”I woke at dawn and went out to the vineyards to relieve myself. Walking around a corner, I found Moalem Jalil squatting on the ground and wiping his bare bottom with gravel. I had been surprised that when I was shown to the fields in Afghanistan, I was never given a pitcher of water with which to clean myself. The Afghan technique was now clear and I could see why Qasim and Abdul Haq [the armed men he was forced to travel with at least in the first weeks] so proudly displayed their toilet paper.”

Rory Stewart: The Places In Between.

#RoryStewart

Just discovered President Alexander Stubb interviewed on the Rest is Politics Podcast: nice hearing three smart people talking about global politics from my own "home" perspective.

Also interesting to see how much more freely he speaks about his own political career in such a context than if the audience was the Finnish media! 😀🥸

#InternationalPolitics #AlexanderStubb #Finland #RestIsPolitics #RoryStewart #AlistairCampbell

https://youtu.be/2PspnIAnzs4?si=jyekU6wt8YEylVsn

https://youtu.be/V_5uav6DZ5g?si=A4w_uTV8jzUP135D

Rory Stewart gives a clear explanation of what's happening in the Iran war and why the UK should have no part in it.

#Iran #UKPoltics #RoryStewart

#RoryStewart & war criminal #AlistairCampbell had a play-fight in #TheRestIsPolitics, blaming each other for the the UK's 1-ship navy comedy. The so-called "#RoyalNavy" has only ship to send to the #Mediterranean, the #destroyer #HMSDragon.

But the real #comedy is that the boys think this is somehow bad. 🤣

The #BritishEmpire is gone. #Thatcher formally abolished it in January 1983.

And without the spoils of Empire, #PerfidiousAlbion can't afford a blue water navy.
It's cosplaying.

#ukpol

"Trump is wrong to call us victims. Musk is wrong to say we are somehow hobbits who need protecting by the men of Gondor." ~ #RestIsPolitics #RoryStewart's speech on the fight for democracy. Hear, hear! ✊ #Trump #Vance #Musk #oligarchs #democracy

Link to Rory's speech on YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/SVnWHR_fRhU?si=IKPf-UisewFvFVbw

"It's so refreshing to be able to talk honestly about these things now that everybody [here has] left politics ..."

#RoryStewart, 2025

https://alastaircampbell.org/2025/08/150-nicola-sturgeon-what-really-happened-in-the-scottish-referendum-part-2/

Well, isn't that a revealing statement?

Yes, I did unsub from The Rest is Politics in protests at their shameless shilling for HP. But I stumbled on this 2-part interview with former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, which intrigues my Scottish diaspora roots, and it's well worth a listen.

#podcasts #GoalHanger #TheRestIsPolitics #Leading