Allegation that Morgan McSweeney phoned previous FCDO Perm Sec Sir Phillip Barton, and told him "just fucking approve it" re: Mandelson's vetting ..!

Utterly surreal, Keir Starmer's Downing Street didn't think Peter Mandelson needed to pass security vetting 😱

Olyy Robbins,"There was no stipulation from No 10 that Peter Mandelson should be vetted"

"A position taken from the Cabinet Office was that there was no need to vet Mandelson"

Robbins demolished a PM's excuses - just like Starmer used to The prime minister is in even deeper trouble after the civil servant he sacked took apart No 10’s latest tangled explanation of the indefensible

The prime minister is in even deeper trouble after the civil servant he sacked took apart No 10’s latest tangled explanation of the indefensible

✏️ @jamesrball.com

#BBCReform. It's not satire.

OMFG I had to go and check that this ACTUALLY happened.

Since when does the BBC ever do chyrons with a political party's branding, rather than their own? Not to mention this is during a pre-election campaign purdah.

(h/t @iainsol.bsky.social)

Nigel Farage Has Personally Accepted £675,000 from Foreign Sources Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accepted more than half a million pounds from foreign companies, governments, and donors while serving as an MP, DeSmog can reveal. Since July 2024, when he was elect...

“Farage rarely turns up to do his actual job. Yet he finds time to jet off around the world on his donor’s private plane and trouser half a million quid while families struggle. Reform are not on your side. They’re just in it for themselves”

It’s so obvious, it hurts.
www.desmog.com/2026/04/18/n...

Ukraine’s Second Miracle Year The war isn’t won, but for the first time in years, outright victory seems possible.

Strategically, Ukraine has a theory of victory that looks increasingly plausible, while Russia’s is crumbling.

Opinion | New Hungarian PM says government was funding CPAC but won’t anymore “I believe the state should never have financed them in the first place,” Péter Magyar said this week. “It was a crime.”

Not enough people are talking about this.

Hungary’s incoming PM has said that Viktor Orbán used Hungarian government funds to help finance CPAC, the flagship networking event for GOP candidates, members of Congress, and conservative media in this country.

CNN put together a montage of Trump saying as far back as March 9 that his war against Iran "is going to be finished pretty quickly," then him saying that same thing over and over for the past six weeks

Spain has recently outpaced the US in GDP growth, emerging as one of the fastest-growing major advanced economies. As of 2024–2025, Spain’s economy is growing at a rate over 3% annually, exceeding the US (~2%) and Eurozone (~1%) averages.

Donald is such an uninformed idiot.

Trump blames Democrats for no Iran deal.

Trump says he’s winning the war by a lot.

The new report on FBI Director Kash Patel cites more than TWO DOZEN sources describing his leadership as a “management failure” and national security risk.

The White House and DOJ didn’t deny the allegations, but deflected.

Patel was the only one who issued a direct rebuttal.

That speaks volumes.

Scathing form Labour veteran John McDonnell

"And when he became PM the reward for McSweeny was control of No 10"

"And for Mandelson the highest diplomatic office"

"And the unspoken message for civil servants: what Mandelson wants Mandelson gets"

Governor Tim Walz — "We are sick of this. A weak, reckless, Idiotic president just threw us into a war nobody asked for. No threat existed. No objectives were set. No exit plan exists. This is pure fascism." #cdnpoli

Peace and loan

FT Exclusive: Stockholm’s military intelligence head said Moscow is systematically manipulating data to fool Ukraine’s western allies into believing its economy has withstood the strain of its lavish war spending and western sanctions. ft.trib.al/uloekqX

88% of staff said Starmer was poor and 4 out of 5 said his values were at odds with CPS’s - ... on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing Spread the loveOriginal article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-Commercial use Starmer’s unfitness as leader didn’t just emerge when he conned his way into Labour top job, at least according to...

The man is a compulsive liar. He was loathed by his staff when DPP, it's not hard to see why.

onaquietday.org/2023/04/05/8...

3 of Trump’s war objectives 6 weeks ago, in addition to seizing uranium:

1. Unconditional surrender.

2. Selection of a new leader of Iran by US & allies.

3. US helps rebuild Iran.

Cabinet secretary apparently advised Starmer to wait for vetting before appointing Mandelson Documents also show PM’s choice for US ambassador was offered ‘higher tiers’ briefing before vetting was finalised * UK politics live – latest updates The then cabinet secretary, Simon Case, appeared to advise Keir Starmer to complete security vetting for Peter Mandelson before announcing an appointment, documents reveal. The documents released last month by the Cabinet Office as part of the disclosures over the US ambassadorial appointment also show Mandelson was offered a “higher tiers” briefing before his vetting was finalised. Continue reading...

Cabinet secretary apparently advised Starmer to wait for vetting before appointing Mandelson

SHOCKING Image Sparks Global Fury: Soldier Seen Destroying Jesus Statue in War-Torn Lebanon The image appeared suddenly—shared, reshared, and debated across platforms within hours. A soldier, clad in military gear, stood over a religious monument, a jackhammer pressed against a statue of …

A single image… and the internet exploded. 😳
What appears to show a soldier destroying a statue of Jesus has triggered outrage across the world—crossing political, religious, and cultural lines. But is there more to the story than what we’re seeing?

#Breaking #ViralImage #GlobalOutrage #MiddleEast

The total tax Tice's companies are known to have avoided through onshore and offshore entities, or failed to pay, in relation to Quidnet now amounts to almost £800,000. Photo of Tice in House of Commons Richard Tice is the MP for Boston & Skegness HOUSE OF COMMONS/PA

How the company that donates to Reform benefited from the non-payment of tax QUIDNET REIT Dividends paid but not taxed into TISUN 1,2,3 and 4 Arrows flow from each down into £98000 Corporation tax not paid by Tisun 1-4, leaving more cash for their parent company Arrows join and flow into Tisun Investments Ltd REFORM UK Arrow to TIL paid loans, later converted to gifts, to Reform UK Graphic by The Times and The Sunday Times

Reform is corrupt.
Tice is a tax dodging cheat.
They want power to make money for themselves.
The foreign bribes, the crypto donations, the bitcoin investments, Farage and Kwarteng’s cosy little deals…

They’ll treat the UK and the NHS as their own fire sale.
We must never give it to them.

Photo of researcher in hat talking to pensioner with baseball cap on… Dave Taylor (left) debates the local elections with John Doult, who says he will vote Reform at the upcoming local elections in Swindon (The Independent)

But on a visit to the former railway town last month, the outlook for Sir Keir and his party was bleak. "I'll be voting for Reform - it can't get any worse," said pensioner John Doult, until now a lifelong Labour voter who was among the thousands employed in the town's once-famous car industry. The 86-year-old bemoaned the "terrible" state of the town centre,

“I’ll be voting for Reform - it can’t get any worse”

Oh it really can.

You put a bunch of corrupt, racist, incompetent, lying Trumpists in charge and things will get very much worse.
Potholes and empty shops will feel unimportant compared to the loss of the NHS, social care and a torched economy.

Voting Reform is the equivalent of voting twice for Trump.
It is an act of pure ignorance, or racism, or both.
And, as we all know, it leads nowhere good.

Please god UK. Do not let that happen. Learn from our mistakes. Learn from America’s mistakes.
Just get your shit together.

The Mandelson affair is about the government’s judgment, not process Discussion of vetting and procedure is part of the excuse but not the core of the difficulty

The Mandelson affair is about the government’s judgment, not process ft.trib.al/7gOVDt7

While the NHS faces challenges, some MPs are receiving significant donations from companies profiting from our healthcare system.

We believe the NHS should be for patients, not for-profit interests.

Read the full report and see the data for yourself: link in bio.

Last night so‑called “second army of the world” targeted chickens and ducks. large number of poultry were killed in russian strike on a farm in Lozova, Kharkiv region.

This is the way

BBC News report that an Israeli IDF soldier smashes a statue of Jesus in south Lebanon

Because nothing says taking out Hezbollah than smashing a statue of Jesus

Nigel Farage vows to deport small boat migrants who were granted asylum Reform UK says it would review five years of claims, leaving up to 400,000 people potentially facing removal if the party wins power

Reform pledges to review the previous 5 years of asylum grants if got into power - deporting those granted refugee status if came without permission.

Reform claim 400,000 people granted asylum would be "in scope" - and they would deport most of them

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...