Keir starmer is dead in the water

[Bertiebiscuit]

The UK cannot have a prime minister who gave a plum job to a man when all the time he knew that Mandelson was still close friends with an ex-con who was convicted for trafficking children for sexual abuse. Starmer is destroying the reputation of the UK, he is an embarrassment and shoukd resign, if not the Labour party should demand his resignation.

It’s also the wilful destruction and ignorance of things that are British and good about Britain, of which there are plenty!

Are you suggesting this was a mistake?

Where did I say that? I was refuting your assertion that Starmer is a worse prime minister than Johnson.

And, yes @Pineneedlesincarpet, I was and am appalled at Johnson’s contempt for democracy and attempt to subvert it. I’m surprised you think it’s so trivial.

Oh and given your interest in Palantir:

The last time Palantir hired several former UK civil servants in quick succession was in late 2022, around the time that it signed its first ‘Enterprise Agreement’ with the Ministry of Defence, a deal that was at the time worth £75m.

In April 2023, five months after Polly Scully was appointed Palantir’s ‘senior counsellor: UK government’, she personally invited then-armed forces minister James Heappey to a reception the firm was hosting in London to celebrate the signing of the agreement.

“I just wanted to say a big thank you for joining us on Wednesday night,” she wrote in an email to Heappey days after the event. It was great to have such significant support for the Enterprise Agreement; I hope you had a good time.

“We are still figuring out what partnership between MoD and industry means in practice, but I’m sure some of it is about building trusted relationships, and hopefully we did some of that on Wednesday night.”

Scully was well-placed to help the firm develop trusted relationships with the MoD; she’d recently left a position as its strategic director, and had worked in a variety of senior roles across the department over the previous eight years – a fact she acknowledged in her email to Heappey.

“As I mentioned I am loving life at Palantir but MoD still has a big place in my heart,” she wrote.

Scully wasn’t the first former crown servant to be tasked with building the firm’s ties with government, as openDemocracy reported in 2023. It seems likely she won’t be the last.

When openDemocracy approached Palantir to ask about its recent hires from the Ministry of Defence, it responded via a spokesperson who worked at the Ministry of Defence in 2015/16.

It was trivial because it had no effect. It was meaningless. And the court should not have interfered. The whole establishment embarrassed themselves.

At least it was actually in Parliament, public and open to scrutiny. Embarrassing really that such a pointless fuss was made against the UKs interests. But far better than this underhand, sleazy government we have now, all out for personal gain.

It was obvious it was going to be like this. You just knew when Keir Starmer did all his po faced moralising before the election that karma would strike and sure enough, Labour have proved to be far more venal than the Conservatives!

The whole establishment embarrassed themselves.

The whole establishment showed some integrity and demonstrated that Johnson wasn’t above the country’s laws.

Peter Mandelson owns a lobbying company.

Palantir are a big client of that lobbying company.

Peter Mandelson (an honourable and honest broker as we know) took Keir Starmer on a highly unusual off-book secret meeting with them in 2024.

Palantir subsequently get awarded a £240 million MOD contract.

On another note, and I'm genuinely interested and not asking to make a point. Im assuming (rightly or wrongly) you are old school Labour and believe that it should be true to why it was established and represent the interests of the "working class". What do you feel now about what it has become? Because that's not Labour now (hence why the working class is going to Reform).

Well the MPs, lead by arch Remainer Keir Starmer (who wanted to overturn the result of the referendum remember. Not that keen on democracy after all) just wanted to put a spanner in the works and wreck the negotiations to prevent Brexit. It was nothing more than that.

Think about what they were actually asking for. As usual, Keir Starmer prioritised process over outcome to the detriment of the country's interests.

Johnson was an open book and pushed overtly and people knew what he was about and it was on show. I

This lot moralising but being so subversive is what has made people lose trust and disbelieve everything they supposedly stood for. In many ways, they are more Machiavellian. It’s incredibly sleazy and sly. That is why it is so uncomfortable. Nobody is going to believe the professed naivety on their part.

Peter Mandelson (an honourable and honest broker as we know) took Keir Starmer on a highly unusual off-book secret meeting with them in 2024.

And a former MOD senior civil servant who is now employed by Palantir - along with numerous others - entertained the Tory armed forces minister. Did you get upset about that?

Do you know that from public records because it was a recorded meeting (unlike Mandy and Keir's) ? Or from the Epstein files?

I think it’s like the Iraq war moment really. My feelings towards Labour right now mirror that.

It was a jolly to which I can find no reference other than the one above. Heappey has now joined the plethora of defence related former public servants employed in the defence industry. I wonder how much their employment was for their inside knowledge? I’m sure it wasn’t even a consideration.

Do these public servants have a conflict of interest due to their own private business affairs at the time of these off book secret (or at least, unknown to Blossom) meetings? That being the whole point..

And are you implying they were all as corrupt as Peter Mandelson and fed secret information to Palantir?

And are you implying they were all as corrupt as Peter Mandelson and fed secret information to Palantir?

Yes. Why else would they be employed?

How do you know they met? Were they recorded officially? Or in the Epstein files?

People can be employed even if they are not corrupt. It is a thing.

The PM’s position is looking increasingly untenable, I think.

I’m not washing away Johnson’s faults but this obsession with prorogation is strange. It was a constitutional law decision of no significance. Governments are found in breach of public law all the time.

Ooh which things are those?

Do you live here?

Some of the typical British stuff they have destroyed in just a few months: SMEs, en masse with their NI, pubs/care homes etc thrown into that, granny grandpa style landlording which never was as harmful as they made out - now putting generation RENT into even more of a precarious situation, universities - big problem (foreign student levy, putting people off going, lying about the Plan 2 student loans), massive gaslighting with fiscal drag and taxation on all, private schools, Latin/languages/value of humanities, selling out to big tech and selling our freedoms. It is all so desperately un British. Might as well put us all up for sale to China right now.

Yes

Latin and small businesses are 'british'?

Not the poster you’re replying to, but I’m surprised at your comment. Those two things are very British! Do you live in the UK?

Yes, small businesses have survived for over a thousand years. And we have Roman ancestry and we value our freedoms, humanities and critical thought. It is the foundation of our education system going back centuries. It is why we are still at the top of thought and diplomacy.

Forgot about Chagos as well. Complete shambles all round.

Also the sell out to big US and Chinese tech blindly, it is so un-British, it makes my blood crawl. And clearly just desperation to get some cash to buy votes.