Mailwatch(ed) Forum

They’re a joke paper. No bit of silly teenage populism is off limits.

Here's another "they wanna get on and fix it" article, about the NHS.

How quickly do problems get fixed at the Guardian, one wonders? If I were to say that comment remains dire, dominated by "generalists" who always say the same thing and know no more than I do about most stuff, how long would it be reasonable to wait before they were all sacked, or retrained by experts in a few fields which they could then concentrate on and produce (let's say) a decent trade-press standard of analysis, albeit with style tailored to a wider public? No idea how long it would take, but that's a lot easier than anything a government does.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... not-enough

And some very slanted stuff about Starmer possibly making Khan a peer.

Starmer is likely to face criticism for the plan; in 2022 he referred to the House of Lords as “indefensible” and said that an incoming Labour government would replace it with an elected chamber.

Instead he has offered more peerages than each of his four most recent Conservative predecessors.

I was as surprised as anyone when he said in 2022 that he'd abolish the Lords. Wasn't at all surprised that he dropped that. And sure it's bad.

He's also about to kick out 77 hereditaries, and would have kicked out all 92 if the Lords hadn't disgracefully opposed a manifesto commitment. How does that affect the figures? The other PMs didn't serve for very long and enjoyed big Tory majorities already,

He's appointed more peers than Liz Truss? How long was she PM for?

It makes no sense. If Starmer wants to send Khan to the Lords, fair enough. But why would he do it two years before Khan finishes his current term as London’s mayor ? He’ll be Lord Khan in 2028, not this May.

Ben Houchen is a (rarely attending peer) and a metro mayor. It can be done. But Mayor of London and in the Cabinet, that's obvious rubbish.

I don't see much point in making Khan a peer, unless that's an attempt to build a better relationship with him.

And prevent him coming back to the Commons?

If Starmer could walk on water they would complain that he can't swim part 476...

The Guardian view on a recovering NHS: public confidence has risen, but not enough
Editorial

But in a Paragraph19 moment:

But judging from these figures, the public appears inclined to accept the government’s narrative of a broken system being painstakingly put back together. Since voters have historically trusted Labour more than other parties when it comes to health, this is intuitive: the politicians who they thought would be better at running the NHS are now in charge.

Yeah, I saw that.

Got a great line about the public having a right to be "impatient".

Abernathy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2026 5:45 pm It makes no sense. If Starmer wants to send Khan to the Lords, fair enough. But why would he do it two years before Khan finishes his current term as London’s mayor ? He’ll be Lord Khan in 2028, not this May.

It occurs to me that metro mayors could be in the Lords just by being metro mayors. Everyone agrees that "regions" need more representation. Why not put all the mayors in?

Literally every article on oil/gas exploration has a quote from Tessa Khan of something called Uplift. She duly pops up here again. What particular expertise she has isn't clear.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... as-imports

Is there no oil and gas there or is there so much that extracting it and taxing it is an ecological disaster? I can't tell from the Guardian.

Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, is under pressure from the fossil fuel industry, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, some trade unions and the Conservatives to give a green light to Jackdaw and Rosebank, which are not covered by the ban on new licences for North Sea drilling because their applications were already in the system when Labour took office.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, has previously spoken in favour of drilling, though at the recent G7 energy meeting she emphasised renewable power as the solution to recurrent oil crises.

Boo, Weaky Ed, pushed around by Nigel Farage, and not breaking a manifesto commitment anyway. But I'm sure the opinion pieces on betrayal will come thick and fast.

There's no contradiction between producing oil/gas and transitioning to renewable supply, which we are doing very rapidly, because of Ed and the backing he's got from... Rachel Reeves. Partly because she's raised tax on oil/gas exploration.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 11:02 am Literally every article on oil/gas exploration has a quote from Tessa Khan of something called Uplift. She duly pops up here again. What particular expertise she has isn't clear.

Wiki has this to say about her.

Khan, writing in The Guardian in July 2024, says that wealthy governments that position themselves as climate leaders — namely the US, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK — are as culpable for climate damage as the petrostates by continuing to refuse to abandon new oil and gas projects within their borders

She doesn't seem to recognize the distinction between the production and consumption. Norway just like Saudia Arabia, is it?

Just like a petrostate latest.

In shocking news, the Guardian publishes a comment piece calling out the populist chancers and being quite nice about the Labour Government.

Trussonomics still haunts parties’ economic promises in run-up to UK local elections
Phillip Inman
Greens, Reform UK, Your Party, Conservatives and even Lib Dems are making extravagant spending pledges

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -elections

From the economics correspondent, who knows stuff. Doubtless someone will be along soon to tell us we're not being "creative" enough.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 6:21 pm In shocking news, the Guardian publishes a comment piece calling out the populist chancers and being quite nice about the Labour Government.

April Fools' Day was on Wednesday though?

Ha ha.

Don't worry if you're getting too much positivity about the Guardian. I see Lexit Larry has been doing his worst.
Alan Beattie links to a story about the world food harvest having gone better than ever, and to another of a British farmer moaning about a terrible harvest.

Is Larry getting his garden fork and wellies out to turn the local park into allotments?

Youngian wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 10:04 pm Is Larry getting his garden fork and wellies out to turn the local park into allotments?

With Jezza as his consultant.

He's the right age to be spending more time on an allotment.

"With the world as it is, every country needs a plan for self-sufficiency". Yeah, right.

About the third day running, The Guardian runs a straw man column about North Sea drilling. This time, it's heavyweight energy economist, Zoe Williams.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... renewables

Actually, it's not quite a straw man, because people actually do say "drill for energy independence" and "this will slash home energy prices", this sort of rubbish. Anybody can argue against that stuff.

But the better argument is balance of payments and handy tax revenue to pay for, among other things, renewables. Nobody worth arguing with is suggesting we abandon renewables. Projections for tax renues from the drilling do indeed start fairly low- £16 a year per person, but they go up to £82, which is surely quite a lot. And these assume the Windfall Tax is scrapped, which the Government absolutely doesn't need to do, and probably wouldn't.

I can't see how this position is tenable for the Left/Centre v the Right, even though the Government may lose some votes to the Greens on it. That's surely better in terms of overall politics, provided parties are sensible about where they compete in the next General Election.