This committee hearing really does expose the fundamental problem with most MPs: they're middle managers.

robbins is talking to thornberry in exactly the same way i do when explaining to a manager for the 100th time why their idea is the dumbest shit i've ever heard

thornberry thinks she can be political about a fucking vetting exercise, this isn't how it works

“maybe britain is ungovernable now” is quite funny when we should at least try a PM whose instincts don’t allow them to appoint the best friend of the most notorious sex trafficker in the world as US ambassador before we determine that

everyone left of starmerites either were banned or left years ago, i've never wanted to use reddit to talk politics but anyone i know who has described it as an utter cesspit

Robbins said no.10 put pressure on the foreign office to give Matthew Doyle a job & not tell the foreign secretary!

Doyle is the man Starmer subsequently gave a peerage to despite the fact he'd campaigned for someone who'd been charged with possessing indecent images of children

the difference between robbins and starmer is the difference between a guy who understands the process and a guy who thinks he can hide behind the process

starmer properly in the mud here

You’re so right!

So true!

this select committee hearing is going so badly because all the mps are asking the sort of questions that show up the fact they don't understand anything

mentioning matthew doyle is extremely funny

it's so beautiful, can't believe we got the 32x instead of this

these idiots are gonna accidentally tell the country that the civil service keep having to babysit ministers cos they're fucking idiots

why would you mitigate the risks of *peter mandelson* hahahaha

i deleted it first chance i got but lots of people don't understand what it is or how it works, bluesky should bin it altogether.

unless you mean opting out of the feed, in which case yes - bluesky should give us the option to take our posts out of it.

i've only been vetted for reasons like 'you're going to have access to servers with sensitive info' and nothing even close to as serious as this, they still went through my life with a fine toothcomb and it came with strict rules for maintaining that clearance.

the funny thing about vetting is if you've ever dealt with it, you know how zero tolerance it all gets if they remotely have any concerns about it. they do the professional equivalent of going through your bins then the only real way you can appeal is if there's a procedural issue with the decision.

This photo needs to be the front page of every news paper in the world.

Israel prevented Palestinian children from going to school by blocking the routes with razor wire — the Palestinian children sat down in front the razor wire and start studying.

yeah i only subscribe to one blocklist because it's a specific blocklist, otherwise i don't think any of these should be public - you have to trust someone's judgement 100% and no one sees eye to eye that way on anything.
plus a lot of them devolve into grudges sooooo...

Olly Robbins refuses to discuss what was in Mandelsons vetting (the DV), or even say whether there was anything in the vetting that wasn't in the public domain.

you can even mute them so you never see them.
if you don't like other views, you can mute so many words you'll forever remain in your echo chamber. but they don't want this, they want to tell YOU why YOU'RE wrong and THEY'RE right and it doesn't matter what your post actually said, they're speaking.

the real problem with this site is that the huge influx of liberal users came with the expectation that they have the right to comment on everything AND you have to listen to them.
if you don't like mutual aid requests, there's nothing compelling you to donate or share.

just realised who emily thornberry reminds me of: patricia routledge

it's been years of them angrily running to the site admin about anyone with a platform amplifying mutual aid requests, not even twitter's like this.

Olly Robbins: "Throughout January.. my office.. was under constant pressure.. constant chasing.. has this been delivered yet.."

Robbins is asked who was the source of the pressure.

Robbins refuses to name names.

Pressed, he says the pressure came from no.10's private office

they were so mad about it too like 'why would you ask for money'

these people aren't serious

The govt announced that Mandelson was the new ambassador to the US before security vetting had been done

Olly Robbins explains that at no point did the government stipulate the appointment was subject to vetting.

Olly Robbins: "When I walked into post.. I wasn't walking into a vacuum. I arrived to a situation in which a due diligence report had been undertaken.. the name had been submitted to the king, the PM had made an announcement that Mandelson was his nominee without caveats.. "

Yes, Israel is destroying Lebanon's breadbasket. This is why I have been saying that Israel's goal is to destroy Lebanon itself.