Charlotte Thompson grrrr

I really wish I had been taught practical stuff at school - how to handle tax, VAT, HMRC, and all the financial things we have to deal with, for example.

I'm out of my depth with so much adult stuff and my understanding of an oxbow lake's formation is not proving to be helpful in this instance.

Getting really tired of "this is all a media concoction"...

Starmer has the lowest approval rating of any PM in history bar Truss. Senior ministers are openly and unsubtly positioning. His Chief of Staff, Director of Comms and Cab Sec have all resigned on the same day.

I mean come on...

Given the horror show David is describing here, the best we can hope for is that they don't drag it out, that they want to gorge on it and then public will be fed up with it and govt can get on with some governing.

But it's a very weak hope

This really is a very good piece. I think quite a lot lies behind it. First that the *actual* education of the likes of Musk etc is very superficial. Just enough Western Civ classes at elite universities for them to persuade themselves that they are talented intellects without any deep study.

Anyway, enjoy the World Cup!

Streeting wrote off his re-election chances in WhatsApp exchanges with Mandelson Health secretary publishes messages as he seeks to draw line under his relationship with former peer

Of all the people definitely not running a leadership campaign, no sir, Streeting is not running the slickest one. People are saying your whatsapps with Mandelson might finish your definitely not campaign? publish before someone else does www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I'm going to laugh myself to death if all the boys leave and they replace them with their overlooked female deputies (quite plausible because they won't be able to recruit externally) and the whole thing starts running better

Top civil servant could become third key No 10 departure in days Exclusive: Cabinet secretary Chris Wormald is expected to follow Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan out the door

EXCL: Chris Wormald, the most senior civil servant in Downing Street, is negotiating his exit as part of a wider shakeup of Keir Starmer’s operation after dramatic day - @kiranstacey.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Serious about *being* in government but not actually serious about government.

The way Chris pincher has been basically been erased from boris downfall is really instructive in Westminster culture and how these people get away with it

Whatever people want to say about Gordon Brown, we owe him a lot.

How you get from massive victory to complete mess in 18 months is a story that should be studied for years

Why Scottish Labour has broken with Starmer Anas Sarwar is putting "country before party" as he distances himself from Westminster

Wrote in January that Scottish Labour had broken with Starmer and would be putting “country before party” – Sarwar calling for him to go is the ultimate expression of that logic. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

Glory to the Heroic Defenders of Starmergrad

When are they going to learn that if you exclude people with these skills, house building for example won't happen?

As importantly it will scare others from going to work there

It's going to be an economic disaster for the USA

Now remind me what happened post-Brexit vote in the UK?

Has anyone ever done anything on how a party can manage a successful transition from one Prime Minister to another whilst still in government? Most of the examples I can think of aren’t happy. This sounds like a pitch to me…

Something magnificent about Kemi Badenoch's self-confidence, and her claim that the Mandelson affair is entirely down to her asking questions at PMQs. Like a toddler who thinks their plastic steering wheel is controlling the car.

Since Labour has been in government the lack of preparation and depth of thinking has been apparent but I think one of the biggest mistakes was going to war with the PLP so early. It stunned a lot of MPs to be told they could not even table amendments. This resentment is a massive part of the story.

Well, this quote has aged interestingly.

Nothing makes one prouder to be British than someone resigning in disgrace because we still understand both those words

Doesn’t sound like this is the end of this, even in the short run.

Right, but just to clarify, you did not appoint Peter Mandelson, because you were not Prime Minister.

Morgan McSweeney quits as PM's chief of staff following Mandelson scandal McSweeney says he takes

The first sentence of this statement is really interesting. McSweeney says he is resigning from the government. But he was not a member of the government: he was an adviser to it, albeit an important one. The govt comprises the cabinet and other ministers. Says it all?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Peter Mandelson – the great genius at the heart of New Labour.

Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'.

Nick Timothy – the great genius at....

Morgan McSweeney – the great....

Steve Hilton...

Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?

As Jonathan Powell wrote in his terrific book: “for the first few years, the press didn’t even have a photo of me”.

I genuinely don't understand how he got to this position of prominence - he won the easiest possible election in the worst possible way, then used the largest imaginable majority in the least sensible way. He seems completely useless, and a massive berk

mashallah he is gone, to celebrate I've made the piece I wrote last year about arguably the most embarrassing project I've ever worked on free to read: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/so-about-t...

Ah yes, replace the guy who was happy to have Mandelson on side with a guy who was basically a protege of Mandelson. Big brain time in the Labour Party

Most of our media is studiously ignoring the Epstein links to Brexit, Farage and far right populism. Farage is being touted for No.10. He wants an even more extreme Brexit. A race to the bottom to sell us out to this global network of oligarch crooks.
Why TF isn’t he being investigated and stopped?