- History man - 3rd March 2026
- British Broadcasting Complaint (BBC) - 3rd March 2026
- Rocket man - 2nd March 2026
During 23 years with the BBC, and 42 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, has always realised that knowing the history and background of a story is crucial.
But perhaps Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu need to go back to school.
History holds important lessons.
In all the stories I have ever covered, it has always been vital to know the background of the issue, so that I was able to make informed decisions on new events.
But maybe Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu have not learned the lessons of the past in the same way.
Decapitation of the brutal Iranian leadership may not be enough, and the history of this region shows that things can often become a quagmire.
Apart from killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) say they have also killed Sayed Yahya Hamidi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Intelligence for Israel Affairs, and have declared that Jalal Pour Hossein, head of the espionage division at the Ministry of Intelligence (MoI), was also killed, along with other “regime officials”.
But even Mr Trump has admitted this could last for weeks (or I would suggest, MONTHS!), so the danger is that America might be drawn into a “forever war”, as he has described them in the past.
Already consumers are feeling it in their pockets, which may bode ill for Mr Trump in the midterm elections, and could be a sign of things to come.
The price of gas on the world stage has risen by 33 per cent today, while the UK benchmark is up 30 per cent – with both trading at their highest levels since January 2023.
Gas prices had jumped about 50 per cent on Monday after QatarEnergy, one of the world’s biggest exporters, halted production following “military attacks” on its facilities.
They have risen at the fastest pace for more than three years, and stock markets have tumbled after an Iranian official said his country would “set fire to anyone who tries to pass through” the key Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state TV that ships “should not come to this region. They will certainly face a serious response from us”.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is crucial to the global economy, with about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas passing through the waterway, but it has come to a halt after several vessels were attacked in recent days.
Shares have also done badly, which could be a bad omen as well for Mr Trump and us! In the UK, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell by 2.6 per cent, while stocks markets in France and Germany also tumbled.
Clayton Seigle, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, proclaimed that Mr Trump is very sensitive to falling shares, high oil prices, steep fuel increases and inflation.
He declared: “Either the traders and the administration know something that we don’t on the analyst side — that the situation is more benign than we are expecting — or we could be sleepwalking into triple-digit oil prices pretty soon”.
This sort of news is the last thing Mr Trump wants, when he desires a quickish victory to boost his sagging poll numbers before the midterms in November.
A January poll from The Economist and YouGov survey found that 57 percent of US citizens disapproved of Mr Trump’s job performance, while only 39 percent approved.
A separate Reuters-Ipsos poll from the same month showed similar results, with 59 percent of respondents disapproving of Mr Trump’s tenure so far.
Mr Trump and his allies have acknowledged their steep odds in this year’s midterm elections, gesturing in their remarks to the midterm curse.
“Sitting presidents don’t seem to do well in the midterms. I guess, over a 50-year period, they won twice, so I don’t know what that is”, he told reporters on Air Force One.
Mr Trump appears to know his history over this, so why doesn’t he know it about wars in the Middle East?!
Phil’s memories of his extraordinary award-winning career in journalism (including major stories like these) as he was gripped by the rare incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in an important book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Tomorrow how Phil would often find he was doing the same kind of story time after time, as an identical issue returned repeatedly, and this is now highlighted by yet another remake hitting our cinema screens.
