Best Of

Apparently MPs are saying “maybe Mandelson should get a visit from Plod”

wtf. How can this be a maybe

There is plentiful prima facie evidence of him committing numerous crimes. He may of course be innocent - but he can prove that in a court of law (and good luck to him)

Why is this a maybe?

Because it's not up to MPs to instruct the plod to arrest people.

That's the sort of thing that happens in Trump's America.

You miss my point. I’m not asking MPs to direct the peelers

I’m saying the word “maybe” is otiose re a police investigation of Mandy. They have to investigate or it really does mean the rich and powerful are protected - in the UK as much as the USA

On that photo: so fixated are we all on Peter's Pants that noone has commented on the coffee table books: "Art" and "The Beatles" - this is almost implausibly generic, no? Do real people really have coffee table books? And if they do, surely they display more personality than this?

That's why I am sure it is Epstein's NYC townhouse

One of the striking things about all these photos is how dreary and tasteless the decor is. Beige, banal, generic, with the odd bit of creepy art

I know really rich people with this aesthetic taste. They don't have any taste. They don't care. They order in, and do it quite cheaply. And of course they have ten houses so they don't especially care about individual spaces. They just want lots of property and lots of rooms

Sky News matched up pantie Pete photos to Epsteins NYC appartment using publicly available photos yesterday.

Paris.

Let alliteration be your guide: Paris for Pete's pants. The Big Apple for Andy.

https://news.sky.com/story/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-and-peter-mandelson-pictures-from-epstein-files-were-taken-inside-paedophiles-homes-sky-news-analysis-finds-13502362

Sorry yes my mistake. I knew Sky News had id'ed the locations.

Context on the Epstein photos.

It's important to remember that the entire thing is manipulated, in order to protect Trump and distract attention from him, by the corrupted DoJ and other departments.

For example extra prominence given to Bill Clinton, redaction of "Trump", and other tactics.

Over 460 Epstein Files on Trump Removed - Yes, THAT ONE TOO

On Jan 30th, there were 5,361 files when you searched for Trump. Today, February 2nd, 4,896 files remain.

The INFAMOUS File on Trump that is in the video below has been removed.
https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/2018480449061003339

My guess is that we won’t get American justice and transparency on Epstein until Trump is gone and maybe dead - so about 3-5 years

By then most of the implicated men will be very old and quite powerless and a new generation will tell the truth. Whether it is Dems or GOP hardly matters

But the truth will come out. Just not now while the old guys have just enough power, still, to redact and refuse

I think it is quite likely that a new generation will be doing exactly the same things.

Consider that the ideology of the Hegseths and the Millers promotes women as being consumables. Those are values that facilitate abuse.

I disagree strongly. Not because humans have become nicer and billionaires have stopped being kinky and hedonistic but because I don’t think an Epstein could get away with it now. Stuff would leak on social media very quickly

It might happen in a truly closed society like China or Iran but even there I wonder

What we're finding out from the Epstein files is just how normal this sort of behaviour is - the sexual abuse is just one part of people in the elite doing each other favours in secret. With respect to Mandelson, in the old pre-social media days we found out about his dodgy mortgage and the Hinduja passports, but clearly there was similar stuff happening on a frequent basis.

I really don't think things would necessarily leak. I'm sure there are all sorts of derogatory accusations being made on social media about people in the elite all the time, but most of them are ignored because there's no evidence. I think it's quite hard to leak evidence without it then getting back to you, the leaker, and then there's all the legal power these people can bring to bear on you. I think fear of what people in the elite might do to you in revenge will keep a lot of people who know what is going on silent, and many of the rest will have normalised themselves to it.

I think again of the Pelicot trial, and the number of people who knew what was happening, but said nothing, and it was only discovered as a result of a search following an upskirting offence. Lots of people will know and they will say nothing. And most likely anyone who says anything will not be believed.

I am speculating, but I also suspect the shared abuse and illegality is also a conscious means of mutually binding members of the circle together; a way of demonstrating they can be trusted not to betray their fellow criminals.

In at least one email forwarded to Epstein, an email address for “John Pond” was in copy. The Guardian – its own extensive support for Mandelson over the years is notable – reports it “understands was the code name used by advisers when forwarding to Brown’s secure email account.” Code name, what?

This doesn’t make sense. Brown was the first PM who used email extensively for his ‘email red box’ – and he was directly emailed notes from his team all the time. His senior officials and advisers all had his official email address…

Multiple former officials have confirmed to Guido that the use of code words under the Brown government like “John Pond” was a tactic to avoid freedom of information laws. Substituting real names like “Gordon Brown” with code names put any document out of the scope of freedom of information requests. One official recalls it was “common practice in the Cabinet”. Blair had introduced FOI.

https://order-order.com/2026/02/03/exc-epstein-files-reveal-labour-used-code-names-to-avoid-freedom-of-information-laws/

The same did occur to me, why did the PM have a separate secret email account under a nom de guerre.

I seemed to remember during cash for honours scandal there was all the talk of a private email server etc to keep stuff off the record.

These are the same people who will tell the public, in relation to an ID cards database, that if they have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear. So why were they so anxious to hide things from us, the public? What do they have to fear?

The stink that is emanating from the elite resembles that from the most crowded pig shed.

And there Farage is, poised to give the British public the chance to jump from the frying pan down to the inferno in the pits of hell.

What a fecking mess.

It is all brilliant news for Farage, who never had dealings with Epstein.

New article in the Telegraph.

"Sean Thomas
There are no nice areas left for Londoners to live in
A pervasive sense of decline and disorder lingers over the capital" (£)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/02/there-are-no-nice-areas-left-for-londoners-to-live-in/

Regrettably, he's wrong. My pleasant market town is presently suffering a large influx of Londoners who have finally worked out that it's way nicer a couple of hundred miles further north. This is doing lots of bad things, including pushing up house prices, and encouraging the building of loads of nasty Barratt wonders on the edge of town (the London types think they are amazing, a four bed house for the price of a ropey London flat! I don't know of a single local living in one).

We should probably build a wall between Gloucester and Kings Lynn, and make the Southerners pay for it (feels a bit harsh to keep the Brummies out by drawing a line much further north).

We've got that too. And the next Local Plan is slated to increase it.

There also seems to be a pitch for a lot (35%-40%) affordable which is pre-sold to Social Landlords who are housing the London overspill of those in temporary accommodation. Saves London Councils a lot by sending their mixed milieu off to the coast.

On the other hand:

https://bsky.app/profile/financialtimes.com/post/3mdwqanjozh2p

Evidence that rental enquiries and house prices are dropping now that Labour has got immigration under control. No wonder housing starts are down.

Until house prices drop back to a 3-4x multiple of income as they were in the 90s before they exploded, then they're still far, far, far too high.

Either a combination of massive house price falls (thus negative equity) and stable income rates, or massive income inflation and stable prices, or preferably a combination of the two, significant price falls and significant income growth, is needed to get house price to income ratios back to anywhere sane.

Good morning

Thanks @Cyclefree again and what a depressing header and thread

The story goes deeper into the sewer with unimaginable behaviour and depravity

I agree with Ed Davey that this must be investigated by a Public Enquiry

You and Ed Davey want an inquiry that will drag on for years, not report till almost everyone is dead, and those who aren't have forgotten the question? You can see why Ed Davey might have wanted that for the Post Office scandal where he was peripherally involved as a minister who forgot to ask any questions, but surely you, a distinguished PBer, are not tied up with Epstein! The Covid inquiry rumbles on too. Still, even that is an improvement over what used to happen, as when the Franks inquiry whitewashed the Falklands, or the inquiry into why the Dickens dossier on paedophiles in high places (surely not!) was lost inside the Home Office, set up by Theresa May, concluded it could find no evidence because it had all been lost inside the Home Office.

So no.

Mandelson can be impeached. It hasn't been used since 1806 (in a similar case (relating to a previous period as Treasurer of the Navy, Dundas wasn't a minister at the time of the prosecution) but there is no reason why it can't.

One thing the British State has been very good at in recent years is creating all sorts of new labyrinthine solutions to problems that could be fixed perfectly well by dusting off historical precedents and mechanisms and statutes that have been around for centuries.

I assume that the reason it doesn’t is because it fears such matters can now be challenged in the courts, which is another reason to rebalance their role in our democracy.

Well, it's simple. If a prosecution fails, then you introduce new legislation.

Shamima Begum could have been tried under the Treason Act, she was clearly adhering to the Queen's enemies, at home or (in fact, and) abroad.

Let her face Syrian justice

The real question about Shemima Begum is how three schoolgirls travelled to a known Islamist recruiting zone without the secret squirrels noticing.