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Articles by Rob Marchant
Labour is having an emotional spasm
by Rob Marchant “And you call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.” Aneurin Bevan to the Labour Party Conference, 1957. This week has been an extraordinary one, and one for which Nye’s famous line might easily have been written. A party which still enjoys a majority of 164 in the Commons has, for some reason, collectively decided to lose its mind.
Reimagining the mouse pointer for the AI era
We are developing more seamless, intuitive ways to collaborate with AI The mouse pointer has been a constant companion on computer screens, across every website, document and workflow. Despite how technologies have changed, the pointer has barely evolved in more than half a century. We’ve been exploring new AI-powered capabilities to help the pointer not only understand what it’s pointing at, but also why it matters to the user.
Starmer is doing the right thing on Iran, if imperfectly
by Rob Marchant First, let’s get one thing clear. Those who, in the last couple of weeks, have crowed that Starmer is a bureaucrat standing on ceremony, he is weak, he has broken the Special Relationship, or a hundred other criticisms on Iran, could do with a bit of calm reflection. The Special Relationship, such as it ever was, was broken when Trump made loud plans to annex part of another NATO state and insultingly pretended that our troops had been gun-shy in joint theatres of war.
Labour’s three recent, unforced errors are far more serious than the Budget furore
by Rob Marchant While Westminster has been alight with chatter over whether or not Rachel Reeves misrepresented the facts in the run-up to her Budget, events have been happening in parallel which are likely to have a far longer shadow for Keir Starmer and his crew. Indeed, they are situations which, if left as they are, will continue to have brutal repercussions long after they all leave office.
Southington vigil for Charlie Kirk after Utah shooting filled with religious and patriotic themes
Lisa Pressamarita of South Windsor, right, and Miriam Irizarry of Sterling showing their support for Charlie Kirk on Sunday outside the Cadillac Ranch Restaurant in Southington. Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media People hold candles and cell phones as candles during a vigil for Charlie Kirk on Sunday The Cadillac Ranch Restaurant in Southington.
Southington vigil for Charlie Kirk after Utah shooting filled with religious and patriotic themes
Lisa Pressamarita of South Windsor, right, and Miriam Irizarry of Sterling showing their support for Charlie Kirk on Sunday outside the Cadillac Ranch Restaurant in Southington. Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media People hold candles and cell phones as candles during a vigil for Charlie Kirk on Sunday The Cadillac Ranch Restaurant in Southington.
The EHRC report is conclusive and damning. But with Corbyn suspended, the rebuilding can now start
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Labour slowly turns away from gender ideology, but Scotland continues in its thrall
by Rob Marchant Change happens, to paraphrase Hemingway, gradually and then suddenly. In the wake of April’s historic Supreme Court ruling (that a woman is defined by her biological sex, rather than how (s)he “feels”), it seems the gender ideology edifice is finally starting to crumble, in the UK at least. It cannot crumble soon enough.
Janison awarded contract for New Zealand Assessment and Aromatawai Tool
Highlights New Zealand Ministry of Education appoints Janison as its preferred provider for new Assessment and Aromatawai Tool for schools nationally. Digital-first platform to support twice-yearly assessments for students in Years 3 to 10 across reading, writing, maths, pānui, tuhituhi, and pāngarau.
Update on Selective High School and Opportunity Class Testing
This month, Janison supported the delivery of the 2025 Selective High School and Opportunity Class (OC) placement tests across New South Wales, in partnership with the NSW Department of Education. Testing at 108 locations was delivered as planned. On Friday 2nd May, large crowds at the Quaycentre (Olympic Park), Randwick and Canterbury venues during the Selective High School and Opportunity Class tests led to concerns about student safety and wellbeing.
Make Emptying The Dishwasher Great Again
Rob Marchant · Follow Published in Antidotes for Chimps · 5 min read · -- Photo by RDNE Stock project Like most people, chores bore me. A dishwasher is marvellously efficient at eviscerating food with scalding water, but not so smart that it unloads the dishes for me. I have to go through that monotony every two days. Since buying the appliance three years ago, assuming my wife has done the chore as often as me, I’ve emptied the damn thing about 275 times.
Ruling on UK VAT Groups May Impact Multinationals' Structures
A recent UK First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) decision on VAT groups could significantly affect multinational enterprises with UK operations. The ruling confirms that branches of overseas companies can, in principle, have a fixed establishment and be part of a UK VAT group. This decision is particularly relevant for multinationals, as it aligns with VAT systems in EU member countries, potentially impacting their VAT group structures.
Trump’s win points up just how fragile Labour’s position is
by Rob Marchant When Labour folk woke up on Wednesday morning, almost all of us surely felt a sharp pang of disappointment, accompanied perhaps by a much deeper uneasiness about the state of the world. Of course, we hate it in when “our team” loses but this was an election with potentially far-reaching consequences for us in Europe. Ukraine is surely lost in its current form and Putin emboldened.
Janison Partners With Cambridge University To Deliver Placement Exams
Janison has once again joined forces with Cambridge University Press & Assessment (Cambridge) to deliver 40,000 online placement tests for the New South Wales Department of Education. These placement tests are used to identify gifted students who may thrive in a Selective High School (from Year 7), or may benefit from enrichment in an Opportunity Class (for Year 5). They ensure that the state’s brightest students are being suitably challenged and helped to fulfill their potential.
Neighbourhood Watch Report #5000 [be afraid, be very afraid]
I am delighted to be submitting my five-thousandth neighbourhood watch report — a symbolic act of dedication to keeping my neighbours safe. But delight doesn’t keep the rapists at the door, so I am burying the emotion to make space for more sobering feelings, especially in light of this week’s alarming events.
A pretty good Cabinet, with caveats
by Rob Marchant A Labour government. Let’s first just take a moment to savour those words. Having sat in the Strangers Gallery just over a year ago and somewhat despaired as to the overall quality of the front bench, it looks to me that Starmer seems to have made a pretty good fist of delivering his first Cabinet. The four Great Offices of State are unchanged from their Shadow incarnation: Starmer, Reeves, Lammy and Cooper.
The Tories will not be the only party to collapse on Thursday, so prepare for another election very soon…north of the border
by Rob Marchant Britain’s national media are naturally focused on the story of the day, the Tories’ disastrous polling and the perhaps worse signals given by their own campaign teams. These include the apparent writing off of any Tory seats with majorities more than 10,000 for head-office help and diverting these resources to other seats, including some ministerial seats with majorities of more than double that.
Starmer’s Labour offers genuine hope of restoring Britain’s credibility in the world
by Rob Marchant General elections tend to focus on bread-and-butter domestic issues that affect voters directly. But what would a Labour government look like in terms of its relations with the rest of the world?
The SNP’s impending collapse is an opportunity, but also a warning, for Scottish Labour
by Rob Marchant While the Tories writhe in anguish about how large their defeat is likely to be, spare a thought for another party, which might conceivably end up worse. It’s been difficult to keep track of everything that’s gone wrong for the SNP over the last year or so. First there was the shock resignation of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and her own arrest. Not to mention that of her husband, who was later re-arrested and charged, on suspicion of embezzlement.
Scottish Labour misses a moral imperative and an open goal
by Rob Marchant Yesterday – as many wags observed, fittingly, the first of April – is the first day of possibly the most illiberal piece of legislation in the UK during at least the last three decades (and it has been almost 36 years since the enactment of Section 28, the Margaret Thatcher’s notorious anti-gay legislation, so that pretty much fits). It essentially creates a hate crime, which can be pretty much whatever imagined slight the person who reports it says it is.
Antisemitism is bad enough right now, without trying to frame actual Jewish allies
by Rob Marchant If the horrific news coming out of Israel and Gaza resulting from Hamas atrocities were not sufficient, the last six weeks have been the worst period of antisemitism in living memory, not just in Britain but in many other parts of the world.
The Society for Conservation Biology
We were incredibly shocked by the sudden and untimely death of Dr Tobias Nyumba on Wednesday April 5, 2023 at his home in Leeds, UK. Tobias was a bright—indeed brilliant—academic who was on track to reach the stars at a young age and be a guiding light for Kenya's future. His passion for elephant conservation (Nyumba et al., 2020) and for ensuring there remained space for wildlife as Kenya continued to change and evolve was obvious to anyone who was lucky enough to meet him.
Unfinished revolution: is Labour’s conversion to a party ready for power complete?
by Rob Marchant Philip Gould’s book, The Unfinished Revolution, was an emblematic tome of the late 1990s, documenting New Labour’s lead-up to governing in 1997. But in the 2020s, have we yet reached where we need to be? Polls: clearly good. Policy programme: we are making respectable progress and cutting out the mad, or madly-expensive, stuff. Tick. Tick.
The Corbynite rump is now decamped to the Greens. Good riddance
by Rob Marchant It was always going to happen that – as former MP and party stalwart Tom Blenkinsop would likely have it – the entryists would ultimately exit, once they could see the battle for the soul of the Labour party had been lost. The only question was to where. Would it be the SWP? The Lib Dems? The perhaps ironically-titled “Peace and Justice Project” of the man himself, a man who has famously apologised for numerous dictators and terrorists over his long career?
What the fuck is this and how the fuck do I fold it?
It's overflowing again. Not the dirty washing. That I could handle. With the dirty washing, I know where I stand. I'm talking about the clean clothes. The clothes that I, as a self-proclaimed considerate husband, need to put away. If only it were that easy. The pile contains complexities man could never dream of, precisely because man didn't dream of them. Women did. Please, please explain to me what the fuck this piece of cotton and string is that I hold betwixt my fingers.
Keir’s Spanish lessons
by Rob Marchant It would be easy for Labour to derive some trite answers from the result of Sunday’s general election in Spain, where many international commentators were holding their breath. In the end, wily PM Pedro Sánchez managed to frustrate the advance of the far right – which almost got back into government for the first time in half a century – and may well end up continuing to run the country after all. Hurrah, a victory for Western social democracy.
The coming implosion of the SNP sees Starmer and Sarwar finally inching towards common sense
by Rob Marchant As the SNP ship is seen to drift, perhaps inexorably, towards a disastrous new era with Humza Yousaf currently its most likely captain, we have to ask ourselves how they ended up here. As John Rentoul rightly argued on Twitter last Friday, the party has been in decline for some time, of which Sturgeon’s exit is a symptom rather than a cause.
I Like To Put My Dick Through Fences
It first happened when I was three years old. We were at a baby shower, although I didn’t know that at the time. Apparently it was a delightful back-garden event with balloons and presents and heavenly hors d’oeuvres; with cooing mums and terrible games and an-all-round lovely atmosphere. Right in the middle of that pleasant event, I decided to put my dick through the fence. I don’t know how I reached that decision, or why the fence seemed like a suitable place for my penis.
Africa: Mountain Environments Are Key to Biodiversity - but the Threats to Them Are Being Ignored
Africa: Mountain Environments Are Key to Biodiversity - but the Threats to Them Are Being Ignored analysis By Rob Marchant Mountains are home to more than 85% of the world's amphibian, bird and mammal species. Lowland slopes are rich in animal and plant species. And rugged, high-elevation environments, although lacking such biological diversity, play a key role in maintaining biodiversity in the wider mountain catchment area.
Mountain environments are key to biodiversity - but the threats to them are being ignored
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Mountain environments are key to biodiversity-but the threats to them are being ignored, says ecologist
Mountains are home to more than 85% of the world's amphibian, bird and mammal species. Lowland slopes are rich in animal and plant species. And rugged, high-elevation environments, although lacking such biological diversity, play a key role in maintaining biodiversity in the wider mountain catchment area. The variation in mountain ecosystems also allows humans to extract multiple benefits from them.
Mountain environments are key to biodiversity - but the threats to them are being ignored
Mountains are home to more than 85% of the world’s amphibian, bird and mammal species. Lowland slopes are rich in animal and plant species. And rugged, high-elevation environments, although lacking such biological diversity, play a key role in maintaining biodiversity in the wider mountain catchment area. The variation in mountain ecosystems also allows humans to extract multiple benefits from them.
Fake News Has The Potential To Destroy A Business
November 02, 2021 Fake News Has The Potential To Destroy A Business The first officially recognised newspaper was printed by a German scribe in 1605. Commonly known as the Relation, the newspaper gave an account of current events in Strasbourg, so that its citizens could learn what was happening around them, and make better decisions based on the information. The goal of good quality news has remained the same ever since. It’s created to inform, educate, and entertain (to a degree).
Earth Could Be Alien to Humans by 2500
Unless greenhouse gas emissions drop significantly, warming by 2500 will make the Amazon barren, Iowa tropical and India too hot to live in Credit: Getty Images The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. There are many reports based on scientific research that talk about the long-term impacts of climate change—such as rising levels of greenhouse gases, temperatures and sea levels—by the year 2100.
Our climate projections for 2500 show an Earth that is alien to humans
Disclosure statement Christopher Lyon received funding from the White Rose University Consortium (UK) to support this research while at the University of Leeds in the UK. Andrew P Beckerman received funding from the White Rose University Consortium (UK) to support this research while at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He is also supported by grants NE/T003502/1 and NERC:NE/S001395/1 from the Natural Environment Research Council, UK.
Voting is 'extremely brisk' in Greenwich but 'disappointing' in Stamford in three-way Senate race
23 1of23 Greenwich's Debra Kolman votes in the special election at the District 10 polling center at Glenville School in the Glenville section of Greenwich, Conn. Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Tuesday's election featured a three-way race among Democrat Alexis Gevanter, Republican Ryan Fazio, and petition candidate John Blankley to fill the 36th District State Senate seat formerly held by Alex Kasser.
Starmer’s disastrous Pride
by Rob Marchant It was all going so well. Keir Starmer, having made it intact through his first year of leadership, had managed – admittedly, not entirely by design – to remove the toxic presence of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, from the party and win back a majority on the party’s ruling NEC.
Waiting game: COVID-19 vaccine appointments hard to come by for Greenwich residents
GREENWICH — Lifelong Greenwich resident Diane Brown logged onto her computer at 7 a.m. Monday. By 11 a.m., she had given up. Brown, 58, is one of the 600,000 Connecticut residents who became eligible for the next round of COVID-19 vaccines as of midnight March 1. She, like many others, is anxious to get the shot. First, she tried registering through the Vaccine Administration Management System but had no luck finding an appointment.
How To Become a Masterful Writer, With John Gardner
John Gardner — Image from Writer’s Write It’s difficult to find someone more refreshingly forthright, and with such clarity of expression, than American writing teacher John Gardner. After a long and successful teaching career, Gardner penned a book on how to write great stories — The Art of Fiction — which is held in high acclaim for its precision and effectiveness as a writing guide.
End of term approaches at the Corbynite clown school
Yesterday it was quietly announced that the legal challenge to the EHRC report on anti-Semitism in Labour was to be dropped. This was for the fairly obvious reason that the challenge, attempting to trigger a judicial review, stood no hope whatsoever and was costing money.
The Rotherham abuse is merely yet another facet of the disastrous biraderi politics Labour has nurtured
by Rob Marchant While Westminster’s attention is distracted by Scotland, it is gradually becoming abundantly clear that the grooming of young, white girls by Pakistani-heritage men goes way beyond Rotherham. Last week Uncut’s Kevin Meagher highlighted the next few likely police targets in Greater Manchester and this Left Foot Forward piece gives a first-hand account of grooming in a town in the South. The true shock for many was not so much the crimes, horrific though they were.
We need to talk about where the trans self-id debate is taking Labour
by Rob Marchant Last Tuesday, Deputy Leader Angela Rayner stated her view that Rosie Duffield – yes, the Rosie Duffield who has been a champion of women’s rights and bravely declared her own domestic abuse story to Parliament – should “reflect” on the fact that she had “liked” a tweet which described transgender people as “cross-dressers”.
After Starmer’s first 100 days came Labour’s tipping-point week
by Rob Marchant At the 100-day point in mid-July, there was much favourable chatter about the new leader. Good poll ratings, clear change of position on anti-Semitism, control of the NEC. The Corbynites have been on the back foot and the party looks vaguely presentable again. Continuity Corbynite figurehead Rebecca Long-Bailey was, much to the surprise of many, not forced to resign but humiliatingly sacked from the Shadow Cabinet for tweeting an article containing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Expert: CT beach bans due to COVID an ‘outright discrimination’
Brenden Leydon was a law student when he was turned away from jogging at Greenwich Point because he didn’t live in town. The Stamford resident felt it was so unjust that he filed a lawsuit that led to a 2001 state Supreme Court ruling prohibiting Connecticut municipalities from banning nonresidents from their beaches. But Leydon and others are saying some communities are now using the COVID-19 pandemic to skirt the Supreme Court ruling.
Our tolerance of extremism will do for us – LabourList
Freethinking with Rob Marchant Let me tell you about Raed Salah. Or, rather, let him tell you about himself in the following quote: “You Jews are criminal bombers of mosques, Slaughterers of pregnant women and babies. Robbers and germs in all times, The Creator sentenced you to be loser monkeys, Victory belongs to Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates.” Yes, he is a racist, hate preacher and, as the BBC reports, leading 9/11 conspiracy theorist.
An irrational world | Rob Marchant
Albert Camus faced the absurdity of an irrational world by forging his own meaning in his personal passions. If we're to survive the absence of universal meaning, we must do the same. The universe doesn’t give a shit about you. It lives by a basic, merciless rule: things must change. And there’s nothing you can do about it. The atoms that make up your body and consciousness won’t stick around for long. They want to leave and join something else—a blade of grass, a plastic coke bottle, an aardvark.
Crank Labour is disintegrating before our eyes. Tuesday’s NEC meeting will be critical in ensuring it doesn’t recover
by Rob Marchant As Keir Starmer puts in two commendable first performances at PMQs, so the upper echelons of the Corbynite house of cards, thankfully, continue to collapse.
The Corbynite leadership’s final, scorched-earth, rearguard action
by Rob Marchant It was all going so well: but a matter of days following the election of Keir Starmer as Labour’s new leader and it is convulsing itself over the scandal of a report, leaked widely, containing sensitive, personal information and also making serious allegations about current and past staffers, not to mention various members and non-members.
The party, the party, the party: an eight-point plan to save Labour from itself
We have now had the Shadow Cabinet appointments. While a few have raised eyebrows among moderates – not least the reappearance of that self-same Miliband who helped get us into this mess in the first place – it is not a bad selection from the limited numbers of available MPs. Its significance will be dissected for weeks by the Westminster lobby, because that is what they see – the Westminster face of the party.
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