Scene from Burn After Reading: "What did we learn, Palmer?" "I don't know, sir." "I don't know either. I guess we learned not to do that again."

What was known at the time about Mandelson's Epstein links was not a concern for the security vetting. So procedurally this has all been very awkward and messy, but it takes us back to matters of political/moral judgement - now with added questions about how Starmer has handled this latest episode.

Also, assuming that what Robbins has said is true, Mandelson's clearance was granted correctly and justifiably, unaffected by the political pressure from No10, following the normal process - although Starmer has not necessarily ever understood what that process was.

Assuming that what Olly Robbins has said is true, then pretty much all the politics of the last few days has been based on misinterpreting (including in No10) "UKSV leaned towards recommending denying clearance but accepted that the risks could be managed" as "UKSV recommended denying clearance"

Feels like she's decided she wants to make the transition from cabinet minister to Mail/Telegraph columnist sooner rather than later

It may seem funny now, but in about 3 weeks' time the disruption to the global supply chain of knowing-yet-sanctimonious middle-class left-of-centre takes will start forcing prices up, and governments may even have to introduce rationing

An optician friend of mine has several corny jokes that he likes to tell about pupils and irises, but my jokes are mostly cornea.

Still absolutely boggles my mind that Mandelson (or anyone else) imagined for a second that he could be both US ambassador and Oxford chancellor. Quite apart from issues of scheduling and location, the conflicts of interest are just obvious.

"Avoid idioms and metaphors" is entirely standard plain English advice. It's about clarity, not offence.

The power of verbs (and why you should never use an adverb) In Verb Your Enthusiasm, Sarah L Kaufman’s entertaining guide to verbs, is full of helpful tips for making your writing more dynamic

Here: www.thetimes.com/magazines/cu...

Headline: "The power of verbs (and why you should never use an adverb)", but I've crossed out the adverb "never"

Well OK, if you insist

"King Cnut can't win here!"

*reading steakhouse menu* But ribs don't have eyes
*slowly moving menu down to chest level* Or do they

The thing is, the suggestion that Olly Robbins completely screwed this up, which he did, does not preclude the possibility that Keir Starmer also completely screwed this up, which he did.

The audible turning of the pages in his briefing file is not doing "Mr Angry" Starmer any favours

Straight from the "I am going nowhere" school of speechwriting

Well this stinks like a dead skunk in a sewer

"All these fiercer, faster leopards eating people's faces are making it harder for us more mature leopards to find a decent meal"

Imagine the profound, cosmic boneheadedness required to think that briefing the press that "The prime minister will later be putting on a sincere display of emotion" is anything other than risibly counterproductive

It does sound a bit like they are about to tell you they can’t open the pod bay doors.

Start of a text message: "Hello, Tom."

Example of changing usage. "Hello, Tom" with the vocative comma would traditionally be seen as more correct (and "Hello Tom" as inappropriately casual), but nowadays it's more likely to come across as mildly threatening. The classic formal "Dear Tom" or even "Dear Mr Freeman" would be better here.

Arc de Défaite

The political meaning has doubtless been promoted by the parliamentary convention of using "mislead" as a euphemism for the forbidden word "lie". But this divided understanding means that making and admitting charges of "misleading" can become very fraught. 2/2

In UK political discourse, "mislead" seems to mean "give false information to, but not necessarily deliberately", but I think its usual meaning is more like "deliberately cause to come to a false impression, but without necessarily stating anything explicitly false". 1/2

"But the word 'refute' means to successfully and conclusively disprove a point, not merely to deny it"
"I refute that completely"

OK that's pretty cool but wait till you hear about cars

Abercrombie & Kent logo

Friendship ended with FITCH

Please, Starmer is nothing like a Bond villain. They always have a very clear plan which they enjoy explaining at length.

Bit disconcerting to see a mutual's account hacked and turned into a pornbot within 2 minutes of their last normal post

Great to see they've finally got the strait open

OK so when I said the Strait of Hormuz was open, I did of course mean it was open for target practice. Surprised that this wasn't obvious, but apparently some of you didn't get it