Every morning at 9:00 AM, Ukrainians observe a national minute of silence to honor those killed in the Russian war.

"How many other people are working for your government without getting UK security vetting clearance?"

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Minister for the Cabinet Office, tells @vicderbyshire.bsky.social he "would sincerely hope that there are none", but that the government will "absolutely" find out

#Newsnight

This would have occurred soon after experienced ex-snr civil servant was sacked as Starmer’s Chief of Staff to be replaced by Morgan McSweeney (Oct 2024) and before Sir Philip Barton left his post early in December 2024.

bsky.app/profile/fasc...

The Energy Shift is Underway Oxford energy expert Jan Rosenow explains why Europe is underestimating electrification, overestimating hydrogen and still arguing about scarcity when alternatives are abundant.

Energy disinformation is the new climate denial.

New interview with @wblau.bsky.social of Brunswick Review on why Europe is underestimating electrification, overestimating hydrogen & arguing about scarcity when alternatives are abundant.

review.brunswickgroup.com/article/europe-energy-transition/

Him: What would be your dream job
Me: Oh that's easy. Sitting on the back of a motorbike on the Tour de France pushing idiots into the ditch
Him: Oh come off it there's no such job
Me:

It says an enormous amount about the Royal Navy in the late Victorian period that they could essentially build HMS "Fuck That One Ship In Particular" as and when required.

The Internet’s Favorite Lawyer Says We’re Living Through ‘Multiple Watergates per Week’ Devin Stone turned punchy legal explainers into a YouTube empire. Now he’s warning that the sheer volume of Trump administration scandals is distorting reality itself.

Devin Stone turned punchy legal explainers into a YouTube empire. Now he’s warning that the sheer volume of Trump administration scandals is distorting reality itself. www.wired.com/story/the-bi...

COVID vaccines tied to less hospital care, long COVID, and economic burden

In the UK the NHS is absolutely overwhelmed, but the government has tightened the eligibility criteria for free Covid vaccination to the point that only a small minority of the population is eligible. Offering free vaccination to everyone would be an easy win here

www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/cov...

I remember the prime minister being "visibly angry" that he'd been "deceived" about Peter Mandelson's connections to Jeffrey Epstein, Sir Olly Robbins says

Follow live: bbc.in/48IP7Ma

Cartoonist: Daniel Medina

I’m just sorry it had to be so long.

And if this is true it’d DEFINITELY be reduced to writing and whacked on the Prime Minister’s desk with a question:

”IS this what you REALLY want us to do. If so please put it in writing in unequivocal terms as the buck will stop with you if he comes back red/red in DV”

bsky.app/profile/fish...

Also they have social media in Canada and Carney's doing fine.

They have it in Spain and Sanchez has been PM since 2018.

And in France where Macron's been President since 2017.

The Strange Death of Orbánism Franz Pokorny

Hungarian taxpayers paid American “post-liberal” Rod Dreher $105,000 last year to produce propaganda for Orban’s regime. www.jaccusepaper.co.uk/p/the-strang...

Trades and bets 45 minutes before the announcement

Or a whole day.

Deliberate

And a repeated pattern

Already have done in my rather long and detailed thread yesterday

bsky.app/profile/fasc...

Anyway. How difficult is it to ask

“If Mandelson comes back red/red from DV what do you want me to do?”

“Tell you?…this is the current guidance. What will YOU then do? I think this means I cannot tell you under current guidance. What do you think? let’s make the guidance clear”

And I know what it feels like to be lower down the tree and having to stand my ground against those at the top. It isn’t pleasant. It isn’t easy. But that’s what you get paid the big bucks to do.

it’s poss that the predecessors have put it in writing.

Believe me. I have paused. Robbins was a Starmer appointment. As was Wormauld.

These are not junior civil servants. These are ones at the top of the tree …there to do exactly this difficult stuff.

Shame if someone cut the lines….

Snip snip

🤷🏻 The Russians show what the promised “Starlink replacement” in the Russian Armed Forces looks like.

Ocheretyne, Donetsk region.

And if the Gov Ministers were disinclined to listen I would DEFINITELY be putting all that in writing and asking for sign off given it is all foreseeable AND I know I am dealing with a rookie Gov.

So what was in writing?

What a being done about planning restrictions and Landlord/ Freehold permission restrictions?

That’s where a lot of the hurdles lie.

Free plug-in solar panels to be rolled out to some households The technology is designed to be a simpler and more affordable way of benefiting from renewable energy

"Low-income households will get [free] plug-in solar panels to cut their energy bills, the Government has announced."

This is how you do a just transition.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...

“What do you want me to do IF the DV is red/red given I cannot tell you what evidence came to light during DV? (/ Cannot tell you that it was a red/red under current guidance shaped by previous administrations)”.

“Ìmagine DV comes back with a red/red rating? Would you STILL want to go ahead with the appointment?

And haven’t you laid yourself and Mandelson to embarrassment if you announce a provisional appointment only to be forced to withdraw it?”

”And AFTER DV is complete is is quite likely that even more stuff will come to light given the efforts to delay and conceal the evidence in the Epstein files.“

“For the sake of a couple of months why not rely on a perfectly safe pair of hands already in place until you have better information?“

“TO take another, we already know that in his rôle in Global Counsel he was acting for both American and Chinese interests. But what will DV reveal that we currently do not know? What about Russian connections”

“To take just 1 example: we know there‘s likely a large volume of YET unknown documents/photos/ recordings which MAY make the appointment highly undesirable & backfire against you

We already have reason to believe that the Epstein unreleased docs runs to millions of pages
What‘s lurking in them? “

“Think of the process as an iceberg. These are the PUBLICLY known risks already identified. But what is currently below the surface is currently unseen but likely to be revealed in various ways given what we already know”