#18c !

Hehehehe

This isn't 4D chess, these people are venal and think you are stupid. To be honest, if you cannot see that this was an obvious quid pro quo situation wherein Mandy was given a plum job for services rendered, you are, in fact, a bit of a rube.

The whole 'Starmer only appointed Mandelson because he knew he was dodgy and Trump would like him' line only works if you ignore:
a) the fact that Trump almost vetoed the appointment himself.
b) Labour Together.
It's unserious as a claim.

I'm not even sure he's ruthless.

Thoughtless and tetchy are how I would describe him.

He has very similar toddler tendencies to Johnson.

I think the one thing we can take away from the whole Starmer/Mandelson nonsense is that when your boss is described in every media piece as a "decent man" you should get everything in writing, make sure there is always an independent witness in the room and update your CV.

It's completely plausible that McSweeney was one of the ones not telling Starmer things.

been reading American Revolution history recently and can’t stop thinking about George Washington ordering smallpox inoculation of all Continental Army soldiers and recruits

That the KGB had their assets in the west promote corporate meetings and “collaboration” to make US businesses, industry, and bureaucracy less productive and more inefficient

Actually vegan cheesecake is better!

A photo of the Porta Nigra, a massive Roman city gate in Trier. Constructed of sandstone blocks, featuring two large cylindrical towers with multiple arched windows and passageways. The weathered structure stands prominently in a modern urban setting, surrounded by buildings. Sunlight casts shadows on the stone facade, highlighting its intricate details and imposing presence.

The Porta Nigra in Trier is the best preserved Roman city gate North of the Alps. It was built around 170 AD and converted into a church in the Middle Ages.
The Porta Nigra was restored to its original state in 1804 at Napoleon's behest.

📷me

🏺

3. As a cherry on the cake (OR finally gets to pick a cherry…), the Matthew Doyle story (we should not forget that OR does have teeth) makes 10DS look precisely like the sort of nest of cronyism that Starmer was meant to be far above vs the excesses of Johnson et al.

Au contraire.

Starmerism!

"no visible means of support"

I go back and forth on this one (literally have changed my mind three times in this debate alone). On the one hand, if the aim is to actually speed up Keir Starmer's resignation, Badenoch and Davey's approach is wrong. If the aim is to degrade his standing further then I think it works fine.

What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’ In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza

Israeli genocide scholar Omer Bartov will have his book on Zionism and genocide translated into 9-10 languages, but not Hebrew. He even offered to translate it himself, but not a single Israeli publisher would go near it. Not even the ‘leftwing’ ones.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

for those of us who study central banks this is remarkable:

we are no longer in the world where Ministries of Finance accept quietly the distributional politics of neoliberal central bank independence

I want to know what the 'establishment' involves!

Somewhere the ghost of Frederick Pohl slaps his forehead.

On reflection, I think post the Robbins appearance, KS will have to resign — OR torpedoed the government’s line to the HoC in three crucial regards.

Many are saying!

A Summer's Tale - Wikipedia

Also: this is my favourite film set in Brittany -

A Summer's Tale - Wikipedia share.google/HDBvy1F5vjGu...

Yes! Have you heard any/much Breton spoken?

That was Thatcher!

Solidarity, always, with Beth Upton 💜

“I have suffered so much distress...from the carelessness of allowing the borders of the sciences to run into one another” is Kant at his most diva

I have to start hitting these nothern inland provinces (also, any recommendations for things to do in Jiangxi? It's close, and I want to tick it off, but have no good destination in mind.

Jumping the gun to incorporate technology into the classroom? You don't say!

(Trade magazine item from 1924)

Ha!

I've always wanted to visit Brittany. Glad you're enjoying!