Johnson overrode advice about appointing the son of a KGB officer into the Lords.

Nothing from the media. Not a whisper.

Starmer doesn’t override advice

Media storm and a hounding of epic proportions.

a woman says i guess that 's it in front of a wooden wall ALT: a woman says i guess that 's it in front of a wooden wall

9.59: Olly Robbins never told minister about vetting quango decision.

PM told the truth.

Nothing so far has contradicted what Starmer said yesterday. He didn't deny he wanted to appoint Mandelson, why would he, he obviously did. His issue is with the long established process which meant he wasn't told about the security failure.

Treating politics like it's the premier league. The media trying to hound out the PM because any kind of stability to them is boring. Obviously this appointment was a balls up but not enough for a change of PM.

Labour are taking action to break the connection the price of gas has on our electricity costs.

The plan involves 2 parts:

1) encouraging renewable energy generators to switch to fixed-price, long term contracts to supply energy

2) increasing the Electricity Generator Levy from 45% to 55%...

1/6

This morning I’ve seen Olly Robbins’s appearance before the select committee described as ‘box office’, while a commentator flagged up another key political moment with the words ‘bring the popcorn’.

That’s one of our main problems right there.

We're not biased honest! Uses reforms branding to uncritically spread their manifesto.

Who needs GB News when you have the bloody BBC, ay.

No Conservative should be allowed to speak on this matter without being reminded that Boris Johnson failed his security vetting, yet the Tories appointed him to be Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister.

Anyone spotted (particularly media luvvies) that the process followed with the Mandelson appointment is the process which was in place throughout the Tory years. Starmer's first experience with this flawed process and he's changed it so it cannot happen again, remind us again, what's the story.

OMFG I had to go and check that this ACTUALLY happened.

Since when does the BBC ever do chyrons with a political party's branding, rather than their own? Not to mention this is during a pre-election campaign purdah.

(h/t @iainsol.bsky.social)

UK has quietly regained its position as the world’s 5th largest economy The United Kingdom has regained its position as the fifth largest economy in the world, according to the latest figures.

In other news today the United Kingdom has regained its position as the fifth largest economy in the world, according to the latest figures
www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/uk-econ...

The Question    Erm, well – I begin, shifting nervously in my chair –  if it’s true there is no heaven and no hell,   no eternity or long hereafter,   no divine plan or offstage direction from an invisible hand,  then how do we make sense of it all,  how do we make our way through this life, this glorious, ridiculous, ramshackle world of ours,  with its wars and brutality, conflicts and petty arguments,  the ten thousand tiny acts of kindness   which happen unnoticed before breakfast,  and all that love and pain, happiness and loneliness  that comes to us unannounced, by turns,   as if we ourselves were pitched daily   onto the waves of one of its vast, mysterious oceans,  not knowing whether today is the day we drown  or we find ourselves washed up   on some strange but friendly shore?     Mmm – you say, after a lengthy silence –  what I meant was … do you have any questions   about the job?  Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘The Question’.

Labour urges tax investigation into Reform's Richard Tice It follows a newspaper report that Tice had avoided corporation tax worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

No surprise....Tice looks like the kind of bloke Coronation Street central casting call up when the story calls for someone to fleece Gail Platt of her life savings again

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On the button. Greens - Lib Dems wake up.

Police data for London doesn’t show knife crime is up 72% in a year – Full Fact A claim from Conservative MP Esther McVey isn’t supported by police statistics, which show knife-enabled crime fell by 11% in the year to September 2025.

Conservative MP Esther McVey claimed last week that knife crime in London “is up 72% in a year”.

That figure’s not correct, according to police statistics on knife-enabled crime, and we’ve not found any data to support it.

Daily Mail's Brexit poll goes hilariously wrong The Daily Mail perhaps didn't get the results they were expecting from their readers when they asked if Britain should rejoin the EU.

A very, very funny turn of events

One of the reasons the right wants to get Starmer out. This stuff wins elections.

Government cash backs North East automotive and battery sectors Department for Business and Trade to invest in North East in the advanced manufacturing sector

Government cash backs North East automotive and battery sectors
Department for Business and Trade to invest in North East in the advanced manufacturing sector

northeastbylines.co.uk/business/gov...

NHS England » March was busiest month ever for A&Es amid meningitis outbreak NHS England » March was busiest month ever for A&Es amid meningitis outbreak

“A&E waiting times have fallen to a five-year low, despite the NHS seeing record numbers of patients in March as the health service experienced a ‘prolonged winter’”

my favorite Bible story is probably the one where Jesus starts an unprovoked, unnecessary and illegal war, blows up a building full of schoolgirls, destabilizes the world's economy, tells the Pope to go fuck himself, and then jets off for a long weekend of golf at Galilee-a-Lago

Reasons the right is desperate to get rid of Starmer, part two.

While the press were wetting their pants over a glimmer of hope that they could unseat Starmer he was off trying to protect our country from the fallout of Trumps demented war. The media were just looking for clicks with confected scandal and gossip. Because that’s all they ever do.

I wonder why people who profess to be horrified by the practice aren’t shouting their delight from the rooftops…

Nothing about the fact that Starmer was co hosting a meeting of 51 countries to try and work out what to do about the unholy mess Trump has made of the entire world. That’s our national security we’re talking about! People need to know this stuff. It’s not party politics.

So these sources imply that the Guardian article used sloppy language to put the worst possible interpretation on what happened? I'm shocked, I tell you.

Via Alex Wickham at Bloomberg

Sources say Olly Robbins felt bound by the rules of the security vetting process NOT to tell the PM, No10 or the foreign secretary about the concerns raised about Mandelson

That means it appears No10 were in fact unaware he had issues with his vetting.

Whatever you think of Boris Johnson, at least we know he WASN’T a liar, nor did he ever mislead Parliament.
🇬🇧

Given a binary choice. The country prefers a Labour government to a Reform U.K. one. #Ipsos

Straight off the back of news of Labour approving the UK's largest ever solar farm yesterday, we get more good news about clean energy!

This time our Labour government and GB Energy are investing a combined £86.5m for a 1GW of green hydrogen in South Yorkshire.

Ten announcements and achievements by our Labour Government pretty much ignored by UK media who find it impossible to tell us all the good news. Share far and wide.

#DoingTheMediasJob
#LaboursAvhievements
#FixingBritain