Trump says he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced yesterday to 15%.
He's just a really shit version of King Lear at this point.
I just hope he lives long enough to understand the utter disgrace that is coming for him. Not just shouting at the storm, but knowing that everything he ever did was disastrous and the utter contempt that his very name will invoke for every future generation. That his family will lose every penny he and they have grifted and knowing that they will live in ignominy forever. That the name of very name of Trump will be a limitless shame.
I also hope his young victims get the closure they deserve too. I note more and more people are pointing out some of the more lurid allegations contained in the files, with a view that a criminal investigation should now be reopened. After the interrogation of AMW, the Americans may be shamed into addressing these monstrous crimes. About time too.
He's too stupid, too lacking in self awareness and too egotistical to ever have that revelation. But yes, many will curse his name once he's gone, especially MAGA once they realise they've been totally duped.
What is the substance of the supreme court's ruling? If it is that Trump cannot raise tariffs, why has he been allowed to raise them thus far? If it's that he's sort of allowed but NOT THAT MUCH, that doesn't strike me as very legal.
Isn't the point that anyone can do illegal things? It's just that the state has the right to punish you if you do.
Quite what sanction the American state can apply to Team Trump (if any) isn't entirely clear.
Trump has the Army, the supreme court or congress don't.
Much more important he has control of the executive which makes his word law until the court says it isn't. Which can take an unfathomably long time. It is very likely that his new tariffs are also unlawful and use a statute that was designed for other circumstances where there is a contingency that has not been met but it is probable that these tariffs will have expired before that gets ruled upon. And by then he will be on to the next piece of nonsense.
No it does not "make his word law".
He can order federal agencies to do stuff, but his word has no effect as law unless given such power by the Constitution or Congress.
You're a lawyer David, for heavens sake.
Just look at the tariffs. He said he had the right to make them. They were in force and something like $127bn was paid under those rules before Friday when the SC said he did not have that power. So, in what way was his word not law until the court said otherwise? It was enforced by executive agencies. They were paid. And now they will probably have to be paid back.
Look how much other nonsense the USSC has let pass by on an interim basis pending a final decision. That is the scandal. In this country and in most working democracies attached to the rule of law much of Trump's nonsense would be stopped by interim orders until it was found to be lawful. In the US the way their Constitution works is the opposite and far, far too much leeway is given to the executive, at least when a Republican is in office. I stand by my summary.
Even the narcissist himself did not claim to be making law when he set the tariffs, but to have been making a legitimate order under an existing law.
There has always existed a "presumption of regularity" for the actions of the executive under the laws of the nation. It's a mark of a functioning democracy that the executive doesn't ride roughshod over that presumption.
Trump and those around him have managed to put all of that into question, in a very short space of time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_regularity ..In the United States, it generally instructs courts to presume, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, that executive officials have “properly discharged their official duties” and that government agencies have acted with procedural regularity and with bona fide, non-pretextual reasons. In practice, the presumption can preclude discovery, limit review of the facts, and truncate cases.
In the face of extraordinary executive misconduct or malfeasance, courts may choose (explicitly or implicitly) to narrow its scope, reduce its weight, or even potentially deem the presumption more generally forfeited. This has occurred repeatedly during the administration of President Donald Trump...
Trump says he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced yesterday to 15%.
He's just a really shit version of King Lear at this point.
I just hope he lives long enough to understand the utter disgrace that is coming for him. Not just shouting at the storm, but knowing that everything he ever did was disastrous and the utter contempt that his very name will invoke for every future generation. That his family will lose every penny he and they have grifted and knowing that they will live in ignominy forever. That the name of very name of Trump will be a limitless shame.
I also hope his young victims get the closure they deserve too. I note more and more people are pointing out some of the more lurid allegations contained in the files, with a view that a criminal investigation should now be reopened. After the interrogation of AMW, the Americans may be shamed into addressing these monstrous crimes. About time too.
He's too stupid, too lacking in self awareness and too egotistical to ever have that revelation. But yes, many will curse his name once he's gone, especially MAGA once they realise they've been totally duped.
What is the substance of the supreme court's ruling? If it is that Trump cannot raise tariffs, why has he been allowed to raise them thus far? If it's that he's sort of allowed but NOT THAT MUCH, that doesn't strike me as very legal.
The substance of the ruling is that he can't claim an emergency allows him to do something when it isn't actually an emergency.
Most of what the Trump regime does is top to bottom illegal but they do it anyway: the DOGE department cuts, the ICE deportations, the extortions from law companies and universities, the renaming of the Kennedy Center. They have had hundreds of judgments against them by courts at different levels but they ignore them all. I doubt Trump's 10%, latest I heard 15%, tariff play is any more legal than the last ones.
Factually it's not true that they're ignoring all the court orders.
As a newbie, do I take this Leon character seriously or is he some weirdo and in his bedroom in a sleeveless sweater with his grandma calling him for his tea?
You're not a newbie, you're Moonrabbit. It's not remotely entertaining, please cease.
He's right above about Leon, though.
As Mike Yarwood used to say.
"This is me"
No one else
"me"
Quoting names I've never heard of is pointless, I ain't got a scooby doo who they are.
I thought you said you'd lurked here for some time before you started posting?
I can't imagine you're Heathener though. Heathener surely wasn't real.
The below the belt dig about Dan Hodges' eye made me think it was Scouse tim
Who cares who he is. All that matters is he is an ignorant twat.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
At least we should be grateful he's not a Russian.
He certainly sounds unique '“I have been a member of the Conservative party since 1978, inspired by Edward Heath,” he said.'
'Lots of interesting lots 'Tables for the fundraising party cost as much as £10,000 each, giving Tory backers the chance to bid for lots including dinner with Michael Gove, lunch with Jacob Rees-Mogg and a shooting trip with the shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly.
The event reportedly raised around £220,000 for the party. A lunch with the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, sold for £10,000 and a round of golf with David Cameron for a rate of £2,000 a hole.
The most popular lot, however, was the dinner with Badenoch, which attracted bids from a number of senior donors, according to attendees.'
As a newbie, do I take this Leon character seriously or is he some weirdo and in his bedroom in a sleeveless sweater with his grandma calling him for his tea?
You're not a newbie, you're Moonrabbit. It's not remotely entertaining, please cease.
He's right above about Leon, though.
As Mike Yarwood used to say.
"This is me"
No one else
"me"
Quoting names I've never heard of is pointless, I ain't got a scooby doo who they are.
I thought you said you'd lurked here for some time before you started posting?
I can't imagine you're Heathener though. Heathener surely wasn't real.
The below the belt dig about Dan Hodges' eye made me think it was Scouse tim
Who cares who he is. All that matters is he is an ignorant twat.
Oh dear...
Stocks and stones.
Hodges is a sanctimonious lying bully... Bullies don't like it up em.
Trump says he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced yesterday to 15%.
He's just a really shit version of King Lear at this point.
I just hope he lives long enough to understand the utter disgrace that is coming for him. Not just shouting at the storm, but knowing that everything he ever did was disastrous and the utter contempt that his very name will invoke for every future generation. That his family will lose every penny he and they have grifted and knowing that they will live in ignominy forever. That the name of very name of Trump will be a limitless shame.
I also hope his young victims get the closure they deserve too. I note more and more people are pointing out some of the more lurid allegations contained in the files, with a view that a criminal investigation should now be reopened. After the interrogation of AMW, the Americans may be shamed into addressing these monstrous crimes. About time too.
He's too stupid, too lacking in self awareness and too egotistical to ever have that revelation. But yes, many will curse his name once he's gone, especially MAGA once they realise they've been totally duped.
What is the substance of the supreme court's ruling? If it is that Trump cannot raise tariffs, why has he been allowed to raise them thus far? If it's that he's sort of allowed but NOT THAT MUCH, that doesn't strike me as very legal.
The substance of the ruling is that he can't claim an emergency allows him to do something when it isn't actually an emergency.
Most of what the Trump regime does is top to bottom illegal but they do it anyway: the DOGE department cuts, the ICE deportations, the extortions from law companies and universities, the renaming of the Kennedy Center. They have had hundreds of judgments against them by courts at different levels but they ignore them all. I doubt Trump's 10%, latest I heard 15%, tariff play is any more legal than the last ones.
Factually it's not true that they're ignoring all the court orders.
Given they don't revert their illegal policies I would say they are ignoring court orders
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
Trump says he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced yesterday to 15%.
He's just a really shit version of King Lear at this point.
I just hope he lives long enough to understand the utter disgrace that is coming for him. Not just shouting at the storm, but knowing that everything he ever did was disastrous and the utter contempt that his very name will invoke for every future generation. That his family will lose every penny he and they have grifted and knowing that they will live in ignominy forever. That the name of very name of Trump will be a limitless shame.
I also hope his young victims get the closure they deserve too. I note more and more people are pointing out some of the more lurid allegations contained in the files, with a view that a criminal investigation should now be reopened. After the interrogation of AMW, the Americans may be shamed into addressing these monstrous crimes. About time too.
He's too stupid, too lacking in self awareness and too egotistical to ever have that revelation. But yes, many will curse his name once he's gone, especially MAGA once they realise they've been totally duped.
What is the substance of the supreme court's ruling? If it is that Trump cannot raise tariffs, why has he been allowed to raise them thus far? If it's that he's sort of allowed but NOT THAT MUCH, that doesn't strike me as very legal.
Isn't the point that anyone can do illegal things? It's just that the state has the right to punish you if you do.
Quite what sanction the American state can apply to Team Trump (if any) isn't entirely clear.
Trump has the Army, the supreme court or congress don't.
Much more important he has control of the executive which makes his word law until the court says it isn't. Which can take an unfathomably long time. It is very likely that his new tariffs are also unlawful and use a statute that was designed for other circumstances where there is a contingency that has not been met but it is probable that these tariffs will have expired before that gets ruled upon. And by then he will be on to the next piece of nonsense.
I know we discussed this last night, but I still think these tariffs are [wrong but] legal under the statute. Within the limits and timeframe that the statute permits.
Yes it was designed for other circumstances, but the law is the law regardless of circumstances.
It is far from unprecedented for a law to be applied in a different way to which its drafters had intended, which is why we should be wary of giving governments powers to [ab]use.
I don't think it matters too much either way. The Supreme Court isn't going to hear a challenge to these tariffs before the 150 days is up, so the focus moves to whether Congress is going to extend them.
Reform has become the new political home for disgruntled Conservative and Labour members and voters, and Restore will become a new home for the Reform revolving door that will see a steady stream of disgruntled and disillusioned members and voters leaving who don't want to return to their form political parties.
We saw the same thing happen when Farage was leader of UKIP as people within the party came up against his less than democratic top down leadership style. Its ironic that the first two senior political casualties of Farage's leadership of the Reform party have now both gone onto form their own political parties.
"...I've been thinking a lot about that question that you asked bill gates "how do we get rid of poor people as a whole" and I have an answer/ comment regarding that for you ... When can I call you today to discuss this??..."
What an absolute steaming pile of shit. How can we go from world beaters in the autumn to an indisciplined rabble a few months later. I feel that so much of it is the unnecessary kicking away. Mistakes from kicks last week and this keep putting us on the back foot - when we were playing well in the autumn we were playing a lot more running rugby and we have the runners to do it.
It’s Borthwick. A desperately average, inherently conservative coach given a pretty good crop of attacking players. So this is what you get
The more time he has to coach them, the worse it gets
Yet Borthwick was there in the Autumn and against Wales, when England were playing with flair. And it's j9t that they haven't been attempting to play with flair today. They just haven't been very good.
Fragile confidence. Popped by the Scot’s, then down again today. No plan either. And much as some will say no, both Scotland and Ireland have had their best game for a long time against England.
Nah. It’s Borthwick. He’s the rugby equivalent of Gareth Southgate but even worse
Quintessentially a loser, with pedestrian ideas. Given some great players
Southgate won most of his matches and got to the semi finals and a final of big tournaments, after Sir Alf Ramsay and Sir Bobby Robson he was the best England football manager.
Borthwick is not in Southgate's league
Borthwick got England a third place in the only World Cup he has been manager for. It’s arguable that a better manager for England football would have done better than Southgate given the players he had and their successes at club level in England and Europe.
Sven got the 'golden generation' to two quarter finals.
At football, England, to be operating at par, really oufht to be getting to the last eight. As often as not you'll get there by struggling past Panama, Algeria and Iceland. From there it's essentially a lottery whether you get beyond that: to hit par, given the size of England's footbal economy, you oufht to be getting to one final in four on average. Southgate was a poor manager but so were all the others. Sven was awful. Pick the same side every sibgle game regardless of their refusal to play well together, then bring on Phul Neville to shore up the defence with 20 minutea to go regardlesa of the same situation. But England's problem is surely the Premier League, and the dearth of English players playing at the top level.
Perhaps we also treat football as a money machine not a performance machine, and we have sold it off to whoever has money, and done fairly well on the overall sport as a business.
We have had 3 quarter finals, 1 semi, 1 last 16 and 1 group stage in 6 tournaments since 2000, which is about one level below your "par".
But we have done far better at a wider range of sports in the Olympics, where we have been in the top 10 every time, and mainly the top 4.
Reform has become the new political home for disgruntled Conservative and Labour members and voters, and Restore will become a new home for the Reform revolving door that will see a steady stream of disgruntled and disillusioned members and voters leaving who don't want to return to their form political parties.
We saw the same thing happen when Farage was leader of UKIP as people within the party came up against his less than democratic top down leadership style. Its ironic that the first two senior political casualties of Farage's leadership of the Reform party have now both gone onto form their own political parties.
There will be an ideological component to it, too. Restore Britain are aligned with the right edge of Reform. Lowe soft-pedals it to an extent, but that is where they stand - and (rereading his launch statement) their ideas are not very consistent even with themselves.
I think he will only appeal to a segment of RefUK support.
Trump says he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced yesterday to 15%.
He's just a really shit version of King Lear at this point.
I just hope he lives long enough to understand the utter disgrace that is coming for him. Not just shouting at the storm, but knowing that everything he ever did was disastrous and the utter contempt that his very name will invoke for every future generation. That his family will lose every penny he and they have grifted and knowing that they will live in ignominy forever. That the name of very name of Trump will be a limitless shame.
I also hope his young victims get the closure they deserve too. I note more and more people are pointing out some of the more lurid allegations contained in the files, with a view that a criminal investigation should now be reopened. After the interrogation of AMW, the Americans may be shamed into addressing these monstrous crimes. About time too.
He's too stupid, too lacking in self awareness and too egotistical to ever have that revelation. But yes, many will curse his name once he's gone, especially MAGA once they realise they've been totally duped.
What is the substance of the supreme court's ruling? If it is that Trump cannot raise tariffs, why has he been allowed to raise them thus far? If it's that he's sort of allowed but NOT THAT MUCH, that doesn't strike me as very legal.
The substance of the ruling is that he can't claim an emergency allows him to do something when it isn't actually an emergency.
Most of what the Trump regime does is top to bottom illegal but they do it anyway: the DOGE department cuts, the ICE deportations, the extortions from law companies and universities, the renaming of the Kennedy Center. They have had hundreds of judgments against them by courts at different levels but they ignore them all. I doubt Trump's 10%, latest I heard 15%, tariff play is any more legal than the last ones.
Factually it's not true that they're ignoring all the court orders.
I think we need to distinguish a little here between the Supreme Court and other courts - there are hundreds of Court Orders in lower courts, and one Judge recently listed 96 Court Orders that ICE had disobeyed in the single month of January 2026. The client Department simply refuses to do what its lawyers say.
Things are very slowly getting a bit tougher and last week a DOJ lawyer was found in Contempt by a Minnesota Judge. It won't have much impact imo until Bondi herself is put in prison for a period for Contempt; they are lawless and proud.
In the compliant Supreme Court there have only been 3 or 4 rulings against Trump, and he has won 20 cases. But almost all of them (not the Tariff one) have been Emergency cases without full argument. Many of the 20 were to allow Trump to continue his policies rather than halt whilst lower courts investigated.
The SCOTUS rulings he lost were on illegal deportation of 200 to El Salvador, Federalisation of the National Guard, stopping Trump halting $65m of Education Funding in California, and the current Tariff ruling.
I do not think he has broken SCOTUS rulings. Details:
At least we should be grateful he's not a Russian.
He certainly sounds unique '“I have been a member of the Conservative party since 1978, inspired by Edward Heath,” he said.'
'Lots of interesting lots 'Tables for the fundraising party cost as much as £10,000 each, giving Tory backers the chance to bid for lots including dinner with Michael Gove, lunch with Jacob Rees-Mogg and a shooting trip with the shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly.
The event reportedly raised around £220,000 for the party. A lunch with the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, sold for £10,000 and a round of golf with David Cameron for a rate of £2,000 a hole.
The most popular lot, however, was the dinner with Badenoch, which attracted bids from a number of senior donors, according to attendees.'
What an absolute steaming pile of shit. How can we go from world beaters in the autumn to an indisciplined rabble a few months later. I feel that so much of it is the unnecessary kicking away. Mistakes from kicks last week and this keep putting us on the back foot - when we were playing well in the autumn we were playing a lot more running rugby and we have the runners to do it.
It’s Borthwick. A desperately average, inherently conservative coach given a pretty good crop of attacking players. So this is what you get
The more time he has to coach them, the worse it gets
Yet Borthwick was there in the Autumn and against Wales, when England were playing with flair. And it's j9t that they haven't been attempting to play with flair today. They just haven't been very good.
Fragile confidence. Popped by the Scot’s, then down again today. No plan either. And much as some will say no, both Scotland and Ireland have had their best game for a long time against England.
Nah. It’s Borthwick. He’s the rugby equivalent of Gareth Southgate but even worse
Quintessentially a loser, with pedestrian ideas. Given some great players
Southgate won most of his matches and got to the semi finals and a final of big tournaments, after Sir Alf Ramsay and Sir Bobby Robson he was the best England football manager.
Borthwick is not in Southgate's league
Borthwick got England a third place in the only World Cup he has been manager for. It’s arguable that a better manager for England football would have done better than Southgate given the players he had and their successes at club level in England and Europe.
Sven got the 'golden generation' to two quarter finals.
At football, England, to be operating at par, really oufht to be getting to the last eight. As often as not you'll get there by struggling past Panama, Algeria and Iceland. From there it's essentially a lottery whether you get beyond that: to hit par, given the size of England's footbal economy, you oufht to be getting to one final in four on average. Southgate was a poor manager but so were all the others. Sven was awful. Pick the same side every sibgle game regardless of their refusal to play well together, then bring on Phul Neville to shore up the defence with 20 minutea to go regardlesa of the same situation. But England's problem is surely the Premier League, and the dearth of English players playing at the top level.
Perhaps we also treat football as a money machine not a performance machine, and we have sold it off to whoever has money, and done fairly well on the overall sport as a business.
We have had 3 quarter finals, 1 semi, 1 last 16 and 1 group stage in 6 tournaments since 2000, which is about one level below your "par".
But we have done far better at a wider range of sports in the Olympics, where we have been in the top 10 every time, and mainly the top 4.
Given the choice, I take Olympics over football.
Agree about the PL
Ironic that England's only world class players play in German and Spanish Leagues.
Couple of years back. Mark Wahlberg and Gwen Stefani do it conspicuously. It's an outward sign of faith.
In a Red Dwarf remake ?
It’s a pretty modern contrivance surely
Ash crosses are a pretty old tradition. The Church of England's service book puts it back in the middle ages.
Keeping them on after the service (e.g. when on telly), rather than washing them off when nobody is looking feels more recent. Wonder if it's a response to other religions having visible symbols.
Not totally sure I like it.
It is called the Imposition of Ashes, and is practised across denominations, including Methodist. In the CofE it would be less the Evangelical wing, unless they are Evangelicals who have deliberately sought to re-engage with their traditions (a lot have, especially amongst charismatics).
Background is Old Testament accounts of "sackcloth and Ashes" for repentance. Here, it was a medieval tradition that was stopped by Cranmer, and recovered later.
I think in some places the ashes are from burning the previous year's palm crosses (remember those?).
PBers may also recall from history lessons that after he had Thomas Becket murdered, King Henry II as penance walked through Canterbury in sackcloth and ashes.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
At least we should be grateful he's not a Russian.
He certainly sounds unique '“I have been a member of the Conservative party since 1978, inspired by Edward Heath,” he said.'
'Lots of interesting lots 'Tables for the fundraising party cost as much as £10,000 each, giving Tory backers the chance to bid for lots including dinner with Michael Gove, lunch with Jacob Rees-Mogg and a shooting trip with the shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly.
The event reportedly raised around £220,000 for the party. A lunch with the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, sold for £10,000 and a round of golf with David Cameron for a rate of £2,000 a hole.
The most popular lot, however, was the dinner with Badenoch, which attracted bids from a number of senior donors, according to attendees.'
Hamilton stopped on-track but this was due to them just testing what would happen, apparently, when fuel ran out. Turns out the car doesn’t go any more.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
At least we should be grateful he's not a Russian.
Big breaking story. Odd wet Tory with a liking for the Chagos surrender deal with its 12 ROUNDS OF NEGOTIATIONS and a hatred of Kemi Badenoch combined with a frankly perverted desire to install James Cleverley (sic) as Tory leader decides to reinvent themself as a Labour troll (who possesses all the same views) to continue the PB campaign.
I actually understand your thinking because as soon as posted my research about 11 rounds of constructive Conservative Mauritius negotiations over 2 years, I too noticed Brix was often repeating it. I believe it’s true and Kemi front bench being dishonest as shit scared what Farage will do to them, I think it’s absolute impossible for Labour to have negotiated it in just 8 weeks. You should really agree with me on that, as you are an intelligent thinker. But no, I barely have time for one PB avatar let alone add zillions of Brix posts everyday too, and more than one on a forum at once doesn’t in spirit of game either. i am right in the middle of a very busy weekend, my mum and dad have gone on holiday!
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
You miss the greater scar on his political journey. He was a former Lib Dem. Allegedly flouncing when not selected for a parliamentary seat they had a chance of winning.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
You miss the greater scar on his political journey. He was a former Lib Dem. Allegedly flouncing when not selected for a parliamentary seat they had a chance of winning.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
Matthew Syed in The Times on his two day visit to Gorton and Denton
A constituency where people feel they’ve been left behind, with some justification. Makes some interesting points. It’s certainly a Britain that most people here, with their rather privileged lifestyles, will never have encountered and show little empathy for.
The sad thing is after Friday all of the media, main parties and the whole circus will go back to not giving a fuck about the place and the people who live in it.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
You miss the greater scar on his political journey. He was a former Lib Dem. Allegedly flouncing when not selected for a parliamentary seat they had a chance of winning.
wowsers!
Indeed. It’s a shocker. Almost as embarrassing as being a Villa fan.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
It's tragic really. I still don't really understand why he did it. I am no great genius but it was so obvious to me at the time that Iraq was a terrible mistake. I think he had his head turned by America.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
A lot of the Reform vote is left wing. Thats the problem for theitr posho leadership. Apart from disliking immigrants the Reform leadership and voters have little in common.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
It's tragic really. I still don't really understand why he did it. I am no great genius but it was so obvious to me at the time that Iraq was a terrible mistake. I think he had his head turned by America.
I think he wanted to show that New Labour were not "soft on defence".
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians, business people, and senior officials that were also involved, and also the total lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
It's tragic really. I still don't really understand why he did it. .
I honestly think he was bored. At the time the tories were even more fucking useless than normal so there were not any real political battles. The left wing of the Labour had been subdued and used for organ harvesting. He'd outsourced most domestic policy to Brown. An unlikely coalition of sociopathic ancaps and idiotic chavs hadn't yet worked out that all of the country's social, structural and economic problems could be solved by imposing sanctions on ourselves and leaving the EU. So what's left? Well, there's a convenient war erupting in the Middle East so let's do that. I think there is an episode of Veep based on this very premise where Selina says, "And I want a war this time!"
I did enjoy it though, so I'm glad he did. Obviously it was a pain in the arse for the Iraqis. Literally, for any unlucky enough to be detained and interrogated by the US Army.
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
I am pretty fucking amazed that Trump didn't enable Big Nige's stunt of trying to get to Chagos. He could have easily flown him in from Bahrain on a USN/USMC C-130 and caused Starmer acute embarrassment and political strife. Although it's a long fucking flight when you're used to drilling 40 Silk Cut a day into yourself. As it is, Farage couldn't get on the boat to Peros Banhos and is kicking back in the Maldives. Don't ask who paid for him to get there.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
A mettle account will give you free access to FreeAgent. All you need to do is make 1 transaction a month to keep the Meetle account open - I have a debit that moves £1 to another of my accounts
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
I think Josh Simons has to go this week.
Unforgivable behaviour..
Can be part of the expulsion of the "boys club" so many Labour MP's wont weep and part too of the removal of the zionist clique in and around Downing Street.
Big Policy announcement is on Education including SEND and it would appear that Bridget Phillipson has dome a strong job in pulling strands together and forming a base point that is at least more coherent and an opportunity to move forwards.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
It makes running a non-VAT registered business about half as tiresome as running a VAT-registered one, rather than a tenth as tiresome. A cynic might see a long term plan in that...
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
A lot of the Reform vote is left wing. Thats the problem for theitr posho leadership. Apart from disliking immigrants the Reform leadership and voters have little in common.
New Broom in No 10 and surrounds will sweep away McSweeney's obsession with out reforming Reform!
Major focus now on Polanski!
Ed Miliband will lead an onslaught I believe on the complete lack of credible Green policy from Comrade Jack
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Curiously silent on Mandelson? Here is what the Prime Minister said at PMQs earlier this month:-
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
I dunno. I'm deeply disappointed about Starmer's mistake in not finding a way to maroon the frog faced Fascist Fukker there.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
A lot of the Reform vote is left wing. Thats the problem for theitr posho leadership. Apart from disliking immigrants the Reform leadership and voters have little in common.
New Broom in No 10 and surrounds will sweep away McSweeney's obsession with out reforming Reform!
Major focus now on Polanski!
Ed Miliband will lead an onslaught I believe on the complete lack of credible Green policy from Comrade Jack
Glad to see the back of McSweeney and his Reform chasing agenda which has been a disaster for Labour .
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Curiously silent on Mandelson? Here is what the Prime Minister said at PMQs earlier this month:-
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
Since the initial flurry of media management there has been little.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
I am pretty fucking amazed that Trump didn't enable Big Nige's stunt of trying to get to Chagos. He could have easily flown him in from Bahrain on a USN/USMC C-130 and caused Starmer acute embarrassment and political strife. Although it's a long fucking flight when you're used to drilling 40 Silk Cut a day into yourself. As it is, Farage couldn't get on the boat to Peros Banhos and is kicking back in the Maldives. Don't ask who paid for him to get there.
Trump has been a bit distracted by the Supreme Court and tariffs this week. He doesn't have the bandwidth to deal with Farage too.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Curiously silent on Mandelson? Here is what the Prime Minister said at PMQs earlier this month:-
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
Since the initial flurry of media management there has been little.
Bringing the Privy Council into disrepute is a remarkable achievement.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Curiously silent on Mandelson? Here is what the Prime Minister said at PMQs earlier this month:-
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
Since the initial flurry of media management there has been little.
Little apart from sacking Mandelson, expelling him from the Privy Council, preparing to strip his peerage and starting a criminal investigation? Mandelson's company filing for bankruptcy was headline news just last Friday. What has happened is a bigger story concerning Andrew has pushed Mandelson off the front pages and apparently out of some PBers' memories.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Curiously silent on Mandelson? Here is what the Prime Minister said at PMQs earlier this month:-
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
Since the initial flurry of media management there has been little.
Bringing the Privy Council into disrepute is a remarkable achievement.
In an organisation full of shits, with Blair and Case still in it he comes out turd.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
A lot of the Reform vote is left wing. Thats the problem for theitr posho leadership. Apart from disliking immigrants the Reform leadership and voters have little in common.
New Broom in No 10 and surrounds will sweep away McSweeney's obsession with out reforming Reform!
Major focus now on Polanski!
Ed Miliband will lead an onslaught I believe on the complete lack of credible Green policy from Comrade Jack
I would expect that environmentalists have already abandoned the 'Green' Party (Marxist-Leninist) and are politically homeless.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
It's tragic really. I still don't really understand why he did it. I am no great genius but it was so obvious to me at the time that Iraq was a terrible mistake. I think he had his head turned by America.
Great though that he’s making amends by joining Trump’s Board of Peace. I’m assuming Blair didn’t have to pay the hefty entrance fee and he’s there to provide an entirely inadequate fig leaf for the chancred, weeping knob that is the BoP.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
On the latest Nowcast Reform are forecast a small overall majority but Gorton and Denton to stay Labour with the Greens a strong third. So if Reform win it it would suggest a Reform landslide
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Not quite sure what the Reform strategy is now. It was NOT Lib/Lab/Con. Having welcomed the Cons and Lab into the fold, the message now seems to be we are not LibDems. It's a policy I suppose.
I have just finished watching The Tony Blair Story; maybe the programme was supposed to provoke this reaction, but it seems so obvious that he is trying to do everything he can to balance the scales after Iraq. I wonder whether he will ever admit it
Iraq has turned out rather better than Afghanistan ironically
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Which is telling.
It is an interesting test. Reform did well in July 24, often with paper candidates, and little visibility on the ground but with a strong Social Media push.
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
It wasn't a power grab. Polanski won the Green leadership by a landslide 84% of the vote.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
I think that’s wish fulfilment on your part as you’re sympathetic to him and not Reform.
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
A lot of the Reform vote is left wing. Thats the problem for theitr posho leadership. Apart from disliking immigrants the Reform leadership and voters have little in common.
Though most Reform voters now voted for Boris and the Conservatives in 2019
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
On the latest Nowcast Reform are forecast a small overall majority but Gorton and Denton to stay Labour with the Greens a strong third. So if Reform win it it would suggest a Reform landslide
I expect Reform under the scrutiny of a GE campaign to shed a lot of support . Farage is thin skinned and can’t run away from his past positions .
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
I don't really think that's true. My assessment is that Goodwin has been doorknocking three times a day - probably a greater volume of meeting people than his two closest rivals. This is the cut and thrust of a hotly contested by-election - as far as accusations of not being seen are concerned, Mandy Rice-Davis applies.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
Saved the link, I'll give it a look later if I get finished planning how to torment my DnD players next weekend.
And cheers to Mr. Eek for the suggestion too.
It's a ridiculous, pointless change that only serves to add paperwork for no benefit whatsoever. It's dumb as hell.
www.absolutetax.co.uk is MTD compliant, I use it for our quarterly group returns
Cheers. As I said, this doesn't affect me as yet, but I'm sure this pointless bureaucratic burden will be dropped like a regulatory turd upon all the self-employed sooner or later.
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
Matt Zarb-Cousin @mattzarb · 19m Labour and Reform are both shitting themselves. The attacks are getting increasingly desperate. Their data must be showing the Greens are miles ahead
Yes because someone with 'Vote Green' on their twitter profile is clearly an objective observer, I mean really!!! https://x.com/mattzarb
Maybe it is even true, but 'they are scared of us, so they are attacking us' is such an obvious and overplayed cliche I don't know how any political operator uses it with a straight face.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
Who is "us"
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
Dunno if it’s worth the typing but.
Polanski has been known for a good amount of time within the party. Most of the old guard think socialism is a practical way to take on inequality. And inequality drives consumption.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
I don't really think that's true. My assessment is that Goodwin has been doorknocking three times a day - probably a greater volume of meeting people than his two closest rivals. This is the cut and thrust of a hotly contested by-election - as far as accusations of not being seen are concerned, Mandy Rice-Davis applies.
I suspect it’s a case of Guardian journalist finding what he was looking for.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Further to yesterday’s ‘fascinating’ chat about junk mail v campaign leaflets.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
What is HMRC going to do to those S/E who continue to submit returns annually on paper? As you, say there is no loss to HMRC in this scenario so on what basis would they prosecute?
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
Oh how the mysiginists in the Civil Service and the Zionists in Fleet Street hate the concept of a woman not tied to Israel in charge of proceedings around the PM.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Which is telling.
It is an interesting test. Reform did well in July 24, often with paper candidates, and little visibility on the ground but with a strong Social Media push.
Can such a strategy work at a byelection?
I don't think Reform have anything like the numbers to win G&D.
It'd require a perfectly split left-wing vote, and for them to substantially overperform and maximise turnout.
I do expect the media to massively overreact to that, of course.
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
Oh how the mysiginists in the Civil Service and the Zionists in Fleet Street hate the concept of a woman not tied to Israel in charge of proceedings around the PM.
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
On the latest Nowcast Reform are forecast a small overall majority but Gorton and Denton to stay Labour with the Greens a strong third. So if Reform win it it would suggest a Reform landslide
I expect Reform under the scrutiny of a GE campaign to shed a lot of support . Farage is thin skinned and can’t run away from his past positions .
Can and will Farage stay at this level of scrutiny for at least 3 years more likely 3 and longer.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Which is telling.
It is an interesting test. Reform did well in July 24, often with paper candidates, and little visibility on the ground but with a strong Social Media push.
Can such a strategy work at a byelection?
I don't think Reform have anything like the numbers to win G&D.
It'd require a perfectly split left-wing vote, and for them to substantially overperform and maximise turnout.
I do expect the media to massively overreact to that, of course.
Whatever the result the media will overreact and apply a take to the vote to suit their own narrative.
The sad thing is they will all go, the circus moves on, and Gorton and Denton will continue to be left behind with no one giving a toss.
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Farage does not run a conventional political party- membership and policies are optional extras, and although he has got a few ex Tories to create ground war in certain areas, he relies essentially on air war- in other words media. In that sense he is the exact opposite of the Lib Dems, who very much are membership and policy based, and who use an army of activists to deliver a message, regardless of the media.
In essence Farage, and apparently the other Reform splinter groups, rely on a sort of astro-turfing with KGBNews and other supportive media giving the illusion of a broad movement, whereas- like the Lib Dems, their support is concentrated into rather limited areas (often where most previously Tory activists have defected, like Lincs). Hence trying to show support by putting a few quid in the betting markets, which gives the journalists their talking points. The problem is that the quality of elected members is poor, and the result is chaos when they do manage to get elected. Electioneering by gimmick and stunt when there is no core set of ideas is not a sustainable strategy for any party.
Farage probably has more support and funding from the United States than he does in the United Kingdom but in the end it is exceptionally difficult to achieve power in the UK from such a electoral low basis, and most often it takes many electoral cycles. Farage will already be 65 at the next GE... There is no wave of enthusiasm to sweep him into Number Ten- rather the reverse- he is a disreputable figure who is sincerely hated by at least two thirds of the voters.
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
Apparently 60,000 landlords are selling their property portfolios. Might explain the drop in house prices as so much is coming onto the market at the same time.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
What is HMRC going to do to those S/E who continue to submit returns annually on paper? As you, say there is no loss to HMRC in this scenario so on what basis would they prosecute?
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians, business people, and senior officials that were also involved, and also the total lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
Apparently 60,000 landlords are selling their property portfolios. Might explain the drop in house prices as so much is coming onto the market at the same time.
Also many are changing their model to either short term lets or setting up companies to manage their portfolio.
Flats aren’t shifting, people claim this is due to ground rent and service charge liabilities due to recent campaigns. May be true. I wouldn’t buy a property with an uncapped liability.
As an aside, this doesn't affect me as yet, but the Making tax Digital (MTD) bullshit is dumb as hell. You should, if necessary (it isn't) be able to submit quarterly info straight into the HMRC website rather than using a private third party for software. It's fucking ridiculous.
It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that they demand you submit returns quarterly but still pay the actual tax annually.
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
Saved the link, I'll give it a look later if I get finished planning how to torment my DnD players next weekend.
And cheers to Mr. Eek for the suggestion too.
It's a ridiculous, pointless change that only serves to add paperwork for no benefit whatsoever. It's dumb as hell.
www.absolutetax.co.uk is MTD compliant, I use it for our quarterly group returns
Cheers. As I said, this doesn't affect me as yet, but I'm sure this pointless bureaucratic burden will be dropped like a regulatory turd upon all the self-employed sooner or later.
It was a pain the arse when it came in because we do our returns quarterly for a group and the native output is monthly for individual companies (That we've never used anyway as there's non double entry items such as postponed and deferred VAT that needs to be added to boxes 1 and 4 of the return), with absolute you could do your accounts on quill and parchment then use a single spreadsheet which links to the absolute spreadsheet to submit to HMRC (Admittedly it needs a copy of excel I think...) - I constantly imagine it's been dreamt up and suggested by lobbyists of the likes of Sage, Quickbooks and other big accounting software firms to ministers and officials over swanky dinners as a way to "increase compliance" with the aim of basically forcing everyone to use expensive software to submit returns for everything.
Absolute at least takes your necessary software purchases simply down to excel
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
On the latest Nowcast Reform are forecast a small overall majority but Gorton and Denton to stay Labour with the Greens a strong third. So if Reform win it it would suggest a Reform landslide
I expect Reform under the scrutiny of a GE campaign to shed a lot of support . Farage is thin skinned and can’t run away from his past positions .
Agreed. Protest/discontent versus running the country/voters on strike waking up And in any case, by elections are not GEs. Otherwise we would have had several LD landslides
Andrew may have used RAF jets to meet Epstein, Brown tells police
Telegraph reveals details of former PM’s letter containing ‘new information’ about ex-prince
Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In letters sent to six police forces, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the former prime minister suggested that civil servants be questioned about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, including almost three years when Mr Brown was in No 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers, and any evidence that links Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
Did Gordon Brown not have 3 years to make inquiries about this when he was PM? And indeed before that as Chancellor? His recent interventions have been odd, to say the least.
His strict Scottish Presbyterian household coming to the fore
I am a little puzzled as to why Andrew has been publicly humiliated (birthday etc.) for alledgedly passing on some guff he found out as a token trade envoy, whereas Mandy has not been arrested when there is clear evidence that he passed on very important and commercially sensitive information to the same person.
I was thinking the same thing, it is quite curious. Possibly it is because it is deemed more likely Andrew has committed other, much worse, crimes (indeed, it seems highly likely to me) so doing a Capone on him (even if it ends up being token) is a higher priority than Mandy even though the latter was very clearly doing the same thing from a more powerful governmental position.
With Gordon Browns intervention too attacking Andrew it’s all very much attacking one so we forget about the other. I doubt there is any will in this govt to push anything into investigating Mandelson quickly.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
Andrew is a very convenient distraction from numerous politicians that were also involved, and also the ltotal lack of action from government with regard to the subject we don’t discuss.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
All somewhat convenient isn’t it.
The Chagos Islands is simply not an issue for anyone outside of the Westminster Bubble or GB News.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Interesting piece here. Goodwin is not easy to find on the streets of Gorton and Denton. A few photo ops and then onto Social Media to campaign seems to be the strategy.
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
Not quite sure what the Reform strategy is now. It was NOT Lib/Lab/Con. Having welcomed the Cons and Lab into the fold, the message now seems to be we are not LibDems. It's a policy I suppose.
Our policy is turquoise. not a sort of golden green.
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
On the face of it MTD seems a massive own goal. So what is the driver for it ?
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
Apparently 60,000 landlords are selling their property portfolios. Might explain the drop in house prices as so much is coming onto the market at the same time.
I was helping Fox jr2 and his girlfriend move into a new flat in Brixton yesterday. Certainly the new Tenants Rights suits them.
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
Oh how the mysiginists in the Civil Service and the Zionists in Fleet Street hate the concept of a woman not tied to Israel in charge of proceedings around the PM.
So it’s not true and it’s all sexism then ?
Gabriel Pogrund has broken the story.
It's a rum old story- the report was needed to check that a mandarin's memoirs hadn't broken the rules, and was destroyed because someone may or may not have misunderstood the retention policy. And it all happened in 2022.
There's certainly a lot of sizzle in the story, possibly not as much sausage as the Sunday Times implies. The more interesting question is- why did this story surface now?
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
On the face of it MTD seems a massive own goal. So what is the driver for it ?
Gemini AI might provide a clue...
"Sage is actively involved in supporting and preparing businesses for the UK government's Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, particularly the rollout of MTD for Income Tax (SA) which becomes mandatory in April"
A paragraph more true than Gemini AI will ever realise 😂
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
Oh how the mysiginists in the Civil Service and the Zionists in Fleet Street hate the concept of a woman not tied to Israel in charge of proceedings around the PM.
Nothing like a good dose of anti-semitic conspiracy theory in the morning to get us started.
Fantastic Kuennsberg interview with Sir Boris. Absolute castigation of Starmer's Putin adjacency against Ukraine by Laura, Sir Boris and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Tony Radakin for Starmer's failure to unilaterally send non-combatant British troops to Ukraine
And his hair was perfect!
Edit. Find the boy a safe seat, make him leader and the Conservatives win their landslide and Putin is forever vanquished by the only World Statesman who can vanquish him.
If the BBC editorial line is Johnson's infallibility and man of the moment genius, surely we must all rally around our national broadcaster.
Jesus Christ.
No combatant troops to Ukraine. Insane. Utterly insane.
Kuenssberg and Boris (that photo).
Putins poodle run by the KGB
Even I disagree with Boris on that, unless a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine backed by the US and NATO as SKS says no British boots on the ground
Just one more thing on the MTD bullshit, further to the blog (cheers for linking that): people don't like paperwork. To the extent that early retirement, if already under consideration, would look more attractive. Or if you have the choice between dipping under a threshold to avoid the stress, that can be appealing.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
On the face of it MTD seems a massive own goal. So what is the driver for it ?
Comments
..In the United States, it generally instructs courts to presume, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, that executive officials have “properly discharged their official duties” and that government agencies have acted with procedural regularity and with bona fide, non-pretextual reasons. In practice, the presumption can preclude discovery, limit review of the facts, and truncate cases.
In the face of extraordinary executive misconduct or malfeasance, courts may choose (explicitly or implicitly) to narrow its scope, reduce its weight, or even potentially deem the presumption more generally forfeited. This has occurred repeatedly during the administration of President Donald Trump...
https://x.com/mattzarb
'Lots of interesting lots 'Tables for the fundraising party cost as much as £10,000 each, giving Tory backers the chance to bid for lots including dinner with Michael Gove, lunch with Jacob Rees-Mogg and a shooting trip with the shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly.
The event reportedly raised around £220,000 for the party. A lunch with the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, sold for £10,000 and a round of golf with David Cameron for a rate of £2,000 a hole.
The most popular lot, however, was the dinner with Badenoch, which attracted bids from a number of senior donors, according to attendees.'
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/21/donor-suspended-from-tories-pays-50000-for-dinner-with-kemi-badenoch
Stocks and stones.
Hodges is a sanctimonious lying bully... Bullies don't like it up em.
Sure, politicians attack other politicians they are scared of, but they attack plenty of other politicians too.
We saw the same thing happen when Farage was leader of UKIP as people within the party came up against his less than democratic top down leadership style. Its ironic that the first two senior political casualties of Farage's leadership of the Reform party have now both gone onto form their own political parties.
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet 9/EFTA01157206.pdf
We have had 3 quarter finals, 1 semi, 1 last 16 and 1 group stage in 6 tournaments since 2000, which is about one level below your "par".
But we have done far better at a wider range of sports in the Olympics, where we have been in the top 10 every time, and mainly the top 4.
Given the choice, I take Olympics over football.
I think he will only appeal to a segment of RefUK support.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-judges-court-order-violations-minnesota-b2910532.html
Things are very slowly getting a bit tougher and last week a DOJ lawyer was found in Contempt by a Minnesota Judge. It won't have much impact imo until Bondi herself is put in prison for a period for Contempt; they are lawless and proud.
In the compliant Supreme Court there have only been 3 or 4 rulings against Trump, and he has won 20 cases. But almost all of them (not the Tariff one) have been Emergency cases without full argument. Many of the 20 were to allow Trump to continue his policies rather than halt whilst lower courts investigated.
The SCOTUS rulings he lost were on illegal deportation of 200 to El Salvador, Federalisation of the National Guard, stopping Trump halting $65m of Education Funding in California, and the current Tariff ruling.
I do not think he has broken SCOTUS rulings. Details:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/01/looking-back-at-2025-the-supreme-court-and-the-trump-administration/
Ironic that England's only world class players play in German and Spanish Leagues.
Background is Old Testament accounts of "sackcloth and Ashes" for repentance. Here, it was a medieval tradition that was stopped by Cranmer, and recovered later.
I think in some places the ashes are from burning the previous year's palm crosses (remember those?).
PBers may also recall from history lessons that after he had Thomas Becket murdered, King Henry II as penance walked through Canterbury in sackcloth and ashes.
Members of the actual Green Party or Members of the Polanski Cult?
Because it does appear that in terms of profile and policy the two are distant bedfellows.
It is the most blatant power grab since Hitler labelled himself a "socialist"
A paid up Communist has delivered a cop d'etat of the UK environmental and ecological Party in front of our very eyes whilst Sultana and Corby provided a comedy shield par excellence
The usual Tory farce.
Money buying power. Divorce from reality.
F1: predictions, with a lot of fence-sitting:
https://medium.com/@rkilner/f1-2026-predictions-f23011bc5a4c
Hamilton stopped on-track but this was due to them just testing what would happen, apparently, when fuel ran out. Turns out the car doesn’t go any more.
Allegations against Mandelson are far worse but Labour seem curiously silent on those.
But no, I barely have time for one PB avatar let alone add zillions of Brix posts everyday too, and more than one on a forum at once doesn’t in spirit of game either.
i am right in the middle of a very busy weekend, my mum and dad have gone on holiday!
Brixian59 goes tonto.
You may well not like him, but he has reinvigorated the party to the point that it is unremarkable to see it in second or third place in the polling.
I can see why Labour and Reform would each be worried by being beaten in Gorton and Denton. Reform in particular as being not Lab/Con is a major driver of their vote, and there's a new kid in town that makes Reform look as stale and sticky as a 'spoons carpet on the morning after.
The Original New Timbral Orchestra
(ground breaking Malcolm Cecil)
A constituency where people feel they’ve been left behind, with some justification. Makes some interesting points. It’s certainly a Britain that most people here, with their rather privileged lifestyles, will never have encountered and show little empathy for.
The sad thing is after Friday all of the media, main parties and the whole circus will go back to not giving a fuck about the place and the people who live in it.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/gorton-and-denton-by-election-voters-bchxktv60
The Greens are the left wing Reform. None of the Above. They peel votes to the left as Reform do to the right. The Greens and Reform are targetting different voters and both are becoming more slick at it. Had Your Party not been a complete car crash it would have been them.
Labour finally seems to be cottoning onto the Green threat too and attacking them rather than seeing them as friendly rivals. They’re wise to. The Greens could batter them in several parts of London.
Oh, and it’s knocking the Chagos islands and Starmer’s spat with Trump over Iran off the front pages.
I did enjoy it though, so I'm glad he did. Obviously it was a pain in the arse for the Iraqis. Literally, for any unlucky enough to be detained and interrogated by the US Army.
The media frenzy over Andrew which shows no sign of stopping. The only big thing that’s come out of No 10 was the suggestion that they’ll try and remove Andrew from the line of succession which was a good headline for them .
Still not ruling out a huge shock on Thursday . Although somewhat different from Runcorn and Helsby because the Greens are doing much better now that seat was supposed to be a foregone conclusion for Reform and ended up a nail biter .
If they were demanding tax quarterly there might be some point to it although the software nonsense would still be insane.
Really it just shows the Treasury's civil servants not only have no idea about managing money but no idea of how sole trader small businesses work.
You may find this article demonstrating the ignorance of those who came up with the scheme of interest:
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/02/06/how-and-why-did-hmrc-get-the-making-tax-digital-numbers-so-wrong/
Unforgivable behaviour..
Can be part of the expulsion of the "boys club" so many Labour MP's wont weep and part too of the removal of the zionist clique in and around Downing Street.
Big Policy announcement is on Education including SEND and it would appear that Bridget Phillipson has dome a strong job in pulling strands together and forming a base point that is at least more coherent and an opportunity to move forwards.
Who said that, not me!
Dan Hodges in Gorton!
Major focus now on Polanski!
Ed Miliband will lead an onslaught I believe on the complete lack of credible Green policy from Comrade Jack
Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government. That is why yesterday the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, took the decision to refer material to the police, and there is now a criminal investigation. I have instructed my team to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider legislation to remove disgraced peers. This morning I have agreed with His Majesty the King that Mandelson should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on the grounds that he has brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.
Clearly you are wrong: Labour has not been silent, curiously or not.
I’m assuming Blair didn’t have to pay the hefty entrance fee and he’s there to provide an entirely inadequate fig leaf for the chancred, weeping knob that is the BoP.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/22/reform-uk-matt-goodwin-gorton-and-denton-nigel-farage?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Meanwhile Farage puts as much blue water as he can between himself and Manchester by flying to the Maldives the crucial weekend before the byelection. Obviously he prefers G and T to G and D..
And cheers to Mr. Eek for the suggestion too.
It's a ridiculous, pointless change that only serves to add paperwork for no benefit whatsoever. It's dumb as hell.
Can such a strategy work at a byelection?
https://x.com/buzzpatterson/status/2025389851781333178
This is staggering.
‘ EXCL: The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into Antonia Romeo, the new head of the civil service.’
https://x.com/gabriel_pogrund/status/2025480665941074207?s=61
Polanski has been known for a good amount of time within the party. Most of the old guard think socialism is a practical way to take on inequality. And inequality drives consumption.
Means to an end mate.
https://x.com/i_ammukhtar/status/2025236252019028007?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Not obeying orders?
It'd require a perfectly split left-wing vote, and for them to substantially overperform and maximise turnout.
I do expect the media to massively overreact to that, of course.
Self-employment provides as a lot of freedom for workers but also flexibility for businesses who don't need to bother with fully hiring someone as an employer with all the paperwork and other burdens (paid time off, pensions etc) that comes with that.
Harming the self-employed through an additional bureaucratic burden that achieves nothing is not exactly going to help the economy to motor along.
Gabriel Pogrund has broken the story.
Not likely in my opinion.
The sad thing is they will all go, the circus moves on, and Gorton and Denton will continue to be left behind with no one giving a toss.
In essence Farage, and apparently the other Reform splinter groups, rely on a sort of astro-turfing with KGBNews and other supportive media giving the illusion of a broad movement, whereas- like the Lib Dems, their support is concentrated into rather limited areas (often where most previously Tory activists have defected, like Lincs). Hence trying to show support by putting a few quid in the betting markets, which gives the journalists their talking points. The problem is that the quality of elected members is poor, and the result is chaos when they do manage to get elected. Electioneering by gimmick and stunt when there is no core set of ideas is not a sustainable strategy for any party.
Farage probably has more support and funding from the United States than he does in the United Kingdom but in the end it is exceptionally difficult to achieve power in the UK from such a electoral low basis, and most often it takes many electoral cycles. Farage will already be 65 at the next GE... There is no wave of enthusiasm to sweep him into Number Ten- rather the reverse- he is a disreputable figure who is sincerely hated by at least two thirds of the voters.
Ker Ching
https://x.com/academicagent_x/status/2025147059838300667?s=61
Flats aren’t shifting, people claim this is due to ground rent and service charge liabilities due to recent campaigns. May be true. I wouldn’t buy a property with an uncapped liability.
Absolute at least takes your necessary software purchases simply down to excel
And in any case, by elections are not GEs. Otherwise we would have had several LD landslides
not a sort of golden green.
https://housinghub.campaign.gov.uk/renting-is-changing/
All those properties moving onto the market are surely a good thing.
Incidentally, Brixton looked pretty good, definitely smarter than it was when I lived in South London, but still quite a West Indian vibe.
There's certainly a lot of sizzle in the story, possibly not as much sausage as the Sunday Times implies. The more interesting question is- why did this story surface now?
"Sage is actively involved in supporting and preparing businesses for the UK government's Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, particularly the rollout of MTD for Income Tax (SA) which becomes mandatory in April"
A paragraph more true than Gemini AI will ever realise 😂