Writing to the NSC to tell them what MI5 might think about somebody’s partner’s dad, and then asking to speak to the manager when they’re not interested… LOL, LMAO

My view would be that there’s been enough publicly available evidence for an investigation into misconduct in public office to occur since at least the court documents released in 2023 in the US Virgin Islands case against JP Morgan. The decision to make Andrew Trade Ambassador was always appalling.

Spontaneous ‘FUCK ICE’ chants have propelled Brody King from cult favourite to anti-ICE icon — and rattled wrestling’s corporate partners.

It's incredible watching widely reported facts become Urgent Public Business as soon as a handful of media outlets decide to start noticing them. Meanwhile Paul Holden has set out in detail how Labour Together went to war on the left, in a campaign that the media are still keeping quiet about.

Any time Priti Patel expresses *any* opinion about Palestine or Israel it should come with a reminder she was forced to resign in disgrace for holding 14 secret meetings w. Israeli ministers, businesspeople and a senior lobbyist while a member of the UK government www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

Beginning to think the people in charge don’t understand how wrestling fans work

Anyone feeling sympathy for Keir Starmer’s media treatment, recall: (1) he failed to charge News Corp phone hackers, (2) was found ‘culpable’ for hacking due to his failures, (3) wound up subsequent prosecutions early, and (4) rejected Leveson Stage 2. This is the media environment he helped save.

Anyone feeling sympathy for Keir Starmer’s media treatment, recall: (1) he failed to charge News Corp phone hackers, (2) was found ‘culpable’ for hacking due to his failures, (3) wound up subsequent prosecutions early, and (4) rejected Leveson Stage 2. This is the media environment he helped save.

August 2023 The conversation about Mandelson and Epstein also needs to put the disinformation via omission by the political media class front and centre. They’re going to try and make it about Starmer’s moral failures alone. Not their’s. This stuff was just sitting there, being ignored.

Peter Mandelson invited Lady Victoria Harvey to a party at the British Embassy in Washington, April 2025, where she bragged about Virginia Giuffre’s death. open.substack.com/pub/jessicar...

FT Jim talking to the NS is actually quite helpful this week, and worth your time. These aren’t the bits he’d pick out, but they’re my beat, so

Wow! What sounded like the entire AEW Dynamite audience in Las Vegas tonight chanted "Fuck ICE! Fuck ICE!" in unison before the main event

Looking for an academic article that opens with an MP hitting another MP in the head with a steel chair? Look no further … 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🤼

1 And lo, there came upon the land a time of great Noticing, and many things were Noticed which had gone unseen 2 And the Hacks spake, saying, Whom could’ve known the taking bribes and wrecking his party with bullshit terror adviser guy was a Mandelson plant 3 And, it is a show, that is made of shit

I do wish my proposed PSA conference paper on how academics in political studies could study a phenomenon like Jeffrey Epstein hadn’t been rejected 🤷🏻. I submitted it in October and it feels like the question has only become more important. The number one issue in British Politics - predictably.

Jesse Ventura: “Donald Trump wants to be a fascist dictator, and for those that don’t believe me, read your history.” nodq.com/news/jesse-v...

Absolutely losing my mind over Ava, THE ROCK'S DAUGHTER, quitting WWE despite them offering her a raise to keep working a pretty cushy kayfabe general manager gig and then the day after her contract ends she posts this

I like to think Jesse would have said no to this had it ever happened www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

Emails where Epstein told JP Morgan’s Jes Staley that Darling would meet him, and he had “set up you and peter to meet in Davos with Darling” (and Staley reporting meetings) have been public since 2023. But despite Mandelson’s role in this, Starmer made him Ambassador 🤷🏻 www.ft.com/content/2710...

Even if Jeffrey Epstein was not a notorious pedophile, think we can all agree that this is not how political access to the Chancellor of the Exchequer should work in a formally democratic system. www.justice.gov/epstein/file... And www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

It really is remarkable the Prime Minister has been given such a pass on this

Since we’re all discussing Epstein now, here’s a nice vignette that says a lot about how politics works: In 2003 Peter Mandelson, the current UK Ambassador to the US, attended a meal with Donald Trump, the current US President, and Jeffrey Epstein (& other luminaries). nymag.com/nymetro/news...

Skimming the files released today: While together in Paris in January 2011, Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein arranged a meeting with Rigobert Andeley - presumably the former former Vice-Governor of the Bank of Central African States & Congolese government minister www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

To double down on this, any contest of Starmer vs Streeting would also be *discussed* by the media the same way as The Rock vs The Undertaker - not as if it is a legitimate contest, but what it would mean for future storylines, rumours of behind the scenes ‘heat’ & booking decisions - aka, Kayfabe.

What if… “The Second Goodwin”?

Me, on the “permeability” and subsequent “blurring” between the Tories and Reform UK. www.heraldscotland.com/newsletters/...

Labour’s FM in Wales: “yes I want devolution of policing” Labour’s Home Secretary in Westminster: “No” Starmer’s bubble going out of their way to undermine the Welsh Labour government in Cardiff ahead of May’s elections - shooting their legs out from under them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#WWE putting a show on at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff again? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 It’s very rare you can truly say, “yes, I am THE world *academic* expert on that specific thing”. (Emphasis on academic) But: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 🤷🏻💪

Ah! I love me some “self development” books

“So, I’m asking, on behalf of the president: are you ready?” Triple H quoting DX at Fox News “on behalf of” Donald Trump www.foxnews.com/opinion/paul...

Or, to give the academic-phrased take: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The personification of “peace” right here. One of the indictments of our “democratic politics” is a public inquiry can outline how your failures led to hundreds of thousands of deaths & you still face zero repercussions + anyone who mentions it is deemed gauche www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

. @peterallen.bsky.social and I wrote about this approach to politics - an excited, fan-like focus on Westminster gossip, to the exclusion of the material impact of political decision - in our paper “‘Huge fan of the drama’: Politics as an object of fandom” journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Genuinely mind blowing that Wales - after a century of Labour monogamy, and 70 years of Liberal monogamy before that - could elect a pro-independence coalition govt in May at #Senedd26 #Wales #Cymru

In 2010, while Business Secretary, Mandelson used known sex-criminal Jeffrey Epstein as an an intermediate to facilitate the UK Government’s sale of Sempra Commodities – a joint venture between the British taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sempra Energy – to JP Morgan.

Jesse Ventura praises anti-ICE protestors, slams Trump as a coward, and floats a running for a second term in office. Considering Jesse had gone quiet up until his recent return to WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event I was getting a bit worried about him. So good to see him. nypost.com/2026/01/08/u...

CM Punk: “Freddy Krueger molested children, and people are stoked on him. I guess that makes him a Republican.” www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/409146/m...

It is a key part of the British political tradition that nobody suffers any consequences from wrongdoings identified in official inquiries, and no lessons are learnt - but British COINTELPRO deserves far more attention and outrage than it obviously is and will get.

At this difficult time please think of the true victims, The UK Government and Labour Party MPs scared of losing the whip who now have to find a way to comment on the U.S. launching an unprovoked war without upsetting the only basket they have all their eggs in.

I’ve taken a screenshot of this to use as a prompt in class for a student debate about the state of our political-media class and subsequent discourse. It can go alongside my screenshot of John on Twitter stating that he doesn’t know what ‘neoliberalism’ is.

Thinking again of the time Welsh Twitter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 melted down over a ‘Desolation Radio’ podcast (RIP) poll asking if people would rather be ruled by Welsh Labour or the Taliban, then making fun of complaints, and former Plaid leader Leanne Wood being dragged into the furore 😌🙏 nation.cymru/news/leanne-...

For those not following the latest pro-wrestling and politics news: we have *Triple H* doing social media for the White House the same week *Mick Foley* broke ties with WWE over its links to Trump, while fellow liberal *Kevin Nash* makes excuses for not doing the same.

A bold photo choice for the cover of the “UK Politics” textbook’s latest edition

Based upon the fallout of every other major inquiry in British history can assume nobody of any significance is going to suffer anything beyond the mildest discomfort here. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Young Zack confirmed as a pro-wrestling fan. But what about adult Zack? People need to know.

Incredible analysis from the national broadcaster

Trump's playlist includes the Undertaker's theme before his remarks at the McDonald's Summit

Increasingly few people identify with a party - they don’t *feel* “I’m Labour”, etc. A fascinating question is how quickly that sense drains away after someone exits the party & its parasocial elements. To not belong to the ‘imagined community’, both alive and dead. And once drained, what remains