eight key FT takeaways from today’s Mandelson files www.ft.com/content/da9f...

An interesting exchange in the Mandelson documents where Mandelson essentially admits he is the source of a story but Number 10 agree to deny it anyway. Just remember, when Number 10 says it "doesn't recognise" something, this is what it means....

“This is censorship... This is a demonstration that some of the worst abuses in our time are not confined to kings, emperors, governments … but to a class of companies that have assumed the sovereign affect, and seek to assert their power the same way that some of those despotic nation states do.”

there does seem to be something of a pattern here www.ft.com/content/2c3a...

When the waiter tells you "Are you sure, it is very spicy":

poppies in a field near Goring

poppies in a field near Goring

🚨Elon Musk has boosted the public profile of Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe on X, pulling Britain’s political discourse towards extreme content and amplifying his influence ahead of a knife-edge election in Makerfield More @FT: as.ft.com/r/80f4639f-0...

excellent @robertshrimsley.bsky.social column on the Restore Britain threat to Reform UK: “the last thing an already polarised nation needs is a new bidding war on the anti-immigrant right…” www.ft.com/content/7312...

some newspapers treat Tony Blair’s words like tablets of stone but most people who can remember the Iraq war (and many others who weren’t around) take a more nuanced view of his opinions

it’s still possible to be surprised by the sheer vindictiveness www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yorkshire moors

Saltburn

The official fund for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is empty despite $17bn of pledges, and the organisation is stuck in a legal and political limbo that has held up projects to rebuild Gaza www.ft.com/content/5ba3...

“To defeat the scourge of populism, the government should do a procession of things that sound suspiciously like the populist’s manifesto, but crucially filtered through the economic priorities of the people paying me to write this”

the glory days of journalistic expenses - via Graydon Carter’s memoirs

No there will not be an early election. A man with 400 seats will not risk half of them three years early to satisfy columnists’ belief in mandate fairies.

two different interpretations

Reform's candidate Robert Kenyon said abortion was a "cowardly act of murder" and implied that people falsely claimed to have been raped He said: “Don’t dole out the ‘what if someone is raped by their brother’ arguement... don’t want babies? Use contreception! [sic]” observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

How about introducing voice-activated electric chair? Whisper sweet nothings to your spouse/partner and you get a little pleasurable tingle, but anything above a certain level and then other carriage users get control of current controller. Profanities get an automatic short sharp shock.

loudmouths refusing to keep it down in the quiet carriage, even when asked politely, has this always been a thing?

UK pitched single market for goods with EU, as it pursues deeper trade ties

lichen

sea frets in south Devon

the police force covering the former home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has said it has “engaged with” lawyers for a woman claiming to have been trafficked for sex with the former prince, while also still pursuing an investigation for misconduct in public office www.ft.com/content/46a1...

The definitive profile of Sir Chris Hohn from my colleagues @costasmourselas.bsky.social and @pollard.bsky.social. Just really top-tier writing and making the most of hard-won access. www.ft.com/content/521d...

A video showing the manhandling and humiliation of European activists by Israeli police has drawn widespread condemnation from western allies, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to break ranks with one of his staunchest coalition allies. www.ft.com/content/a365...

Ships trapped in the Gulf are accumulating barnacles, algae and jellyfish as the Middle East conflict drags on and temperatures begin to rise, impeding their ability to eventually exit the region www.ft.com/content/28c8...

One thing I’m starting to notice about burnham’s pronouncements is that they have a lot of top spin hut COULD they, when you read the wording, just be the Labour agenda now? There are exceptions but some are entirely capable of being reconciled with the current policy agenda

Sir Keir Starmer’s team was kept in the loop about Labour Together’s “indefensible” investigation into the background of journalists who had written critical pieces about the loyalist think-tank, according to newly released documents www.ft.com/content/9c56...

And the £80bn - £100bn hole in public finances that are down to lost revenues due to Brexit. And the % rate that government borrows at having been worsened by it all.

I’m sceptical about any analysis of Britain’s current political shitshow that doesn’t at least reference the £500bn spent on dealing with Covid and the last energy crisis, for which we are still paying

quite the scoop for @petergeoghegan.bsky.social, quality journalism. Now picked up by the FT. TL;DR: Sweeney had access to info about a think tank investigation into journalists, in the run up to the 2024GE.

Sir Keir Starmer’s team was kept in the loop about Labour Together’s “indefensible” investigation into the background of journalists who had written critical pieces about the loyalist think-tank, according to newly released documents www.ft.com/content/9c56...

people are acting like Labour asking supermarkets if they might voluntarily cap the price of a handful of products is some kind of Stalinist state intervention but Boris Johnson did something similar in 2022 without facing the same criticism here’s a reminder

Got to be honest, loosening sanctions on Russia before we’ve even tried any basic demand-side measures is not filling me with pride or joy

people are acting like Labour asking supermarkets if they might voluntarily cap the price of a handful of products is some kind of Stalinist state intervention but Boris Johnson did something similar in 2022 without facing the same criticism here’s a reminder

And there it is, folks. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05...

good evening

Treasury is pushing large supermarkets to introduce voluntary price caps on key groceries in return for lifting some regulations, according to people familiar with situation (but it'll only apply to a handful of products out of the tens of thousands on their shelves) www.ft.com/content/8573...

in 2010 ministers said phase 1 of High-Speed 2 (from Old Oak Common to Birmingham) would be finished by 2026 now the completion date has been pushed back to between 2036 and 2039 with the final leg to Euston not set to be finished until as late as 2043 price tag up from £80bn to £103bn

in 2010 ministers said phase 1 of High-Speed 2 (from Old Oak Common to Birmingham) would be finished by 2026 now the completion date has been pushed back to between 2036 and 2039 with the final leg to Euston not set to be finished until as late as 2043 price tag up from £80bn to £103bn

Left: Andy Burnham, "I want to rejoin, I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin" Right: Andy Burnham, "I'm not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU"

big surprise that Ed Miliband comes in so low

I wonder if this will be discussed ad nauseam on the Today programme. I won’t hold my breath.

‼️‼️‼️👇

decent banter

Every day a new story. Not a news story, a new story.

Ministers were so worried about criticism of the rising cost of High Speed 2 that they commissioned an internal review into whether it would be better value for money to abandon the scheme. www.ft.com/content/fcee...

PLOT TWIST: Andy Burnham has backed away from his previous call for Britain to eventually rejoin the EU, as the Labour leadership hopeful attempted to stop the issue derailing his bid to return to Westminster. “I’m not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU." www.ft.com/content/692b...