This is pitiful stuff from the BBC, once a news reporting organisation with an impeccable reputation. Until Nandy grows a backbone and sacks Gibb, the BBC will retain its present reputation as being purely a mouthpiece for the Tories and the Reform Ltd company. 8/8
(perhaps re-asking the six questions that she posed to Sir Keir in the Commons on Monday). Well of course she bloody will, especially now Zeffman has written the questions for her". 7/8
Zeffman includes this paragraph in his article - one can almost hear his hopeful panting and salivating as he wrote it.
"It seems inevitable that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will focus on this issue at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday ... 6/8
In the end, Zeffman is reduced to positing a desperate hypothetical that Starmer might still have gone ahead with Mandelson's appointment even if he'd know of Mandelson's vetting failure. 5/8
On failing to achieve that, it presumably it was McSweeney who persuaded Starmer to ennoble Doyle - not a deifficult task given Starmer's weakness in character assessment - Doyle was one of the most incompetent Downing Street Directors of Comms there has every been ... well short of Andy Coulson 4/8
Robbins's evidence cleared Starmer and the only person implicated in villainy and coverup was Morgan McSweeney. It was he who was putting pressure on the FCO to get his mentor Mandelson vetted and appointed and it was he who was trying to get a job as an ambassador for his mate Matthew Doyle. 3/8
to a version of the Foreign Affairs Committee as described by Zeffman in some universe but it sure wasn't this one. I watched and recorded the entire session and Zeffman's column may as well have been written by BadEnoch such was its desperate bias. 2/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Is Henry Zeffman, the chief political correspondent of the BBC Politics team, in the pay of the Tory party or is he simply following the orders of his boss Robbie Gibb? There probably has been a version of the evidence given by a version of Robbins ... 1/8
I have the full video of yesterday's debate in the House and will have the full video today's foreign office evidence from Robbins so will post what I consider highlights and lowlights for the few who are vaguely interested in my opinions. 3/3
and he & Mandelson took advantage of Starmer's weaknesses of liking yes-people, appointing people with whom he agrees and personally gets on and his naive incuriosity ... 2/3
I've not commented on the Starmer/Mandelson/Robbins affair though It does seem that my initial belief was broadly right. Starmer has not lied (he misled inadvertently), he was lied to, Morgan McSweeney (a Mandelson protege) is probably the real villain (I'd not considered this) ... 1/3
An excellent two part column from @writesbright.bsky.social about Farage's foreign political and financial web.
Part 1.
writesbright.substack.com/p/farages-fo...
Part 2.
writesbright.substack.com/p/farages-fo...
Have a read of this. Subscribe to @bylinetimes.bsky.social and its supplement if you don't already. It's one of the few sources of news you can truly trust and it's only £45 ish per year.
www.bylinesupplement.com/p/hot-type-f...
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The hard-right Tories and the Reform2025 Ltd company and its subscribers will absolutely hate this Proms lineup for 2026! They'll condemn it as "woke nonsense" and scweam and scweam about "british cultcha' disappearing.
I, and most of us here, will just laugh at them!
I will Jane
If this is true, and there is documented evidence to show that it is, then Starmer is a complete arsetwat ...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
(Allegedly, cough cough) corrupt arch spiv and long-con man Farage doing his holier than thou act ...
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Farage & his Reform Ltd company are getting desperate & so even more extreme. Yusuf ignores the fact that other than using the very few 'safe' routes that exist, to claim asylum in the UK, one *must* be on UK soil. His words "invasion" & "broke in" are entirely wrong.
tinyurl.com/4h9s4mxs
Good advice re deadbolt. My post was more about the tecnocratic 'explanation' and its delivery by Travelodge about a situation that could have been very nasty indeed, rather than the staff who obv, being human do make the odd mistake.
Jeez!!!
Highbury just happened to be the first ground to which my dad took me. We watched Arsenal beat Coventry 2-1 in October 1968 for my 9th birthday so I was a gooner from then on. Radford scored the winner if I remember correctly. Still have the programme ...
Yep me too. I'll bet both clubs finish on same points, City win on goal diff or goals for ... I can just see it happening 🤦♂️
ps, Football's not my favourite sport on TV though it's brilliant live, - the skill levels can only be truly appreciated live (as is the case with most sports) but ...
This technocratic explanation is pitifully feeble. Just don't stay at a Travelodge, especially if you are a woman. The chain has 'previous' in doing this ... 2/2
"[Guest] complained about a fault, we offered to move her into another room & processed this room move on our systems. Subsequently we fix[ed] the fault, and [Guest] decided to stay. This was not on our systems & led to another guest being issued a key for [Guest's] room" 1/2
tinyurl.com/2s69h2yd
I always thought Simple Sally would come to a sticky end .. seems I was wrong.
Jill in the village shop has admitted she didn’t vet Simple Sally for her job behind the counter.
This weekend Simple Sally was seen at scarecrow parties in Wimborne St Giles offering her own baps to hungry partygoers.
Jill is distraught
Her muffin lacked moisture this morning.😔
Scotland’s parliament is more representative than Westminster — but larger parties still benefit under current rules. We explore how Holyrood’s system could be made fairer. buff.ly/xdPjMNY
Here's the article, un-paywalled, tow which Peter refers.
archive.ph/V1xJp