This should ease the pressure on Starmer – politicalbetting.com
This should ease the pressure on Starmer – politicalbetting.com
I think this Guardian story should take the pressure off Sir Keir Starmer, so far there is no smoking gun, although I can see a few more civil service resignations.
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Hats off to Starmer for the lawyerly stuff. An awful lot of pin head dancing going on.
P.S. Is that a technical first as TSE claimed gold and silver spots.
It’s quite astonishing that neither thought it was a good idea to tell the PM .
Do we have a dunce’s cap, just in case?
The putrid smell around this affair is very hard to ignore.
And we all thought Starmers premiership would be dull !
Now we are onto this evening's line.
If U.S. naval blockade persists, Tehran will consider it a violation of the ceasefire and will close the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official tells Fars News.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk-natural-gas
That "formally" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Or something like that.
Seems like a Mandy type 5d chess move so I could buy it.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
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This morning Starmer was on television saying "No one in Downing Street knew Mandelson failed his vetting". It's now becoming clear literally everyone in Downing Street knew except Keir Starmer himself.
https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2045206566933029321
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If Larry tweets to say he knew then it is all over surely?
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5518651#Comment_5518651
Meanwhile the PM’s aide’s phone containing all the most important messages was miraculously stolen at the best possible moment to hide that evidence
It’s utterly ridiculous. Now they’re trying to muddy the water with endless long confusing emails they’ve made up and ridiculous screeds of boring verbiage in the hope we all get bored and confused and somehow Skyr survives
It might even work. But every day Skyr survives as the least popular premier in history, getting even less popular by the hour, damages the Labour Party, hampers the government, makes their re-election even less likely and is a sad state of affairs for the UK
This time last year I was in hospital. During my stay the Supreme Court judgment on the proper interpretation of the Equality Act came out - on 16 April 2025. A year later the government has yet to issue the guidance to help service providers. It has said it will do so in May which means that it may not come into force until September, a year and a half after the judgment of the UK's top court. This delay puts service providers at legal risk, though of course they should be taking legal advice on the law, and it has given those who don't want to comply an excuse for not doing so. Even the UN has stated that British women and girls have been "left exposed" by the government's failure.
This behaviour shows utter contempt for Britain's women, the Supreme Court and the rule of law itself. Remarkably, it is happening under a government led by a piously self-regarding human rights lawyer with an Attorney-General insistent on compliance with every dot and comma of international law but blithely unconcerned with the government's failure to comply with domestic law. Taking its cue from this, the civil service has refused to withdraw its current unlawful internal policies, presumably on the basis that if the government can't be arsed with paying attention to the law, why should they be.
Still Streeting came out with a renewed Women's Health Strategy on Tuesday - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/womens-voices-to-be-at-the-heart-of-renewed-health-strategy - because of the terrible effects of misogyny in the NHS.
Which is lovely.
So I may write to him and point out that -
1. Invasive lobular breast cancer, which I have, is the 2nd most common type of breast cancer.
2. The current screening programme is ineffective at detecting it - either with mammograms, ultrasound or physical examination.
3. Women are not told this when they go for screening. They are given false reassurance, as I was, for many years. So that barely a year after a screening which told me there was no problem, I was told that not only had I had it for some time but it had progressed to Stage 4 and was now in my spine, ribs and pelvis. It is incurable. This false reassurance - and dismal outcome - is probably happening to other women right now, some of whom will be your wives, daughters, sisters, mothers etc.,.
4. Is this an example of the medical misogyny he is talking about and, if so, what is he proposing to do about this?
I am very happy to raise my voice on this but given that I first raised this issue with my health trust last November and got a reply at the end of March, how serious is he. Because frankly whatever Ministers from the PM down say about women & girls strikes me as so much hot air with little action behind it.
As I posted late last night after drinks someone I trust implacably to have their finger on the pulse of deepest Labour says he's on his way.
The Roman legions were a bit faster because of the roads, training and a designed baggage train.
Anything faster than this was a crazy effort. For Harold, isn’t there a recent suggestion that he used ships?
Canals were about the same. But a horse could move 50x more and canal boats were vastly more reliable. So bigger loads that moved like clockwork.
It was steam trains that changed this. Even the earliest trains ran at speeds that were *double* what humans had achieved previously. No wonder people thought wind blast might kill.
Here's a theory, that starts with an observation by Marie le Conte.
Observation: in the good old days, being an MP was the limit of many MP's ambition. A safe Tory seat was a sinecure for Lied Bufton of Tufton's less favoured son. Or on the red side, a retirement gig for the general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Bottle Washers and Piano Tuners. Most MPs had no intention of being a minister, let alone PM, so the ones with ambition and talent could sort of rise effortlessly over decades.
It's different now, because all the buggers have big career plans, because otherwise you don't get a sniff of a viable seat.
Theory: The only way you can stand out and get to the top is by being an utterly awful human being. Sharp elbows. Ability to backstab. Being quietly competent loses out to loud and ruthless, in politics as everywhere else. Hence West Streeting and Robert Jenrick, to give examples from across the divide. If you are a May, Sunak or Starmer, the system will chew you up and spit you out.
Or be a populist gobshite, like Farage and Polanski. Or Boris and Jez.
Maybe it's time to end the disastrous democratic experiment.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3gdxgw44eo
There. The PM is informed and no-one’s privacy is compromised
What a pile of wank. At some point Skyr is gonna run out of people to hurl under the bus, because there won’t be any more room under the bus. They will have to get more buses
I foresee a bright morning, in about two years, when every single person in the government and civil service and every MP has been forced to resign to preserve the prime minister’s career, and it is literally just him in Number 10. Sitting alone. Whistling. Staring vaguely out of the window wearing his fucking stupid freebie designer spectacles
But on the screening thing I suspect an issue is that the powers-that-be (NICE etc) feel that if they let it be known that the screening doesn't cover all bases then they fear there will be a drop off in women coming forward to be screened.
Just a thought. Feel free to shoot me down.
It's about the Andy Malkinson case. He was the man wrongly convicted of rape who was eventually released. The man who did do the rape has now been convicted.
But it's what this case says about our institutions which is important. And about the CPS. Starmer was DPP at the time.
As Nelson says -
"Organisations supposed to protect us, keep us safe and ensure justice can fail, egregiously. Reports say so, then the pattern of failure continues with really quite severe circumstances. But the Malkinson case stands out, not least because Sir Keir Starmer was running the Crown Prosecution Service at the time - and not only has he said he didn’t know about the case (which has turned out to be a bit of a theme with him) but that he should not have been told. It’s this reaction, or lack thereof, that I find fascinating. You would think a lawyer committed to justice would be more shocked than anyone about the Malkinson case as a complete failure of the British state: an example of a system in possession of evidence that could have exonerated a man, which instead sat on that evidence while he spent another 11 years in jail."
He goes on - "There is, to be clear, no evidence that Sir Keir personally saw the Malkinson file. The CPS has said the decision was made by a reviewing lawyer. In that sense his case mirrors his defences on Savile, on the Rochdale grooming gangs, on the Post Office Horizon prosecutions - in each instance, the defence has been that the file did not cross his desk."
But when he was in charge the CPS did know - in 2009 - that there was forensic evidence exonerating Malkinson. It did nothing. Malkinson spent another 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. And Starmer has done nothing since.
"If anyone in public life should be able to explain what went wrong - institutionally, culturally, psychologically - between the 2009 CPS note and the 2020 release, it is the former DPP. The case is a gift to anyone who wants to argue that the British state systematically resists confronting its own errors.
And yet the Prime Minister’s line is not that he wants to confront it. His line is that he wasn’t told, and that he shouldn’t have been. That is not the reaction of a lawyer who thinks the Malkinson case is important. It is the reaction of a politician who thinks it is dangerous."
We are seeing the same behaviour now over Mandelson.
This is not the mark of a leader nor of someone who can even begin to repair the shredded competence and integrity of our institutions.
Global T20 competition, which would sit alongside existing franchise tournaments rather than compete with them, has been proposed
new
Saudi Arabia is exploring ramping up its interest in cricket as doubts grow over the future of its LIV Golf project.
At the centre of the plans is a proposed global T20 competition as well as developing greater relationships with existing franchise leagues and continuing the development of its own domestic system, with an increasing number of people playing cricket in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) recently approved a new five-year strategy focusing on projects that will bring significant economic impact.
To date the PIF has invested more than £3.7billion into LIV but the breakaway tour is yet to turn a profit, with LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil admitting recently that it was unlikely it would do so for at least five years and possibly ten. LIV players expect funding from the PIF to end after the 2026 season, but business insiders have said that cricket is increasingly attractive to the Saudis because it has a bigger commercial base and lower entry barriers.
The proposed global T20 competition is only in the early stages of discussion but the concept involves a series of events across multiple venues. It is understood that it would sit alongside existing franchise tournaments rather than compete with them.
https://www.thetimes.com/sport/cricket/article/saudia-arabia-switches-focus-to-cricket-after-doubts-over-liv-golf-funding-qb26cpvxq
He knew. As did Cooper - the Independent, IIRC, have spoted a similar trend.
No screening test is 100% reliable.
Very rarely, a cancer may be missed. Screening does not always find a cancer that is there. Sometimes cancers cannot be seen on the mammogram.
Breast cancer can also develop in the time between screening appointments. You still need to look at and feel your breasts regularly, so you are aware of any unusual changes. Please contact your GP surgery as soon as possible if you think you have symptoms of breast cancer.
It is a known problem with all screening services that people will, naturally, take a negative test to mean they’ve nothing to worry about, and they may then ignore or miss symptoms. It is important that people are fully informed of what their test results mean.
These were expected to strongly favour them . They’ve flipped two Fidesz seats and have a good chance to flip one more on the constituency list .
There’s also a chance they could add another from the national list .
So he probably doesn't have quite the same sense of ego of an Old Etonian who got into Trinity College Cambridge first time round and then went on to a top career at the commercial or public Bar or in the City
I am right now in the hometown of St Patrick: Downpatrick (and very pretty and English it is too). His handsome cathedral, and supposed burial site, is just up the road. I will say a prayer for you there, too, tomorrow
Burnham also polls better with Green voters still than SKS
A vegetarian who eats chicken when he's a bit hungry
A multi millionaire whose brother died in poverty
I don't think it medical misogyny. If such tumours are undetectable by mammogram, ultrasound or self examination then how could they be screened for? In order to screen, we need a suitable test.
No screening programme picks up all lesions, there are always false positives and false negatives as well fresh lesions that pop up between screening events and progress quickly.
Have you had your screening mammograms reviewed? Was anything missed? If not, then it isn't the fault of the screening programme.
The information leaflet/weblink about breast screening is quite clear that mammography cannot find all breast cancers, so I do not think that the accusation of false reassurance is correct.
https://www.uhmb.nhs.uk/our-services/services/breast-services
Best wishes
I abhor most of her politics but I admire her grit and sass. I don’t give a fuck about her taxes, tho her hypocrisy does grate
I reckon she’d be a better prime minister than Starmer and she’d be better electioneer than Starmer, Burnham or any of them. She could retrieve some working class Reformers and women who are drifting to Green
How can you fix a problem if you don't know about it?
It's kinda staggering. I don't think Starmer is actively malign in the way that Trump is, but he's as damaging as it's possible to be without trying to wreck things.
The trouble is all the money and much of the popularity is in South Asia and it is directed at a truncated version of the sport. But, still, it is not dying
The quote was about virtual poverty, Starmer had been helping out his brother for years, for the first part his adult life his brother refused any help, it was later on that he accepted the support of his brother.
As with a lot of millionaires, Starmer most of Starmer's millions aren't in cash.
If he had spoken publicly about helping his brother those with Starmer derangement syndrome would be criticising Starmer for exploiting his brother.
Rayner would basically be a female Neil Kinnock
"Cabinet ministers are tonight reserving judgment on whether Starmer can survive this."
https://x.com/alexwickham/status/2045201885859393935
Long tweet - loads of detail. None of it good for Starmer. Gonna be a hell of a long weekend in his household.
https://x.com/wantedkinahan/status/2045202999715189148?s=61
i do admire the way the French protect their ancient town centres. Proper attention is paid
I am trying to identify the place, without internet assistance. France has a LOT of cathedrals. The half timbered houses suggest Alsace, the Jura, eastern France. The cathedral is not perfect or huge so not a major city. Hmmm
But then I THINK I vaguely remember you saying you were walking from south Brittany, which confuses things. And western France does also have a lot of that half timbering
I am gonna say.. Vannes. But with about 6% confidence
See also people gibbering on about his special pension scheme. You know they haven't a clue about the context or the background.
He didn't even know about the Manhattan Project then three months later he was in discussions about where to drop them.
Is this just very bad luck for me? Or is there something more systemic which needs looking at? Were clues missed which shouldn't have been?
If this screening does not work for this particular type - not just that no screening is 100% effective - then this needs looking at and the message to women, especially to women like me needs to be a lot clearer. I did everything I was told to. But it was pure chance that I got this diagnosis. If a year ago I had just put my chest pain down to a bit of heavy gardening that morning and not gone to A&E I might still not know. Or worse.
Talking of which this is the result of my hard work last summer.
I’m now sitting in a restaurant in the old ramparts of the city overlooking a beautiful garden
I’ve ordered black pasta with salmon, and I’m rather enjoying a half bottle of muscadet while enjoying the view
Huzzah!
I was somewhat assisted by the fact you said you were walking from somewhere in south Brittany (IIRC) and also the fact that I spent a chunky 6 weeks in Brittany last year - in various sessions - and basically went everywhere. I briskly walked past that exact cathedral
But still, yay me
Yes Vannes is gorgeous. It’s also lovely down by the water. The oysters are magnifique, even if the food otherwise often disappoints (in my experience)
Keep us posted with more photos! They are cheering
The water in Majorca ain’t quite what it oughta
He dived into his role of holding manufacturers to account during WWII. Opened all the cans of worms.
Everything crossed his desk.
When he came across the edges of the Manhattan Project it took the word of General Marshall himself to get him to back off investigating it. Marshall had to give his word of honour that it was OK, to stop Truman.