Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has appointed a long list of cross-party ‘Trade Envoys’ to “engage with their respective markets” and promote Labour’s “growth mission and deliver our Plan for Change“. Whatever that actually is…
One appointment that stands out is long-time socialist Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who has been named official Trade Envoy to Ghana. Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for “Afrikan Reparations”, has long called for UK taxpayers to foot the bill for reparations. She’ll have much to talk about in her new role then, considering Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has also campaigned for reparations and even pushed for a united front with African leaders to seek compensation. Eyebrow-raising…
Read the full list of 32 Trade Envoys below:
Continue reading “Labour Appoints Reparations-Fanatic as Trade Envoy to Pro-Reparations Ghana”
Sky News is the latest broadcaster to face the harsh realities of a dying media format. Executive chairman David Rhodes told staff today that the broadcaster would pursue a new strategy called “Sky News 2030.“ Going digital…
TalkTV was just the start. Lossmaking Sky News will move more content behind an online paywall in a shift from linear programming as its revenue streams are “largely stagnant.” “Breaking and live” TV is largely up for the chop…
As Guido reported last year, trouble has been brewing at Sky Towers for some time as its Comcast funding guarantee ends in 2028 and there has so far been no contract renewal. Rhodes said at the meeting Sky should shift from a 30/70 premium-to-live ratio to 70/30. Paywalled premium content will include podcasts and video. He says “some of [new revenues] are ad based. Some of them won’t be. Some of them could be conducive to subscription. We need to add to our revenue mix.” Beth Rigby has called the changes “exciting.” Exciting for GB News…
Things aren’t looking too rosy for the UK’s new Ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson. He’s already on the back foot after calling Trump a “danger to the world”, being NFI’d to Trump’s inauguration along with suggestions that if Starmer pushed through the Chagos surrender deal, the US might block his appointment in retaliation. Latest reports Down Under aren’t doing the Prince of Darkness any favours in his hopes of being approved…
The Nightly reveals that a dossier compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, outlining Mandelson’s links to Beijing, has been handed to the FBI by US Senators. This dossier details Mandelson’s role as an adviser to the China-based global investment bank CICC—a connection he failed to declare in the House of Lords register. It also highlights a series of visits to China where Mandy met with top-ranking officials including a 2019 meeting with Zhou Yubo, then Secretary of the CPC Committee and Chairman of China Guoxin. Past ties that may appeal to Labour’s pro-China contingent, though less likely to sit well with the hawks in Trump’s camp…
Guido hears Defence Secretary Healey is up against a formal protest from hacks in the Defence Correspondents Association (DCA) for refusing to take them on trips. He’s been prioritising the Lobby cabal instead…
One defence correspondent says Healey’s team is deliberately “avoiding scrutiny” by taking Lobby hacks on trips – the traditional approach is to take specialist defence reporters. A source in the DCA tells Guido Healey is avoiding scrutiny by taking only Lobby journalists with a poorer grasp of defence matters when compared to specialists. The Defence Secretary has had to deploy some heavy spin in recent months. Like reannouncing a Rolls-Royce submarine contract that ‘streamlined’ pre-existing ones…
Labour’s defence commitments are in the spotlight right now as the party’s pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence is set to be delayed until after the next election. Healey should not be allowed to dodge proper scrutiny by journalists specialising in defence…
Laura Kuenssberg’s X account put out an eyebrow-raising tweet this morning:
Sure enough half an hour later Laura’s account tweeted a link to a new ‘BBC coin’ on platform Solana. A hack…
The founder of the coin sold most of their supply straight away in a memecoin strategy known as a “pump and dump.” Inflate the price, sell your majority supply, run away…
Luke Nolan, research associate at digital asset group CoinShares, explains that the “deployer” held about 80% of the token supply and started selling immediately:
“It’s fairly typical to see this playbook: An X account gets hacked, a link to a new “memecoin” gets posted and unsuspecting users buy in, only to have their hopes crushed by these malicious actors.”
The predators made only a small amount of money (a few grand) and the coin is now rapidly approaching zero value. No doubt some regular punters lost cash. Kuenssberg’s tweet has now also been deleted. Brave new world and that…
The FCDO is scrambling to defend its commitment to AUKUS after conspicuously leaving out any reference to it in the readout following David Lammy’s first call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last night. While the US readout clearly referenced AUKUS and their joint initiatives to promote a “free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable,” the FCDO ditched any mention of AUKUS at all….
The FCDO is now rushing to point to Lammy’s speech from earlier this month, where he championed AUKUS and the “strengthening of our friendship with both sides of the aisle,” while also suggesting that readouts aren’t exhaustive. Meanwhile, the government’s defence review is ongoing, with growing outrage over Starmer delaying defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2030. Defence top brass as well as Labour MPs are warning this will damage ties with the US, while the government uses its go-to excuse about inheriting a Tory “black hole”. Is Labour quietly leaving the door open to scaling back its commitment to the vital security partnership?
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
