 4% lower than it would have been inside the EU; other studies put the economic hit higher. That means we’re poorer than we would have been had we stayed.
So yes, these are estimates—but the claims made by Brexit’s champions were projections too. Bruce’s caveat shouldn’t obscure the central question Campbell raised: how much has Brexit cost us, and what could that money have done for the country?
alan rowse retweeted
Very enjoyable evening in Warwick with an audience clearly supporting the idea that Brexit was a disaster and net zero is the only way to go. Nice of @libdemdaisy to be there on her birthday! We all drank to her health afterwards apart from @ZiaYusufUK who legged it with his status symbol bodyguard. Fascinating to see how he did not make a single positive argument for Brexit. They never do. He has lovely shoes though, but a very weak handshake which is never a good sign in anyone.
Tonight, Question Time is in Warwick
Joining Fiona on the panel are Emma Reynolds, James Cartlidge, Daisy Cooper, Zia Yusuf, and Alastair Campbell
Watch at 9pm on @BBCiPlayer, @BBCSounds & the @BBCNews channel, 10.40pm on @BBCOne
#bbcqt
alan rowse retweeted
Peter Mandelson was correctly removed from the Privy Council for bringing it 'into disrepute'.
The same action must now be taken against Matt Hancock, responsible for the generational slaughter in care homes during the pandemic.
⬇️Sign our petition ⬇️
c.org/xWgPym5KR7
alan rowse retweeted
Tomorrow’s team ⚔️
Hosting @Harlequins at HQ in our Halloween clash for R5 of @premrugby.
Team news 🔗 exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/team…
