Leave it Pippa. You've had your scoop. As a top mandarin he should be able to deal with 'huge pressure'.

Profiles in Courage "It's the right thing to do"

I don’t think that Starmer should resign because of what he said to Parliament about vetting. But if he can't appoint a team that can deliver, and if he continues to believe that problems are of everyone else’s making, it does seem he might not be in the right job.
open.substack.com/pub/arthursn...

I agree... I just don't think Starmer is 'finished'. There isn't a natural successor imv.

Rory has got it wrong again....

Except when there's a power cut....

I don't think anyone in govt (and ban advocates) has considered day-to-day pastoral care issues. Snow days, boiler breakdown, late detention because forgot PE kit, school bus breakdown etc etc.

This proposed policy is unrealistic and unworkable. Consider late detentions, bullying outside (or inside) school, bus breakdowns, or even crisis lockdowns in schools. The legal ramifications are huge.

...still have their nuclear program and have Trump promising to return them $20 billion in frozen assets.
The markets also have concluded that this is the end, Trump has thrown in the towel.
A massive strategic failure by the USA.

We need to be honest about what we are seeing here. The Iranian government is still the same theocratic dictatorship and the Iranian people are in desperate straits after the US promised them liberation. The Iranians still control the Strait of Hormuz, still maintain their right to collect tolls...

I wonder why...

US navy blockade going well....

Turns out the US navy can't do this blockade job either...

It take weapons grade arrogance to invent popesplaining.

Obviously a blockade is unacceptable so the solution is, er, a blockade. 🤷‍♂️

I pity future historians trying to make sense of this, the dumbest empire in world history.

truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

Hmm.... more like copulating. Ours did that a few days ago and ruined the tulips!

Iran just dropped another LEGO video that is absolute fire 🔥

“Your government is run by a p€d@ph!le. They ordered you to die for Israel” ☠️😂

So Trump agrees a deal where Iran gets to keep charging tolls, gets to keep its nuclear program, and of course, keeps the same regime in power.

This was all a terrible waste and so far a catastrophic defeat for the USA.

Trump lost this war in every possible sense — morally, legally, politically, economically, reputationally, and strategically.

Starmer should immediately & unequivocally ban access to British airspace to US warplanes. The UK should not be accomplice to a US President who is threatening more war crimes. Period.

Fair semantic point, though I return to my central point that when you start work, and pay NI for the required number of years, there is an understanding, nay contract, that you will receive a basic pension. Yes, top it up, but it is a base entitlement. Not a benefit.

An Easter message from the president which should really force the VP and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Coming to the end of a wonderful series on Ch 4 Walter Presents.... Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet). It's a tale of a hotel and its guests on the Danish Jutland coast between mid 1920s and mid 1940s. It's charming, funny, poignant, with lovely costumes and excellent acting - highly entertaining.

Have to disagree.

So was I, like all teachers. Goes back to Shirley Williams. Hence the AVC.

... and pay in less than me then THEY should have to top up. Yes, I added with an AVC and employee pension.
So, the state pension IS an entitlement. I get annoyed with people saying it is a benefit- that is incorrect.

I'm 74. During my working life it was explained to me that I was paying NI for the pension of retired people at that time. The sum was based on actuarial calculations. When I reached pension age, working people would pay my pension and so on. If govts have decided to allow some to opt out...

Daily Mail headline says "Drill, Ed, Drill"

Translation: Net Zero threatens the value of our proprietor's investments. The world must cook for the sake of his portfolio.

The insanity of the Trump administration...

Memories of when I saw Led Zeppelin at Sheffield Uni Student's Union in 1972, for £2. Fantastic.

Zack Polanski full speech at NEU conference 2026 YouTube video by dakeyrasuk

Time to abolish Ofsted.

My full speech to the National Education Union conference:

youtu.be/Z0cPWk8XyK8?...