Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, Starmer’s Pincher moment – politicalbetting.com
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, Starmer’s Pincher moment – politicalbetting.com
In one of those amusing ironies I have spent the afternoon participating in a seminar about ethics & probity and my answer to every situation was ‘What would Lord Mandelson do in this situation and do the exact opposite’.
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Ange the value
If only the same turmoil would impact US politics.
Should have waited until the last minute to get my pb competiton predictions in. Even then....
Tory MP 1: “This feels like two days before Boris resigned. There was an energy shift in the chamber, people gasped when the PM said he knew”
Can we please have them?
Nobody has moved yet. Presumably there is a desire to wait for the disclosure first?
@jonwalker121
Once again, Keir Starmer's government has been forced to "do the right thing", as an MP put it to me, by his own Labour MPs.
There is a pattern of late or last-minute climbdowns. But today is the last straw for many Labour backbenchers. They say there has to be a change
NEW: All talk about Angela Rayner today
She has caused ‘mayhem’ by forcing PM’s hand on having Parliament oversee Mandelson disclosures
Rayner has been coming into the Chamber with a ‘praetorian guard’ of allies on either side, MPs say
Sam Tarry spotted on the Estate 👀
It’s a day of private meetings away from the Chamber
North West MPs were seen ‘convening’ before PMQs
And Angela Rayner seen going into her office with a key ally just now 👀
With Pincher, it wasn't simply a failure of vetting but a situation where Johnson lied about what he knew and had colleagues unwittingly sent onto the media to propogate that lie. This was also the latest in a series of incidents where Johnson had been utterly unreliable.
That may yet turn out to be the case for Starmer, but I don't think we are there - it was a foolish appointment given Mandelson's track record, but I don't think the anger towards Mandelson for having misled Starmer is synthetic.
For that reason, whilst there is definitely a competence issue there and it's increasingly hard to see a very long term future for Starmer, I don't really see it playing out as it did in the final days of Johnson.
I also find the Rayner surge a little odd. She has a lot going for her, but she isn't exactly Ms Clean, the candidate of unimpeachable personal integrity.
In this way Ange is very much Labour's Truss.
A competent PM in practical running the country terms, would reduce the level of grievance and unhappiness that Farage feeds off. Who would that be? No idea.
A PM who could communicate with the public, who could gain their trust, maybe due to passing the have a pint with test, or just because they can make political arguments simple and obvious. Feels like this quality is actively selected against for politicians. Even someone like Rayner, who at least doesn't come across as being in politics since the age of 12, has spent too long talking to an internal Labour party audience, rather than with the public. That's why she messed up with the Tory scum comment.
What they want is someone who is both in office and in power.
Starmer gives the strong impression of a junior middle manager who is being bullied by everyone.
One thing about this debate is that it's a slew of Labour MP's who Starmer has spurned for one reason or another, almost all women, going in studs first.
Thornberry showing how good she is here.
@roberthutton.co.uk
True fact: Emily Thornberry was the *ONLY* MP to comment in parliament on Mandelson's appointment in the nine months before the scandal broke.
(She called it "inspired", but let's glide past that.)
I just really like Angela Rayner and would happily vote for her . I was willing to give Starmer a chance but he’s failed miserably and this latest debacle is one stupid decision too far . Anyone with an iota of common sense or just even the most basic of political nous would have never appointed Mandelson to that role .
Today - @PaulBrandITV
Mandelson furore fast becoming a moment of peril for the PM.
One Labour MP texts:
"It's the morality of it. If this were Boris we'd be asking for his head... we'd be pushing for transparency... It stinks, I'm sorry."
"His admission he knew at PMQs was the deal breaker".
MAY? Will he last until Monday???
You heard it here first.
It’s that basic
Rayner might well be an economic disaster but fuck it, how does that change anything. I don’t think Rayner will deliberately enact policies that are solely designed to harm the country she governs because she despises it
It’s a pretty low bar but I reckon she’ll clear it
Strange world in which Zack and Kemi both benefit while Nige and Keir gnash their teeth.
I like Rayner, but wonder, for PM level, about 2 of these three. On one of them she has form. On the competence matter, what a fascinating question. Including 'What happens when she has to betray her soft left friends having been confronted with reality?'
Andrew and Epstein asked for 'threesome' from exotic dancer, letters claim
https://www.itv.com/news/2026-02-04/andrew-and-epstein-asked-for-threesome-from-exotic-dancer-letters-claim
When TSE said in the header "Take the blame for May's election defeats", I immediately thought of Theresa!
In my time:
Heath - just about ejected by the voters, but his demise felt certain after the 3 day week
Wilson was left field - ill health not widely known.
Callaghan - ejected by the voters, but his demise was certain after unburied dead
Thatcher - her demise reminds me of today. She just had to go. And she did.
Major - ejected by the voters, but his demise was certain
Blair - dragged it out to prevent Brown, but there came a point that he could hold back the inevitable no longer
Brown - ejected by the voters, but his demise was certain once he bottled the early election
Cameron - his demise was inevitable once he lost the Brexit referendum. He just slinked off, despite saying he wouldn't (no-one believed that)
May - she probably survived more borrowed time than most, but again, her political demise was inevitable
Johnon - post-Pincher, he was fucked. No way he could survive the sentiment of "fuck off, now"
Truss - started pretty much on day one. No way she could survive the bond market sentiment of "fuck off, now"
Sunak - ejected by the voters, but his spectacular demise was certain
Starmer - huge majority, but the thin ice it was built on started melting very quickly. Now EVERYONE - especially his huge raft of MPs - is saying "Fuck off, now. And take that bloody Chancellor with you."
The ramp is being greased by Rayner as we speak.
#Polymath
Has she had phone lines installed yet?
They don’t want chaotic. They don’t want Process State Man.
Time to go.
Oh Angela Rayner🎵🎶🎵
If I had anything to do with it...
Will she still be around to hear it sung in 2027?
It only took them about two weeks to realise what a dismal dud Starmer was, after all. For an outright catastrophe like Rayner I imagine her credibility will be measured in hours.
Corporate entities, etc. are singular, not plural.
So:
Labour is in the shit, not Labour are in the shit.
I’ve met her husband, he’s a pollster, a Brit, went to the dump.
I have the same feeling I have towards Joshua Rozenberg, Christ your missus is bat shit crazy, how do you cope?
"It may not be long before this country has a new prime minister."
Beyond arrogant
Highly unpopular
Issues with truth, her alleged US uni offer
Too argumentative
Intellectually chalkenged
Zionist lap dog
The Tories have 2 correct answers to the question
Cleverly
Mordaunt
Rayners other big positive is her opposition to zionism
Massive in many marginal seats
She would need Jones or Cooper in number 11 though to soothe the markets
She neuters Zach
She'd destroy Kemi At PMQ
She should use the Cabinet to QA major proposals and positions, acting primus inter pares.
She needs an excellent foreign secretary. I suggest she goes back to Lammy.
She needs communicate a vivid picture of a successful happy Britain. That's her job.
The reverse is also true.
But never mind - it must be hard for you watching her take down Starmer