General News Thread

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

No idea how you square that particular circle. Perhaps just by everyone doing their best, at the same time, to make sure just "their" patch is well looked after (Tolkien could well be right on that one).

Sauron did such a bad job with Mordor.

[bovril]

Baby looks as surprised as they are!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/02/florida-fertility-clinic-embryo-lawsuit

[Tommy G]

4 hours ago, Heathrow fox said:

He gets an easy ride on these pages 

which is a bit weird

Not really given people’s political leaning 

[CornwallFox]

5 hours ago, Heathrow fox said:

He gets an easy ride on these pages 

which is a bit weird

Mainly because, an ambassadorship aside, he hasn't been part of public life for about 20 years. He's an irrelevance.

[FoyleFox]

Coming from one awful man, that's not a great character reference. 

 

[leicsmac]

18 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

Coming from one awful man, that's not a great character reference. 

 

And considering that he's likely known a very great deal of the world's very worst powermongers...

 

That being said, given who Epstein was it might not be best to take his words simply at face value, as confirming as they might be. 

Edited 3 February by leicsmac

[Lionator]

 

the Russians are to blame for all of this apparently.

[st albans fox]

2 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

Coming from one awful man, that's not a great character reference. 

 

I think that’s good for trump. He can say that Epstein disliked him because he wouldn’t be part of his dreadful pimpathon 

 

2 hours ago, Lionator said:

 

the Russians are to blame for all of this apparently.

Makes a change form mossad.  Maybe Epstein was playing them both off against each other and also CIA and MI6 …..

 

seems a convenient theory for the west to now peddle ….

 

(for clarity that’s not what I believe. ) 

Edited 3 February by st albans fox

[Jattdogg]

Sick man does sick stuff. Sick man denies he did sick stuff. Case closed.

 

Move along,  nothing to see here.  Lets threaten Canada with 1000% tariffs  if they sign a deal with China that sick man agreed was a good deal for them (Canada).  

 

Enter 10 other distractions. 

[Alf Bentley]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

the Russians are to blame for all of this apparently.

 

I'd wondered about a Russian connection to all this myself - and I'm naturally a cock-up theorist, not a conspiracy theorist.

 

Marr raises a lot of valid questions in that clip. The connections are all circumstantial thus far. He might be adding 2 + 2 to make 5....but he might be adding 2 + 2 to make 4.

Quite apart from all the circumstantial stuff, we already know that the Russian state has repeatedly acted to try to disrupt Western democracies and businesses. It's certainly not unthinkable that the it was using Epstein as another means of doing this - though more evidence is needed, of course.

 

Re. evidence: it would be really good if democratic forces in the US managed to compel the release of all the Epstein files, with redaction kept to a minimum - though I won't hold my breath in anticipation of that. I wonder how much of the redaction concerns incriminating evidence against Trump? Might that partially explain Trump's relatively friendly attitude to Putin over Ukraine? Maybe his attitude merely stems from his liking for big power strongmen presiding over spheres of influence...but maybe not?

 

As for Mandelson, the evidence already revealed strongly suggests that, if there's any justice, he should go to prison - though, of course, his guilt would need to be proven in court. I say that as someone who's mainly voted Labour throughout my life and who's even been a party member at times. I really don't think it's good enough to say that he's been of no significance for 20 years. He was a major political figure for 25 years from the mid-80s until 2010 (16 years ago), latterly as a senior cabinet minister. Gordon Brown, his PM at that time, is himself calling for a police investigation into Mandelson's activities. Rightly so. It seems that, as a senior cabinet minister during an existential financial crisis, Mandelson was feeding market-sensitive and politically-sensitive inside info to a foreign financier and convicted criminal paedophile - as well as offering advice to a major bank on how to pressurise the British PM and Chancellor over financial policy, to further the bank's interests. That comes pretty close to treason in spirit, if not in law...

 

This is seriously unhelpful to Starmer's reputation, too. There's some irony and some hindsight in that. Hindsight as, though Mandelson had acted dubiously before and was known to have been matey with Epstein, Starmer almost certainly knew nothing about the scale of his misconduct and Mandelson was known to be a shrewd political operator - and did seem to handle the tricky Trump mission well as ambassador to the US. Irony in that there now seem to be a few economic green shoots (early days, I know) and Reform/Farage's popularity may have peaked and be sliding a bit.....but his appointment as ambassador certainly looks misguided now, given the warnings Starmer was given by others (inc. Labour politicians). It might be the final nail in his political coffin. Even if he lasts beyond May, this scandal plus likely bad election results might mean that it's Streeting or Rayner who end up benefiting from any green shoots. It could well tip the balance for MPs or party members previously unsure that changing the leader would be a good idea.

 

 

[foxfanazer]

I'd love to how much of this Epstein stuff is true. Some of it is undeniable but then some of it just sounds too ludicrous too be true. It almost dilutes it all to a point 

 

Like I saw a story about Jay Z apparently fleeing the US because it's come out that he performed a satanic torture ritual on a child. And what's the chances that so many of these major celebrities from all different backgrounds are into satanic rituals again children 

[Zear0]

Turns out Mandelson was a specimen of the lowest order.  Who knew?

[bovril]

5 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

I'd love to how much of this Epstein stuff is true. Some of it is undeniable but then some of it just sounds too ludicrous too be true. It almost dilutes it all to a point 

 

Like I saw a story about Jay Z apparently fleeing the US because it's come out that he performed a satanic torture ritual on a child. And what's the chances that so many of these major celebrities from all different backgrounds are into satanic rituals again children 

I was sceptical until I saw this still image from Epstein's island, recently made public 

 

[Mike Oxlong]

Another Epstein email to Mandelson in files

On 6 March 2009, Jeffrey Epstein wrote another email to Peter Mandelson.

The email, which has been published without context, simply says "goo on your face again".

 

🤔

[worthosoriginals]

1 hour ago, bovril said:

I was sceptical until I saw this still image from Epstein's island, recently made public 

 

Galatasary fans?

[worthosoriginals]

1 hour ago, Zear0 said:

Turns out Mandelson was a specimen of the lowest order.  Who knew?

Epstein?

[Lionator]

It’s obviously not good circumstances but you feel Gordon Brown is loving finally seeing the demise of the man that destroyed his political career and ambitions. 

[MaidstoneFox]

5 minutes ago, Lionator said:

It’s obviously not good circumstances but you feel Gordon Brown is loving finally seeing the demise of the man that destroyed his political career and ambitions. 

Won't be the only one. Mandelson not nicknamed the 'Prince of Darkness' for nothing. 

[Lionator]

7 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Won't be the only one. Mandelson not nicknamed the 'Prince of Darkness' for nothing. 

Brown was one of the only good people to come through that era of politics though, especially in high power. Amazing that his ending was calling someone a bigot given what we know now. 

[st albans fox]

Thousands of Epstein documents taken down after victims identified https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0k65pnxjxo
 

 What about the victims ????

seems that the public’s demands for transparency are more important than them 

 

the idea that millions of docs could be processed and released within a few months was ridiculous - the courts and the two houses should have thought about that with some clarity 

[bmt]

6 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Thousands of Epstein documents taken down after victims identified https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0k65pnxjxo
 

 What about the victims ????

seems that the public’s demands for transparency are more important than them 

 

the idea that millions of docs could be processed and released within a few months was ridiculous - the courts and the two houses should have thought about that with some clarity 

A monumental **** up. Surely they will sue for damages.

[Trav Le Bleu]

China taking health & safety seriously?

 

China bans hidden car door handles over safety concerns - BBC News

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp37g5nxe3lo

[StanSP]

And these lot want to be part of the next government (even though they fvcked up the last time they were there...) 

 

Absolute jokers. 

 

[Tommy G]

What happened in Leicester last night? Seems to be some kind of serious incident at DMU and the police aren't releasing anything about it. Roads closed etc

[Bert]

5 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

What happened in Leicester last night? Seems to be some kind of serious incident at DMU and the police aren't releasing anything about it. Roads closed etc

Someone was stabbed multiple times.