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The Times in 2009 noting the closeness of PM Brown and his Business Minister. In comments reported by The Times, Brown stated:
“Peter is doing an excellent job. He has shown it was a good decision to invite him to come back from Brussels and join the Government.”
He added:
“We are working together in a common cause.”
The previous year, in the Guardian:
Peter Mandelson yesterday buried the threat of a Blairite coup against Gordon Brown, declaring he was ‘joined at the hip’ to the Prime Minister, who would lead Labour into the next election.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/05/mandelson.gordonbrown
I know, yeeuch!
As PM, what would Brown have already known from MI5/6 briefings about Mandelson as he agreed to become ‘joined at the hip’ in 2008. This:
and this:
and this:
AI assessment
By October 2008, MI5/MI6 files would portray Mandelson as a high-value but high-risk asset: a skilled operator with proven loyalty to Labour but a track record of ethical lapses and elite foreign networks that could expose him (or UK policy) to compromise. The Deripaska ties, fresh from August, likely amplified concerns amid rising Russia tensions post-2008 Georgia invasion. No evidence suggests he was denied clearance— he served until resigning in June 2009 over the same Deripaska story—but intelligence would have briefed No. 10 on vulnerabilities. Later Epstein links (revealed 2025–2026) were unknown then. This reflects standard UK practice: vetting flags risks without always blocking appointments for political heavyweights.
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The toxic ‘Brown factor’ strikes again.
Gordon Brown ………friends in ‘low’ places…..the gutter to name one.
Liz S
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And a Labour scandal with the BEEB only allowing Labour Stooges on—no other parties invited—Wee Brian Wilson on to waffle on.
Imagine this was an SNP scandal—the BEEB would have Brit Nats queueing up outside Specific Pee to pour venom on the heads of every person who ever advocated independence.
Then the media pundits, who are all Brit Nats—imagine that in a country with a majority in favour of self government?
And the script of the show, written in London by Downing Steet/MI5.
British democracy and independent broadcasting—gaslighting Scotland from across a border—-to order.
gavinochiltree
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McSweeney falls on his sword , not to save Starmer , but merely to stall what is surely now the inevitable.
Come the May elections Starmer’s position will surely be untenable should Labour lose Wales………
Then we will have a re-run of another thing that previously always seemed to happen with the Tory party in power, as in a revolving door with one Tory leader out and then another one in……….now because there has been no “Change” with Labour in power, then it will also seemingly be the exact same scenario with Labour leaders.
Instability and a continued UK State S*** Fest.
As Labour, just like the Tories, are the party of Political scandals, bad policies, bad leadership and now have managed to alienate most of the people within the UK State’s population. (just like the Tory party before them).
Remember just like the Tory party before them, Labour have done this to themselves , all because they were so rubbish at being a UK government and also they chose a weak and incompetent leader who himself chose an extreme individual to be his chief of staff.
I do now hope that , for many more voters, the wool has been pulled away from their eyes within Scotland in respect to all versions of the Tory party, that includes this Starmer led Blue Labour party…..and also that the same goes, hopefully , for the other Tory party that is Reform UK.
So then that same voters, do not fall into the trap of mistakenly thinking that somehow Reform UK are the answer, the best solution come the May elections in Scotland…….as I just fail to see how and why any people within Scotland would vote for alternate (actual) Tories like Reform UK.
Remember Reform UK have also had their own scandals linked to them and also many examples of incompetence that includes their inability to declare , on time, external earnings made by their leader, Nigel Farage, for an amount totalling £380,000.
Nice money if you can get it and Farage did get that money…………on top of what was his earnings in his supposed “day job” as an MP at WM.
Once the immigrants rhetoric runs dry what then ?
Well if they , Reform UK politicians, take a leaf out of Trump’s playbook then it will be a succession of lies and a refusal to engage with the media that will, they assume, sustain them within UK politics.
I would not want to be Farage when the inevitable S*** hits the fan as I am confident it will……….eventually .
As I suspect that Reform UK will go the exact same way as their predecessors , the Tories and Labour, when it is established that they too are just as bloody useless and rubbish when in power.
(Check out the councils that they, Reform UK, control in England just now, and then see how quickly things have unravelled with them in charge).
If people in Scotland truly cannot see that things surely could be no worse within an independent Scotland compared to all that has actually happened with us still being a part of the UK .
Then I wonder just how long these people in Scotland will still be blind to and in denial to all of the complete and utter mess and unnecessary suffering that they, as people, have had to endure under a dysfunctional and corrupt UK State.
At this rate it seems like it may for infinity………..and beyond.
Liz S
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I posted this elsewhere today:
More on Gordon Brown and Mandelson from the BBC News website (December 30, 2008) Political review 2008: Labour – by Iain Watson, Political Correspondent.
‘2008 could well be remembered as the year GB’s recovery began. Not Britain’s economic recovery, of course, but Gordon Brown’s political recovery.’
‘…. many of those sharpened knives were sheathed after a memorable speech by Gordon Brown. He said that the global financial crisis meant it was ‘no time for a novice’ – a jibe at David Cameron certainly but also seen as a sideswipe at David Miliband, seen as a potential future leader.
‘Any further murmurings were silenced by the unveiling of Gordon Brown’s secret weapon. (my emphasis)
‘Just as the Conservative conference ended in October, a man once seen by the prime minister as toxic was deployed as the antidote to any anti-Brown poison amongst Labour’s ranks.
‘EU trade commissioner Peter, now Lord, Mandelson returned from Brussels to bolster No 10 as much as the economy.’
And from the BBC News website today (February 8): ‘Mandelson appointment ‘ignored warnings’ – Brian Wilson ‘
‘Wilson said anyone from his “generation of government” would have warned against making Mandelson ambassador because of the “baggage he had accumulated”.’ (Wilson was an MP from 1987 until 2005 and served as a minister of state from 1997 to 2003.)
Did current Labour cabinet minister, Douglas Alexander not overlap with Brian Wilson’s ‘generation of government’? Of course he did, holding a succession of ministerial positions under Blair from 2001 and then under Brown from 2007.
So anyone from Brian Wilson’s “generation of government” would have warned against the Mandelson appointment as ambassador, but not cabinet minister Alexander it seems!
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And of course other highly influential and well thought of figures such as Noam Chomsky had links to Epstein.
One would hope that Chomsky’s adherents will now admit their mistake?
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