Rate bit of good news here for Labour.

“I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibiiity for that advice” The inevitably question for Number 10 now is why the advice is a resigning matter but the actual decision isn’t. That’s a hard question to answer.

(In fairness, in the context of the full letter, he is not saying he appointed Mandelson or that he takes responsibility for the appointment, but that he takes responsibility for the advice he gave.)

Sue Grey's phone lights up with a BBC push notification. She gives it a quick glance and the side of her mouth curls up in a subtle, almost imperceptible smile. But she doesn't have time to dwell on this. She's up next in the karaoke.

Good. The UK is not a big CLP to have fun fighting factional battles with.

Anas Sarwar lore: Labour regional polling average in the ~two months before Anas Sarwar became leader: 18% In the ~two months after he became leader: 18% In the election: 18%

For a politician as psychotically ambitious as RAK appearing on TV during an unannounced leadership contest not to promote your own candidacy but to attack someone else's is proof you are a real hater

(I'm not totally sold on believing kids should be banned from social media but nothing convinces me more than online addicted 38 year ours outraged at the suggestion)

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... This was meant to be about Labour's alternatives to Starmer but I just wrote & wrote about what a moral disgrace he is that I realised that was the column. Starmer is a bad man doing bad things for bad reasons. Quitting now is the only way to prove me wrong

watching The Secret Garden

why is he standing like that 😭

Hhhmmm. Can’t see any of the likely successors making *major* changes to borrowing. You might get more taxes & more spending. And don’t rule out a more pro-growth attitude to immigration. www.ft.com/content/c855... Starmer camp warns leadership challenge risks economic chaos

we need an editor! stat!

Exclusive: Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons was provided with intelligence files gathered on journalists (including me) who had reported on Labour Together, the thinktank he chaired at the time (before he became an MP), sources say. Know more about this story? Contact me, Signal: henrydyer.01

It's particularly striking how even when there is a better, just plain truthful argument to make (just pointing out that Rayner is the prohibitive frontrunner in a leadership election and polls *worse than Starmer* would steady the No 10 ship a bit), they go for the 'got your nose!' line.

This operation can do two things: lie, sometimes to itself, sometimes to other people (2020, 2024) or lose (2015). Perhaps it is now learning a third: both!

people are calling my round table performance today “dominant”. “Rachel who?” they’re saying. Claudia’s on the phone to sign me up for S5 but I’m negotiating hard

Labour MPs & party insiders tell me they’ve never seen Keir Starmer so angry as over Mandelson’s lies about Epstein links. But those who know him well say that anger has now turned inwards. That Starmer is, above all else, a man of public service, and will be grappling with his conscious this w/e.

On the Labour side, there’s a lot of “the public are not able to face up to Hard Choices” - you never gave them the chance to! You instead presented a manifesto that was either an act of self-deception or just of regular deception!

It’s A Side Point but I’d be fascinated to read a Piece Exploring or Speculating about Donald Trump’s use of Case in his online Posts. Does he just think Capital Letters Make Things Look Classier (like GOLD)?

so a month ago I was reading @markpackuk.bsky.social’s speech on Twitter in the lords and there were obviously fake stats the government used to justify Twitter’s UK reach and its continued importance to British audiences Rob has now found the source of the data was… Twitter

As insane as it seems now, what this line of thought actually reveals is just how much of the political world fundamentally thought of 2016 as primarily an election about your view of Hillary Clinton, with Donald Trump mainly an instrument of passing judgement on her, not important in himself

Absolutely brilliant column by @patrickmaguire.bsky.social: every word of it true:

The thing is that it’s not an isolated incident; there is a pattern of Starmer overlooking ethical problems on a factional basis. Does anyone think if someone read him the “Controversial statements” section of Neil Coyle’s Wikipedia and asked why he’s still a Labour MP, he could give a good answer?

Right putting this on blast: what we have here is a sitting MSP and cabinet minister deliberately misrepresenting the situation in their seat by pretending it hasn't a substantial boundary changes. One of many reasons not to use FPTP (and, indeed, STV) is the incentive for this bad behaviour.

From this week’s Beano.

One reason why leaders should write the first draft of their own speeches is that it makes them less likely to say things where you go 'what does this actually mean?'

Yes. Like “don’t harass trans people for using the toilet in public”. Or “don’t tell people who immigrated here legally to do jobs we wanted them to do or unite with their family that you’re changing the rules on how they can settle here”. Oh you were just liberal-punching and didn’t mean yourself?

The Keminaissance is off Goodbye

this package includes quite a good interview of Anas Sarwar offering some challenge to his motivations in pushing this

The only way Labour can win the next election is by governing well. That might not be enough, but it’s the bare minimum. The questions to be asking about any potential new PM are “what is their agenda and can they achieve it?” Not “do they currently poll well?” Or “can they handle a media round?”

btw it’s so depressing that the token bit of leadership speculation about a 2024 intake MP is the military guy who looks the part rather than any of the people who have hit the ground running with intelligent scrutiny of government

Tony Vaughan is a good take machine

The Al Carns stuff is a real “the PLP has learned nothing and forgotten nothing” thing.

would be kinda funny if we get Bridget Phillipson running for deputy leader *and* leader all while the EHRC guidance is submitted but not approved

a reminder what was in the public domain

one thing about the whole Mandelson fiasco is: this is downstream of the decision to try very hard to appease Trump. it’s too early to definitively say if that decision was overall a success. but the reason they appointed him is that they thought he was the best person for that unpalatable job

There was a "process", there was "due diligence", and yet somehow Peter Mandelson slipped through the net. As it turns out, the notoriously unreliable man simply couldn't be trusted! My SKETCH. thecritic.co.uk/mand...

I would like to see the Met explain fully and clearly why documents being accessible to the public as well as to them is “prejudicial” to their investigation, and why it’s so harmful to their efforts that it serves the public interest to delay or stop disclosure.

If you are a labour mp morgan mcsweeney thinks you're an idiot

Have seen one or two people on here say things like “ehh, I don’t exactly like it, but it shows the Greens are serious that they’re willing to do this” and if anything I think it shows the opposite. They could easily have made a case for their viability without misrepresenting a named individual.

I have yet to receive a reply to this from anyone in the Green Party - my image and quote appear under the title "Everyone Agrees, Labour Are Done!". As the excerpt from the same article quoted here I reproduce below makes clear, I do not "agree". This clearly misrepresents my views.

“Labour shouldn’t change leader before May” seems wrong to me: - it might make the defeats less bad, which matters in and of itself - brand new leaders can get away with a loss when they’ve been brought in under acknowledged crisis conditions: see Anas Sarwar, 2021

I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.

This week's New Statesman cover story is my report on how Peter Mandelson came to be appointed as ambassador - who knew what and when, what due diligence was done, how the decision was reached. Good to hear it mentioned at PMQs. Please give it a read www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

This is precisely what I worry about in this fragmented context. All kinds of selective uses of evidence (and in this case, out of context quotations) to make a case for the likely scenario in a seat. I'd be horrified (as Rob is) if my words were used like this.

Just a quick note to @greenparty.org.uk and @greenpartyhan.bsky.social - I was not consulted on being quoted on your leaflets and I have not endorsed your campaign (or any campaign in this seat). I think this note, like the bar chart next to it, is misleading and out of context.

WOOF I know he can’t say anything other than “yes I have confidence in him” until he’s actually made the decision to sack him, but he could have left out the word essential