Blowback on McSweeney, who advocated for Mandelson to be ambassador.
“Even yesterday all the PM's advisers were saying we need to sack him — apart from Morgan. Everyone was like, this is looking really bad for the prime minister and Morgan was like, no, we need to defend him”
Has anybody ever seen Morgan McSweeney and Jeffrey Epstein in the same room?
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a warning about what it calls the "worrying trend" of students hacking their own school and college IT systems for fun or as part of dares.
It has told teachers that they are failing to understand and recognise what it calls the "insider threat" pupils pose.
It says more the majority of so-called "insider" cyber attacks and data breaches in education settings - meaning they have been carried out by someone with access to internal systems - originate with students.
But they will never work out VPNs and bypassing OSA.
If an illegal activity was committed using a VPN, the police can trace the users via a warrant to id them from the ISP and then the VPN provider
LOL...you really don't understand VPNs do you. Most paid reputable ones operate no log, RAM cache, IP mixing. Pc Plod is absolutely shit out of luck. Most of those caught doing really dodgy stuff have required a) intelligence services and b) they let something slip unrelated to VPN usage. GCHQ did have a zero day for OpenVPN, but it was closed and they won't burn something like that on some spotty teenager hacking their school.
No, some operate no log as you say not all and as you say intelligence services can be brought in to track cookies and browser fingerprints can be used as well.
And if you are accessing and running child porn sites, planning terrorist outrages and hate crimes with others then GCHQ will be brought in to find you even if your VPN provider has no logs
That is quite an escalation from spotty teenager hacks own school, which is the original conversation.
Also you have repeated showed you don't understand this VPN and anonymising yourself ok the internet, but you keep trying to make ridiculous points when somebody mentions OSA.
No, I do understand it, if you are using VPNs to commit serious crimes then VPN provider logs or not GCHQ will likely eventually catch you.
OSA was brought in primarily to stop under 10s finding porn sites and violent sites by mistake, something clearly and worryingly you don't care about, not to stop spotty teens 13+ watching legal adult porn
What - you haven't a clue
Clearly more than you it seems
I have children and grandchildren and a son who is head of IT at a local school to call on
Your last paragraph could only be written by someone who has no practical knowledge of children's interaction with the Internet
I suggested upthread, Mr G, that he lives a sheltered, perhaps unworldly, life.
Given 69% of adults back the Online Safety Act it is certainly not just the sheltered and unworldly who support it, indeed it is one of the few popular acts of this Labour government ensuring it was implemented.
Most of the public are far more authoritarian than the average PB poster
Most people, like you, are utterly, utterly ignorant about online matters.
My favourite was talking to some friends who were in favour of the OSA. Their 13 year old boy sets up and runs the family IT - cloud, WiFi etc
They couldn’t be bothered to learn. And they genuinely thought that they would get some control…..
No most are parents or grandparents who don't want their 7 year old children or grandchildren for example stumbling across porn or violent websites
And as has been repeatedly said to you the age verification is easily avoided by children of all ages
You are to become a parent later this year so you will soon be learning the issues with children and the internet and the ineffective nature of OSA
And as has been repeatedly said to you children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN and also unlikely to be searching intentionally for porn or violent material
Apart from yourself repeating the same nonsense who else has agreed with you ?
You know nothing about this subject but maybe will gain experience from your own youngster you are expecting
Our 10 year old grandson would run rings round you with his knowledge of IT
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible for the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
And then there were two… Bell Ribeiro-Addy drops out of the race to be Deputy Labour leader, setting up a contest between Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell in the next round.
So no hard left figure in the final 2, a relief for Starmer
Given the threshold, the fact nominations are public, and the efforts made over Starmer's leadership to remove the most problematic members of the left, it would've been really surprising to see one nominated.
It's still a headache, though. Starmer has literally just sacked Powell, and she's close to Andy Burnham. It will be two fingers up to him if she wins it - indeed, she has more chance of doing so than a token hard left figure.
On topic, I can't see this bringing Starmer down on its own but it's another burden on the camel's back. if you look at Boris, Pinchergate wasn't the biggest of the various scandals but it was the last straw.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
What I don't get is why Mandelson was so keen to curry favour with Epstein? What was in it for him?
It's curious the hold Epstein was able to have over some people - Mandelson seemed absolutely besotted. Yet others felt seriously uneasy the moment they clapped eyes on him and ran a mile.
Mandelson's drug of choice is power, and Epstein had lots
The other mysterious thing is quite how Epstein got so rich, while being so generous to everyone that he met.
Someone was paying for all this.
Until we get a thorough enquiry, it’s speculation.
Epstein was running (he claimed) a money management service. One billionaire put all his money with Epstein. Epstein, apparently, charged higher than average fees for these services.
Speculation was that he was either running a ponzi, a partial ponzi, and/or was using his evil services as combined blackmail and payment to use his financial services.
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer
One of the saddest things in modern UK politics is the way Jo Cox has been elevated, whilst David Amess has been relatively forgotten. Both murdered by political/religious extremists.
People pick whichever one matches their prejudices, and elevate that while minimizing the other.
I try to remember both, and also Gow. I could go back further, but they're really beyond my political time.
In today's context it's difficult to believe the LDs decided to contest the Eastbourne by-election.
Enfield Southgate was also contested by all parties in 1984 following the MP's killing in the Brighton bombing.
Personally, I think parties sitting out Batley & Spen and Southend West was entirely wrong and the precedent should be ditched.
The idea that the fact the seat might change hands between the mainstream parties at a by-election would encourage murders being carried out by people who are totally outside that mainstream seems ludicrous. A small tribute to a democratic politician who is tragically killed in the course of their duties is that democracy goes on regardless.
Er, no. By-elections can be destabilising for the government concerned. Could conceivably be a motivation. The by-election caused by Ian Gow's murder was pretty damaging for Mrs T's Govt at the time - IRA won't have minded that one bit.
Absolute nonsense. The murder of a politician is destabilising, and that's the aim. The ensuing by-election is democracy - it is the embodiment of everything those pursuing political ends through the bomb rather than the ballot are against.
The idea the IRA gave a damn either way that Paddy Ashdown (a former commander of a Royal Marine unit in Belfast incidentally) got a decent result, is risible.
Yeah, right. In the age of Russian disinformation and election manipulation, the idea that a by-election could be used to damage a govt by malicious agent is "absolute nonsense". Yeah, right.
Again. The murder is the destabilising act. The resulting election is democracy. It's a crucial distinction and I hope you'll give it some more serious thoughts.
Say we were back in 1995, and five or ten Conservative MPs were murdered. The resultant by-elections might have removed Major's majority, and caused a change in government. So yes, political murders could be used to force political change - and that's bad.
Or, to think of it, May more recently.
Firstly, a change of government to what? People who engage in political violence are interested in bringing democracy down, not getting John Smith or Tony Blair in.
Secondly, and as if to prove my point, I'm not aware that anyone did try to murder five or ten MPs in the Major era in order to bring down his Government for whatever reason... even though the convention at the time was for by-elections to be contested in such circumstances (based on Enfield Southgate and Eastbourne).
Thirdly, in Batley & Spen the MP who was tragically murdered wasn't part of the governing party so that could not possibly have been the motive and quite clearly wasn't the motive (and by your logic, does the convention apply only to governing party MPs?). In Southend West, the MP was a member of the governing party, but again it's quite obvious the motive wasn't to get a by-election that the Conservatives might lose to Labour (or anyone else).
What you're talking about is a convention where parties agree to suspend democracy over some kind of purely theoretical risk, where there's no evidence that it ever has or is ever likely to eventuate.
Firstly, to bring about a government more of their liking. Or just to cause chaos. Sometimes chaos works very well for a malicious actor.
Secondly, the IRA did try. The Brighton bombing was a decade earlier; the No. 10 mortar attack was designed to kill Major and the war cabinet.
Thirdly, how can you tell when it is 'obvious' what the motivation was?
In cases of tragic death, e.g. Michael Colvin, by all means, have a contested by-election. but we need to be much more careful when there's an assassination.
The intention of the Brighton bombing, and the Number 10 attack, was to kill the PM and cabinet - I completely agree that was the intention.
But, again, that's my point - it is the chaos and killing that is the intention, and the defeat of democratic politics through violence. The ensuing by-elections are neither here nor there - indeed, they are a small re-assertion of democratic politics.
You're not, surely, seriously asserting that the IRA wouldn't have bothered targeting the Thatcher or Major cabinets if they'd believed that opposition parties wouldn't contest the ensuing by-elections?
Your last sentence is really very opaque. Could you translate without all the nots?
Apologies. My point is the IRA simply wanted to kill leading government ministers in the Brighton and Downing Street attacks. Had the convention at the time been that opposition parties wouldn't stand in the ensuing by elections, would the IRA still have undertaken the attacks? I think very clearly the answer is yes.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
What I don't get is why Mandelson was so keen to curry favour with Epstein? What was in it for him?
It's curious the hold Epstein was able to have over some people - Mandelson seemed absolutely besotted. Yet others felt seriously uneasy the moment they clapped eyes on him and ran a mile.
Mandelson's drug of choice is power, and Epstein had lots
The other mysterious thing is quite how Epstein got so rich, while being so generous to everyone that he met.
Someone was paying for all this.
Until we get a thorough enquiry, it’s speculation.
Epstein was running (he claimed) a money management service. One billionaire put all his money with Epstein. Epstein, apparently, charged higher than average fees for these services.
Speculation was that he was either running a ponzi, a partial ponzi, and/or was using his evil services as combined blackmail and payment to use his financial services.
What I don't get is why Mandelson was so keen to curry favour with Epstein? What was in it for him?
It's curious the hold Epstein was able to have over some people - Mandelson seemed absolutely besotted. Yet others felt seriously uneasy the moment they clapped eyes on him and ran a mile.
Mandelson's drug of choice is power, and Epstein had lots
The other mysterious thing is quite how Epstein got so rich, while being so generous to everyone that he met.
Someone was paying for all this.
Until we get a thorough enquiry, it’s speculation.
Epstein was running (he claimed) a money management service. One billionaire put all his money with Epstein. Epstein, apparently, charged higher than average fees for these services.
Speculation was that he was either running a ponzi, a partial ponzi, and/or was using his evil services as combined blackmail and payment to use his financial services.
Brits on holiday, however, will be able to use it.
Will that make us more or less annoying to the locals?
The Translators’ Union voted for it to be banned?
The tech looks to be game changing, the only reason I don’t like it is because I got the ‘old’ AirPods Pro for Christmas last year and they still work just fine.
"By effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, (this) has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation..."
Are you Babelfishing for likes?
Quite likely!
I know we are kind of used to this now and quite a few on here know how it all works but it still strikes me as utterly bonkers that a throwaway bit of science fiction amusement from about 40 years ago is a least replicable with current technology.
Surely someone will have to make a fish shaped earphone just for the lolz.
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
I think it comes down to why did those Tory voters sit out the 2024 election and what is required to get them to leave their house and vote the next time round
My piccie for the day. Wet wipe island foreshaw in Hammersmith, which changed the course of the river. Now cleared - 5 million wet wipes flushed down the loo (I assume).
A bipartisan group of senators is proposing a bill to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism due to reports of Russian authorities abducting Ukrainian children and training them to fight for the Russian army.
My piccie for the day. Wet wipe island foreshaw in Hammersmith, which changed the course of the river. Now cleared - 5 million wet wipes flushed down the loo (I assume).
It is simples: if your products contain plastic and are non-biodegradable, and are found as a significant part of this issue, you get a mahoosive fine.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
There’s too many other things going on in the media so this won’t get any airtime .
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
I think it comes down to why did those Tory voters sit out the 2024 election and what is required to get them to leave their house and vote the next time round
I realise I am arguing for my wishes, but there's a fairly simple reason why a Tory voter would have returned to the fold - they don't want any more Starmer, he's been far worse than expected, and they're not Reform inclined.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
I assume if evidence of these allegations is provided than that may well change the issue, but for now it seems just a rumour
Frankly, I would be delighted to see Farage outed but I do not think this is the magic bullet
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
If the last couple of weeks have taught us anything, it's that the first bit of rumness in an emerging scandal often looks like a nothingburger. It's what emerges later that may or may not be interesting.
My piccie for the day. Wet wipe island foreshaw in Hammersmith, which changed the course of the river. Now cleared - 5 million wet wipes flushed down the loo (I assume).
It is simples: if your products contain plastic and are non-biodegradable, and are found as a significant part of this issue, you get a mahoosive fine.
That'll fix it.
Many of the offending products are labelled "flushable".
The manufacturers should definitely take at least half of the blame for this.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
I think it comes down to why did those Tory voters sit out the 2024 election and what is required to get them to leave their house and vote the next time round
I realise I am arguing for my wishes, but there's a fairly simple reason why a Tory voter would have returned to the fold - they don't want any more Starmer, he's been far worse than expected, and they're not Reform inclined.
Given this fact, my sense (coloured by my hope) is that probably a group of polls (probably Yougov and MoreinCommon) are slightly overstating Labour and understating the Tories. It may be a good idea to downweight Reform (their voters can be flakier) but I think anyone saying 'Tory' to a poll these days should probably be taken as fairly reliable, even if they didn't vote in 2024.
I think Farage will be fine, its the rest of his finances that need to be squeaky clean. However taking specialist tax advice was a misstep imo, it smacks of over covering your tender arse
I’ve just discovered my hotel has a private woodland and beach, with bar. And this is the view
This is a magnificent corner of the Med. The towns are often ugly and concrete but the landscapes and the turquoise coast compete to see which can be the most nonsensically beautiful
Blowback on McSweeney, who advocated for Mandelson to be ambassador.
“Even yesterday all the PM's advisers were saying we need to sack him — apart from Morgan. Everyone was like, this is looking really bad for the prime minister and Morgan was like, no, we need to defend him”
Talking of "what do they have to do to get sacked?"...
What does Morgan McSweeney have to do to be sacked?
Mandelson sacking has caused 'huge collateral damage' for Starmer
The sacking of Peter Mandelson from his role as ambassador has caused "huge collateral damage", says our political editor Beth Rigby.
She says there was "absolute fury" among Labour MPs yesterday, when they realised Mandelson had continued to contact and support Epstein, following his convictions for sex offences in 2008.
"When those details emerged, it really was a question of when, not if he had to go," she says.
Beth adds that there are still lots of questions for the PM to answer:
What was the vetting process?
Who knew what, when?
How did Mandelson get back into government given his historic relationship with Epstein, and given that he had been forced to resign from government in disgrace twice before?
She says that Starmer has sought to act "swiftly" but is probably "regretting" bringing him back into government.
"There is undoubtedly huge collateral damage now on Keir Starmer, having to let go a key member of his government," she says.
Referencing the resignation of Angela Rayner, she says this is "two in two weeks".
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
"Smoking gun" is probably not the best term to use today, but still.
I have to say you're being extremely generous to Farage there. £885k home with no mortgage, apparently bought outright from the personal resources of a lady whose career background appears to be a couple of failed businesses and some waitressing. The "wealthy parents" seem to live in a modest £300k flat in Strasbourg.
Maybe they are frugal, modest, and highly generous French pensioners. But you have to strongly suspect Farage provided the money and put the house in her name to reduce stamp duty liability by £40k (or to use the the colloquial term for that sum, a "Rayner").
Farage and his partner can easily disprove that if it's wrong, of course, by showing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter. Let's see if they do.
Blowback on McSweeney, who advocated for Mandelson to be ambassador.
“Even yesterday all the PM's advisers were saying we need to sack him — apart from Morgan. Everyone was like, this is looking really bad for the prime minister and Morgan was like, no, we need to defend him”
Talking of "what do they have to do to get sacked?"...
What does Morgan McSweeney have to do to be sacked?
Someone noted Sue Gray would probably not have allowed the Mandelson appointment. Who kicked her out?
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
Tories ought to go hard on this.
Unwise, as I expect that a lot of the Tory MPs have multiple homes too, and interesting tax arrangements.
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
An interesting Newsagents. The US is in serious trouble . A congress woman accusing the Democrats of being totally responsible for this shooting though not agreeing that Repulicans were responsible for two Democrats being shot.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Did you read that article, the family don’t have that sort of money
The article doesn't prove that though. For all you know, some rich aunt left them some money or they are actually quite well off but are happy living in their modest flat (see Warren Buffett).
The problem with the idea that Farage gifted her the money is that if they split up, she gets to keep the lot. You wouldn't have thought Farage would want to do that as he's already been divorced. Lot of money to put at stake to save some stamp duty.
The only way this story goes somewhere is if the press gets some evidence of Farage gifting her the money (or she got it from a dodgy donor.)
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
"Smoking gun" is probably not the best term to use today, but still.
I have to say you're being extremely generous to Farage there. £885k home with no mortgage, apparently bought outright from the personal resources of a lady whose career background appears to be a couple of failed businesses and some waitressing. The "wealthy parents" seem to live in a modest £300k flat in Strasbourg.
Maybe they are frugal, modest, and highly generous French pensioners. But you have to strongly suspect Farage provided the money and put the house in her name to reduce stamp duty liability by £40k (or to use the the colloquial term for that sum, a "Rayner").
Farage and his partner can easily disprove that if it's wrong, of course, by showing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter. Let's see if they do.
But where would Farage have got that kind of money from? I mean, I'm sure he would never have used his £2m expenses from the European Parliament for anything like that.
An interesting Newsagents. The US is in serious trouble . A congress woman accusing the Democrats of being totally responsible for this shooting though not agreeing that Repulicans were responsible for two Democrats being shot.
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
I think it comes down to why did those Tory voters sit out the 2024 election and what is required to get them to leave their house and vote the next time round
I realise I am arguing for my wishes, but there's a fairly simple reason why a Tory voter would have returned to the fold - they don't want any more Starmer, he's been far worse than expected, and they're not Reform inclined.
If the reason for not voting is because there is no point as the Tory candidate has zero chance in my seat, then currently nothing will have changed in 2028/9.
Remember I think people should vote but I can see why people who vote for X may decide not to when there is zero chance of their voting making a difference..
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
I assume if evidence of these allegations is provided than that may well change the issue, but for now it seems just a rumour
Frankly, I would be delighted to see Farage outed but I do not think this is the magic bullet
Again, not a brilliant day to use the term "magic bullet", but still
The evidence is the career record of Farage's partner, and the evidence of the modest means of her parents. The couple could also very easily put the matter to bed by providing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter.
As I say, I don't think it will bring Farage down as he has the support of his party, and I don't think his supporters care enough about it. But it's reasonably convincing, to be frank.
TSE mentioned a while back that Yougov had begun to weight more heavily based on GE vote (not sure why) and that got lower RefUK scores.
How would such a weighting affect the Tories? Would it depress or flatter their score? I would have thought it would flatter their score, as they were on 24% now they're on 15%, but could it actually depress it, because a lot of their natural voters (who may have come back) stayed at home last time?
It would depress the Tory share of the vote slightly, as a chunk of their 2019 vote sat out the 2024 election.
Reform are picking up habitual non voters (people who didn’t vote in 2024, 2019, and further back).
The more you haven’t voted in elections the more you get down weighted.
Thanks for the answer. I do wonder then whether the situation for the Tories is quite as bleak as it looks. Though obviously that would only apply to pollsters downweighting previous non-voters.
I think it comes down to why did those Tory voters sit out the 2024 election and what is required to get them to leave their house and vote the next time round
I realise I am arguing for my wishes, but there's a fairly simple reason why a Tory voter would have returned to the fold - they don't want any more Starmer, he's been far worse than expected, and they're not Reform inclined.
Given this fact, my sense (coloured by my hope) is that probably a group of polls (probably Yougov and MoreinCommon) are slightly overstating Labour and understating the Tories. It may be a good idea to downweight Reform (their voters can be flakier) but I think anyone saying 'Tory' to a poll these days should probably be taken as fairly reliable, even if they didn't vote in 2024.
There will likely be some drift back when faced with actual elections. Not a full drift back but certainly 'some'. Its evident in some of the local by elections - where they are still competitive the vote holds up a little better than polling or versus the July 2024 ward by wards on New Statesman (not always of course!) Disillusioned Tories (and Labour for that matter) have little to drag them to the booth or express a keeness to vote in polling with no immediate GE looming. Its probably no coincidence the Tories best recent poll was with Ashcroft who includes all '5/10' or better inclined to vote. Tories still a bit pissy about everything have a 'fairly decent' chance of voting Tory 2029 but arent right now going to be saying 9/10
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
I assume if evidence of these allegations is provided than that may well change the issue, but for now it seems just a rumour
Frankly, I would be delighted to see Farage outed but I do not think this is the magic bullet
Again, not a brilliant day to use the term "magic bullet", but still
The evidence is the career record of Farage's partner, and the evidence of the modest means of her parents. The couple could also very easily put the matter to bed by providing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter.
As I say, I don't think it will bring Farage down as he has the support of his party, and I don't think his supporters care enough about it. But it's reasonably convincing, to be frank.
Bit careless of me - an old man's innocent mistake !!!!!!!
Brits on holiday, however, will be able to use it.
Will that make us more or less annoying to the locals?
The Translators’ Union voted for it to be banned?
The tech looks to be game changing, the only reason I don’t like it is because I got the ‘old’ AirPods Pro for Christmas last year and they still work just fine.
"By effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, (this) has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation..."
Are you Babelfishing for likes?
Quite likely!
I know we are kind of used to this now and quite a few on here know how it all works but it still strikes me as utterly bonkers that a throwaway bit of science fiction amusement from about 40 years ago is a least replicable with current technology.
Surely someone will have to make a fish shaped earphone just for the lolz.
Does the translation from English into French one get louder and louder if you repeat the same thing more than once?
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
Tories ought to go hard on this.
Unwise, as I expect that a lot of the Tory MPs have multiple homes too, and interesting tax arrangements.
every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer
One of the saddest things in modern UK politics is the way Jo Cox has been elevated, whilst David Amess has been relatively forgotten. Both murdered by political/religious extremists.
Went on Southend Pier on Tuesday, was disappointed that the new (green, battery-driven) train Sir David Amess was out of service, had to make do with the old (blue, diesel-powered) Sir William Heygate.
My piccie for the day. Wet wipe island foreshaw in Hammersmith, which changed the course of the river. Now cleared - 5 million wet wipes flushed down the loo (I assume).
It is simples: if your products contain plastic and are non-biodegradable, and are found as a significant part of this issue, you get a mahoosive fine.
That'll fix it.
Many of the offending products are labelled "flushable".
The manufacturers should definitely take at least half of the blame for this.
As someone who rows along that stretch of the river, we are all LOLing at this - what do they think is gong to happen next?
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a warning about what it calls the "worrying trend" of students hacking their own school and college IT systems for fun or as part of dares.
It has told teachers that they are failing to understand and recognise what it calls the "insider threat" pupils pose.
It says more the majority of so-called "insider" cyber attacks and data breaches in education settings - meaning they have been carried out by someone with access to internal systems - originate with students.
But they will never work out VPNs and bypassing OSA.
If an illegal activity was committed using a VPN, the police can trace the users via a warrant to id them from the ISP and then the VPN provider
LOL...you really don't understand VPNs do you. Most paid reputable ones operate no log, RAM cache, IP mixing. Pc Plod is absolutely shit out of luck. Most of those caught doing really dodgy stuff have required a) intelligence services and b) they let something slip unrelated to VPN usage. GCHQ did have a zero day for OpenVPN, but it was closed and they won't burn something like that on some spotty teenager hacking their school.
No, some operate no log as you say not all and as you say intelligence services can be brought in to track cookies and browser fingerprints can be used as well.
And if you are accessing and running child porn sites, planning terrorist outrages and hate crimes with others then GCHQ will be brought in to find you even if your VPN provider has no logs
That is quite an escalation from spotty teenager hacks own school, which is the original conversation.
Also you have repeated showed you don't understand this VPN and anonymising yourself ok the internet, but you keep trying to make ridiculous points when somebody mentions OSA.
No, I do understand it, if you are using VPNs to commit serious crimes then VPN provider logs or not GCHQ will likely eventually catch you.
OSA was brought in primarily to stop under 10s finding porn sites and violent sites by mistake, something clearly and worryingly you don't care about, not to stop spotty teens 13+ watching legal adult porn
What - you haven't a clue
Clearly more than you it seems
I have children and grandchildren and a son who is head of IT at a local school to call on
Your last paragraph could only be written by someone who has no practical knowledge of children's interaction with the Internet
I suggested upthread, Mr G, that he lives a sheltered, perhaps unworldly, life.
Given 69% of adults back the Online Safety Act it is certainly not just the sheltered and unworldly who support it, indeed it is one of the few popular acts of this Labour government ensuring it was implemented.
Most of the public are far more authoritarian than the average PB poster
Most people, like you, are utterly, utterly ignorant about online matters.
My favourite was talking to some friends who were in favour of the OSA. Their 13 year old boy sets up and runs the family IT - cloud, WiFi etc
They couldn’t be bothered to learn. And they genuinely thought that they would get some control…..
No most are parents or grandparents who don't want their 7 year old children or grandchildren for example stumbling across porn or violent websites
And as has been repeatedly said to you the age verification is easily avoided by children of all ages
You are to become a parent later this year so you will soon be learning the issues with children and the internet and the ineffective nature of OSA
And as has been repeatedly said to you children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN and also unlikely to be searching intentionally for porn or violent material
Apart from yourself repeating the same nonsense who else has agreed with you ?
You know nothing about this subject but maybe will gain experience from your own youngster you are expecting
Our 10 year old grandson would run rings round you with his knowledge of IT
Over 60% of the voters, as I posted from Yougov.
This libertarian or liberal dominated blog obviously won't, does your 10 year old want to regularly find porn or violence in his searches? I doubt it and nor will a 5 year old much less familiar with IT
Blowback on McSweeney, who advocated for Mandelson to be ambassador.
“Even yesterday all the PM's advisers were saying we need to sack him — apart from Morgan. Everyone was like, this is looking really bad for the prime minister and Morgan was like, no, we need to defend him”
Talking of "what do they have to do to get sacked?"...
What does Morgan McSweeney have to do to be sacked?
Someone noted Sue Gray would probably not have allowed the Mandelson appointment. Who kicked her out?
Sue Gray is hugely overrated.
The likeliest explanation is that Mandelson was appointed precisely because of his knowledge of the circles Trump moved in and his associates and it was felt that he would be effective in handling Trump. This came with huge obvious risks. But Starmer and Co probably felt that the benefits outweighed the risks. It was not that long ago that everyone was praising Starmer for the way he dealt with Trump at his meeting with him, the state visit et etc.,. And probably Mandelson played a part in that.
I expect they assumed any emails would not come out. After all, the details of Epstein's connections and the men who actually abused the girls has very effectively been kept under wraps. Odd that.
Mandelson sacking has caused 'huge collateral damage' for Starmer
The sacking of Peter Mandelson from his role as ambassador has caused "huge collateral damage", says our political editor Beth Rigby.
She says there was "absolute fury" among Labour MPs yesterday, when they realised Mandelson had continued to contact and support Epstein, following his convictions for sex offences in 2008.
"When those details emerged, it really was a question of when, not if he had to go," she says.
Beth adds that there are still lots of questions for the PM to answer:
What was the vetting process?
Who knew what, when?
How did Mandelson get back into government given his historic relationship with Epstein, and given that he had been forced to resign from government in disgrace twice before?
She says that Starmer has sought to act "swiftly" but is probably "regretting" bringing him back into government.
"There is undoubtedly huge collateral damage now on Keir Starmer, having to let go a key member of his government," she says.
Referencing the resignation of Angela Rayner, she says this is "two in two weeks".
Is it a key member of the Government? Since when? I am not defending Starmer, but this role is a diplomatic one. And in this age of instant communication, there isn't really a go-between role - we’re not talking the court of Elizabeth I here.
Dubai resident Richard Tice defends his leader from tax dodging when someone bought him a house in Clacton......Good to see Mr Balls on the case. Maybe the Telegraph could bring their experience to bear
Farage girlfriend buys a house and he co- habits with her
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
His trouble is that there is fairly convincing evidence she didn't use her money to buy the house. It's not clear what employment she's had that would get her the money to buy the house outright (there is no mortgage on it) and the story about her parents providing the money is paper thin (they don't appear to be especially wealthy).
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
Tories ought to go hard on this.
Unwise, as I expect that a lot of the Tory MPs have multiple homes too, and interesting tax arrangements.
But Farage matters, whereas Quentin Randombob, the Tory MP for Rutland North East, is totally irrelevant. I don't think you let up on attacking the leader of the party leading in the polls simply on the basis that some nobody sat behind you might have been less than transparent with HMRC at some point.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a warning about what it calls the "worrying trend" of students hacking their own school and college IT systems for fun or as part of dares.
It has told teachers that they are failing to understand and recognise what it calls the "insider threat" pupils pose.
It says more the majority of so-called "insider" cyber attacks and data breaches in education settings - meaning they have been carried out by someone with access to internal systems - originate with students.
But they will never work out VPNs and bypassing OSA.
If an illegal activity was committed using a VPN, the police can trace the users via a warrant to id them from the ISP and then the VPN provider
LOL...you really don't understand VPNs do you. Most paid reputable ones operate no log, RAM cache, IP mixing. Pc Plod is absolutely shit out of luck. Most of those caught doing really dodgy stuff have required a) intelligence services and b) they let something slip unrelated to VPN usage. GCHQ did have a zero day for OpenVPN, but it was closed and they won't burn something like that on some spotty teenager hacking their school.
No, some operate no log as you say not all and as you say intelligence services can be brought in to track cookies and browser fingerprints can be used as well.
And if you are accessing and running child porn sites, planning terrorist outrages and hate crimes with others then GCHQ will be brought in to find you even if your VPN provider has no logs
That is quite an escalation from spotty teenager hacks own school, which is the original conversation.
Also you have repeated showed you don't understand this VPN and anonymising yourself ok the internet, but you keep trying to make ridiculous points when somebody mentions OSA.
No, I do understand it, if you are using VPNs to commit serious crimes then VPN provider logs or not GCHQ will likely eventually catch you.
OSA was brought in primarily to stop under 10s finding porn sites and violent sites by mistake, something clearly and worryingly you don't care about, not to stop spotty teens 13+ watching legal adult porn
What - you haven't a clue
Clearly more than you it seems
I have children and grandchildren and a son who is head of IT at a local school to call on
Your last paragraph could only be written by someone who has no practical knowledge of children's interaction with the Internet
I suggested upthread, Mr G, that he lives a sheltered, perhaps unworldly, life.
Given 69% of adults back the Online Safety Act it is certainly not just the sheltered and unworldly who support it, indeed it is one of the few popular acts of this Labour government ensuring it was implemented.
Most of the public are far more authoritarian than the average PB poster
Most people, like you, are utterly, utterly ignorant about online matters.
My favourite was talking to some friends who were in favour of the OSA. Their 13 year old boy sets up and runs the family IT - cloud, WiFi etc
They couldn’t be bothered to learn. And they genuinely thought that they would get some control…..
No most are parents or grandparents who don't want their 7 year old children or grandchildren for example stumbling across porn or violent websites
And as has been repeatedly said to you the age verification is easily avoided by children of all ages
You are to become a parent later this year so you will soon be learning the issues with children and the internet and the ineffective nature of OSA
And as has been repeatedly said to you children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN and also unlikely to be searching intentionally for porn or violent material
Apart from yourself repeating the same nonsense who else has agreed with you ?
You know nothing about this subject but maybe will gain experience from your own youngster you are expecting
Our 10 year old grandson would run rings round you with his knowledge of IT
Over 60% of the voters, as I posted from Yougov.
This libertarian or liberal dominated blog obviously won't, does your 10 year old want to regularly find porn or violence in his searches? I doubt it and nor will a 5 year old much less familiar with IT
'And as has been repeatedly said to you children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN and also unlikely to be searching intentionally for porn or violent material
Over 60% of the voters, as I posted on Yougov.'
Please link to where yougov said children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN
An interesting Newsagents. The US is in serious trouble . A congress woman accusing the Democrats of being totally responsible for this shooting though not agreeing that Repulicans were responsible for two Democrats being shot.
An interesting Newsagents. The US is in serious trouble . A congress woman accusing the Democrats of being totally responsible for this shooting though not agreeing that Repulicans were responsible for two Democrats being shot.
Bridget Philipson has some warmth. Good communicator.
Phillipson is favourite, but what about a nibble on Deeply Dippy Powell at 4-1?
Phillipson is the continuity Starmer candidate
After this week, how many Labour MPs want that?
It's nothing to do with MPs now. They've just decided the two nominations. Who wins depends on CLPs, party members and affiliates. The outcome is fairly unpredictable.
An interesting Newsagents. The US is in serious trouble . A congress woman accusing the Democrats of being totally responsible for this shooting though not agreeing that Repulicans were responsible for two Democrats being shot.
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
My piccie for the day. Wet wipe island foreshaw in Hammersmith, which changed the course of the river. Now cleared - 5 million wet wipes flushed down the loo (I assume).
It is simples: if your products contain plastic and are non-biodegradable, and are found as a significant part of this issue, you get a mahoosive fine.
That'll fix it.
Many of the offending products are labelled "flushable".
The manufacturers should definitely take at least half of the blame for this.
Not disagreeing with the sentiment - I'd read this stomachturning report a few weeks back:
Mandelson sacking has caused 'huge collateral damage' for Starmer
The sacking of Peter Mandelson from his role as ambassador has caused "huge collateral damage", says our political editor Beth Rigby.
She says there was "absolute fury" among Labour MPs yesterday, when they realised Mandelson had continued to contact and support Epstein, following his convictions for sex offences in 2008.
"When those details emerged, it really was a question of when, not if he had to go," she says.
Beth adds that there are still lots of questions for the PM to answer:
What was the vetting process?
Who knew what, when?
How did Mandelson get back into government given his historic relationship with Epstein, and given that he had been forced to resign from government in disgrace twice before?
She says that Starmer has sought to act "swiftly" but is probably "regretting" bringing him back into government.
"There is undoubtedly huge collateral damage now on Keir Starmer, having to let go a key member of his government," she says.
Referencing the resignation of Angela Rayner, she says this is "two in two weeks".
Is it a key member of the Government? Since when? I am not defending Starmer, but this role is a diplomatic one. And in this age of instant communication, there isn't really a go-between role - we’re not talking the court of Elizabeth I here.
Problem was Mandelson was a political appointment not a civil servant
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
Bridget Philipson has some warmth. Good communicator.
Phillipson is favourite, but what about a nibble on Deeply Dippy Powell at 4-1?
Phillipson is the continuity Starmer candidate
After this week, how many Labour MPs want that?
It's nothing to do with MPs now. They've just decided the two nominations. Who wins depends on CLPs, party members and affiliates. The outcome is fairly unpredictable.
I think Phillipson has it in the bag. Did you see her speech at the TUC this week?
Comments
It always happens when TSE is away.
Apart from Peter Mandelson?
You know nothing about this subject but maybe will gain experience from your own youngster you are expecting
Our 10 year old grandson would run rings round you with his knowledge of IT
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible for the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
Are there any others?
@kateferguson4
NEW: Peter Mandelson has written to British embassy staff after his sacking.
Says: "I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein twenty years ago and the plight of his victims.
"I have no alternative to accepting the Prime Minister's decision."
It's still a headache, though. Starmer has literally just sacked Powell, and she's close to Andy Burnham. It will be two fingers up to him if she wins it - indeed, she has more chance of doing so than a token hard left figure.
Labour has appointed *52* parliamentary private secretaries - up from 38
Plenty of grumbly MPs who were hoping to be reshuffled onto the frontbench are being placated with this grey zone role
List meant to be released on Monday, but many a back-and-forth held it up...
What has he done wrong
And nobody dislikes Farage more than I do but there are a lot more ways to trip him up than this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE
@GoodwinMJ
The Oxford Union’s incoming president appeared to celebrate the shooting of Charlie Kirk just months after debating him.
In messages seen by The Telegraph, Mr Abaraonye posted: “Charlie Kirk go shot, let’s f---ing go”
Another message, believed to be on the student’s Instagram account, stated “Charlie Kirk got shot loool”, an exaggeration of the abbreviation “laughing out loud”
This “man” should not be representing the @OxfordUnion@UniofOxford
Utter disgrace (article below)"
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1966183385019387920
There are reports she has never been there
Did she forget about Pritti Patel?
......and she was doing so well
I know we are kind of used to this now and quite a few on here know how it all works but it still strikes me as utterly bonkers that a throwaway bit of science fiction amusement from about 40 years ago is a least replicable with current technology.
Surely someone will have to make a fish shaped earphone just for the lolz.
On Thursday, they announced that 114 tonnes of rubbish were cleared from the river and taken away in skips to landfill, including almost 200 cubic metres of wet wipes containing plastics.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/wet-wipes-thames-island-5HjdCrq_2/
@ABCPolitics
A bipartisan group of senators is proposing a bill to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism due to reports of Russian authorities abducting Ukrainian children and training them to fight for the Russian army.
https://x.com/ABCPolitics/status/1966187362020377023
That'll fix it.
It was a pair of underpants and a hammer . This would surely go down as glorifying violence !
But of course nothing to see .
Kind of the whole point of being fired.
The BBC had an article on this earlier: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce845w70g0yo
Not a smoking gun.
See where you're going wrong?
If she used Farage's money, and he simply put her name on the deeds, that would have reduced stamp duty liability by about £40k. Coincidentally, a similar reduction to that from which Rayner benefited, and which Farage said was more than sufficient to drum her out of office.
He'll probably bluff this one out as it's a slightly complex story for his supporters to grasp. But unless he can pull an evidential rabbit out of the hat fast, he does look pretty much bang to rights.
Mandelson becomes the first person to be sacked by a Government in three different decades.
@Daniel_Sugarman
Incredibly, the only Labour Prime Minister in the last 46 years not to sack Peter Mandelson is Gordon Brown.
Frankly, I would be delighted to see Farage outed but I do not think this is the magic bullet
The manufacturers should definitely take at least half of the blame for this.
Is she a British resident? If not then the overseas owner rule applies, and a different surcharge.
However taking specialist tax advice was a misstep imo, it smacks of over covering your tender arse
This is a magnificent corner of the Med. The towns are often ugly and concrete but the landscapes and the turquoise coast compete to see which can be the most nonsensically beautiful
What does Morgan McSweeney have to do to be sacked?
Mandelson sacking has caused 'huge collateral damage' for Starmer
The sacking of Peter Mandelson from his role as ambassador has caused "huge collateral damage", says our political editor Beth Rigby.
She says there was "absolute fury" among Labour MPs yesterday, when they realised Mandelson had continued to contact and support Epstein, following his convictions for sex offences in 2008.
"When those details emerged, it really was a question of when, not if he had to go," she says.
Beth adds that there are still lots of questions for the PM to answer:
What was the vetting process?
Who knew what, when?
How did Mandelson get back into government given his historic relationship with Epstein, and given that he had been forced to resign from government in disgrace twice before?
She says that Starmer has sought to act "swiftly" but is probably "regretting" bringing him back into government.
"There is undoubtedly huge collateral damage now on Keir Starmer, having to let go a key member of his government," she says.
Referencing the resignation of Angela Rayner, she says this is "two in two weeks".
I have to say you're being extremely generous to Farage there. £885k home with no mortgage, apparently bought outright from the personal resources of a lady whose career background appears to be a couple of failed businesses and some waitressing. The "wealthy parents" seem to live in a modest £300k flat in Strasbourg.
Maybe they are frugal, modest, and highly generous French pensioners. But you have to strongly suspect Farage provided the money and put the house in her name to reduce stamp duty liability by £40k (or to use the the colloquial term for that sum, a "Rayner").
Farage and his partner can easily disprove that if it's wrong, of course, by showing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter. Let's see if they do.
Politics · Trending
Charlie Kirk
Trending with Epstein, Trump
2.7M posts
https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1966191040534086108
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbWDypOhN7M
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1966189043261247674
The problem with the idea that Farage gifted her the money is that if they split up, she gets to keep the lot. You wouldn't have thought Farage would want to do that as he's already been divorced. Lot of money to put at stake to save some stamp duty.
The only way this story goes somewhere is if the press gets some evidence of Farage gifting her the money (or she got it from a dodgy donor.)
I think we know that @Roger
Remember I think people should vote but I can see why people who vote for X may decide not to when there is zero chance of their voting making a difference..
The evidence is the career record of Farage's partner, and the evidence of the modest means of her parents. The couple could also very easily put the matter to bed by providing evidence of the gift from parents to daughter.
As I say, I don't think it will bring Farage down as he has the support of his party, and I don't think his supporters care enough about it. But it's reasonably convincing, to be frank.
Its evident in some of the local by elections - where they are still competitive the vote holds up a little better than polling or versus the July 2024 ward by wards on New Statesman (not always of course!)
Disillusioned Tories (and Labour for that matter) have little to drag them to the booth or express a keeness to vote in polling with no immediate GE looming.
Its probably no coincidence the Tories best recent poll was with Ashcroft who includes all '5/10' or better inclined to vote. Tories still a bit pissy about everything have a 'fairly decent' chance of voting Tory 2029 but arent right now going to be saying 9/10
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/11/oxford-union-president-george-abaraonye-charlie-kirk-murder/
We'll then have Bad Enoch vs Powell.
This libertarian or liberal dominated blog obviously won't, does your 10 year old want to regularly find porn or violence in his searches? I doubt it and nor will a 5 year old much less familiar with IT
The likeliest explanation is that Mandelson was appointed precisely because of his knowledge of the circles Trump moved in and his associates and it was felt that he would be effective in handling Trump. This came with huge obvious risks. But Starmer and Co probably felt that the benefits outweighed the risks. It was not that long ago that everyone was praising Starmer for the way he dealt with Trump at his meeting with him, the state visit et etc.,. And probably Mandelson played a part in that.
I expect they assumed any emails would not come out. After all, the details of Epstein's connections and the men who actually abused the girls has very effectively been kept under wraps. Odd that.
After this week, how many Labour MPs want that?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c206zm81z4gt?post=asset:7aeced42-e97e-4901-b770-ae49da9e3d4c#post
EDIT: She looks OK
Good communicator ; partially reminds me of the interesting singer Petra Jean Philipson - maybe a relative?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTwPkQxwQQw
Over 60% of the voters, as I posted on Yougov.'
Please link to where yougov said children under 10 are unlikely to know how to use a VPN
The source of all this is Trump who has spent 8 years spreading hate and division and political violence .
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/14/wet-wipe-island-london-river-thames-pollution-hammersmith-bridge
But presumably Thames Water do too, for letting them through the sewerage system? (And some, belated, credit for the new interceptor sewers.)
Shocked at that !