Elevate their cause?

Lord Mandelson set to work with Farage to win over Trump

Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.

Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.

The move comes despite senior Labour figures warning against any such overture to Right-wing politicians for fear it would “elevate” their cause.


Elevate above what? Our absurd swamp of a Labour government? Shouldn't be difficult, but good grief, we see some rum language in modern politics. It isn't easy to know what to say, but perhaps Labour could "elevate" its own cause if it approaches the task as an Augean stables kind of job.

Seems hopelessly unlikely, but if Labour ditches its leader, all senior Cabinet members, Net Zero, the BBC, its immigration policy... well it's a big stable. The party could then allow voters to know what its cause is and how it is to be achieved.

The economics of the bung

Britain on brink of recession after growth revised to zero

Britain is on the brink of a recession after a revision to official figures showed the economy stagnated in the third quarter of the year.

Growth from July to September was revised down from 0.1pc to zero, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. Living standards also fell.

The UK and Italy were the only G7 countries to register no growth during that time, performing worse than rivals such as Germany, France and the US.

A remarkable achievement. Maybe economic policies based on increased taxes and bungs to political supporters do not offer the best route to growth. Rachel from Accounts may have to revisit her sums.

 

Diminished

It will be interesting to see if there is any reckoning over Joe Biden's long diminished capacity to perform his role as US President. To take just one recent example and as one of the video comments suggests, we may assume that he wasn't capable of pardoning anyone.

 

The Streisand effect again

‘Two-tier’ BBC refuses to play Keir Starmer parody despite airing anti-Thatcher song

The BBC has been accused of “two-tier broadcasting” following its refusal to play the Sir Keir Starmer parody Freezing This Christmas despite airing a song critical of Margaret Thatcher.

The broadcaster has continually refused to play the track, which uses the melody of Lonely This Christmas, Mud’s 1974 hit, in a parody about the withdrawal of winter fuel payments.

It's pleasant to see the BBC in a cleft stick, especially one which makes it seem even more furtive and inconsistent than usual.  

Disturbance

However, as it generally happens that those, who have had many experiences, vacillate, so long as they regard a thing as future or past, and are usually in doubt about its issue (II. xliv. note); it follows that the emotions which arise from similar images of things are not so constant, but are generally disturbed by the images of other things, until men become assured of the issue.

Baruch Spinoza – Ethics (1677)


As Spinoza said, shifting from one viewpoint to another counts as a disturbance and we don’t generally seek this kind of disturbance. It’s a barrier to change, a hill we would have to climb to see what’s on the other side.

This brings out an aspect of the term ‘confirmation bias’, because we don’t necessarily seek the confirmation. Sometimes we do, mostly we don’t, because seeking confirmation might be disturbing. In the main it’s just bias, protection against disturbance and the online world suggests it can be pretty crude protection.

This is what mainstream media cater for, not only bias but the underlying protection against disturbance. They even make conspicuous and repeated use of the word ‘disturbing’, as do politicians. Bias is the outcome, the behaviour we see, while the remarkably powerful spectre of disturbance is what keeps the bias in place. News stories which might be disturbing are presented as windows on a disturbing world, confirmation that a particular media comfort zone is the right comfort zone.

Apart from confounding factors such as vested interests, this issue of disturbance seems to account for the slow pace in which absurd public narratives are corrected. It can take generations or even centuries to correct even the most abject stupidity. Belief in witchcraft is a historical example, catastrophic climate change a modern one.

Crowds and Warnings

Before tootling off on a short local walk, Mrs H and I popped into a busy Costa this morning. We both noticed how crowded it was, especially as warnings from the RAC and AA have suggested that virtually the entire UK population will brave howling winds to be out on the roads over the next few days.

Travel news live: Christmas getaway weekend delays after M25 crash and 80mph wind weather warnings in place

Roads and public transport could be disrupted by strong winds as the Met Office forecast a wet and windy weekend for many.

The AA predicted 23.7 million drivers hit the road on Friday, making it the busiest day on the roads since the group’s records began in 2010.

It projected that Saturday would see 22.7 million drivers and Sunday 21.3 million.

Mangled

Lord Mandelson called an ‘absolute moron’ by Trump campaign chief

Donald Trump’s campaign manager has called Lord Mandelson an “absolute moron” and said he should “stay home” after the Labour peer was announced as the UK’s next ambassador to Washington.

Chris LaCivita, who masterminded Mr Trump’s presidential bid earlier this year, hit back at Sir Keir Starmer’s choice for the role and praised the incumbent, Dame Karen Pierce.

“This UK government is special,” he said. “Replace a professional universally respected ambo with an absolute moron - he should stay home! Sad!”

I don't have any particular angle on this, merely the belated pleasure of seeing Mandelson mangled so robustly and so prominently.