👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 7 February 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
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🌫️ Today, pretty much universally wet early on, misty, then wet again, in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and even Inverness. Tomorrow will be wet, all round. In London, things will dry out later today, and tomorrow will be overcast by dry again. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Brown’s regret over Mandeslon | One thing Starmer could say to defend himself | Where’s AI taking us? | Should you watch the Letby doc? | Unlikely stars in new Taylor Swift video | A tower home in Buckie
🍸 Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown writes today of how he “deeply regrets” bringing Peter Mandelson into government, as a police investigation into allegations against the former US Ambassador and Labour government minister continues with raids on two addresses in England.
Brown says he finds “it hard to find words to express my revulsion at what has been uncovered” - “That a member of the cabinet at the time was thinking more of himself and his rich friends is a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country. That the leaks of sensitive information were going to someone we now know was the ringmaster of a cabal of abusers and enablers sickens me.”
Brown notes that two-thirds of the British public believe politicians are out primarily for themselves: that “every few years” we suffer a major scandal that appears to prove that, from Profumo to 80s sleaze to MPs’ expenses to Partygate to Mandelson. “The case is now unanswerable for comprehensive and immediate action to clean up our politics with new rules for politicians and public servants, as well as powerful new institutions and checks to enforce them.”
He includes some good ideas in his piece - not least, the public vetting of new government ministers. But, trouble is, a lot of rules already exist, not least the Nolan (Seven) Principles of Public Life, which cover the need to - y’know - act with integrity, accountability and selflessness. They don’t appear to bother the likes of Mandelson. And we wouldn’t have learnt of his duplicity without the extraordinary data dump of the Epstein files.
For what it’s worth, I often wonder if we’ve created a political realm that’s too poisonous for many to even think of entering. I mean: who in their right mind? Maybe we need to look at how young people are recruited into politics: do we need to widen access, train them, increase competition, to encourage more bright young things to enter the political pool, and somehow dilute out the nasties? Is better competition in public service the answer? (Gordon Brown in the Guardian)
(Do hit reply and share your thoughts on how all this is fixed… if there are a few, I’ll round them up next week, anonymised as appropriate).
Upgrade to read the full Party Line, and read about what experts are saying on AI, the surprising cast list of Taylor Swift’s new video, and a beautiful tower home in the north of Scotland.
PLUS: you’ll find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend - with a particularly strong selection this week, whether you’re in to the Winter Olympics or not…
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