[The Weeping Angel]

[kreuzberger]

That's quite the reshuffle by Starmer, considering the circumstances were not on the radar on Tuesday evening. If he had these changes up his cuff all along, why were they not implemented before Phase Two (point one) got underway?

[Abernathy]

I think the Rayner affair nudged his hand. He had obviously been planning most of these shufflings for some time beforehand, but maybe wasn’t planning to announce them just yet. Now, he has taken the opportunity to piss on Farage’s chips, which is welcome. But when you think about it, it is mostly just Cooper, Lammy, and Mahmood playing job shuffle.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Seems to have gone very smoothly too. Usually somebody refuses a move to a department they don't fancy, see as a demotion etc. Has anything like that happened this time?

Looks like it was planned in detail, and I'm relatively impressed nothing had leaked. Perhaps having to do it quickly because you've lost the Deputy PM is an advantage in that respect.

[Boiler]

Seems that by all accounts, Starmer got his arse served to him on a platter today at PMQs by Badenoch over Mandelson.

Seriously - what the fuck did Starmer think he was doing in appointing that slippery cunt to the rôle of US Ambassador? He should have been fired into the sun years ago.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Thought he could do a job with Trump, and it seems to have been working. But always a risk, perhaps about to become untenable.

Ed Davey seemed to suggest that Mandelson might be at risk from blackmail by Trump. He may have got that the wrong way round.

[The Weeping Angel]

Thought he could do a job with Trump, and it seems to have been working. But always a risk, perhaps about to become untenable.

Ed Davey seemed to suggest that Mandelson might be at risk from blackmail by Trump. He may have got that the wrong way round.

Not good.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's not really coaching, is it? But yeah, this is untenable, and a huge mess. How do you get rid of Mandelson without basically implying thatTrump is a paedophile himself?

[Youngian]

Not convinced Mandy's cut out for this diplomacy malarkey

"It just could not happen in Britain

How do you get rid of Mandelson without basically implying thatTrump is a paedophile himself?

Not the toughest dilemma that will pass through the PM's in-tray.

[The Weeping Angel]

That's not really coaching, is it? But yeah, this is untenable, and a huge mess. How do you get rid of Mandelson without basically implying thatTrump is a paedophile himself?

Of course, this has gotten people thinking this is all over for Starmer.

[davidjay]

Surely to God Mandelson has to be got rid of by the end of the week.

[Boiler]

Starmer is showing very poor judgement - this, and his tweet about Charlie Kirk. If he wants to give his enemies ammo, he's doing a good job of it.

[Boiler]

It would appear that the riff from Seven Nation Army now has different lyrics for a different leader;

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -the-enemy

Perhaps not unexpected from the kickball crowd...

[davidjay]

I'd be surprised if a Labour Prime Minister was ever liked by Ingerlund away.

[Youngian]

This is according to Nick Watt's 'sources' and 'loyalists coming up to me.' Did these loyalists name which political superstar is waiting in the wings to clinch the top job?

[Andy McDandy]

Presumably every cabinet reshuffle has to be tabled, debated, voted and ratified at conference*?

*Unless I can't get to conference, in which case conference is a horrible elitist stitch up that excludes the grassroots membership.

[Tubby Isaacs]

John Major had MPs in Parliament calling for him to go. Some people who bumped into Nick Watt are are pretty thin gruel. How is Kemi doing with members?

[mattomac]

I actually thought it was one of the most professional clean reshuffles I have ever seen.

[The Weeping Angel]

It would appear that the riff from Seven Nation Army now has different lyrics for a different leader;

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -the-enemy

Perhaps not unexpected from the kickball crowd...

First, because the people singing about Starmer are not the kind of extremists reported in these pages marauding across Kentish villages waving the flag like a club. These are solvent steady grown-ups, people who vote and are organised enough to travel, who were praised by the Belgrade police on Wednesday for their exemplary behaviour, and who, for what it’s worth, berated the home crowd for being racist, incorrectly in the event, when the game was stopped because somebody was shining a laser pointer at Noni Madueke. And second, because this hasn’t happened before. Starmer is the first prime minister to actively lose football. The national anthem, the Queen, the King, have been booed. But politicians have been pretty much invisible in football, even when Margaret Thatcher was actively demonising supporters, even through the public farce of Johnson and Truss. Tony Blair tried to piggyback football as a pop culture thing, but remained a gurning jackanapes on the fringes.

Yes, Barney I'm sure England fans have never said anything bad about any other PM.

[davidjay]

Ironically, their favourite Prime Minister/evil witch was the one who hated it, and them, the most.