Apparently someone (one of these online “prediction market” places most likely) was taking bets on whether or not there would be a spectator running on the field during the Super Bowl.
So he bet $50k at 13/2, got himself a ticket, and ran on the field himself!
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Despite the betting markets rather strangely interpreting Streeting's revelations as a reason to shorten his odds, Rayner was the winner from yesterday. If it's odds of 50/50 or better that she'll escape an HMRC sanction, it's in her interests to drag this out a bit, because she will be odds on if the leadership election is eventually held in that scenario. If the election were held now her chances would be compromised, although she might still beat Streeting it would be closer and she might also decide not to run to clear the path for Miliband.
That is why it was in Streeting's interests to get it over quickly, to hold the election while Rayner is not yet in the clear, but yesterday's events meant that he can't now move to challenge Starmer. Mid May will be the next opportunity for him.
Thanks for the header - despite the febrile atmosphere of yesterday it seems that Starmer is going to stay for as long as possible.
And arguably the biggest contenders to the position of Labour leader will have to give him that time. Rayner needs to get past the HMRC investigation, Streeting needs to put a bit of time between him and Mandelson. That leaves Milliband - who has said he ain’t keen - as the one who arguably could take the position tomorrow. Burnham remains not an MP.
I guess the question then becomes how much time do the two main contenders need to get beyond their own local difficulties? Will three months be enough? Or are we talking six or a year?
Jim please lurk less, we could do with this kind of sensible and sober talk on here. To some of the rest of you, in the words of Taylor: "you need to calm down".
I'm hoping that Jim is the ghost of Frankie Howerd, but that is perhaps unlikely.
BREAKING: Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch says, "Starmer is now in office, but not in power", after his cabinet came out in support of the Prime Minister following the Mandelson scandal
There's an original take, we've never heard before. #gokemi
Sometimes the old tunes are the best, and there's no point in trying (ineptly) to innovate for the sake of it.
Used to be the USP of the Conservatives.
Right. Thatcherism sent them all mad.
You might have thought that they would have said, "Thatcher fixed Britain, so we can lay off the radical change for another century or so," but instead they decided on a course of permanent revolution so that in 2026, when Britain has been run by Tories for 32 of the last 47 years, the debate on the right of British politics is between those who say that Britain is completely broken and those who say that it's not quite totally wrecked.
Despite the betting markets rather strangely interpreting Streeting's revelations as a reason to shorten his odds, Rayner was the winner from yesterday. If it's odds of 50/50 or better that she'll escape an HMRC sanction, it's in her interests to drag this out a bit, because she will be odds on if the leadership election is eventually held in that scenario. If the election were held now her chances would be compromised, although she might still beat Streeting it would be closer and she might also decide not to run to clear the path for Miliband.
That is why it was in Streeting's interests to get it over quickly, to hold the election while Rayner is not yet in the clear, but yesterday's events meant that he can't now move to challenge Starmer. Mid May will be the next opportunity for him.
Wasn't yesterday "organised" by Streeting? He plotted the Anas Putsch? And for all the reasons you state, his best chance is now, before Rayner is cleared or Burnham somehow sneaks into parliament
However, the assassination was botched, and now El Wez looks damaged
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
It is a massive scandal and with no end in sight
Not only is it threatening to take down a PM, but also the King, late Queen, and royal family are struggling with it including demands for details of why the late Queen paid off Virginia Giuffre
A member of the US congress wades in and this cannot not bode well for Charles's US visit
Jon Stewart interviewing the Nobel prize winning economist Richard Thaler is quite hard to listen to because he doesn't seem to understand what economics is:
Apparently someone (one of these online “prediction market” places most likely) was taking bets on whether or not there would be a spectator running on the field during the Super Bowl.
So he bet $50k at 13/2, got himself a ticket, and ran on the field himself!
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
At the risk of sounding like a certain AI booster of this parish, searching, analysing and summarising a massive document corpus is precisely the sort of thing that current AI technology is incredibly good at.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
If he wants a green revolution he needs to explain to working class families why they are paying so much for electric in energy rich Britain compared with the rest of Europe. The rate and generation capacity at which solar and offshore wind are coming online give a clear direction of travel. People expect their bills to come down, no need to blame it on gas prices any more
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
This is just going to drag on and get worse, and worse, for Labour
It would have been painful, but the best result for them was what @TheScreamingEagles suggested last night: briskly get rid of Starmer then have someone uncontroversial coronated. Maybe Cooper. Just get it done. Then steady the ship, and ditch the worst of Starmer's stupider policies
But no. He's still there in Number 10, like a half dead rat in a cistern, poisoning the water for everyone
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
Why is John Healey not higher? As an outsider to Labour, I'd be expecting him to be a far better candidate than those ahead of him.
Healey is the sensible choice for the country.
Which means that Labour MPs and Labour members will have no interest in nominating him.
Keeping Starmer in place is preferable to replacing him with Miliband or Rayner.
In what respect is Healey greatly different from Starmer ? I've nothing against the guy, but I'm unaware of any notable achievements.
And it's time for a reminder that the Defence Review was published at the beginning of June last year. The Defence Investment Plan, intended to set out spending priorities for the next decade, was due last autumn. Still crickets.
He's just Baldy Ben with a less catastrophic cholesterol level, presiding over the same torpor and dysfunction at the MoD.
Why he's anybody's idea of a PM is beyond me. Labour's challenge is to sell occasionally unpalatable reform to the MPs and then sell it again to the electorate as what they need and want. That takes a big personality and some degree of personal charm. Healey has the personality and charm of a Minecraft Creeper so we can cross him off.
I'm not particularly concerned about Britain having low stockpiles of munitions. I'd hope most munitions production was focused on supplying Ukraine rather than filling warehouses in Britain.
That increased spending on nuclear weapons is more than consuming the modest increases in defence spending is concerning, though. Forget about Healy becoming PM. He ought to have resigned rather than accept such a budget settlement. In the current geopolitical circumstances it is suicidal to be reducing spending on conventional military capability.
I thought the situation was that Britain was moving in the right direction, but too slowly. It is so much worse than that.
I am. It means that everything we field - artillery; aircraft; ships; air defence - is of use only for the shortest of conflicts.
Our army isn't really a priority. In the European context it's basically an irrelevancy and will remain so for the rest of the decade; and it's unlikely we're going to fight a land war on home soil.
But the hollowing out of the navy and airforce is of much more significance. And precious little of that kit is supplied to Ukraine.
The shortfall is as much in production capacity as it is in stocks of munitions - and the production capacity won't ever exist unless we order significant amounts.
That's actually the one silver lining, It means that we can simply cancel Ajax and not worry about a replacement for the rest of this parliament at least (and set the lawyers onto GDLS).
We can't get on GD's bad side because we're 100% reliant on them for the Astute successor. It'll almost certainly turn out to be largely the fault of the MoD/Army anyway...
Cancelling it is a grand idea, as long we don't spend any more money trying to replace it with something else. Just use Boxer/Patria for everything.
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
I think quite a lot of us aren't necessarily particularly opposed to all that as a long term destination.
The problem is that Miliband's chosen route to this destination is a particularly poor one.
Just take nuclear. We could get the Koreans to build us half a dozen standard reactors for the cost of Hinckley Point. But no, having seen Hinckley Point become a complete debacle, we've contracted the French to build Sizewell C at an even more outlandish price, and with pretty much all the risks dumped on the UK government (much more so that Hinckley point, where EDF have had to at least take a share of the losses). What a masterstroke.
For that you'd have to have planning for the sites for the Korean Nuclear Powerstations. I'm sure that in 2 decades time hindsight will be that even getting those selected and through planning approval then built would have been quicker than Sizewell C but at this point that view is an outlier. The strategic planning for nuclear to provide the base load predates Miliband's current stint as Energy minister. IMV his current missteps are CCS, which is to support business as usual for fossil fuels, and floating offshore wind, likely to always be very expensive. Solar, fixed wind, BESS, grid management and development capital for tidal are better bets.
searching, analysing and summarising a massive document corpus is precisely the sort of thing that current AI technology is incredibly good at.
searching, analysing and summarising a massive document corpus is precisely the sort of the only thing that current AI technology is incredibly good at.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
The movie Dark Waters is about exactly this, although in that case they did dig through the files for years, and did ultimately win some cases
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
But, 30 years ago, that meant manually sifting through by hand. Now you can both keyword search, and get AI to go digging for the particular things that interest you.
I'm not saying no-one named in there will evade notice/justice, but I think most of the salient stuff will eventually come out.
Ring paid somewhere between $8 and $10 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot to tell 120 million viewers that their cameras now scan neighborhoods using AI.
The math is wild. Ring has roughly 20 million devices in American homes. Search Party is enabled by default. The opt-out rate on default settings in consumer tech is historically around 5%. So approximately 19 million cameras are now running AI pattern matching on anything that moves past your front door. Today the target is dogs. The same infrastructure already handles “Familiar Faces,” which builds biometric profiles of every person your camera sees, whether they know about it or not.
Ring settled with the FTC for $5.8 million after employees had unrestricted access to customers’ bedroom and bathroom footage for years. They’re now partnered with Flock Safety, which routes footage to local law enforcement. ICE has accessed Flock data through local police departments acting as intermediaries. Senator Markey’s investigation found Ring’s privacy protections only apply to device owners. If you’re a neighbor, a delivery driver, a passerby, you have no rights and no recourse.
This tells you everything about Amazon’s actual product. The customer paid for the camera. The customer pays the electricity. The customer pays the $3.99/month subscription. And Amazon gets a surveillance grid that would cost tens of billions to build from scratch, with an AI layer activated by default, and a law enforcement pipeline already connected.
They wrapped all of that in a lost puppy commercial because that’s the only version of this story anyone would willingly opt into.
Is it though? What of a lost child? Or hunting a rapist/murderer in the style of the Sarah Everard case?
Not everyone feels the same way about CCTV etc.
"If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear..."
So a child goes missing, and you are identified as a person of interest because you were walking past their door at around the same time
You would be lucky to escape the mob
But CVTV would be awesome for tracking down people wearing loud shirts in built up areas. Or those in possession of offensive wives.
Combine that with facial recognition, and $55 billion in detention camps for people who step on the cracks in the pavement and we can really make the trains run on time.
Sounds like a Savage use of technology to me.
You have been fined 1 Credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.
Apparently someone (one of these online “prediction market” places most likely) was taking bets on whether or not there would be a spectator running on the field during the Super Bowl.
So he bet $50k at 13/2, got himself a ticket, and ran on the field himself!
Indeed. These market prediction sites (Kalshi, Polymarket etc) appear to be totally unregulated in the US, and almost designed for insiders to clean up. There were other markets on things like guest artist appearances on the halftime show, where it was clear that a couple of insiders knew exactly who would and wouldn’t be appearing.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
Did anyone see this rather bizarre interjection from a possibly well refreshed Helena Kennedy on Newsnight last night. With the passive aggressive arm grabbing of Matt Vickers too. Not sure that’s excusable but he doesn’t seem too fussed.
Bizarre.
When all Labour have is ‘but Liz Truss’ that is a barrel being well and truly scraped. Like the Tories bringing up Liam Byrne’s letter.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
But, 30 years ago, that meant manually sifting through by hand. Now you can both keyword search, and get AI to go digging for the particular things that interest you.
I'm not saying no-one named in there will evade notice/justice, but I think most of the salient stuff will eventually come out.
That depends on the level of access you are given. 30 years ago, for example, you weren't allowed to make copies. I accept if AI has access to the data dump that would be a game changer. I don't know if that is the case or not.
Jon Stewart interviewing the Nobel prize winning economist Richard Thaler is quite hard to listen to because he doesn't seem to understand what economics is:
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
The problem is Miliband isn't the vanguard. That the Telegraph (and friends) has gone completely and irrationally hysterical over him rather disguises this.
If he were, we'd have no standing charges, taxes on electricity would have been migrated over to gas and fuel duties, we'd all be on 30-minute variable tariffs, and pricing would reflect the cost of generation and transmission in different parts of the country. We'd have significant investment in EV infrastructure and aggressive carbon taxes on imports to protect our industries.
Contrary to the the hysterics, Miliband so far has had next to zero impact on energy policy compared with the course set by the prior Conservative government.
OTOH, some good news today with lots of exceptionally cheap solar and onshore wind being approved. And relative to other energy projects, should be up and running quickly.
I fail to see how building more onshore wind on upload peat soils with no means to connect them to a useful grid is a win.
Another one in Skye near Loch Harport I see, on what should be blanket bog.
Just stick them on the Cuillin and be done with it.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Sky's royal correspondent is suggesting the King has to do more, and go on record that Andrew has to give his testimony otherwise he will be cut off from all financial support
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
The movie Dark Waters is about exactly this, although in that case they did dig through the files for years, and did ultimately win some cases
We had the father of one of the children affected who went to America for over 2 months and came back with an immense amount of information. He was content to do it if his costs were covered.
BREAKING: Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch says, "Starmer is now in office, but not in power", after his cabinet came out in support of the Prime Minister following the Mandelson scandal
There's an original take, we've never heard before. #gokemi
Sometimes the old tunes are the best, and there's no point in trying (ineptly) to innovate for the sake of it.
Used to be the USP of the Conservatives.
Back under some previous governments, jokes/memes here would show up in politicians mouths within hours.
Mind you it’s an obvious comment - Starmer previously gave a speech where he complained he couldn’t get things done.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Sky's royal correspondent is suggesting the King has to do more, and go on record thaf Andrew has to give his testimony otherwise he will be cut off from all financial support
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
This was a good one, but it doesn’t quite fit the narrative.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
If Andrew has any shred of manhood left, I'm sure he knows what he has to do.
And, if he won't, I'm sure there are members of the security forces who are willing to do the things that kings cannot personally order.
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
If he wants a green revolution he needs to explain to working class families why they are paying so much for electric in energy rich Britain compared with the rest of Europe. The rate and generation capacity at which solar and offshore wind are coming online give a clear direction of travel. People expect their bills to come down, no need to blame it on gas prices any more
Blame Dave for that.
One of the first acts of the pure Conservative government after 2015 was to tie up onshore wind farms in enough planning red tape that they largely didn't happen. That's a shame because they are pretty much bound to be cheaper than offshore ones- easier engineering and closer to where the energy is going to be used, so less demands on the national grid.
Why is John Healey not higher? As an outsider to Labour, I'd be expecting him to be a far better candidate than those ahead of him.
Healey is the sensible choice for the country.
Which means that Labour MPs and Labour members will have no interest in nominating him.
Keeping Starmer in place is preferable to replacing him with Miliband or Rayner.
In what respect is Healey greatly different from Starmer ? I've nothing against the guy, but I'm unaware of any notable achievements.
And it's time for a reminder that the Defence Review was published at the beginning of June last year. The Defence Investment Plan, intended to set out spending priorities for the next decade, was due last autumn. Still crickets.
He's just Baldy Ben with a less catastrophic cholesterol level, presiding over the same torpor and dysfunction at the MoD.
Why he's anybody's idea of a PM is beyond me. Labour's challenge is to sell occasionally unpalatable reform to the MPs and then sell it again to the electorate as what they need and want. That takes a big personality and some degree of personal charm. Healey has the personality and charm of a Minecraft Creeper so we can cross him off.
I'm not particularly concerned about Britain having low stockpiles of munitions. I'd hope most munitions production was focused on supplying Ukraine rather than filling warehouses in Britain.
That increased spending on nuclear weapons is more than consuming the modest increases in defence spending is concerning, though. Forget about Healy becoming PM. He ought to have resigned rather than accept such a budget settlement. In the current geopolitical circumstances it is suicidal to be reducing spending on conventional military capability.
I thought the situation was that Britain was moving in the right direction, but too slowly. It is so much worse than that.
I am. It means that everything we field - artillery; aircraft; ships; air defence - is of use only for the shortest of conflicts.
Our army isn't really a priority. In the European context it's basically an irrelevancy and will remain so for the rest of the decade; and it's unlikely we're going to fight a land war on home soil.
But the hollowing out of the navy and airforce is of much more significance. And precious little of that kit is supplied to Ukraine.
The shortfall is as much in production capacity as it is in stocks of munitions - and the production capacity won't ever exist unless we order significant amounts.
That's actually the one silver lining, It means that we can simply cancel Ajax and not worry about a replacement for the rest of this parliament at least (and set the lawyers onto GDLS).
We can't get on GD's bad side because we're 100% reliant on them for the Astute successor. It'll almost certainly turn out to be largely the fault of the MoD/Army anyway...
Cancelling it is a grand idea, as long we don't spend any more money trying to replace it with something else. Just use Boxer/Patria for everything.
Defence technology moves on quite slowly between wars, and then very fast during wars. We are in a very fast phase thanks to the developments in battlefield land and seaborne technology during the Ukraine war. Main battletanks are now vulnerable to cheap drones. Anchorages in the Black Sea are no longer viable thanks to seaborne drones etc.
In those circumstances, there are good arguments for cancelling delayed defence procurement based on assumptions of more than a decade ago, where those assumptions have been shown to be radically wrong.
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
People might take her more seriously if she gave voters a clue what she might be like as PM rather than grubbing around in other peoples text messages. it makes her look small. it's what you expect of someone who got a fellow pupil expelled for cheating
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
People might take her more seriously if she gave voters a clue what she might be like as PM rather than grubbing around in other peoples text messages. it makes her look small. it's what you expect of someone who got a fellow pupil expelled for cheating
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a fake quiet private funeral in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
'Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it'
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Sky's royal correspondent is suggesting the King has to do more, and go on record that Andrew has to give his testimony otherwise he will be cut off from all financial support
I think a normal person's reaction to that is: Andrew is getting financial support?!
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
The problem is Miliband isn't the vanguard. That the Telegraph (and friends) has gone completely and irrationally hysterical over him rather disguises this.
If he were, we'd have no standing charges, taxes on electricity would have been migrated over to gas and fuel duties, we'd all be on 30-minute variable tariffs, and pricing would reflect the cost of generation and transmission in different parts of the country. We'd have significant investment in EV infrastructure and aggressive carbon taxes on imports to protect our industries.
Contrary to the the hysterics, Miliband so far has had next to zero impact on energy policy compared with the course set by the prior Conservative government.
OTOH, some good news today with lots of exceptionally cheap solar and onshore wind being approved. And relative to other energy projects, should be up and running quickly.
I fail to see how building more onshore wind on upload peat soils with no means to connect them to a useful grid is a win.
Another one in Skye near Loch Harport I see, on what should be blanket bog.
Just stick them on the Cuillin and be done with it.
To be fair, the biggest projects approved today are far closer to existing transmission infrastructure/demand than offshore wind - e.g. Lincolnshire, D&G, Cornwall. I don't disagree in general though.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Whilst I would like to think that our secret services could arrange such a project, one of the alarming possibilities coming out of recent news is that they can no more organise a pissup in a brewery than any other arm of the British state.
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
The problem is Miliband isn't the vanguard. That the Telegraph (and friends) has gone completely and irrationally hysterical over him rather disguises this.
If he were, we'd have no standing charges, taxes on electricity would have been migrated over to gas and fuel duties, we'd all be on 30-minute variable tariffs, and pricing would reflect the cost of generation and transmission in different parts of the country. We'd have significant investment in EV infrastructure and aggressive carbon taxes on imports to protect our industries.
Contrary to the the hysterics, Miliband so far has had next to zero impact on energy policy compared with the course set by the prior Conservative government.
OTOH, some good news today with lots of exceptionally cheap solar and onshore wind being approved. And relative to other energy projects, should be up and running quickly.
I fail to see how building more onshore wind on upload peat soils with no means to connect them to a useful grid is a win.
Another one in Skye near Loch Harport I see, on what should be blanket bog.
Just stick them on the Cuillin and be done with it.
No chance they'd get away with that! Is a lot of it not owned by John Muir trust?
The rate solar is coming online will make a lot of proposed turbines unnecessary, especially way out there
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a fake quiet private funeral in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
'Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it'
You say that..
I think that Leon's is a distinctly minority viewpoint.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
Jon Stewart interviewing the Nobel prize winning economist Richard Thaler is quite hard to listen to because he doesn't seem to understand what economics is:
In two to three years time, when Starmer and his government are no doubt deeply unpopular, I hope we in the media will ask ourselves: "Why were we so supine during the long 2024 election; why didn't we hold Labour properly to account while we could, and ask more probing questions, and explore their records, rather than give them such an easy ride?".
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
People might take her more seriously if she gave voters a clue what she might be like as PM rather than grubbing around in other peoples text messages. it makes her look small. it's what you expect of someone who got a fellow pupil expelled for cheating
In two to three years time, when Starmer and his government are no doubt deeply unpopular, I hope we in the media will ask ourselves: "Why were we so supine during the long 2024 election; why didn't we hold Labour properly to account while we could, and ask more probing questions, and explore their records, rather than give them such an easy ride?".
Indeed, if there is a problem with politics in the UK it is surely that all the press and broadcast media are such fans of Labour.
Ring paid somewhere between $8 and $10 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot to tell 120 million viewers that their cameras now scan neighborhoods using AI.
The math is wild. Ring has roughly 20 million devices in American homes. Search Party is enabled by default. The opt-out rate on default settings in consumer tech is historically around 5%. So approximately 19 million cameras are now running AI pattern matching on anything that moves past your front door. Today the target is dogs. The same infrastructure already handles “Familiar Faces,” which builds biometric profiles of every person your camera sees, whether they know about it or not.
Ring settled with the FTC for $5.8 million after employees had unrestricted access to customers’ bedroom and bathroom footage for years. They’re now partnered with Flock Safety, which routes footage to local law enforcement. ICE has accessed Flock data through local police departments acting as intermediaries. Senator Markey’s investigation found Ring’s privacy protections only apply to device owners. If you’re a neighbor, a delivery driver, a passerby, you have no rights and no recourse.
This tells you everything about Amazon’s actual product. The customer paid for the camera. The customer pays the electricity. The customer pays the $3.99/month subscription. And Amazon gets a surveillance grid that would cost tens of billions to build from scratch, with an AI layer activated by default, and a law enforcement pipeline already connected.
They wrapped all of that in a lost puppy commercial because that’s the only version of this story anyone would willingly opt into.
Thanks for the header - despite the febrile atmosphere of yesterday it seems that Starmer is going to stay for as long as possible.
And arguably the biggest contenders to the position of Labour leader will have to give him that time. Rayner needs to get past the HMRC investigation, Streeting needs to put a bit of time between him and Mandelson. That leaves Milliband - who has said he ain’t keen - as the one who arguably could take the position tomorrow. Burnham remains not an MP.
I guess the question then becomes how much time do the two main contenders need to get beyond their own local difficulties? Will three months be enough? Or are we talking six or a year?
Jim please lurk less, we could do with this kind of sensible and sober talk on here. To some of the rest of you, in the words of Taylor: "you need to calm down".
Cheers for the comment. I am long term lurker - am afraid if I got more involved I wouldn’t be able to do the day job, and my mortgage provider wouldn’t like that.
PB - despite some peculiarities - is still the best place to get a sense of the politics of the day. Sometimes it gets a bit excited, but you can’t fault it for that. It also gets a fairly broad representation of views (without too much descent into abuse / obnoxiousness). So pat on the back everyone (even those who I think are completely wrong).
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
Ring paid somewhere between $8 and $10 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot to tell 120 million viewers that their cameras now scan neighborhoods using AI.
The math is wild. Ring has roughly 20 million devices in American homes. Search Party is enabled by default. The opt-out rate on default settings in consumer tech is historically around 5%. So approximately 19 million cameras are now running AI pattern matching on anything that moves past your front door. Today the target is dogs. The same infrastructure already handles “Familiar Faces,” which builds biometric profiles of every person your camera sees, whether they know about it or not.
Ring settled with the FTC for $5.8 million after employees had unrestricted access to customers’ bedroom and bathroom footage for years. They’re now partnered with Flock Safety, which routes footage to local law enforcement. ICE has accessed Flock data through local police departments acting as intermediaries. Senator Markey’s investigation found Ring’s privacy protections only apply to device owners. If you’re a neighbor, a delivery driver, a passerby, you have no rights and no recourse.
This tells you everything about Amazon’s actual product. The customer paid for the camera. The customer pays the electricity. The customer pays the $3.99/month subscription. And Amazon gets a surveillance grid that would cost tens of billions to build from scratch, with an AI layer activated by default, and a law enforcement pipeline already connected.
They wrapped all of that in a lost puppy commercial because that’s the only version of this story anyone would willingly opt into.
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
If Labour now initiate a cover up then i would expect it to impact polling.
Hell just retort may be she should release her University Offer letter
Lying about something as basic as that bears far more relevance than what someone may or may not have shared with Mandelson about work issues on the past 6 months.
Some people need to grow up.
Mandelson in a wrong in, Epstein was a wrong un, that does not make any body who has ever spoken to Mandelson a wrong un. Nor the Royal Family for speaking to Andrew another wrong un.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
I don't get this at all. Their texts should be available to whoever leads the enquiry, who should be able to publish things that are relevant. Their is little reason beyond voyeuristic enjoyment of political embarrassment that all their private texts should have to be made public.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
Why is John Healey not higher? As an outsider to Labour, I'd be expecting him to be a far better candidate than those ahead of him.
Healey is the sensible choice for the country.
Which means that Labour MPs and Labour members will have no interest in nominating him.
Keeping Starmer in place is preferable to replacing him with Miliband or Rayner.
In what respect is Healey greatly different from Starmer ? I've nothing against the guy, but I'm unaware of any notable achievements.
And it's time for a reminder that the Defence Review was published at the beginning of June last year. The Defence Investment Plan, intended to set out spending priorities for the next decade, was due last autumn. Still crickets.
He's just Baldy Ben with a less catastrophic cholesterol level, presiding over the same torpor and dysfunction at the MoD.
Why he's anybody's idea of a PM is beyond me. Labour's challenge is to sell occasionally unpalatable reform to the MPs and then sell it again to the electorate as what they need and want. That takes a big personality and some degree of personal charm. Healey has the personality and charm of a Minecraft Creeper so we can cross him off.
I'm not particularly concerned about Britain having low stockpiles of munitions. I'd hope most munitions production was focused on supplying Ukraine rather than filling warehouses in Britain.
That increased spending on nuclear weapons is more than consuming the modest increases in defence spending is concerning, though. Forget about Healy becoming PM. He ought to have resigned rather than accept such a budget settlement. In the current geopolitical circumstances it is suicidal to be reducing spending on conventional military capability.
I thought the situation was that Britain was moving in the right direction, but too slowly. It is so much worse than that.
I am. It means that everything we field - artillery; aircraft; ships; air defence - is of use only for the shortest of conflicts.
Our army isn't really a priority. In the European context it's basically an irrelevancy and will remain so for the rest of the decade; and it's unlikely we're going to fight a land war on home soil.
But the hollowing out of the navy and airforce is of much more significance. And precious little of that kit is supplied to Ukraine.
The shortfall is as much in production capacity as it is in stocks of munitions - and the production capacity won't ever exist unless we order significant amounts.
That's actually the one silver lining, It means that we can simply cancel Ajax and not worry about a replacement for the rest of this parliament at least (and set the lawyers onto GDLS).
We can't get on GD's bad side because we're 100% reliant on them for the Astute successor. It'll almost certainly turn out to be largely the fault of the MoD/Army anyway...
Cancelling it is a grand idea, as long we don't spend any more money trying to replace it with something else. Just use Boxer/Patria for everything.
Agreed with the last bit. It will piss off the army brass, but since they're also responsible for the disaster, they deserve a few years without the fun toys. And it would be of very little consequence indeed for the UK's security.
Bin the Challenger upgrade too while we're at it. The Challenger hulls are both overweight and obsolete compared to the new generation of MBTs, and I'm pretty sure the money could be spent more usefully.
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
People might take her more seriously if she gave voters a clue what she might be like as PM rather than grubbing around in other peoples text messages. it makes her look small. it's what you expect of someone who got a fellow pupil expelled for cheating
The serial liar told another massive porkie today.
Again repeats the Labour doing nothing crap
Every day Labour announce new Policy.
Today . £1,000,000,000 Community Energy Policy
Warmly welcomed by Trade and Community bodies.
She's a Web hacker who lied about her University place out of her depth with no policy
Noone gives a shit about what Labour announces or doesn’t announce. Its a party infested with lying and obfuscation. Whack people's Electricity and gas bills up.and then give a bit back isn't going to win any votes.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
I don't get this at all. Their texts should be available to whoever leads the enquiry, who should be able to publish things that are relevant. Their is little reason beyond voyeuristic enjoyment of political embarrassment that all their private texts should have to be made public.
Streeting's has made this a problem with his frank revelations
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
I don't get this at all. Their texts should be available to whoever leads the enquiry, who should be able to publish things that are relevant. Their is little reason beyond voyeuristic enjoyment of political embarrassment that all their private texts should have to be made public.
The reason is that they're likely otherwise to be leaked. Best front up now.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
It may not be news Westminster insiders, but the revelations that Mandelson and Streeting had such close political and personal relations will make many of the Labour membership think twice about Streeting, and it is they who are the electorate here. Even though some had been saying as much, you could still choose not to believe them, yet now the evidence is out there in your face.
Also, may I remind you that Streeting went on LBC in the wake of the September 2025 revelations of emails which caused Starmer to sack Mandelson, and still chose to defend his associate Mandelson by saying; "we shouldn't tar everyone as guilty by association".
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
This was a good one, but it doesn’t quite fit the narrative.
Surely that was, in part, the point of Streeting releasing the messages. It forces others to do the same, reveals they too were close buddies with Lord Mandypants, and thus takes some of the heat OFF The Wez
Hodges and others reporting cabinet have been instructed not to release as there is some idea floating about revisiting the humble address to restrict what is released (as the newly super popular Keir thinks he can win a vote)
Kemi has just highlighted this in an interview, and I would expect her to tell Starmer at PMQs tomorrow to reveal his own text messages
People might take her more seriously if she gave voters a clue what she might be like as PM rather than grubbing around in other peoples text messages. it makes her look small. it's what you expect of someone who got a fellow pupil expelled for cheating
The serial liar told another massive porkie today.
Again repeats the Labour doing nothing crap
Every day Labour announce new Policy.
Today . £1,000,000,000 Community Energy Policy
Warmly welcomed by Trade and Community bodies.
She's a Web hacker who lied about her University place out of her depth with no policy
Noone gives a shit about what Labour announces or doesn’t announce. Its a party infested with lying and obfuscation. Whack people's Electricity and gas bills up.and then give a bit back isn't going to win any votes.
What the hell is a “community energy policy” anyway? Sounds like something from the Thick of It. I’m awaiting an announcement about quiet bat people shortly.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
Stiff upper lip. No sweat. It's what he would have wanted.
Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets I’ve received countless emails from constituents thanking my support of the PM and offering theirs, I’ve never seen anything like it.
The country does not want chaos.
Stability and delivery is what they voted for and that is what we are getting on with.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
I don't get this at all. Their texts should be available to whoever leads the enquiry, who should be able to publish things that are relevant. Their is little reason beyond voyeuristic enjoyment of political embarrassment that all their private texts should have to be made public.
The reason is that they're likely otherwise to be leaked. Best front up now.
"No growth strategy at all" is going to end up splashed on a poster underneath a picture of Starmer.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
Absolutely. The tone confirms that they were bosom buddies, the content and frequency confirms that Mandelson was a confidante of Streeting and the overall impression does nothing to dispel the view that Streeting was a Mandelson protege.
These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Mandelson was a founder of New Labour along with Blair and Brown. That much is no secret so finding a link between Mandelson and Blairites is not the coup some make it out to be. There needs to be something connecting any new figure beyond Mandelson to Epstein. Their exchanges are:- https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
Anyone associated with Mandelson or Epstein will have a problem
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
I don't get this at all. Their texts should be available to whoever leads the enquiry, who should be able to publish things that are relevant. Their is little reason beyond voyeuristic enjoyment of political embarrassment that all their private texts should have to be made public.
Streeting's has made this a problem with his frank revelations
I bet that Rayner and Miliband will be itching to be allowed to reveal their text and WhatsApp messages with Mandelson from 2024 and 2025, if only to allow them to be able to show that there weren't any.
Raynor is a case of turkeys voting for Xmas. Her basic instincts are thoroughly Corbynite and that would we exposed by being PM and in the full glare of media attention. Just like SKS is just so obviously a north London lawyer. But progressives are so self-congratulatory and inward looking these days they don't see it.
I wonder whether this is Milliband's chance - he protesteth too much imho
I see Ed Miliband as the steady pair of hands who can safely guide Labour to a respectable defeat and opposition.
That's preferable to choosing someone who would blow everything up and put Labour in fifth, but are Labour yet reconciled to defeat at the next GE? I suspect not, and so I think someone else will be chosen.
Ed Miliband would be a suicidal move
If anyone is Labour's Liz Truss, it's Ed Miliband. He's away with the fairies.
It's sad how triggering the Green Industrial Revolution is for some people. The future will be EVs, smart tariffs, an upgraded grid, BESS and more renewable generation, you can try to be in the vanguard with Miliband or you can resist, screaming and kicking, like Kemi, Reform or a bit quieter like the yellow NIMBYs. The end result will be the same, just whether we get there faster willingly or later in a sulk.
The problem is Miliband isn't the vanguard. That the Telegraph (and friends) has gone completely and irrationally hysterical over him rather disguises this.
If he were, we'd have no standing charges, taxes on electricity would have been migrated over to gas and fuel duties, we'd all be on 30-minute variable tariffs, and pricing would reflect the cost of generation and transmission in different parts of the country. We'd have significant investment in EV infrastructure and aggressive carbon taxes on imports to protect our industries.
Contrary to the the hysterics, Miliband so far has had next to zero impact on energy policy compared with the course set by the prior Conservative government.
OTOH, some good news today with lots of exceptionally cheap solar and onshore wind being approved. And relative to other energy projects, should be up and running quickly.
I fail to see how building more onshore wind on upload peat soils with no means to connect them to a useful grid is a win.
Another one in Skye near Loch Harport I see, on what should be blanket bog.
Just stick them on the Cuillin and be done with it.
To be fair, the biggest projects approved today are far closer to existing transmission infrastructure/demand than offshore wind - e.g. Lincolnshire, D&G, Cornwall. I don't disagree in general though.
As I'm sure you know, peat bogs are by far our best carbon sink, not trees.
Admittedly a high proportion are being trashed by muirburn (and this should 100% be stopped, yesterday) but that's no excuse to double trash them. Once these things are built there is no way the concrete bases can ever be removed and the water table recovered.
Whereas the North Sea seems the ideal place for wind at a scale which will actually make a difference. Surely it is easier to run new network offshore (Russians permitting)?
To me it just seems like a gold rush for landowners and companies that don't really care what the long term effects are as long as there is short term money to be made (nothing new there).
Solar farms are different as most of the infrastructure can easily be removed if it is no longer needed, and it won't leave a permanent legacy in the landscape. Although it is a bit annoying that a lot of our local greenspace is going to be filled in just because the landscape has already been trashed for coal (leaving a network of grid connections).
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
You say that, but would we show such fortitude, if this horror really happened?
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
When I was a solicitor, more than 30 years ago now, we had a case against a large American corporation in respect of an agricultural product. US law required that all of the testing and all of the records in relation to that product had to be stored and were open to public examination to those who could show an interest.
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
But, 30 years ago, that meant manually sifting through by hand. Now you can both keyword search, and get AI to go digging for the particular things that interest you.
I'm not saying no-one named in there will evade notice/justice, but I think most of the salient stuff will eventually come out.
That depends on the level of access you are given. 30 years ago, for example, you weren't allowed to make copies. I accept if AI has access to the data dump that would be a game changer. I don't know if that is the case or not.
Epstein data dump is publicly available on the Internet. Some of the AI tools can be told to go and pull stuff off the Internet and amuse themselves with it. Point them at it, tell them what sort of stuff you want to find, read through the results and profit.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
This was a good one, but it doesn’t quite fit the narrative.
Slightly at odds with the reports of him wandering around backstage at teenage beauty pageants
And boasting about it.
“You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that,”
Middle East fans will be watching developments closely. Israel wants to block a US/Iran deal, while America wants to stop Israel expanding its West Bank settlements.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
Stiff upper lip. No sweat. It's what he would have wanted.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
Norfolk?
Actually - and I apologise if this sounds hideously tasteless (but then this is Pirnce Andrew we're talking about, so maybe it's fitting) - the best result for the Crown is if Andrew has an awful riding accident and sadly passes away
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets I’ve received countless emails from constituents thanking my support of the PM and offering theirs, I’ve never seen anything like it.
The country does not want chaos.
Stability and delivery is what they voted for and that is what we are getting on with.
Reading the messages between Streeting and Mandelson is vomit inducing. I don't see how he becomes PM now, he's tainted even more than Starmer IMO having such a close friendship to Mandelson who we now know to have been trading price sensitive information for favours. That Streeting could be blinded by what seems like infatuation for Mandelson shows very, very poor character judgement and should bar him from becoming PM.
Indeed-doody
Also, they are the messages of close friends, for sure, and yet at the same time Streeting is claiming he met Mandyboots about "once a year, at formal dinners, with many others"
It stretches credulity. I think Peerpantsgate has some way to run, yet
The problem with the Epstein files is that the vast amount of information means that only a few people will be investigated and then only those who media organizations will spend money on investigating. The FT already had most of the story on Mandelson, so knew what to search for, the latest Andrew revelations were researched by a member of the public. No news organization dependent on advertising revenue will be motivated to spend money searching the archive for evidence on tech moguls, for example. People guilty of horrific acts will escape justice because there aren't the resources and motivation to sort through the evidence and the news cycle will have moved on.
It's the MPs expenses scandal but on a massively larger scale.
Yes, quite right
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
This was a good one, but it doesn’t quite fit the narrative.
Slightly at odds with the reports of him wandering around backstage at teenage beauty pageants
And boasting about it.
“You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that,”
"And, just look at Ivanka! She's so hot, when she's wandering round, without any clothes on."
Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets I’ve received countless emails from constituents thanking my support of the PM and offering theirs, I’ve never seen anything like it.
The country does not want chaos.
Stability and delivery is what they voted for and that is what we are getting on with.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
You say that, but would we show such fortitude, if this horror really happened?
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
Maybe Elton John could sing "Candle in the wind," at his funeral.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
You say that, but would we show such fortitude, if this horror really happened?
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
What prompted this fellow feeling ?
BTW you were asking for TV recommendations; have you tried Wonder Man ? First couple of episodes are promising, and Ben Kingsley (I've never really been a huge fan) is superb. Silly but very entertaining.
Why is John Healey not higher? As an outsider to Labour, I'd be expecting him to be a far better candidate than those ahead of him.
Healey is the sensible choice for the country.
Which means that Labour MPs and Labour members will have no interest in nominating him.
Keeping Starmer in place is preferable to replacing him with Miliband or Rayner.
In what respect is Healey greatly different from Starmer ? I've nothing against the guy, but I'm unaware of any notable achievements.
And it's time for a reminder that the Defence Review was published at the beginning of June last year. The Defence Investment Plan, intended to set out spending priorities for the next decade, was due last autumn. Still crickets.
He's just Baldy Ben with a less catastrophic cholesterol level, presiding over the same torpor and dysfunction at the MoD.
Why he's anybody's idea of a PM is beyond me. Labour's challenge is to sell occasionally unpalatable reform to the MPs and then sell it again to the electorate as what they need and want. That takes a big personality and some degree of personal charm. Healey has the personality and charm of a Minecraft Creeper so we can cross him off.
I'm not particularly concerned about Britain having low stockpiles of munitions. I'd hope most munitions production was focused on supplying Ukraine rather than filling warehouses in Britain.
That increased spending on nuclear weapons is more than consuming the modest increases in defence spending is concerning, though. Forget about Healy becoming PM. He ought to have resigned rather than accept such a budget settlement. In the current geopolitical circumstances it is suicidal to be reducing spending on conventional military capability.
I thought the situation was that Britain was moving in the right direction, but too slowly. It is so much worse than that.
I am. It means that everything we field - artillery; aircraft; ships; air defence - is of use only for the shortest of conflicts.
Our army isn't really a priority. In the European context it's basically an irrelevancy and will remain so for the rest of the decade; and it's unlikely we're going to fight a land war on home soil.
But the hollowing out of the navy and airforce is of much more significance. And precious little of that kit is supplied to Ukraine.
The shortfall is as much in production capacity as it is in stocks of munitions - and the production capacity won't ever exist unless we order significant amounts.
That's actually the one silver lining, It means that we can simply cancel Ajax and not worry about a replacement for the rest of this parliament at least (and set the lawyers onto GDLS).
We can't get on GD's bad side because we're 100% reliant on them for the Astute successor. It'll almost certainly turn out to be largely the fault of the MoD/Army anyway...
Cancelling it is a grand idea, as long we don't spend any more money trying to replace it with something else. Just use Boxer/Patria for everything.
Agreed with the last bit. It will piss off the army brass, but since they're also responsible for the disaster, they deserve a few years without the fun toys. And it would be of very little consequence indeed for the UK's security.
Bin the Challenger upgrade too while we're at it. The Challenger hulls are both overweight and obsolete compared to the new generation of MBTs, and I'm pretty sure the money could be spent more usefully.
Not to mention Britain has precisely no use for tanks since the post-cold war peace dividend. No longer are they stationed in West Germany to hold back the Red Army until reinforcements can be flown in from the United States. Britain is an island with a footnote for Ireland.
From @yougov 8th - 9th February Changes with 2nd February"
Nothing to see here
If I were a Tory voter or member I'd be going ballistic
Asking why the schoolgirl antagonist in charge of my Party is wasting her 3 day working week and twitter feed on nit picking on who mailed Mandelson and when.
When meanwhile fee were leaking Members, Experts and donors to Reform at an alarming rate.
More so, why nothing was being done to shore up the inexorable drip drip drip of vote share to the point where we'll finish 5th at best on Wales 4th at best in Scotland, 4th probably in England.
While Farage , Polanski, Davey are focusing 90% of their time on votes and policy and Labour are announcing a new policy and new investment impacting real lives every day.
What calamity Kemi doing, photo shoots in London, tweeting and spending all of her time doing absolutely Jack shit to try to rescue the Tories from oblivion.
How many more MPs does she have to lose to wake up.
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
You say that, but would we show such fortitude, if this horror really happened?
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
Maybe Elton John could sing "Candle in the wind," at his funeral.
If you want a song for a guy like Andrew, Sorry Seem to be the Hardest Word ?
A Trump-backed, GOP effort to repeal a Utah law that could give Democrats one extra U.S. House seat appears to be unraveling after county officials flagged thousands of potentially invalid and fraudulent petition signatures. https://x.com/marceelias/status/2020965032071397541
I do and I am both surprised and disappointed that he has not had the Epstein treatment yet. It would solve a lot of KC3's problems because he's going to get "Epstein" shouted at him wherever he goes now until the cancer finally kicks the shit out of him.
They're probably scarred by the last time they tried this, when they offed Diana, and suddenly the nation went into paroxysms of prayerful sorrow
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
It would be a struggle, but we are Englishmen, and I think we could bear our grief manfully, if Andrew passed away.
You say that, but would we show such fortitude, if this horror really happened?
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
Maybe Elton John could sing "Candle in the wind," at his funeral.
If you want a song for a guy like Andrew, Sorry Seem to be the Hardest Word ?
Perhaps "Fire", by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
Woof - record demand today at an auction of conventional gilts.
Investors placed bids worth 3.94 times the £3.75 billion pounds of gilts due in 2031 offered today.
Highest such ratio since Debt Management Office records began in 1998.
DMO staff said to be considering half pint of shandy at lunch.
What they should really be wondering is whether they could have shaved the yield by a couple of tenths.
Aren't those auctions based on low to high interest rates *, such that the yield is minimised by the mechanism?
This is not something I have followed closely.
* If not, why not? At the time of the GFC, we had considerable help because our national loan book was far longer dated than other countries, but I am not sure how well-rated our DMO is at present.
Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets I’ve received countless emails from constituents thanking my support of the PM and offering theirs, I’ve never seen anything like it.
The country does not want chaos.
Stability and delivery is what they voted for and that is what we are getting on with.
Comments
So he bet $50k at 13/2, got himself a ticket, and ran on the field himself!
https://x.com/oceanbreeze473/status/2021160753730859110
My brother lives in a shed on a hilltop in Peru, and has a lot of spare time. He also loves conspiracy theories
As a result he's been wading through the Epstein Files looking for scandalous gems, and he regularly sends them to me. And I glance at them and think "no, surely that can't be true", and then I check, and Yes, oops, it is true, it really is in the Epstein files
This is why Peerpantygate is so damaging for Starmer, because it's just going to run on. Also dangerous for The Crown, they really need Andrew to go into exile now. Maybe Dubai, like the King of Spain. Or the moon
That is why it was in Streeting's interests to get it over quickly, to hold the election while Rayner is not yet in the clear, but yesterday's events meant that he can't now move to challenge Starmer. Mid May will be the next opportunity for him.
You might have thought that they would have said, "Thatcher fixed Britain, so we can lay off the radical change for another century or so," but instead they decided on a course of permanent revolution so that in 2026, when Britain has been run by Tories for 32 of the last 47 years, the debate on the right of British politics is between those who say that Britain is completely broken and those who say that it's not quite totally wrecked.
Great job lads. Top work.
However, the assassination was botched, and now El Wez looks damaged
Rayner for the W
Not only is it threatening to take down a PM, but also the King, late Queen, and royal family are struggling with it including demands for details of why the late Queen paid off Virginia Giuffre
A member of the US congress wades in and this cannot not bode well for Charles's US visit
https://news.sky.com/story/epstein-affair-may-be-the-end-of-the-monarchy-says-us-congressman-13505487
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZczEzMu_U8&t=1253s
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/notes/division/5/3/7/1/7
The company, and I understand that this was fairly typical, responded to this by lodging multiple copies of everything to the point that finding anything became almost impossible. Files and email chains would be duplicated in respect of each recipient. You literally ended up with vast warehouses of paper. It was hiding in plain sight and in general it worked. It seems to me that the Epstein files have been presented in the same way, designed to be incomprehensible, incoherent and incomplete.
Cancelling it is a grand idea, as long we don't spend any more money trying to replace it with something else. Just use Boxer/Patria for everything.
IMV his current missteps are CCS, which is to support business as usual for fossil fuels, and floating offshore wind, likely to always be very expensive.
Solar, fixed wind, BESS, grid management and development capital for tidal are better bets.
precisely the sort ofthe only thing that current AI technology is incredibly good at.These emails would have come out anyway. Streeting's calculation was that it was less damaging to get it out of the way now than later, but it is still damaging nonetheless.
I also note that the group emails involving Streeting haven't been released, and there is the potential for the groups involving Mandelson, Streeting and other leading lights of New Labour to be quite meaty, if not quite on a par with the "Shiver My Timbers" stuff.
Clearly, no one wants Andrew to actually snuff it, so what they need to do is fake his demise, brilliantly. Then he can have plastic surgery and live in the Bahamas or something, even as "Andrew" is given a bogus "private funeral" in Sandringham. Suddenly all the grief is over
This should not be beyond the capabilities of MI6. Also, it would make a great plot for a thriller
I'm not saying no-one named in there will evade notice/justice, but I think most of the salient stuff will eventually come out.
We *will* ProtectServe you.
Bizarre.
When all Labour have is ‘but Liz Truss’ that is a barrel being well and truly scraped. Like the Tories bringing up Liam Byrne’s letter.
https://x.com/bbcnewsnight/status/2020999401766850952?s=61
Woof - record demand today at an auction of conventional gilts.
Investors placed bids worth 3.94 times the £3.75 billion pounds of gilts due in 2031 offered today.
Highest such ratio since Debt Management Office records began in 1998.
DMO staff said to be considering half pint of shandy at lunch.
Another one in Skye near Loch Harport I see, on what should be blanket bog.
Just stick them on the Cuillin and be done with it.
Mind you it’s an obvious comment - Starmer previously gave a speech where he complained he couldn’t get things done.
https://x.com/afpost/status/2021045043117818090
And, if he won't, I'm sure there are members of the security forces who are willing to do the things that kings cannot personally order.
One of the first acts of the pure Conservative government after 2015 was to tie up onshore wind farms in enough planning red tape that they largely didn't happen. That's a shame because they are pretty much bound to be cheaper than offshore ones- easier engineering and closer to where the energy is going to be used, so less demands on the national grid.
Labour binned that change very quickly in 2024, with results that seem to be coming through now. See today's apparently sucessful auction:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp85n416n3vo
In those circumstances, there are good arguments for cancelling delayed defence procurement based on assumptions of more than a decade ago, where those assumptions have been shown to be radically wrong.
https://news.sky.com/story/read-wes-streetings-messages-with-mandelson-in-full-13505439
The most damaging part for a leadership campaign might be Streeting's fear that his own seat is at risk.
You say that..
The rate solar is coming online will make a lot of proposed turbines unnecessary, especially way out there
I can understand why Streeting wants it all out there, but in doing so he has set a precedent which has the cabinet office in a spin today
It is inevitable Starmer and others will be faced with demands for their own text messages
https://x.com/MichaelLCrick/status/1804622969500516439
In two to three years time, when Starmer and his government are no doubt deeply unpopular, I hope we in the media will ask ourselves: "Why were we so supine during the long 2024 election; why didn't we hold Labour properly to account while we could, and ask more probing questions, and explore their records, rather than give them such an easy ride?".
The serial liar told another massive porkie today.
Again repeats the Labour doing nothing crap
Every day Labour announce new Policy.
Today
. £1,000,000,000 Community Energy Policy
Warmly welcomed by Trade and Community bodies.
She's a Web hacker who lied about her University place out of her depth with no policy
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/09/streeting-wrote-off-his-re-election-chances-in-whatsapp-exchanges-with-mandelson
Bear Grylls OBE
@BearGrylls
Faith doesn't promise an easy journey, but it gives us strength for the storm.
https://x.com/BearGrylls/status/2020951335256924343?s=20
It can work for just about anyone.
https://x.com/DrProudman/status/1802638360055287923?s=20
And I'm sorry to hear of the arthritis; my mother is similarly afflicted.
PB - despite some peculiarities - is still the best place to get a sense of the politics of the day. Sometimes it gets a bit excited, but you can’t fault it for that. It also gets a fairly broad representation of views (without too much descent into abuse / obnoxiousness). So pat on the back everyone (even those who I think are completely wrong).
If *something happens* to a kind, sweet, much-loved ex Prince like Andrew, similar waves of grief will convulse the realm, the swans of the Cam will be seen to weep as blind old nuns wail in Windsor Great Park, destabilising the crown even more
Lying about something as basic as that bears far more relevance than what someone may or may not have shared with Mandelson about work issues on the past 6 months.
Some people need to grow up.
Mandelson in a wrong in, Epstein was a wrong un, that does not make any body who has ever spoken to Mandelson a wrong un. Nor the Royal Family for speaking to Andrew another wrong un.
Also the edit greys out on my phone before I can change typos
It will piss off the army brass, but since they're also responsible for the disaster, they deserve a few years without the fun toys. And it would be of very little consequence indeed for the UK's security.
Bin the Challenger upgrade too while we're at it.
The Challenger hulls are both overweight and obsolete compared to the new generation of MBTs, and I'm pretty sure the money could be spent more usefully.
🌹 LAB: 19% (=)
🌳 CON: 18% (=)
🟢 GRN: 16% (-1)
🔶️ LDEM: 14% (=)
From @yougov
8th - 9th February
Changes with 2nd February"
Best front up now.
Also, may I remind you that Streeting went on LBC in the wake of the September 2025 revelations of emails which caused Starmer to sack Mandelson, and still chose to defend his associate Mandelson by saying; "we shouldn't tar everyone as guilty by association".
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_OEcau1ACtA
It's ironic that he's now trying to use the same argument to defend his own dealings with Mandelson.
Mike Tapp MP
@MikeTappTweets
I’ve received countless emails from constituents thanking my support of the PM and offering theirs, I’ve never seen anything like it.
The country does not want chaos.
Stability and delivery is what they voted for and that is what we are getting on with.
https://x.com/MikeTappTweets/status/2020926623076462678
😂😂😂
Admittedly a high proportion are being trashed by muirburn (and this should 100% be stopped, yesterday) but that's no excuse to double trash them. Once these things are built there is no way the concrete bases can ever be removed and the water table recovered.
Whereas the North Sea seems the ideal place for wind at a scale which will actually make a difference. Surely it is easier to run new network offshore (Russians permitting)?
To me it just seems like a gold rush for landowners and companies that don't really care what the long term effects are as long as there is short term money to be made (nothing new there).
Solar farms are different as most of the infrastructure can easily be removed if it is no longer needed, and it won't leave a permanent legacy in the landscape. Although it is a bit annoying that a lot of our local greenspace is going to be filled in just because the landscape has already been trashed for coal (leaving a network of grid connections).
Imagine it, Andrew, the sweet beloved Prince Andrew - with his affable smile and humble charm, that piercing intelligence and decorous self awareness - snatched away from us, in the prime of his blesssed life? Snuffed out like a candle, leaving us with the darkness of his absence, which can never be filled?
I don't know. Just thinking about it is desolating
Euan Stainbank. AKA Euan4Falkirk. Sanwars 26 year old supporter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euan_Stainbank
“You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that,”
Trump White House voices opposition after Israel unveils plan to increase control over West Bank
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/10/trump-west-bank-occupation-white-house-opposition
Netanyahu rushes to White House to stop Iran deal
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/02/09/netanyahu-visits-washington-early-iran-fears/ (£££)
(a certain irony in the "unloved" notion!)
BTW you were asking for TV recommendations; have you tried Wonder Man ?
First couple of episodes are promising, and Ben Kingsley (I've never really been a huge fan) is superb. Silly but very entertaining.
If I were a Tory voter or member I'd be going ballistic
Asking why the schoolgirl antagonist in charge of my Party is wasting her 3 day working week and twitter feed on nit picking on who mailed Mandelson and when.
When meanwhile fee were leaking Members, Experts and donors to Reform at an alarming rate.
More so, why nothing was being done to shore up the inexorable drip drip drip of vote share to the point where we'll finish 5th at best on Wales 4th at best in Scotland, 4th probably in England.
While Farage , Polanski, Davey are focusing 90% of their time on votes and policy and Labour are announcing a new policy and new investment impacting real lives every day.
What calamity Kemi doing, photo shoots in London, tweeting and spending all of her time doing absolutely Jack shit to try to rescue the Tories from oblivion.
How many more MPs does she have to lose to wake up.
A Trump-backed, GOP effort to repeal a Utah law that could give Democrats one extra U.S. House seat appears to be unraveling after county officials flagged thousands of potentially invalid and fraudulent petition signatures.
https://x.com/marceelias/status/2020965032071397541
This is not something I have followed closely.
* If not, why not? At the time of the GFC, we had considerable help because our national loan book was far longer dated than other countries, but I am not sure how well-rated our DMO is at present.
That just confirms that this Labour Party cannot count...
On Bear of Little Brain, a great Chief Scout aiui, but a complete pratt in his engagement with R Brand Esq.
On shoot-from-the-hip Ms Proudman, that is probably the first thing I have ever agreed with s/him on.