The BBC seems very surprised that Mandelson was never denied security clearance. This has been pointed out numerous times over the last few days. Were they all asleep?

#wato

A point that has been made repeatedly over the weekend, but (wilfully?) misunderstood or ignored by much of the media.

Robbins confirms that the security concerns were not Epstein-related. To my mind, this makes the issue much more significant.

It would be useful if Nick would actually let Ed answer his questions rather than talking over what are reasoned, sensible answers.

#r4today

Telegraph newspaper editorial on Mandelson's appointment in December 2024 versus editorial today

When public officials aren’t ’held to account’ by being sacked, Nick goes off on one. Now he goes off on one when an official is sacked “costing tax payers a fortune”.

#manufacturedoutrage
#r4today

Are you an MP desperate for coverage on the BBC? Just say something that gets you thrown out of the Commons. Guaranteed publicity!

I'm always skeptical of BBC-bashing, but BBC News website hasn't reported on the Tice tax scandal since 12 April, when the headline was "Tice £91,000 tax row is 'minor administrative error', party claims".

A GENTLE REMINDER: we are trying to eliminate fossil fuels because using them kills us.

If fossil fuels were cheap (they're not) or reliable (they're SO NOT), it would still be urgent to get rid of them because their intended use destroys our life support systems.

Exactly. The question is whether the DV process revealed corruption/leaking of sensitive government info issues which subsequently arose from the Epstein files. If these were flagged at the time and were the reason for the recommendation not to clear Mandelson, then the PM should’ve been told.

And again, @mrjamesob.bsky.social Olly Robbins couldn’t tell Starmer why the vetting agency said Mandelson was a wrong ‘un. But he could and should have told Starmer that it was a fail.

As your current caller is making clear!

@mrjamesob.bsky.social launching his show from the wrong premise. Mandelson didn’t ‘fail’ his vetting. He was cleared by Olly Robbins. Yes, against the advice of the vetting agency. Yes, showed a lack of judgment in treating a political appointment as a standard civil service appointment.

Since when did Amazon start using the phone?!

Given that the Mandelson-Epstein friendship was known. And given that Mandelson’s previous ‘resignations’ were known. What did the DV process throw up? Presumably the whiff of corruption and treasonous leaking of secret information?

Hard to believe this didn’t give Olly Robbins pause for thought.

Why is a ‘robot’ running faster than a human news? They’ve been able to weld faster than humans for years. And cars are faster than humans too.

The government seems to forget about CPOs for strategic infrastructure. Planned properly, publicly funded, delivered quickly, benefits accrue to the public. Is there a reason why we don’t do it like that? Community support more likely if there’s a direct benefit to the community.

Agreed. But it doesn’t have to be owned by overseas private equity. It should be owned by communities or the state!

It’s taken a day for the journalists to read into the subject, so time to reports yesterday’s observations...

That’s a bit unfair - she’s opposing private equity ownership of solar.

They told us water had to be privatised to get investment in infrastructure. Macquarie bought in. Then sold out having extracted billions in dividends. Why would you repeat this?

He might have got away with it if he hadn’t made a complete hash of the managing!

Olly Robbins should have delivered his advice to the Foreign Secretary and sought a Ministerial Direction if he was told to do something contrary to his advice. If he did proceed with the appointment at his own volition, then it is on him

But the DV outcome is decided by the employer, based on advice from the vetting agency. The advice can be accepted, or not. For civil servants, the employing authority is the Permanent Sec. the complicating factor here is that Mandelson was a *political* appointment, not your usual civil servant.

Now we’re getting the line that Olly Robbins couldn’t and shouldn’t have disclosed even the fact that security concerns had been raised, but he’d decided to set them aside, it needs to be remembered that this wasn’t a normal Civil Service appointment. It was a *political* appointment.

Wasn’t David Lammy the Foreign Secretary at the time? And Olly Robbins took over as Perm Sec after the announcement of Mandy as ambassador but before the outcome of the vetting process?

So, key question is “did the Perm Sec tell the Foreign Secretary that the answer was no - reverse announcement”?

Sounds like we’ll have to wait ‘til Monday for the next Starmer ‘reset’. Then it’ll be just another three weeks to wait for the reset-after-that.

If only there was someone in the cabinet who is an obvious replacement.

Reposting this now that Bluesky seems to be working again…

#r4today

Given the BBC’s habit of saying “resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors”, wonder why they’re not saying “Developed Vetting, formerly known as Positive Vetting”?

#r4today

Have we had all the Mandelson papers yet? Are they relevant to anything other than curiosity now that we know he failed to get through vetting?

Some jerk just said on #bbcqt that young people aren’t going into business because taxes are too high. Perhaps Fiona should’ve deployed her trademark “hang on!” and asked him for evidence. These things become truisms if they’re not challenged.

I’m trying to repost a couple of posts I made earlier today. Can’t even see my own profile!