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What are the chances?

https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2036460110579450052

@Steven_Swinford
Exclusive:

Police did not investigate the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone because officers were “too busy”, despite the sensitivity of his messages and contacts

Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff told the Metropolitan police that his phone was stolen as he returned home from a restaurant in central London on October 20 last year

Pretty high, I’ve mentioned on here friends have had their phones/tablets/watches stolen and they’ve gone to the police saying that FindMyLocation says their device(s) is/are at this property and the Rozzers say, nah, cannot be bothered, here’s your crime reference number and claim on your insurance.

Yeah, but are they reporting stolen a government phone?

Was it a government phone or his personal phone?

Sorry, should have included: "The theft of the work device..."

Ta, I should be surprised at the police in this instance but I am not.

Dan Hodges makes another point:

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2036469140571988163

@DPJHodges
We were specifically told by Steve Reed on Sunday the theft pre-dated the issues relating to Mandelson. I’m going to say it again. This is a blatant cover-up. And Ministers - from the Prime Minister down - are openly lying about it.

https://x.com/singharj/status/2036466148946976932

@singharj
McSweeney's phone was stolen around a month after Starmer was forced to sack Mandelson as US ambassador.......

Lol. Absolute roasting liars

Should have just had an unfortunate accident with the phone while crossing the channel.

Wonder why the messages werent retrieved on the new phone with the same number he was given the next day?
And why he didn't back up any messages as per policy.
So many mysteries.

It’s called doing a Boris.

Covid Inquiry: Johnson says WhatsApp 'somehow automatically erased' 5,000 messages

Former prime minister claims lack of detail from messages sent during key early weeks of pandemic is due to program "going down and coming back up again"

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/johnson-says-5000-messages-lost-due-to-whatsapp-automatically-erasing-things

Boris you say? That should be that for Starmer.

I am sure there will be plenty of quotes from Labour/Labour ministers about that which will come back to haunt them.

Are the McSweeney messages likely to be embarrassing for the Govt and/or McSweeney/Mandelson?
I suspect it tends towards the latter.

I suspect very bad for McSweeney.

I was told he reveres Lord Mandelson on a par with the way I revere David Cameron (pbuh).

The MMcS lost messages will all of course have a sender/recipient who will have carefully preserved each and every one of them. You have to lose two phones to lose a single communication. To lose all relevant communications from multiple phones/parties you have to fill the North Sea with them.

Royal Navy to lead coalition efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran/article/iran-war-latest-news-trumps-talks-tehran-gz8wv9598

It’s behind a paywall but I doubt that will be happening until Trump does his wonderful deal to end the war !

And the UK does have autonomous drones for mine clearing.

Minesweeping is one of the few strengths we still have after 14 years of wilful neglect and cost cutting

When is the government going to get round to publishing the defence spending plan (promised since last summer) ?

I don't disagree about the last couple of decades of defence rundown, but the current government needs now to decide about its own priorities. Something it keeps putting off.

Can kicking is a surprisingly resilient option.

Defence, Parliament refurbishment, social care, it's baby steps or no steps (or backwards steps) if they become even slightly difficult, even if it means more difficult down the line. Our politicians (and voters I guess) are actually remarkably optimistic about coming up with something down the line to solve problems.

I don't understand where "cost cutting" comes in - defence has, iiuc held fast with % gdp since the late 90s a fact the graph below seems to support.

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/4fz6tm/uk_defence_spending_19002015_of_gdp/

That it has apparently gone backwards points to poor spending of the allocated money quite frankly.

a

What are the chances?

https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2036460110579450052

@Steven_Swinford
Exclusive:

Police did not investigate the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone because officers were “too busy”, despite the sensitivity of his messages and contacts

Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff told the Metropolitan police that his phone was stolen as he returned home from a restaurant in central London on October 20 last year

Pretty high, I’ve mentioned on here friends have had their phones/tablets/watches stolen and they’ve gone to the police saying that FindMyLocation says their device(s) is/are at this property and the Rozzers say, nah, cannot be bothered, here’s your crime reference number and claim on your insurance.

Yeah, but are they reporting stolen a government phone?

Was it a government phone or his personal phone?

Sorry, should have included: "The theft of the work device..."

Ta, I should be surprised at the police in this instance but I am not.

Dan Hodges makes another point:

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2036469140571988163

@DPJHodges
We were specifically told by Steve Reed on Sunday the theft pre-dated the issues relating to Mandelson. I’m going to say it again. This is a blatant cover-up. And Ministers - from the Prime Minister down - are openly lying about it.

https://x.com/singharj/status/2036466148946976932

@singharj
McSweeney's phone was stolen around a month after Starmer was forced to sack Mandelson as US ambassador.......

Lol. Absolute roasting liars

Should have just had an unfortunate accident with the phone while crossing the channel.

Wonder why the messages werent retrieved on the new phone with the same number he was given the next day?
And why he didn't back up any messages as per policy.
So many mysteries.

It’s called doing a Boris.

Covid Inquiry: Johnson says WhatsApp 'somehow automatically erased' 5,000 messages

Former prime minister claims lack of detail from messages sent during key early weeks of pandemic is due to program "going down and coming back up again"

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/johnson-says-5000-messages-lost-due-to-whatsapp-automatically-erasing-things

Boris you say? That should be that for Starmer.

I am sure there will be plenty of quotes from Labour/Labour ministers about that which will come back to haunt them.

Are the McSweeney messages likely to be embarrassing for the Govt and/or McSweeney/Mandelson?
I suspect it tends towards the latter.

I suspect very bad for McSweeney.

I was told he reveres Lord Mandelson on a par with the way I revere David Cameron (pbuh).

Would anybody surprised if the also showed that Mandy was also sticking his oar into lots of government decisions.

Was he not DPM for a chunk of the time with a PM who seemed seriously close to a break down? I would be astonished if he wasn’t sticking his oar in. The impression I got at the time was that he was running the show and that he and Darling were basically all that was keeping the government on track.

That he was running the government was something he was briefing the press about.

The reality might well have been different.

Maybe. But a government that had been paralysed by Brown’s indecision started moving again.

Mandelson has the morals of an ally cat and really seems to have not cared if Epstein was abusing children. But he was and is an operator who knows how to get things done. I have admitted before that I, in ignorance of the Epstein stuff, thought his appointment was a good one. I think that there is at least some truth in it.

As a founder member of the Royal Society For The Protection of The Reputation of Temporarily Undomiciled Felines, I object.

No cat, in an ally or otherwise has ever conspired to sell government secrets.

Macavity?

He wasn't there.

Royal Navy to lead coalition efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran/article/iran-war-latest-news-trumps-talks-tehran-gz8wv9598

It’s behind a paywall but I doubt that will be happening until Trump does his wonderful deal to end the war !

And the UK does have autonomous drones for mine clearing.

Minesweeping is one of the few strengths we still have after 14 years of wilful neglect and cost cutting

Up to a point.
December last year...

Royal Navy to Withdraw Mines Countermeasures Force from Gulf
https://www.defenceeye.co.uk/2025/12/05/royal-navy-to-withdraw-mines-countermeasures-force-from-gulf/

When is the government going to get round to publishing the defence spending plan (promised since last summer) ?

I don't disagree about the last couple of decades of defence rundown, but the current government needs now to decide about its own priorities. Something it keeps putting off.

A grim prognosis from Professor Azeem Ibrahim:

https://x.com/AzeemIbrahim/status/2035361179879547244

Britain is now in accelerated decline - gradual for decades, now at risk of sudden collapse.

My stark verdict: unchecked, UK heading for relative poverty - a deindustrialised, sectarian, indebted island with first-rate pretensions & third-rate power.

A generally serious contribution from an explicitly right-wing source (a contributor to "The American Conservative"), though I've never heard the allegedly common nickname for Starmer: "two-tier Kier". He's a bit vague about his preferred solution, though.

You haven’t heard “two tier Keir”? Don’t you read PB anymore?

It's been around since the protests of summer 2024.

a

What are the chances?

https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2036460110579450052

@Steven_Swinford
Exclusive:

Police did not investigate the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone because officers were “too busy”, despite the sensitivity of his messages and contacts

Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff told the Metropolitan police that his phone was stolen as he returned home from a restaurant in central London on October 20 last year

Pretty high, I’ve mentioned on here friends have had their phones/tablets/watches stolen and they’ve gone to the police saying that FindMyLocation says their device(s) is/are at this property and the Rozzers say, nah, cannot be bothered, here’s your crime reference number and claim on your insurance.

Yeah, but are they reporting stolen a government phone?

Was it a government phone or his personal phone?

Sorry, should have included: "The theft of the work device..."

Ta, I should be surprised at the police in this instance but I am not.

Dan Hodges makes another point:

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2036469140571988163

@DPJHodges
We were specifically told by Steve Reed on Sunday the theft pre-dated the issues relating to Mandelson. I’m going to say it again. This is a blatant cover-up. And Ministers - from the Prime Minister down - are openly lying about it.

https://x.com/singharj/status/2036466148946976932

@singharj
McSweeney's phone was stolen around a month after Starmer was forced to sack Mandelson as US ambassador.......

Lol. Absolute roasting liars

Should have just had an unfortunate accident with the phone while crossing the channel.

Wonder why the messages werent retrieved on the new phone with the same number he was given the next day?
And why he didn't back up any messages as per policy.
So many mysteries.

It’s called doing a Boris.

Covid Inquiry: Johnson says WhatsApp 'somehow automatically erased' 5,000 messages

Former prime minister claims lack of detail from messages sent during key early weeks of pandemic is due to program "going down and coming back up again"

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/johnson-says-5000-messages-lost-due-to-whatsapp-automatically-erasing-things

Boris you say? That should be that for Starmer.

I am sure there will be plenty of quotes from Labour/Labour ministers about that which will come back to haunt them.

Are the McSweeney messages likely to be embarrassing for the Govt and/or McSweeney/Mandelson?
I suspect it tends towards the latter.

I suspect very bad for McSweeney.

I was told he reveres Lord Mandelson on a par with the way I revere David Cameron (pbuh).

Would anybody surprised if the also showed that Mandy was also sticking his oar into lots of government decisions.

Was he not DPM for a chunk of the time with a PM who seemed seriously close to a break down? I would be astonished if he wasn’t sticking his oar in. The impression I got at the time was that he was running the show and that he and Darling were basically all that was keeping the government on track.

That he was running the government was something he was briefing the press about.

The reality might well have been different.

Maybe. But a government that had been paralysed by Brown’s indecision started moving again.

Mandelson has the morals of an ally cat and really seems to have not cared if Epstein was abusing children. But he was and is an operator who knows how to get things done. I have admitted before that I, in ignorance of the Epstein stuff, thought his appointment was a good one. I think that there is at least some truth in it.

As a founder member of the Royal Society For The Protection of The Reputation of Temporarily Undomiciled Felines, I object.

No cat, in an ally or otherwise has ever conspired to sell government secrets.

Recent Wings pieces on the Holyrood elections are a bit weird in tone. He is clear the SNP are almost certainly going to win big and might even get a majority, and because he thinks they are useless is left essentially saying there's barely any point to the election at all.

SNP will win, despite a significantly lower vote-share, because Labour won't be able to take back the Central Belt constituencies due to their own decline. Reform also put at risk the Tory-held constituencies, so could be SNP pick ups there.

So, yes, a strange sort of triumph, given that the combined unionist vote is likely to be greater than the pro-Indy one.

So, Swinney will go through the motions of demanding a referendum, and Starmer will go through the motions of denying one. Honour satisfied all round and Scotland will continue to drift.

Which is to say, Wings is right, barely any point to the election at all.