The Mandy scandal that won’t die is back. Can Starmer style this one out or is his credibility finally shot?
@philtinline.bsky.social is the guest alongside @rmcunliffe.bsky.social, @rafaelbehr.bsky.social, @philipoltermann.bsky.social & @nndroid.bsky.social.
LISTEN ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...
It was an effective speech. Had the House been misled? The prime minister had been misled first! The wicked Robbins had kept the truth from everyone. Did MPs think Starmer should have known? Well so did Starmer! In a very real sense, he was the victim here. He had been deceived at every turn. “I know many members across the House will find these facts to be incredible,” Starmer said, pausing to give opposition MPs a chance to cheer and jeer. It was a rhetorical trap. “I can only say they are right.” So persuasive was all this that one could almost forget that there was, in January 2025, a bit of information about Mandelson that was available to anyone with access to the internet. True, some bad things have come out since then, but there was already plenty that was bad enough.
The Man Who Knew Too Little: my SKETCH of Keir Starmer trying to pin the Mandelson blame on Olly Robbins. thecritic.co.uk/the-...
Am in Palace of Westminster right now and I’d say more like “enervated”
"All these fiercer, faster leopards eating people's faces are making it harder for us more mature leopards to find a decent meal"
Who does this description of Kaiser Wilhelm II remind you of? (Written by Christopher Clark in 2015).
Option 2 people seem to crave a kind of sado-masochistic catharsis in relegation and massively underestimate how hard it can be to escape championship.
I polled a very Spurs-supporter heavy friends WhatsApp group on this - avoid drop but Arsenal champs v go down but Arsenal choke. Option 1 won by around two thirds.
That’s a banger
Proverbs 26:12
This is an extraordinary saga that Sunder is pursuing indefatigably. The BBC has repeatedly tried to excuse itself from responsibility for allowing Nigel Farage to lie egregiously about immigration without challenge. It is illustrative of a much wider malaise & so very important. Thank you, Sunder.
Same is true of the rambling digressions and spiky syntax in his Truth Social posts.
Having spent a lot of time recently with someone (unlike Trump in almost every way) who is in mid-stages of dementia I have to say this style of conversational glitching and swerving is bleakly familiar.
How long can you have a truce for rather than an actual peace treaty?
Quite a long time! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_...
Frankie by Sister Sledge? (About/in tribute to Frank Sinatra apparently)
Thanks
Avignon or, as Sherlock Holmes put it, a three pope problem.
Which podcast? I’m in need of a good French podcast.
Presenting the reopening the Strait of Hormuz as a victory is like the Greeks failing to take Troy but celebrating the safe return of their wooden horse
Michael Gove and Donald Trump both giving the thumbs up
A dog sits in a burning room, saying ‘this is fine’
Ageless
I’m routinely impressed by how little access my Russian gives me to Polish. Czech, some. Slovenian, non-negligible. But Polish just pushes right back.
Tories had a chance this week to go for Farage's jugular over his dodgy extra curricular moneymaking activities (recording Cameos for assorted far right nutters, pumping crypto etc) which old school Tories find tacky & Trumpian. Instead, they're all in on Muslim-bashing.
This is v good on Tories failing to understand what they are leaving behind in their dash to compete with Reform on Reform’s terms.
He’s centrist Dorian Gray!
