Sturdy

I think the things that should focus minds here are 1) No political project that does not have the decisive backing or at very least consent of the press will be tolerated, and 2) Close media cooperation can only carry a project so far, before the hacks get embarrassed about propping up a corpse.

do wonder about anyone who thinks McSweeney single-handedly won Labour its majority. They do realise they were up against a catastrophically unpopular government? The 2024 result was very much an underperformance against the fundamentals. Paul Brand • @paulbrand.bsky.social • 19h Not *all* Labour MPs wanted McSweeney out. "Gutted about Morgan", one texts. "So many of us know he's brilliant to work with, so exceptional at the bigger picture strategic thinking, relentlessly focused on the moving pieces... and credit him with winning the najority"

It’s the same as Johnson, isn’t it: if the secret ingredients of your success are “lying like fuck to the public” and “relying upon the unlimited indulgence of the press to repeat your lies and horseshit”, and it all explodes if the second part is removed: to what extent are you good at politics?

it really boils down to who do you hate more, rich sex abusers or the left, and I’m afraid that from Thatcher to Starmer we’ve been run by people for whom the answer to that question is “the left”

To think the Tories were in for a good 10+ years before you started thinking "Christ, they really are scraping the bottom of the barrel now"

It's grim. Rayner is a northern working class women so would get absolutely monstered in the press (not like they haven't already spent 18 months metaphorically going through her bins to get rid of her once). Milliband was crap 15 years ago, doubt he'd be different now. Cooper, argh. They're fucked.

If there's a better fact than this, I don't want to hear it today. This fact must remain in prime position.

White-tiled wall with a London Underground sign, a blue centre bar in a red circle. The centre bar reads 'MORNINGTON CRESCENT'. Source: https://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2014/12/30/mornington-crescent-still-peculiar

Mornington Crescent: a rant.

Or: how a goofy word game about train stations is the key to how devout causes can ruin people's ability to have a conversation.

Stand clear of the closing doors, let's begin.

1/18

Paddington gently taking Morgan McSweeney by the hand, leading him to the afterlife

McSweeney screaming, I’m not dead, trying to break free

Paddington’s grip tightens further, the more McSweeney struggles

Paddington does not make mistakes

Once he has your hand, your time on Earth is up

the problem is that britain just can't stop having prime ministers

Contrary to what we said in our previous story “Election candidate stitch-ups are excellent: keep going Peter, keep the scum down where they belong!” (April 2024) we now realise that letting a spectacularly crooked Friend of Jeffrey choose the next generation of politicians looks quite bad

Britain needs a "No More Wrong-Uns" Act along the lines proposed by Gordon Brown. The government should act fast. The Mandelson affair is a torrid first-order scandal. The task now is to make sure it never happens again,

The fun part is, we know what happens if there’s a serious attempt to remove corrupt friends of zillionaires from senior roles in the Labour Party: they dash off to their media friends and hork up terrifying scandals together, which they air-horn at the public until they get their jobs back.

Sort of extraordinary that there is only one obvious precedent for a prime minister winning a landslide election victory and then seeming like toast just two years later ... and it's the election *immediately* before this one.

Yes, isn’t it strange how general elections keep being won by frauds that the public swiftly come to despise? And none of the people who loudly said that one or both of them would be great can explain what went wrong? Just a real head-scratcher there

The dude whose company, thanks to Labour, will run our military analytics and to whom Wes Streeting is giving our personal healthcare data.

this is genuinely incredible

People currently spluttering that you can't criticise Starmer for things Peter Mandelson did are the same people who spent several years treating antisemitic tweets from anonymous 50-follower accounts like they were press releases direct from Labour head office.

Is it fuckboy or fuckboi? I want my LinkedIn profile to be perfect

BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding

Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted

*And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it

Full story:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

Been with the DWP for 16 years. The official figure for fraudulent claims, approx. 2.2%, is, in my experience, broadly accurate. Just wanted to point that out to frothing, raging Daily Mail and Sun readers who think it's closer to 100%.

Kier Starmer to perform a live 'apology rap' in a move his closest allies are calling 'misguided' and 'a mistake'

Imagine finding out that the guys behind the "chase Reform, screw over immigrants and trans people, give all our tax money to Palantir and Trump" were taking orders from a good friend of the pedo cabal guy connected to all that bullshit. Funny how The Guardian largely supported this until now.

Might sound a bit uncharitable but given all the awful shit Labour have done since they came to power that hasn't created anywhere near this level of anger amongst their MPs I think it's reasonable to assume their anger is purely about their own reputational damage.

Wes Streeting defends Lord Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein WES Streeting has defended Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein after it was revealed the Labour peer called the…

Today, Wes Streeting, that consummate chameleon of British politics, is doing his best to distance himself from Peter Mandelson. Quite the change of tune from less than five months ago. www.thenational.scot/news/2545164...

[explaining to a child why they are living in poverty] for every hundredth pint i drink i can get one free pint

Reform claim not to be fascist. Not to be racist. To speak nothing but common sense. But they select an actual Nazi to fight Gorton and Denton.

RIP Les

thinking about those people kicked out the labour party for liking a post by the green party on Facebook or similar. nice democratic structures you got there you pal.

PM: I would never have appointed Mandelson had I known full Epstein links The PM says a due diligence process was gone through before Lord Mandelson was appointed US ambassador.

This is like Sooty saying he shouldn’t have hired Matthew www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 08:20 • 2 Feb 2026 • Everybody can reply 449 reposts 21 quotes 1.2K likes 17 saves 126 ① 470 • 1.2K ... George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsk... • 1h Here's the context: When Mandelson was Business Minister, Epstein wrote asking him to make only the cash portion (ie not equity etc) of bankers' bonuses taxable. Mandelson's answer: "Trying hard to amend as I explained to Jes last night. Treasury digging in but I am on case." 8 ₫ 74 270

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsk... • 1h I'm guessing that the "Jes" in this message is that other moral paragon, Jes Staley, though I can't be sure. A Labour government minister, channelling the demands of his finance-bro chums. This, my friends, is how it happens. This is why we don't get what we want, or what we vote for. 13 ①

So it’d be super-awkward if this whole government had been Peter’s project from day one, because it’d be riddled with this stuff top to bottom. The whole thing would be built on backhanders for secretly negotiated policy, wouldn’t it.

The thing which worries business most is the threat of further tax rises - on successful companies and on individuals. Many business leaders have accepted the IFS view, echoed by the FT, that the current Treasury projections of the financial outlook are not sustainable. We have not yet successfully countered that argument. I think the answer lies in releasing value from the very substantial asset base which the Government holds. A number of business leaders who understand financial engineering have asked in different ways why we are borrowing so much and tolerating such high debt charges when we have saleable assets in hand which are not strategic - i.e. there is no good political or economic reason why they are in the public sector.

From: " " To: "Jeffrey Epstein" <jeevacation@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Fw: Business issues Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:13:37 +0000 Land, property I guess Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device From: Jeffrey Epstein Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:06:42 -0400 To: PETER MANDELSON<petermandelson@btinternet.com> Subject: Re: Fw: Business issues what salable assets? On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 2:08 PM, PETER MANDELSON < Interesting note that's gone to the PM.

Do we think this was an isolated incident, and Peter alone is just incredibly unlucky to have been caught on the single time he had this types of chat with one of his billionaire friends?