Reports coming from the Saudi opposition indicate that a violent clash is escalating between Mohammed bin Salman and his brother Khalid bin Salman, the Minister of Defense, and that the dispute between the two men has now reached a very advanced stage, with direct exchanges of accusations regarding responsibility for the military situation that Saudi Arabia has arrived at in its confrontation with the Houthis. Mohammed bin Salman recently conveyed to Khalid bin Salman a message stating that he had trusted his brother and placed him in the Ministry of Defense to build a strong army capable of confronting the Houthis, but after years at the head of the ministry and spending hundreds of billions on the military institution, he has failed to do so. Mohammed bin Salman accused his brother Khalid bin Salman of administrative corruption and embezzlement of funds, and accused him of turning the Saudi army, despite all that was spent on it, into a junk army incapable of confronting the Houthis. Khalid bin Salman responded to his brother Mohammed bin Salman that the responsibility does not fall on him, but on MbS himself, and that MbS is the one who plunged Saudi Arabia, due to his misjudgment, into a reckless war with Yemen from the very beginning. And according to what has reached from the Saudi opposition, Khalid bin Salman told his brother that MbS, no matter what reforms he carries out and no matter how much money he spends on the Saudi army, will not be able to make this army capable of confronting the Houthis, because the problem started with the decision itself and the way MbS entered the war, and his refusal to learn from Yemen's history and the nature of wars there. The conflict between the two men has now reached its utmost extreme, and is no longer just a dispute between the Crown Prince and the Minister of Defense over war management, but has begun to transform into a conflict within the royal family itself. There are real factions within the House of Saud, with part of the princes standing behind Khalid bin Salman and supporting him, while the other part stands behind Mohammed bin Salman, meaning that the dispute between the brothers has begun to turn into a broader conflict within the family over responsibility, influence, and the future of power. And the most dangerous aspect is that the conflict may not stop at exchanging accusations. Information coming from Saudi Arabia speaks of the possibility that MbS will attempt to remove KbS from the MoD and hold him responsible for the military failure, and in response, there is talk that KbS may act before being removed, and that the clash between the two men could reach, in its worst phases, an attempt at a military coup against MbS led by KbS, relying on his position at the head of the MoD and the princes who stand behind him. This conflict comes at a time of extreme sensitivity for Mohammed bin Salman. The New York Times confirmed in September 2026 that the Crown Prince personally asked Donald Trump to intervene militarily against the Houthis, and that he contacted him requesting assistance to stop their advance, while Reuters also confirmed that Saudi Arabia requested American military support after the Houthis' significant advance, and that the attack revealed intelligence failures and erroneous Saudi calculations. As for KbS, he entered the heart of the military institution years before taking over the ministry. He was appointed Dy. Minister of Defense in February 2019, and immediately began working in his new position, then was appointed MoD on September 27, 2022, on the same day that MbS became Prime Minister. In other words, MbS himself is the one who gradually placed his brother in the heart of the military institution and then handed him the MoD in full. And since KbS took over the MoD, the funds have by no means been scarce. The Saudi military sector was allocated 259 billion riyals in the 2023 budget, 269 billion riyals in the 2024 budget, then 272 billion riyals in the 2025 budget, and 240 billion riyals in the 2026 budget. That is, the total military allocations during these four years amounted to approximately 1.04 trillion Saudi riyals. And it is precisely here that the importance of the clash between the brothers lies. MbS is effectively saying that he granted his brother the ministry, time, and money to build the military force he wants, then today accuses him of failure, corruption, embezzlement of funds, and turning the army into a junk army. And KbS responds to him that money and weapons cannot fix MbS's original mistake, and that the one who dragged Saudi Arabia into this war and misjudged Yemen and the Houthis from the beginning is MbS himself. And with other princes entering the line of conflict, the dispute is no longer just a question of who failed in managing the MoD, but has become a conflict within the center of rule itself, and its outcomes could be far more dangerous than just a change of minister.

The political left get what they want: vacuous virtue signalling. The political right get what they want: highlighting two tier justice and the unfairness of it all. Us? Well our views clearly mean nothing. I'm deeply saddened that a country once considered one of the most liberal and welcoming has been reduced to this by politicians of all stripes taking the pee in regard to those tolerant values. Polite discourse requesting restraint on immigration has led nowhere and promises of immigration control have been broken spectacularly for over two decades. It's now race to the bottom stuff, with a stagnating economy and rising unemployment, there's no bandwidth left to accommodate more and more migrants. Distributing them to the shires will engage an otherwise sleeping cohort of people, not ordinarily known for protesting. Those old enough will recall the Poll Tax Riots and how it was intrinsic to the downfall of a tin eared government, too long in power to properly sense the mood of the nation. We're at that point again: the political class are talking to themselves, unwilling and probably unable to address the things that really matter to people. I can no longer bear to listen to them, hence my presence on X has diminished because I often can't bring myself to engage in the bs. We slide steadily into more frequent, mass civil disobedience, and 'they' fiddle whilst Rome burns.

My mother has been my biggest supporter from day one, no matter how crazy my ideas sounded. ~Elon Musk.