Here in the UK a plumber by the name of Hannah Spencer confirmed what many already knew; a century of Labour-Conservative duopoly of government is over. Standing as a Green at the Gorton-Denton byelection two days ago, she overturned a 13,000 Labour majority to become its new member of parliament.
Labour were denied even runner up status as far Right Reform took second place, while for the first time in sixty-four years the Conservatives forfeited, under rules brought in by Mrs Thatcher in 1983, their £500 deposit by failing to garner 5% of the vote.
Says the Guardian:
Keir Starmer is facing an ultimatum from his own party to change direction or risk a leadership challenge within months after the Greens humiliated Labour with a historic byelection victory in Gorton and Denton.
Overturning a 13,000 Labour majority from the general election, Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councillor, became the party’s fifth MP on Friday. Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin was second, just ahead of the Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia.
An upside down Vote Labour sign and an upright Vote Green sign in Gorton.
Five key takeaways from the Gorton and Denton byelection
The scale of defeat in an area that had returned Labour MPs for nearly a century, and where Starmer’s party still believed it could win even on polling day, plunged his ministers and MPs into renewed despair just weeks after he saw off a challenge to his position.
While only a handful of backbenchers called openly for Starmer to depart after the result, even loyal ministers said the surge in the Greens’ fortunes under the leadership of Zack Polanski meant the prime minister had to address an exodus of Labour voters from its left flank.
In a pointed comment, Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and a key figure on Labour’s left, called the result “a wake-up call”.
But Starmer appeared minded to ignore the pressure, using a TV clip and letter to his MPs to attack the Greens as an “extreme” leftwing equivalent of Reform UK, saying they could not replicate the success in a general election …
Guardian February 27 2026
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At time of writing, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has yet to comment on her own humiliation but it seems to me the hitherto mainstream parties are now engaged – not will the Labour leader go but when? – in that ever popular pastime of rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. So let me do what I will not do in respect of the looming violence over Iran, and make a prediction. Neither Labour nor Tories will ever again form a government with an overall majority. Indeed, it will be a long time if ever before either is the largest party in office.
Keir Starmer is more symptom than cause. Fifty years of neoliberal dominance over the body politic in the West has impoverished and immiserated the many while what Tariq Ali called the Extreme Centre, captured long ago by rentier corporate oligarchies, has no solutions beyond installing new faces on the corridors of high office.
Having offshored real wealth creation to the global south, the better to extract super profits, and having turned the domestic economies into FIRE sector sources of rent extraction, those corporate oligarchies have plundered their own citizens no less than those of Africa, Asia and Latin America. And while this is a phenomenon across the West at large, it is especially acute in Europe and triply so in Britain.
For all my detestation of EU and EC, Brexit was disastrous in its timing and manner. More than any other European economy Britain, first to industrialise and for reasons of historic advantage the nation most wedded to laissez faire economics – as opposed to the relative dirigisme of France, Germany or Italy – which elevate finance over manufacturing capital, has gone furthest and fastest down the road of deindustrialisation, with its attendant confusion of GDP and real wealth creation when the gap between the two grows annually wider.
The old parties have no answer. How could they, owned as they are by tiny elites who will use their vast resources to defend a for them lucrative status quo? Ditto, once we strip away the patina of populism which is fooling frighteningly large sections of the populace – including that of Gorton and Denton – Nigel Farage’s so-called Reform Party.
And the Greens? Well, I kind of like Zack Polanski but has he truly grasped the scale of what he’s up against? I suspect not.
* * *
“ Well, I kind of like Zack Polanski but has he truly grasped the scale of what he’s up against? I suspect not.”
Well, at least it’s a start.
Now if ‘Their Party’ and the Greens can organise real and honest co-operation we might end up with something worth having. But I suppose with both this and even more by the lunacy being perpetrated by Yankeeland we are in an ‘interesting times’ situation where things can go in practically any direction, including the worst.
On the matter of present hostilities, it looks like an opportunity has opened up for Specsavers:
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/operation-the-great-blinding-whoever
The Iranians took out the US radar eyes across West Asia with cheap drones:
““Operation Great Blinding”: Iran Destroys “America’s Eye” (FPS-132) in Qatar and Strikes Bases in Kuwait and Bahrain… Trump Cancels Speech in Shock of “Catastrophic Response” — Talal Nahle
Strategic and Operational Report (Saturday – February 28 | 16:00 CET):
The war is no longer merely an exchange of bombardment; it has entered the phase of “strategic bone-breaking.” Intelligence received in the last hour is shifting the balance of power radically.
Donald Trump’s sudden cancellation of his planned speech is no coincidence; a US President does not cancel a “victory speech” unless the situation has turned into a “disaster.” The disaster here is Iran’s success in “blinding” US Central Command (CENTCOM) by destroying irreplaceable radars and striking bases previously thought to be secure. This forced the US Embassy in Kuwait to issue an immediate “Shelter in Place” order.
Here is a precise reading of the unfolding “War of Radars and Bases”:
I. The Knockout Blow: Destroying “The All-Seeing Eye”
* The Most Critical Event: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announces the complete destruction of the AN/FPS-132 radar in Qatar.
* Strategic Importance: This is not just a radar; it is “America’s Giant Eye” with a 5,000 km range. Its sole and vital function is to detect ballistic missile launches from deep within Iran, Russia, and China.
* The Result: The destruction of this radar means that Israel and US destroyers have lost strategic “Early Warning” capabilities. Iran has effectively “gouged out the eye” of the US defense system prior to launching heavy missiles.
II. The “Blinding” Strategy (The Hezbollah Tactic)
* Analysis: Iran is replicating Hezbollah’s “Support Front” tactics:
* Phase 1 (Current): Targeting “Enemy Eyes” (radars, domes, sensors) using suicide drones (a Shahed-136 struck a radome in Bahrain) and older missiles.
* Phase 2 (Upcoming): Once the defenses are confirmed “blind,” heavy strategic missiles (Fattah/Kheibar)—which cannot be easily intercepted—will be introduced.
* Iranian Admission: An IRGC advisor explicitly stated: “We fired old missiles… and will soon reveal weapons you have never seen.” This implies that what we are witnessing now is merely “clearing the path.”
III. The Gulf Ignites: No Place is Safe
* Kuwait: The Kuwaiti Army officially confirms the targeting of Ali Al Salem Air Base. The US Embassy orders staff to shelter. Kuwait, considered the logistical rear line, is now in the heart of the fire.
* Bahrain: A drone (Shahed-136) achieved a direct hit on a radar dome (Radome) inside the US base in Manama. The headquarters of the Fifth Fleet is under direct attack.
* Over the Sea: The world’s most expensive spy drone (MQ-4C Triton) suffered a “glitch” (potential hit), declared an emergency (Squawk 7700), and fled toward Saudi Arabia. Iran is effectively imposing a no-fly zone, even on giant US drones.
IV. The Israeli Front: “A Week of Hell”
* Estimates: Hebrew Channel 15 expects the operation to last “at least a week.”
* Admission of Failure: The Israeli Army admits: “Defenses are not hermetic.” The barrages on Haifa and the Golan Heights proved that the Iron Dome has begun to suffer from “saturation” and depletion.
V. Trump’s Silence: “Recalculating”
* The Cancellation: Trump canceling his speech signifies that the information reaching him from the “Situation Room” is shocking. The destruction of a strategic radar in Qatar and the bombing of a base in Kuwait is not what Trump promised his voters. He now faces two choices: Retreat (politically impossible) or escalate to “Total War,” which could burn the region and destroy his bases.”
Meanwhile, it’s not even been twenty-four hours and Netenyahu is already positioning himself a long way from the front line:
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/174359
Either that or he’s off to Harley Street to have a backbone fitted.
Thanks Dave.
“* Estimates: Hebrew Channel 15 expects the operation to last “at least a week.” Ha! They’ll be lucky. According to a US Naval spokesman the US will be in difficulty after two weeks, due to shortage of missiles. The Iranians on the other hand have only used old, obsolete drones and missiles so far, and have much more effective stuff in reserve. However:
“Footage taken at Al Udeid Air Base on February 28 has interceptor missiles launched by MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems repeatedly failing to shoot down incoming Iranian ballistic missiles, raising further questions regarding the defences at the facility. The failure of the U.S.-supplied air defence systems at Al Udeid Air Base closely coincides with confirmation that Iranian strikes destroyed key air defence radars at the facility. This follows a similar failure of the Patriot system during much lower intensity Iranian retaliatory strikes, which were launched with prior warning, in June 2025. The state of air defences, and the very limited available arsenal of anti-missile interceptors available, has raised questions regarding whether Qatar, the United States and the United Kingdom will be able to sustain operations from there.”
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/qatar-scrambles-f15-protect-us-iran
Or from anywhere else! If the Iranians can keep going for a month or so they will have effectively won. Sure, the US has more carriers they can send, but half of them are in for repairs. Meanwhile Iran claims to have launched 4 ballistic missiles at one carrier. No ones of hits yet, but they can keep this up for quite a while. Carriers are just floating targets, and can’t get near enough to attack effectively.
That 5000km range radar that the Iranians knocked out on Saturday with what appeared to be a slow moving drone provided (past tense) the targeting data on incoming missiles and drones for all Air Defences in the theatre.
The THAADS. The Patriots.
Which means the US, at least, are blinded. At least until they get a replacement system up and running (if ever).
Meanwhile, this piece from yesterday (March 1st)……
https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/operation-true-promise-4-continues
……provides details of some rather juicy US targets hit in the Gulf States along with equally important targets across Israel – whose ‘leader’ has fled to Berlin (more irony).
I’ve seen reports today (March 2nd) that RAF Akroteri in Cyprus is either under attack or has suffered attack (which could be Hezbollah?) and that Paphos airport has been closed.
The report of the Lincoln being under attack is unlikely to be confirmed anywhere in the West. However, the reports that Trump had a pop at Starmer over the UK’s reluctance to provide facilities in Diego Garcia raises the question as to why those facilities are/were so urgently required if the US Carrier Group in the Arabian Sea has not suffered any damage?
If I pick up anything else noteworthy I’ll post it on the more recent article.
Appreciated Dave. Keep em coming …