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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 18 April 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the weekend.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: You’ve got the risk of scattered showers today across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, but tomorrow will be dry - even sunny - all round, if cool. London will be mild and sunny both days. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Will the Mandelson scandal do for Starmer? | Strait is open - but for how long? | The world’s best video game | How internet sleuths find out where you are | Trump’s blasphemous kitsch | ‘Introvert’s dream’ for sale
🍸 Is the Mandelson scandal fatal for Prime Minister Keir Starmer? My initial hunch was no: that he’d survived the worst of it, and the latest revelations and his rather flimsy “nobody told me” defence - while a bad look - wouldn’t quite tip him over the edge.
But timing is everything, and the forthcoming Scottish, Welsh and local elections cast it all in a different, and more febrile light: it opens the possibility that, with Labour facing a trouncing across the board, pressure grows for Starmer to “do the decent thing” and quit simply to avoid those votes, early next month, becoming a referendum on his performance.
And things may get worse before showing any signs of getting better.
Starmer now faces two “judgment days”: on Monday, he’ll make a statement to MPs on the scandal. On Tuesday, Olly Robbins - the senior civil servant he sacked, who’s said to be “furious” at being forced to quit - has been invited to give evidence to the Commons foreign affairs select committee.
My hunch remains that Starmer will struggle through. But it could get very embarrassing indeed for him: a PM kept in the dark, struggling against his civil servants and his party. As one senior MP says to the Guardian today, “I would be amazed if Olly didn’t keep receipts”. (Guardian)
Upgrade to read the full Party Line, including…
The latest on the Strait of Hormuz (online trackers show some movement of shipping today)
The Bafta gaming awards offer one very clear winner
A fascinating video on how internet sleuths (or weirdos) find out your precise location
Some (more) blasphemous images featuring Donald Trump - and some very funny comments
And a beautiful house and island up for sale, with some work to be done.
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend - on a particularly strong weekend for TV sport.
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