Rory Stewart

And the idea that Blair...

with all his experience, gets to say, ooh, whoops, I thought it was Channel House Rules.

I didn't know it was going to be a big thing.

very complicated reporting coming up from the cabinet and a lot of cabinet leaks going on where there was a story about Ed Miliband being very much against using US bases and John Healy being in favor.

And then a lot of briefing coming from people close to Starmer saying he decided one thing on Thursday.

These are people that are

close but who are not on his side, saying he decided one thing Thursday, Friday, and then he changed his mind on Saturday, and then you have other people in Downing Street saying the US didn't request on Thursday, Friday, so he only agreed to it on Saturday.

It doesn't seem to me as though those stories feel like

a clean, clear decision tree.

They feel like an almighty disagreement within the cabinet about what they're going to do, and a lot of uncertainty about what the US was requesting, when they were requesting it, what's going on.

Here's another fact that was interesting to me, which is just how much these bases are being used anyway.

So the Daily Mail did some pretty good reporting on what was happening in Prestwick, which is owned by the Scottish government.

So they discovered that at this base, Prestwick Airport, in the buildup,

So the implication is not after the operation started.

There were already 10 F-35s, American F-35s, the big attack aircraft, two A-10 Warthogs, two C-17As.

To make the story even more complicated, it appears that the US was just using all these bases anyway.

So him saying, one day you can't use them, the next day you can use them for defensive purposes.

I also still don't quite really understand what that means.

I mean, does that mean to defend US missile bases and radar stations from Iranian attack?

In which case are you saying it's not justifiable for the Iranians to attack US radar stations if they're defending themselves?