Alan Arkin as the War Colombo is marvellous.

Mad fact... 42% of Labour Prime Ministers have had to fire Peter Mandelson.

I particularly enjoyed the tweet that used all the technical jargon to show how super clever and sophisticated the research was, the poster is, and the reader isn't.

Speaking on Sky this AM about Mandelson, energy sec Ed Miliband says:

"Prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human. As you know, I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010. But people make mistakes."

Can the PLP not just give it to Ed Miliband already and let the rest of us get on with other things? It's Spring and sunny and I could do without this noxious malaise wafting out of Westminster.

"History...

“Oh they needed an operator!” They literally had someone already there who the White House asked to keep in post and they put their mate in there instead.

Interesting that positive sentiment apparently peaked when Paddington threw the Queen out of a helicopter. Not sure what that tells us about current attitudes. Maybe we should get him to kick Edward off a moving hovercraft, see if that shifts the dial?

A picture of a majestic humpback whale leaping from the seas with the caption “humpback whales are forming super-groups”, rather than simply admire the wonder of nature I am making a poor quality music gag

This is why whale punk had to happen

Not a Marvel fan but thought I'd give Endgame a whirl when it came out. Googled to catch up on the plot and the first result I found breezily told me that "these are the 18 films you must see to know what's what" and I just thought fuck that no. Spoiler: I didn't need to see any at all. It was fine.

Cannot believe I am saying this, but IDS managing to accurately get to the real, underlying point. We all knew this about Mandelson. We knew he had links to Epstein, to Russia, we knew he'd resigned twice, we knew he was paid by foreign governments, the procedure almost doesn't matter.

Lee Anderson gets his Facebook video clip sorted nice and early.

Welsh Senedd, Scottish assembly and massive local elections two weeks on Thursday. What a run-up Keir's giving for those.

The problem with Starmer's argument (well one of them) is that it depends on an assertion that he wouldn't have appointment Mandelson if he'd known he'd failed vetting.

But he appointed him before vetting was complete.

That’s it for me. Right there. Everything else he says is distraction and blame transference.

I can't believe that Kemi Badenoch - KEMI BADENOCH! - will bring down Starmer. Good grief.

It would be weird for a good man to let himself get in this deep

Strong reminder of that scene in High Fidelity and now I've got to ask... are is everything okay?!

This thought did occur to me when I saw the horse racing association ad for the third or fourth time. They've got it on high repeat, selling a day at the races as everything BUT gambling. Definitely made me wonder if they're starting to feel a pinch somewhere.

Noel’s House Party, anyone?

RFK Jr. once chopped off a dead raccoon’s penis to ‘study later’ while on a family road trip The bizarre account was unearthed in the new book “RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise,” authored by The Post’s own Isabel Vincent, who drew upon a wide range of sources including private …

It's amazing that RFK is not the most insane person in the US cabinet. Perhaps not even top three.

nypost.com/2026/04/15/u...

Little 🧵 on vetting:

There’s been a certain amount of chest-puffing from former holders of DV clearance about how rigorous and exacting the vetting process is and how rare for it to be overruled. The latter is definitely true. Never heard of it happening, ever.

1

The stretcher bearers absolutely got me! Makes me wonder if this China's version of RedBull flugtag or something?

The number of people crossing by small boat this year compared to last year. The fall is very real and not seasonal. Little difference in numbers during the winter but since numbers increased in spring, half as many people are coming as this time last year. This is mainly because of European trends.

As it happens, there is a severe crisis hitting Germany's automotive industries. Yet it's less with the front end brands like VW, but rather is hitting the firms down the supply chain with full force as VW ditches old parts partners wedded to ICE for more flexible suppliers that can transition to EV

Though notably not in 1533. He was in the bath.

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

How the fuck has Starmer turned out to be so shit as to give *Kemi Badenoch* a genuinely compelling argument against him. How. How.

Does rather feel like the Bluesky infrastructure is crumbling down around us in real time.