Shabana Mahmood had been answering testy justice questions in the Commons. Her shadow Robert Jenrick pressed the Lord Chancellor on whether the MoJ would support the imposition of whole life sentences for convicted rape gang members:
“Two weeks ago three grooming gang members were sentenced for the most appalling rapes of children at Bradford Crown Court but they only received six, seven, and nine year sentences respectively… Will she commit to using the sentencing review to mandate full life sentences for these evil people?”
Mahmood refused to commit to that:
“We have a shared objective in making sure that these evil individuals feel the full force of the law… we will be legislating to make grooming an aggravating factor and this government will make sure that victims get the justice they deserve.”
This is the first time full sentences for rape gangs members have been put to Labour. No commitments above the addition of aggravation to sentences and just five small inquiries…
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…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
