Prettying damaging stuff from Robbins...
– Says Cabinet Office didn't think Mandelson needed vetting
– Says No 10 private office was feeling "pressure" to speed up the appointment, but doesn't say from who
– There was a "generally dismissive attitude" towards Mandelson's vetting
🔥NEW: Sir Olly Robbins says there was an expectation from No10 to get Mandelson in post "as quickly as humanly possible".
There was a "dismissive attitude to his vetting process", Robbins says.
My main conclusion about this is that Marvel wants Endgame to be officially the highest grossing movie of all time so badly.
Keir Starmer in statement to the House of Commons says he was wrong to appoint Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador.
If only he'd had some kind of advanced warning about Mandelson's work for China being a security risk ... 🤔
latika.me/MandelsonDos...
I feel like the next 24 hours in parliament are going to be really trying for those of us who dislike the passive voice
Confirmed: Olly Robbins appearing before FAC at 9am tomorrow
4/10 - 1, 2, 8, 9
Yes, it really didn’t take long after the Brexit referendum for even the likes of Marine Le Pen to drop their support for EU withdrawal.
It’s only the absolutely conspiratorial extremes of European right wing populism (most notably with the AfD) that still cling onto the idea.
This is an impressive line to take in that a) it might well be a lie, b) even if it's true it still sounds like it's a lie, and c) any possible circumstance in which it is true would actually be more damning than the alternative
Holodomor genocide denial is rampant and despicable. Please, if you see accounts spreading denial, recommend this free online course as push back: holodomor.ca/new-online-c...
I watched the first half of The Ring when I was about ten years old, which definitely did not help my childhood fear of answering the phone…
This is why Russia is still fighting, why the war continues and why people are dying: Because Trump and Vance encouraged Putin to believe he could win
I dread to contemplate the political fallout from a timeline in which Reform wins the popular vote but Labour ends up with the most seats in a hung parliament.
It also surely elevates the possibility we could see the first general election since February 1974 in which the winner of the popular vote doesn’t get the most seats.
"If the assessment is that we must increase defence spending, the question isn’t just how do we do it militarily, it is how to do it politically." My thoughts for BFPG on the politics of defence spending. bfpg.co.uk/2026/04/publ...
Yes, and it was especially egregious to continue down this path after the 2017 election. A hung parliament one year after a knife-edge referendum could have been framed as a “mandate for compromise” at that stage, had May wanted to reset her approach.
Tomorrow marks 3 years of senseless war in Sudan.
A country torn apart by greed & violence. Exposed by failure & apathy from international community.
34m people - two thirds - need humanitarian aid: world's largest humanitarian crisis.
My statement: bit.ly/4mqjIUi
*the government had… (I’ll learn to spell one of these days, promise)
I’m a broken record on this, but the Strategic Defence Review was arguably *the best* opportunity to government had to build political consent for higher broad-based taxes (as voters have enough sense of history to see why a more dangerous world would necessitate it). But alas, they didn’t take it.
Did Trump stumble upon those “Biblically accurate angels” AI videos?
Absolutely. And it also ignores the gargantuan scale of the challenge Hungary’s opposition faced in taking on Orban when he had spend the past decade and a half tilting the playing field so overwhelmingly in his favour.
It’s hard to overstate just how important and asset Orban was to Putin. Eyes and ears + veto power in EU and NATO.
Suspect Magyar will be studied as a campaign for the ages and lessons on defeating authoritarian populism and big tent politics, particularly as someone who is a fairly conservative figure on the right was able to win support across the spectrum.
Viktor Orban has conceded, marking the end of 16 continuous years in power.
This is everything. With the super majority you can actually undo Fidesz' constitutional takeover.
ICYMI - here’s my preview of the election and its consequences for @theipaper.com from earlier in the week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/h...
If Orban does indeed lose today (as early results suggest is eminently possible) it would be a seismic moment in European politics - and a blow for both Trump and Putin’s interests in the continent.
Sanchez has broadly been strong on rhetoric about European strategic autonomy.
But while I can’t fault his desire to push back against defence spending hikes that are on Trump’s terms, he still can’t escape from the fundamental need for Europe to spend more if we want to be less reliant on the US.
To be sure, Hungary under Tisza would still be Hungary: relatively dovish on Russia and China, and divided on support for Ukraine.
ecfr.eu/article/why-...
3/10 for me - 3, 5, 8