The Ed Stone

Found! The Ed Stone


 

Source

Talk of Ed Miliband replacing Sir Keir Starmer has reminded me of the famous Ed Stone of six policy pledges signed by the then Labour leader and unveiled by him in Hastings and Rye to a bemused electorate on the eve of polling day in May 2015. The two-ton, 8ft 6in limestone slab was intended to sit in the 10 Downing St garden, with its pledges covering the economy, NHS and immigration controls serving as a reminder to a Miliband government of its core purposes.

A Net Zero Diet

A old diet which could also be used nationwide for uninvited 'guests'.

 

I sat down on the spot, sir, and began to ponder: will a vagabond like that be very much trouble to me? And on thinking it over it seemed he would not be much trouble. He must be fed, I thought. Well, a bit of bread in the morning, and to make it go down better I’ll buy him an onion. At midday I should have to give him another bit of bread and an onion; and in the evening, onion again with kvass, with some more bread if he wanted it. And if some cabbage soup were to come our way, then we should both have had our fill.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - An Honest Thief (1848)

Another squirrel

Andrew faces being cut from line of succession

Sir Keir Starmer will consider passing a law to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession.

It is understood that any change to legislation would take place after the police investigation into the disgraced former prince is concluded.

The historic move follows the arrest of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has been stripped of the title of prince but remains eighth in line to the throne after Prince William, Prince Harry and their children.

The chap is 66 years old and eighth in line to the throne. Even Keir Starmer must know there are more pressing issues.

For example, who is next in line for No. 10? 

The Truth Is Out There

Trump directs US government to release files on 'alien and extraterrestrial life'

In a post on Truth Social, the US president claimed his decision was "based on the tremendous interest shown" and called the matter "extremely interesting and important".

He wrote: "Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters."

Meanwhile, here in the UK an alien landing may have occurred already. 

 

 

The Legacy of Tony Blair

Joseph Dinnage has a useful CAPX reminder of the damage done to UK politics by Tony Blair and our inability to make any serious political attempts to tackle it. 

The Right needs its own Tony Blair

• Tony Blair is Britain's worst constitutional vandal – but you have to marvel at his effectiveness
• Voters are crying out for a new constitutional settlement
• Despite 14 years of Tory rule, the legacy of Tony Blair remains inescapable

Say what you like about him – and I often do – but Tony Blair remains inescapable. Perhaps that is why, almost 30 years after he first entered No.10 as Prime Minister, Channel 4 has a new three-part series following his journey from Fettes to Iraq...

Through a comprehensive package of constitutional reforms, Blair utterly reshaped the state. It was he who established the devolved assemblies of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, stoking the disunity that now characterises our kingdom. In 1998, he passed the Human Rights Act, incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, thus outsourcing our ability to control inward migration to judges in Strasbourg. Not content with handing over decision-making to unelected officials abroad, he formalised this arrangement at home with the creation of the Supreme Court and a thicket of quangos.

The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that without an explicit and comprehensive reversal of Blair's vandalism, the UK has no worthwhile political future. Reversal may be politically impossible of course, there is no evidence that enough voters have any idea of the lasting damage Blair inflicted.


Both Badenoch and Nigel Farage could do worse than to watch Channel 4’s Blairite love-in, because voters are through with tinkering. Over the coming months and years, it will be up to either leader to prove that they have a plan to overhaul Blairism once and for all, and rebuild the state in a way that unlocks growth and opportunity through conservative means.

Squirrel

Ed Miliband 'should end mad ban on North Sea oil' as study eviscerates net zero plan

Britain cannot "just stop oil" despite government attempts to wean the country off fossil fuels which are making the UK poorer, dirtier and less secure, a report has warned. A paper from the Institute of Economic Affairs shreds Labour's case for ending North Sea oil and warns that it will damage the economy, drive up emissions and threaten the country's energy security.


Look, a squirrel -


Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on his birthday

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on his 66th birthday. Thames Valley Police said has been held on suspicion of misconduct in public office. His arrest was revealed today after police were seen at Sandringham, where the King's younger brother is staying. Six unmarked police cars arrived at King Charles' Norfolk estate at just after 8am this morning. Onlookers said the group of eight people were in plain clothes 'but appeared to be police officers'. One man appeared to be carrying a police-issue laptop.

Spotting Winners

Taxpayer on the hook for millions as solar company faces administration

Taxpayers are facing a potential multimillion-pound blow as a leading British solar energy developer risks the threat of administration.

Hive Energy is preparing to appoint administrators just months after securing a £60m taxpayer-backed loan from HSBC to launch itself as a global operation.

The loan was announced by the UK Government last November at the UN’s COP30 climate conference to show how the UK was supporting the global expansion of solar. The loan guarantee was personally endorsed by Tim Reid, the chief executive of UK Export Finance Agency (UKEF), who said he was “proud” to support Hive.

Discreet contacts

Marco Rubio holds discreet contacts with Raúl Castro’s grandson, Axios reports

Axios says the exchanges underscore the Trump administration’s view that the 94-year-old revolutionary remains the island’s main decision-maker despite no longer serving as president. A senior official quoted by the outlet said he would not call them “negotiations,” but rather “discussions” about the future...

Axios portrays Rodríguez Castro, 41, as a consequential figure in Raúl Castro’s security and family circle, and says Rubio’s team views him as a potential bridge to younger, more business-minded power brokers who may see value in a U.S. rapprochement.

It remains unclear whether the back-channel will evolve into a formal process or concrete measures. Axios frames the outreach as part of a broader strategy that combines intensified pressure on Havana with efforts to identify alternative interlocutors and test transition or deal-making scenarios outside the Cuban government’s official hierarchy.

It is not easy to read this without being reminded of the Godfather films which is probably how the Trump administration sees it.

Axios says the exchanges underscore the Trump administration’s view that the 94-year-old revolutionary remains the island’s main decision-maker.

And any Cuban who doesn't see it that way...

Occasional Cortex

 

Angela Rayner would ruin our nightlife

Mani Basharzad has an entertaining and topical CAPX piece on how ludicrous government intervention can be. In this case it's Angela Rayner being typically ludicrous, but the wider problem has become ever more absurd over recent decades.


Angela Rayner would ruin our nightlife once and for all

• Appointing a 'night-time economy minister' will do nothing to stimulate Britain's nightclubs
• The night-time economy was built by entrepreneurs who saw opportunity, not by bureaucrats
• British nightlife is not declining because there's too little government; it's declining because there's too much

A couple of years ago, the Free Market Road Show was touring European capitals, with prominent classical liberal economists making the case for free enterprise. Deirdre McCloskey was one of them. In Vienna, after a speech on the role of the entrepreneur, an enthusiastic journalist told her: ‘I loved your talks, and love the idea of entrepreneurs having the liberty to have a go. But… in Austria you have to understand that we have a problem. There is no government program for training entrepreneurs.’ As McCloskey notes about herself and the other economists on stage, ‘we merely sank back into our seats in despair’. I suspect she would react much the same way to Angela Rayner’s latest proposal to revive Britain’s nightlife.

The whole piece is well worth reading, as it describes a core problem with dimwit political ideas applied to an already failing government machine. Unfortunately, the dimwit vote is not shrinking.  


This way of thinking is not limited to nightlife. It reflects a broader habit in British politics: when faced with a problem, create a new ministry, a new minister, or a new quango, often to manage difficulties generated by the state in the first place. Why not a Ministry of Capital Flight, a Minister for Declining Growth or a Department for Graduate Underemployment? The answer is obvious: the existing machinery of government already has the ability and the tools to address such issues. The creation of new bodies is less about administrative necessity and more about political theatre: the image of an activist government that is constantly intervening. But you do not solve problems created by an overextended state by extending it further.

But where is the intelligence?

EU Parliament bans AI use on government work devices

• Internal email reveals EU Parliament has banned AI tools due to cloud processing
• "Some of these features use cloud services to carry out tasks that could be handled locally"
• Workers also asked to exercise caution when using personal devices and AI for work tasks

The European Parliament has turned off built-in AI features on the devices it issues employees due to cybersecurity and data protection concerns.


“And every day, every hour, today, tomorrow and for all time the bureaucratic machine works smoothly, without hitch or pause, as though not made of men, but as though it were made of wheels and springs. But where is the intelligence animating and moving this edifice of papers?” thought Alexander: “in the books, in the papers themselves or in the heads of these men?”

Ivan Goncharov – The Same Old Story (1847)

Fake Flagship Footage

Liars: German national TV caught using AI images of fake ICE arrest

Germany’s ZDF public broadcaster has come under fire over an episode of its flagship heute journal news programme after it emerged it broadcast an AI-generated video clip to illustrate alleged brutality by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The footage, clearly bearing the watermark of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool, was used without proper labelling as synthetic content, prompting accusations of journalistic malpractice and fuelling wider debate over the use of generative AI in news reporting...

Viewers quickly noticed the prominent Sora watermark superimposed on the footage, a telltale sign that the material had been created by OpenAI’s generative video platform rather than captured in reality.


Surely public broadcasters don't strengthen their political messages by resorting to faked footage? 

Whatever next?

Good morning

Current polls suggest that about 49% of voters would vote -

 

‘Your Excellency does not read Schiller, I suppose. You are probably not acquainted with his celebrated line: mit der Dummheit kämpfen die Götter selbst vergebens.’

‘What does it mean?’

‘Roughly: Against stupidity the gods themselves battle in vain.’ ‘Good morning.’

W. Somerset Maugham – The Door of Opportunity (1951)

A Desperate Man

 

Miliband parades UK clean energy deal with Trump's worst enemy Gavin Newsom

Ed Miliband has ricked [sic] triggering the wrath of Donald Trump by signing a clean energy deal with his arch American enemy.

The desperation of a weak man is, of all desperations, the most unscrupulous and the most unmanageable—when it is once roused.

Wilkie Collins – Poor Miss Finch (1872)

Miliband plots solar farms in space in quest to hit net zero

Solar farms could be deployed in space to help Britain hit net zero targets, according to a new report published by the Energy Department.

Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.

Charles Mackay - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

This could be how Starmer functions

Not exactly of course, he is more likely to be operated remotely via something such as Bluetooth.

 

Old Bus Routes

It's interesting how well we remember bus services we used to catch in our younger days. Mrs H remembers catching the B1 Nottingham bus quite often in the 1960s, although she only used it for local journeys. We're not sure where this accident was.

The bus service I remember best is the 24 Henley Green from Derby to a stop near to where we lived in the 1950s, close to what is now the Derby ring-road.

Photo sent by Alan H

When Language Fails

 

It’s deliberate

Suppose we come up with 10 words to describe UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. This could be a selection of 10 words from any number, which might include –

Mendacious
Evasive
Wooden
Earnest
And many, many more

Yet if we try to apply 10 words to Starmer and assuming we choose a range of words with somewhat different meanings, then those words are not likely to summarised his political persona in a simple phrase or a single sentence, tempting though the attempt may be.

In other words we cannot sum up Starmer the politician in a way which isn’t diffuse and subject to elaboration. With elaboration it would become longer and eventually end up as a long essay, or after a long grind of unaccountable enthusiasm it could end up as a book.

This summary problem casts a weird fog over political discourse where even the terminology is ambiguous and inexact, where brief summaries never work and other aspects are always available to render political discourse forever unsatisfactory.

It’s deliberate, senior politicians are brokers, but not our brokers.

Tougher than a bacon sandwich

One for Ed.

Climate Change and Energy: World Leaders in Turmoil – ‘There is no evidence that UN Climate COP meetings & more than $10 trillion spent on renewables over the last 30 years have affected the climate’

 

The average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, which is blamed for global warming, has been rising over the last 50 years without any change to the trend.

Lib Dems - not a serious political party

Matthew Bowles has an interesting CAPX take on the Lib Dems. It is familiar in that we know we shouldn't take Lib Dems seriously, but also a worthwhile reminder that the Lib Dem smoke and mirrors approach to reform is standard across the UK political arena.

   

The Liberal Democrats don’t understand growth

• The Lib Dems' hare-brained scheme to abolish the Treasury is style over substance
• Britain has an abundance of pro-growth rhetoric, but an extreme shortage of pro-growth policies
• If their last manifesto is anything to go by, the Liberal Democrats are determined to throttle growth

The Liberal Democrats have announced that they want to abolish the Treasury and replace it with a new ‘Department for Growth’, supported by a separate department for public spending. On the face of it, this sounds radical, even refreshing. Britain’s economy has stagnated for over a decade, productivity has broadly flatlined (especially in the public sector) and living standards have barely recovered since the 2007/08 financial crisis. If the Treasury really is part of the problem, why not scrap it?

But as with so many Lib Dem policy announcements, the ambition dissolves on contact with detail. Strip away the rhetoric and the proposal looks less like a serious growth strategy and more like a rebranding exercise, which leaves the party’s underlying policy instincts firmly intact. Simply having a department for something doesn’t make it so.

The whole piece is well worth reading because so many political proposals are merely rebranding wheezes like this one, a standard way to evade reform rather than (clutch those pearls!) actually carry it out. 


The truth is that Britain does not suffer from a lack of growth rhetoric, but from an excess of anti-growth policies. High marginal tax rates, a labyrinthine planning system and endless red tape have combined to suppress economic dynamism for years. Addressing that would require political choices that governing parties of all stripes have shied away from in recent years.

None of this precludes reforming the Treasury. But reform must follow strategy, not substitute for it. Otherwise, the overarching risk is that Britain ends up yet again with the same policies, and the same stagnation, just administered by a shinier department with a more fashionable name.

Switched Off

Starmer to claim 'lamps would go out across Europe' under Reform UK or Greens

In an extraordinary attack on Reform UK and the Green Party, Sir Keir underlined the need to explain to the public why it is important to invest in rebuilding Britain's defences.

"Because, if we don't, the peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right are ready. They will offer their solutions instead," he will say, according to excerpts from the speech released in advance...

"The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen."


Yes you switched-off clod, we understand the reference to lamps going out across Europe, but what many people will also think of is -

Ed Miliband

Net Zero

A Speech

A speech by Sir Keir Rodney Starmer who appointed -

• Ed Miliband as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero 
• Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the Exchequer 
• Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the United States

Keir Starmer sparks huge reaction in speech to Euro leaders with words that betray Brexit

Sir Keir Starmer sparked a reaction among several European leaders after making a nine-word Brexit Britain comment during a key speech in Munich. The Prime Minister made the comments on the second day of the Munich Security Conference and just over six years since the UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020.

He said: "We are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore." The comment sparked a round of applause from European leaders gathered in the room. Sir Keir added: "Because we know that in a dangerous world, we would not take control by turning inward, we would surrender it, and I won't let that happen. That's why I devote time as Prime Minister to Britain's leadership on the world stage, and that's why I'm here today, because I am clear there is no British security without Europe and no European security without Britain. That is the lesson of history, and is today's reality as well."

Hoover Constellation

Mrs H remembers these because her parents had one. We didn't, we had a boring upright.

School Anecdote

One of our grandson’s school friends had to leave school when his parents moved to another part of the country for work-related reasons. The school friend was home schooled for a couple of years before returning to grandson’s school when his parents moved back.

Grandson said that when his friend came back to school, he was at least a year ahead of everyone else in the class. He works hard anyway, but normally there is no opportunity to forge ahead, not to the extent he achieved at home.

Merely an anecdote, but interesting I thought.

Headline - Image - Headline

Professionalism must be the foundation for trust and adoption of new technology

With public services at the forefront of the deployment of AI, Dan Howl of BCS explains why ‘trust must not only be done, it must be seen to be done’

 

Angela Rayner backed to be next prime minster as Starmer faces more pressure

Angela Rayner has been publicly backed by Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), to potentially replace Sir Keir Starmer.

Weird Little Worlds

There is something desperately odd about Sir Keir Starmer’s version of political discourse. Everything he says seems to be out of sync with reality, limited to a weird little world of inadequate words and phrases, conveying nothing of substance or interest.

What did Starmer say yesterday, last week, last year? Who cares? Phrases emitted and forgotten, but many other politicians are equally limited. It all makes for a curiously remote and disconnected political arena, a graveyard of deceit, falsehood and implausible expectations .

Has the traditional reliance on political slogans, soundbites and cliché become obsolete? Possibly - perhaps the internet and AI have destroyed it, because many senior UK politicians obviously struggle with their attempts to persuade.

Whatever Starmer and his senior colleagues say within their curiously restricted world of political discourse, voters merely have to browse online for –

Better Ideas

Better Sources

Better opinions

Better questions

Better Explanations

Not all voters bother of course, weird little worlds seem to suit them.

Labour’s First Mission

 

Reeves slammed for 'taking eye off ball' as UK economy up by just 0.1%

Britain’s sluggish economy stayed firmly “stuck in a rut” in the fourth quarter of 2025 when GDP advanced by just 0.1%.

The weaker than expected figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest the damaging speculation during the long build-up to the late November Budget hit economic activity at the end of the year.

They will make bleak reading for Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves who were elected to power in July 2024 promising to make growth Labour’s “first mission.”


It may be worth pointing out that GDP growth of 0.1% doesn't mean much in itself, but it is a reliable indication that Rachel from Accounts doesn't know what she is doing, neither does Starmer and neither does the Treasury. For all anyone knows, economic activity could have declined.

They should ask Jim Ratcliffe what the problem is, but everything we've seen suggests that Starmer isn't keen on people who know things, he's much more comfortable with people who don't. 

Empty Suit Demands Apology

Keir Starmer slams Jim Ratcliffe for saying UK has been 'colonised' by immigrants

Keir Starmer has demanded Sir Jim Ratcliffe apologise for saying "the UK has been colonised by immigrants".

The Prime Minister hit back on Wednesday night by calling the Manchester United co-owner's comments "offensive and wrong".

In a post on X, Sir Keir added: "Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."


Oh dear, Keir Starmer doesn't like free speech. If he could, he would probably do away with it even more quickly than he is already.

But we knew that.

It's pothole season again

'Huge' pothole damages 30 cars in one evening leaving dozens of motorists stranded

Motorists have complained after a ‘huge’ pothole damaged 30 cars in one night, leaving some drivers waiting hours for assistance.

The hole was several inches deep and filled with water, making it difficult to see as vehicles approached it after dark.

Those caught up in the chaos on Monday said it was lucky there hadn’t been a serious accident at the spot on the B1062 between Beccles and Bungay in Suffolk, where the speed limit is 50mph.

A mobile tyre replacement fitter called out to several jobs at the spot admitted the epidemic of potholes on roads as councils direct resources elsewhere was good business for him – but costly for drivers.

The roads are rough in our bit of Derbyshire and even main roads are in a worse state than previous years. There was almost a third-world look to a short stretch of urban road I drove on yesterday.

Yes the roads are being patched, but the patches don't seem to last and meanwhile enough new potholes appear to overtake the rate of patching. 

Our friendly bus driver says the roads he drives on are in the worst he's ever seen. He's clumping in and out of potholes all day long and can't even weave around the big ones to avoid them.   

Deeply humiliating

Tertius Bonnin has a topical CAPX on Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female Prime Minister. Essentially a story of leadership and that rare ability to blend leadership with tough-minded political honesty.


What Britain can learn from Japanese Thatcherism

• The parallels between Japan and Britain are striking – and for Westminster, deeply humiliating
• Sanae Takaichi has proved that the public doesn’t want consensus if it means standing still
• Japan’s Prime Minister is creating a new generation of popular capitalists

In the pre-dawn stillness of Tokyo’s Nagatacho district, the lights on the fifth floor of the Kantei remain stubbornly ablaze. Inside, Japan’s first female Prime Minister is likely to be on her fourth cup of tea and her eighteenth hour of work. Sanae Takaichi does not believe in Japan’s legendary ‘lost decades’ (roughly 1991-2021) of stagnation, only in the ‘work, work, work’ philosophy that has become her trademark, and now, her country’s new mandate.

For Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the last few years have been a slow-motion descent into the political abyss. Bogged down by archaic slush-fund scandals and a public weary of institutional inertia, the party’s brand has rarely been more toxic. And yet, Takaichi has found a way to capitalise on her party’s decline as her personal popularity has soared.


Well worth reading as a reminder of something we in the UK don't have and are apparently unwilling to vote for. The contrast with Keir Starmer's government could hardly be more humiliating.


The parallels between Japan and Britain are striking – and for Westminster, deeply humiliating. Both are island nations grappling with the weight of past glories, ageing demographics, high levels of national debt and a productivity puzzle that has defied a decade of technocratic tinkering. However, while Britain remains trapped in a cycle of managed decline, Takaichi’s Japan appears to have found an offramp.

Perhaps we could sponsor people too

Elon Musk says SpaceX will build a system to let anyone travel to the moon—here's the timeline

Pack your bags, you might go to the moon soon, not just any normal vacation. Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, has once again gone viral with his big vision for space travel.

On 10 February 2026, Musk announced that his company intends to build a system that would allow virtually anyone to journey to the Moon, showing a giant change in the way humans might access space.

Musk's announcement comes when space exploration is evolving super fast, with governments and private companies alike racing to make lunar and interplanetary travel a reality. According to Musk, the Moon is now a more practical first step than Mars because of its proximity and the frequency with which spacecraft can reach it.


If we could sponsor people to send to the moon, not thinking of anyone in particular, but someone willing to accept the donation of a smart spacesuit and new space goggles perhaps...

Mandate

Starmer loses another top aide but clings on – for now

In front of a packed meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Sir Keir also vowed that as long as he had “breath in my body” he would fight against Nigel Farage on behalf of the country, adding that he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in”.

He said: “After having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility to my country, or to plunge us into chaos as others have done.”

A chap is bound to wonder what Starmer's 'mandate' is supposed to be, but of course the answer is that the only mandate any of them recognise is to stay in power.

Yet a chap is also bound to wonder if silly political words such as 'mandate' have become useless verbal baggage, words which impress nobody. Or maybe they have evolved into a kind of mystical twaddle akin to astrology, climate dooming and celebrity lingo...

Hang on...

Have twaddle speakers adopted and covertly formalised the language Twaddlish as a signal of social superiority? As the advantages of an upper echelon accent fade away, perhaps Twaddlish has taken its place. 

Gosh, perhaps the mandate of state education is to promote Twaddlish.

Miller

The YT video which was the subject of this post has been deleted until it has been verified as accurate. At the moment this does not seem to be the case.

Please accept my apologies, as ever the rule is check, check, check.

AKH

To live a normal life again

‘To live a normal life again, it’s a dream come true’: UK’s first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma

Forty-odd residents of Clydach Terrace in Ynysybwl, south Wales, relieved by council buyout after years in fear of fast flooding...

Of the 18 houses on the street, only 6a and 6b – newer builds set back from the road, and up a slope – will remain. One woman living there said she would not be moving, but her son, a little further down the road, will be...


It took some chutzpah to work the notion of 'climate evacuees' into the headline of a story which could have been a more analytical example of the various natural, self-imposed and civil engineering challenges of flood defence. 

The Grauniad manages it but - 

In some ways, the street is uniquely unlucky. The classic mining community row of early 20th-century stone houses was built on a natural floodplain, and its narrowness means there is no room for flood waters to dissipate. Crucially, the terrace is in a basin, meaning that a rise of just a centimetre over the retaining wall can almost instantly turn into 2 metres of water, engulfing nearby houses within minutes.

Beyond the Sleaze II

A sobering Blackout News piece on signs that Germany is gradually losing its automotive industry, much of it through self-inflicted official incompetence. Sounds familiar and reminds me of the sharp increase in the number of Chinese cars I've seen on local roads in the last year or so.

AI translation from the original German.

Germany is losing the automotive industry – if production migrates, it will not come back

The decline of the German automotive industry does not come with sirens, but with briefcases. The findings are brutal: the automotive industry is losing its substance – and much faster than many believe. This is reflected in plant closures, insolvencies and cancelled development budgets. There is a point at which all whitewashing ends: once production has migrated, it usually does not come back. This is because tools, supply chains and routines disappear with production, while new locations build up know-how at the same time. To do this, the suppliers follow the manufacturers to the locations abroad.

For the automotive industry, energy costs, taxes and approval times are crucial. This shapes the cost structures at the respective location. Germany combines high energy prices with a high tax burden, while permits eat up time. At the same time, the infrastructure is crumbling in many places and this is driving additional costs into every calculation. As a result, even strong brands are losing pace and speed, even though demand continues to exist globally.

Beyond the Sleaze

It's telling how our local sleaze-fest tends to obscure all kinds of stories about events in the wider world. This one for instance, which may be more significant than we are allowed to know.

 
Behind Turkmenistan’s Neutrality, Quiet U.S. Military Ties Endure

In late January, U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor visited Turkmenistan. Accompanying Gor was U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll.

Driscoll’s presence in Turkmenistan, a country with a roughly 1,150-kilometer border with Iran, sparked some speculation that his visit was related to escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. But while it is unusual for any top foreign military officials to visit Turkmenistan, U.S. military officials have stopped by Turkmenistan relatively often over the course of the last 30 years...

Much about the U.S.-Turkmen military relationship remains unknown, save to a select few in those two countries, but it is clear these ties are enduring and important for Turkmenistan.

Potential New Labour Leader

Not a person I know much about, but surely Labour must have some decent MPs who could do the job.  One would do.

Mental Capers

PM 'acted in good faith' when appointing paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's friend Peter Mandelson, says cabinet minister

Pat McFadden said "the prime minister [has] acted in good faith" in terms of his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and called for him to return his payoff.

'Like ferrets in a sack': Labour at war as Starmer engulfed by Mandelson scandal

A Labour grandee has accused senior party figures of “acting like ferrets in a sack” as Keir Starmer faces his biggest crisis as prime minister over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Lord Blunkett pleaded with his colleagues to “get our act together” on another grim day for the PM.

Sons of sophistry and grandsons of cant, they had considered themselves capable of proving the greatest absurdities by the mental capers to which they had accustomed their acrobatic intellects.

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1916)

The Comfortable Road to Ruin

Paul Lindwall has a very interesting Quadrant piece on an Australian problem we also see here in the UK - the rise of comfortable generations, insufficiently tested by adversity.


The Comfortable Road to Ruin

Freya Leach’s article in the December Quadrant, “How Conservatives Can Win the Youth Vote”, argues that young Australians “may be the first generation in our nation’s history to be worse off than their parents”. It is a striking claim, and one that resonates deeply in an era of surging housing costs, stagnant productivity and pervasive anxiety about the future. Leach identifies genuine problems: delayed family formation, insecure work, declining educational standards and a fracturing tax-transfer system. These pressures are real and deserve serious attention.

But the conclusion drawn from them, that today’s young are materially worse off than earlier generations, is far less secure. It rests on a narrow reading of relative income and asset distribution while ignoring the extraordinary expansion of absolute living standards that now defines Australian life. The deeper danger facing young Australians is not material impoverishment, but something more insidious: the erosion of agency and resilience born of unprecedented comfort.

We are not producing a generation deprived of opportunity. We are producing a generation untested by it. And that is the true comfortable road to ruin.


It's a deep and subtle problem of human behaviour, not unfamiliar, but the whole piece is well worth reading as an issue which isn't raised often enough. It's a problem of what we are, a problem the usual political nostrums can't touch.


If the intergenerational contract is to be restored, it will require more than tax adjustments or housing supply reforms, though both are essential. It will require a cultural recovery of responsibility, resilience and the dignity of difficulty.

We must pass on not only wealth, but wisdom. And wisdom begins with expecting something of the young.

Australia still has time. Rome lingered for centuries after its virtues had decayed. The question is whether we choose renewal now, or whether we continue comfortably, complacently and confidently down the road to ruin.

When they give away what belongs to other people

There can be no doubt that at least one Chuzzlewit came over with William the Conqueror. It does not appear that this illustrious ancestor ‘came over’ that monarch, to employ the vulgar phrase, at any subsequent period; inasmuch as the Family do not seem to have been ever greatly distinguished by the possession of landed estate. And it is well known that for the bestowal of that kind of property upon his favourites, the liberality and gratitude of the Norman were as remarkable as those virtues are usually found to be in great men when they give away what belongs to other people.

Charles Dickens – Martin Chuzzlewit (1843 -1844)


But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Frédéric Bastiat - The Law (1850)

Yet it's much more than money, always was.

Keir Starmer cannot force a General Election

Barrister Steven Barrett explains why in his view, Keir Starmer cannot force a General Election.

Two Headlines

VW and Stellantis urge help to keep carmaking in Europe

Europe’s largest carmakers Volkswagen and Stellantis have called for subsidies to keep carmaking in the EU as they struggle with challenges from US tariffs to Chinese competition, in an article published Thursday.

Electric cars largely made within the bloc should benefit from subsidies for buyers, orders from government as well as a “CO2 bonus” paid directly to carmakers, VW boss Oliver Blume and Stellantis chief Antonio Filosa said.


Four further Chinese car brands announced in the UK

UK car buyers have had to get used to a lot of new brands over the past few years. The introduction of these launches are met with increasing consumer enthusiasm, too.

BYD, for example (which quickly took my advice to stick with BYD and not plaster Build Your Dreams across the back of every car) sold 51,422 cars in the UK last year – giving them a 2.5 per cent share of the market. That’s more than Citroen, Cupra, Dacia, Honda, Mazda and a host of other established brands.

Don’t like Keir Starmer? Just see what comes next

Joseph Dinnage has a nicely depressing CAPX piece on the D-Team queuing up to take Keir Starmer's place. The title says it all, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a powerful antidote to cheerfulness.


Don’t like Keir Starmer? Just see what comes next

• After years of socialism under Miliband or Rayner, Britons will be screaming for fiscal conservatism
• If the Prime Minister resigns, who will win the race for economic credibility?
• As the public reckon with yet more spending and taxation, the more attuned they'll be to economic reality

Keir Starmer’s hands were shaking as he stood at the despatch box at this week’s PMQs, and who can blame him? Starmer knows the scandal over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States could be his last as Prime Minister...

So when Starmer’s time comes, who might succeed him, and what could this mean for those of us forced to suffer their reign?

The bookies have Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting and Ed Miliband as the most likely to take over.

Oh well - Mrs H and I are off out for a coffee. Possibly a cake too as these are wild times.

Who will win the race for economic credibility? One thing is certain: if Starmer resigns over his former ambassador’s questionable ties, the chances are that whomever takes over will be even worse. And as the public reckon with the misery of a socialist economy, the more attuned they’ll become to the realities of regulatory creep, high taxation and unaffordable public spending. Any party with the guts to stand for the opposite will be on to a winner.

Practical Socialism

Humiliation for Starmer as Labour MP admits shoplifting increased 13% under his Government

Labour is under increasing pressure to address the stark rise in shoplifting offences.

Labour has admitted there has been a large increase in shoplifting offences under its own rule. Earlier this year, Conservative MP Wendy Morton asked the Home Office what steps it is taking to support police forces in tackling shoplifting and retail crime. In her response, Labour MP Sarah Jones admitted that shoplifting incidents increased by 13% from 2024 to 2025 and charges for shop theft rose by 25%.

Headbangers

Olympian-Level Dumb: WashPost Cries Climate Change Making ‘Winter Olympics Harder to Host’

Is it possible just to enjoy a long-cherished international sports tradition without injecting climate scareporn into the mix? Apparently not so for the Gaia-worshipping sub-optimal intellects at The Washington Post.


Andrew made staff want to ‘bash their heads against their desks’

The disgraced former prince has maintained his daily routine despite the damning recent drop of Epstein Files.

The recent behaviour of disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has made his staff want to "whack their heads on the desk", it has been reported. The former royal has maintained his daily routine, which includes riding his horse and waving to photographers and members of the public, despite revelations from the latest drop of the Epstein files.

Suspicious

From Babylon Bee, made me chuckle on a cold, wet and grey day here in Derbyshire.


Suspicious: Voter ID Bill Defeated In Senate By Vote Of 7 Million To 53

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Suspicions arose in Congress after a bill to require voter ID failed in the Senate by a vote of 7 million to 53.

Several Senators expressed skepticism about the legitimacy of the vote, noting that there are only 100 Senators and thus the total number of votes exceeded the number of Senators by several million.

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

 

Incompetent Voters

Suppose we take a look at current UK Political Polls - Westminster Voting Intention taken from here. 

The competence of over half of the parties should be known to any voter who pays attention to these things - that is to say, Labour, Conservative Lib Dems and SNP. Yet on past performance we might plausibly suggest that all of these parties are known to be incompetent.

There are lots of caveats here, but add in Greens who base their appeal on an incompetent ideology and we might go on to suggest that about two thirds of voters seem to be politically incompetent. 

This is not a suggestion that voters should support Reform, more a case of noting that far too many voters give their vote to parties with a history of political incompetence.  

Says Starmer

Britain should talk itself up more, says Starmer on return from China

Britain needs to be better at talking itself up, Sir Keir Starmer said as he returned from leading a trade delegation to China.

Reflecting on his four-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai, the Prime Minister said the 54-strong business delegation had “a real sense of can-do” and a willingness to seize the opportunities China presents.

He told reporters on his flight from Shanghai: “They’re real glass half-full people and they see the opportunity.


A remarkable man, he doesn't appear to listen to anyone, even himself.

"Sir" Keir Starmer heads a government more interested in banning, censoring, regulating, legislating, restricting, supervising, controlling, procrastinating, finger-pointing, point-scoring, delaying, auditing, distracting, evading, postponing and misleading.

The glass is empty.

Or stolen.

What we need is prevention

After Berlin blackout - Kemfert calls for emergency power obligation for new buildings

The Berlin power outage affected around 45,000 households in winter. Claudia Kemfert, energy economist and head of the Energy, Transport, Environment Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), draws a clear conclusion from this: emergency power should become mandatory for new buildings. From their point of view, it is not so much the networks that fail as the preparation for an emergency. That is why she is calling for binding rules to cushion defaults in the future.

Kemfert says clearly: "What we need is prevention". Germany often only reacts when damage is visible, and that is exactly what gives crises too much space. In addition, the blackout shows that crisis routines are rarely practiced. This increases the risk that a local outage will spread quickly.


Ed Milivolt is likely to be paying attention to this wizard eco-argument - "it is not so much the networks that fail as the preparation for an emergency."

Sounds as if solar panels, a heat pump and a standby generator or a big battery could eventually become the minimum level of equipment for new buildings in Germany. Presumably further afield too - all new houses perhaps.

"What we need is prevention." Something like that, yes.

A failure of ambition

Damien Phillips has an interesting Centre Write piece on the failures of independent UK space programmes, why the ESA is not a solution and why it matters. Well worth reading.


Could Britain still become a space empire?

In 1971, the United Kingdom became the third-ever nation to put a satellite into space using one of its own rockets. The success of Prospero, and the Black Arrow rocket programme which put it into orbit, seemed to place Britain at the cutting edge of the last and greatest scientific and industrial frontier.

But, even if you’ve never heard of Prospero before, you know how this story ends. The UK has never since put another satellite in space under its own power, preferring the cheaper short-term expedient of depending on foreign third-party launchers.

We can already count the cost of this failure of ambition, and it’s only going to get steeper. In 2023, the space sector was already worth $630 billion globally; by 2035, that value is forecast to increase to $1.8 trillion, a rise significantly larger than in proportion to the global GDP.

Retirement Do

 

Whenever he is photographed shaking the hand of another leader, Keir Starmer always manages to look like a deputy office manager shaking the hand of the CEO at his lacklustre retirement presentation. 

Reliable

Starmer's China trip provides exquisite optics for the 'world's most reliable superpower'

Let's be frank, in China the UK is not seen as a particularly big or important player

The optics of the British prime minister being here, revamping this relationship, at exactly the moment that Donald Trump is seriously disrupting traditional transatlantic partnerships, is exquisite for the Chinese.

Indeed, under President Xi, China has long nurtured the narrative that it is, in fact, the world's most reliable superpower, that countries should look to it, and not the US, for stable global leadership.


Reliable in some ways of course -

Xi's military purge claims biggest victim as he removes China's top general amid Taiwan uncertainty

President Xi has achieved total control of China's armed forces after removing a top general over alleged 'violations of discipline and law'.

Zhang Youxia is the latest high-ranking figure subjected to Xi Jinping's long-running purge of military officials.

Drivelism

The drivelisation of our culture is an interesting aspect but too complex for a single blog post, especially when we take in drivelist politics, drivelist bureaucracy and the general trend of global drivelism.

Suppose we give it a go though and take a moment to reflect on the possibility that the BBC could more accurately have been named BDC, the British Drivelcasting Corporation. Similarly in 1955, ITV could have been IDV, Independent Drivelvision.

So many words and phrases have drivelised, thus contributing to the political rise of Drivelism and Drivelist ideas and policies. We now have drivelised words and terms such as democracy, voting, racist, human rights, welfare, economy, xenophobia, far-right, left-wing, socialism, socialist, liberal, green, environmentalist, carbon, fairness, equality, carbon, climate, sustainable, fascist, extreme, expert, science, clean, recycle, responsible, gender, catastrophic, holistic, community, pledge, promise, bombshell, jaw-dropping, risk, survey, study, unprecedented, fight, critical, literally and many more.

We also have drivelised words such as ‘decimate’, ‘fact’ and ‘proof’ where historically interesting or useful meanings have been drivelised into vague and almost worthless possibilities.

Or we have two common related phrases which are not strictly drivelised because they seem to have evolved within Drivelism for strictly Drivelist purposes. These are the phrases ‘the science says’ and ‘science says’.

It’s literally unprecedented.

A Boil upon the face of society

Always something in the nature of a Boil upon the face of society, Mr. Honeythunder expanded into an inflammatory Wen in Minor Canon Corner. Though it was not literally true, as was facetiously charged against him by public unbelievers, that he called aloud to his fellow-creatures: “Curse your souls and bodies, come here and be blessed!” still his philanthropy was of that gunpowderous sort that the difference between it and animosity was hard to determine.

Charles Dickens – The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)


Strangely enough there is still a curious lack of difference between malice and the loudly intransigent  virtue-signalling of Mr. Honeythunder. Accept the saintly virtue of the climate narrative or be cursed forever is the kind of thing we have to endure today.

We don’t know what happened to Mr. Honeythunder because Dickens died before the novel was finished, but no doubt he would have encountered Nemesis towards the end of the novel. Doesn’t end like that today.

A more 'sophisticated' relationship

Xi Jinping tells Starmer he prefers Labour governments as 'kowtowing' PM pitches for trade in China

Keir Starmer made his pitch to 'vital' China today as Xi Jinping suggested the Communist state prefers Labour governments.

The PM held two hours of talks with the autocratic president in Beijing in the early hours of this morning, insisting he wants a more 'sophisticated' relationship.

 

How to eat toast

 

Two Headlines

PM lands in Beijing after China trip will make UK richer and safer

Sir Keir Starmer has landed in China for a controversial three-day visit, which he has claimed will make the UK safer and richer – despite stark concerns over the threat the country poses to Britain’s national security.


England’s most deprived areas to get worse by next election, report for No 10 finds

Exclusive: the 613 most deprived areas will see higher crime rates and worse unemployment under current funding schemes, report says

What is evil?

 

What then is good? The knowledge of things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things.

Seneca - Epistulae morales ad Lucilium c. 65 AD

Today this could be taken as an ancient comment on censorship and free speech. Dwell on it for too long though - so many hares start running.  

Suppose we take just one big, slow and increasingly arthritic hare which is barely able to run anywhere. Net Zero is obvious nonsense and telling us otherwise, trying to suppress knowledge of its weaknesses is what? 

Evil? Why not?

Inconvenient Failures

Kevin Killough has a useful Just the News reminder of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" and the catalogue of failed predictions mainstream media and activist politicians prefer to forget. 

Well worth reading, as here in the UK we are still stuck with Ed Miliband.

 
Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ turns 20, and critics say biggest disaster is its failed predictions

Twenty years ago "An Inconvenient Truth" received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival. Though it was full of predictions that never came to pass, it was a key catalyst of the climate activist movement...

Predictions of cataclysm stemming from climate change regularly get reported in the media, but there’s little reporting when the predictions fail. In 2022, NBC News was one of many outlets reporting that California and the American West were in the midst of a “megadrought,” which was the worst the region had seen in over 1,000 years.

Earlier this month, NBC reported that California is drought free for the first time in 25 years. The article makes no mention of the previously predicted “megadrought,” nor does it mention climate change.

The Gruesome Twosome

Miliband and Jørgensen: Clean energy is Europe’s only route to security and prosperity

Ed Miliband is the U.K. energy secretary and Dan Jørgensen is the EU commissioner for energy.

The world has entered an era of greater uncertainty and instability than at any other point in either of our lifetimes, and energy is now central to this volatile age we find ourselves in.

In recent years, both Britain and Europe have paid a heavy price for our exposure to the roller coaster of international fossil fuel markets. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent global gas prices soaring — driving up bills for families and businesses across the continent and leading to the worst cost-of-living crisis our countries have faced in a generation.


This is one of the problems with Keir Starmer's shaky grip on No. 10, Ed Miliband could replace him and his grip on reality is even shakier.

A certain class of dishonesty

Is humanity doomed? Doomsday Clock will be updated tomorrow to determine our fate

Is humanity doomed? We're about to find out – as scientists prepare to update the Doomsday Clock tomorrow.

The new time for the symbolic timepiece, which ticks closer to midnight as we approach annihilation, will be revealed at 15:00 GMT on 27 January.

Since last year, the clock has sat at 89 seconds to midnight – the latest time in its 78–year history.

However, ahead of tomorrow's grand reveal, experts have predicted the Doomsday Clock will move even closer to midnight.


A certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable.

Anthony Trollope - The Way We Live Now (1875)

Labour rebels accuse Starmer of stitch-up

Labour rebels accuse Starmer of stitch-up over Andy Burnham: Latest

Labour rebels have accused Sir Keir Starmer and his allies of a “stitch-up” after Andy Burnham was blocked from running as an MP in the upcoming Gorton and Denoton by-election.

A letter circulated among backbenchers called for the National Executive Committee to “reevaluate” their decision, and said that losing the seat in a contest with Reform UK would be “unimaginable”.

A revealing aspect of the Starmer/Burnham debacle is the underlying rationale which claims that Burnham is a better actor than Starmer. He's more likeable too claims the covert narrative, better at delivering the lines, less wooden, more able to inject conviction into the usual flaccid nonsense and evasion he'd have to emit.

Not so much a more capable Prime Minister than Starmer, providing more competent political oversight of the government machine. This is tacitly assumed to be sort of, perhaps, kind of important to some picky punters, but far more important is that Burnham is seen as a more capable actor.

That's it.