You're looking at velvet malachite, Cu2CO3(OH)2.
A few warnings:
Please resist the urge to touch it to feel how soft it is.
Absolutely /do not/ lick it.
Keep far away from any Supermen.
If a wingéd creature emerges, do not agree to any pacts.
Let's talk about the science here.
Join comrades at the Center for Popular Economics this summer for their Summer Institute here: popularecon.org
Well I have been thru DV. I understand it. If Mandelson failed he failed. And the UKDV people have allegedly been proved right by subsequent revelations? He was a security risk.
Yes. But note he studiously said “No 10” whilst avoiding saying who. That wasn’t accident. And strangely no records of crucial meetings? Hmmm
Yes he has. That’s not proof he didn’t.
The parallels between the hubristic behaviour of MMcS and Dominic Cummings are becoming ever clearer?
It’s always the cover-up.
Under urging from Morgan McSweeney Starmer made a bad and over hasty decision to appoint, and announce, the Mandelson appointment.
My best guess: when MMcS was confronted with reality - Mandelson had failed his DV - he chose to try to bury it? And not tell his boss?
👍🏽
Got our solar panels installed this AM. They came at 8:30am and we're gone by 1:30pm. 13 panels and 10kwh battery.
We can't export to the grid yet (the network operator has been flooded with new requests) but we charged our car with the sun this afternoon. Great feeling, strongly recommend.
One last thing. Several people are deliberately conflating disclosing details of a DV with disclosing the result. Of course exposing the details would be wrong. But the fact someone has ‘failed’ and should not be appointed to a job where they need DV clearance? I know people to whom it’s happened.
One other thing. How honest you are during the DV process is one of the key tests. If you try to obfuscate or mislead you’re in trouble straight away. Cos you are obviously a risk. I was totally honest, even about stuff I’d rather not have been. I got thru OK, despite my youthful radicalism.
In my personal case, no. And the intelligence services already had a nice thick file on me. I was a very active student leader and Trotskyist in the 1970s.
😀
But I can see why others would be concerned.
If you read the FT article it’s pretty clear there were issues that weren’t in the public domain. Which is exactly what the DV process is supposed to get at. I know, I’ve been thru it. It’s brutal
This the crucial part of the UK Security Vetting template for the DV process (via the FT).
Both red boxes were ticked for Peter Mandelson by the security officials.
Could not be clearer?
“No way” was my position until lunchtime when friends of Robbins confirmed that he took the decision without telling anyone else. I don’t think they’re saying that to protect Starmer.
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Bluesky under attack. (Maybe you noticed that Thursday.)
"Bluesky’s website and app are still struggling on Friday after experiencing service interruptions that chief operating officer Rose Wang attributed to an ongoing cyberattack." techcrunch.com/2026/04/17/i...
Tell me more about this book warehouse please. Sounds like somewhere I should visit!
The question for me is IF the current explanation is true, why has the PM only just found out? Why via The Guardian and not an internal inquiry?
Another possibility - FCDO PS told PMs CoS MMcS. Who told them to over-rule and not to tell PM or Cab Sec?
I’ve also had DV status. I also understand a bit about how Govt works.
This is a good thread 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
MANDELSON’S DV FAILURE
He failed his DV
It was over-ruled by FCDO
No-one told Ministers or PM
But crucially - no-one dug into this and found out until it was revealed by The Guardian? Seriously?
My best guess - the pivotal actor in all this was MMcS?
Remember, the pope is "soft on crime," but Trump is issuing hundreds of pardons to fraudsters, eliminating their duty to reimburse their victims, and pardoning people who brutalized and assaulted police officers.
One of the possible solutions to this is to put locally generated power under local community control and benefit?
It puts the choice in local hands and in some places will reduce costs (eg where farmers contribute in kind to local distribution infrastructure development)
Rebecca & Colin discuss: how agri co-ops are responding to the war in Iran. Energy security, interview with Chris Vrettos, senior policy advisor at REScoop.eu Challenges facing rules-based transnational institutions Countries offering support to their co-op sectors
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
This is fascinating (from 1940).
Incoming Hungarian PM Péter Magyar calls for the UK to rejoin the European Union:
"I remember when I was a diplomat in Brussels... We were able to influence decisions. At the time, the Brits were also part of the EU. Let's hope they will rejoin."
Sophie dog excited then chilled
#sophiefromromania was excited the friends were coming round, chilled when they got here, then hopeful about the Hungarian elections
We've reached the point that they're using the Epstein files to cover up Iran
And the cat knows it.
