Phil Marsden

The world is doing deals with China while Americans pay more for imports.

It's the equivalent of a football manager receiving a vote of confidence from the board, days before he's sacked.

Managed to persuade them to bomb civilians in the Caribbean and kidnap a foreign leader.

Implying, not inferring.

Turkeys applauding the announcement of Christmas.

Well, the 'other guy' was appointed as ambassador to the US, and it turns out he was passing Epstein confidential information while he was a cabinet minister, so it's quite serious.

No, your focus should be on addressing why voters are leaving Labour in droves. Getting rid of McSweeney was a good start. Once you get rid of Starmer and Mahmood and put in somebody credible, you may find voters returning to you. Otherwise it's PM Farage in 2029.

Shogun by James Clavell
Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees

How do these MPs not see that McSweeney and Starmer are responsible for Labour plummeting in the polls, and half of them are likely to lose their jobs? If they want him as an election strategist, fine, but he's a hopeless policy strategist. Mandelson proves it.

May called an election to take advantage of a perceived poll lead and it backfired. She ended up staggering on until she resigned and Johnson replaced her.

Starmer's in the opposite position, with a big majority but terrible polling. An election is the last thing he needs.

This is not the pussy you are looking for.

It was an eye opener to me watching Cav struggle to make the cut off on mountain stages, as a sprinter hauling himself over hills, and then see good club riders attempt it and get nowhere near. The gaps between pros and amateurs are huge.

It would be a cage fight I'd happily watch.

How did X know they were a) British citizens, b) actual people, and c) distinct accounts?

Given their "due diligence" on Peter Mandelson, I think we can take the Cabinet Office's research expertise with a pinch of salt.

Trump also ran before he won.

And that's as at 31/12, before the current slump. They've made a loss of $9bn *this week*.

No other enforcement officers are allowed to do that. Do they allow the police to be unidentifiable in case people know who they are? They have to be accountable.

What was it about notorious liar Lord Mandelson, who twice had to resign for dishonesty, and who you were seeking to appoint precisely because of his ability to lie to the biggest liar in the world, that made you think he was telling you the truth?

United we shall go forward, disunited we shall be overwhelmed.

Blackadder 2 - Bells

Not surprised John Rentool retweeted it.

Bezos owned the WaPo for many years without interfering. Then in 2019 AWS lost out on a big DoD contract to Microsoft because Trump hated the Washington Post. So Bezos realised it was impacting his business, and he pivoted to sucking up to Trump (and destroying the Washington Post)

I once thought I saw Peter Dinklage outside a Soho pub where I was drinking. Went up to him to tell him how much I liked his work. Turned out it was Jordan Prentice (from In Bruges) who was furious I'd got him mixed up with Dinklage. I slunk away.

There have been 3 murders in Minneapolis this year. 2 of them were committed by DHS agents.

How many 'really hard criminals' have they arrested then? They just redefine 'criminals' as 'anyone we arrest' then claim they were probably killers and rapists.

There are no 500 year old vines in France because of phylloxera.

The committee would have given answers to questions set by Starmer. He can't fob off responsibility. I think this may, and should, bring Starmer down. How many other criminals has the ex-DPP appointed because a committee told him it was ok?

He's more than just 'poor at politics' - appointing Mandelson as ambassador wasn't a communications error, it was a fundamental error of judgement, it was bound to blow up, it always does with Mandelson. He's poor at being a Prime Minister.

Kane was stupid, he should have got another rich man to pay for his wife's opera.

The outcomes are a buttressing of conservative power, but achieved by telling people it's giving them more power.