A climbdown from the Tories as they force the Times to remove a claim that Giorgia Meloni advised Kemi Badenoch not to do a deal with Reform. It happens…
Badenoch met Meloni in Rome for coffee/photoshoot. Overnight the Times ran a piece headlined: “Giorgia Meloni warns Kemi Badenoch against deal with Reform.” That has now been removed, along with quotes from Meloni like: “Be your own woman and stand your ground.” Oh dear…
Politico reports that Team Meloni has pushed back hard on the Italian PM’s supposed comments on British politics of the right. All mentions gone from the Times piece…
Farage was incredulous in reaction on TalkTV this morning and boasted that he keeps his conversations with world leaders private. Probably advice worth heeding…
The new Head of Strategy and Engagement in the School of Government’s digital & AI team requires no experience in digital, data, innovation, AI, learning design, or delivery. Good predictor for how it will go…
The Cabinet Office is hiring for the role, which sits within the ‘new’ National School of Government and Public Services announced by Darren Jones some months prior to his ejection from government. It’s a rebrand of Government Skills…
The hire will lead strategy for the Digital, Data, Innovation and AI (DDI & AI) Team, described as a “dynamic and fast-growing team with a remit to improve DDI&AI capability in non-digital specialists across all government departments.” Implementing AI and digital capability across government is a pretty big deal…
The role is paid £83,355. While essential criteria include strong communication skills, strategic thinking, and the “ability to nurture productive collaborative and trusting relationships,” experience in capability or learning design & delivery or experience in digital, data, innovation or AI are only ‘desirable.’ This is classic Civil Service inward hiring practice…
UPDATE: Ameer Kotecha, ex-diplomat and director of the Centre for Government Reform, said:
“In all its wisdom, Whitehall has decided that it is not “essential” for the person tasked with equipping civil servants in AI skills to have any experience in AI (or even digital) themselves. This is absurd. And while relevant experience is deemed a second-order priority, being silver-tongued enough to craft “easily understood narratives to persuade and influence” ministers is deemed a non-negotiable. This is not only classic Sir Humphrey stuff, it also points once again to the civil service’s deeply flawed approach to recruitment and its disdain for expertise. AI is transforming the way people work.
It has the potential to unleash huge productivity and efficiency gains in the public sector. But if the civil service is not even interested in hiring competent people with AI experience to upskill others, there is little reason for optimism that these potential benefits will be seized.
After long months of denying she would do so, Badenoch will shuffle her Shadow Cabinet on Parliament’s return. An opportunity to promote the star backbenchers…
The Tory leader resisted plans to do so after the locals drubbing in May. Now Burnham’s in, some changes have to happen…
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho’s second child will take her out of action on maternity leave. The Telegraph reports that shadow solicitor general Helen Grant will also shuffle out after saying she would not stand at the next election. DSIT has been abolished so Julia Lopez will have to go somewhere…
Mel Stride and Priti Patel get the most flak from Tories who accuse them of underperforming. On the economy brief some mooted names include Coutinho (out of action for at least three months or so) and Andrew Griffith, who is currently Shadow Business Secretary. It’s a small party…
Anna Turley has claimed that she paid tribute to the A66 joyriders because the police asked her to. Two responding police officers were killed in the collision…
The Redcar MP and Home Office border security minister wrote on Facebook on Sunday: “This morning I went down to South Bank to lay flowers and pay my respects, on behalf of our whole community, to the seven people whose lives were so tragically cut short yesterday… There really are no words for the heartbreak their families, friends and loved ones will be feeling today. May you all rest in peace.” That didn’t sit well with everyone…
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy remarked on X: “Anna Turley is a Home Office minister. She wants to ‘pay her respects to the seven people whose lives were tragically cut short’ in the Middlesbrough crash this weekend. I can’t be the only one for whom this statement jars. We may live in an age of emoting, but we should be able to see the difference between right and wrong.”
Responding to that post, Turley wrote a letter saying:
“You have sought to attribute to me moral equivalence, or judgements about worth, which are not to be found anywhere in my post. The identities of the drivers of the Passat were not even public when I paid my respects and posted this – I did not know who had died at this point, other than the police officers who I named and paid tribute to. I am sure you knew this by the date stamp on my post. Moreover, Cleveland Police had specifically requested that I pay tribute to all victims in any message.”
Turley, who was formerly Labour Party Chairman, goes on to say she was “appalled” by Timothy’s post. Read her full letter to Timothy below:
Continue reading “Minister Points Finger at Police After Paying Tribute to A66 Joyriders”
Kay Burley’s explosive return to the political and commentariat scene with her talkative Substack has caused quite a splash. Oh wait – no it hasn’t…
Burley left Sky News in February 2025 but has returned to the British media space with a Substack and numerous X posts per day, often issuing sarky attacks on Reformish people. She was even on Newsnight – though that appearance was somewhat tarred by her bizarre insistence that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is a war hero…
Her wide-ranging blog, Burley Alive, has been up for over a month and seen ten articles, though doesn’t seen to be capturing the public imagination. Despite Burley’s repeated self-promotion…
One piece of analysis concluded:
“I am not tribal with my politics and of course immigration should be debated, robustly, with real numbers and real life expectations, but there is a wide gap between having that debate and creating an atmosphere where anyone who looks or sounds ‘foreign’ becomes a target for someone else’s anger.”
For her efforts Burley has only 428 subscribers – free and paid – at time of going to pixel. Huw Edwards has more than double that…
It’s a double U-turn from Andy Burnham overnight. The Times reports that No10 has shelved plans to take Thames Water into administration because it is too fraught and expensive. As Guido warned…
The left is reacting with predictable disappointment to that one. Additionally, Burnham has continued with Starmer’s social housing policy and therefore U-turned on his pledges prior to becoming PM:
This is essentially the same policy as Starmer’s, though selected councils will get more money as “strategic partners” to build houses with taxpayer cash. Continuity Burnham…
Angela Rayner included a quote in the coverage: “Families can’t be left raising children without a place to call home, and none of us should spend years waiting for somewhere safe and affordable to live. I know how important fixing this is – because I’ve been there. A safe and secure home was the foundation for a better life – I couldn’t have got to where I have today without it.” No mention of her buying a cheap as chips council house and then flogging it for a £50,000 profit after pretending to live there for years when in actual fact she was living with her husband up the road – and now taking up a policy against Right to Buy…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”