Steven Spencer

I’ve been Foreign Secretary, I’ve done senior ambassadorial appointments. Let me explain why the Mandelson situation is even worse than it first appears. The Foreign Secretary has a huge amount of power when it comes to appointing Heads of Missions. Head of Mission is the general term for Ambassadors, High Commissioners, and Permanent Representatives to international bodies like the UN. Basically the choice of who the top diplomat is in an overseas post is down to the Foreign Secretary. In almost all cases the choice is from a list of career diplomats, who have years (often decades) of experience, have been vetted, and tested by experience, and have previously held junior diplomatic positions around the world. But the Foreign Secretary can choose someone else. Someone without those attributes. Clearly the Foreign Office system doesn’t like it when the FS does this and almost always advises against it. That’s not to say that choosing an outsider is wrong, just that that the FCDO will make it clear that doing so carries additional risks. And those risks sit with the Minister rather than the Department. Obviously I wasn’t involved with any of the conversations about Peter Mandelson but I know the FCDO well and I know the personalities of the people who would have advised David Lammy about this appointment. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had resigned in disgrace twice before. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had a longstanding relationship with Epstein. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had widespread, complicated, and opaque commercial interests. I have no doubt that they would have reminded Lammy that he and the PM were importing significant reputational risk if they appointed Mandelson. I have no doubt they would have unambiguously advised Lammy against appointing Mandelson to the post. And it is now clear that Lammy and Starmer ignored that advice and appointed him anyway. And now we have no ambassador to the USA, a new Foreign Secretary, an imminent state visit, a damaged relationship with the White House, and humiliation for British diplomacy. But most of all we have a number of unanswered questions about what Starmer and Lammy knew, when did they know it, and why they went ahead with Mandelson’s appointment.

David Lammy Must Also Go. Ministerial responsibility is not a complicated doctrine. It does not require proof of personal involvement. It does not require evidence that a minister gave a direct instruction or attended a specific meeting. It requires only this: that something of consequence happened in a minister's department, on a minister's watch, and that the minister is therefore accountable for it. Something of consequence happened in David Lammy's department. Foreign Office officials used exceptional powers to overrule the security services and grant developed vetting clearance to a man those services had explicitly declined to recommend. That decision was taken inside the Foreign Office. David Lammy was Foreign Secretary. The chain of accountability runs directly to his desk. He has two choices and neither is comfortable. Either he knew the override had taken place, in which case his silence while Keir Starmer told Parliament three times that due process had been followed makes him complicit in that deception. Or he did not know, in which case the most consequential and sensitive decision taken by his department in his tenure was made without his knowledge, which is a failure of ministerial oversight serious enough to warrant resignation on its own terms. There is no third option. No position from which Lammy emerges with his authority intact. Rachel Reeves, speaking in Washington, was careful to distance herself from the affair. Lammy has said nothing. That silence will not protect him. The doctrine that protects ministers from the routine decisions of their officials has never extended to the use of exceptional powers to override the security services on a matter of national sensitivity. This was not routine. Exceptional powers were invoked. Exceptional accountability follows. The Security Services said no. Someone in the Foreign Office said yes. David Lammy was in charge of the Foreign Office. In any serious political culture, that sentence ends his tenure. He should resign.

Just read on X a pile of old shit from Sky’s alleged political editor @BethRigby in which she trotted out Starmer’s defence that he didn’t know Mandelson had failed his security vetting, That’s not her job. Starmer has comms to do that. Her job, on behalf of viewers/voters is to take Starmer’s story apart. Nobody in their right mind believes Starmer wasn’t party to the cover-up. Just to post crap on X or broadcast it on Sky News is beyond poor. Journalism is about investigation and revelation. Not PR for a lying Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister appointed Peter Mandelson before the vetting had been completed, vetting Mandelson failed. Starmer then said full due process was followed. THAT is misleading Parliament. I'm only holding him to the same standards to which he’s held previous Prime Ministers - that if they mislead parliament, they should resign. In these dangerous times, Britain cannot afford to have a Prime Minister who the country doesn't trust. Starmer has betrayed our national security. He should go.

This day (April 16) in 1944, the Hungarian government ordered the registration of all Jews and the confiscation of their property. At that point in the Holocaust, Hungary was home to the largest surviving Jewish population in Europe. That would soon come to a brutal end. For years, Hungary’s Jews thought they may be spared the worst. Regent Miklós Horthy (though an antisemite who had passed discriminatory laws in the 1920s and 30s) repeatedly refused German demands for mass deportations. Hungarian Jews served in labor battalions on the Eastern Front instead of being shipped to death camps. Then, in a single month, everything changed. On March 19, 1944, German troops occupied Hungary. Horthy was sidelined. A pro-Nazi puppet government took power. Adolf Eichmann arrived in Budapest with his Sonderkommando and immediately set to work. Within weeks, the Hungarian authorities (who were eager to collaborate with the Nazis) began the systematic robbery and isolation of the country’s roughly 760,000–780,000 Jews. On April 16, the process accelerated: Jews were forced to register every asset. Homes, businesses, jewelry, cash, and even furniture were seized under the guise of “Aryanization.” Then, ghettos sprang up - starting first in the Carpathian region. Yellow stars became mandatory. The Hungarian state and its German masters had prepared the ground for the fastest, most efficient deportation operation of the entire Holocaust. From mid-May to early July 1944, 147 trains carried approximately 434,000–440,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Eichmann was personally obsessed with speed. Even as the Red Army approached, and Heinrich Himmler began issuing orders to slow or halt the exterminations (to hide evidence as the war turned against Germany), Eichmann ignored the signals and pushed the machinery harder. Trains arrived at a special ramp built at Birkenau just for Hungarian Jews. Selection was brutal and swift. The vast majority, around 80%, were gassed and cremated within hours of arrival. There were so many bodies that the SS resorted to burning corpses (and sometimes living Jews) in massive pits behind the crematoria. In just 56 days, more Jews were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau than in any comparable period of the war; and by the time the killing machine between Hungary and Poland wound down, nearly half a million Hungarian Jews had been wiped from existence. This is why, while many nations may in fact believe they take “never again” seriously, Jews can never again accept being wholly reliant for their very existence on the goodwill of others. Only as a sovereign people in their homeland of Israel can Jews defend themselves, have a voice in the world, and ultimately control their own destinies.

Let's talk about imperialism and colonialism. How many people know that in 1948, the Arab Legion was led by a British officer named Sir John Bagot Glubb, or as he was known among the locals, Glubb Pasha and Abu Hunaik? While King Abdullah of Jordan told Golda Meir he had no intention of getting involved in the war, Glubb led the Arab Legion to conquer the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem. Glubb also led the Arab Legion as it committed crimes against humanity in Kfar Etzion and murdered the Jews who surrendered with white flags. Glubb was no exception. Despite being compelled to remain neutral, the British army gave huge amounts of advanced weapons it left behind to the Palestinians, while the Jewish population had to fight with its bare hands and minimal ammunition. That is the true story of the Nakba. It is a story of failed imperialism, Palestinian nationalists with Wermacht training and British weapons attempting a second Holocaust against the Jewish people, just 3 years after the first Holocaust.

The Peter Principle, already strong in the Civil Service, has reached Number Ten

How on earth is the UK letting a muslim terrorist convicted in a 1999 Yemeni terror plot, conspiring to bomb the British consulate in Aden, an Anglican church, and a hotel, run for local council office in Birmingham? Shahid Butt was jailed for 5 years as part of an Abu Hamza-linked group. Now he’s standing as an independent in Sparkhill for the May 7 elections.

Hang on, so we DO have riot police! After years of Gaza rallies, I thought they'd been retired. Turns out they still exist, but only when people march against the gang rape of a woman outside a church in Epsom.

@MummyisT @MaryRoss815 💔

This little girl, aged 6 was transported from Holland to Sobibor and murdered because she was a Jew She was identified as a victim when a burned name tag bearing her name was discovered at the crematorium of Sobibor. Lea Judith de la Penna lived with mother Judith and father David in Amsterdam. In June 1943 the family was deported to the transit camp in Westerbork and eventually Sobibor. She died aged 6.

Russia Tells U.N.: “We condemn the aggression of the U.S. and Israel in violation of the U.N. Charter. We are committed to the territorial integrity of all.” Forgot To Mention: Russia illegally invaded Ukraine and has been bombing its people for 1,513 days.

@HilzFuld @DigitalVagrant Deport. Now

Islamists stormed a McDonald’s that I’m told is in London and did this. Nothing to worry about… Nothing at all.

@DreyfusJames @DeniseMembery 😂😂

Sorry to waste 29 seconds of your time, but could you just give this a listen & confirm that this is perhaps one of the most unintelligible, waffling load of meaningless guff you’ve ever heard? I’ve listened to it 3 times now, & I’ve NO idea what point he’s attempting to make…

@mishtal @BenGreenJeru @BBCNews One hopes that the 2000 jobs the BBC is losing will include Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and the rest of their antisemitic crew but I don’t think so

Dear @BBCNews Hezbollah is firing at Israeli cities, towns and villages. Why are you calling them "settlements"? Is Haifa a settlement to you now? Every single day you spread fake news and delegitmise Israel. Enough!!!!!!!!

@VolodyaTretyak You’ll get me suspended

Describe this person in one word ⬇️

@jackprandelli @UxbEconomist07 Hormuz is open but not for Iranian ports

Look at that map. Every red arrow is a tanker. All converging on The Gulf of America. This is the world rerouting in real time. 🚢 167 crude tankers declared US destinations 🛢️ 103 empty vessels steaming to load American crude ⛽ US exports already at record 12.7M b/d 📈 Heading to 15M b/d and climbing From 1995 to 2015 the US couldn't legally export crude. In 2026 it's about to become the world's largest oil exporter. Hormuz closed. Qatar gone. Saudi output cut. Russia back to sanctions... And every tanker on this map already knew where to go. Do not miss my latest article to understand what come next: themerchantsnews.substack.com/p/the-iran-war…

The Iran-linked front group Ashab al Yamin has claimed an arson attack against a synagogue in north London today. Two people have been arrested by authorities in connection with the attack. This is the second attack claimed by the group today.

🔎LOCATED: 130+ weapons belonging to Hezbollah inside a school in the area of Bint Jbeil. The weapons located included Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and additional weapons. Alongside the weapons, the troops also found Hezbollah flags and other terrorist organization insignia.

Keir Starmer had a go at Boris for using money from a donor (not taxpayers) to do up the flat in Downing Street, but now, Keir Starmer is happy to splash thousands of taxpayers money on doing up the flat in Downing Street. Labour are worse than hypocrites.

🚨Peter Mandelson’s advisory firm has collapsed Global Counsel owes HMRC £646,000 after it sufferred a client exodus amid Mandelson's Epstein links. Barclays, Tesco and Vodafone were among the companies that ended their contracts with the firm. It's only right that Mandelson suffers for having leaked confidential information for money. KARMA EXISTS! MANDELSON'S NOT SMILING NOW!