Starmer is opposed to lying

Angela Rayner leads Epstein 'cover-up' revolt against Starmer as he says Mandelson 'lied repeatedly'

Keir Starmer's crisis escalated today as Angela Rayner put herself at the head of a Labour revolt on the Mandelson 'cover-up'.

The former deputy PM was among MPs demanding that Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee oversees what material is released about the vetting process before Mandelson was appointed US ambassador.

The intervention came after a bruising PMQs where Sir Keir said the ex-Cabinet minister had 'betrayed' the country, and would be legally stripped of his 'Lord' title and kicked out of the privy council.

He said Mandelson had 'lied throughout' the process' of his appointment as envoy to Washington, and pledged to publish details.

Starmer ousted would be well deserved, but his replacement isn't something to anticipate with relish. Unless Labour is hiding someone competent of course, but that would certainly go against the ideological grain.

Imagine Seaside Ange as PM.

Good grief.

Outrage Block

A problem with the Peter Mandelson debacle is how difficult it is to crank up some outrage, a flicker of surprise or even a raised eyebrow. 

There is one interesting question though - will Keir Starmer try to deny that he appointed Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States?  

Meanwhile the Daily Express has a more important aspect to relate -


Politics live: Nigel Farage makes huge announcement as Keir Starmer in crisis

Nigel Farage gave a Reform UK press conference today as Sir Keir Starmer faces a crisis over Lord Mandelson.

The Reform leader unveiled his party's five-point plan to "save Britain's pubs".

The next illusion this way comes

Merz declares wind power a transitional technology – and sells nuclear fusion as a way out

Friedrich Merz calls wind power a transitional technology, although the expansion of offshore plants and grids is planned for decades. Nevertheless, he links the expansion to a grand narrative of the future. He says Germany should "connect the world's first fusion reactor to the grid." At the same time, electricity prices remain high for many households, and approval for the expansion of wind power is crumbling in parts of the population.

Merz explains that wind energy will accompany us "for ten years, 20 years, maybe 30 years". In doing so, it is setting an expiration date, although the energy transition needs stable generation capacities. It also sends a signal to investors that sounds like a reservation. Offshore projects in particular expect long durations and high upfront investments.


Not truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations, and the reason why socialism is so powerful to-day is that it constitutes the last illusion that is still vital.

In spite of all scientific demonstrations it continues on the increase. Its principal strength lies in the fact that it is championed by minds sufficiently ignorant of things as they are in reality to venture boldly to promise mankind happiness. The social illusion reigns to-day upon all the heaped-up ruins of the past, and to it belongs the future. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them.

Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

Gustave Le Bon - The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895)

Scientist says...

 

The stupidity of the century

Carl Deconinck has an interesting Brussels Signal piece on trenchant criticisms of European green energy policies made by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

Green energy policies are destroying Europe: Belgian PM De Wever

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has come out against European “green” policies, accusing them of causing de-industrialisation.

Speaking on the evening of January 29 at The Future of Europe, an event run by Belgian newspapers De Tijd en L’Echo, De Wever was highly critical of earlier decisions on the production of energy, which he said made everything more expensive and harmed the European economy.


The whole piece is well worth reading as an extremely belated recognition that Europe's weaknesses are self-inflicted. The EU isn't mentioned, but there do seem to be hints that some senior politicians prefer to direct their criticisms at 'Europe' rather than lose them in the EU swamp.

According to De Wever, this exposed all Europe’s weaknesses and made things “extremely complicated with environmental rules that make it impossible to provide for our own energy needs, that make it impossible to mine for rare minerals in Europe”. The continent also has “no military capacity”.

At the same time, China is popping up in Africa and South America, where there is almost no European presence.

“We made our life extremely hard. We’ve made dogmatic choices against nuclear energy which was the stupidity of the century,” he said.

Sacks of dried night soil

North Korean households receive heavy yearly scrap collection quotas as new year begins

Those unable to gather recyclables on time must pay cash equivalents, and quotas are sometimes raised arbitrarily, leaving North Koreans feeling "shackled" by collection demands

North Korean neighborhood watch unit leaders have given households their yearly quotas for various scrap materials they are supposed to collect for the government...

According to the source, one neighborhood watch unit in Chongjin provided the following quotas to each household in a meeting on the evening of Jan. 14: 40 kilograms of scrap metal, 10 kilograms of scrap paper, 5 kilograms of scrap rubber, 2 kilograms of oil crops, and three 25-kilogram sacks of dried night soil.

There are many observations a chap could make about sacks of night soil, but I'll resist the temptation for now.  

In other news, I see Lord Mandelson has resigned from the Labour Party.

The Andy Burnham clown show