Murrell Panic
Nicola Sturgeon was one of the most enduringly dominant figures in 21st century UK politics.
But after accusations that had already effectively ended her political career, it now seems her legacy has been permanently tarnished by her ‘estranged’ husband Peter Murrell’s admission this week that he embezzled £400,000 from the couple’s own political party’s coffers.
It’s been an undignified fall from grace for Sturgeon, and whatever shred of honour and respectability this once mighty political force may have been clinging to has now been obliterated by the sheer hilarity of the spending spree Murrell embarked on with his ill-gotten gains.
Several media outlets painstakingly listed the cars, watches, pens, Le Creuset, video games and boxsets to which Murrell treated himself. He reportedly spent £275 on fancy chopsticks.
As well as the obvious damage that proximity to such large-scale sleaze will do to the tattered remains of Sturgeon’s reputation (notwithstanding her supposed ignorance of it), there’s an unseriousness to it that will be excruciating for the earnest former first minister.
As for Murrell he is behind bars and being simultaneously (and gleefully) painted in the media as either a self-indulgent weirdo or a tragicomic loser attempting to compensate for the fact that his wife was more important than him with little treats (and big treats to be fair).
The fact that it’s party members’ hard-earned money is no joke, but, by consensus, the cartoonish triviality, superficiality and materialism of the whole caper, sadly, has been enough to reduce even the once-formidable Nicola Sturgeon from a giant of the political landscape to a joke we will occasionally re-tell for a cheap laugh.
Blah blah Blair
Tony Blair this week accused Labour of “playing with fire” over the Starmer leadership crisis, releasing a 5,000-word essay that ended with a 10-point plan to return the party to what he calls the ‘radical centre’.
With Larry Ellison’s foundation having pledged at least £257 million to the Tony Blair Institute, Blair’s anti-net-zero stance reads less like thoughtful policy and more like a lobbying effort on behalf of its funders. Ellison has expanded TBI to roughly 1,000 employees across 45 countries, with the institute’s research closely aligned with his commercial interests. Blair’s Labour affiliation has long been used to give TBI the credibility of a genuine think tank; this latest essay may have achieved the opposite.
His point that Starmer has “no coherent plan for the country” will resonate with many, but Blair’s own complicated legacy as Prime Minister has blunted his authority to say so. Some of the criticism is arguably fair (that Labour should settle its policy positions before staging a leadership contest), but it has been largely drowned out by the louder argument that Blair is advocating positions that run directly counter to the party’s own traditions.
Blair continues to describe himself as Labour, a framing that appears designed to preserve political relevance. But sustained alignment with right-wing donors and causes has made that label harder to defend. In the court of public opinion, questions of authenticity tend to linger. At some point, the distance between the brand and the behaviour becomes the story, and on current evidence, that point may already have passed.
The Departed Are Staying on the Call Sheet
They say that three things in life are certain: death, taxes and change. Oh, and AI will reboot you.
AI loves nostalgia and hates goodbyes - so with AI celebrity holograms becoming evermore present, it seems the afterlife has hit big with their new budget.
The BBC’s well-known topical debate show, Question Time, made somewhat of a statement with the teaser for their latest episode on AI.
BBC Question Time@bbcquestiontime
Tonight Question Time features an imagined AI panel made up of historical figures who shaped the modern world Watch the #bbcqt AI special now on @BBCiPlayer and @BBCNews to see what our REAL panel have to say on AI, including how it can blur the lines between reality and fakery
8:03 PM · May 28, 2026 · 1.99M Views
719 Replies · 46 Reposts · 556 Likes
The short clip saw Fiona Bruce introduce her AI-generated panel guests: Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Frida Kahlo, and Emmeline Pankhurst. Whilst the impressive yet awkward famous-faced clones didn’t stick around, being replaced by real technology experts, it cannot help but suggest that this is just the start.
This also comes around the same time that it was announced that Ozzy Osbourne, who died last year, will be collaborating with tech companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to create a life-size avatar of him. Unsurprisingly, fans of the Black Sabbath frontman are not too happy with the deal, labelling it as disrespectful. But they really needn’t worry as Jack, Ozzy’s son, reassured the public on his YouTube livestream that, “it’s gonna be so tasteful what we’re doing. It’s not gonna be f**king lame”.
This ever so slightly contradicts Jack’s initial comments on the wonders of the technology, where he said, “you could shoot a template for a commercial…literally prompt what you want Digital Ozzy to do in that commercial and you just drop it in. It’s that simple now.”
Drop dead, drop in. Potato, potahto.
The rapid rise of technology and AI is hardly a shock to anyone, but there is no denying that when mortality becomes negotiable, a new era is well and truly on its way.
Only time will tell how far the living dead become integrated into our culture. But for now, we have Ozzy’s trajectory from the “Prince of Darkness” to commercial icon… a “tasteful” commercial icon, though of course.
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