Table of Contents
27 February, 2026
First of all, a disclaimer.
Nothing I say in the following piece is to be interpreted, or imply, that I in any way support acts of violence, race hatred, discrimination or exhortation to use anything other than a peaceful expression of one’s views.
In my last letter I suggested that we get the popcorn ready to watch developments here in the UK.
The Government announced they are ‘pausing’ the progress of legislation to give the Chagos Islands, including a huge US/UK air base of strategic importance, to Mauritius. The reason given: the Maldives are now thought to be laying claim to the archipelago in the next few days. Just by coincidence Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform Party, has returned from a trip to the Maldives.
There is a developing scandal over the work of Cabinet Minister Josh Simons and his connections to Labour Together.
Labour Together, the pro-Starmer think tank, was fined £14,250 in 2021 for more than 20 breaches of electoral law. McSweeney was the director of the organisation between 2017 and 2020 and is now under fire over this latest development. More than £700,000 of donations were not properly registered, with £100,000 gifted to the think tank while McSweeney was running Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign in 2020. (Mr S would remind readers that Labour Together then went on to take credit for Starmer’s victory.) After McSweeney stepped down from the role, his successor informed the Electoral Commission that the donations had not been reported – and a probe began.
Source: the Spectator 24 September 2026
Labour Together then went further.
A Labour group which helped Sir Keir Starmer get elected as Labour leader commissioned a report that investigated the personal and religious background of a Sunday Times journalist, the BBC understands.
Labour Together paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to “investigate the sourcing, funding and origins” of a story about undeclared donations at the think tank before the general election.
It delivered a report, codenamed “Operation Cannon”, which included claims about a journalist who wrote the story and his faith, relationships and upbringing.
The BBC has not seen the report in full, but sources familiar with its contents have confirmed the details, as first reported by the Sunday Times, external.
Sources told the BBC the US public affairs firm’s report included information about journalist Gabriel Pogrund’s Jewish beliefs and claims about his ideological position.
It also claimed, the sources said, that Pogrund’s previous reporting, including on the royal family, “could be seen as destabilising to the UK and also in the interests of Russia’s strategic foreign policy objectives”.
Pogrund is currently the Sunday Times Whitehall editor, and was named Political Journalist of the Year and News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Press Awards.
The report was allegedly prepared by a former Sunday Times employee who now works for APCO Worldwide.
It was commissioned by the then-head of Labour Together, Josh Simons, who is now a cabinet office minister.
In a contract addressed to Simons, seen by BBC News, APCO Worldwide agreed to investigate “the sourcing, funding and origins” of the Sunday Times reporting, as well as the journalist, Paul Holden, who has since published a critical book on Starmer and his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, and Matt Taibbi, an American reporter.
McSweeney was a former head of Labour Together.
A redacted version of the report, with the details about Pogrund removed, was passed to the National Cyber Security Centre because of the concerns about the hack, sources close to Simons said.
Source: BBC News 15 February 2026
Apparently Peter Mandelson was arrested because information supplied to the Metropolitan police alleged he was a possible flight risk, with the destination being the British Virgin Islands (BVI). This was information received by the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who, in a statement to parliament explained that he was duty bound to pass this onto the police. Peter Mandelson has stated that this has never been his intent.
As a point of information, Necker Island, to the north of Virgin Gorda in the BVI, is owned by Sir Richard Branson. Further point of information – I have worked in the BVI and can’t imagine spending the rest of my life there in luxurious isolation. BVI has a population of about 40,000 and there are 366,050 BVI business companies on the register as of 30 June 2023. That may be attractive for a high-end networker but, as a British Overseas Territory, UK law enforcement would have easy access to the BVI. Let’s put it down to another coincidence.
An inquiry is being held into the three murders in Nottingham committed by Valdo Calocane.
A warrant to arrest Valdo Calocane before he killed three people was not carried out for months in what was described by a police chief as a “serious, systemic and operational failure”.
Calocane stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley Kumar and Ian Coates before seriously injuring three others in Nottingham on 13 June 2023.
As the judge-led inquiry into the Nottingham attacks continues, Nottinghamshire Police suggested it was not “realistic” Calocane would have been prosecuted and imprisoned if officers had executed the warrant.
But Tim Moloney KC for the bereaved families said any attempt to suggest arresting Calocane would not have made a difference would be “cowardly and insulting”.
Police detained Calocane under the Mental Health Act on 3 September 2021 by executing a warrant at his address.
It is alleged that he assaulted a police officer while being taken to Highbury Hospital in Nottingham and he was charged with assault by beating of an emergency worker.
However, a court date was not set until 22 September 2022, more than a year after the incident.
Calocane failed to turn up at court, and a warrant for his arrest was issued but was flagged as a “low priority”, the Nottingham Inquiry heard.
However, he was never arrested, and the warrant was still outstanding at the time of the Nottingham attacks in 2023.
Source: BBC 24 February 2026
Now here’s the ‘kicker’.
Mental health professionals decided not to detain the Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane despite a violent incident in 2020, after they considered research that addressed the over-representation of young black men in custody, a public inquiry has been told.
Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old Ian Coates, and severely injured three others on 13 June 2023.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder.
Langdale said a doctor involved in the assessment had been “leaning towards” sectioning Calocane due to it being his “first presentation of psychosis” and a lack of information about his risk history. However, a team of mental health professionals considered research evidence that examined the over-representation of young black men in detention.
Source: the Guardian 23 February 2026
So in short he wasn’t sectioned because there was an over representation of ethnic minorities in custody or hospital care. It is getting increasingly difficult to live a normal life in this country with the Labour Party’s controlling fixation. They came to power promising a new politics, not the same old corruption etc. Sound familiar?
We seem to have more sleaze than ever was present under Boris Johnson’s leadership and there is more than a whiff of incompetence and untrustworthiness about this government.
