Mailwatch(ed) Forum

That isn't really fair in McSweeney's case

Morgan did amazing work to ensure that the party could recover from the darkness of the Corbyn misadventure and become electable again.

I’m not at all sure that it’s correct to blame him entirely for the mis-steps in communications. I’d say James Lyons and Steph Driver need to take a share of responsibility since they replaced Matt Doyle.

This is quite interesting from Beth Rigby. Seems Starmer was seeking to echo not Enoch Powell, but Roy Jenkins.

Still, though, they should have been more careful to avoid words amdtetms that could be taken out of context and linked to Powell.

https://news.sky.com/story/who-pm-was- ... hsuMiqOcvA

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 3:27 pm You need a beast like Alastair Campbell.

I think he'd be pretty powerless really. It's one thing to terrify and charm the editor of The Times when Murdoch supports your party (through gritted teeth). Quite another to deal with Twitter, You Tube, Facebook.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 6:42 pm This is quite interesting from Beth Rigby. Seems Starmer was seeking to echo not Enoch Powell, but Roy Jenkins.

Still, though, they should have been more careful to avoid words amdtetms that could be taken out of context and linked to Powell.

https://news.sky.com/story/who-pm-was- ... hsuMiqOcvA

Never underestimate those of bad faith.

I'm guessing if Jenkins was the Health Secretary facing a recruitment crisis in the 50s he'd have been more likely to have scowled southern Europe for labour than the Caribbean like Brigadier Powell. Who was more of a colonial patrician than a petit bourgeois nationalist back then.

Even a decade later, we were putting pennies in envelopes for earthquakes in Italy, so I believe that anywhere south of the Sandette Light Vessel (automatic) was either ours, had been ours, or was not worth having.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 5:15 pm Morgan did amazing work to ensure that the party could recover from the darkness of the Corbyn misadventure and become electable again.

I’m not at all sure that it’s correct to blame him entirely for the mis-steps in communications. I’d say James Lyons and Steph Driver need to take a share of responsibility since they replaced Matt Doyle.

He needs root and branch - er - reform. Starmer is the man, who, let us not forget, closed a PMQs with "I'll just leave that there" and we were all jubilant, confirmed in the belief that the tide had been turned. From that moment on, a majority was as good as nailed on.

Thing is though, he has allowed himself to be surrounded by make-weights, having not given due consideration to the Chief-of-Staff role. He is up to his arse in Trumpian and Ukranian alligators so he has every right to basically pick up a speech, deliver it, and then move on to the next gig. At least, that is the way it should all work.

The problem is though, that his team is proving to be a litany of missteps from which he cannot absolve himself of responsibility.

He is choking on the cake he baked.

Lead story- Minister meets biggest companies relevant to his brief. All presented in the most negative way, as dodgy and anti-British.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... f-meetings

Information published by the government shows that from July 2024 until December 2024 – the most recent period for which there is data – Kyle held meetings with people representing or advocating for technology companies 28 times.

Google, Amazon and Microsoft were present at five of those meetings, the data shows, while Meta attended four.

Five of Kyle’s meetings, all in early August, were to discuss online disinformation and how it had contributed to the spread of violence during that summer’s riots. But apart from that, almost every one was to discuss “investment”, “opportunities”, or both.

These are very big investments potentially, even allowing for the sort of exaggeration that's routine in announcing projects. And don't necessarily have to be in places where loads of jobs are being created already. A data center is being built by Blackstone in.... Blyth.

Normally, you would expect officials to do a lot of the meeting, but I can see why a minister might want to be hands on. I don't doubt that Ministers are rather starry eyed about productivity gains and the like, but hard to object to them working hard to get private investment in.

What's the problem here?

This year he has met AI companies several times, according to documents obtained under freedom of information rules by the website eu.tech. Those meetings include three with the US AI company Anthropic, as well as a two-day flurry of meetings in February during which he saw executives from OpenAI, the chip designer Arm, Google DeepMind, ElevenLabs and Synthesia.

A two day flurry of meetings? He should have met them all over, what, a three month period?

And this rather absurd nugget.

Some in Labour circles now believe Kyle has become so close to the industry he is supposed to monitor that he will be moved in the next reshuffle, possibly to replace Bridget Phillipson as education secretary.

Kyle's so bad, we'll have to give him a big promotion. Rather than just say "steady on, Peter".

And this revelation. Larry Ellison of Oracle, fourth richest man in the world, needs an introduction from Tony Blair. It's not like Blair suggested some obscure guy meet the minister.

Last September, Kyle met Tony Blair in a meeting designed to “discuss [his department’s] priorities”. However, information obtained by Politico last week under freedom of information laws shows Blair used that meeting to suggest Kyle meet the Ellison Institute of Technology, which is funded by Larry Ellison, the billionaire tech mogul who also funds the Tony Blair Institute.

How dare he not stand up for our British tech companies.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... f-meetings

Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrats’ science and technology spokesperson, said: “Peter Kyle has rightly got a reputation for being too close to big tech – unable to defy his friends at Meta and X when it comes to standing up for our kids’ online safety or the rights of British creatives. Kyle rubbing shoulders with so many big US tech bros, instead of our great UK startups trying to get their foot in the door, shows he’s missing a trick.”

In fairness, the UK industry body do say that too. But I'm a bit fed up with this new breed of "straight talking" Lib Dems, who've moved on from sticking it to Trump to insulting some of our biggest investors. Grown ups would be saying what Caroline Dinenage says there.

https://businessnewswales.com/the-rise- ... -in-wales/

Mentions data centres in Newport and Bridgend. Work for these would have been done by Sunak, and credit to him for that, but there seems to be a positive trend here of big employers in not particularly affluent places. I don't think it's surprising that the Minister should be meeting these firms a lot.

An interesting definition of fair-minded here.



Failed to give any national leadership during last year's riots? He locked them up and called them out for what they were doing.