[Oboogie]

It's real enough. For what it's worth, the appointment has Lord Darroch's seal of approval.

[Youngian]

Have been enjoying Mandelson of late as a mid-morning pundit opposite Danny Fink on Times Radio. But did wonder recently if he’s lost the fucking plot.
He’s talking about Farage as if he is a patriot and not a security risk.

The British government shouldn’t snub Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s offer to act as a Donald Trump whisperer, according to the man hotly-tipped to be the new U.K. ambassador to Washington.
Peter Mandelson said the centre-left Labour government should utilize the Reform UK leader as a bridge to the president-elect, after ministers rebuffed the offer of help from a the right-wing populist.
“You can’t ignore him,” Peter Mandelson — a Labour peer who is a leading contender to become Britain’s man in D.C. said of Farage. “He’s an elected member of parliament. He’s a public figure. https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-f ... mandelson/

[Abernathy]

Of course you can ignore Farage. Just as you can usually ignore the 649 other MPs. Especially as he is a total cunt. Being an MP ain't that fucking special.

[Andy McDandy]

That old saying about politics being showbiz for ugly people - Mandelson's really buying into it, and in fact I'd just wish everyone would stop it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is from Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, on the potholes announcements. (See 9.53am.)

NEW: Transport secretary has announced £1.6bn for councils to repair roads and fix an extra 7 million potholes next year.
This is the Morgan McSweeney style of government: deliver small material changes that public will notice. Same tactic he deployed in Barking to take on BNP.

I like Pippa Crerar, but this stuff projecting Morgan McSweeney as if he's the Prime Minister is silly.

"Keir?"
"Yes. Morgan?"
"There's £1.6bn unallocated here".
"Yeah, I know"
"Spend it on repairing potholes!"
"By Jove, he's right, that's genius!"

Not like this was something everyone's massively pissed off with, and that everybody from cyclists to hauliers would like, is it? Must be the hand of Morgan McSweeney!

I think it's reasonable to detect the (in this case, not good) influence in the "Tory open borders" talk. But fixing potholes? Come on.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I did some reading. On arms to Israel.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... /cbp-9964/

Mr Lammy also said the decision would not affect the F-35 programme that supplies aircraft to more than 20 countries (except where components go directly to Israel, which are included in the action).

Funny, I was assured by the usual folk that Labour was sending parts directly to Israel for F-35s. Still, what matters is truthiness with these people, same as with the Right.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The weakness of the Labour peerages seems to be that there are 3 from Camden. That looks too matey and also goes against the job of widening beyond London, which has otherwise been done commendably.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Have been enjoying Mandelson of late as a mid-morning pundit opposite Danny Fink on Times Radio. But did wonder recently if he’s lost the fucking plot.
He’s talking about Farage as if he is a patriot and not a security risk.

The British government shouldn’t snub Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s offer to act as a Donald Trump whisperer, according to the man hotly-tipped to be the new U.K. ambassador to Washington.
Peter Mandelson said the centre-left Labour government should utilize the Reform UK leader as a bridge to the president-elect, after ministers rebuffed the offer of help from a the right-wing populist.
“You can’t ignore him,” Peter Mandelson — a Labour peer who is a leading contender to become Britain’s man in D.C. said of Farage. “He’s an elected member of parliament. He’s a public figure. https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-f ... mandelson/

This is my big worry. I suppose it's possible this was him in "wily old fox" mode ahead of the appointment. But I'm not sure.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Look who's shown up to tell us how it's done.

The facts about a planet facing climate disaster are clear. Why won’t this Labour government face them?
Jeremy Corbyn

The Labour government has already rowed back on its £28bn green investment pledge, cutting it by half and replaced it with blind faith and a £22bn investment in carbon capture. It is a policy that lets the fossil fuel industry carry on destroying our natural world. In unrelated news, the Labour party accepted a £4m donation from a Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund with shares in oil and gas.

It wasn't Cayman Islands based- it was UK based, with 113 employees which paid £5m of corporation tax. And it had proportionately small investments in oil and gas. It had more in tech but that doesn't sound as scary. You might as well "Jez got money from Unite who are strong supporters of airports and weapons manufacture" That's just as honest.

What's your solution for highly polluting industrial processes? This is actually continuing a good policy of Sunak-Houchen policy- concentrating this stuff in hubs in post industrial areas. It's the complete opposite of neoliberalism his lot bang on about. It's government spending to support industry where the jobs are needed. He's still not happy though. Because the policy can be associated with people he doesn't like.

£22bn is a provisional estimate over 25 years. There's no "£22bn investment" that's been committed because of "blind faith". Projects so far? Merseyside and Teesside. But oil and gas though.

[NevTheSweeper]

The government is on a right-wing doom loop to failure... which will aid Reform. From Byline Times:
https://bylinetimes.com/2024/12/20/keir ... -policies/
Former Labour advisor Simon Fletcher argues that the continuation of Conservative-style policies in office would lead both the party... and the country....to electoral disaster.
In my view, he could be right.

Sir Keir Starmer, a leader who was never popular even with party members, sees Labour surprisingly win power in July, then within weeks withdraws the winter fuel allowance, then over at the last few months has seen their poor handling of the summer riots, cost of living still going up, insistence on 'maintaining fiscal responsibility', in the form of cuts to overall public spending, slashing of civil service jobs, being mired in scandal after scandal, cutting welfare and entrenching poverty, with everyone from WASPI women, pensioners and farmers, to public sector workers and small business owners now in open revolt. To add insult to injury, official forecasts say that the economy is set to shrink even deeper throughout this parliament.

This has led to the huge loss in public support which has been seen the loss of previously safe council seats in recent byelections. These self-inflicted crisis is beginning to make most Labour MPs very nervous. Even some sympathetic commentators like Andrew Marr and James O' Brien are beginning to stick the boot in.

All this run of bad news for the government will aid right-wing populists, and two people in particular... Conservative Kemi Badenoch and Reform's Nigel Farage, the latter backed by Elon Musk's billions.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Poor handling of the Summer riots? The rioters' feet didn't touch the ground. Overall spending is going up a lot, not being cut. Clue in tax rises and extra borrowing.

Scandal after scandal?

Come on. And I'm amazed they haven't sorted cost of living in 5 months.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Guardian going with Dems in Disarray, I see. Not all MPs like the appointment of Mandelson.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... labour-mps

I don't like it either, but at least I understand the constitutional position of ambassadors.

One said: “Lots of MPs are already wondering whether it’s worth reading off the PMQs question scripts if we get embarrassed for sticking by senior party figures when they suddenly veer off what is supposedly Labour policy.

“With him in this gig, a lot of us will say: ‘Well, if he’s allowed to freelance, why can’t I?’ The pressure is already high.”

[The Weeping Angel]

It's ironic because glancing at the Mail they're central complaint about the budget was it raised taxes which is what's causing the economy to crash their words not mine.

[Tubby Isaacs]

slashing of civil service jobs

They went up massively for Covid and Brexit. Doesn't seem to me to be unreasonable to think they could be reduced. The figures suggested is 10,000. By contrast Danny Alexander was snapped having 490,000 as his provisional figure.

[Bones McCoy]

I wish they'd proposed a year (or more) with no new Lords.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Don't know if there are going to be any more, or whether this is a one off balance. Bills going through to get rid of the 92 hereditaries already. If the enforced retirement at 80 happens, that could be up to 300 more. Lots of those won't be very regular attenders though.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Reeves says economic turnaround will take time and Farage ‘hasn’t got a clue’

Rachel Reeves is making a habit of this. There she is "not attacking Nigel Farage". The other day she was talking to Eurozone Finance Ministers about Brexit, while doubtless "being too scared to talk about Brexit" or "Engage with the EU".

[Youngian]

Maybe foreign policy expert Jeremy should have the job. Can't very excited about the issue, as if the Trump White House gives a fig who the fag arse Limey ambassador is.

Figures on the left were more obviously displeased. The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said on X: “For many reasons associated with Peter Mandelson’s history in and out of political office, many will feel Keir [Starmer] has lost all sense of political judgment on this decision.”

[Tubby Isaacs]

The appearance of Jez has made me look up this stuff Labour's not doing about climate change. Found this.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... idal-power

£1.5bn auction awards record funding for new windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects

Labour immediately increased the size of the auction by 50% over what was scheduled by Sunak. Offshore wind could have gone better but it was at least massively improved over last year, and Labour restarting onshore wind in England makes up for that. A pretty good start.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's ironic because glancing at the Mail they're central complaint about the budget was it raised taxes which is what's causing the economy to crash their words not mine.

One can take issues with their interpretation, but the budget did increase taxes and raise spending. That's more accurate than "Starmer Tory austerity".