He showed me pictures of his dog! No questionable character has ever owned a dog!

It also has the immeasurable benefit of boring most people to death by making it a question of who wielded the rubber stamp when and was that the right procedure, instead of the obvious questions of morality and judgement as to why you would EVER appoint Peter Mandelson to anything

The fun thing about hiding behind process process process is that it leads to an infinity of hearings and documents that keep your scandals firmly in the headlines

Think we've done episodes about all of these? They all exist in a way but literally none will lead to Hallelujah

[extremely SpongeBob narrator voice] two months later

Looking back, we can now see that the moment Starmer jumped that toboggan queue in Madeira is when he lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Takeout article about Pete hegseth’s grilled steak seasoning mix

“the Takeout” gets the wall when the revolution comes

Allegation that Morgan McSweeney phoned previous FCDO Perm Sec Sir Phillip Barton, and told him "just fucking approve it" re: Mandelson's vetting ..!

If you want to even come CLOSE to understanding this week's episode, you're gonna have to listen the previous 416. It's critical to at least one very minor in-joke we may cut in the edit.

Or, we might not. And then who will look foolish?

No. Appointing your known friend of a paedophile and sex trafficker, never mind being sacked twice for undue influence, to be your guy in DC isn't "we're all flawed", Starmer made choices.

Also, no member of the public markets themselves like this, do they?

It took you all 21 long months, even AFTER Sensible Mr Briefcase tossed you under the wheels of the world's bloodiest bus?!

A picture of the food from the previous post being eaten outside

Much better

A picture of the dish in two tupperware

Important dinner update: nice roasted gnocchi with peppers and mozzarella we're gonna take to the park and eat outside while walking doggo

Starmer, conspicuously not answering any of that

OK calling on Diane Abbott is pretty good, and now her doing the "I remember Peter Mandelson's previous scandals" bit is very very good lol

We've now reached the absolute nadir of Ed Davey doing a good job, I've seen enough

Good luck and god speed to anyone sticking around for this wet fart

oh hurrah food's done

Starmer is hinging this whole thing on "if I wasn't told about the vetting I'd not have appointed Mandelson"

BUT YOU KNOW A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS

It's simply not true that this vetting was the ONLY thing that could've told Starmer that Mandelson wasn't actually a cool guy

People who use their moment of "can I ask a question" to actually deliver a long-winded speech as absolutely the worst

I think we've just had our moment of Starmer Angry!

How does that man get his kids to do the dishes or not touch the stove?

A screengrab of Rachel Reeves still looking sad

Rachel Reeves update:

Starmer simply loves loves loves saying "to be clear" when he is being anything but

Dinner's ready in seven minutes I swear I can make it

Whose fault is all this? Not Beautiful Keir Starmer's!

what a day in the life when the Honourable Member of Facebook West actually manages to articulate a series of reasonable points

lmao Badenoch quoting starmer "I will carry the can of any organisation I lead"

ahaha, well fair's fair

yes, I would say "why did you continue vetting and the appointment after *all the things*?" is really the only relevant thing here

lmao Badenoch feels so bad for Starmer that she gave him the questions in advance so he could study up

open book PMQs lmfao the exams really were 'arder when you were young

She's going for the obvious question here, which is "why was Mandelson allowed through the door in the first place?"