Paying bureaucrats to define marmalade

Marmalade may need to be relabelled as part of post-Brexit deal

Marmalade may need to be relabelled if a post-Brexit food deal is a agreed with the European Union as part of the government’s attempt to slash red tape and reduce trade friction with the bloc.

The spread will need to be sold as “citrus marmalade” if the agreement - which would see Britain readopt EU food regulations to boost trade - goes ahead.

The name change would reportedly be required because the EU is relaxing its labelling rules to widen the legal definition of marmalade across Europe.


We're used to this of course, it's just one of an uncountable number of EU petty bureaucracy stories we've been treated to over the years.

Oh well, it's worth reminding ourselves that there are bureaucrats paid to perform excitingly vital tasks such as relaxing the legal definition of marmalade. After previous bureaucrats were paid to make it tight of course. 

Yet it would surprise nobody at all if the relaxed legal definition has to be tightened again when a marmalade scandal erupts. The Tight Marmaladians could yet win.

Relaxing the marmalade definition doesn't quite put the Artemis II project in the shade, but it seems to be closer to the kind of adventure Keir Starmer favours. I bet he's a closet Tight Marmaladian though.

Dyson on Miliband's destruction of our energy assets

Sir James Dyson accuses Rachel Reeves of 'revenge economics' with taxes on farms and delays in North Sea gas drilling damaging nation and its security

So far, Sir Keir Starmer has declined to comment publicly on the debate over expanding North Sea operations.

Sir James described this as ‘folly.’

He said: 'As President Trump likes to remind us, the US has its own energy so can survive without the Strait of Hormuz being open, while Britain, under Ed Miliband's perverse destruction of our energy assets, cannot.'

It's far worse than perverse of course, it's hopelessly deranged as the consequences have been obvious for such a long time. Evil too - that's in the Miliband mix.

The Helen Keller story doesn't add up

Below is an interesting video on why the Helen Keller story could reasonably be classed as dubious. It doesn't add up as the video title says.

Also interesting is that Wikipedia gives no real hint that there are good reasons to doubt the validity of the Helen Keller story while Grokipedia gives those doubts reasonable coverage. 

 

Something none of us believe

M&S boss issues stark warning over worsening crime

Retail director Thinus Keeve has demanded action after groups of young people wreaked havoc in south London over the past week...

He also questioned claims that crime rates are falling in the capital.

He said: "I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London - something none of us believe, and very few people working in retail would see."

It's the problem with politically important statistics, to believe them is to invite deception. 

Sadiq Khan warns Londoners

Vote Labour or risk Farage, warns Sadiq Khan as party launches London elections campaign amid dire approval ratings

The Mayor launched Labour’s London local elections campaign in Peckham after poll showing party could lose all but two of its councils

Sadiq Khan has warned Londoners that backing smaller parties at the local elections could pave the way for Nigel Farage to become prime minister, as Labour faces a difficult set of polls.

The Mayor of London launched Labour’s local election campaign in Peckham on Thursday.

Calm down Sadiq, these are council elections, not the general election. 

He knows this of course, but once Labour strategic "thinkers" have decided to demonise someone for political advantage then that's it - they demonise away like crazy.

Fortunately Labour spin doctors stopped short of claiming a Labour vote would help keep Donald Trump out of No.10 but I bet it was a closely fought argument.

     

The fashionably feckless vote

An interesting video, Charlotte Gill on the Green Party way to hoover up fashionably feckless voters.

 

Handing over the managed decline of the UK

Starmer signals need for closer ties with EU in light of Iran oil crisis 'storm'

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour’s manifesto red lines on closer relations with Europe remain, as he signalled the Government will seek stronger ties with the EU in light of the Iran war’s global impact.

The Prime Minister said the “volatile” international situation caused by the US-Israeli conflict with Tehran meant Britain’s “long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union”.


Keir Starmer hardly needs to spell it out. He would deny it of course, but all we can read is his behaviour and that is clear enough - the managed decline of the UK is something he is prepared to hand over to the EU.

UK ruling elites have experience of managed decline but the EU has more. The Iran conflict is merely an opportunity to hand over the incompetence too. Another area where the EU has bags of experience.

Drowning in communities

Henry Clifford has a very useful Centre Write piece on the common but misleading political use of the word 'community.' Not an unfamiliar source of mendacity, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that it is a very common one.

Most “communities” are empty categories

We are drowning in communities. Gay community, Muslim community, international community, business community.

Yet, we feel increasingly isolated. Forty-four percent of Britons say they sometimes feel like “strangers in their own country,” and 50% feel “disconnected from society around them.” Indeed, these “communities” seem to be sources of opposition and division rather than connection. After losing the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwin took to X to proclaim, “We are losing our country” to a “dangerous Muslim sectarianism.” Battles over the place of the “trans community” within society have likewise become incredibly divisive. While public figures like JK Rowling have faced death threats and boycotts over their views on the topic, trans people themselves have been increasingly suffering too — according to the Home Office, in 2014/15, 607 recorded hate crimes were motivated by trans identity. By 2024/25, that figure had risen to 4,120.

Community ought to be the bedrock of our society, the things which bind us to one another. Why then are individuals isolated and “communities” in conflict?

A large part of the trouble stems from a wrong, and statist, view of what ‘community’ means.

Community, properly conceived, is formed from the concrete connections between individuals — not from shared characteristics. Communities are existing networks, not downstream from categories, but groups of real connections.

I've Got Two Legs

Clarity, consistency and continuous learning

Mark Barry has an interesting TechRadar piece about shifts in online marketing due to searches producing AI‑generated overviews before lists of links. Interesting because it is something we see ourselves and also has implications about what we might call incompetent political marketing. 

The whole piece is well worth reading.


AI‑first browsers and the end of the pageview economy

With 60% of searches now ending without a click thanks to AI‑generated overviews, even established brands are disappearing from view at the point of discovery.

Many large business software and services companies are already seeing search‑driven visits fall sharply, even as revenue and product usage continue to grow, forcing a rethink of how demand is created, captured and measured.

This marks a fundamental shift because for years, the browser was the reliable cornerstone of digital marketing. Chrome and Safari became the dominant gateways to the web, and most playbooks assumed a predictable path: search, click, website, conversion...

With switching easier than ever and clicks falling, buying more attention quickly becomes expensive and does not always translate into outcomes. The teams that will win are not those that buy more reach, but those that design for clarity, consistency and continuous learning.


Political marketing may be somewhat different, but to take one topical example, the UK Labour Party is a political brand. Even its most loyal supporters would probably not praise it for marketing itself with clarity, consistency and continuous learning.

Loyal supporters might not chose to see their party in this way, but the comparison is interesting and the incompetent marketing unmissable.