To appoint one person linked to a convicted sex offender may be regarded as carelessness, to try and appoint a second looks like a resigning matter*
*To kind of paraphrase
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Seriously, what IS this bollox?"
And they wonder why voters are cynical. I'm off to write to my MP as Peter implores.
Your regular reminder Peter Mandelson handpicked every new Labour MP in 2024.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
But I thought that Gordon Brown has saved the world? 🤔
It’s not just earnings. Real disposable income per person – what people actually have to spend – has also stalled:
📈 Early devolution: +2.6% per year
⚠️ Since 2008: just +0.3%
And the forecasts don't look much better.
Remarkably, earnings in Scotland grew more in a single year of the first Scottish Parliament (1999 to 2003) than they have over the past 17 years in total.
This kind of wage stagnation is unprecedented. We’ve forgotten what progress looks like.
The cost of living is a top concern among voters, and it’s obvious why. The numbers are stark:
📈 Pre-2008: wages grew 2.2% per year
⚠️ Since 2008: just 0.14% per year
Annual pay grew 15x faster before the financial crisis than after it.
NEW: What’s driving Scotland’s cost-of-living crisis?
Households have been squeezed by a pincer movement of weak wage growth + rising prices.
Our new @futureeconscot.bsky.social deep dive on the cost of living 🧵
www.futureeconomy.scot/posts/488-el...
A remarkable stat from our new cost of living analysis:
👉 Real pay grew more in a *single year* in the first Scottish Parliament than it has in the 17 years since 2008.
We’ve forgotten what progress looks like.
❗️BIG: EU ambassadors have preliminary approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine and the 20th sanctions package against Russia, with final adoption expected after written procedure. #EU
BBC Newsnight ® @BBCNewsnight X.com "There's nothing wrong with friends saying 'are there any jobs around?'" Labour peer Baroness Hodge responds to reports that Downing Street considered giving a diplomatic role to the prime minister's then-director of communications Matthew Doyle. #Newsnight
As I said: your crank Facebook auntie, a ridiculous and self-serving bullshit artist
Wind and solar alone are currently providing nearly two thirds of electricity generation in Great Britain.
Source: www.mygridgb.co.uk
Government anti-corruption champion.
Experts say it’s highly unusual for the White House to tell agents to give up custody of potential evidence in an investigation, as it did with the Tates.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that in my 30 years working,” an ex-DHS official said.
(Published Nov. 2025)
This makes me feel ill. This goes so far against traditional Jewish values. This rabbi should be imprisoned not carrying being celebrated in any way whatsoever.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
It is one of the counterintuitive things about ai that it doesn't operate like Google search used to. It invents cases and articles that it thinks ought to exist, and puts them into lists of real things, making it hard to spot.
/1
The Tuapse oil refinery is still burning after renewed Ukrainian drone attacks on 20/04. #Russia
‘Michael’ Criticized For Depicting Neverland Ranch With Cooler Rides Than It Actually Had
‘Michael’ Criticized For Depicting Neverland Ranch With Cooler Rides Than It Actually Had theonion.com/michael-crit...
The Gates Foundation opened an external review earlier this year into its engagement with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the philanthropic group said.
The European Commission will set out plans to cut electricity taxes and coordinate the summer refill of countries' gas storage, as it seeks to cushion the energy fallout from the Iran war.
The husband of the current foreign secretary opining on revelations that number ten told the now sacked head of the foreign office to get a job for one of them but don't tell the then foreign secretary
Painting featuring a young white woman sitting at at table laid with breakfast items like a teapot and plate with egg shells, the figure is smoking looks relaxed
After breakfast, c.1900 by Finnish painter Elin Danielson-Gambogi #womensart
Hodge, the govts anti corruption champion, defends cronyism & corruption at the heart of govt
The ambassadorship job didnt work out & even though it then became known Doyle had campaigned for someone charged with possessing indecent images of children Starmer gave him a peerage!
Four Labour figures in Croydon East face vote-rigging charges
The allegations against Labour figures centre on irregularities in the Labour candidate selection process for the constituency
www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2026...
Senior London Labour figures charged after criminal investigation into alleged vote rigging Exclusive: Four people charged after criminal investigation into irregularities surrounding Labour candidate selection process for Croydon East
And I mean, this is before we get to the part where the party-within-a-party appears to have illegally stitched up at least one internal election. That’s a new one that I haven’t previously touched on. Do we think this was the only piece of comical criminality involved?
Croydon is Housing Secretary Steve Reed's home turf.
Steven Downes' reporting on local Labour Party shenanigans and mismanagement for 'Inside Croydon' features in 'The Fraud', Paul Holden's exposé of Labour Together.
#BookSky💙📚 #UKPolitics #LateStarmerism
www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...
This is more than just a story about local corruption in Croydon
It highlights just how easy it was to rig the system that was used to select many Labour candidates for the 2024 election
In Croydon they got caught but, given all the complaints about Anonyvoter, did some get away with it elsewhere?
Cruella III.
Shabana Mahmood has been accused of showing a 'sickening indifference' to human life after she joked about tasering and deporting her political rivals
