The backlash against having more Milibands in the great offices of state than women begins
The backlash against having more Milibands in the great offices of state than women begins – politicalbetting.com
Yesterday’s there’s been some backlash against this, a cabinet minister told The Times “You cannot have more Milibands than women in the top jobs. That kind of thing matters”.
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Frankly, I would rather have almost anyone as Chancellor than Ed. He has shown in Energy an ideological obsession and a complete disregard for the national interest.
Oh, and Harry Kane on SPOTY, apparently.
https://x.com/alexbondodua/status/2072545906616946817
He's definitely a long shot, but not an incredible one.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm still chuckling at the idea that I wrote a hatchet job on the Miliband brothers the other day.
There is also a question around who gets complained about to the GMC [16]. Non-UK trained graduates, including those from the EEA as well as minority ethnic doctors, are more vulnerable to being complained about than white UK graduates [36]. It is possible that an over representation of non-UK trained doctors is due to prejudice. Unconscious bias against foreign-born doctors has been shown experimentally among students [37] and staff from ethnic minority backgrounds working in the NHS are more likely to report harassment and discrimination from their patients and colleagues [38].
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-017-0903-6
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clye9zn0y1ro
The claims too hard to check. It reminds me of the Channel4 documentary from a few months ago, people released on bail sometimes allowed under the conditions of their bail to go on holiday just get on a plane and fly to places like Thailand. And despite extradition treaty, authorities go too hard, can't find them. Channel 4 went to some slightly odd bloke in his back bedroom who using open source tools alone locates these people pretty trivially (same as Bellingcat have done with Kinahans) and Channel 4 were able to get meeting under guise of needing some jobs been done.
I feel like the authorities are just miles off it with tech.
Silverstone will make it clear one way or the other, but I don't think the powertrain has enough grunt at the moment.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/02/max-verstappen-issues-veiled-apology-for-george-russell-crash-f1-spanish-gp
Burnham shouldn't touch him with a bargepole. And I think he'll realise that.
The basic policy of electrification using renewable sources was, and is, in the national interest IMO.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/07/01/lord-mandelson-privileged-contact-russian-spies/
And of course his big mate Epstein definitely wasn't involved in any nation state kompromat activities.
Examples: The story here. Untouchable heads of organised crime. Dirty money in London. The daily attempts to scam via the internet and phone.
In fairness, though, Thatcher, Howe and Whitelaw were Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party as late as 1990, when a roughly similar amount of time had passed since they were all candidates in the 1975 Tory Leadership election.
And what is this bloke the BBC found doing....
I understand that people circumvent the law, but it is the State's duty to shit on them when they do so.
Sir Lewis is the only driver to finish in the points every race this season.
He seems to be too extreme for the Republicans who are distancing themselves from him, and have put up a further candidate to stand against him. I need to be careful to get his views accurate as it is quite exotic; he thinks that gay people ("sodomites") are per se a threat to children, and has called for - aiui - the death penalty for people who indulge in gay sex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT70M0mKaDQ
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ct-republicans-scramble-to-replace-candidate-as-he-calls-for-death-penalty-for-sodomites/ar-AA24Zdn
This is one of problems with the gorm-lacking populist groups shouting "why are our prisons full of these people". errrr .. to stop them going back to where they were and repeating the same crimes, perhaps?
It highlights the question around tackling cigarette smuggling, Tiurkish barbers' shops, and the rest.
Despite having served time in a French jail, however, he entered the UK and, when confronted, told us he had applied for asylum and was "still waiting".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clye9zn0y1ro
IMO the government should allow oil companies to make their own decisions not to invest significantly in new North Sea oil fields. It makes little practical difference either way, and is irrelevant to *energy policy*, but the argument distracts from what does matter.
..From this information, we searched for companies in the Leicester area that might be linked to Jamal, and found two mini-marts in Blaby - a village of about 6,000 people on the outskirts of the city.
The mini-marts, both named Candy Corner, are metres away from each other on opposite sides of the high street (by chance, one of them also stands next door to the constituency office of the local Conservative MP)...
A bit unfair on the bloke, but a quick glance at the local MP's X postings offers this gem:
Great to hear directly from local businesses across Leicestershire.
We’re lucky to have so many brilliant entrepreneurs here..
https://x.com/AlbertoCostaMP/status/2062177437971107987
(hats off to who gets that)
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5589306#Comment_5589306
It's the way I (don't) tell em.
https://x.com/jayinkyiv/status/2072572099240087890
If you're feeling too cheery this morn, the ends of M&F will sort it out.
'Deaths
On May 11, 2004, Whitehead was murdered on the street outside of his Philadelphia home studio, while standing aside as a young man made repairs on his SUV. There, he was shot once by one of several unknown gunmen, who then fled. Whitehead was 55 years old. As of 2022, the murder remains unsolved.
On January 27, 2006, McFadden died of liver and lung cancer. He was 56.'
Only one was losing in the 85th minute of their match: Morocco.
Only one advanced: Morocco.
I note that the number of seasonal RefUK councillor defenestrations since May 7 has now reached 40 identified, or one per weekday.
That is approximately 21 from the 2026 cohort of around 1450 seats, and a to me surprisingly high further 19 from the 2025 cohort of 677 seats.
There are various grey edges and so on, notably 2 2025 cohort Councillors who have resigned following election to the Senedd.
I'm increasingly of the view that Farage will be gone before the next Election, as he is well aware that he is standing on a sandcastle with the tide coming in - potentially dodgy donations aside.
My source is Mark Pack's little list:
https://www.markpack.org.uk/176783/how-many-councillors-has-reform-uk-lost-since-the-may-2026-elections/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/02/russia-mounted-drone-surveillance-of-european-nuclear-sites-over-18-months
"The Kremlin orchestrated a concerted surveillance campaign using drones launched from shadow fleet vessels over an 18-month period which targeted nuclear sites in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, researchers have said.
"Analysis by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) of 144 incidents in more than a dozen countries beginning in late 2024 concluded Russian intelligence had operated with “substantial impunity”, leaving authorities across Europe flat-footed and confused.
"Drones were repeatedly spotted over airbases and airports, yet none were captured or shot down by western militaries, exposing a strategic failure in Nato air defences that the thinktank said had been quietly acknowledged across Europe."
That just means that the bad actors move to kits - the basic bits and pieces can’t be banned. “Possession if an electric motor”?
Incidentally, the next piece of fun that technology will give us, is the collapse of gun control.
At the moment, 3D printing and CNC milling hasn’t done this - because barrels and ammunition are hard to make.
What is coming is coil guns. Electromagnets firing projectiles.
There are no explosives required - the design at the moment use high end power tool batteries. All the parts can be 3D printed or made from metal rod etc bought from a DIY store. The coils can be hand wound. You’d need a 3D printer, some hand tools and soldering iron.
Fully automatic weapon, silent, no rifling marks on the projectile and no propellant gas residue for forensics.
The current designs are a bit lore powerful than air guns - might well be lethal now, but their power is growing year by year.
Late seventies Disco/R&B is a terrific, if unloved, genre.
It would give me many great opportunities for puns.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/09/02/bell-ends-up-as-the-next-chancellor/
There is perhaps now a clear case to be made that the Ref UK 2026 cohort are exiting more slowly than last year's pro rata number, which could have various interpretations on both positive and negative sides, such as better vetting, fewer paper candidates, Farage knowing that he needs the extremists so being keener to keep them on, or others.
In May 2026 the Greens were also running at a high level of defenestrations, but on the Pack "Green List" there are none noted for June. I just dropped a comment asking Mark for his opinion.
https://www.markpack.org.uk/176832/how-many-councillors-have-the-greens-lost-since-the-may-2026-elections/
https://x.com/cllrwatchuk/status/2062180003811676511?s=61
* this is something Southgate managed to do really well early on. We didn't have a particularly talented team when he first took on, but via Steve Holland, they crafted tactics that were very hard to break down. Where we faultered was then when we had all this attacking talent, we never seemed to be able to maximise that in say the way France are doing.
** how many of the DRC team, supposed minnows, have played EPL. Over half the team.
Because threats other than drones and cyber attacks exist.
Enemies are annoying like that (as Herman Kahn) observed. They always do the most inconvenient things - almost as if they are trying to avoid your defences or something.
For example, you build drone defences. Nice. Then someone lobs a ballistic missile at you. Whoops.
Drones are just cheaper, less capable (in a number of ways) missiles.
And they’ve been around a long time.
1964, capable of 3500 miles of flight at Mach 3.3+, at 90,000 feet.
I see Brighton are banning them from all their public parks and public spaces, a step in the right direction.