𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Before the latest round of the Peter Mandelson fiasco, one of the Prime Minister’s aides said the country “needs credible, reliable and strong leadership”. That is precisely what we do not have at present, as Sir Keir Starmer is now openly ridiculed and No 10 becomes increasingly dysfunctional. When he first entered Downing Street in July 2024, his supporters claimed that, after 14 years of Tory chaos, he would bring a unique new moral authority and razor sharp proficiency to the role. These were qualities he had allegedly demonstrated during his years as head of the Crown Prosecution Service – where in 2011 he was in charge of a workforce of 8,500 and an annual budget of £614million.

But they proved illusory in the political arena. Indeed his supposed two greatest assets – his integrity and competence – have turned out to be his biggest failings. His time in office has been characterised by a phenomenal turnover in senior staff, endless U-turns, chronic misjudgements, poor appointments, an inability to inspire trust and a limited grasp of policy,

One civil servant who has worked with him recalls that “he is not a compassionate man. He is careless about the people around him”. After less than two years in office, Starmer has already had three chiefs of staff, five directors of communications and three Cabinet Secretaries. In addition, he has turned out to be slippery, evasive and, on occasions in the Mandelson saga, almost comically deceitful. But the beleaguered PM is unlikely to find much humour in the twilight zone of his doomed premiership.

Who ARE they?

The entertainment industry is running out of celebrities. I looked at the line-up for the new edition of Lord Sugar’s show Celebrity Apprentice and, out of a dozen candidates, I recognised just one. Andy Warhol’s prediction that one day everyone will be famous for 15 minutes seems too generous in its timespan.

Green Party’s image couldn’t be farther from truth

The public tends to think of the Greens as cuddly idealists but that image could not be more wrong. In truth, they are totalitarians who would bring misery and oppression to Britain if they gained power. Their instinctive authoritarianism was exposed when their leader Zack Polanski called for right-wingers to be shunned by British society. “Do we get them to change their views? Or is it a case of building a society that does not include them,” he asked.

The wokesters might cheer such language, but the concept of silencing or eradicating a section of the public simply for their opinions is something we would normally associate with the Soviet Union, not liberal, democratic Britain.

And how does Polanski define “right-wing?” Does the label encompass members of Reform UK and even Conservative activists? Polanski’s outburst is part of a sinister pattern of Green intolerance, that includes open antisemitism among some candidates and supporters and internal witch-hunts against opponents of radical transgenderism. It is little wonder that Polanski’s trademark grin carries an air of menace.

Farewell to a brilliant man

I was saddened by news of the death of Robert, Lord Skidelsky, the brilliant economist, historian and politician. I admired him not only for his wonderfully readable prose but also for the range of his work. Alongside his multi-award-winning, bestselling books and prolific articles, he was a founder of the SDP, the creator of the Social Market Foundation think tank and an active peer.

His prodigious output may have stemmed from Oxford University’s decision in 1975 to blackball him after he wrote a relatively sympathetic biography of the British Fascist Leader Sir Oswald Mosley. “I’ll show the buggers,” he told himself. And he did.