Many on the Labour Benches, at least, will appreciate my right hon. and learned Friend’s apology today, but many of us remain bewildered about why the appointment took place, despite the warnings that many of us gave him. Is not the reality this? When he sought to realise his ambition to become leader of the Labour party, with very little base within the party, he became dependent on McSweeney, Mandelson and Labour Together to organise and fund his election. When he became the Prime Minister, the reward for McSweeney was control of No. 10, and the reward for Mandelson was the highest diplomatic office. The unspoken message to civil servants was, “What Mandelson wants, Mandelson gets.”
This has damaged the party that I have been a member of for 50 years. I urge the Prime Minister to take steps to clear this toxic culture out of our party, and to take the first step by having an independent inquiry into Labour Together.
The Prime Minister has gone on at considerable length about process and procedure, but ordinary people do not really care about process and procedure; they want transparency, and they want to know that they can have confidence in the words of elected politicians like all of us in this Chamber.
It was in the ’90s that Peter Mandelson had to resign from the Cabinet for the first time, because of his dealings with the millionaire Geoffrey Robinson. A few years later, he had to resign from the Cabinet for the second time, because of his relationships with the billionaire Hinduja family. Peter Mandelson has a history. Knowing that history, which goes back 30 years, and given what is known, it is one thing to say, as the Prime Minister insists on saying, “Nobody told me; nobody told me anything,” but what this House wants to know is: why did the Prime Minister not ask?
Keir Starmer explained to the House of Commons on 20th April how he had managed not to find out that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting before being appointed to the role of US Ambassador
How does it feel? How does it feel To be without a home? With no direction home? Like a complete unknown? Just like a rolling stone? Like a rolling stone?
2026 Beard, Shorts & Sandals Season open. Sunglasses in vogue
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the 2026 Official Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season is officially open
The pre-Season was marked by variable weather but the forecast now indicates higher temperatures with less rain for a period. The 2025 Season opened on 18th May so it is almost a month earlier this year
No Guidelines in 2026
The Beard Liberation Front, one of whose founding principles is that people should be able to dress and appear as they want, is increasingly concerned about official diktats on how people should or should not appear.
For the first time the voluntary option of wearing shades or sunglasses has been added after consultation within the network.
However the BLF urges those participating in the 2026 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season to take care out there:
1 UV levels. It’s not just sun that can lead to sunburnt legs
2 Pogonophobia. Participants should beware beard haters
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard, Shorts and Sandals season has been a major influence on summer fashions in recent times and we expect the 2026 season to be no different. There is however a major difference again this year. There are no guidelines. Do your own thing!
From ‘craft’ to independent beer. Where are we in 2026?
I attended the annual conference of the Campaign for Real Ale at the weekend. It was in St Albans, but other commitments meant I was on-line. It was a decent experience. All contributions could be seen and heard, and I was able to vote on motions and ask questions.
Given the matter had not been mentioned I did ask the EC what the view was of the impact of Brewdog’s failure on ‘craft’ and independent beer. The response was that Brewdog was over-leveraged and that given the surviving outfit is now owned by a US company an important issue was that consumers might take beer produced by global big beer as something independent. The case of Beavertown’s Neck Oil (Heineken) was correctly mentioned.
I take it, understandably that ‘craft’ was not a popular word at the conference, ‘cask’ and ‘independent’ being preferred.
SIBA has for a while promoted the idea of independent beer produced by independent companies. It is an important battle against Big Beer’s ‘craft’ brands, although how enamoured it is itself of ‘craft’ these days I’m less sure.
It must be said that in the interesting panel on independent beer and access to market ‘craft’ did make an appearance, and at the conclusion of the conference there were suggestions about where to go in St Albans after the conference bar shut. This included pubs with a range of Deya and Verdant beers. Both of course are independent and both to do produce cask beer, but both are mainly keg/keykeg.
When it comes to it, perhaps the point is that good beer is good beer. Its bit more than a tautology!
While industrial breweries can produce drinkable and reliable products, indy breweries surely have the edge in terms of innovation, brewing to local and regional tastes and flexibility of production. In 2026 we can perhaps leave craft to big beer.
As Roger Protz noted in a conference speech while the Big Beer companies of the 1970s did know how to produce good cask beer and reverted after CAMRA campaigns, the Big Beer companies of the 2020s have no interest in brewing cask beer. For them its at best an inconvenience (perhaps we can exclude ABI’s current efforts on Draught Bass). As ever though contradictions abound. The producers of some of the biggest selling cask beers, Sharps and Greene King are not independent
Tony Benn has a number of references to Peter Mandelson in his Diaries. One from 1987 is below
Monday 16th February 1987. Today we had a meeting of the NEC and the Shadow Cabinet, the first since Neil Kinnock became leader, Kinnock introduced the meeting and spoke for about twenty minutes.. We went on to Peter Mandelson who said a few words. I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party. He came in from the media eighteen months ago and has taken over
Of course in 1987 Mandelson’s Epstein links did not exist, and reported links to China were long into the future. Benn however clearly had the measure of what Mandelson represented for the Labour Party.
Keir Starmer then a young socialist activist likely would have been unaware of Mandelson except that also in 1987 he interviewed Tony Benn for the Socialist Alternatives magazine. The theme of the interview was very much the kind of Labour Party Benn thought should be developing against what people like Mandelson were doing.
Mandelson is not mentioned in the printed version, which of course would have been edited. Starmer in 2026 might well claim that Benn never referred to him, but given Benn’s view of the impact of Mandelson on Labour that seems questionable.
Bert Horrobin deserves better than the enormous condescension of posterity
After a long break the BBC has decided to cover (rather than just report) what Bert Horrobin is doing and saying this.
He appears to be one of the few Ambridge residents with a beard but more importantly he is a working class character. Like most such people in Ambridge the BBC is condescending to him. He is a rascal, always doing something doubtful, just like Eddie Grundy. He has not however ever been found guilty of polluting the Am or covering up who attacked George. The person who has done that is of course a man of honour
Lillian in the frame
After persistent questioning Lilian has determined that Brian’s rather difficult behaviour is not related to dementia but because he is covering up for Ruairi and the reality that he attacked George. That means that Lilian is now complicit unless of course she plans to go to the police.
Good news for Pip
In a week of generally not great news Pip has found that the lump in her breast is a cyst rather than cancer. A good situation for the Archers to cover and well handled
Proletarian Thought of the Week
Only people with nothing are honest. Bert Horrobin
In the Rupert Murdoch ownership era The Times mostly does stories that have appeared in the S*n with more sentences.
However some parts of the traditional paper have survived.
The cricket coverage remains excellent and the coverage of French cuisine and what the Royal Family are up to continues.
Its Obituaries are also untouched by Murdoch
The obituary for Andy Kershaw is focused on his professional career rather than personal details and while it hints at his left politics its not snippy about them as Times obits often are.
I doubt Kershaw would have been delighted by a Times Obit but at least it tries to understand where he was coming from
It was sad to see news of the death of Andy Kershaw at 66. I never met him but of course was well aware of his stints on OGWT, Radio One and Radio Three. In some ways he carried on the work of Charlie Gillett underlining that the music produced in urban City environments across the world could likewise be understood and enjoyed in the same places globally including the UK. A world of which Nigel Farage has no conception.
Kershaw although a Lancashire man had a strong North London connection with the restaurant Banners that he opened with his then partner Juliette Banner in Park Rd, N8 in the early 1990s. It closed in 2023. I was not a regular customer, preferring the pubs of Crouch End but Banners became an institution
It also reflected changing times in London N8. The Hornsey College of Art occupation was hailed as the start of the British May ’68. Later the building became the TUC National Education Centre for a period. I started work in the then Post Office telecoms office just down the road in October 1979 (its now an M&S) and drank in the immediately adjacent Railway Pub (Draught Bass).
The Queens pub on the Broadway (still open) was a left gathering point from the 1960s. Later a then little known activist Jeremy Corbyn became the organiser of the Hornsey Labour Party, while local resident Tariq Ali found his attempt to join blocked.
However Hornsey & Wood Green did not elect a Labour MP until 1992 with Barbara Roche. Following the Iraq War LibDem Lynne Featherstone won the seat and then post the Tory-LibDem Coalition, Catherine West who is now the sitting MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet.
Andy Kershaw was very much on the left, if its little mentioned in his obituaries. Also not mentioned enough is his conviction for harrassing his ex-partner. It was as he admitted a very difficult time.
All that said Andy Kershaw did a little bit to change the world and his Crouch End years played a part in that
