Best Of

I wonder if we could see Con/Ref battling it out for the lead and Lab/Lib crossover after Reeves' statement tomorrow?

When it becomes a Con/Ref race, a lot of decent centrists will have to swing behind Badenoch to stop Farage.

No way. They are as bad as each other and likely to be in coalition.

I wouldn't touch either with a bargepole.

Even more decent centrists will swing behind the LibDems. As will Lab voters where their candidate will running third.

Perhaps Election 2029 will result the first Liberal majority government since 1906?

I'll be 91 that year. Gives me a target to keep going for!

We all hope you do!

I wonder if we could see Con/Ref battling it out for the lead and Lab/Lib crossover after Reeves' statement tomorrow?

When it becomes a Con/Ref race, a lot of decent centrists will have to swing behind Badenoch to stop Farage.

No way. They are as bad as each other and likely to be in coalition.

I wouldn't touch either with a bargepole.

Even more decent centrists will swing behind the LibDems. As will Lab voters where their candidate will running third.

Perhaps Election 2029 will result the first Liberal majority government since 1906?

I'll be 91 that year. Gives me a target to keep going for!

@donwinslow

IF PAST IS PROLOGUE, DONALD TRUMP WILL DO SOMETHING INSANE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS TO CHANGE THE NEWS CYCLE.

I subscribe to the view that Donald Trump’s number one objective is to dominate the news cycle all day and every day. That's a worry when you consider what it will take to do this for four years. I can envisage a time when we come to yearn for the relatively sober early weeks of his tenure when all we had to fret about was him subverting American democracy, ripping up the western alliance, surrendering Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, ethnic cleansing the Palestinians, paralysing world trade, and invading Greenland, Panama and Mexico and Canada.

I return to the question Mark asked earlier, "How long will Trump tolerate his cabinet making him look like an idiot?", and the answer is 'a minimum of 4 years' if he is even aware of it

I don't think he gives a shit about Signalgate. He doesn't know anything about it, the Atlantic is a failing rag, etc. There will definitely be no legal or disciplinary consequences for anyone involved.

What DJT really cares about is his own personal grandeur and authority. Signalgate doesn't affect him in that way.

I’m not even sure it’s an accidental leak

It’s quite convenient for the Trump Admin to get out the idea that they are REALLY done with defending Europe

Yeah of course that is what happened. I can imagine the discussion now:

'Tell you what chaps, these Europeans don't seem to have understood the umpteen references to us not wanting to defend them, why don't we all make ourselves liable for a prison sentence and make ourselves look completely incompetent by leaking in advance our plans to bomb an enemy and even give them the possibility to defend themselves and shoot down our planes/missiles, by sneaking in a reference to not liking Europeans which may never see the light of day. What harm can it cause?'

'Yes. What a great idea. Go for it'

Using my one picture of the day.
[although fear it may have already been posted]

@donwinslow

IF PAST IS PROLOGUE, DONALD TRUMP WILL DO SOMETHING INSANE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS TO CHANGE THE NEWS CYCLE.

I subscribe to the view that Donald Trump’s number one objective is to dominate the news cycle all day and every day. That's a worry when you consider what it will take to do this for four years. I can envisage a time when we come to yearn for the relatively sober early weeks of his tenure when all we had to fret about was him subverting American democracy, ripping up the western alliance, surrendering Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, ethnic cleansing the Palestinians, paralysing world trade, and invading Greenland, Panama and Mexico and Canada.

I return to the question Mark asked earlier, "How long will Trump tolerate his cabinet making him look like an idiot?", and the answer is 'a minimum of 4 years' if he is even aware of it

I don't think he gives a shit about Signalgate. He doesn't know anything about it, the Atlantic is a failing rag, etc. There will definitely be no legal or disciplinary consequences for anyone involved.

What DJT really cares about is his own personal grandeur and authority. Signalgate doesn't affect him in that way.

So long as it doesn't dent his chances to win a Nobel Peace Prize he won't care.

About time the Nobel Committee issued a press release.

"To the Presdient of the United States:

You are never getting a Peace Prize.

Get over it.

Your chances of one for Economics don't look too rosy either.

The Committee."

Starmer appoints Rishi Sunak’s wife as V&A trustee
Akshata Murty joins Mariella Frostrup and Vick Hope among new museum appointees
...
Meanwhile, Sir Keir has also approved several new appointments at the British Museum... Its new trustees include Claudia Winkleman, the presenter of the popular television programme The Traitors, along with Martha Kearney, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The World at One, and Tom Holland, the historian.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/24/starmer-appoints-rishi-sunak-wife-v-and-a-trustee-murty-uk/ (£££)

Turns out it is not just President Trump who only appoints people he has seen on telly.

A big part of being a trustee for the big museums is publicity and fund raising.

Mrs Sunak will be able to run a pretty fair bake sale.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/25/stunning-signal-leak-reveals-depths-of-trump-administrations-loathing-of-europe

The weird thing about this regime is that the more they proclaim a white, Christian, European vision of America, the more they hate Europe. There must be some kind of psychology thesis to be written about this.

Vance seems to simultaneously hate his own background and hate the world he has joined.

He also hates immigration and multiculturalism while being married to the daughter of Indian immigrants. He seems to be quite a conflicted individual.

I think Vance wants to be hailed as some sort of 'philosopher prince'.

His writings (see the one that was linked to recently about his conversion to Catholicism) seem to show a need to boast about what he has achieved and what he knows.

More generally Washington resembles a Tudor court more than a modern government.

Trump has all the insecure, grandiose, erratic narcissism of late stage Henry VIII.

Mike Pence / Thomas More as the former favourite who chose his conscience over his master orders.

Vance as the Thomas Cromwell figure - low born and talented but always looked down on by those born to privilege.

The likes of Musk, Rubio, Hegseth scheming for position as the Howards, Seymours and such like did.

There's even a weak ineffective legislature and a threatened judicial system.