Best Of

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Has this been covered: https://slate.com/culture/2025/08/royal-family-harry-meghan-william-andrew-entitled-book.html

Her takeaway that the British would demand the end of the monarchy if the whole story about him and Epstein was revealed is bollocks though - everyone knows he’s a bad un and clearly people like the POW and Mrs POW and generally know there is no love lost between Andrew and William.

P Andrew is a gigantic arsehole though and his sense of entitlement seems to similarly inhabit the pea sized brain of Harry too.

Indeed: the allegations in the book are really ... not good ...

He had 40 women brought to his hotel room in Thailand over a five-day visit. Aged 26, he had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed, one of which wore a vest that read “It’s tough being a prince.” He missed his daughter’s 12th birthday party to hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He ran up a bill of £325,000 on helicopters and planes in 2005 alone. He let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present of a bugged MacBook Pro from an attractive woman who turned out to be a Russian spy; he later tried to get himself a free Fabergé egg on an official Kremlin tour. In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom, he earned, in the diplomatic community, the nickname “His Buffoon Highness” by refusing to follow his briefs and perhaps even read them in the first place. Once, driving his £80,000 Range Rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park, he found that the gates’ sensor was broken, so, rather than taking a 1-mile detour, he rammed them open, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.

The KGB are so overrated. Who on earth thought that Prince Andrew would know anything that was worth bugging his computer for?

Probably the same team at the KGB who were laughed at by colleagues for getting Kompromat on a crap real estate mogul from New York many years ago.

Pretty shocking opening to the World at One. The UN statement of famine in GAZA uninterrupted. First time ever outside Africa. I hope the Jails in the Hague have enough room.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hbkh

The World at One was remarkably well edited today. Simon Jack was excellent. The focus was very much on the famine in Gaza.

If Sarah Montague or Jonny Dimond had been presenting it would have been thirty minutes of wall to wall Lucy Connolly and asylum hotels, followed by fifteen minutes of some gurning interviews with Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson.

There was a young woman called Lucy
Whose thoughts upon migrants were juicy
One day she did spout
She let it all out
And suddenly needed a QC

Lucy on X clearly stated
Ethnics should be incinerated.
Though admitting her crime
Many thought her sublime,
And now by JD Vance she is feted.

Pretty shocking opening to the World at One. The UN statement of famine in GAZA uninterrupted. First time ever outside Africa. I hope the Jails in the Hague have enough room.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hbkh

The World at One was remarkably well edited today. Simon Jack was excellent. The focus was very much on the famine in Gaza.

If Sarah Montague or Jonny Dimond had been presenting it would have been thirty minutes of wall to wall Lucy Connolly and asylum hotels, followed by fifteen minutes of some gurning interviews with Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson.

There was a young woman called Lucy
Whose thoughts upon migrants were juicy
One day she did spout
She let it all out
And suddenly needed a QC

Good morning, everyone.

With the Conservatives exhausted & lacking credibility after years in government, and Labour apparently much the same after one year in government & years in Opposition, it's very likely indeed that vast numbers of voters will be looking towards parties on the fringe.


The next GE may be a spoiled ballot for me.

In which case, polling like this will become depressingly relevant;

Some people on the left have argued politics is destined to become 'blame the migrants vs blame the rich'.

Fair or not, this binary turns out to be a surprisingly useful question for dividing the country right down the middle!

Look at the generational splits, madness.



https://bsky.app/profile/steveakehurst.bsky.social/post/3lwwgjpn54c2t

Still, easier to do that than take responsibility ourselves.

Blaming people in this way is a stupid way to do politics.

I quite agree. It's simplistic, and a vindictive lens through which to view the world.

But it also has a great redeeming feature. When you blame The Other you exculpate yourself of any responsibility for the ills of the world while simultaneously attributing them to someone else. And then you can focus pointlessly attacking The Other and feeling morally superior about doing it, while the actual problems (and any solutions) remain unattended.

Good morning

I note the media are reporting wide scale flying of the union jack and the English flag as discontent with the established parties balloons, but I really did not expect to drive up Penrhyn Hill and over the Little Orme on my way into Llandudno this morning to find each and every lamp post between the carriageway on the way up adorned with the Welsh flag

It made me smile, but also has this started a movement of flag flying across the UK ?

Yes

I saw it in Norfolk, Cambs and Essex a couple of days ago, tho this was breathlessly disputed by others on here

It wasn’t on the scale you saw, but it was definitely noticeable

Once special interest groups with agendas start flying flags that belong to us all, the best strategy is to join in, overcoming bad intentions with good ones. Most Church of England churches fly St George's flag on special days, and have done for centuries. We don't often get mistaken for nazis or people keen on setting fire to migrant hostels. Nor do our mostly innocent and harmless football fans. 'Cry God for Harry, England women's football and rugby and St George' as Shakespeare neatly puts it.

With the Conservatives exhausted & lacking credibility after years in government, and Labour apparently much the same after one year in government & years in Opposition, it's very likely indeed that vast numbers of voters will be looking towards parties on the fringe.

The next GE may be a spoiled ballot for me.

The only thing that can save Labour is a change of leadership, losing Starmer. Then declare an amnesty for Corbyn and Sultana and get them back in the party. People didn't vote Labour for this Starmer/Reeves bland Toryism.

There's finally something in this country to rail against -the disgusting rise in the far right -yet there's no party doing it.

I think you're right. It can only be Labour with a non Tory leader but I wouldn't get excited about Corbyn. He's just a wrecker.

I don't think Corbyn or Sultana should be leader, but the party should have room for them (and Abbott) in a broader tent. Even Tony Blair recognised that.

Corbyn should be President or some other figurehead title. He is an exceptional speaker, cutting through to groups of people ignored and unreachable by other politicians. But he's no leader. Neither is Zarah Sultana. So they need someone with a bit of umph to come over.

Their problem is that they're obsessed with Palestine and they need to be obsessed with social justice instead.

Only Israeli apologists think that. Labour are at their best when they have a cause and there are few injustices ongoing that rank with the injustice being meted out to the Palestinians at the moment. It is a horror show in broad daylight.

And also the injustice being meted out to the Ukrainians is as bad, yet Corbyn has been a Russian apologist. You should be against all genocide and all wars of aggression.

One is a war on an army. The other a war on a civilian population. To blow up a building killing 118 people would have made the news all over the world if it happened in Ukraine. I doubt you've even heard of it thanks to the BBC not wanting to be thought prejudiced.

The Russians aim their missile attacks against civilian population areas, in Ukraine. Because that's how they do business.

The targeting of civilians in Ukraine was happening from day one. Complete with the usual trenches full of dead people with bound hands - the photographs that seem to be standard for every atrocity merchant, since photography got going.

We shouldn’t have to choose which offensive to condemn.

Too many here and elsewhere, particularly the edgelords of the left and right, seem to think that condemning one criminal enterprise requires one to downplay the other.

Both Putin and Netanyahu are committed to eliminating an entire national identity and the foundations of statehood.

With the Conservatives exhausted & lacking credibility after years in government, and Labour apparently much the same after one year in government & years in Opposition, it's very likely indeed that vast numbers of voters will be looking towards parties on the fringe.

The next GE may be a spoiled ballot for me.

The only thing that can save Labour is a change of leadership, losing Starmer. Then declare an amnesty for Corbyn and Sultana and get them back in the party. People didn't vote Labour for this Starmer/Reeves bland Toryism.

There's finally something in this country to rail against -the disgusting rise in the far right -yet there's no party doing it.

I think you're right. It can only be Labour with a non Tory leader but I wouldn't get excited about Corbyn. He's just a wrecker.

I don't think Corbyn or Sultana should be leader, but the party should have room for them (and Abbott) in a broader tent. Even Tony Blair recognised that.

Corbyn should be President or some other figurehead title. He is an exceptional speaker, cutting through to groups of people ignored and unreachable by other politicians. But he's no leader. Neither is Zarah Sultana. So they need someone with a bit of umph to come over.

Their problem is that they're obsessed with Palestine and they need to be obsessed with social justice instead.

Only Israeli apologists think that. Labour are at their best when they have a cause and there are few injustices ongoing that rank with the injustice being meted out to the Palestinians at the moment. It is a horror show in broad daylight.

And also the injustice being meted out to the Ukrainians is as bad, yet Corbyn has been a Russian apologist. You should be against all genocide and all wars of aggression.

One is a war on an army. The other a war on a civilian population. To blow up a building killing 118 people would have made the news all over the world if it happened in Ukraine. I doubt you've even heard of it thanks to the BBC not wanting to be thought prejudiced.

Robbie Gibb's BBC have been very selective on their Gaza reporting. It is a shame because those like Jeremy Bowen have an authoritative understanding of the region. Bowen seems little used, presumably because of his critical reporting of Bibi and the IDF.

I think the full horror of Gaza starkly reported by the broadcast media, together with the horrors of the Ukraine war, are causing the public to switch over to other channels, not because they are not sympathetric but that it is so hard to watch and neither Netanyahu or Hamas seem to accept civilians are not and never will be an acceptable casualty of war

This diabolical war is highly asymetrical. Personally I think Israel's strategy is in the end to remove and replace the population of Gaza. That Gaza is to be reduced to rubble is already done and continuing.

The policy of Hamas in not surrendering in a situation they cannot contain or win, thereby giving Israel cover for their actions and intentions is a mistake.

That Israel's policy is a mistake is of course also true, but I think it is their mistake which will prevail for now.

(It's a tough world for us wet centrists who just support the interests of good people on all both sides).

Depends on what Hamas' aims are.

If they are to protect the Gazan people, yes, it's stupid.

If it's to make Israel so hated that in the long term it cannot survive, their actions are logical.

As they have never shown the slightest concern for the people of Gaza and are ultimately backed by Iran, my money's on B.

Meanwhile, Tory MSP quits, calling out the party for reactionary politics

https://x.com/spectator/status/1958781285930840204

That's quite the declaration from Jeremy Balfour.

I can see others following, The party has lost whatever was left of its mind.

Can't read more thana bit of the speccy and there's no full reportbut his specific concern seems to be that ther ScoTories don't give a shit aboujt society's vulnerable people.

Ah, better to inform us, here is his letter:

https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,jeremy-balfour-msp-quits-reactionary-scottish-conservatives

Edit: Which also noitably accuses the party of only being interested in the rural areas and being anti the urban areas.

Fair play for putting his head above the parapet, but has he been paying attention during his three decades of membership?

Seriously, you are going to have a dig at a politician from an Opposition party when far too many SNP politicians have been turning a blind eye to the many scandals engulfing the SNP Government at Holyrood over the last eighteen years?! Maybe if far more of them had not only been paying attention but had also grown a backbone then the party might not be in the mess it is today!

Always good to get advice from a supporter of a party that hasn’t managed to win majority support in Scotland for 60+ years, and is now on the verge of extinction.

Always good to see a fan of the SNP dish it out to others while never reporting or reflecting on the growing intray of huge scandals engulfing the SNP Government at Holyrood. I see that this week was another good one to bury yet more bad news about the SNP's inability to run a whelk store competently far less an administration at Holyrood while it is in recess and Nicola Sturgeon is flogging her memoirs and trying to settle old grievances with some of the individuals that did dare to stand up and call her out while she was FM.

I really think you should take the trouble to read Sturgeons book before you continue your misleading critique of it. I makes you sound foolish

Good God Roger, PBers don't need to read books to have an opinion on it! A headline in the Express and a J.K. Rowling tweet covers it.

If you're a Labour supporter, I believe you have a duty to support Starmer and Reeves. They won the election with a majority of 170+.

A duty is a moral or legal responsibility. There is no duty to support a political party or party leaders.

On the other hand, a political leader has a duty or moral responsibility to deliver what they promised.

I am a LibDem but I have no duty to support them.
In a Lab/Con or Lab/Ref marginal I would vote Lab.
In a Lab/Corbyn marginal I would vote Corbyn.
I am very disapppointed in Starmer. He is ultra timid and Tory Lite.
He should nationalise water.
Join the Customs Union.
Cut arms supplies to Israel - or better still, lead a South African style boycott.
Stop buttering up Trump and help create an independent European defence force.
Put up income tax, stop protecting wealthy pensioners, reintroduce SureStart etc.
I could go on.
My political slogan is "Do the right thing and sod the consequences". I think that is appealing.