Best Of

Peter Mandelson is utterly disgraced, could end up in prison and breathtaking revelations are damaging Labour and a PM who made him our man in Washington. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson could bring down the monarchy.

https://x.com/Kevin_Maguire/status/2018629239185035729?s=20

Now remind me again Kev about McBride and attending those meetings planning to set up a fake news website to smear Osborne and alike. The brass neck of these people.

I don’t think it will bring down the monarchy but I do think the monarchy more now than at any time relies very heavily on the next generation of William, Kate and their family and for their accession to be seen as a significant renewal and page turn.

If they’re not already thinking about Crown revenues, how the Duchies operate, who is/isn’t a working royal, how the titles get dished out and who is on the payroll, they need to be.

Charles has been doing that for over three years.

The Queen's idea was you had lots of royals, most of them fairly part-time, making them highly visible and in all parts of national life, and spread the money thinly to make it work.

Charles' idea is to have just a few senior working royals, and use the money to raise their profile and really show an impact. That's one reason he had a big falling out with Harry (and quite possibly another reason why he fell out with Andy, although it doesn't seem they ever got on well). He's pruned the family to essentially himself, Camilla, William and Katherine, Anne and Edward (who seems to have a special role with the DofE award).

His approach is logical and has given a convenient pretext to chop out some very dead wood, but comes with drawbacks. When he and Catherine both had cancer an awful lot of the burden of keeping things going fell on Camilla and Anne, neither of whom are spring chickens. And when in the next few years they either snuff it or retire a huge amount will fall on William and his family.

The Royal Family would benefit from a return of Harry from the States.

I think that's probably more important than any of the reforms around crown revenues, duchies of here, there or wherever, that most people know nothing about. Harry is a personality. He seems genuinely interested in using his accident of birth for good. Whatever else William might be thinking of in terms of reform he needs to be working on a reconciliation with his brother.

Nope!

If he comes back, it will be on his own and he’ll be sharing an apartment with Andrew.

You can’t walk back from writing books and making documentaries sh!tting on your own family, and ever expect a reconciliation.

Forgiveness is a Christian virtue, and for all that Harry has done that has been damaging, having him back and being a positive face for the royalty with his charitable work would be a benefit.

And who else is there? Edward is 61. He's the youngest in that generation and age will catch up with him before too long. William and Kate won't be able to do it all by themselves.

Harry’s done nothing charitable, it’s all been lining his own pockets via US foundation companies. Even the Invictus games, which could have been his legacy in a similar way to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, have been monetised by Harry personally.

Edward’s kids are coming of age, they can be the future working royals of the next generation.

My wife has met Edward. Seemed a good egg with a sense of humour. Sophie somewhat grander but she was, by all accounts, highly regarded by the late Queen, who relied on her. So if the kids take after them could be assets for the Firm.

If anyone wants a political news feed that doesn’t mention Mandelson at all today, may I recommend Southam Observer’s BlueSky account

Gosh - Southam Observer! Haven't heard from him for years - what;s his particular angle these days?

His angle is “being completely ignored by everyone, because he’s on Bluesky, which is a desolate bleakscape for a few stupid midwit lefties, who flounced off X and then realised no one was going to follow them, because they are boring wankers. But some of them are too proud to shamefully return, even tho they left behind 20,000 followers on X and now have 48 annoying followers on Bluesky”

People who have Bluesky accounts (albeit sparsely) include the following:

• OGH: https://bsky.app/profile/mikesmithson.bsky.social
  
• TSE: https://bsky.app/profile/tseofpb.bsky.social
  
• RCS1000: https://bsky.app/profile/rcs1000.bsky.social
  

PBers will recall my repeated reminder that there is a political betting starter-pack on BlueSky. It is in MattWardman's account and you can find it here: go here https://bsky.app/profile/mattwardman.bsky.social and click on the "Starter Pack" tabs. I read it often and it contains many PB alumni such as the following:

• https://bsky.app/profile/davidherdson.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/jwsidders.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/quincel.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/alastairmeeks.bsky.social
  

Have fun.

If anyone wants a political news feed that doesn’t mention Mandelson at all today, may I recommend Southam Observer’s BlueSky account

Gosh - Southam Observer! Haven't heard from him for years - what;s his particular angle these days?

His angle is “being completely ignored by everyone, because he’s on Bluesky, which is a desolate bleakscape for a few stupid midwit lefties, who flounced off X and then realised no one was going to follow them, because they are boring wankers. But some of them are too proud to shamefully return, even tho they left behind 20,000 followers on X and now have 48 annoying followers on Bluesky”

People who have Bluesky accounts (albeit sparsely) include the following:

• OGH: https://bsky.app/profile/mikesmithson.bsky.social
  
• TSE: https://bsky.app/profile/tseofpb.bsky.social
  
• RCS1000: https://bsky.app/profile/rcs1000.bsky.social
  

PBers will recall my repeated reminder that there is a political betting starter-pack on BlueSky. It is in MattWardman's account and you can find it here: go here https://bsky.app/profile/mattwardman.bsky.social and click on the "Starter Pack" tabs. I read it often and it contains many PB alumni such as the following:

• https://bsky.app/profile/davidherdson.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/jwsidders.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/quincel.bsky.social
  
• https://bsky.app/profile/alastairmeeks.bsky.social
  

Have fun.

What are the odds on Starmer going this year? Anything kinder than evens is a BUY

It's odds on. 1.85. In from 1.95 due to this. Not much of a change really.

1.85 looks decent enough odds to me. It depends a bit on what Starmer's defence is. If he can say his vetting agencies didn't bring the risk to his attention, he may hang on for a bit, but even them he's in deep doo doo because he really ought to have known what a risk he was taking even without being told explicitly. It's not as if Mandy didn't have form.

If Starmer was properly informed and cautioned he will be out in no time at all. I doubt he can lie about it. His top security advisers will not allow themselves to be thrown under a bus to save his career.

I expect he's covered in the sense that he was unaware of the subsequent revelations, but yes he's in trouble (and was before this) and I wouldn't now argue with him being a shade of odds-on to exit this year.

Much of the ordure that has been dumped on him so far has been contrived or trivial but this is for real. For a man struggling in the polls it's about the last thing he wanted.

Feels terminal to me.

Perhaps, but there is the same question as always. If Starmer goes now, who replaces him? Once that question has a convincing answer, SKS's time is up. Until then...