Alan Beattie

Very possibly though that’s all a bit uncertain - his weaknesses at actually doing the job were clear for all to see.

A white Brit comparing an African former British colony to an animal was another triumph of diplomacy. He stuffed up those negotiations good and proper btw.

mg.co.za/article/2007...

If you have an FT sub (DM if you don’t). He really was not a good commissioner. This piece was heavily cut for space IIRC - there was a lot more to say.

www.ft.com/content/b407...

Massive doctrinal disputes over whether the Thames can truly be said to be tidal up to Richmond lock.

And those are clearly made-up names anyway. Baron Ballymote?

Celebrity osteopath caught in decade-long voyeurism and upskirting scandal | LBC A high-profile doctor has been found to have secretly filmed people in a ten-year campaign of voyeurism and upskirting.

Does this count? Or does the osteopath have to be in proximity to the scandal rather than the scandal itself?

www.lbc.co.uk/article/cele...

Ukraine has been resisting Vladimir Putin’s Russia for longer than either the USSR or the USA spent fighting Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

It says a lot about how government works in Britain that people will pretend you’re not a massive sleazebag for decades but the moment the calculus shifts to negative they will mobilise every resource to destroy you

You mean at the moment, right? Not cumulatively?

"Ringo's not even the best drummer in the Beatles."

Also the implication that Mandelson is literally the worst person ever to have been a member of the House of Lords, which somehow I doubt.

This is what a proper Brexit looks like Prosperity and security will be driven by removing unnecessary barriers that hold businesses back

Unusually punchy and well-written column for a minister, but the persistence of the "we're going to make Brexit work better" line from the UK govt is depressing.

www.ft.com/content/3be7...

Ah gotcha. I thought you were one of those monochrome freaks.

Need colour to print out stuff for the kids though. Sarah is prepared to allow her offspring to grow up in a gloomy monochrome world but I am not.

Sarah is the Brother salesperson. I can see the attraction but need a colour printer to print out stuff for the kids.

This is very good. At a minor level I try to remember (and usually forget) that "supply chain" is a bad metaphor for a system which is frequently much stronger than its weakest link as it builds new pathways around obstructions. "Value networks" better. Sounds corny but "ecosystems" also works.

Port of London Authority | Port of London Authority

You're unreasonably dissing what's a perfectly well-run body fulfilling an important function. What's your problem? Not sure about the Chinese bit though.

pla.co.uk

"Your AI engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should."

Yeah fair enough - it was more about whether he could smother them from behind closed doors than meet them in open battle. Stand against Blair for the party leadership: no. Knife David Miliband to prevent an actual election to succeed Blair: yes.

Does she/he literally say "Leesen very carefully, I shall say zees only vonce"?

Oh absolutely - it’s just somewhat hypocritical that *now* he suddenly discovers what Mandelson’s like.

We're just not competitive on the world stage any more.

You mean you wouldn't take an expensive camera into a Tranmere match? The home end at Sealand Road was a mass of Leicas.

It is emphatically not an either-or. I said Mandelson's appointment as ambo was a bad idea, seems I was right.

Inside Trump’s $550bn ‘shakedown’ of Japan Inc Tokyo signed the US president’s biggest deal yet. Will the investments ever materialise?

Not all the chief executives had agreed on a figure. More still were confused by what exactly they had signed.

“It was a total pantomime. I’ve never seen anything like it"

www.ft.com/content/78d1...

More "GB cynically gambled on bringing back Mandelson to stop the approaching juggernaut of electoral defeat despite the political risks and his own personal animosity to someone he blamed for costing him the Labour party leadership. Having no loyalty, he then kicks Mandelson when he's falling."

I don't think he knew that at all, but he knew he was an absolute liability and likely to blow up at some point.

Fire him then rehire him just before the elections and fire him again.

Indeed. Carney needs to sort out the dairy farmers if he wants Canada to be a proper free trader. Not clear to me unless it's just the familiar environmental concerns why Canada has failed to exploit its own rare earths.

The second of those.