[Oboogie]

Bluesky is convinced this is the end of Starmer.

Bluesky are permanently hoping for the end of Starmer, they can't abide Labour governments.

[Youngian]

Bluesky is convinced this is the end of Starmer.

Well, let’s see. How exactly is that going to come about?

1. Starmer acts honourably (see my previous post today), and in the circumstances, voluntarily resigns as PM and Labour leader. Lammy is interim PM until a new leader can be elected/installed. Unlikely. I think.

2. Pressure from within the PLP grows, to the point that a succession of cabinet ministers, possibly led by Pat McFadden, visits Starmer, Thatcher fashion, to tell him he cannot continue and he must resign. Again, unlikely, I think.

3. Somebody (Rayner, Streeting, Miliband ?) fancies making a formal challenge to Starmer and has the 80 Labour MPs with them needed in order to do so. A leadership election ensues, which Starmer is likely to defend. Starmer loses to the challenger, and is gone. Again, unlikely right now, I think, though perhaps not after the anticipated very bad results in Gorton & Denton and the May local elections and devolved parliament elections.

Given Starmer's dire ratings even before the Mandelson debacle none of these scenarios are implausible.

A reminder that Mandelson never reinvented himself as a neutral diplomat. And let's not forget McSweeney's ideological stable mate Glasman was invited to and attended Trump’s inauguration. Now beginning to question whether Starmer is just playing good cop for the sake of Zelensky. Or does he have political allegiances to Washington which runs deeper.

Peter Mandelson lauds Trump as ‘risk-taker’ in call for US-UK tech alliance https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... tate-visit

[The Weeping Angel]

I don't think he does; he's not a secret CIA spy, he just appointed someone he shouldn't have to be ambassador to the US.

[The Weeping Angel]

Talking of Bluesky, I ended up with this in my feed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And let's not forget McSweeney's ideological stable mate Glasman was invited to and attended Trump’s inauguration.

Glasman is a lunatic, with very little in common with the fairly mainstream Labour Government currently in office.

What connection does he actually have with McSweeney, beyond a phrase, Blue Labour?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Talking of Bluesky, I ended up with this in my feed.

Why is someone Andrew Fisher doesn't like reviewing a spreadsheet "probably a breach of GDPR"?

The Left are going to be unbearable on this stuff. "Yeah, well the Government are terrible because all these brilliant people who'd have fixed everything without raising tax on people like us, were all vetoed by Peter Mandelson".

[The Weeping Angel]

There's going to be a left-wing version of QAnon over this.

[Youngian]

I don't think he does; he's not a secret CIA spy, he just appointed someone he shouldn't have to be ambassador to the US.

No one's accused Starmer of being a spy but is he still a deluded Atlanticist? Like a mad ex who's been dumped but won't leave you alone.
Trump can't make it any plainer that the US is now a transactional power divesting from Europe. Forging deeper tech and defence ties with US in this new paradigm makes little sense economically or geopolitically. Starmer hasn't commented on Carney's Davos speech, maybe he had his fingers in his ears shouting la la la...
And on a personal level Trump doesn't respect arse kissers.

[Youngian]

There's going to be a left-wing version of QAnon over this.

Everything's out in the open but even so, conspiracists still like to invent shit. I know an idiot who told me Epstein had a secret submarine taking powerful pedos to his island. Why he believed this instead of the verifiable truth that they flew in , I don't know.

[Andy McDandy]

Did the owner of the spreadsheet approve PM viewing it? If so, no breach.

Did PM pass the info to a 3rd party? If no, no breach.

Did the spreadsheet contain any sensitive or private information? Most likely no. I'm guessing it was a list of MPs, their known interests, and voting positions on various issues (all public record).

I'm no fan, but this is just daft.

[Andy McDandy]

There's going to be a left-wing version of QAnon over this.

Everything's out in the open but even so, conspiracists still like to invent shit. I know an idiot who told me Epstein had a secret submarine taking powerful pedos to his island. Why he believed this instead of the verifiable truth that they flew in , I don't know.

Having visited BAE Systems in Barrow a few times, I can assure you that the price tag on even a tiny mini-submarine (and waiting list) would make even billionaires pause for thought.

[Oboogie]

I don't think he does; he's not a secret CIA spy, he just appointed someone he shouldn't have to be ambassador to the US.

No one's accused Starmer of being a spy but is he still a deluded Atlanticist? Like a mad ex who's been dumped but won't leave you alone.
Trump can't make it any plainer that the US is now a transactional power divesting from Europe. Forging deeper tech and defence ties with US in this new paradigm makes little sense economically or geopolitically. Starmer hasn't commented on Carney's Davos speech, maybe he had his fingers in his ears shouting la la la...
And on a personal level Trump doesn't respect arse kissers.

There are three big trade blocks, the USA, the EU and China. Pre-Brexit the UK had good trading relations with all three, Since Brexit destroyed our trade with the EU, in order to survive economically, Britain needs to try to maintain good trading relations with the US or China, preferably both, regardless of how unsavoury their regimes are. That's not evidence that Starmer loves Trump or he's a Fascist or any other social media conspiracy, that's the brutal reality of Brexit.

[The Weeping Angel]

The government wants to pursue closer defence ties with Europe, and last week, Starmer visited China. Even the PM of Denmark acknowledged the work he put in during the Greenland crisis.

[Youngian]

Drug cartels have used mini subs, there's usually some kernel of truth acting as a jumping board for far fetched minds.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't think he does; he's not a secret CIA spy, he just appointed someone he shouldn't have to be ambassador to the US.

No one's accused Starmer of being a spy but is he still a deluded Atlanticist? Like a mad ex who's been dumped but won't leave you alone.
Trump can't make it any plainer that the US is now a transactional power divesting from Europe. Forging deeper tech and defence ties with US in this new paradigm makes little sense economically or geopolitically. Starmer hasn't commented on Carney's Davos speech, maybe he had his fingers in his ears shouting la la la...
And on a personal level Trump doesn't respect arse kissers.

This is very unfair. How is Starmer, with his stance on Ukraine, Greenland, Palestine a "Trump arse kisser"? And the idea that Trump sees strong opposition and "respects" it, will be news to Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly and a few others. They're targeted precisely because they went after Trump, not because they were weak arse kissers.

Starmer's spent more time on EU relations than any Prime Minister did when we were in the EU. The pivot on trade is pretty clear. He's tried to lead on common defence, but a minority of EU members preferred to piss about, to the chagrin of other EU members. But hopefully that improves.

Tech is the only area really where you could say that the UK is going with the US over Europe. Does that make Starmer Atlanticist? Or somebody just going with where the jobs are- European tech is barely at the races. This is certainly a risk, but US tech will drop Trump as fast as it dropped DEI if it has to. And Trump is very, very unpopular.

[Andy McDandy]

Drug cartels have used mini subs, there's usually some kernel of truth acting as a jumping board for far fetched minds.

Those tend to be a few feet long, and only used for carrying cargo or doing deep water exploration. They don't carry people.

[The Weeping Angel]

I'm just worn out after today. I should be happy because the Seattle Seahawks are going to be in the Super Bowl on Sunday, but instead I'm being wound up about all this.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Did the owner of the spreadsheet approve PM viewing it? If so, no breach.

Did PM pass the info to a 3rd party? If no, no breach.

Did the spreadsheet contain any sensitive or private information? Most likely no. I'm guessing it was a list of MPs, their known interests, and voting positions on various issues (all public record).

I'm no fan, but this is just daft.

Here's a story about another spreadsheet in a leaders office.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... y-document

Labour MPs hostile to Corbyn named in leaked party document
This article is more than 9 years old
London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan and chief whip Rosie Winterton labelled hostile on list that has angered Labour MPs

Andrew Fisher was there, and isn't known to have raised any GDPR concerns.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I thought Mandelson resigned the second time because he phoned up Mike O'Brien about the Hinduja's passport, and the first time for not declaring a (very soft) loan on a mortgage application.

Saying that's the same failing as sharing confidential government information with Epstein and encouraging JP Morgan to lobby against the government, is really quite the stretch. Not just similar, "exactly" the same apparently.

[Youngian]

I don't think he does; he's not a secret CIA spy, he just appointed someone he shouldn't have to be ambassador to the US.

No one's accused Starmer of being a spy but is he still a deluded Atlanticist? Like a mad ex who's been dumped but won't leave you alone.
Trump can't make it any plainer that the US is now a transactional power divesting from Europe. Forging deeper tech and defence ties with US in this new paradigm makes little sense economically or geopolitically. Starmer hasn't commented on Carney's Davos speech, maybe he had his fingers in his ears shouting la la la...
And on a personal level Trump doesn't respect arse kissers.

This is very unfair. How is Starmer, with his stance on Ukraine, Greenland, Palestine a "Trump arse kisser"? And the idea that Trump sees strong opposition and "respects" it, will be news to Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly and a few others. They're targeted precisely because they went after Trump, not because they were weak arse kissers.

Starmer's spent more time on EU relations than any Prime Minister did when we were in the EU. The pivot on trade is pretty clear. He's tried to lead on common defence, but a minority of EU members preferred to piss about, to the chagrin of other EU members. But hopefully that improves.

Tech is the only area really where you could say that the UK is going with the US over Europe. Does that make Starmer Atlanticist? Or somebody just going with where the jobs are- European tech is barely at the races. This is certainly a risk, but US tech will drop Trump as fast as it dropped DEI if it has to. And Trump is very, very unpopular.

Europe didn't ask for this and even the autarky minded French moved towards sharing US led tech and defence in recent decades. Now the US is no longer a hegemonic power with a concert of allies but weird imperial spheres of influence bully. The trust has gone and Europe plus some like minded liberal democratic allies need to move fast. Much of that can be achieved outside of EU frameworks that require Orban and Fico's consent.

France has decided to boot U.S.-made videoconferencing services out of its public sector, to be replaced by a homegrown alternative called Visio.

See Also: Why Firms Need to Invest in Security as Response Strategy

It's the latest episode in an accelerating push for technological "sovereignty" across the continent, fueled by the aggressive foreign and trade policies of the second Trump administration in United States. Open-source software is integral to the effort, playing out within international bodies as well as national and local governments https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/france ... ch-a-30603