Miliband: "Theres a Q here for your viewers which is, PM's are fallible, just like all of us"
Has any viewer given a top govt job to a man who's been sacked twice, who's surrounded by allegations of corruption with a Putin oligarch & who was a billionaire paedophiles best pal?
so here's the thing about robbins' committee appearance. if you understand how this all works and you understand how civil servants speak, he's basically destroyed starmer's reputation and any notion he has sound judgement. the problem is the one group you can guarantee don't understand is the media
Absolutely fucking incredible that there's *another* nonce related angle to this.
NEW | On an odd choice…
WHY DID BBC BREAKFAST GIVE REFORM UK A SPECIAL GRAPHIC?
A small detail in a brief report sparks some big questions about what the national broadcaster is doing during the run up to local and national elections.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/why-did-bb...
Although the actual real issue is that everyone knows this was Peter’s payoff for services rendered, and that everyone knew that you did not upset Peter, unless you wanted to wake up to a battalion of angry reporters on your doorstep
Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford 1m Sir Keir Starmer tried to make his director of communications - who had publicly supported a paedophile - an ambassador, Olly Robbins revealed This is a problem for Starmer, to put it mildly. He was already under pressure over his eventual decision to elevate Matthew Doyle to the Lords It means that Keir Starmer attempted to appoint two men who had friendships with sex offenders as ambassadors. It comes back to the fundamental question of his judgement The fact that No 10 told Robbins not to inform Yvette Cooper that he was considering an ambassadorship for Doyle is really quite something. Presumably No 10 inferred that Cooper would not appove of Doyle's appointment
Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford ***BREAKING*** Sir Keir Starmer considered giving Matthew Doyle an ambassadorship, Sir Olly Robbins reveals He says that in March 2025 Number 10 initiated discussions with him about finding an opportunity for Doyle, who was then the prime minister's director of communications He says he was under 'strict instructions' not to discuss it with Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary He said he found it hard to explain to colleagues what Doyle's credentials would be for a senior mission role. He says he felt uncomfortable about it and that it would have been hard to defend Doyle was elevated to the Lords. My colleague @Gabriel_Pogrund subsequently revealed that he publicly supported a sex offender after he had been charged
lolololololo
Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford 4m Olly Robbins' bombshell evidence so far: * The Cabinet Office suggested there was no need to vet Mandelson *at all* * No 10 applied 'constant pressure' on Mandelson to approve Mandelson's appointment and took a 'dismissive' attitude to vetting * Mandelson was given access to the FCDO building, to low classification IT and to 'higher classification briefings' before he was granted security clearance * No 10 showed **no interest** in the actual vetting. The entire focus was on getting Mandelson to Washington as quickly as possible
lol
I think I'm going to turn this into
'Side A' track 1 -5 ♂️vocal
'Side B' tracks 6-10 ♀️vocal
brb, just rewatching Better Call Saul
23
I like being on the keen end of normie rather than obsessive, because I don't think I'd ever heard of this, thanks!
and 10 more:
Gett Off (best 90s)
Black Sweat (best post 90s)
and some 'deep cuts' from albums not already covered above
Bob George
Bambi
Head
Annie Christian
Papa
3 Chains O Gold
Endorphinmachine
We Can Funk
#Prince10
Well, here's mine (full versions)
1. When Doves Cry
2. Let's Go Crazy
3. 1999
4. Purple Rain
5. Anna Stesia
6. Sometimes It Snows In April
7. Little Red Corvette
8. Kiss
9. Sign O The Times
10. Raspberry Beret
Connections
Puzzle #1045
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦✔️
The Victor Meldrew/Judith Keppel one.
#ArtistFaveAlbumTrax
Track 2
WHEN YOU WERE MINE
by
PRINCE
(Dirty Mind, 1980)
There are Prince album-only tracks I like more.
But it's an important anniversary.
RIP. Genius.
🔟
❄️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEug...
Single label for Charo & the Salsoul Orchestra’s You’re just the right size. Of course, the full-length version is the one to opt for.
Single sleeve from the Bee Gees’ You should be dancing. On a blue background float three circular portraits of the brothers Gibb singing.
Sleeve for the Cloud One Lp “Atmosphere Strut” with a blurred photo of a person - seen side-on from armpit to forehead - apparently in ecstasy.
Sleeve for Blondie’s Heart Of Glass single, with a photo of Debbie Harry, hands on hips, in a thin white dress that looks like it could be bedroom wear for a warm climate. What’s great is that her expression isn’t submissive but judgemental, challenging the viewer to reduce her to any version of herself that she doesn’t approve of.
“What disco song are you not embarrassed to admit you like?”
Why in the name of the Mothership itself would I be ashamed to love -not just “like”- disco? Why assume folks only feel strongly about one song? That’s absurd. Geez, tell you what: I’d be embarrassed to ask such a dumb rockist question.
This week I am lucky enough to see the artists behind my two favourite albums of the decade on consecutive nights (both touring their follow-ups).
I doubt the equivalent was even possible in the 10s/00s/90s.
"30% of people, mainly middle class, are about to become unemployed" is the sentence usually uttered in the first episode of a six party BBC documentary about a revolution
Times Radio • @TimesRadio • 4m "A whole new policy agenda without a general election...is the country comfortable with that?" Kat McCann asks if the country would be comfortable with Labour replacing Starmer.
Hahahahaha oh my god yes, imagine if the country voted for something and was then given something quite different! Unthinkable, inconceivable
You know, if you wanted to trace the origins of my fondness for ridiculous, irresistible genre mash-ups with female vocals, you could do a lot worse.
(in short: fucking YES!)
28
28
Given that I don't care about baseball, it's that pompous last sentence that bugs me.
(Which era, for a start? She made GDPM for 20 plus years)
I mean, as a lightspeed hackles-raiser of a take it's right down there with 'Gil Scott-Heron was a racist, actually'.
Starmer trusted his first-choice chief of staff, Sue Gray, to have prepared an oven-ready plan for power, which Labour would roll out the day after winning the election. It turned out no such plan existed. Starmer then replaced Gray with his election mastermind McSweeney, who had been serving in a political director role. McSweeney was given the power to provide political input on Starmer's behalf into a huge swathe of policy decisions across government and, for a time, things improved. https://www.politico.eu/article/keir-starmer-dangerous-leadership-style-uk-peter-mandelson/
“Starmer assumed Gray had a super-secret plan for governing but she didn’t so they did nothing” is such a wild line, and the hacks seem so uninterested in learning more about this astonishing, farcical setup
A dozen politicians, aides and officials — including some who have worked intimately with the prime minister in Downing Street — spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, because the matter is sensitive, and described a leader defined primarily by his absence. Starmer, they say, has no ability to manage a team; an aversion to conflict; no guiding mission for power; no energy to drive change; little interest in people; and no interest in political strategy. While not all agree, some suggest Starmer just isn't willing to do the tough work a prime minister must — perhaps because he likes his time away from the office more than he should.
Those things you heard about Starmer being good? A consummate manager with a thirst for social justice? At the absolute minimum, a hard-worker? All fake news I’m afraid
Oh go on then...
#ArtistFaveAlbumTrax
for me
- No singles
- No repeat artists
- Two per decade 1980s-2020s
- Try to find stuff not posted
- You know my closing track already ;)
Track 1
YES
by
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
(The Holy Bible, 1994)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd3C...
I've always been pretty conservative with 'Golden Beat' voting because the noms used to be limited to five.
So, someone like me bolding 8 out of 144 tracks on one listen is testament to the quality of the field.
This is the inevitable endpoint of one of the truly unifying political projects of the 2010s: ensuring that comically bigoted far right crackpots should decide what is and is not racist, a thing almost the entire political/class bent their will towards.
