James Savage @SavLocal

Hard to escape the feeling that soon Britain's commentating classes will have an entirely new prime minister to try and kick to death

When the British head of government is attacked by Russian funded and inspired social media activists, a responsible reaction is not to gloat or seek to score political points. A patriotic response is to rally round and confront a common enemy and defend our shared values politically and culturally as a nation. There are plenty times to manifest our differences. This is not one of them.

BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking

7 days ago

Russia was behind arson attacks targeting UK PM Keir Starmer, BBC reveals bbc.in/3Q3lOy1

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how can you be serious about european competitiveness and then oppose this, like come on

Financial Times @FT

a week ago

France opposes ‘anglicisation’ of EU trade talks ft.trib.al/LDzpHHi

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The next war won't be won by armies, navies or air forces alone. It'll be won by the country whose 19 year olds can code, whose factories can build drones in weeks not years, and whose grid stays on when someone tries to switch it off. Industry. Society. Economy. That's the fight now. We're not ready. And we're not being honest about what getting ready will cost.

Bloody hell, what a disaster.

Within hours of being announced as the nominee to be the U.S. Director of the CIA, I received a hand-delivered message on MI6 stationery congratulating me on my nomination. It was signed simply "C" in green ink. Legendary. I shared it with my son and even he thought I was now cool! More than that, this note, from Sir Alex Younger, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, confirmed what I already believed: the work that the CIA and MI6 did together mattered, that the partnership was critical, and that two leaders focused on the mission could save lives and provide tools for our nations to deter our adversaries. Alex's passing this week brought back so many memories of our time in service together. He flew to Langley to see me the day I was confirmed. We brought our two senior teams together in the UK to plan and coordinate and build in the first several weeks of my time on duty: making clear to them all that this relationship was more than special - it was critical for the security of our two countries. Alex was a remarkable intelligence partner. When we needed help, it wasn't "let me see;" it was "this matters to you and America we'll get it done." And he and his team always did. I think he knew we would do the same for him and his team and his nation. Many Americans are alive today because of his leadership of MI6, I never knew how to thank him enough. Alex became a friend as well. In the years since we both left office we would see each other from time to time. He was always so kind, so thoughtful, so smart. His deep love of his country was surpassed only by his deep commitment and love of his family. Decent and proper - and funny as hell - Alex was "C." As espionage requires, he was quiet, not attention seeking. He knew what evil was and he was ruthless in his efforts to crush it with every legal tool at his command. And he knew who his friends were and committed himself to supporting them. I miss Sir Alex Younger. He was a role model for me and a man with whom every minute I spent was valued and savored. Blessings to you Alex. Praying for you and for your family. Well done and may you rest in peace in His hands.

If true, this retreat on defence is poverty of the imagination. Defence bonds, maybe with an incentive like partial inheritance tax exemption, could more than close the gap. Just do it. Starmer may water down ‘unaffordable’ £18 billion defence boost thetimes.com/article/34fd32…

Can’t wait for the panel discussion this Thursday here in Minneapolis! youtube.com/shorts/UuKI7qV… via @YouTube

Elon Musk, JD Vance and Tucker Carlson are dead wrong about the “free speech crisis” in Britain. The problem is “SLAPPS”, the frivolous law suits aimed at shutting down legitimate investigative journalism and lining powerful London law firms’ pockets. Time for a timid Labour government to act My commentary lionelbarber.substack.com/p/britains-fre…

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions: - welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap - defence spending is too low - the triple lock is unsustainable - without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution - we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea - migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state - any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement - we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable - Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly Blair basically says all that. The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind: - judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast - the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement. Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

In almost any other household, if a man suddenly parked a brand new £125,000 motorhome in the driveway - and acquired other new vehicles - his wife would ask where on earth he got the money from.

But she was his wife. They were living together. And he was spending the money to fund a luxury lifestyle. Seems remarkably incurious and unobservant of her.

Chris McCall @Dennynews

4 weeks ago

Nicola Sturgeon: "To be clear: I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he (Peter Murrell) was using SNP funds for personal purposes. "I am utterly appalled that he did so and cannot begin to understand why."

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Scrutiny is never tedious. Brexiteers claim that leaving the 🇪🇺 can’t have been that damaging as 🇬🇧 growth post 2020 has tracked 🇫🇷🇩🇪. But thing the Online Right is correct about is there is not one graph in this country that isn’t reflecting the Boriswave — which artificially juiced GDP by adding population. This post-Brexit wave is gigantic: roughly 4m people or 6% of the population. If we look at 🇬🇧 per capita GDP growth compared to 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇳🇱🇳🇱 below the Brexit damage is even more clear. From 1999 to 2015 we see 🇬🇧 GDP per capita growing roughly in line with 🇳🇱 with their services-led economy, much faster than 🇮🇹 and 🇫🇷. Post-Brexit this historical higher growth rate in GDP per capita is wiped out. Just look below at the second set of columns which excludes the Covid years. We see 🇬🇧 falling behind 🇳🇱🇫🇷 and shockingly for some even 🇮🇹. Only compared to 🇩🇪 suffering from the China manufacturing shock and the Russia energy shock does UK growth per capita look good. What we’ve seen in this exchange is Tory Brexiteers, unlike Restore or Reform, are not comfortable in making an argument that Brexit is about identity and migration and worth any price. They have to deny the scale of the economic damage.

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57 years ago

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Extraordinary launch video - never seen a by-election campaign which is such an explicit pitch to both the place and to the country

Andy Burnham @AndyBurnhamGM

a month ago

Politics isn’t working for places like ours. I will change that. #AndyBurnham #ForUs

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Wes Streeting believes it serves the UK’s economic interest to rejoin the EU, but it is certainly in his own political interest to open the Brexit question when his chief rival Andy Burnham is standing in Makerfield where Reform UK blew the doors off in the local elections

No smoking gun, but the preponderance of evidence points to smartphones, not economics, as the culprit for the global drop in fertility: • In the US and UK, births fell first and fastest in areas that got 4G earliest • Birth rates were stable in the US, UK and Australia until 2007; in France and Poland until 2009; in Mexico and Indonesia until 2012; in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal until 2013-15 Each of these inflection points matches local smartphone adoption (see picture). • The younger the age group, the sharper the drop. • in-person socialising among young adults is dropping. In SK, by 50% in 20 years • Sexual dysfunction is higher among heavy social media user • Effect is largest in culturally traditional societies — Middle East, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa • Decline holds across countries hit hard by GFC 2008 and those not hit, fast-growing and not growing. Excellent again @jburnmurdoch. ft.com/content/fba35e…

This is the best piece on Starmer you will read today, perhaps this year

Will Self @wself

a month ago

x.com/i/article/2054…

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As Black Rod knocked on the door, someone in the Commons shouted 'not now, Andy'

@JHuitfeldt Jag uppfattar detta som att du fortfarande kommer att vara ansvarig utgivare?

Quite the spot from @SamCoatesSky Sir Keir Starmer ignored advice from the head of the civil service to ensure that Lord Mandelson’s national security vetting was carried out before appointing him as ambassador to the US Lord Case, who was the cabinet secretary at the time, told the prime minister in November 2024 that he should inform officials of the name of his preferred candidate so they could “acquire the necessary security clearances” and conduct due diligence on potential conflicts of interest The prime minister did not take the advice and instead pressed ahead with Mandelson’s appointment, announcing it on December 20, 2024. Senior allies of the prime minister including Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, raised concerns at the time that the appointment had been rushed Starmer pressed ahead with Mandelson's appointment despite being told about Mandelson's long-standing friendship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including the fact that it continued after he was jailed for child sex offences. The was also warned by officials about Mandelson's links to Russia and China UK Security Vetting, the small body in the Cabinet Office that vets public appointments, subsequently concluded that Mandelson should be denied clearance on January 25, 2025. It is understood to have raised concerns about Mandelson's business links to China and Russia rather than Epstein Sir Olly Robbins, the permanent secretary at the foreign office, considered the report from UK Security Vetting and decided that the security risk could be managed. He gave Mandelson's appointment the green light, and the peer became Britain's ambassador to the US in February. He was given the highest level of security clearance Robbins did not inform the prime minister or anyone in Number 10. The prime minister went on to make a series of public statements insisting that "due process" had been followed and, in February, stating categorically that Mandelson had passed his security vetting. That claim was false thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

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