#Starmer's plan:

1/ take a record hammering in election, 'cos you are untrustworthy and have no ideas

2/ announce you now have great new ideas, which you chose not to use until you were hammered

3/ reveal big new idea as reheating hated geriatrics from #NewLabour

#YCMTSU

#ukpol #GordonBrown

@JackTheCat

#NewLabour did us the honour of adopting a voting system for Holyrood designed explicitly to stop the SNP becoming a majority government. Funny how things work out.

undefined | Mandelson faces £300 fine for urinating in street

Lord Peter Mandelson is facing a fixed‑penalty notice of up to £300 for publicly urinating on a Notting Hill street in November, but Kensington and Chelsea Council says it cannot send the notice because it has no current address for him. The council confirmed that street‑enforcement officers were not present at the time of the incident, so no fine was issued on the spot, but it is now looking to issue a penalty that would be reduced to £150 if paid within two weeks.

Mandelson, a former business secretary and a key architect of the New Labour era that saw Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, was appointed UK ambassador to Washington in December 2024 by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He was removed from that post in September 2025 after Downing Street disclosed new information about the depth of his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a connection that has haunted his political career.

The former minister was arrested at his London home in late February as part of a police investigation into whether he leaked market‑sensitive government information to Epstein and committed misconduct in public office. The BBC has sought a comment from Mandelson, while the council continues its attempts to serve the anticipated fine.

Read more: undefined

#petermandelson #keirstarmer #jeffreyepstein #newlabour #kensingtoncouncil

undefined | Mandelson faces £300 fine for urinating in street

Lord Peter Mandelson, a former UK ambassador to the United States, is expected to receive a fixed‑penalty notice of up to £300 for publicly urinating on a street in Notting Hill, west London, in November of last year. Kensington and Chelsea Council said it wants to issue the fine but has been unable to locate a suitable address for Mandelson, preventing the notice from being served.

The incident was captured in photographs published by the Daily Mail, showing the former Labour minister relieving himself against a wall after leaving the home of former Conservative chancellor George Osborne. Council officers were not present at the time, so no on‑the‑spot fine could be issued, but the images and public comments have prompted the authority to pursue a penalty, which would be reduced to £150 if paid within two weeks.

Mandelson’s troubles come amid broader controversies. He was dismissed as Britain’s ambassador to the US in September after revelations about his connections to convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein, and he is under criminal investigation for allegedly passing market‑sensitive government information to Epstein. A former business secretary and key architect of New Labour, Mandelson was appointed ambassador by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in December 2024, arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and remains a high‑profile figure in British politics.

Read more: undefined

#petermandelson #uk #labour #jeffreyepstein #newlabour

New Statesman | Thatcherism is still the problem by Ben Glover

As each week passes, a new theory of Labour’s trouble emerges. It’s the comms. The values. The vibes. The policies. The leaflets. The tweets. The TikToks. While there is some truth to these critiques, they fail to explain why the party’s time in office has been so bumpy. The problem runs deeper – and further back – than many in the party are willing to admit.

This starts with the party’s “problem statement”, to use the jargon of management consultants – who will tell you that every plan has to start with one, including programmes for office. Problem statements are by their nature time-bound: if you go to the doctor with an ailment, they will always ask: “When did your symptoms begin?”

For many in Labour, the answer is the financial crisis of 2007-08. It’s too often presumed that our politics was “normal” and the country was on a good course until the crash. And that after that, things got weird – leading to Brexit and other undesirable outcomes. But what if this diagnosis is mistaken? What if the crisis didn’t create our problems, but merely accelerated them? And what if the real turning point came with the continuation of Thatcherism under Blair?

Read more: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/04/thatcherism-is-still-the-problem

#conservatives #labour #ukpolitics #thatcherism #newlabour

#NewLabour hated Devolution. They only did it because they were more afraid of an independent Scotland, hobbling the assemblies with a better and fairer electoral system in the hope of ensuring continued Labour control. Didn't work with Holyrood and I hope the Senedd kicks the bastards out as well.

So no surprise #NewerLabour will try to thwart the wishes of the devolved regions.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/11/keir-starmer-warned-cabinet-devolved-governments

"Lord #Mandelson is credited as one of the key architects of the #NewLabour movement, which came to power with Tony #Blair's election victory in 1997."

#UKPol #Labour

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9q57y9y3xo