I'd been very much predicting Streeting as next leader, something I'd welcome. He'd given a talk to my students and then stayed around for a Q&A that had lasted almost another hour. I was also recently impressed with a talk he delivered to Islington South.
But if Starmer resigns over Mandelson...
I apologise for seeming to patronise you. I'm well aware of your seriousness as a journalist and political analyst, I've read much of your writing in the FT and think it's brilliantly cogent. I didn't mean to offend you.
I wonder whether we're simply talking at cross purposes.
But there was still a reasonable bedrock of support for Blair and a widespread knowledge amongst MPs of the 'Granita pact.' Brown would stand unopposed, it was an arrangement that all MPs understood.
Starmer hasn't nominated a successor, he isn't Blair, there isn't anyone in the wings.
I'd agree that 2020 was remarkably smooth, although this was after the loss of two GEs and a general sense that the party needed to pivot.
I recall Cameron's final PMQs in 2016 where he pointed out that the Conservatives had already chosen a successor while Labour were still debating process for a leadership election. I don't think it was a claim challenged at the time.
Would that be due to the public acrimony?
Does rather depend on the existence of a successor though. Having him gone sooner just means that the party can spend longer fighting an acrimonious leadership contest.
Labour aren't the Conservatives, leadership contests last lifetimes.
Stansted isn't bad at all, you can always get a table overlooking the runway in that huge Weather spoons. Even Luton is clean and has adequate seating.
It's a weird tendency to produce hagiographies of someone whose most positive feature was that she came across as remarkably normal for someone who inherited a collection of golden houses and a job as a hereditary tour guide.
But less time than the rail replacement bus service, which could have been your other option...
Green manifesto for Walthamstow doesn’t even mention police, let alone commit to work with them-as Labour MP know nothing progressive about abandoning fight against mobile phone theft, antisocial behaviour, street safety or car crime and work with council, police and community to tackle them.
It might be intended to draw the distinction between her and the government at the time, who turned Downing Street into London's liveliest nightlife spot.
Probably seems like a minor thing, and in the grand scheme of things it is very minor; but Europeans are becoming quite prickly about Americans claiming credit for things which were joint projects between the US and the EU.
Fully agree.
Also I'm pretty sure that the hatch design didn't go to NASA; but she instead worked for the ESA who created the crew module.
I think it would be verifiable if this book existed, it doesn't, and the claim that it does looks a lot like Russian propaganda - the kind of thing that appears quite a lot on Musk's site.
And the community note?
The Avignon Papacy was the creation of an antipope in the fourteenth century, weird time but a lot of medieval history is weird. America creating its own Pope will be less like a schism in the Universal Church, and more like sale of 'California Champagne;' less offensive than it is bizarre.
Alternative Pope for America, new Vatican...
It isn't something that I think really matters geopolitically, but it's a good indication of how weird and emotionally incontinent this White House is.
Which 'other powerful heads of state'? It's only ever your head of state.
137 countries have agreed to turn over their war criminals, that includes all of NATO, all of the EU, all of the international law abiding community. It does not include the USA.
No prosecution will take place against an American, even if they are clearly guilty of war crimes, while America has the right to use military force against the court that tried that American.
The US is the only reason Netanyahu isn't currently being tried in the Hague. He recently flew to New York using a ridiculously complicated route adding hundreds of miles to his journey to avoid being in the airspace of any nation adhering to the ICC warrant.
It's a novel position for someone whose head of state is enthusiastic about committing war crimes. Generally when the war criminal is the head of state, those who don't support the war criminal would like them to face trial in a court they haven't packed with supporters of war crimes.
Really?
You really think that it wouldn't be easier, diplomatically and in terms of domestic politics, to hand your head of state over to be tried by the international criminal court for his crimes against the global community?
Well it would be easier if the US wasn't one of the only nations on earth not to have signed the Rome Statute, and if they hadn't then passed the 'Hague invasion act'.
There's also a European Space Agency. The ESA provides life support, power and propulsion for the central module in the Artemis II mission. This has been achievable despite having a lower GDP per capita and universal healthcare.
The US is self-sufficient in oil, the reason that fuel prices are rising in the US is that US oil is pegged to an international market. If Trump halted oil exports he could control US oil prices. But Iran can also use this as an opportunity to wage economic war on USD, and everyone will collaborate.
Iran now has total control over the Strait of Hormuz and is allowing Chinese flagged vessels to traverse it; deal that China has struck with Iran is unknown but part of it is that oil is traded in CNY. 35 former US allies are negotiating a deal probably in EUR
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
And US will either accept that deal or fight a land war in Iran. The US Navy cannot operate in the Strait of Hormuz. The Gerald Ford is crippled and might take two years to get back into service, there are no minesweepers; the Zumwalt and LCS won't enter service, nor will the Trump class.
That's not what's gonna happen. If you had a deal which you renege on and are then forced to strike a deal again you don't get offered the old deal.
Iran will want reparations, the winding down of US military bases in the region, and the end to pricing oil in USD.
