The Guardian Politics Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's former chief of staff, to be questioned by MPs Exclusive: McSweeney summoned by foreign affairs select committee in rare step, as Mandelson vetting row continues • UK politics live -latest updates

Ooh 🍿

American applications for Irish citizenship jump 63% Trump administration policies spur demand for ‘plan B’ passports, lawyers say

American applications for Irish citizenship jump 63% ft.trib.al/RLw6NKD

One correction to your timeline @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Concerns about failed vetting were front-page news in September 2025.

This was before the February story.

@lbc.co.uk #lbc

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Tusla has referred five emergency child care providers to Gardaí over vetting concerns A quarter of staff working in Special Emergency Arrangements last year did not have the required documentation to work with vulnerable children.

Excellent report this morning from RTÉ Investigates on how fake references were used for staff at a special emergency arrangements provider.

www.rte.ie/news/investi...

Adds to our previous reporting that found Tusla referred five of these providers to Gardaí over vetting concerns

jrnl.ie/6963224

Revealed: How Big Oil is pushing Labour to drill the North Sea Oil and gas lobbyists have met ministers 96 times since July 2024 as industry pushes to overturn Labour's North Sea drilling ban and scrap energy windfall tax.

The lobbying pressure seems to be working. Ed Miliband has refused to budge on new drilling but Rachel Reeves says she'd be "very happy" to back new exploration.

John Swinney now calls sector "overtaxed."

Full investigation w/ @lucasamin.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

Only one in 10 young Brits would fight for their country A study into the views of those aged 18-27 carried out with YouGov and Public First has revealed a deep erosion of faith in Britain.

Good news @mrjamesob.bsky.social

The figure is apparently up from 2025 when the reported figure was 10%.

@lbc.co.uk #lbc

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/only-on...

One correction to your timeline @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Concerns about failed vetting were front-page news in September 2025.

This was before the February story.

@lbc.co.uk #lbc

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

The below is the part of the story that befuddles me @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Starmer claims that he didn't know about concerns around Mandelson's vetting process until April 2026.

The Independent contacted No.10 about those concerns in 2025 & published a front-page story.

@lbc.co.uk #lbc

There are times when the British political-media class is incomprehensible.

This is one.

Why are commentators discussing Starmer & Mandelson while ignoring what was already reported in September 2025?

The below is the part of the story that befuddles me @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Starmer claims that he didn't know about concerns around Mandelson's vetting process until April 2026.

The Independent contacted No.10 about those concerns in 2025 & published a front-page story.

@lbc.co.uk #lbc

Jewish man among first charged in pro-Palestinian slogan crackdown that reminds some of 1970s Queensland Stephen Heydt says he spoke in a custom-made T-shirt and was ‘charged with two offences: one for the shirt, one for the chanting’

A Jewish man is among the first charged in Australia's Queensland for wearing a t-shirt with and chanting the prohibited slogan, "from the river to the sea" -- a ridiculous effort to defend Israel's endless occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

How does this relate to the info provided to Maddox from sources in Washington & London re vetting concerns about Mandelson, Maddox subsequently relaying these concerns to No. 10, publishing the story on the front page, and Starmer's assertion of unawareness regarding these issues until April 2026?

The story was reported by The National and others but ignored by the main papers.

Later Democracy For Sale expanded on the original.

Then The Guardian & ST.

But by the time it became a widely reported story, it was reported in a very diluted form that ignored everything but the ST report.

2/2

The thing is that it's not just timing.

Look at the story about Josh Simons commissioning APCO to spy on journalists as part of a smear campaign.

From much of the reporting, you'd think Gabriel Pogrund was the only one affected.

1/

There are times when the British political-media class is incomprehensible.

This is one.

Why are commentators discussing Starmer & Mandelson while ignoring what was already reported in September 2025?

Study warns of terrifying Atlantic Ocean current collapse New research shows a critical Atlantic Ocean current system is weakening faster than expected, raising the risk of irreversible climate disruption.

New research warns the Atlantic Ocean’s key current system (AMOC) is weakening faster than expected, with models now pointing to a ~42–58% slowdown by 2100—pushing it closer to a tipping point that could trigger irreversible global climate disruption.

Under the Law of Naval War a blockade is an act of war.

So my question is how can he claim a unilateral ceasefire, which Iran have not accepted by the way, when he is still participating in a legally defined act of war.

That is not a ceasefire. It is a posture by definition.

An image containing a post from Isabel Oakeshott complaining that the press are reporting on her boyfriend’s tax dodging accompanied by various reports about his tax dodging.

'Richard Tice’s girlfriend is very annoyed that the free press she champions, despite having emigrated to a dictatorship without one, is investigating her boyfriend for stuff she says people who aren’t her boyfriend, like Angela Rayner, should resign over.'

You couldn’t make it up. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas

This should be a bigger story. 

Scientists are more concerned than ever that a critical Atlantic current will collapse soon and wreak havoc on North America and Europe. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation,
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is absolutely it. You can't at the one hand go 'tepid bath of managed decline', then clearly signal who you want as ambassador and then be surprised that the process yields that outcome.

The Aides Keeping the President in the Dark Donald Trump’s advisers are treating him like he can’t handle the reality of the war in Iran. They might be right—but that fact is a danger to the constitutional order.

Donald Trump’s aides have kept him in the dark on important conversations—and “the ramifications for democratic accountability are serious,” @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily:

The Ohio Republican Party Has Built a Laboratory of Autocracy In the heavily gerrymandered Buckeye State, the GOP-controlled legislature rules without fear of voters, and it’s hard at work dismantling democracy.

Justice Louis Brandeis described the states as “laboratories of democracy,” testing out novel policies, with successful experiments replicated in other states or at the federal level.

This isn’t only about Ohio. trib.al/q9WrOyc

Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces a criminal investigation by the Justice Department The Southern Poverty Law Center says it’s the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation and faces possible charges over its use of paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups.

BREAKING: The Southern Poverty Law Center says it faces investigation by Justice Department over past use of paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups.

Netanyahu claimed last week that Magyar invited him to Hungary.

Today Magyar said that Netanyahu will be arrested if he enters Hungary:

“I made it clear to the Israeli PM — we will not back down... If a state is an ICC member and a person who is wanted enters that territory, they must be detained”

"You have to be racist in order to beat the racists and if you're too anti-racist then you're the real racist"

Daily Mail front page banner with "I've only been taking testosterone for 3 days - and it is working already" Nadine Dorries

Folks, folks, FOLKS!

Not bothered by people who want Starmer to go. I agree. My reasons are selfishly practical - he lacks the vision and charisma to lead the UK through impossibly challenging times. What bothers me is when people cosplay moral outrage to not just oust, but destroy him, because it gives them a thrill.

People who use screen readers deserve to read this historic ruling from the European Union upholding trans rights.

curia.europa.eu/site/upload/...

So far Olly Robbins has dropped govt in it x 3 - that Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson might not even need vetting, that No 10 pressured him to get on with it, that publicly rejecting M on vetting grounds wd be v awkward - & himself in it on maybe 1 (dsn't sound like he recorded much of this...

Usually.

Sometimes, it’s used as a euphemism for “sincere fears,” and that is even more pernicious.

Because it’s easy to generate irrational fear. And if you treat the comfort of the fearful as something to be balanced against the rights of the vulnerable, you legitimise injustice.