Philip Stephens

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey:

"Tax exiles like Isabel Oakeshott and washed up old footballers who mock ordinary people who stay in the UK and pay our taxes... As we protect them, it's only right for tax exiles to start paying taxes to fund our armed forces, just like the rest of us".

Let's just hope the war does not persuade the grifters, spivs and tax evaders to return to Britain....

The Board for Peace starts its first war...

you would never guess from this that Labour got 15 times as many votes as the Tories in this (otherwise disastrous) election

I will write later on how Labour's defeat in the Rochdale by-election in February 2024 foretold the outcome of the general election result a few months later.....

The same Charles Kushner sent to jail in 2005 by a judge who described him as a "revengeful, hateful man".

the Guardian, for all its posturing, never does the basic decent thing that can really help tackle pay inequality of putting salaries on its job ads 🙄

The sooner it's a legal requirement to put salaries on job ads, the better.

Met apologises to Commons speaker for sharing tipoff with Mandelson’s lawyers Exclusive: Police meet Lindsay Hoyle to explain error after Hoyle shared tip that Mandelson planned to flee UK

It is very funny how Mandelson’s fury over his arrest has led to the Met apologising profusely, but to someone else entirely.

Remember the Corbyn mania? Polanksi has just about junked all the green stuff and taken Corbyn's place on far left

Tesla now a legacy EV maker....X a legacy social platform

This feels undervalued.

Given Trump's devotion to western hemispheric hegemony of Monroe Doctrine will next move be on Falkland Islands? Give US strategic command of South Atlantic and Antarctica, pop of just few thousand. Lot easier than bombing Iran. Irritated already with Starmer about Chagos. And, yes, they have oil!

Mandelson's lawyers deny he was planning to flee abroad Statement comes after former cabinet minister arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office

thanks to Mandelson’s lawyers we now know why the police accelerated their investigation yesterday

www.ft.com/content/5910...

UK PR executive left role after US embassy raised concerns over online posts [FREE TO READ] Gavin Megaw’s exit from Hanover followed complaint by embassy to American Pharmaceutical Group

free speech latest as.ft.com/r/31e7b634-1...

when broadcasters repeat Mandelson claim he was “not motivated by financial gain”

please also report the $75,000 of financial gain Mandelson received from Epstein in 2004 and 2004

and the £10s of thousands Mandelson’s husband received from Epstein in 2009/10

plus free flights & mansion stays

I keep thinking this. Why can't they just say, Mandelson has stated that he considers etc. They need to take that step back instead of sounding quite so, well...understanding

What has Reform learnt from its first taste of power? [FREE TO READ] After grabbing hundreds of local council seats from Labour and the Conservatives, the populist party has faced a reality check

Spent many months understanding how Reform has approached the first test of its entry into government, from the rhetoric to the budget setting of this month: finance

as.ft.com/r/1e92b707-0...

It is not fair if it misleads/confuses audiences…suppose it may have changed but advice of media lawyers used to be that no obligation to include non-attributable denials …

No obligation falls on BBC if Mandelson refuses to issue public denial..

But they could be clearer - they could say “a source close to Lord Mandelson has told the BBC he has denied any wrongdoing” etc

The Mandy Rice-Davies response comes to mind

@bbcnews24.bsky.social keeps saying it “understands” Mandelson considers he has done nothing criminal or for financial gain. How does BBC “understand” this. Has it had private briefing or is it reporting Westminster gossip? Either way viewers/listeners deserve clear,accurate journalism.

@bbcnews24.bsky.social keeps saying it “understands” Mandelson considers he has done nothing criminal or for financial gain. How does BBC “understand” this. Has it had private briefing or is it reporting Westminster gossip? Either way viewers/listeners deserve clear,accurate journalism.

A moment for Trump and fellow appeasers to recall Winston Churchill's words 80 years ago in Fulton, Missouri.
"I am convinced that there is nothing they (the Russians) admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness."

A moment for Trump and fellow appeasers to recall Winston Churchill's words 80 years ago in Fulton, Missouri.
"I am convinced that there is nothing they (the Russians) admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness."

The fall and fall of Tony Blair Never has a former prime minister so tarnished their own reputation

"It has been all about demonstrating....that his voice is still needed on the international stage - that he can make a difference. Except that it’s an illusion. What’s left for the historians is a blackened shell.
Latest Inside-Out column.
philipstephens.substack.com/p/the-fall-a...

Can't help thinking back to when Blair and Schröder represented the 'Third Way' in modern centre-left thinking.

Today both have tarnished their legaly. And it seems to me that Donald Trump and the US is to Tony Blair what Vladimir Putin and Russia is to Gerhard Schröder.

Thank you!

A fine portrait of Tony Blair, now firmly in his seaside residency at the Great Yarmouth Astoria period.