Sir Keir Starmer continues to use humour – politicalbetting.com
Sir Keir Starmer continues to use humour – politicalbetting.com
Things you don't expect to hear in PMQs…Starmer: "They had more positions in 14 years than the Kama Sutra. No wonder they're knackered."@TalkTV pic.twitter.com/doavMVZ8rc
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He’s inept.
It is childish, and I am not at all sure his female mps will be impressed
Can anyone understand why Trump has removed funding from some paediatric charity?
Paediatric/ paedophile is probably a close enough spelling for a barely literate orange baboon.
He'll be banning pedalos next.
But not sure somebody who pitched himself as Sir No Slogan Boring No Funday Forensic Detail Enough of Boris Bullshit doing blue gags is really on brand.
What of their political heroes? Johnson was famed for effing and jeffing in cabinet meetings. Cameron made quite a clever joke about tweets and t**tS. Trump yesterday told a Ford worker to f*** off and what of Farage? Excused as a blameless child and merely schoolyard banter when he didn't so much as cuss as racially abuse people he didn't like.
What's wrong with you all?
As a reminder, Foster is the only person that has the power to sack Guildford. Earlier the home secretary said she no longer has confidence in the chief constable
In a statement, he says:
“I acknowledge, recognise and understand the significant strength of feeling that is shared by many people, including myself, in connection with this contentious issue.
“His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary has written a letter to the Home Secretary to set out his ‘preliminary views’, in relation to the match assessment and categorisation carried out by West Midlands Police around the Maccabi Tel Aviv v’s Aston Villa fixture on 6 November 2025.
“I have been sent that letter having had no sight of, or briefing on, its contents before today. I must now give it careful and detailed consideration.
“The letter is not the final HMICFRS report. It describes how the Chief Inspector’s views may ‘develop or change’ as more information is gathered.
“I have listened to the Home Secretary’s statement in the House of Commons and the questions that followed.
“I await the Home Affairs Select Committee report.
"It is my statutory duty to hold the Chief Constable to account for the totality of policing in the West Midlands.
"In order to give all these issues full and proper consideration, I will be taking this matter to a meeting of my Accountability and Governance Board, held in public, on Tuesday 27 January 2026 and asking questions of the Chief Constable.
"In consideration of these matters, it is vital that all involved act in accordance with due process and the law at all times.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c394zlr8e12t
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2011476301060702329?s=20
We are the nation of Chaucer.
I know it will be a shock to PBers that I love smut/innuendos.
You just know the pearl clutchers would be banging a different tune if Penny Mordaunt was Tory leader, she loved a good innuendo.
https://youtu.be/hvLcYUXBBuc?si=0tCtkSdZuRZkMT1p
If you missed this, the former mayfly Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has switched gravy trains. If that sounds like the sort of death-defying stunt Tom Cruise might break his ankle doing in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it’s nothing like as exhilaratingly watchable. The Tory gravy train has ground to a halt, and Farage will stop his Reform train even between stations to pick up any old has-been you may remember from episodes such as “deathbed Boris Johnson appointments” or “my horses are warmer than pensioners”
Now, take Nadhim Zahawi, who spent Monday’s unveiling press conference making much of the fact that a successful businessman such as himself could have chosen to enjoy a “comfortable retirement”, but instead is joining Reform, apparently as an act of national philanthropy. [Yet] Zahawi accepted more from the taxpayer in energy costs for his second home than any other MP. He was forced to repay those, as he was forced to settle his unpaid bills with HMRC after concealing the investigation into his affairs led to him having to resign as chancellor.
After we line the first couple of miles of the Appian Way…
#NU10K
But there's another thing. In slightly different ways, Kemi and Nigel both take themselves very seriously. And the best way to undermine such people is with a joke at their expense. It doesn't even need to be a good one.
Fat lot of good it did him.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1073698/tony-blair-william-hague-house-commons-brexit-uk-latest-jeremy-corbyn-spt
Ref 30.1%
Con 19.4%
Lab 18.5%
Grn 13.3%
LD 12.8%
SNP 2.7%
https://electionmaps.uk/polling/vi
They call on West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, to sack the West Midlands Police chief.
Both groups say they "welcome" Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's expression of "no confidence" in Craig Guildford.
They say the report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) into the issue has "confirmed our long-held concerns" that the force "sought evidence that supported a predetermined conclusion", and failed to "engage with the local Jewish community".
They call on Foster to "exercise his authority" and dismiss Guildford "without delay".
Some will interpret this identity as being good for Labour - their opposition is split. Some as good for the Tories - they only have one, very fragile, other party to overcome.
On the whole I go with the second view. Labour are in bigger trouble than the Tories despite their identical situation.
But in terms of delivering the material... Starmer is crap. But I suspect that Kemi'n'Nige are probably worse.
In the land of the blind, the blind bloke with a one-eyed guide dog is King. At least for now.
I think that there is a fair chance that Foster ends up by announcing that he is sacking Labour and serving out the remainder of his term as an independent PCC or even as a Green PCC.
Both academically brilliant, firsts from Oxford and both had successful careers in business and finance before election as MPs.
However if Hague had any sense he would have backed Michael Howard in 1997 to be Tory leader as he originally planned rather than run himself. It would then have been Howard who would have lost heavily in 2001 not him and Hague not IDS would have won the 2001 Tory leadership and Hague not Howard would have led the Tories in 2005 when the Tories made reasonable net seat gains. Hague, being much younger than Howard, could then have stayed Tory leader and taken on an unpopular Brown at the next GE with Cameron becoming his Foreign Secretary in 2010 rather than the reverse.
Rishi too should have remained loyal to Boris in 2022, Boris would then have lost but kept the Conservatives over 200 MPs with Reform still next to nowhere rather than getting 14% as they did against Rishi and Truss would never have had the chance for her PM disaster. Rishi would then have been ideally placed to replace a defeated Boris as Tory leader in late 2024 and would likely be Conservative leader now not Kemi and Rishi would now likely have a big poll lead over the unpopular Starmer and his government
Hillsborough, eh?
Just because you agree with the result doesn’t make it better.
This is the point that @Cyclefree and others have been trying to make. Once the fish rots, it’s rotten.
If they lie on a report like this, then they will lie again and again.
"Reuters has reported that Donald Trump appears to have decided on a military strike against Iran, with action potentially coming within the next 24 hours.
Two European officials told the news agency that US military intervention appeared likely, with one saying it could take place within the next day.
An Israeli official also said it appeared Trump had decided to intervene, although the scope and timing of any strike had yet to be made clear."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/14/iran-protests-live-updates-trump-us-action-death-toll-protester-executions-erfan-soltani
That's the problem with such situations, their own initial defence was they were incompetent at googling things, so it's hard to have confidence in the organisation even if the Chief carries the bag as the man ultimately responsible for his service.
Brown's team undermined him in that regard. I recall one of the debates when he'd done ok, not as slick as the others perhaps, but his media defenders were in such overdrive about how he was substance not style that it made him look worse than he'd actually been.
And of course when someone does have style they never claim that means they have no substance, as they imply of any opponent who is better at style than them.
It seems to me they started with a conclusion and got AI (badly) to write it up for them.
Even the AI vs. Google thing from his testimony - it may (or may not) be a trivial distinction, but it's still a flat out, flagrant lie. That alone is surely sackable.
He has been good in the past at going to ground for awhile, but he cannot really manage that now his party is leading in the polls and he really does have a chance of becoming PM.
* they were so unimpartial, you can't really call them a journalist. They basically start the piece with Jezza, big fan.
He will have enough soon to build his own ballroom.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/tj-sabula-is-a-patriot
The biggest Ford dealer group in South Wales CEM Day ( Ford for over100 years) becomes a Geely and Chery dealer.
As both PM and foreign secretary he was operationally effective.
The Observer's Whitehall Editor, Cat Neilan, recently cited my analysis for Hogan Lovells, projecting that the UK government could eliminate the risk of defeat in the House of Lords by 2027.
There are no limits on the Prime Minister's appointment powers, and the extent of No. 10's ambitions are unclear. Media and public scrutiny could influence how far things go, but both are currently quite subdued. The Lords’ ability to delay bills provides some leverage, potentially encouraging the government to act reasonably if cooler heads prevail.
Key stats:
* Since the General Election, the government has been defeated 55 times in 119 Lords divisions, consistent with the previous Conservative government’s experience.
* However, defeats are set to reduce significantly from 2026.
* The Hereditary Peers Bill, progressing through the Lords, will remove 88 peers by this session’s end (only 4 are Labour), reducing defeats by 15% and lowering the average majority against the government from 75 to 55.
* The Government has also been steadily increasing the number of Labour peers. There has been a 36 net gain since the General Election (45 new Labour peers but some are replacing retirees etc)
* If appointments continue at this pace in 2025-26, defeats could halve. By 2026-27, they may vanish entirely, reducing the ability of the Lords to ask the Government to 'think again'
* https://nitter.poast.org/nmdacosta/status/1996378088754594241#m
At the very least he was not at war with his own chancellor, which seems to happen a lot.