who the fuck are labour for, at this point?

no YOU mean badminton with complications

My library system is begging people to check out books. The audio and ebooks are eating their budget alive. They have asked people to use books as much as possible. It will increase their budget while making it possible for reasonable negotiations between the library sys and epubs.

jfc is that real???

I'm all for people being accountable, which I don't see Starmer as being, despite being known as "sensible", and "a grown up in the room". My point is that perhaps he should be judged on that and his own performance, rather than as being the best of a bad lot?

Chart from The Economist showing annual egg consumption per person in Britain from 2004 to 2025. There has been a sharp increase since 2022

Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?
www.economist.com/britain/2026...

It's a very interesting process to watch from the outside, where I'm allowed to retain information like "Mandelson's Epstein links were known before Labour entered government and "Starmer announced his appointment before vetting was complete"

It certainly sounds like you're saying that from your wording: "personally I don't support a revolving door of PMs, I think he should stay".

Yesterday a friend quoted something at me and then was surprised I didn't know a Trev and Simon Live and Kicking sketch from 1997?!

Nah a person doesn't get to be above integrity just because too many people were like that before him

I love that even Starmer's biggest fans start every defense with 'he's not perfect but' because they know deep down he's got nothing

Indie bookshops’ business rates to soar by up to 100%, BA research finds

Independent bookshops in England are facing business rates increases of up to 100% under the government’s new reforms, research commissioned by the Booksellers Association has found 👇 #BookSky

So now we've established that Mandelson is a corrupting force that sullies everything and everyone in his sphere of influence, what are we going to do about the fact he hand-picked the entirety of Labour's 2024 intake of new MPs?

Keir Starmer very much Chose not to know cause Knowing would make him responsible. Clever little lawyer man trick he thinks we’re all too stupid to see

Watch how everyone involved in this Mandelson business has ensured that - at every step - they have a degree of plausible deniability. This is how people in senior positions get away with doing what they see as necessary while covering their arses.

mine (similar circumstances, 1 person 1 bathroom) has gone up DESPITE my water usage actually going DOWN

Does anyone else see the dark hand of Jeremy Corbyn behind this latest scandal? Could he have been working with Olly Robbins to put Mandelson in post, knowing fine well that this would undermine the vital mission of Starmer's government?

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.

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...

Okay all this is fun and all but when is Mandelson going to jail

Remember when Wes Streeting announced he was going to make around 100k NHS backroom staff redundant with no audit, risk or impact assessment, then spent six months or so begging the treasury to give him the money for redundancy pay outs, to then be forced to take it out of future healthcare budgets?

ADHD vs ASD

I like how they're all shocked and appalled that Robbins is not apparently going along with the line and is just singing like a canary because who would've guessed blaming a career civil servant to save your own skin would have blowback

That awkward moment when the guy you decide is going to take the fall turns out to be a basically competent human being who can accurately describe what happened and your whole Machiavellian plan falls apart.

I think it's now incumbent upon those people so inclined to explain how Starmer isn't comprehensively fucked and shouldn't have his desk emptied into a box by HR and escorted out by security.

Rather than us explain why he should.

This is the crux for me. It’s not about whether Starmer knew about the failed vetting; it’s that Starmer created a situation where the appointment didn’t allow for failed vetting

solid argument buddy!

Have you ever left the US, out of interest?

The Flat Earth conspiracy is actually a bellwether to gage how susceptible a society is to misinformation even when their eyes and ears say the opposite.

I could believe this tbh. One of my colleagues got "the worst chest infection he'd ever had" in Feb 2020.

(AND THEN PROCEEDED TO GET ON A PLANE TO NEW YORK FOR A HOLIDAY.)

((in my head I call him "Patient Zero"))

don't be silly, folks at the top would never change their mind like that