In geopolitics, and here in the UK, truth and accuracy have been in short supply. Despite my dementia, I recall Donald Trump claiming that US “bunker-buster” attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities had completely destroyed them.
One wonders, then, why this week he suggested they remain a sticking point in the war and peace process. He had also claimed in recent weeks that Iran’s navy, air force, and ballistic missiles had been destroyed.
The US War Department and Central Command have contradicted this on the record. Trump is the Commander-in-Chief, so someone is either being untruthful or mistaken.
The war continues, and the Pakistani peace process remains stuck, as the Straits of Hormuz are still the key bottleneck to peace and global energy supplies. Prices continue to rise, and now UK inflation has surged too. That is one thing Rachel Reeves got right.
The Mandelson scandal continues to pollute our politics, although in the last few days the House of Commons has been at its best.
An emergency debate followed devastating testimony from the former Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, Sir Oliver Robbins, whom Starmer sacked for allegedly keeping him in the dark.
Sir Oliver said Number 10 wanted Mandelson in the USA as soon as possible and seemed less than troubled about security vetting, which we now know Mandelson failed.
A couple of well-worn quotes resurfaced, reflecting the mire Starmer has sunk into. MPs said he was “in office but not in power,” a phrase originally used by Norman Lamont about Margaret Thatcher in the closing days of her tenure.
As MPs cannot accuse one another of lying outright, Churchill’s phrase “terminological inaccuracy” made a return, alongside Sir Robert Armstrong’s “economical with the truth” - a phrase he coined during the 1986 Spycatcher affair.
Alastair Stewart: Despite my dementia, I still recall what Donald Trump once claimed - and it doesn't add up
| GB NEWSBorrowing others’ bon mots is perhaps further evidence of the low calibre of many of today’s politicians. Labour’s hard left gave Starmer as tough a time as the Tories and Liberal Democrats.
Figures like Corbyn see Mandelson as part of a cabal pulling Labour to the right. They believe Starmer and his former Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, have fallen for it, hence the promotion of Mandelson at any cost.
That cost may yet prove fatal for the Prime Minister. Away from politics, we attended a wonderful event at Winchester’s ARC venue, part of the city’s superb library.
I often moan about how poor local government can be, both where we live and more generally, but the ARC is a standout success.
Alongside the city theatre, it is a cultural hub for young and old alike. Alex and Anna are big fans, and Alex told me how much it pleases him to see schoolchildren reading and working there.
The event was part of the Winchester Book Festival, where I have previously interviewed Ed Balls and Jon Simpson. This time, we went to hear two authors, Dame Vicky Heywood, a close friend and wife of our dear friend Sir Clive Jones, and Dame Harriet Walter.
Vicky is a former Chief Executive of both the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been an executive producer on many West End and Broadway productions, including Matilda the Musical. She served as Chair of the Royal Society of Arts from 2012 to 2018 and was awarded a damehood in 2020 for services to the arts.
Her debut novel, Miss Veal and Miss Ham, tells the story of the love between two postmistresses in a leafy Buckinghamshire village, spanning the decades from the suffragette movement through the Second World War and into the 1950s.
She appeared alongside Dame Harriet Walter, whose book She Speaks! is a bold and original work. In it, she asks what Shakespeare’s women, including Ophelia, Rosalind, and Cleopatra, were really thinking, giving them voice in Shakespearean pentameter.
The result is both thought-provoking and richly rewarding. They were interviewed by writer Greg Mosse at the festival. Vicky and Harriet, close friends since their Royal Shakespeare Company days, shared vivid anecdotes from the heights of theatre.
Clive was there too, which was a bonus, and Vicky kindly signed copies of her book for Alex and Clem. All in all, it was a delightful and uplifting break from the tedium of the current news cycle.