Iran, Trump and running scared Starmer
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can watch this episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/KQ1dUe4FxZ0
As conflict with Iran hots up across the Middle East, your co-pilot blast in to make sense of the madness.
Strapping into the rocket is Dr Alan Mendoza, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Henry Jackson Society to give his expertise on the conflict and how the ‘special relationship’ is faring as the PM holds back on British intervention.
Allison thinks delays to assisting US forces has left the UK as ‘billy no mates’ should we need military help in the future.
Liam looks at the economic fallout as the Strait of Hormuz is closed and this could send the cost of living soaring again for the British people.
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Read Allison ‘Rachel Reeves’s Freudian slip betrayed the truth about this Government’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/04/rachel-reeves-freudian-slip/ |
Read Allison ‘Trump is right. Starmer has humiliated the land of Churchill’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/03/starmers-cowardice-over-iran-shames-britain/ |
Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ |
Read Liam ‘The tide is turning on ludicrous net zero policies’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/01/rumours-of-oils-demise-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/ |
Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |
Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ |
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Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.0 | Iraq, unlike Iran, did not pose this vast existential threat across the world. |
| 0:17.5 | Four. |
| 0:19.1 | I'm completely flummoxed how and why the Iranian population let itself be taken over by |
| 0:25.6 | these theocrats. |
| 0:27.7 | Three. |
| 0:29.1 | Every week we think Kirstama cannot sink lower in our estimation, but he keeps digging. |
| 0:36.2 | Two. |
| 0:37.5 | It just shows that we have slipped into the ranks of a minor European power. |
| 0:43.5 | One. |
| 0:47.0 | We have left off. |
| 0:49.7 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal, the Telegraph podcast with Alison Pearson. |
| 0:54.3 | Hello. |
| 0:55.1 | And me Liam Halligan. |
| 0:57.4 | What we've seen over recent days co-pilot is a before and after moment in the Middle East. |
| 1:02.9 | US strikes on Iran with direct attacks on nuclear and military facilities and the death of much of the Islamic Republic's leadership |
| 1:10.0 | have dismantled the long-standing, |
| 1:12.5 | indirect, shadow war doctrine. With Iran now lashing out at other regional powers, the kaleidoscope's |
| 1:18.8 | been shaken. Things will never be the same again. Tehran's direct attack on Israel and Israeli |
| 1:25.0 | retaliation have shattered the norm of using proxy forces in Lebanon, |
| 1:29.6 | Syria and Gaza, replacing it with widespread direct state-on-state confrontation, creating a |
| 1:36.4 | dangerous new reality. This conflict's unlikely to end in days or even weeks, Alison. President |
... |
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