"If you're not in those files... you were a bit of a loser" says Victoria Hervey missing the entire point of the Epstein files & what Epstein was doing. Below: photo of Hervey with Nigel Farage.

The attempt to rehabilitate the indefensible, disgraced Peter Mandelson is already in full swing aided by the Murdoch Times. Why? Because Mandelson has been an enabler, advocate & apologist for corporate elites & power.

The role of Labour Together & Morgan McSweeney is forensically examined in 'The Fraud' by Paul Holden. It itemises their anti-Corbyn factional work & dodgy corporate funding. Labour Together were always a scandal waiting to explode & this book is vital reading. Pub by @orbooks.bsky.social

Peter Mandelson has sent a secret notice to all UK media demanding they leave him alone. He cited IPSO clauses to attempt to stop scrutiny of his long-standing relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Well done to @scotnational.bsky.social & @lauraewebster.bsky.social for publishing it.

#BBC #Newsnight with Matt Chorley reduces the Mandelson scandal to political process. Typical insider class coverage of a story abt more: the debasement of power & its abuse by an entire cadre of politicians, advisers & courtiers. This is part of the UK's broken politics.

Radical thought. You do not constitutionally need to be an MP to be PM. Alec Douglas-Home was PM & not an MP for 20 days in 1963. We are in different times politically. But if Labour treated the British constitutional settlement the way the Tories do … they could make Burnham the next Labour PM.

The Joke isn't Funny Anymore: Peter Mandelson and corporate media.

Superb piece by Marina Hyde on why so much coverage of the Epstein scandal refuses to talk abt what it is really abt. Namely, powerful men who helped super-wealthy paedophile Jeffrey Epstein despite his sex trafficking, abuse & crimes against young women. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

After 45 years of economic Thatcherism when are the British right ever going to step up & take responsibility for the state of Britain? They broke Britain. And still they continue offering more of the same failed economic medicine. capx.co/dont-like-ke...

Labour Together, an influential Labour-aligned think-tank previously run by Morgan McSweeney, now Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, paid a public affairs company to identify the source of leaks to journalists about the group’s funding. Report in the FT. www.ft.com/content/dca0...

What is the worst UK govt in the last 125 years? 1. Neville Chamberlain & appeasement; 2. Boris Johnston; 3. Liz Truss; 4. Anthony Eden & Suez 5. Tony Blair & Iraq; All worse than the disastrous Keir Starmer.

Labour Together, the internal party pressure group paid a PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into its undeclared funding. And Morgan McSweeney knew about it. Labour Together has always been a scandal waiting to explode. Full story: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

Mandy: The Keir Starmer Resignation Song. From The Crewkerne Gazette. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0seX...

50% of respondents think Keir Starmer should resign as Prime Minister; 24% think he should stay. Labour supporters split: 37% wanting him to resign; 40% wanting him to stay. One little quirk is that Lib Dem voters marginally want Starmer to stay more than Labour voters. Via @yougov.co.uk

'The British General Election of 2024' is the 22nd book in the Nuffield series. Have got every one of them. One factor missing from this volume is any reference to Peter Mandelson assisting Morgan McSweeney in vetting Labour candidates. Mandelson has not one entry in 775 pages.

Starmer has been & is a disaster as PM. But some of the frothing right-wing hysteria & hyperbole is ridiculous. "Worst UK PM?" You can hardly beat Neville Chamberlain, Tory PM from 1937-40, architect of appeasement of Nazi Germany & the disgrace of Munich.

Some of those piling in and presenting themselves as the biggest critics of Mandelson and his appointment as US ambassador have not exactly been consistent. Here is Dan Hodges lauding Mandelson's appointment over a year after the FT exposed his continued friendship with Epstein after his conviction.

Starmer should go. And he will go. The only issue is the time. But it is a bit rich for right-wing papers like the Daily Telegraph to get on their high horse abt Starmer. The Telegraph & others clung to the moral cesspit that was Boris Johnson's Premiership until the end.

Interesting graphic in The Times on Labour Party networks & Mandelson. Funnily enough for a Murdoch title it doesn't include the incestuous links between Labour & the media. Kind of central to understanding New Labour & how Mandelson operated. FAO @stevenswinford.bsky.social @kendix.bsky.social

After another hour of Reform promotion on the #BBC I am looking forward to Laura Kuenssberg devoting a whole hour long programme to the rise of the Green Party and profiling Zack Polanski. Otherwise Reform are being given special treatment.

Is this the end of days for a government less than two years old? Amazing to think that Starmer, only elected PM in July 2024, has in less than two years managed to exhaust his political authority & destroy public trust in him.

Kemi Badenoch is terrible on #Peston on the #Mandelson scandal. She is nearly as bad at politics & leadership as #Starmer. Bereft of her PMQ script she has no clear line on whether Starmer & Morgan McSweeney should resign. Truly an age of political miniatures in Westminster.

Who is going to employ Morgan McSweeney in the corporate world? JP Morgan Chase have a long-standing relationship with the criminal classes & a lack of ethics but could McSweeney be too hot even for them?

Where is Alastair Campbell aka on the biggest Labour scandal in decades? Strangely silent on #Mandelson.

The platforming of Nigel Farage and treating him with kid gloves continues unabated at the #BBC. A decade after the Brexit vote Laura Kuenssberg gives Reform one hour of free publicity.

Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin is a nasty piece of work. He does not even care one iota about the hundreds of Russian women who were sex trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. All in a day's work for a despot. #c4news

Keir Starmer, Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. By Nicola Jennings. #Mandelson #Epstein #KeirStarmer

Tory MP Luke Evans, Shadow Health minister, said in the #Mandelson debate in the Commons that "he was known, literally for decades, as 'The Dark Knight'". No he was not. For starters 'the Dark Knight' was a goodie; which Mandelson is not.

Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's Chief of Staff, was mentored & advised by Mandelson until the latter's sacking last year. The longer Starmer clings to McSweeney the less time Starmer is going to remain in No. 10. HT @pronouncedalva.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

Westminster returns to its default setting on the #Mandelson scandal: talking about itself & narrow processes. It has lost sight of the core issues: a broken UK political system which cares more abt power than those without power such as the many victims of #Epstein's sex abuse.

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal was about industrial scale sex trafficking & abuse of women. Underlying this is deep-seated misogyny & extreme patriarchy: qualities displayed by Trump as he dismisses questions abt the survivors of Epstein. Well done @kaitlancollins.bsky.social

#BBC peddling the line that Keir Starmer & Kemi Badenioch referring to "Mandelson" without the title of Lord shows their fury. Making the case that the UK Parliament has a pile of rules about etiquette. This is what passes for BBC #PoliticsLive political 'analysis'.

Keir Starmer's Premiership is in tatters. He is clinging to office with his authority shredded. Starmer just admitted the security vetting showed the extent of Mandelson's long-standing relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. How long has Starmer got? #PMQs

Peter Mandelson by financial numbers. #PrivateEye

Peter Mandelson shows his non-existent remorse & concern for those Epstein & his friends abused. This is Mandelson speaking to the FT's George Parker in February 2025. On so many occasions Mandelson told us who he was & publicised his lack of morals & empathy.

With these sort of tenuous links, he missed his calling as a Labour PPC.

Prince Edward breaks the UK royal family silence on Epstein. He said: "It's important to always remember the victims." This is the first occasion the royals have publicly talked & shown concern for Epstein's victims. This despite Andrew's record of serial sex abuse along with Epstein.

Peter Mandelson did not happen in isolation. He was enabled by a class of politicians, media & corporate business & is the embodiment of a rotten, venal, self-serving political & economic system. Below: Jon Sopel writing that "Mandelson is a class act" one year ago.

Tory Michael Forsyth is Speaker of the Lords & today announced Peter Mandelson exit from the Lords. Forsyth is Chairman of Secure Trust Bank & a Director of J&J Denholm & Denholm Logistics Ltd. The Lords is filled with such corporate capture & business interests.

The Europeanisation of UK politics continues unabated in a 5 party system. Reform bandwagon stalling in mid-20s despite media hype. Reform UK: 26% (+1 ) Lab: 19% (-2) Cons: 18% (+1) Greens: 17% (+1) LibDs: 14% (=) WM voting intention 1-2 February 2026 +/- 25-26 Jan. Via @yougov.co.uk

. @skynewsrss.bsky.social states that "Peter Mandelson has served every Labour leader in the past 40 years". Not quite correct. He did not serve or work for John Smith or Jeremy Corbyn when each was Labour leader.

Danny Kruger, Reform MP, responds to Tommy Robinson's support of Matt Goodwin in Gorton & Denton claiming Reform stand for a "civic nationalism" embracing people "no matter where you come from." Goodwin stands for ethno-nationalism defined by colour where you cannot be black & British. #PoliticsLive

The Peter Mandelson scandal is not just abt Mandelson. It is about: The influential friends of Mandelson who colluded with him; His contacts & networks in the UK political system & media; His corporate class allies & advocates; All punting a worldview that deregulation & inequality are unavoidable.

The Peter Mandelson scandal on the front pages of UK papers. For decades Mandelson has briefed, lobbied & spun his views to senior journalists undermining colleagues in his own party & advocating for corporate interests (who were paying him). Finally the dam has burst.

Peter Mandelson has been throughout his entire political career and still is a serial, shameless liar. Tragic that it has taken until the last few days for his amoral character to catch up with him.

The Mandelson revelations are going to rewrite the entire New Labour era. Mandelson was operating as a paid adviser to Jeffrey Epstein & as a senior minister acting to directly serve the interests of Epstein & the global corporate class not the govt he was a minister in.

Keir Starmer has said Mandelson should no longer be a member of the Lords but that he does not have the power to bring this about. Yet again Starmer presenting himself as PM as powerless. Mandelson can be removed by an act of Parliament in govt time which only Starmer can make happen.

Two of three panellists on #BBC #PoliticsLive Conservative Party members. Has to be said Henry Hill of ConservativeHome is the most informed & thoughtful on the scandal of student loan debt. Damningly @jeevunsandher.bsky.social, Labour MP says that he has no opinion on student loans. WTF?

The political descent of Peter Mandelson: constantly being updated. So many senior Labour figures colluded in Mandelson's ascent & decades at the top of Labour: Blair, Brown, Starmer, Morgan McSweeney. They all have questions to answer abt this moral stain on public life.

Peter Mandelson has finally resigned from Labour over Epstein contacts. For all his protestations Mandelson was never really fully Labour. Rather he was an apologist for the corporate global class even when a minister advocating in 2009 he "mildly threaten" the Chancellor on the bankers' bonus tax.