Sheiking Things Up A Bit

For good or ill, there are a lot of British allies in the Middle East. Israel is not one of them. That is just a fact. What form does any alliance between Britain and Israel take? We wrongly sell the Israelis arms, but that is business, albeit a dirty business. What do the Israelis do for us?

The allies that we do have in the region are all problematic, but the alliances are at least real. And those allies are overwhelmingly monarchies. Following the Prince of Wales's intervention, consider that royalty often deals best with royalty. Perhaps he already is, but Sheikh Mansour should be ensuring that his Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator would have the closest possible ties to the Royal Family and to the Royal Households.

The Israel First competition is going practically full republican this morning. Its lower-upper-middle-classness is showing as glaringly as that of Keir Starmer, who probably thinks that Seven Pillars of Wisdom were a prog rock band. The Times and Mail titles may hire disgruntled Telegraph and Spectator hacks, although are there the vacancies? But those dreaming of a new version of the old Telegraph are reckoning without the old one's brand loyalty, which would only be consolidated by lots of exclusive, fawning, heavily illustrated copy from the Palaces.

Andrew Neil opposes this acquisition while supporting the release of Julian Assange, but anyone who takes the former view without the latter is beneath contempt, and does not really believe in the freedom of the press at all. They belong among the ostensible conservatives who are siding with a foreign state that is not even a British ally, against the British allies in the region and against our own Heir to the Throne.