When my youngest was still at nursery one of his key workers sadly died. I did my best to explain what had happened, he looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Like the Queen?"

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I often wonder who this sort of thing is supposed to convince, beyond "People who also had their brains broken by spending too time on #FBPE Twitter"

Foreign Office’s top civil servant Olly Robbins forced out over Mandelson vetting row Keir Starmer understood to have lost confidence in official over decision to override security vetting failure

Who remembers the doctrine of ministerial responsibility? Eh? What were that all about?

Those are successive instructions for creating a kind of Middle Earth Irish stew

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The latest episode of Debt Reckoning, the IMA podcast, is a discussion of adviser-creditor communications and how things could be improved. Thanks to Greater Manchester Money Advice Group for hosting us.

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Came here to post exactly this

Starmer's rhetoric of tackling "rip-off' energy prices is welcome, but he undermines his own message by committing more public money to fund energy support. He should make clear that any cuts to bills will be financed by the energy companies themselves.

A strange theology, where Jesus is both the all-powerful saviour of humankind but also unable to return unless the US government lets him

8 hours for work (crime), 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will (also crime)

Terrible time to find out that so many of your followers are Iranian bot accounts

The Labour Party in 2026 is the Sideshow Bob rake sequence, but with someone yelling "WATCH OUT FOR THAT RAKE, BOB" every time

Unfortunately the rest of my timeline is full of people quote dunking the Thing, so I have read the Thing numerous times and feel dumber for it

E.g. "Near this ancient pre-Christian hillfort there is a holy well dedicated to St Patrick. Please do not consider the Implications of this"

Related to the myth that there was a sudden "Great Replacement" of paganism by "foreign" Christianity, rather than Christianity itself adapting and assimilating more established traditions as it spread on these islands.

This is allegedly also the process by which George Carey became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Streeting still ready to challenge Starmer despite show of unity, allies say Health secretary poised to make leadership bid after May local elections to pre-empt a potential challenge from rival Rayner, MPs close to him say

Show some leadership for once, Keir. Sack him

Maybe leave that one off your LinkedIn profile, Tim

Someone was in charge of Downing Street communications??!?!

Morgan McSweeney taking "full responsibility" for the appointment of Mandelson feels like him saying the quiet part out loud tbh

Really sad, but inevitable given the state and direction of the domestic game. When will sports administrators learn that you can't get better at sport by playing it less?!

At this point, Labour Together should be proscribed by the party.

"And you can start by decently and respectfully tolerating the numerous unforced errors we continue to make as a government"

Remember when the Tories warned not to give Labour a "supermajority" as it would allow the government to do whatever the hell it wanted

The terraced house opposite us (also Sheffield) recently sold, and it is weird in an unfathomable way to see the new owners using the front door. That's not what it's for!

Starmer allies urge him to block Andy Burnham from running in byelection Greater Manchester mayor has applied to stand for Labour in Gorton and Denton, setting up potential fight for PM’s political future

Some of us remember the last time "Starmer allies" decided to stitch up the selection for a by-election in Greater Manchester, and ended up letting George Fucking Galloway back into parliament.

Kemi Badenoch hasn't spoken of the need to "detoxify" the Tory Party, but if all the worst people continue defecting to Reform, it might happen by accident

A woman prepares a Christmas turkey while a cat watches on

The Christmas Dinner Supervisor has arrived

The train passenger next to you audibly sighing as you unfurl your copy of War and Peace

Who remembers e-cards? I just received one, unironically (I think)