Sounds like a bonus

Reform would set Wales back decades, says Plaid Cymru leader

A REFORM government would set Wales back decades, the leader of Plaid Cymru has told his party conference.

Speaking at the International Convention Centre in Newport on Friday, Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Senedd election in May will be a choice between Plaid and Reform.

For the whole of the UK, going back a few decades could be seen as a bonus.

Just hold your noses

...then allow us to hold them for you.

Just hold your noses and vote Labour... Anas Sarwar in desperate plea to voters

A desperate Anas Sarwar has begged angry voters to ‘hold their nose’ and back Labour at Holyrood despite another disaster for Keir Starmer.

The Scottish Labour leader admitted there was ‘a deep unpopularity with the UK Labour government’ but claimed there was no ‘automatic read across’ to May’s election.

He said: ‘I get people’s frustration. I get people’s anger. But this is our best chance, perhaps our only chance, to end SNP rule.

‘So, whether you do it with enthusiasm, whether you do it with anger, or if you do it by holding your nose, let’s come together and back the only party that can get rid of this incompetent SNP government.’


I do not hold that the political and social system that creates an aristocracy of leisure is the best possible kind of human organization; I perceive its disadvantages clearly enough. But I do hold that a system under which most important public trusts, political and professional, civil and military ecclesiastical and secular, are held by educated men — that is, men of trained faculties and disciplined judgment — is not an altogether faulty system.

Ambrose Bierce - The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays (1909)

Hot Renault

 

The gold-rush mood is over

The gold-rush mood is over: solar and wind farms are becoming a loss business

In Germany, the gold-rush atmosphere for solar and wind farms has been over since 2025. Falling electricity prices are depressing revenues, while interest rates and construction costs are rising. At the same time, long grid connection waiting times slow down projects, which is why budgets and schedules are shifting. In addition, a draft bill to amend the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) is causing unrest because new plants are no longer to receive compensation in the event of curtailments due to grid overload and could thus become a loss (handelsblatt: 20.02.26).

Gold rush mood ends in cost shock – solar parks hardly pay off anymore

The industry came from years of high profits, but the calculation is now tipping quickly. A few years ago, the LCOE (Levelized Costs of Electricity) – i.e. the total electricity generation costs of a plant over its lifetime – were 3.5 to four cents per kilowatt hour. Developers are currently reporting five cents and more, while the revenue side is not keeping pace. The EEG remuneration for large photovoltaic parks was 5.23 cents in 2025, and direct electricity supply contracts are also significantly lower in some cases, according to Eneritis. This means that new investments quickly become negative business.

It's a dilemma for Ed Miliband, as even he must take note of what is happening elsewhere in the world. For example we have this from the same source -


China to connect 52 new coal-fired power plants to the grid – largest expansion in a decade in 2025

China pushed ahead with the expansion of coal-fired power in 2025 and commissioned 52 large units (≥1 GW each). This is shown by the CREA/Global Energy Monitor report. It is the highest figure in ten years, in which fewer than 20 such large units were connected to the grid. The trigger was the power shortages in 2021 and 2022, when factories had to cut production and a city introduced rolling shutdowns. Beijing therefore took advantage of security of supply through the massive expansion of coal-fired power plants. The consequences range from more stable industrial electricity to higher climate risks, because new coal-fired units later achieve long service lives.

Starmer Vows Again

Starmer vows not to quit after Labour humiliated by Green victory

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “keep fighting” following a major blow to his premiership after Labour were defeated by the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

The prime minister said the loss was “very disappointing” but insisted he understood voters are “frustrated” and “impatient for change”.

It comes after Angela Rayner said Labour’s defeat must be a “wake up call” for the party as she called for a “braver” approach to politics.


Hmm - it must be time for another dose of Hippolyte Taine.


Most of them are mere politicians, charlatans, and intriguers, third-class lawyers and doctors, literary failures, semi-educated stump-speakers, bar-room, club, or clique orators, and vulgar climbers.

Left behind in private careers, in which one is closely watched and accepted for what he is worth, they launch out on a public career because, in this business, popular suffrage at once ignorant, indifferent, is a badly informed, prejudiced and passionate judge and prefers a moralist of easy conscience, instead of demanding unsullied integrity and proven competency.

Nothing more is demanded from candidates but witty speech-making, assertiveness and showing off in public, gross flattery, a display of enthusiasm and promises to place the power about to be conferred on them by the people in the hands of those who will serve its antipathies and prejudices.

Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)

Rodney sets a tough target

PM urges voters to reject 'toxic' politics as by-election polls open

Sir Keir Starmer has made a final desperate plea to voters in Gorton and Denton, urging them to turn against “toxic” politics and make a choice between “unity or division” in a crucial by-election which experts believe could herald a new era of British politics.

With the vote expected to be a major test of his leadership, the prime minister made a last-ditch attempt to persuade voters to back his party. Ahead of the vote, Labour appeared to be neck and neck with the Greens and Reform in a fight to win the Greater Manchester seat, with any of the three parties in with a chance of winning.

Blimey, no doubt it is just possible to be more divisive than Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, but Gorton and Denton polling suggests he has set a tough target.

Reeves Tries Irony

Andrew must repay any misused taxpayer money, says Reeves

Chancellor says she has never met the former Duke of York and it is 'probably for the best'

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should repay money to the public purse if he is found to have misused taxpayers’ funds, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told The i Paper.

Reeves also said she was glad she had never met Mountbatten-Windsor, who was described by one government minister on Tuesday as “rude, arrogant and entitled”.

Blimey...

Net Zero...

Nope, the list is a long one and we are off out for coffee.

What voters are thinking

‘We’ve already given up on Labour’: What voters are thinking in key by-election

Sipping a cup of tea at Colin’s Cafe in Longsight Market, John Hanrahan believes only a fraction of those perusing the stalls will have heard that Labour’s former US ambassador Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday...

“I don’t give a toss, they should be sorting out the problems that were all now in.

“You [journalists] write about crap, you don’t write about anything that you should be writing about.


Journalists write about crap? Surely not.


Coronation Street star criticises soap’s ‘crime-heavy’ storylines

Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews, who left the show last year, has hit out at the ITV soap for focusing on crime plots.

Gorton & Denton Need The Green Party

 

Sometimes it's better never than late

Energy giants unite for job-creating Humber hydrogen network

National Gas, Centrica, Equinor and SSE Thermal have joined forces to bid for £500m government funding to develop the UK's first integrated hydrogen network in the region

Together, the major employers argue that nowhere else in Britain can rival the infrastructure, expertise and location required to establish the network. They maintain that by supporting the regional proposal the Government will be able to advance its broader industrial decarbonisation strategy, enhance competitiveness, and generate substantial numbers of jobs.


Radical alternate EV tech faltering: Toyota and Honda's hydrogen projects stuttering as alternative electric technology suffers sales smashing in overseas

Nikkei Asia has reported annual sales of hydrogen vehicles decreased by more than 80 per cent since 2021, with the supporting infrastructure available also decreasing...

These stuttering sales numbers are causing major players to retreat in their hydrogen plans, including Stallantis that discontinued development citing "no prospects of mid-term economic sustainability."

Honda and General Motors have also severed ties on their hydrogen joint-venture, which has been running since 2013 and included production of the CR-V e:FCEV.

Transnational, rootless, cosmopolitan ideologies

FSB has an interesting piece on Dr James Orr, Reform UK head of policy. Well worth reading.

The Philosopher King of Reform: James Orr and the Intellectual Reboot of British Populism

When Nigel Farage unveiled Reform UK’s shadow cabinet on 18 February 2026, one much overlooked appointment stood out to me for its intellectual heft and potential to reshape the party’s trajectory: Dr James Tristan Ward Orr, associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, was named head of policy, succeeding Zia Yusuf. Farage’s choice of a 47-year-old theologian-philosopher with deep ties to the American ‘New Right’ signals an ambition to move Reform beyond headline-grabbing protest politics towards a more coherent, governance-ready programme...

Domestically, Orr has become a leading voice in Britain’s national conservative movement. He frames Britain’s multiple crises of stagnant productivity, soaring debt, social breakdown, institutional decay as fundamentally spiritual. In interviews he speaks of “transnational, rootless, cosmopolitan ideologies” that repudiate national spirit and collective endeavour. Multiculturalism, he argues, has been a “disastrous experiment” turning Britain into “a laboratory for hyper-liberalism” where English culture is under threat and assimilation has failed at unprecedented scale. “This new nation that’s emerging is really no nation at all,” he told PoliticsHome.

On immigration he is uncompromising. He has spoken of “vast swathes of London where you can’t send your kids to school because English is just not spoken anymore” and “the mass rape of England’s daughters by rapist foreigners from morally backward cultures”. Asylum seekers have been described by him in terms critics – BBC types - call inflammatory; he has praised protesters against a new mosque in the Lake District as “heroes”. Diversity, in his view, is a “debilitating weakness”.

To ensure that news is reported accurately

Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ to be regulated by Ofcom in UK

Streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ will be required to follow similar Ofcom rules to traditional broadcasters under new legislation being implemented.

The UK’s biggest video-on-demand services, those with more than 500,000 UK users, will be brought under “enhanced regulation” by the watchdog...

The regulations include an exemption for VoD services provided by the BBC, such as BBC iPlayer, as these services will continue to be regulated under the Broadcasting Code via the BBC Framework Agreement for the time being...

The new legislation aims to ensure that news is reported accurately and impartially and audiences are protected against “harmful or offensive” material.

No doubt this will be the level of accuracy expected for news stories about climate change, sustainable energy, wind farms, solar farms, EVs, heat pumps, recycling, pollution, weather statistics, flooding, immigration, housing, crime, education, health, the NHS and claims made daily by prominent politicians.

 

Disturbing the peace on Rannoch Moor

A touch of nostalgia - and maybe something else not so easily defined.

A quasi-religious belief in government power

Eliot Wilson has a useful Critic piece on what he calls Keir Starmer's quasi-religious belief in government power. 


Labour is trapped in a statist doom-loop

Keir Starmer has a quasi-religious belief in government power

Sometimes politicians are required to say preposterous things. One of the most obviously outlandish arguments recently came when Sir Keir Starmer spoke from outside 10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister. He lacks Sir Tony Blair’s eye for the dramatic flourish, the impromptu lyricism of 1 May 1997: “A new dawn has broken, has it not? Isn’t it wonderful?”

The words Starmer did find were dramatic in their implausibility. He promised “to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives”. Anyone who has been awake for the last 20 months will know how little of that has come to pass — service and respect are on extended sick leave, while noisy performance would at least be better than muffled stasis — but it was the pledge to “tread more lightly on your lives” that caused eyebrows to raise and jaws to drop.

This has never been how “progressive” politics works. In 1889’s Fabian Essays in Socialism, Sidney Webb, co-founder of the London School of Economics, from whose pen had flowed the old, long-cherished Clause IV of the Labour Party Rule Book, had seen the future. He foresaw the “unconscious abandonment of the old Individualism, and our irresistible glide into collective Socialism”.


The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another reminder that the UK Labour Party reached the end of the Fabian line years ago. There is nowhere else to take Labour ideology beyond a totalitarian cul-de-sac, the route Starmer is currently following one step at a time. That too is the gradualist, Fabian way.

Change is coming, because our current model is so clearly unsustainable. I suspect there could be some first-mover advantage for a politician who was willing to set out some unvarnished and uncomfortable truths about Britain, but who also had plausible, considered, ambitious and optimistic plans about how we can not rewire but remake and reimagine the nation.

It becomes more and more obvious by the day that Sir Keir Starmer is not that kind of catalyst or visionary; but the Labour Party is not intellectually ready to produce and support such a figure. It is stuck in a statist doom loop, haunted by questions but unable to produce any answer except more government.

The past has yet to be decided

N. Korea touts 'new strategy' at party congress

 

According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, leader Kim Jong Un continued delivering the Workers' Party Central Committee's work report for a second day during proceedings held Friday.

The report said a "new struggle strategy corresponding to the soaring confidence of the state and the people" was announced, along with sector-by-sector goals and implementation tasks. However, no specifics were made public.

That's a chilling photo - barely a single molecule out of place.

"However, no specifics were made public." Of course not, the past has yet to be decided.

Failed Green Scheme

Extra £500m of taxpayers' money to be poured into fraud-hit green homes scheme

Thousands of families are dealing with problems including damp, mould and faulty heating systems due to poor workmanship carried out by ECO4 installers

Almost £500m in taxpayer funding is being quietly pumped into a failed green scheme linked to fraud and shoddy workmanship...

At least £165m is believed to have been fraudulently claimed by cowboy firms under ECO4, which has provided grants for insulation, heat pumps and solar panels since 2022.

The i Paper has revealed how companies were able to milk money out of the scheme by forging signatures and lying on forms.

Companies as far away as Pakistan were able to sign off on building projects under the system, which has been criticisied [sic] for its lack of regulatory oversight.

What does a chap say about this? It's not even mildly surprising, we've known about the potential for damp and mould problems for years.

Project Silica

Project Silica promises to store data in glass for millennia

• Writing a full 4.8TB glass disc takes more than 18 days — far too slow for daily operations
• Cheaper borosilicate glass reduces costs but cannot fix practical limitations
• Microsoft’s statement signals closure rather than a commitment to future development

Microsoft has offered a fresh update on Project Silica, its long-running effort to store digital information inside glass plates for centuries.


Not a success apparently. It's an interesting idea, but we are bound to ask if we have much data worth storing for millennia. 

Rather than dwell on the worthwhile data, it is much easier to think of data which isn't worth storing for millennia. For example.

A speech by Keir Starmer.
Details of Net Zero projects.
TV programmes.
A selection of jokes.

Copies of the Guardian.

We're drowning in it.

Why AOC Was at Munich

Victor Davis Hanson on why AOC was at the Munich Security Conference. 

Both entertaining and interesting, but let us hope AOC remains entertaining and nothing more. 

Not as remote as some people think

Lib Dems would back removal of Andrew from line of succession, says Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey said it would be ‘intolerable’ for Andrew to succeed to the throne.

Liberal Democrats would support legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, party leader Sir Ed Davey has said.

Sir Ed said it would be “intolerable” for Andrew to succeed to the throne, saying this scenario is “not as remote as some people think”.

The Government has pledged to consider removing the former Duke of York from the monarchy’s line of succession.


The phrase "not as remote as some people think" suggests that Ed Davey is trying to climb on a political bandwagon and promote himself as a prudent, far-sighted statesman at the same time, carefully surveying all the constitutional risks. 

Ed is scanning the constitutional horizon we might sarcastically suggest - but merely as a blatant opportunity to bring in another Horizon. 

May as well take an opportunity to be sarcastic I reckon. He's an unpleasantly shameless political operator.

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".