Best Of

Yes the Mandelson photos will likely boost Reform and the Greens in Gorton and Denton. Though Labour made a sensible choice picking a female local councillor as their candidate

Reform deserve to benefit from Labour's Epstein adjacency. As Nigel explained today. Nigel is only mentioned 37 times which is within the threshold for not really being in the Epstein files.

All depends on context

Even if it is only one mention but that is Farage writing "Dear Jeffrey, thanks for the wonderful weekend, where do you find all those lovely young ladies? " then he would be in deep do-do.

On the other hand if it is Mandelson writing to Epstein saying, "that Farage is an awful oik, don't let him anywhere near your island" then Farage is probably not in any sort of trouble.

Context is king.

Epstein's advice to Mandelson in the aftermath of the 2010 election is fascinating.

Epstein seems to be the one pushing for a Lab/Lib coalition and Mandelson is pushing back and saying it would be a mutual suicide pact and saying that Blair is advising against it. Epstein responds that Blair has to think of the party but Mandelson's personal interest wouldn't be served by being in "a mere opposition party". It sounds like Epstein didn't want to lose his access to the heart of government.

https://x.com/PulaRJS/status/2018685605207503197

Why the hell was Epstein's opinion on British politics being considered at all?

From what I recall, even if there were those on the LD side who would have preferred a coalition with Labour rather than the Conservatives, the truth was such a coalition would have struggled - Conservatives plus DUP had 314, Labour plus LD 315 so it would have needed Plaid (3), SDLP (3) and Alliance (1) to have just about had a majority with those elected under the SF banner not attending.

The politics of propping up a tired unpopular 13 year old Government wouldn't have looked good (of course neither did going into coalition with the Conservatives as it turned out). In addition, Clegg had publicly committed to speaking first to the party with the most votes and the Conservatives outpolled Labour 36-29 or by two million if you prefer.

Everyone knew Labour couldn't remain in Government except it seems Epstein.

The classic Campbell vs Boulton clash on Sky News

https://youtu.be/1gkHwU4DRA8?si=9LGv_94nMKfZESWL

Sky reporting that the government is to lay an amendment to tomorrows debate agreeing to release some but not all documents

The question now is will labour mps defeat the amendment

The Epstein files are held by the US DOJ not the UK government

What Big G is referring to is the dossier on Mandleson ahead of the appointment, part of which would be a security brief.

And from Conservative front bench point of view, what’s in the security brief should mean serious questions to Panty in an interview - on basis you DONT HAVE TO RELY ON HIS ANSWERS the answers would be in the brief, testing his honesty.

The security brief can be redacted and not shared publicly, but can be shared with the opposition front benches and other MPs. No excuse why the whole dossier including security aspects cannot be shared with MPs.

What else is Sir Keir wilfully ignorant about?

The genocide in Gaza...

Not sure if you're being serious but if you are you ought to provide convincing evidence.

Yes, clearly Starmers willful ignorance is not unique.

I meant evidence for genocide.

And saying lots of innocent people have died won't cut it. That's true of any war. There's room for reasonable disagreement on Israel's actions but I find it hard to believe that any intelligent well informed person cannot see the enormous global bullshit machine that is the Gaza cause.

It probably shouldn't surprise us since unfortunately the world's two biggest religions are rooted in opposition to Jews, something a committed Christian like you will be well aware of.

First to say I can't see Starmer resigning over this.

An atomic bomb wouldn't remove Starmer

What about a redhead?

I think this all increases the chances of Ange being next.

It makes her financial arrangements seem a bit meh, and allows her to say we've had enough of the old boy's club.

Rayner is now best-placed

As I posted as the old thread was closing.

The obvious one is Angela.

She has behaved dutifully and perfectly since resignation.

Labour has a number of very competent ministers in place she would be well advised to keep

Cooper
Mahmood
Healy
McFadden
Both Alexanders
Nandy
Phillipson
Ed M
Emma Reynolds
Jarvis

Some of the new intake.

Likes of Haigh and Thornbury return.

Compares very well with threadbare Shadow Cabinet of failures like Philp, Patel Stride, Atkins, Couthino.

Badenoch probably be gone before Starmer coronation for Cleverly.

Labour edge left.
Tories edge centre.

“dutifully and perfectly since resignation”.

Has she paid her tax due?

If Angela Rayner is the answer, the wrong question is definitely being asked.

She’s no Mandelson, who can keep coming back again until yet another scandal finally kills her off almost three decades later.

Angela Rayner is not the answer to any question relating to the government of this country. Maybe “how can we fuck things up more”.

The question is, who do we put our money on? Not who would be best, or who would we like, but who will win?

If it helps I'm a Labour member and if/when the vote comes I'll be judging 2 things:

Who would be the better PM?
Who would more likely beat Reform?

Assuming a Streeting v Rayner choice, I'm clear on the answer to the 1st. Streeting. But on the 2nd I'm not sure at all. And if I end up concluding it's Rayner I can see myself (reluctantly) prioritising that and voting for her.

Nothing (for me) is more important than preventing Farage and his gang getting their filthy mitts on this country.

Far be it from me to suggest solutions to Labours quandary but Rayner is so far from your desire to beat Reform as you can get. Honestly - Labour supporters and members need to read the fucking room. Your only hope is a Cooper ticket with Streeting as Chancellor maybe. This fascination and love for Rayner is perplexing. She’s clearly thick as shit. And a proven tax dodger.

Northern accent = thick as shit

Thank goodness none of my university exams were orals, or it would have been an instant fail.

Nope. You’re making that stretch, not me. JRM
Is as thick as shit. As is Jenrick. Hague wasn’t. Neither is Burnham. She’s objectively as thick as shit. You just like her because she’s northern. And in your mind that means she’s beyond criticism.

JRM is brighter than Burnham, even if with less common touch

Really? I had no idea Burnham was such a dumbarse.

Yes I know Ydoethur you think JRM is an idiot. Yet with his fortune of over £100 million, including founding a successful hedge fund, his Oxbridge degree, his former job as an MP and Cabinet Minister and his weekly show on GB news and his lovely family home in Somerset shared with his wife and 6 children Jacob of course will not give a shit what you think!

His hedge fund, founded with his wife's money, his Oxbridge degree, which given its low classification is a piece of paper, his talk show on a disgraced news channel that functions as a Russian propaganda piece and his family home in Somerset again bought with his wife's money.

I'm sure he won't care what I say about him.

But his track record of failure, incompetence, arrogance and bad judgement in politics are not counterbalanced by examples that tend to show he is, in fact, an idiot.

And do you know, I don't care if he doesn't care what I know (not think, because it's a fact not an opinion). He still doesn't have two brain cells to rub together, and symbolises all that is wrong with this country - that it's who you know not what you know.

No after university he worked at Rothschild and Lloyd George Emerging Markets and founded Somerset Capital with former colleagues and Crispin Odey and the company is still going strong and he is still a partner in it. He got a good upper second from Trinity College hardly a 'low classification'. His GB news show gets a lot of viewers and even if his home is partly his wife's they are a devoted couple.

He was also a hard working constituency MP who played a key part in helping deliver Brexit whether you liked it or not.

Though continue your all too frequent chippy whinging if you wish!

Before I retired, I regularly recommended his Emerging Markets fund. I don’t know whether it’s still as good.

Not enough focus is on Trump's economic policies. He makes sure attention is elsewhere.

But the US is running a huge fiscal deficit whilst the economy is growing. Trump has made it clear he wants cuts to interest rates. This is classic short term populist economic policy. It can't end well and it's the biggest economy in the world. The precious metal market is crazy right now. I seem to remember Trump also relaxed lending rules for small banks during his first term. We seem to have forgotten that 2008 ever happened.

Indeed:

The US is running a Federal deficit of 6% of GDP, despite bringing in $25-30bn per months in from tariffs.

Not only that but President Trump would like to reduce interest rates and to mail multi thousand dollar 'tariff rebate cheques' to everyone.

A few Republicans -a very few, like Rand Paul- have noticed that this properly bonkers, and will end in (at the very least) a nasty bout of inflation.

It's literally the kind of shit that you'd expect from a Peronist government in Argentina.