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Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
An important question becomes what the usual vetting for an ambassador is.The issue this wasn't a typical hire, normally our man in Washington is a career diplomat who is constantly vetted from previous appointments.
If the usual vetting process was followed, then Starmer's probably in the clear on that, even if the process is farcically weak. If the process was not followed, or subverted, or ignored, then he is in trouble.
The closest example I can think of is Ed Llewellyn going from being David Cameron's chief of staff to becoming Ambassador to France but he was a former diplomat working for Chris Patten in Hong Kong and Paddy Ashdown in Bosnia before becoming Dave's chief of staff.
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
...It’s pretty simpleDwellings in Victorian times were very different to dwellings today, so I'm pretty sure that large mental institutions would also be different. The bad things about them (there were also good things) do not undermine their importance, both then and now.Not especially ironic. In many things he was actually a thoughtful and rather progressive man. Being one of the first from mainstream politics to fall down the immigration/race rat hole destroyed his reputation - justly.One of the ironies being that the politician who got Care in the Community rolling in the UK was Enoch Powell.The actual reason that the old mad houses went away was thatIt does sound vaguely familiar.Meanwhile on Fox newsA new twistCan Fox News's 'sources' be trusted here? A massive dollop and gayness and trans thrown into the mix - seems too much like a MAGA wet dream.
EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson lived with his transgender partner, sources tell me.
The individual, who is a male transitioning to a female, is fully cooperating with the FBI.
Sources tell me the FBI had texts and other communications between Robinson and the individual that helped FBI authorities solidify that Robinson was indeed the shooter.
https://x.com/brookesingman/status/1966889202412347602?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
@atrupar
Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1966878449290649676
The underlying point is that since Care in the Community and whatever is its American counterpart, there have been a lot more mentally ill people left to rot on the streets, and occasionally murder someone. Still, the British government and American insurance companies saved a bunch of money and we got some nice luxury flats at the old hospitals, so there's that. Lethal injections though? Is there a loophole in the 10 Commandments?
1) they were brutal, horrible places. Out of sight, out of mind.
2) around the world, people who were aware of it, fought against them. And the endless abuses in them.
3) in most advanced countries laws changed. For example, locking people up for life for being a bit odd is now illegal.
4) the medical profession changed as well. You won’t be able to find doctors to force medication on everyone a bit odd - in The Goode Olde Dayz they simply dosed everyone in the madhouse into compliance.
5) so in the new world, you need serious reasons to lock people up, even more serious reasons to force them to take medication.
Worth noting reports that Trumps thugs are attacking street people with Narcan…
1) sectioning people is now a serious medico-legal endeavour
2) once locked up, they must be repeatedly assessed to try and see if they can leave.
3) forcibly medicating people is pretty much not a thing.
4) modern, trained doctors won’t change 1-3 on moral grounds
I should add, a big issue is that the patients don’t like the medicines.
My brother-in-law ended up on the really fun stuff for a while. He said that while it helped to be clear headed and not a problem, they made him feel horrible - both feeling his mental condition and side effects. He preferred being off his nut - but stayed on them for his wife’s sake.
There were some pretty nasty physical side effects as well, IIRC.
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
An important question becomes what the usual vetting for an ambassador is.By not picking a name from the suggested list he's going off-piste anyway isn't he?
If the usual vetting process was followed, then Starmer's probably in the clear on that, even if the process is farcically weak. If the process was not followed, or subverted, or ignored, then he is in trouble.
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
If ithe seat is Gorton, every chance Reform wins. Blackley is more complicated demographically, with some middle class pockets in Middleton South like Alkrington, where Burnham is very popular.The plot is thickening. ExcitingWould be incredibly funny if they forced a by-election and Burnham lost it.
EXCL: Secret plot to get Andy Burnham a seat in Parliament so he can challenge Keir Starmer for No10 revealed!
Labour rebels dubbed the "Manchester Mafia" want Andrew Gwynne to give up his seat for the King of the North.
One insider says: "They are calling it the Etihad coup"
The Sun on Sunday
https://x.com/kateferguson4/status/1966944480445297017?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
The plot is thickening. ExcitingWould be incredibly funny if they forced a by-election and Burnham lost it.
EXCL: Secret plot to get Andy Burnham a seat in Parliament so he can challenge Keir Starmer for No10 revealed!
Labour rebels dubbed the "Manchester Mafia" want Andrew Gwynne to give up his seat for the King of the North.
One insider says: "They are calling it the Etihad coup"
The Sun on Sunday
https://x.com/kateferguson4/status/1966944480445297017?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg

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Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
Same but with my trademark hyperventilatingStarmer will resign then refuse to leave as his own resignation letter never crossed his deskGood evening
I think that Starmer, in his haste to cuddle upto Trump , dismissed genuine concerns over Mandelson's connections with Epstein as Mandelson's skills certainly were a benefit but then he was high risk and unfortunately for Starmer, the revelations this week and his endorsement of Mandelson under Badenoch's questioning, has put him in a very difficult place, but was predictable and an error that may well have serious repercussions for him
I also suspect Starmer is largely being played like a puppet by the Blairite wing of the party
A vox pop of Mandelson's former constituency was scathing and virtually universal in saying that Mandelson should not have been appointed
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
There's an even funnier part to his story. He was raised in a very rural community, and his dad was a prominent person in that community. So over many weeks, his dad had conversations from various people in the village: "Two men came to visit, and they were asking about your son xxx and whether he was a good boy."I had the same experience but mate got in and disappeared off the face of the earth.Absolutely critical now for StarmerA couple of decades ago, a friend of mine was hired to work at GCHQ, straight out of uni. This required a background check so thorough that he spent six months of employment twiddling his thumbs, unable to do any actual work. A check in which, it seems, everyone he knew was talked to. He got so fed up wit the wait that the security clearance came through shortly after he left GCHQ to join Acorn. (*)
“Starmer appointed Mandelson without proper checks
Labour peer appointed on back of flimsy two-page dossier and light questioning”
Telegraph
Yet top jobs seem to be allocated by: "They're a good person, I'll vouch for them."
(*) This is probably enough for some in the know to identify him...
He then got a visit himself, from people asking about his son, in a professional capacity. He listened patiently as they asked their questions, then asked if they had noticed that his surname was the same as the surname of the person they were vetting...
They had not realised he was xxx's dad.
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
An important question becomes what the usual vetting for an ambassador is.
If the usual vetting process was followed, then Starmer's probably in the clear on that, even if the process is farcically weak. If the process was not followed, or subverted, or ignored, then he is in trouble.
If the usual vetting process was followed, then Starmer's probably in the clear on that, even if the process is farcically weak. If the process was not followed, or subverted, or ignored, then he is in trouble.
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
I had the same experience but mate got in and disappeared off the face of the earth.Absolutely critical now for StarmerA couple of decades ago, a friend of mine was hired to work at GCHQ, straight out of uni. This required a background check so thorough that he spent six months of employment twiddling his thumbs, unable to do any actual work. A check in which, it seems, everyone he knew was talked to. He got so fed up wit the wait that the security clearance came through shortly after he left GCHQ to join Acorn. (*)
“Starmer appointed Mandelson without proper checks
Labour peer appointed on back of flimsy two-page dossier and light questioning”
Telegraph
Yet top jobs seem to be allocated by: "They're a good person, I'll vouch for them."
(*) This is probably enough for some in the know to identify him...
Re: Lucy Powell is now the favourite to win the deputy leader race – politicalbetting.com
Yes, I’d tend to agree with most of that. It probably seemed like a very clever idea at the time to appoint him to ambassador, but Starmer of all people should surely understand how scandals can simmer quietly for years before exploding in your face when the time’s right. After all that’s how he got Boris.Starmer will resign then refuse to leave as his own resignation letter never crossed his deskGood evening
I think that Starmer, in his haste to cuddle upto Trump , dismissed genuine concerns over Mandelson's connections with Epstein as Mandelson's skills certainly were a benefit but then he was high risk and unfortunately for Starmer, the revelations this week and his endorsement of Mandelson under Badenoch's questioning, has put him in a very difficult place, but was predictable and an error that may well have serious repercussions for him
I also suspect Starmer is largely being played like a puppet by the Blairite wing of the party
A vox pop of Mandelson's former constituency was scathing and virtually universal in saying that Mandelson should not have been appointed

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