The news is currently full of stories about the Israeli hostages being returned and an ‘ever lasting’ peace deal in Gaza. Which is all good news on the surface, but isn’t this something we have all heard before? Like in 2005? And why should this even be headline news in the UK?
Ever since anyone can remember, there has always been unrest in the Middle East. There probably always will be. In fact, there is a war going on somewhere in the world literally all the time. Why should the Israeli/Gaza conflict dominate the headlines all the time?
It was back on 24th September 2024 when Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer called on Hamas to free the ‘sausages’ held in Gaza via a video call. It has become the single most memorable thing from the whole sorry saga. It’s bad enough to make such a slip of the tongue during such an important speech, but to refer to hostages as ‘sausages’ when they are being held by a Muslim group who are opposed to eating pork – well it couldn’t have gone any more wrong!
Here we are in October 2025 and finally the ‘sausages’, oops, hostages are about to be returned to Israel. Not before time, but it seems that US President Mr. Trump wants to take all the credit for the peace deal. He will have played a part in negotiations, but Donald has his eyes on the Nobel Peace Prize. It may just be a co-incidence that the winner of the prize will be announced today (10th October), but isn’t the timing just wonderful. Although there is one rather big problem in that the Nobel Prize Committee cast their votes way back in January.
Mr. Trump has made it clear that he should be the winner, no matter what the rules say, and he more than deserves the accolade after the recent announcement. He is clearly irked that he did not win it when he was President the first time. He is even more upset that his ol’mate Barrack Obama won it back in 2009. Obama was awarded the prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
According to the Nobel Prize site, President Obama called for a new start to relations between the Muslim world and the West based on common interests and mutual understanding and respect. In accordance with a promise he made during his election campaign, he set in motion a plan for the withdrawal of U.S. occupying forces from Iraq.
In terms of peace and respect, that didn’t age well!!!
So, we will see later if President Trump is granted his wish (update – he didn’t!). If he does, it will likely be Sir Kier who will be the first person to congratulate him. Shame Sir Kier doesn’t put more energy into fixing our problems at home instead of spending his time sweet talking Presidents and being being distracted by issues abroad.
Sir Kiers one-in-one-out agreement with France to deal with people arriving by small boats is a shambles of sausage sized proportions. Since July 2025, only four migrants have been returned to France. Even if the target of 50 returns per week was met, it would only send back about one in 14 migrants, as 700 arrive weekly by small boat on average. Whoever thought making a deal to return 50 people, when there is sometimes more than 80 people arriving on a single boat, needs their sanity checking.
If this is the best Sir Kier can do, it really is time for him to leave his post and retire peacefully to his garden where he can play with his BBQ and some real sausages!
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