Today I turn 89. I’ve seen this country at its best and its worst, and I know how much community matters. For my birthday, I’m asking you to stand with PFLAG and support the work that’s helped so many in the LGBTQ+ community, including me. give.pflag.org/page/95493/d...
Don’t find yourself lumbered with a Peter Mandelson. As someone who’s done a fair bit of vetting and due diligence in a professional capacity, here’s the Clubland Substack’s advice on vetting… clubland.substack.com/p/vetting-ca...
Indeed. My point is that they responded at all - therefore were clearly aware of the allegation.
This is the government’s “line to take.”
Number 3 is that no official in No. 10 knew until last week about Mandelson failing vetting.
And this is a screenshot of the Independent’s political editor putting that to a No. 10 press official 7 months ago - and their response at the time.
I believe that depends on the ministerial portfolio. Generally speaking, all ministers will have had some basic vetting, but not DV.
But some of the more sensitive portfolios may well involve DV.
There is a parallel universe out there, in which Theresa May bowed to pressure from the newly-elected Donald Trump in 2016, to have Nigel Farage appointed as the UK’s Ambassador to Washington; and everybody in that universe has been arguing about what came up in Farage’s Developed Vetting.
Winston Churchill joined dozens of London clubs - the details are here - but his finances were often messy, and so he frequently found himself resigning for financial reasons. (Or in one case, resigning, un-resigning, and then resigning again a few years later.) clubland.substack.com/p/winston-ch...
The more the circumstances of Sir Keir’s departure have anything to do with Mandelson, the less plausible a candidate Wes Streeting is - however much he’s been pining for the PM job since he was a teenager.
How many other British Ambassadors have failed security vetting?
His platform was officially described in court as "in effect a money laundering platform". When Delo was told it was being used to launder the proceeds of a hack, he did nothing. No reports filed. No action taken. In six years, his company never once flagged suspicious activity to authorities.
I wasn’t aware I had any particular cadence for that - but thank you!
I’m always amused at what people pick up on with my sometimes-odd pronunciations - I suspect my broadly RP accent is why people often overlook that English isn’t actually my first language! (And I still partly think in French…)
⛴ Trump’s Iran “excursion”: the biggest self-own in history? How do Labour fight Polanski without looking like bullies? And the Kanye West fiasco.
Special guest @jamesrball.com joins @seththevoz.bsky.social, @rostaylor.bsky.social & @jonnelledge.bsky.social
📲 Listen now: linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...
Why read about fine wine, when you can read about a cheap wine that's marketed as a fine wine?
clubland.substack.com/p/clubland-w...
“Siri, show me how Just For Men can make those grey hairs just magically disappear.”
Stop messin’ about.
Oddly, I’m getting very strong vibes of CJ from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
“I didn’t get where I am today, without forging an alliance with the Daleks…”
No-one chews scenery quite like Kevin Stoney.
If there's one thing Doctor Who fans who spent the Bank Holiday watching & re-watching the newly-rediscovered 1960s episodes of The Daleks Master Plan now need, it's every time Mavic Chen repeats "I, Mavic Chen..." with increasingly narcissistic desperation.
soundcloud.com/seth-alexand...
This WhatsApp message from an Oxonian was how I belatedly realised today was Boat Race day.
After nearly two years in the job, Keir Starmer isn’t just disliked or unpopular – he’s actually hated in much of the country. But why? @zoegrunewald.bsky.social, @rostaylor.bsky.social, @seththevoz.bsky.social & guest @mitchbenn.bsky.social discuss ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnowpod
A.I. is being touted as civilisational game-changer, and investors are piling vast sums of money into a few companies. Could that concentrated investment lay the world open to another financial crisis? Joshua Roberts, of the @economist.com, & @seththevoz.bsky.social discuss ➡️ linktr.ee/bunker_pod
A remarkable photo from 1934, in which Anthony Eden looks none too pleased to have been snapped by a Tatler photographer dining with Maria, the wife of British diplomat Archibald Clark Kerr.
Eden has the look of a man who had assured his wife earlier that he would be dining in Durham that evening.
Some new exhibits just dropped in Musk v Altman trial including these texts with Mark Zuckerberg and Musk
What happened when I went to the largest fortified wine tasting for the UK wine trade, and asked port producers about the wider trends of selling to London clubs? Here’s my report, for the Clubland Substack.
clubland.substack.com/p/port-wine-...
Latest OGWN - with me, @mattgreencomedy.com @seththevoz.bsky.social and @zoegrunewald.bsky.social .
Everything from the future of MAGA to the new cost of living crisis to McCain Pizza Rollers (oh yes!)
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
⚠️ NEW EPISODE ⚠️ Trump promised low prices, no foreign wars and respect for the US around the world. His Iran War has trashed all that. Was the only man who could destroy Trumpism… Donald Trump?
🚢 Listen in whichever straits you may be stranded – linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...
Joanna Marchong There's a reason young people like me hate the NHS
Head of Communications and External Affairs, @ASI.joanna@adamsmith.org
Is it because, as the head of communications at the ASI, you're essentially paid to Joanna?
if Wikipedia, an org with a shoestring budget and volunteer workforce can ban use of llms, what excuse do large orgs and universities have
