Category Archives: UK

A Starmer-Mandelson Scenario

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If you are up-to-date on the Starmer/Mandelson scandal, skip to below. US readers: When Trump was about to take office (the second time) Prime Minister Starmer appointed a known Epstein associate, Peter Mandelson, to be UK’s Ambassador to the US. They said at the time they were making a smart move because Mandelson traveled in the same circles and would be able to help the UK work with the new Trump administration.

When (some of the) the Epstein files (ones that didn’t incriminate Trump) were released documents revealed that Mandelson had leaked/sold secret high-level, top-secret UK information to Epstein. Mandelson was fired and there were a lot of questions about Starmer’s judgement in appointing him.

But wait, there’s more.

Last week it was revealed that Mandelson failed the security vetting that was required before he could receive a top-level clearance. The vetting concluded he should not be appointed. The Foreign Office (UK name for what the US calls the State Department) (or have they changed the name to State of War Department?) overruled this and let him be appointed anyway. So now Starmer is in real trouble. “How could this happen?” “How could you allow someone who failed his vetting get such a high-level job?” Etc…

Starmer claims the Foreign Office never informed him that Mandelson failed the vetting… The PM appointed a guy who turned out to be, basically, a spy. So big trouble all around.

An Alternate Scenario

Try this on for size: They knew Mandelson was corrupt, likely would leak/sell secrets. They already knew before the vetting that he had Russian and Chinese military clients, and that’s why they appointed him. They knew he would probably leak or sell secrets to UK’s adversaries – the US, Russia and/or China.

Saying he was appointed because he was someone who can work with Trump was just a cover story. They really put him there so they could feed him stuff they wanted Trump/Russia/China to get. False, misleading, disruptive and wrong information.

What we are seeing now – the big scandal, the ridiculous excuses, the threat that the PM will have to resign, etc. is a dance to try to convince Russia/China/Trumpers that the stuff Mandelson was (probably) passing along was real intelligence not disinformation they fed them.

Whether this fantastic scenario is what happened or not? Who knows? But Russia and China are probably wondering exactly this now. (The Trumpers probably aren’t because they aren’t smart enough to think of this.)

The reason I thought of this was realizing Starmer and the Foreign Office etc just could not have been stupid enough to put Mandelson there knowing he was an associate of Epstein, and hide his vetting failure, and all the rest. They just couldn’t.

They couldn’t be that stupid. Right?

Starmer Bad

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I live in the UK now. Over here Prime Minister Starmer has a new crisis this morning. Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson as Ambassador the the Trump administration, knowing he was an Epstein associate. Then the Epstein files came out and showed that Mandelson was leaking/selling financial secrets to Epstein.

Now further revelations about Epstein/Mandelson look extremely bad. The security vetting process before his appointment had said Peter Mandelson should not get a security clearance and that was overridden. So he got the job anyway and engaged in corruption.

Starmer either knew about the denial of security clearance being overridden or didn’t know about it, so he’s either part of a corrupt project or hasn’t implemented sufficient oversight and control of his government. Either way you can’t have a PM that isn’t fighting corruption or at least making sure it isn’t coming from inside the house.

AI Is Just Not Ready And The Bubble Will Pop

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The following experience reflects many experiences I have had using AI. I keep trying again because I’m a long-time techie so I am ever-hopeful that “tech will save us,” and because once in a while it actually does do something better than I could have done it myself. That one time buys another 5 or 6 unsuccessful tries.

I decided to try out something AI is supposed to be really good at. I asked Gemini “What Cambridge restaurants are open on Christmas day?” (I live outside of Cambridge, UK now.) It searched for a while, and found 9. But I knew of one that was for sure open, and asked, “Are there any others? What about The Boot?” It replied “Yes, I can confirm that The Boot is planning to be open, and I found another restaurant as well.” It then gave me an updated list.

So I gave up and started searching the internet myself and found a few more.

Efficient? Time-Saving? Not Ready For Public Use

If this is supposed to be “efficient” or “time-saving” … it isn’t. It wasted my time and made me less “productive” not more.

As I said, this experience reflects so many of the experiences I have had. And as I said, once in a while it can be great. But it just is not ready for public use, and seriously should not be out there in public because sometimes it is dangerously wrong and people are trusting it.

We’re In A Bubble That Will Pop

A lot of people warn that stocks are experiencing an AI bubble and the world’s economies are at risk if (when) this bubble collapses. But some (are paid to) say AI is “for real” so these astronomical valuations are just fine. (“This time it’s different.”)

Why are the tech oligarchs so wealthy that they can throw hundreds of billions into AI? Why are they allow to have these monopolies? Why are they inflicting obviously harmful tech on US? Why has the stock market been able to inflate so enormously?

It’s Corruption

Why hasn’t the government stepped in to protect the public? Because of corruption.

Techies are wealthy because of this corruption and there is this corruption because the tech bros are so wealthy. The wealthy techies are paying politicians, parties and regulators (“governments”) not to “interfere” and protect the public from what they are doing.

Everyone sees this. Everyone understands this. No one seems to be able to do anything about it.

Paid-off governments won’t enforce antitrust rules. Paid-off governments won’t regulate tech. Paid-off governments refuse to tax the wealthy and their corporations. And paid-off politicians and parties and regulators certainly won’t do anything to stop the flow of cash and perks they are receiving.

PS The Boot Is Really Good

The Boot, in Histon, is really good. But the best restaurant in Cambridge is The Dumpling Tree. I’m not just saying that, it really is that good. But is isn’t open on Christmas.
 

A Place Called England

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So I have relocated to the UK. I live in a village near Cambridge.

We have an allotment, which we are setting up with a rabbit fence and a shed. The roof of the shed will drain into water tanks. Mostly that is for next year and later years. For now we have started growing potatoes. When the fence is in we will plant a bit more, but it is late in the season.

I feel more at home here than I felt in California. This song seems to describe for me why that is. Trains, gardens, allotments, regular people looking at rich people with no souls…

From the site Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music

Maggie Holland sang her own song A Place Called England on her 1999 album Getting There. She re-recorded it in 2007 for her anthology Bones. She noted on the first album:

It took me a long time to finish this song—and I probably would never even have started it if I hadn’t emigrated to Scotland about six years ago. I tussled with it on long train journeys and hummed it to myself whilst grubbing about in the allotment. I could not have written it without the inspiration of Christopher Hill’s book The World Turned Upside Down, Leon Rosselson’s song of the same name, Naomi Mitchison’s Sea-Green Ribbons, William Cobbett’s Cottage Economy, Hamish Henderson’s Freedom Come-All-Ye, Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees, animated discussions with (rightly) proud and passionate Scots like Dick Gaughan (“The first place to be colonised in the British Empire was England”), and many a quiet and gentle gardener; Mr Harding, my aunt Amy Rawling, and my godfather Alan Wells, to name but three.

This YouTube video shows Maggie Holland in Antwerp, Belgium, at Folk in ’t Stad on 30 March 2012.

Click through for the lyrics.