[The Weeping Angel]

UK unemployment shows surprise fall to 4.9% as pay growth drops to lowest in five years
Bank of England expected to keep interest rates on hold as Iran war casts shadow over labour market

Quite a large fall too (from 5.2%). Possibly a fluke or possibly business was adjusting to the higher costs better than lots of people expected.

Is that good or bad?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The fall is good. Or was until Trump attacked Iran.

The point I was making is that business has had quite a lot of costs to absorb, from the minimum wage, tax and won't like the new working rights coming in next year. It would be good if it had been managing to do that without much effect on employment.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ed Davey's latest "there we have it" revelation is McSweeney saying that he didn't think Mandelson would have been appointed if Kamala Harris had won.

Had McSweeney said the opposite, then it would have been "determined to appoint Trump either way", or some such. Does Ed think that other countries didn't make hurried changes to their diplomatic approach when Trump II came in? What's the scandal here?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I generally rate Theresa May higher than the other recent Tory PMs, but someone BTL pointed out that, having suspended Charlie Elphicke, she then restored the whip to him because she needed him to vote for her deal. He was of course found guilty in court.

I don't remember a thousandth of the current furore over that. Mandleson of course has not even been accused of a sexual offence, just that he stayed (very) friendly with someone who'd committed one.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Labour’s Alex Barros-Curtis said he did not need to be told how to vote today. He said he was voting against the motion, because he did not believe the case for an inquiry had been made out.

As a solicitor, he had seen many witness statements, he said. He said the case made by Kemi Badenoch in her speech was “one of the most poorly made out cases in my professional lifetime”.

Ha ha. I can well believe it, even without hearing Kemi's effort at making a quasi-legal case.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, Starmer gets easy media coverage.

This "scandal" was all about process. That's why people are concentrating on it. If the argument were that Starmer had to resign for appointing Mandelson, that would have been made months ago, when it wasn't. And lots of media types said it was a good appointment, so calling for resignation over it would be a stretch even for them.

I have no idea what Starmer has done to Stephen Bush.

[mattomac]

He really hates Starmer doesn't he...

That's frankly as deluded as Reform saying the establishment are out to get them, maybe not as much as anything Liz Truss says mind.

[Youngian]

Where the heck does Starmer enjoy favorable media coverage, Court TV, the shed channel?

[mattomac]

I assume some abstained anyhow unsurprisingly commons vote against.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This MP seems to come up talking gobshitery fairly often. I generally like the Alliance Party too. Remind me to vote for the SDLP if ever I live in Northern Ireland.

There was also lacerating criticism of the prime minister from figures including Sorcha Eastwood, the Alliance MP for Lagan Valley, who challenged Labour allegations that those supporting the motion were engaged in a stunt. “I have had two car bombs at the edges of my constituency in the last five weeks, so believe me, there are much bigger things that I would prefer to be talking about at this time,” she said.

As you say yourself, Sorcha, there are more important things you could be concentrating on rather than going along with this 12 day old weak sauce. Why personalize it like this? How many car bombs in Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey's constituency?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I know Marina Hyde is a bit like a political sketchwriter, but even so.

Starmer seems to think he can do no wrong – two weeks of Mandy-mania hearings point to the opposite conclusion

Bereft of any big ideas, or indeed policies, the PM is in his happy place: a never-ending parliamentary procedural process

Two weeks of hearings having shown- what? That Starmer probably told the truth? Marina's accuse him of misleading Parliament, then anything else they can think of, he defends himself (with supporting evidence from Olly Robbins, Cat Little and (a memo) Chris Wormald), and then Marina sneers that he's luxuriating in boring procedural stuff? It's "John Major ha ha Cones Hotline" again.

Nice work if you can get it, Marina.