Extraordinary interview with Ciaran Martin, friend of Olly Robbins, on the World at One, saying, unchallenged, that Ministers would not normally be told details of security vetting outcome for appointments. Details, no, but the result, surely, otherwise what is the point of them?

When the numbers were going up, the Channel boat crossings dominated BBC news & much of the media daily. They have fallen 34% in the first three months of this year, but you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage.

Darren Jones did a such a brilliant job laying out the facts on FCO/Mandelson stuff on Today this morning, that even the BBC’s breathless political editor had to acknowledge what he said was true, despite the whole of the rest of the programme implying that it couldn’t be.

Badenoch is a ridiculous figure. If nobody at the Foreign Office told the PM or any other minister that Mandelson failed security getting, which in itself is pretty extraordinary, how were they supposed to know?

Encouraging from the @equalityhumanright.bsky.social, implying earlier guidance under its previous Chair was illegal, unworkable for businesses & public bodies & would have made transgender people’s lives impossible.

£200,000 funding boost for libraries in Devon from this Labour Government’s Libraries Improvement Fund 📚 This will allow for upgrades to library buildings as well as investment in new tech, making local services easier to access

Leaflet published by occupying German forces in Crete encouraging allied soldiers in hiding to give themselves up - spotted in a military museum in Crete. Does the style & language remind you of anyone???

And more good news!

Yes!!! The result we’d all been hoping & praying for. Well done Hungary!

👍 and there are are three more years for the the Government to deliver.

i think this is right & wonder if the nervousness about askng people to save fuel is partly a hangover from lockdown; some people are really, really neuralgic now about being told they can't do anything (eg the nutters convinced 15 minute neighbourhoods are a plot to lock them up again)

Amid the unremittingly gloomy news I did chuckle to read Patrick Maguire in today’s Times, who, along with the BBC’s political editor & many other journalists, has been confidently predicting Keir’s demise for months, now eating his words.😊

Trump 'absolutely' considering withdrawing from NATO Since Dugin laid out the plan in 1998, the main foreign policy aim of the Kremlin has been to sever Britain from Europe (achieved in 2016) and break up the Transatlantic Alliance (2026?) www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Keir seizes the moment 👏👏👏

"I found hope in politics as a means to make this world kinder and more just and more inclusive" - Congresswoman Sarah McBride on how her experiences growing up shaped her path into politics. Full interview out now.

"All this time Putin had, and still has, a mole in all European and NATO official meetings. If the integrity of these meetings is to be maintained, it would be appropriate to ban Hungary from all of them. Every generation has a Kim Philby” theins.press/en/inv/29091...

Pete Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defence fund before Iran attack - as.ft.com/r/dcda930b-6...

It is absolutely stupid that a major focus of policy response to the Iran War is on the planned 1p rise in fuel duty in September (watching Trevor Phillips interview Bridget Phillipson). Of no help now to anyone to abandon it. Shows how trivial our political debate has become.

On the button, as usual, from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social & the @financialtimes.com

war seems to be going to plan!

Excellent in depth analysis of the close #Russia #Iran relationship on today’s World at One. Still the best BBC news programme by far. 🙌🏼🙌🏼

Good for Merz. “Now is not the time to relax sanctions against Russia, whatever the reason.”

Merz’ reaction to Trumps latest move on Russia is unequivocal: „Jetzt Sanktionen zu lockern, aus welchen Gründen auch immer, das halten wir für falsch“ (Whatever the reasons, relaxing sanctions now we consider a mistake.)

The wreck of the Russian shadow fleet LNG carrier “Arctic Metagaz”, abandoned by its crew after being hit by unidentified drones in the central Mediterranean on 3-4 March, is currently drifting towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The full @ipso.co.uk ruling on my complaint against the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph (and the so-called "Centre for Migration Control, in fact just one random racist blogger) lied, and then doubled down on their lies. www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0100...

I hope the Labour Party press office is compiling a long list of clips & quotes from Farage, Badenoch, the Tories, Reform & almost all UK right wing commentators who condemned Keir for not joining the Trump/Netanyahu attack on #Iran & are now pretending they didn’t because oil prices are going up.

Farewell, then, hereditary peers: you were Tony Blair’s unfinished business www.independent.co.uk/voices/tony-...

Trade barriers, red tape, and border checks - Brexit has put severe pressure on businesses across the UK. A closer relationship with the EU is key to fixing the damage.

Complaining about & blaming Keir Starmer for a long-scheduled, still uncertain, six month distant increase in fuel prices literally *hours* after calling for more war in the Middle East is quite the flex. These are not serious people.

The outrageous behaviour of the Tories & hereditary peers in the House of Lords deserves much wider coverage than it’s getting. Only letting Labour’s manifesto commitment through in return for lots more Tory life peers. What a discredited institution.

Reform, like the Green Party, are all over the place on the #Iran war. Thank God neither of them is in charge.

The 5 Live phone in is usually an accurate barometer of the mood of the country. Today's was overwhelming in support of the position adopted by Starmer.

Have been a bit frustrated by some of the conversation about Labour's voter coalition. I've written about who the "Hero Voters" actually were, how we won them, and what we need to do to earn their support next time. chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/who-actual...

Reform replaced its Staffs council leader over not declaring extreme social media content when vetted. His replacement has stood down & left the party, after revelations of racist social media content on an anon account, though neither he nor the party will confirm why www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Turns out all the Brexiters shilling for Trump really hate British sovereignty.

Good to see the Observer’s political editor correcting the nonsense in the right wing press and BBC this week that Keir was browbeaten by Cabinet colleagues over #Iran. “The PM, contrary to some reports, had never been willing to allow UK bases to be used for the first wave of air strikes”.

Lovely to be back on the @exeterlabour.bsky.social #laboursoorstep today with @steveracemp.bsky.social & our wonderful local councillors. Overwhelming support for Keir’s approach to Iran & real concern about what a Reform, Tory or Green Government would be doing in these circumstances.

With hate crime against LGBT people & trans people in particular on the rise, this is great news. The Labour Government delivering another manifesto commitment & the first legislative advance for LGBT people since Equal Marriage in 2013.

The vitriol displayed by the right wing papers against the Government for its sane & reasoned approach to events in the Middle East, which enjoys overwhelming public support, is something to behold. They cant bear to support Keir Starmer on anything, even when they & their readers know he’s right.

Such a shame the @financialtimes.com is so expensive. It’s by far the best newspaper left.

This at once very funny and a devastating criticique of the Conservative leadership and the puerile politicking that substitutes for stateswomanship thecritic.co.uk/the-dumb-dum...

Forget the 8am phone scramble. Contact your GP practice online. It's quick, it's simple and it's part of how we're modernising the NHS to work better for patients. Watch to find out more ⬇️ Nhs.uk/GPOnlineForms

He’s correct, @robertshrimsley.bsky.social, as usual.

I feel like Conservative foreign policy is one of those things that I *know* to be in an utterly terrible place, then you read it written down and go 'oh yeah, their position is literally that the UK have the most China-hostile policy of any nation in the world'. Great column:

“The world where Trump is regulated by a British prime minister’s phone calls and chastened by his denunciations exists only in the realm of opposition fantasy.” Brilliant column on Iran by @rafaelbehr.bsky.social

Very good explainer from @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social on the UK’s response to events in the Middle East. #Iran.

Badenoch has made a choice. Either act like a mature leader in the national interest or get in the gutter with her mates on X. She chose the latter. The Tory party of Whitelaw, Major and Co is no more.

With the irresponsible right saying Britain should have backed US/Israeli offensive action in #Iran & the irresponsible Greens/left saying we shouldn’t support defensive action to protect UK citizens in the Middle East, it feels Keir Starmer & the Government are in the right place, for now.

A brilliant initiative. Like much of Labour's work drowned out by other events.

“After 15 years of almost unending bad economic news, there are signs that the pall of despond hanging over the British economy may be about to lift.”