The PM spent our money and his time flying to Yerevan to attend the European Political Community meeting, without a thought for all the extra CO2 he could have saved by joining on line. After the meetings there we can read a full statement of the parallel EU-Armenia Summit which also took place set out by the Commission. This is a report of a very detailed meeting setting out how Armenia can conform more with EU rules and participate in more EU programmes in preparation for eventual membership. It is set in the context of the EU wanting Armenia to complete a Peace Treaty with neighbouring Azerbaijan, and improve relations with Turkey. The EU has a political vision of the future of Caucasus region which it wishes to enforce.
The President of Azerbaijan attended the European Political Community on line and is reported to have been critical of the EU for taking a pro Armenia stance and for taking provocative actions as he sees them with one sided intervention in the disputes between his country and Armenia. The Turkish President was invited, but instead Turkey’s Vice President joined on line. Two of the key themes of the meeting were ” Regional stability in the south Caucasus” and ” Building the future: Unity and Resilience”
The Ukraine President attended and made a plea for more military and financial help in resisting Russian aggression. The meeting favoured a negotiated solution for the Middle East, whilst continuing with the war against Russia in Ukraine.
So what was the UK’s view on these important issues? Did the PM support the conclusions on how to bring peace to the Caucasus? What does he think about the further extension of the EU eastwards and the impact that will have on the region? What is the proposed UK defence and Co-operation Agreement with Poland going to include? Why can’t we see a draft text? Co-operation on weapons procurement is fine as long as it helps both sides.
The UK government needs to understand it is not in any position to take on any more defence obligations or responsibilities. This government is running down our defence forces all too quickly, standing down and decommissioning four of our frigates and withdrawing military capabilities from the Middle East and the Falklands and failing to give timely support to Cyprus. The PM needs to be at home finding ways to afford a stronger defence. The priorities for more spending must be a proper anti missile and drone defence for our home islands, a naval capability which can better protect our overseas territories and trade routes, and an updated independent nuclear deterrent.
May 6, 2026
“The PM needs to be at home finding ways to afford a stronger defence. The priorities for more spending must be a proper anti missile and drone defence for our home islands, a naval capability which can better protect our overseas territories and trade routes, and an updated independent nuclear deterrent.”
Indeed but he realises how much he is hated and has a large election tomorrow so want to hide perhaps?
He also need to take U turns on all his, Reeves, Rayners, Phillipson’s, Lammy’s, Miliband’s evil doom loop, anti-growth policies.
May 6, 2026
I’d go a bit further, the ONLY people who are prepared to give 2TK any friendly reception are those who expect him to give them free money on every visit — the EU politburo.
May 6, 2026
In a nutshell.
May 6, 2026
Seems so. Plus the people who hate him are understandable the people his is legally “stealing” the money off or borrowing of the backs of – in order to make these gifts. It is easy to be “generous” with other people’s money!
May 6, 2026
So Rayner tells a school boy that Nigel Farage wants an insurance system for the NHS “which means you have to pay and that her son would probably have died under that system.”
But did she not sue the NHS for negligence over her son? Has she looked at the very poor outcome of the NHS in general relative to so many other countries that often insurance based systems? Does she realise that the NHS often provides very little but endless delays when people need treatment and that under an insurance system people who really cannot pay are provided with insurance to treatments anyway. Does she realise it is not fair to use children in this way.
May 6, 2026
Rayner says an insurance based system “means you have to pay at the point of use” well not unless that was the day the premium was due! Does Rayner not understand how insurance works?
If you insure for healthcare now you pay four times over for your healthcare. Once in taxes for others who use the NHS, then in income tax and NI on the money earned for the insurance premium, then the premium, then 12% IPT tax. The same with private schools with 20% VAT replacing IPT and the fees replacing insurance premium.
These vastly rigged markets are hugely damaging to health care and education in the UK.
May 6, 2026
Labour uses the NHS to scare the easily led and easily frightened electorate.
Reform claims that the service will always be free at the point of use.
Why do people think it’s free anyway, taxes/NI and with dentistry you pay a certain amount anyway, and that’s with an NHS provider (well I have to, I assume this is normal practice?)
Was the NHS any better under the last Labour tenure? No.
Student places were kept short, and the population expanded.
With family in health care, I heard a lot of complaints about more red tape, more clipboard management interfering in nursing procedures they knew nothing about.
More pressure regarding juggling various cultures which is very difficult in busy wards, with standard procedures having to be tailored to suit.
Then there are the various horror stories because of the staff with an ‘am I bovered?’ attitude, an attitude that seems to sum up the whole Blair era for me.
The difference in training and expectations of foreign staff.
All this costs in various complaints/compensation procedures.
As for being able to go into a school and claim her child would have died if Farage was PM (which is basically her claim) I really think it’s high time such as her were chased well out of it, and keep going till they come to the multi-everything socialist Nirvana they claim is at their fingertips.
May 6, 2026
@Lifelogic – correction, anti UK and its people. Parliament emits so much ‘hate’ for the people and democracy it is scary
May 6, 2026
+1
May 6, 2026
“ The PM needs to be at home finding ways to afford a stronger defence. ”
The Labour Party do not want him around before tomorrow’s local elections. They believe his presence would result in heavier losses.
May 6, 2026
You say this government is running down our military at pace, continuing where the tories began.
Of course they are, they know that they are history after the next election so under the guidance from Hermer, time is of the essence.
Now I see there’s a concerted effort to get Farage expelled from politics over a donation he received when not even in parliament. No doubt a concerted effort will be made between now and the election to find some method of barring Reform just as Germany is trying to ban the AfD and France Le Pen.
Shysters the lot of them.
May 6, 2026
Shysters is too polite. Tyrants fits the bill.
May 6, 2026
On TV David Attenborough, on a prehistoric quest, has just said that the world was once ruled by monstrous reptiles – it still is.
May 6, 2026
Reptiles, viruses, bacteria, poisonous spiders, snakes, frogs, parasites, Big Pharma and often dire products, vested interest liars, corrupt politicians, violent criminals on care in the community… still such is life and death.
May 6, 2026
As usual some very good points. The very last one – an updated independent nuclear deterrent – is particularly important. At the moment we rely on the US for “our” deterrent. This is not “independent”. It’s not inconceivable we might swap US nuclear masters for French ones. Let’s have our own deterrent!
On a wider issue regarding the piece, do we really think Starmer or any average MP is deeply concerned about the Caucasus? Most couldn’t point to them on a map. So, who is driving this policy and effectively “runs” our forign policy? MI6? The EU? The US? The globalist clubs (WEF, etc)?
Our democracy is “representative”, but of whom? I wouldn’t vote for getting involved as a second tier player in what are Great Power games in the Caucasus, but that’s what successive governments of mine do.
May 6, 2026
Wrong Wanderer
The UK nuclear deterrent is completely independent
The warheads being manufactured in England . Only the delivery vehicles are supplied by he usa.
May 6, 2026
@IW. It depends on your view of “independent”.
I don’t think a nuclear warhead is much use without a means of delivering it. That’s not a realistic deterrent. The facts are we rely totally on the US to build and lease us the delivery missiles, and the missiles use US guidance support. Our subs are assembled here but rely on US components. Even the warheads, that we make here, use US components and testing support.
In my view our nuclear deterrent is not independent.
May 6, 2026
Probably not that much of a deterrent either!
May 6, 2026
I think it is institutional inertia, the inability of the establishment to adapt to this country’s changes of circumstance since the end of WW2.
The UK used to be first tier and was a top player in the Caucuses about 100 years ago (1918+) – that was driven by oil (Baku) and the end of the great game. Since then, they were kicked out of India and the economy went from imperial scale to island scale with a gradual wind down of defence and related industrial investment.
We needed to switch to buccaneer mode, be more like Hong Kong or SIngapore for example, adapt more to the world than thinking we could control it. Instead they tried to recreate an empire through proxy with the EU, effectively their old enemies the central powers, why ever did they thionk that would succeed!
We won’t see much improvement until these deadweights are removed, replaced with more dynamic, adaptable and focused people and institutions.
May 6, 2026
d,
“I think it is institutional inertia, the inability of the establishment to adapt to this country’s changes of circumstance since the end of WW2”.
True. I watched a programme about how Glasgow lost people and jobs. Politicians restricted development to new sites outside the city. Shipbuilding was consolidated but still lost to foreign competition. The huge Singer factory nearby lost to other plants in other countries (along with falling demand for sewing machines). Linwood was set up for cars, Ravenscraig for steel but they closed after a fairly short period.
Steel production was a British strength but plants were fragmented compared to more efficient post war units abroad. Ian McGregor was brought in as he was a CEO in a big American mining concern
He was just a hatchet man. Everything in a spreadsheet. Close anything that does not cost in
No thought for places like Consett with no other employment within thirty miles. Ghost towns are the American way though McGregor was a Scot. No thought given to the aftermath of closures. After he had finished off the steel industry, he came back and did the same to the coal industry. Ghost towns again.
Getting on your bike is a limited solution. Ghost towns again. Service industries was the way forward. Then they started to lose to foreign competition too.
May 6, 2026
All we need to know, given our pathetic Prime Minister’s sense of obligation to his own country and to his own people, is how to get him out of power before the UK is totally and utterly lost. We surely cannot wait until 2029. I am proud not to have voted for him and I will always wonder why anyone did. I will also always wonder why we ended up with so little choice at the last election. The Conservatives had let us down so badly when they were in power. We voters, with only our precious vote every four or five years as our chance to have our say despite the irritating fact that it is our taxes paying for all our politicians’ blunders as well as their vast salaries, expenses and jaunts around the world, deserve so much better.
I for one cannot wait to vote in the local elections tomorrow. I was one of those voters (I live in Hampshire) denied the vote last year and was almost denied again this year. My anger at being treated so shabbily by a party that is only thinking of itself has only just subsided. What happened to democracy?
May 6, 2026
You mention the nuclear deterrent John. We hear so little about that aspect of our national defence most of us have concluded Labour’s long standing ambition to cease it is being quietly actioned by abandoning maintenance of the system and the personnel needed to keep it functional.
Nothing is left operational in the Labour policy of national destruction.
Our energy security is being destroyed.
Our economy is being destroyed.
Our defence forces are being destroyed.
Our national identity is being destroyed.
What is left?
May 6, 2026
What’s left ? either the red flag or the blue with yellow stars flag ….maybe the cresent moon flag
May 6, 2026
In August 2025, the US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered a halt on sharing assessments related to Russia-Ukraine “peace talks” with the Five Eyes intelligence group, marking them “NOFORN” (no foreign dissemination). This effectively locked out Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand from critical strategic updates on Trump’s proposed sell-out of Ukraine.
As a result the long standing Five Eyes intelligence partnership stopped sharing intelligence on China with their US cousins. This has caused a deep distrust. In May 2026, Marco Rubio admitted the US had stopped sharing much of its intelligence with Britain because Washington “no longer finds them trustworthy,” citing disagreements over policies regarding Iran and China. The real reason is that Starmer stopped our intelligence agencies from sharing intel on the Caribbean following fears that Hegseth’s war on alleged cartel drug boats was illegal
Within the US, the Trump administration has shown open animosity toward its own intelligence agencies ( the FBI and CIA ), leading to a perception that the “currency of trust” that once underpinned the alliance is overdrawn
Trump and his sycophantic administration have destroyed the political and strategic cohesion between the Five Eyes, which has reached its lowest point since its formalization in 1946
So where is the condemnation of this unprecedented breach of trust from the right here? The silence is deafening
May 6, 2026
I would not share any intel with Starmer either. The USA and Israel have shown how important intelligence is. The last thing any country needs, is a prime minister or president who places international law above national security, yet that is exactly what Starmer does and brags about it?
May 6, 2026
Indeed and initially Starmer would not even let the US use their UK’s bases putting their service men at extra risk!
May 6, 2026
Would you trust Chagos Starmer? 5 eyes relies on mutual trust.
May 6, 2026
No way he is a serial liar! Did he not promise to Smash the gangs, not increase NI, tread lightly, not mug farmers or small business with IHT, all was costed, adult in the room and promised growth, growth, growth.
May 6, 2026
Starmer behaves like a traitor to his own country and has demonstrated that under Trump’s Presidency the UK is (at best) a very unreliable ally.
I wouldn’t tell him the time of day, let alone any sensititve intel – because he and his administration cannot be trusted.
May 6, 2026
+1
May 6, 2026
You are assuming the breach of trust is by the USA not the UK. Why ? Let’s wait and see the Mandelson emails he sent whilst he was Ambassador and who they were sent to.
May 6, 2026
Trust has to be mutual SG.
Does anyone here trust many of the people in this Government to keep our secrets? It seems fairly obvious that the Chinese have penetrated parts of this administation of Fools and Horses. indeed we have caught Chinese ‘agents’ (who were not charged because China was not our “enemy” apparently). Then we appointed Mandleson as US Ambassador….someone who had failed our own security vetting process and who undoubtedly set red lights flashing in parts of Washington too…
The UK looka like a rusty bucket full of leaks, operated by people you wouldn’t give your home address to. I don’t trust these people, so I’m not at all suprised that the US don’t either.
May 6, 2026
Trump is mad (as president). Anyone who think he has some super big plan beyond our understanding is being gas-lighted. I mean in the last few weeks he’s:
1. Said he would bomb a country back to the stone age (a just war isn’t just about intent but also the way you conduct it – useing hateful, violent language like this unjust war). 2. Then saying he was interested in oil in Iran (unjust reason to go to war there whilst undermining those he wants to do a ‘deal’ with) 3. Then pretending to be Jesus Christ (blasphemy). 4. Whilst lying about the Pope saying the Pope wants Iran to have a nuclear bomb. 5. Not preparing for war (even Iran War 2 that was a failure took months to plan. Proper planning is part of a just war). 6. Then allowing his defence secretary to use violent language form Pulp Fiction as if quoting from the Bible. 7. Not planning for a war where oil prices have hit the roof affecting the world economy. And so on.
Lastly, he also a huge breeding ground for socialism / WOKE, giving right-wing politics such a terrible name.
May 6, 2026
Starmer does not care about this country. He is only interested in finding another job when he gets kicked out of office. He wants something in the international field now he has ruined this country and there will be nothing for him here after he is disposed of. Simple – he is just in it for himself and we are paying for this useless nothing.
May 6, 2026
It is this attitude amongst many, past and present in politics and our institutions, that has destroyed the nation in so many ways.
Entering politics as a means to network at home and specifically abroad.
How many yearn for a cushy number in the EU? That’s one of the reasons they clung on till their fingers bled.
How about a stint at the UN, or one of the many other globalist organisations?
The Labour party has always seemed to me a gaggle of those who should be working in some International Foreign Aid conglomerate somewhere, only they are middle management class at best and so can’t get a job on the salary they like.
Go into politics and use Parliament and you can do your good works for others via that institution.
You’ve got billions of pounds to spend on your projects, and a whole land mass to use to invite your pet of the moment into.
May 6, 2026
Perhaps there is something agreed that Starmer doesn’t want known.
It is clear though that as the well known international lawyer diplomat Starmer had to be in attendance to support the EU and add another strand to his reputation. Besides international meetings are the only place he feels at home.
This is but one more example of a spinning PM – no clue what he should be doing, but seeking shelter in any quarter that is not hostile.
May 6, 2026
The PM was touting for the next Internationalist role he craves when he is kicked out of Office.
He’s attempting to buy it with our money (borrowed), our Sovereignty (which we voted to reclaim) and our future (which he’s destroying).
May 6, 2026
Look exactly like that to me! How is the trial of the would be models going?
May 6, 2026
Well he’s odds on at 1/3 to leave office in 2026, with oddschecker
May 6, 2026
A shame all the likely replacements are as bad or even worse!
May 6, 2026
Starmer has been advised that his foreign policy positions – real and imagined – are more popular – or rather less unpopular – that his domestic policies so he does whatever he can to emphasise them. Hence he travels to Armenia in person for the photo opportunity whilst Turkey who has a direct interest in the region joins on-line. It is absurd. If the EU are determined to continue to expand eastward then UK should stay well away.
May 6, 2026
I expect our wide-eyed Prime Minister read out passages on international law to the meeting but otherwise said very little.
May 6, 2026
“So what was the UK’s view on these important issues?” More importantly what was the UK PM the man in charge of managing the UK doing there? Therefore why should the UK even tender a view?
This Global Statesman as his supporters refer to him as, goes AWOL at every opportunity while ensuring he has set in motion the ‘Plan’ to destroy the UK and its People. How can one man with so much ‘hate’ for a nation be allowed by Parliament to keep up this destruction? The only conclusion is Parliament joins him in his hate.
We need a General Election now! let the people decide if this what they want, it is their Country, they are the paymasters, they lend Parliament their powers. But once more they will prove they don’t believe in Democracy.
May 6, 2026
I agree. Nothing short of an election will do, and even then I really do not trust many of the electorate to seek to save a distinct ancient nation and its people.
I think the Reform catch phrase of ‘get Starmer out’ is pointless, meaningless, because without a general election what will we be left with.
More to the point who will we be left with?
Rayner, Milliband, self styled King of the North Burnham?
I see no change, probably worse. They all despise England, and will have so many people benefit/state dependent in general, and heads turned with modern day bread and circuses, that we’ll never be rid of them.
We are between a rock and a hard place, heading for the Devil and the deep blue sea, unless that lot are removed pronto.
May 6, 2026
M,
Getting rid of them is important.
However, I see no great saviour on the horizon. We have seen failure after failure. Prepare for disappointment, whoever is in charge.
Civil unrest might rock the boat, but it is unlikely and the aftermath would be more of the same – but with promises of better days ahead.
May 6, 2026
A bit like Ed Milibands trip to China and his secret deals ….they’ve got form
May 6, 2026
Keir Starmer belongs in a waste bin.
May 6, 2026
You are too kind to him!
May 6, 2026
With the US in freefall there is a reconfiguration of centres of world power and influence going on and the Europeans are only getting started – we are moving to a situation where Europe will join with Russia in a post Putin time to create some Northern Hemisphere economic and defence region stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic which Canada also wants to be part of and then maybe into a future joining China – world government?
May 6, 2026
From Guido
Work & Pensions Secretary and Starmer ally Pat McFadden has said that the PM is feeling “surprisingly resolute” before the local elections. McFadden gave a defence of Starmer’s need to serve out his full term:
“I think this country has tested to destruction the idea that the answer to our problems is to swipe left on our prime ministers. It has added to political chaos and uncertainty. That has economic as well as political consequences and I don’t think that’s the answer to the situation that we’re in at the moment… The prime minister was elected for a 5-year term and uh he should serve out that term.”
Asked if he would face down any challenge, McFadden said: “Yes, he is feeling that” (edited for brevity)
Me – Or in plain English these elections mean nothing, the country and its people mean nothing. The UK Parliament doesn’t do Democracy, doesn’t seek validation or approval for direction, its just about keeping seat, sitting on hands and doing nothing. What-ever the results a week later no one remembers. The King will stand there doing what he is told spouting more Socialist platitudes on behalf of 2TK and the ‘Plan’ goes on. While 2TK will find somewhere else to be rather than in Parliament or doing his real job
May 6, 2026
But the great thing for the Prime Minister is that trips like tis get him away from the need to confront the real problems facing everyone else in his country. The Caucasus is so much more important in his view. Of course it could have been a ploy by his own party to get him off the streets ahead of the Local Authority elections.
May 6, 2026
The Communist EU and our PM’s reasons for getting involved with Armenia is firstly naked empire building and secondly an additional way to further impoverish and de-democratise and destabilise western Europe, hopefully by creating another Ukrainian situation through their meddling.
May 6, 2026
The government has form when it comes to secret meetings. Jonathan Powell, the National Security Adviser, has had many secret meetings with China:
https://order-order.com/?s=jonathan%20powell
And Ed Miliband, the SoS of DESNZ, refuses to reveal the deal he has made with China:
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/17188/pdf/
Question 676 from Bradley Thomas, MP.
May 6, 2026
The usual agenda of the expansionist imperial EU. Obviously, Starmer’s Gang, riddled with Fabians, fully supports the unlimited expansion of the EU as an ideal anti-democratic, anti nation state and Godless step towards the ideal global Socialist state.
May 6, 2026
What on earth has the UK and Keir Starmer got to do with Armenia/Azerbaijan joining the EU.
We’re not in the EU any more and if we were to rejoin, it would need a lot of money and a vote in Parliament to overturn the Brexit vote.
He’s clearly finding excuses to involve himself in anything other than the UK and hiding from the problems he’s facing, and will be facing, in the UK by the end of this week.
Apparently we’re opening negotiations to buy into the Ukraine’s loan scheme where the entry fee is £2 billion.Where’s the money coming from?
Most of those people attending the summit in Armenia chose to either send their deputies or attend via video link.
I think Starmer will be gone by the end of June!
May 6, 2026
PW : The same place perhaps as the £1m already touted for just the basis of our even being able to get a foot in the EU ‘s door and the £570m for the Erasmus 1 year ( discounted ) deal 2027/28 or the approx £810m recently mentioned for proposed digital provision of English language on-line tests for migrants – that one should go well.
Want your domestic green dreams subsidising ? no problem, £ thousands for you ready & waiting. I dread this individual travelling beyond the UK and the bills that come back with him. And we don’t know the half of it.
May 6, 2026
Our weak, wishy-washy PM would be a joke if it were not so serious for the UK. An incompetent PM leading an incompetent Government whose worldview reflects the past, not the future. Regardless of where he goes, the PM will cost the UK money we can’t afford. He has a bad case of suicidal empathy, where he takes the side which is most damaging to the UK. Immigration, let them all in, sod the culture and people of the UK! Net Zero, let’s crush the UK’s industrial base and make the country and people poorer! Defence, don’t let’s waste money on the Army, Navy and Air Force, so any hostile country can invade us and win! Sovereignty, let’s give it away, so get rid of the Chagos Islands, start the handover of Gibraltar and the Falklands, and allow Scotland and Wales to have independence referendums. Please also send me any other ways I can damage and destroy the UK!!!!!
May 6, 2026
Doubtless he went in search of a magic carpet. Yerevan is close enough to Iran to make clandestine meetings a reality. Coulsdon also have met with others e.g.China in what is an out of the way location. The result is likely to cost the UK.
May 6, 2026
Ukraine and countries North South and East.Don’t get involved.
Read “Master Georgie”Then we hand the manpower and tactical back-up and
supply systems to support .
What do we have now?
May 6, 2026
I agree entirely with your very apt and eloquent analysis of the situation. And I think most people would.
However, I feel that Sir Keir Starmer has, and always will have, a completely different perspective to the majority – one which has focused so purely on human rights, stemming from his former career as a human rights lawyer – and with a European focus for such a long time – that he is now totally incapable of seeing Britain as a separate sovereign entity. So it doesn’t matter what he gets involved with politically, it will always be viewed through that deeply ingrained lense. And his business will, therefore, always be to get involved in Europe, as opposed to getting down to business at home.
Therefore, whilst we can all be alarmed at such things like defence decisions, which are set to leave us more and more vulnerable, as a sovereign nation, as time goes on, it is simply flogging a dead horse to raise concerns. Because all Sir Keir can see, and all he will ever see, is our place in Europe as a whole.
May 7, 2026
Why the secrecy? It’s in his DNA. He’s an HR Barrister who mysteriously became DPP, then became the leader of the Labour Party. He’s a disaster as PM, and I still wonder about his achievements in the CPS. He passed on the Jimmy Savile case, allowing the paedophile to continue assaulting kids, and there, now, true to form, we have seen him pass the buck. An MO repeated each time he gets trouble. Unlike those at the top, he blames anyone under him for his own errors of judgment. If anyone was unfit for this, the most important of jobs, it is this man.
May 8, 2026
Why is starmer there we are not in the EU