Keir Giles
Twitter refugee #1,383,497
- Today in "things I never said but a journalist from a reputable news agency wants to ask me more about because their 'AI research' flagged it to them":
- Now our BA cabin crew are shocked, SHOCKED that some of my fellow travellers on this flight to northern parts where the temperature is 10 degrees below freezing have dared to come on board with winter coats and try to stow them in lockers.
- Convo with Heathrow parking people just now suggests my efforts to reduce travel have failed utterly. Me: Hi, I’m inbound, T2, ETA 30 mins. Them: Nah, you’re T3 today. T2 is Wednesday. Me: Oh yeah, right… Thanks. I’m at the right terminal and BTW these folks are great: triangleparking.co.uk
- Hello 2026, goodbye British Airways. We're among the exodus from BA following their changes to their frequent flyer scheme last year that made it virtually impossible for frequent flyers like us to earn the benefits that make constant business travel a little less miserable. [1/7]
- This week I was in London for a live sequel to Sky News' podcast 'The Wargame'. On stage we had former British ministers Ben Wallace, Jack Straw and Amber Rudd, and former Commander of Joint Forces Command General Sir Richard Barrons, playing out another round of simulated attack from Moscow. [1/9]
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- Please, people, resist the temptation to let those pretty helium balloons just fly away. If they do, there's a fair chance they will end up in a field like this where animals can be grazing. And the results can be fatal for sheep, cows or wildlife. [1/2] www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-n...
- Yes but on which side of the table?
- Reposted by Keir Giles"For more than 80 years, the US was the pre-eminent ally of Europe. The end of that alliance has seemed unthinkable, but it has nevertheless arrived, and wishing that things were different will not bring the alliance back to life." I wrote for @cepa.org on a post-US West. cepa.org/article/a-we...
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- Either the Washington Post has learned nothing from a decade of experience of how “balance” and “reporting both sides” facilitates state-sponsored disinformation, or they are too cowed by potential retribution to report the truth in today’s America.
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- A strange spectacle of arguments continuing on all sides over whether it was Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch that helped put a (temporary) halt to Starmer's Chagos giveaway by explaining its real nature to Trump & Co; Starmerites asking which traitor to hang, everybody else wondering whom to thank.
- In case you missed it: My suggestion that Farage was whispering to Trump behind the scenes while Trump was going after Greenland has been essentially confirmed. As @jamesdaustin.bsky.social notes: Working against your country's interest with a semi-hostile state - there's a word for that.
- From my own corner of the UK: a small data point to feed into the "Reform in government would be a disaster" conversation. www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/politic...
- Calling Ukraine-focused academics and students: research funding available. The Holodomor Legacy Initiative and the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide are offering grants for research on the Holodomor. Deadline 23 February, full details here: www.cowater.com/career-oppor...
- Not trying hard enough, really.
- Reposted by Keir GilesWe’ve spent years trying to fact-check our way out of this, and it failed. Democratic decay isn’t about bad information versus good information, it’s about the collapse of the systems that turn information into reality. If every bot and Russian troll vanished tomorrow, the rot would still be there.
- Greatest triumph of 2026 so far: on a pitch-black night out in the fields, finding the dog lost from over in the village who is (a) completely deaf and (b) also completely black. Kasimir Malevich had earlier depicted the scene:
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- Starmer. On Chagos: I’m determined to pay billions to another country thousands of miles away to take it regardless of Chagossian rights. On Greenland: It’s totally unacceptable that another country thousands of miles away should take it if the locals don’t want that. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp...
- Well that's embarrassing.
- At last. This is a lot less bewildering than the earlier US endorsement of the UK shooting itself in the foot, expensively, and further betraying Chagossians. If Trump can do anything constructive at all, it will be to kill this monumentally stupid act of self-harm. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp...
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- I missed this informative CBC piece suggesting Canada could emulate Qatar, Switzerland, UAE etc. and just bribe Trump to get the outcome they want - and how Trump's impunity might make it just about legal under Canadian law. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
- This is not fair to Keir Starmer. He has taken a firm stance on several things. The new departure would be if he were to start taking a firm stance FOR the UK national interest, not against it.
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- I’m not sure which bit I prefer more about getting on this flight to Vilnius; the emotional upheaval for passengers sparked by the departure board flicking suddenly from “delayed for a further two hours” to “FINAL CALL”, or the way the announcements keep telling us we’re going to Villainous.
- December 2024. I'm signing books in a small town bookshop. "My husband's an Army officer. He might be interested in this. I'll buy him all your books." January 2026. I'm giving a presentation at the UK's Staff College in Shrivenham. "My wife saw you at a book signing and bought me all your books."
- The notion that the UK-French “coalition of the willing” announcement of troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire is a cunning 3D-chess move to make sure there will not be any ceasefire may be a little on the optimistic side.
- Given that the policy initiative on “islands under UK oversight” that the current British government is pushing through with the greatest determination is to ignore the rightful inhabitants and pay Mauritius to own them instead, I’m not sure that this obliviousness is quite such a surprise.
- 1/ I just re-read this Robert Lyman note from mid-December on the strange mismatch between the consistent warnings by UK defence and intelligence chiefs of impending conflict, and the dogged refusal by the UK government to do anything about it. robertlyman.substack.com/p/the-danger...
