00:00Kier Starmer is very unlucky in many ways.
00:03He came to power on the back of the worst defeat for the Labour Party since the 1930s.
00:10And it was believed that it would take maybe a couple of elections before Labour would ever recover.
00:16Anyway, as we know, in 2024, got a sort of massive majority, but not brilliant sort of votes, as it
00:24were.
00:25It was the so-called loveless majority.
00:28So a huge majority, which, of course, should make you sort of very technically safe.
00:32And indeed, he is.
00:33But, of course, the sort of the dissent comes from within, although as he's also experienced, you get it from
00:37elsewhere, particularly the United States.
00:40And, of course, Starmer being perhaps the character he is, he thought that he could appease Trump and seduce him.
00:46But, of course, Trump doesn't work like that.
00:48So he bodies his way and cajoles and whatever else.
00:51Now, of course, Starmer has been seen to be sort of weak as a consequence.
00:54The fact that he has not wanted to get involved in this, you know, if I use the word adventure,
00:59and it's more than that.
01:00It's a sort of illegal war because Iran didn't attack America.
01:04There is now the sort of the view that where can we go from here?
01:07Yeah. So, yeah, the fact that Starmer is getting a sort of bounce on this, you know, will it be
01:12enough to save him?
01:13Who knows? We're sort of going to have the local elections in not that many weeks and we'll sort of
01:16find out how popular Labour are.
01:18But nonetheless, I think it's no bad thing that sort of the West, they've worked Trump out and they're going
01:25to stand up to him and not be sort of pushed around.
01:27So, yeah, good business. But, of course, as we know, Iran is going to sort of dominate the headlines for
01:33sort of many weeks and maybe months in the sort of the future.
01:36So they're going to have to do more of this. And Trump is still going to be sort of the
01:40man in power taking the decisions.
01:42Again, coming back to the fact that when Labour were elected, they were left with a mess from the previous
01:48administration.
01:48And that was caused by a number of sort of handouts. Of course, we had COVID going back five, six
01:53years ago.
01:54And, of course, remember people being told to stay at home, the furlough scheme.
01:57But then, of course, we had Ukraine, you know, caused by sort of the illegal attack by Russia.
02:03And, of course, we all had sort of subsidies, if you like, or sort of bailouts and sort of free
02:09money to sort of to support us.
02:10Because, of course, our sort of energy bills went up really dramatically.
02:13Now, of course, what that has meant, you know, coming back to sort of the financial position, is that Rachel
02:18Reeves has had very little sort of headroom.
02:21You know, this is the amount that you have, which is if you like a sort of buffer for the
02:24rainy days.
02:25And, of course, she had something like $20 billion, which is a lot of money in, you know, as far
02:31as we're concerned as individuals.
02:33But in government terms, it's not that great.
02:35That's been sort of halved so far.
02:37And it could probably get an awful lot worse in terms of the fact that we're going to sort of
02:41see a lot of sort of inflationary headwinds coming down the line from the sort of the cost of fuel,
02:46the cost of sort of heating, because LPG comes to sort of the Middle East.
02:51Iran, through its defensive mechanisms, got a sort of stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, where the international oil and
02:58other products go out.
03:00But, of course, it's oil and gas, which largely goes to the Middle East.
03:03But, of course, these are world markets. We're going to see, as I say, the inflationary pressures in terms of
03:08sort of the cost of sort of filling our cars up, heating our homes.
03:12And then, of course, that's going to feed through to sort of the amount that we have to pay for
03:15all sorts of goods.
03:16And also there is a sort of view that because, of course, the nitrates that are used in fertilisers, that's
03:21been sort of effectively cut off.
03:23We're going to have perhaps food supply problems in the future.
03:25So it's definitely going to be a big problem. And, of course, what this may also lead to is people,
03:30if they're being sort of squeezed, as it were, they cut back on discretionary spending and spending in general.
03:37So restaurants, as well as sort of mainly shopping, of course, that we all do, is going to be sort
03:44of impacted upon this.
03:45So if we cut back, that's much less money going into the general economy.
03:50We are effectively a service-based economy. We don't manufacture. We import.
03:55So everything's going to go up as a consequence. So we all suffer big, big problems.
03:59And we're all going to have to sort of to, as I say, sort of dig deep and get through
04:03this crisis together.
04:04But, hey, you know, that doesn't make it any better and any more comfortable for people who are already sort
04:08of at the edge anyway.
04:11Sir Keir Starmer has said the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran is not Britain's war and says
04:18the UK will not be drawn in.
04:20At Downing Street, he said direct involvement was not in the national interest, while stressing support for de-escalation.
04:28Maritime security and diplomacy.
04:31Reports say Starmer initially blocked the use of British bases for offensive action, though the UK later allowed limited defensive
04:40missions.
04:41Britain is now trying to shape the diplomatic response instead, with ministers organising talks involving 35 countries on the Strait
04:50of Hamas.
04:51That comes as Donald Trump has criticised European allies for refusing to fully back the American-led war effort and
04:59has even raised the prospects of the United States leaving NATO.
05:03Starmer says he will act in Britain's interests while also arguing the crisis has strengthened the case for closer security
05:11and economic ties with Europe.
05:14Starmer says he will act in Britain's interests while also arguing the sole
Comments