The Sunday Ishmael: 08/02/2026

"From those to whom much has been given, much should be taken."

No, mrs ishmael, that's not quite right.

Okay. How about this? "To those who have taken much; up against the wall, motherfucker."

Even worse, mrs ishmael.

Oh, Mandy, you came and you took without giving......

The political and aristocratic classes have been having a rough time since the Epstein files were released. Morgan McSweeney has now been offered up in a bid to preserve Keir Starmer's leadership.

Isaiah 53:4

The inscription on the frame of The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt is a quote from Isaiah 53:4: "Surely he hath borne our Griefs and carried our Sorrows; Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD and afflicted." 

Who he? 

An Irish bloke. He was born in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland. His grandda', Michael McSweeney, was IRA and won a medal for his service. His aunt was a councillor for Fine Gael and his first cousin, Clare Mungovan, was special adviser to the Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar. He joined the Labour Party in 1997 and four years later was given the role firstly of intern receptionist and then in the party's attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank, where he input data into Peter Mandelson's "Excalibur" database. Mandy, of course, inspires love and loyalty amongst old Labour, on account of his grandfather being Herbert Morrison - maybe Mandy and Morgan bonded over their notorious granddads? Anyway, Morgan, whilst never standing for election, wormed his way into being Prime Minister-adjacent by becoming the fixer for Labour.  
In 2017, he formed Labour Together during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, in order to replace Corbyn and remove the left-wingers, correctly identifying them as unelectable. He chose Keir Starmer to replace Corbyn as leader and led Starmer's successful Labour leadership campaign and then his successful campaign in the 2024 general election. McSweeney fundraised for Labour Together during his role as company secretary. He failed to report most of the donations the group received from December 2017 onward, amounting to more than £730,000. The undeclared donations as well as additional incorrect information declared by McSweeney were investigated by the Electoral Commission; Labour Together was fined £14,250 for over 20 breaches of electoral law in September 2021, which the Commission stated was "towards the high end of the scale". (Conservatives do sex, Labour do the money scandals).

In February 2026, it was reported that Labour Together paid the PR firm APCO Worldwide to spy on journalists critical of Keir Starmer. These included reporters from The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Declassified UK.  Paul Holden had previously revealed this in his 2025 book: The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy. Here's the blurb:

 "Based on Labour Party files, including some never before publicly seen, this explosive investigation lays bare the intrigues, stratagems, and deceits that helped deliver Sir Keir Starmer to Downing Street. Paul Holden shows how Keir Starmer has been the frontman for a ruthless, right-wing political project headed by Morgan McSweeney, now chief of staff in Number 10 and arguably the most powerful man in Britain..... 

(His) machinations were made possible by financial donations that McSweeney did not disclose—a violation of the law that arguably subverted Britain’s democratic system....This is a sordid tale that includes hacked emails, anonymous smears, dodgy dossiers, cynical stitch-ups, and staggering hypocrisy. It traces the Labour Party’s transformation into a censorial, authoritarian machine, and sounds the alarm about the possible corruption of British politics by dark money."

The Times noted that "Those who question his authority inevitably find Starmer sides with McSweeney." According to Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund of The Times, "McSweeney and his acolytes saw themselves as insurgents within the Labour Party. As long as Starmer’s private office was functional, they could control the party’s politics themselves — without interference from small-minded Westminster villagers. They knew that Starmer’s real life — his true self — was not the work they shared with him. Their political project was predicated on this unpolitical leader doing as he was told."

As we've all noticed, Starmer is really not a leader. Nor is he at all popular. McSweeney was his puppet master, and, if he has really gone, who will give Starmer his instructions now? Not that the instructions were any good. Why did McSweeney want Mandy appointed as U.K. Ambassador to the States? Well, they have been chums for years. McSweeney was fully aware of Mandy's involvement with Epstein and thought that the connections Mandy had formed through Epstein would be useful. Starmer just did as he was told. McSweeney said the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson to the top diplomatic job was “wrong”, and said he took “full responsibility” for advising Sir Keir Starmer to go ahead.
But without his fixer, how long will Starmer survive?
Pity poor old Pat McFadden, wheeled out on the Laura Kuenssberg Show this morning, to staunchly declare that there was no point in Sacking McSweeney. Events have proven him wrong - clearly Starmer thought there was every point in having a Scapegoat handy.  Have you noticed how increasingly like a condemnatory bespectacled tortoise McFadden is becoming? 

He's only 60. Really. Honest, not invent. Must be  a hard life in the Labour Party.

If you needed any more proof, look no further than Brian Wilson (no, not the mad angel from the Beach Boys) the former Scottish Labour MP for Cunninghame North. Look at the state of him, as he appeared on the BBC's Scotland Sunday Show in his athleisure wear.

Right, okay, he never was a looker - see -

but now he looks like a resident on a day out from the dementia centre. The BBC had lured him onto the show to talk about the Mandy Scandy, and maybe he thought he could settle a few scores.

 For those of us without long political memories, Wilson was a trade minister under Mandelson in 1998. He got right into it, declaring that

 "warning signs" were not heeded in the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US,  "disregarding of subjective evidence" and he "certainly wouldn't have made him ambassador to Washington". Warming to his theme, Wilson said anyone from his "generation of government" would have warned against making Mandelson ambassador because of the "baggage he had accumulated".

Gary Robertson, clearly emboldened by Wilson calling Mandelson a baggage, decided to sneak in a parallel and attempted to interrogate Wilson, who is interim Celtic chairman, about the abuse scandal at Celtic Boys Club. In November 2016 dozens of former footballers revealed that they had been sexually abused as children. 

Former Celtic Boys Club manager James Torbett had been found guilty in 1998 of shameless and indecent conduct with three juvenile players between October 1967 and March 1974, when he was sacked, and imprisoned for 30 months. He then returned to the club and continued to abuse young boys in the 1980s and 90s, and was found guilty in 2018 of a further five offences against three boys and in 2023 of another four charges against a13-year-old.

Former Celtic Boys Club chairman Gerald King was convicted of five charges of using lewd and libidinous practises towards five victims between August 1984 and April 1989, and found guilty of taking indecent pictures of children in February 1987.

Frank Cairney, a former coach and manager, was found guilty of nine charges of sexual abuse in 2018, receiving a four-year jail sentence, and was due to stand trial on another three indecent assaults in January 2023 but was deemed unfit for trial. It was later determined by a judge that on the balance of probabilities there was no case to acquit him.

Jim McCafferty, a coach and kit man, admitted to 12 charges related to child sex abuse against 10 teenage boys between 1972 and 1996 in 2019. He had also worked with Hibs and Falkirk, and died in prison in 2022.

Last year the club settled 24 cases brought as part of a class action lawsuit by former youth players. 

Brian Wilson indignantly refuted any suggestion of a parallel between his club and the revelations of sexual abuse of female children by Epstein and his extensive circle of wealthy, powerful, male chums. Not Mandelson, obviously - as he said the other week on the Laura Kuenssberg Show "I'm a gay boi and didn't notice anything."

It was tense. I had hoped that Brian Wilson would rip off his mic and storm out of the studio. No such luck. He said: "I'm not going to talk about Celtic".

Gary Robertson then pushed a bit about the club's attempts to deny liability by arguing that the Boys Club was a separate entity and that it was therefore not liable.

Mr Wilson got tenser and went with the victim line: "I'm very happy to talk about societal issues, of course victims should always be taken seriously."

Sensing an opening, in jumped Gary and asked if that had always been the case at Celtic. Visibly agitated, Wilson responded: "Sorry, I think I was asked in here to talk about the Labour Party and Epstein. You'll only see the connection if you try to make it."

Well, yes. You won't see a connection if you refuse to see a connection. A bit like the Pakistani rape gangs preying on white girls in all our cities. If you don't look, you won't see it.

They are all giving lip service to the P.R. victim line - clearly imposed on politicians and royalty alike, even Prince Edward, who is, as far as we know, the least dishonourable of the Windsor Brothers. 

There are four splendid anthologies of the writings of stanislav and mr ishmael, compiled by his friend, mr verge, the house filthster. You can buy them from Amazon or Lulu. Here's how:

Honest Not Invent, Vent Stack, Ishmael’s Blues, and the latest, Flush Test (with a nice picture of the late, much lamented, Mr Harris of Lanarkshire taking a piss on a totem pole) are available from Lulu and Amazon. If you buy from Amazon, it would be nice if you could give a review on their website.

Ishmaelites wishing to buy a copy from lulu should follow these steps 

please register an account first, at lulu.com. This is advisable because otherwise paypal seems to think it's ok to charge in dollars, and they then apply their own conversion rate, which might put the price up slightly for a UK buyer. Once the new account is set up, follow one of the links below (to either paperback or hardback) or type "Ishmael’s Blues" into the Lulu Bookstore search box. Click on the “show explicit content” tab, give the age verification box a date of birth such as 1 January 1960, and proceed.

Link for Hardcover : https://tinyurl.com/je7nddfr

Link for Paperback : https://tinyurl.com/3jurrzux

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ishmael-smith/flush-test/paperback/product-9yjvn7.html?q=Flush+Test&page=1&pageSize=4

At checkout, try WELCOME15 in the coupon box, which (for the moment) takes 15% off the price before postage. If this code has expired by the time you reach this point, try a google search for "Lulu.com voucher code" and see what comes up.

With the 15% voucher, PB (including delivery to a UK address) should be £16.84; HB £27.04.

In the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue Hunt wrote that "the scene was painted at Sodom, on the margin of the salt-encrusted shallows of the Dead Sea. The mountains beyond are those of Edom."

You remember Sodom? One of the five Cities of the Plain. God sorted them out good and proper.