It should worry all of us when a succession of immensely powerful Silicon Valley and media billionaires pay homage (suck-up) in Mar-a-Lago to the anointed “leader of the free-world”. It suits the new regime that fact-checkers have been sacked, to be replaced with “community moderation” to advance the “alternative fact” world which will embolden conspiracy-theorists.

As we enter the brave new world of lies and dog-whistle, it’s doubtful those who have least will twig that those with most are taking them for fools. Those of us who still hanker for old-fashioned values which put truth, justice, equality and kindness at the centre of public life face a bumpy ride ahead…

It’s such a relief a ceasefire has finally been secured in Gaza. I wasn’t the only person who warned on 8th October 2023 that the far-right Israeli government's military campaign in Gaza would prove to be the very best recruiting sergeant for a new generation of jihadists bent on revenge. The out-going US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, admitted that Israel's actions had resulted in as many Hamas recruits as IDF Soldiers had killed. So, far from "eliminating Hamas", Israel has in fact strengthened and emboldened them.

Netanyahu's decision to flatten Gaza and to use Israel's massive and overwhelming military superiority to pursue a policy of cold-blooded slaughter of 46,000 mostly women and children, the injury of more than twice as many, to destroy almost all hospital, health, education and other public infrastructure, displace almost all of the 2.3-million inhabitants in a tiny sliver of land the size of west Cornwall, was driven by a desire for retribution and was always going to be counterproductive.

The UK government's complicity is shameful. Yes, the new Labour government moved policy to become more even-handed than the Conservatives' backing of Israel. But they still permitted the indirect arming of Israel and refused to recognise the Palestinian state.

I thank the many people locally who have done so much to campaign for lasting peace, including a two-state solution.

Cornwall Council is asking itself this week whether it should submit Cornwall to a Southwest super-region under a directly elected mayor.

Cornwall is special and unique. We’d be severely weakened if we were swallowed up into an area created for someone else’s administrative convenience. The six Cornish MPs are determined to stick to a Cornwall-only footprint for a devolved administration for Cornwall. We need Cornwall Council to stand with us without equivocation and not weakening our resolve.

They’re being bullied with the usual threats and bribes – that we’ll be “left behind”; we’ll “miss out on funding”; we’ll miss the opportunity of “first-mover advantage”; we won’t have a place at the “top table”. All nonsense. What we decide now will set the shape of Cornwall for the next hundred years. The inducements and threats will be applied over the next 100 days. Standing firm, shoulder to shoulder is vitally important at this stage.

Andrew George

Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives