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I presume that we can assume that the intelligence services knew more about Mandelson than the general public knew when he was appointed Ambassador

What information was given to the Prime Minister that he forensically ignored?

What information was withheld from Starmer by the intelligence services?

What information was withheld from Starmer by the intelligence services on someone in Starmer's office's instructions?

@DPJHodges

I think the vetting angle is going to prove to be a dead end. I’m told it was communicated to those involved Starmer had decided on Mandelson, and red flags would not be welcomed. So concerns were “watered down”.

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2018998801302966607

Sorry - that just puts the onus on Starmer. He told people what he wanted the evidence to show. That's highly irresponsible.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

The PMs who resign are reduced to becoming millionaires through “consultancy”, non-executive roles and giving speeches.

Former Prime Minister	Years in Office	Estimated Cost per Speech
Tony Blair	1997–2007	£150,000 – £200,000+
Boris Johnson	2019–2022	£100,000 – £250,000+
Theresa May	2016–2019	£80,000 – £120,000
Gordon Brown	2007–2010	£50,000 – £75,000
John Major	1990–1997	£30,000 – £60,000

It’s a hard, hard life.

No doubt they get to make plenty of money but for some, there must be a sense of loss. You go from being the leader of a great Nation to someone who gets lots of money to talk about stuff. Not bad, but no longer the top of your game.

Oh, true. See Truss and her descent.

In the book by Dr David Owen on the mental health of leaders, he suggested that John Major was the only one truly healthy during and after, in recent U.K. history.

Because Major hadn’t enjoyed the job and was perfectly ok with not being PM.

Since then, I'd add May to the list, and (more tentatively) Sunak and the incumbent.

And that's the problem. To tweak the old joke, you probably do have to be crazy to actively want the job of PM, and to survive in the role. But that ought to rule you out from the job.

Is it Speakers who are mock-reluctantly dragged into the role? Maybe we should do the same for PMs, except for real.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is one of the good guys. He just tweeted this. I make no apologies for its length. Everyone in the world should read it


The images emerging now from Iran of young people, older people, boys and girls, who were murdered in the last few weeks by the Iranian Islamic dictator, the Islamic Corps of Revolutionary Guards, Basij militia and imported killers from Iraq, are heartbreaking but also enraging.

Some depict beautiful people at play, at the gym, dancing, on motorbikes; some makeshift morgues full of bodies; some streetscenes where killers shoot down unarmed protesters; and many show families opening bodybags to find their dead children shot in the head; others discover bodies of protesters wounded then executed in hospital beds and particularly women with uteruses removed or other horrors to conceal brutal rapes... Many are not young but it looks like the slaughter of the best and brightest of Iran Gen Z. Ive tried to repost these here.

I have been contacted by people in Iran (who weirdly read my books in pirated Farsi editions) who manage to come online in various ways and they beg me to keep posting these images and faces and keep talking about them. Embarrassingly they thank me just for doing this! That is why i am writing this now. We must keep going and keep doing so.

The numbers killed are astonishing: based on sources within the murderous dictatorship, it may be as many as 36000 were murdered just in the first days of the terror 8/9 January and more later - making it likely that 40,000 is a horribly plausible estimate.

This makes this event the most greatest massacre in modern Iranian history by far, the greatest single event slaughter in modern MIddle Eastern history since 1900 - along with the Assad's liquidation of an entire town, site of Islamist insurgents, Hama, in 1982 when around 30,000 were killed. Both of them not taking place in wars but in cold blood - and this Iranian atrocity being far more terrible since none of the protesters were armed.

We live in a time of egregious comparisons to the Holocaust when the Holocaust is repellently abused and minimized by cynical cretins - radiohosts, podders, politicians- to criticize anything from vaccination to ICE raids. But here is a comparison that stands in its scale and horror: in size and horror this does resemble the two days of Babi Yar near Kiev in Sept 1941 where 33,000 Jews were killed. It is also worth pointing out that an entire progressive movement arose against the autocracy of the Shah.

And his was an autocracy. But in his forty year one reign, only around 3000 people were killed, mainly in the last year before his downfall.

It is very striking that the UN has barely commented on thiis…

https://x.com/simonmontefiore/status/2018630202482397222?s=46

He goes on in that vein. Excoriating the “progressives”

Trump for all his faults might do something, he hates the Iranian regime, the UN won't, for starters Russia and China are allies of Iran and have a Security Council veto

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

The PMs who resign are reduced to becoming millionaires through “consultancy”, non-executive roles and giving speeches.

Former Prime Minister	Years in Office	Estimated Cost per Speech
Tony Blair	1997–2007	£150,000 – £200,000+
Boris Johnson	2019–2022	£100,000 – £250,000+
Theresa May	2016–2019	£80,000 – £120,000
Gordon Brown	2007–2010	£50,000 – £75,000
John Major	1990–1997	£30,000 – £60,000

It’s a hard, hard life.

Fintan O'Toole in the Irish Times today draws a stark contrast between Brown and Blair/Mandelson. He says Brown donates the proceeds of his speeches to his charitable foundation and doesn't draw his Prime Ministerial pension, while he blames Blair for the end of Western civilization.

One imagines Ed Balls has had a few words in his ear.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

This is where the politican job market is really dysfunctional. If you do a good job running a small country you should then try running a larger country, and nobody should be running a large country unless they have at least minimal experience running a smaller country.

The closest we have to a sane career path for top jobs is

Deputy Minister of Finance in Canada
Governor of the Bank of Canada
Governor of the Bank of England
Prime minister of Canada

... Prime Minister of Anglo-Canadian Union?

WTF???

https://xcom/zarahsultana/status/2018741842729177106#m

If no YP or WP candidate in Gorton and Denton then the current short odds on The Greens look about right.

Even money on Green implies a 50/50 chance of a Green victory.

Betfair:-
Green 2 (or 50%)
Reform 2.74 (or 36.5%)
Labour 7 (or 14.3%)

Yes, but the vast majority of those punters don't know Gorton and Denton so are going merely on vibe.

I suspect things will become more clear as we get feedback from canvasing.

We know Reform is losing if Farage stops visiting.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

Ultimately the CEO of any organisation faced with this extraordinary level of opprobrium would resign

Why is it different for Starmer ?

You don’t understand this politics malarkey do you?

CEO's who resign typically head off to become CEO's elsewhere... PM's who resign have nowhere good to go.

The PMs who resign are reduced to becoming millionaires through “consultancy”, non-executive roles and giving speeches.

Former Prime Minister	Years in Office	Estimated Cost per Speech
Tony Blair	1997–2007	£150,000 – £200,000+
Boris Johnson	2019–2022	£100,000 – £250,000+
Theresa May	2016–2019	£80,000 – £120,000
Gordon Brown	2007–2010	£50,000 – £75,000
John Major	1990–1997	£30,000 – £60,000

It’s a hard, hard life.

Hmm the Bojo figures look somewhat out of line

You could get a decent review of Peppa pig world for a lot less that that on Trip advisor than what he charges for a business leaders address