National Labour government of the 2020s, with the imperative of bridging North & South, & moving on from the leave-remain dichotomy. My view is that ANY half-decent northern alternative (Burnham, Nandy or even Rayner) wd have avoided some of the banana skins that Starmer has repeatedly slipped on.

When we next meet I will tell you about the best man's speech that Morgan McSweeney gave at a wedding I once attended... a passable effort but not good enough for a chief of staff at number ten. The problem is that sorting out Labour in Lambeth in the 2010s is not sufficient preparation for a...

Managed to avoid some of the man traps that the starmer administration walks into repeatedly. So many unforced errors. My non-original take on this is that Starmer lacks so many of rhe basic political instincts that most PMs have for the simple reason at he did not become an MP until his early 50s.

It almost makes you nostalgic for the under-rated decisions of the Blair years, such as reconciling with Livingstone in London and appointing people like Meacher & Clare Short to appease the soft left. We often forget that despite the disasters such as Iraq & promoting Mandelson, the Blair govt....

I am not sure about that. Starmer's instincts are probably sound. But his total lack of political judgement leads him to disasters like the "Islands of strangers" speeches and the mandelson appointment. Witn advisers who urge those missteps, all good instincts are neither here nor there.

Undoubtedly... but someone who can communicate a message other than "I wasn't told that civil servants had found a problem with an objective that number Ten had ordered them to achieve come what may" wd be a start.

The real question is how Labour recovers. Starmer was allways unsuited to be PM & his insistence on appointing Mandelson demonstrated his lack of political judgement. The tragedy is that the fundamental trends are good for Labour. We just need a good Pm to communicate effectively. 2/2

Olly Robbins exposes Keir Starmer’s disregard for due process In his battle with the prime minister, the former Foreign Office mandarin has laid bare everything wrong with Downing Street’s handling of Peter Mandelson

I knew Olly Robbins (only slightly, & through mutual friends) 25 years ago. He was clearly an upright civil servant, just as he appeared in the select committee today. Starmer is clearly doomed as PM: the only question is how soon he goes after May 7. 1/2
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Morris was, by the time of his death, in the "I didn't know he was still with us" category: people whose names you recognise, but don't quite know how or why, & who you're surprised to hear were still alive. This is a pity. Morris had an extraordinary career, which needs to be better remembered. 2/2

Desmond Morris obituary: natural world expert Zoologist, broadcaster and author best known for The Naked Ape dies aged 98

For Gen Xers like me, #DesmondMorris was one of those people who hovered on the edge of the collective memory, as his TV heyday was in the 60s, not 70s or 80s (TBH I always thought he was Esther Rantzen's husband: I had confused him with Desmond Wilcox). 1/2
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Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards review – Martin Clunes is sickening The actor is horribly convincing in this ripped-from-the-headlines drama about the newsreader’s grooming scandal. You might not even be able to stomach it

Clunes is a great actor but woefully miscast as Huw Edwards: almost on a par with Timothy Spall as Churchill. In real life Edwards is fresh-faced, lilting & inscrutable. Clunes gives him a permanent scowl & gravelly voice, who wd never have become a news anchor.

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The Peaky Blinders film is pandering to these populist times – I should know, the Nazi in it is my father | Francis Beckett The film-makers would say they’re making drama, not history. But this is not the moment for yet another second world war film with a heroic myth, says author Francis Beckett

A fascinating piece in today's Guardian about How Peaky Blinders has rewritten the history of the 1930s British fascist John Beckett, written (bravely) by his own son.... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

parties) have historically performed poorly in London, other than in a few outer boroughs. Wales' defection will sway few voters. But if sitting Labour cllrs & mayors follow suit, it will be intriguing to see whether this translates into good results for Reform in May's local elections. 2/2

Ex-Labour mayor and councillor join Reform UK Former Newham councillors Sir Robin Wales and Clive Furness say Labour has failed London.

This important: the first big #Reform recruit from Labour. Wales was an oddity (a white Scotsman who was leader & mayor of #Newham, London's most diverse boro, for 2 decades). He is yesterday's man, & not well-known outside London. Reform (& Farage's predecessor... 1/2
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the media itself identified him as a suspect. As well as the families of Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman, spare a thought for Maxine Carr, Huntley's naive girlfriend, who served 21 months for giving Huntley a false alibi but has a lifelong "Mary Bell" order because of the witch-hunt against her. 3/3

have served his 40-year-plus sentence (in practice he wd have died in prison, of natural causes: I can't see any Home Sec authorising his release). The Soham murders were arguably more momentous than the Dunblane massacre (30 yrs ago this week0, bcs Huntley was an insider (a school caretaker) & 2/3

Ian Huntley detective: ‘He never had the decency to tell the truth’ Chris Stevenson says the murderer never told the whole story about Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman — as the Soham killer’s daughter insists he should not have a funeral

"Good riddance" is an understandable reaction to #ianHuntley 's murder (even his own daughter says so). But mob justice has never been good news. Isn't the real story how a prisoner at HMP Frankland had the means & opportunity to kill another? Surely Huntley shd 1/3 www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Reginald Maudling (a former chancellor and then Home Secretary until he resigned in 1972, amidst the Poulson scandal). 2/2

Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office Video footage shows former peer being driven away shortly after being escorted from his London home by officers

The hyperbole over Mandelson forgets that he never held a great office of state. He was only a cabinet minister for 4 yrs (in 1998, in 99-01 as NI secretary, & then in 2008-10, rising to be 1st Sec of State under Brown). This IS big news, but not as big as... 1/2 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘You’d be ashamed to bring someone here’: The struggling billionaire-owned high street that shows Reform’s road to No 10 Newton Aycliffe was meant to be a model town for a fairer postwar Britain. But unaffordable rents on a high street amounting to 0.12% of its property tycoon owner’s holdings have made it a symbol of d...

The Guardian gets a lot of stick - including from me, sometimes - for being London-centric & obsessed with identity politics. This, about an ailing high street in County Durham, is a good antidote: factual, important reporting that does not patronise the north.
www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

To a bunch of self-serving thugs who would not recognise editorial standards if they hit them on the head. Do not feed the crocodile. 2/2

The BBC is facing a coordinated, politically motivated attack. With these resignations, it has given in | Jane Martinson The corporation should have stood up to the Telegraph, Trump and the Tories. Now, its enemies know how little it takes for it to fold, says Jane Martinson, professor of financial journalism

Martinson is absolutely right. It's 2004 all over again. Like Greg Dyke & Gavyn Davies the resignations of Davie & Turness are totally unjustified. A confident Britain would stand up to this sort of culture war nonsense. Instead we have craven capitulation... 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

...to the right, not the left. Michael Prescott, a former pol ed of the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times, is entitled to his views on BBC coverage. But they aren't the judgement of Solomon. If anyone shd apologise it shd be Trump (whose spokesman describes the BBC as 'fake news'), not the BBC itself. 3/3

great cultural institutions, shd not kowtow to the lunatic right in the US. Far from being a biased leftie, Davie is a former Tory council candidate in Hammersmith, appointed as the BBC's DG during Johnson's tenure as PM. Turness used to work for NBC. If anything, their 'systemic bias' is.. 2/3

Tim Davie resigns as BBC director general after accusations of ‘serious and systemic’ bias in coverage Davie says departure is ‘my own decision’, while head of news also quits with BBC preparing to apologise for editing of a Trump speech

This is an ugly moment. #Trump supporters will cry "Fake News" whatever the #BBC says. Even if editorial guidelines were breached in an edit of Trump's January 6 speech, #Davie & Turness's resignations are not called for. The BBC, one of the world's... 1/3
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire Appointed New Joint Chief Executive of Historic England | Historic England Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire to job share as Chief Executive of Historic England following the retirement of Duncan Wilson in October 2025.

It is wonderful to discover that one of the two women recently appointed as job-share chief executives of Historic England, Claudia Kenyatta, is a granddaughter of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta.
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Cambridgeshire train stabbing: suspects both British and ‘nothing to suggest’ attack was terrorism, say police – latest updates Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder as two people remain in a life-threatening condition

This cd all have been so much worse if an LNER driver hadn't quickly stopped his train at #Huntingdon (a stn I often use), only 0.5 mile from Cambs Police HQ & a major hospital. A superb police response: suspects arrested only *8 minutes* after the first 999 call. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

Blackheath station car park: the perfect site for car-free homes? Developer Acorn wants to build 45 homes on the brownfield site, but celebrities are leading a fierce opposition campaign, arguing it will harm Blackheath's "traditional low-rise, village character".

Extraordinary goings on in Blackheath, where innocuous proposals for a few dozen homes on an underused station car park are opposed by a bizarre coalition: Jude Law, Jools Holland, an ex Labour MP saying that property prices will fall, Terry Waite, & Nick Ferrari evoking the Peasants Revolt of 1381.

BBC Verify Live: White House satellite image shows East Wing demolished to make way for ballroom Latest updates from the BBC's specialists in fact-checking, verifying video and tackling disinformation.

This BBC Verify report on Trump's demolition of the East Wing reads like a story on a Banana Republic dictator's redevelopment of his Palace. Relying on satellite images to find out what is really going on says so much about the state of the US. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...

Ming Campbell obituary: Olympic sprinter and Lib Dem leader Record-breaking runner was part of a prominent generation of Scottish political figures but his career fell foul of brutal political realities, dies aged 84

Campbell grew up in a Glasgow tenement, not in Edinburgh as his lawyerly demeanour suggests, & held the UK 100m record for 7 yrs. Lib Dems need stamina: he fought Greenock twice in 1974, then NE Fife in 79 & 83, before finally becoming an MP at his 5th attempt in 87. www.thetimes.com/article/74ec...