Great night at Loftus Road with so many of my former colleagues + my sporting hero Stuart Pearce. Proud
@BetGameCouncil
supported the event for
@TeamSportsAid
.
It means we’ve now raised over £6 million for a whole range of charities since I started at BGC
I have no envy. I don’t want to send my kids to private schools. Equally, I don’t begrudge others who choose to do so. I just don’t see why there should be tax breaks, paid for by ordinary tax payers who realistically don’t have that choice, to enable a privileged few who do.
Can’t understand why the public aren’t flocking to Labour in their droves. After all, Labour just spent a week on primetime TV flying Palestinian flags + talking about deselecting their own MPs & telling us why Militant were right in 1985. Don’t they follow Owen Jones on twitter?
When I was at No10, I remember getting cabinet ministers to issue some public statement defending us - I forget what the issue was, but it was suitably fawning & embarrassingly loyal. To his great credit (& my amusement) the message back to me from Alan Johnson was “f*ck off”.
I’ve watched a lot of broadcasts from No 10 over the years. I stood behind the camera plenty of times as they were being filmed. But you won’t see anything as good as this. Pretty amazing stuff.
It is hard to find the words to express my debt to the NHS for saving my life.
The efforts of millions of people across this country to stay home are worth it. Together we will overcome this challenge, as we have overcome so many challenges in the past.
#StayHomeSaveLives
30 years ago, my Dad went to buy a new washing machine. Ours had packed up. With 6 of us at home, a replacement was essential. Dad instead walked in with this £450 Technics stereo. As a teenage music fan, I was delighted. Mum was less amused 🤬Today my Dad gave the Technics to me
Meet Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army. The year is 1974. Lieutenant Onoda has spent nearly three decades holding out in the jungle on an island in the Philippines, refusing to accept that the Japanese lost the Second World War back in 1945...
Obviously I blame the Labour leadership for this. But leadership is collective. I blame everyone who put Corbyn on the ballot paper, backed his politics, propped him up as a shadow minister, acted as cheerleader for him, turned a blind eye to antisemitism etc. This is your defeat
Such a dishonest position. Practically this means “I can only countenance intervention if the Russians give permission at the Security Council.” Which he knows full well they won’t. Alleviating extreme humanitarian suffering provides the legal & moral justification for action.
My six year old this evening: “Daddy, do you know a song called ‘Imagine’? It’s by John Lennon. We did at school and I really like it. Can you find it on your phone for me?” Son, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
Look at this fucking arsehole: demanding “clarification” as to why I was at the Brit Awards. Not that it is any of your business, but I’m happy to clarify that I was there “for the awards,” you trolling fake news nob head.
Labour to ban private schools. Means heightened legitimate public interest in which Lab figures went to private school & who sends their kids to one. Normally not an issue at an election. It will be now. And whatever most people think about private education, they hate hypocrisy.
Well done to my old gaffer
#gordonbrown
for having the decency, moral courage + sense of responsibility and anger to speak out. That there are still so many senior Labour figures who have remained silent on this issue is depressing and shameful.
A full house for "What can we learn from the Corbyn years?" ✊
@RichardBurgon
: "Voters don't want flags, pints and fish and chips - they want transformative policies"
@VikCR_
: "We need to be ready to fight racism, imperialism & the climate crisis"
#TWT21
You are not the “press”. You are a fake news hard left blog site. And you wouldn’t know what the public interest is if someone shoved it up your arse. Happy Christmas.
Given the nature of Labour’s Euro-fanatic candidates list and the crucial juncture we have reached in the fight for the full implementation of the
#Brexit
referendum result and for one-time only I will be supporting
@Nigel_Farage
in next months elections.
@TheBrexitPartly
To be clear: I was in Labour because I grew up in a working class pit village. I spent 20 years working for Labour in govt (where we did great things) & Parliament. I was never a cheerleader for Corbynism that poisoned Labour with anti-Jewish racism & gave the Tories a landslide.
Whatever Jeremy Corbyn's mistakes, it's scandalous that some of his most ardent critics were ever in the Labour party. From my new book THIS LAND, out soon.
As the great John Lennon sang: “A working class hero is something to be...” The posher you are, the more hard left you can afford to be. Ever thus has been the case. Murray, Milne, Schneider, Corbyn himself - all posh boys. Real working class people can’t afford this bollocks.
🚨 JUST IN 🚨
SA U19 captain David Teeger has been relieved of his duties ahead of the U19 showpiece event set to be held in SA. A new captain will be announced in due course.
#CricketTwitter
A thread on the Labour attack ads as someone who used to run the Lab operation: 1. All parties have an attack operation, so let’s not pretend they don’t. Holding opponents to account on policy - robustly - is part of the democratic process. It’s not for shrinking violets.
“They’ve entertained us, this England team…They’ve given us hope. They’ve given us something to smile about, something to be proud of. It’s just a devastating way to lose after all they’ve done for us”. Well said
@alanshearer
. And well done
@England
#eng
#ThreeLions
#EURO2020
“I regret I did not look more closely at the image.” This is the “I’m just a fucking moron” defence. That may be true, but no one can seriously believe anything other than he saw nothing wrong with publicly displaying an obviously antisemitic image. The rest are weasel words.
Labour won’t defeat Nigel Farage by being mealy-mouthed and sounding as if we half agree with him. We won’t win if we sit on the fence about the most crucial issue that has faced our country for many generations.
Bollocks.
McCartney played 39 songs at Glasto - only 5 were recorded this century. The next ‘newest’ song other than those was from 41 years ago (Here Today 1981). The other 33 were recorded from 1958-1975.
Leadership candidates should stick to arguing about tax and defence etc
Penny Mordaunt says that Britain has lost its sense of self
She compares it to Paul McCartney's set at Glastonbury - 'he was playing new tunes but what we really wanted was the good old stuff'
Very proud to support
@DavidGauke
as an Independent to be my local MP. He is a thoroughly decent & patriotic man. He’s been an excellent constituency MP & in Parliament he’s had the courage to stand up for what he believes in - like warning about the impact of a no deal Brexit.
My re-election campaign has the support of people from different political backgrounds. Today I was delighted to get the backing of Berkhamsted resident (and former Labour MP and Shadow Cabinet member)
@MichaelDugher
The most damning line here: “Jeremy Corbyn was also present but sources say he sat in silence and unmoved as Mr Willsman spoke.” Silence is complicity. History will record that Labour had a leader in Jeremy Corbyn who was utterly complicit in antisemitism. Shameful
Remember Labour members: if you see any bullying, misogyny or harassment, you can always take your case to the NEC. This guy is the chair of it. Good luck.
I’m not an expert, but I’m not sure “braced for a kicking” is what happens to resurgent mid-term opposition parties on the verge of returning to power...
To all those former Labour staff members who spoke out on
#Panorama
tonight, the proud history of the Labour movement will one day record your bravery in fighting against antisemitism and in standing up for the decent Labour values that this once great party used to believe in.
Very proud Dad today: My 12 year old daughter, who has piano and classical guitar lessons, asked me to teach her McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’ (my party piece) on the guitar. So I did. And she picked it up so fast! What a beautiful thing - and a memory I’ll cherish forever.
Imagine the justifiable outrage if he played down racism against black people by saying sometimes people in politics do cross a line, get confused & “dip into” racism against black people + that they just need to be more “careful in their use of language”
Three point plan for Labour. 1. A members ballot on Remain/Reform as the new line. 2. Sack the officials responsible for this fiasco. 3. Defend Corbyn against the inevitable coup. More from me tomorrow - sign our petition here
2. The Tories can usually rely on most of the national press to do their attacking for them. So spare me the hypocrisy, crocodile tears and bullshit complaints in The Times or the Mail about “Labour aggressive attacks”. The dice is historically firmly loaded against Labour.
Jon is right that Blair was “a historical aberration”. He won 3 big majorities enabling more practical social change than any govt since Attlee (another winning, mixed economy Labour pragmatist). In contrast, what Jon describes as Labour’s “immensely popular” 2017 manifesto lost.
Labour MP Diane Abbott's statement has been reported on. Watch full the 90 second pre-recorded statement, note: "the claims that Russia is the aggressor should be treated sceptically the destabilization in the entire region comes from a continued Eastward expansion of NATO"
Labour history will record the greatness of
@IanAustinMP
: principled & brave - speaking out against extremism & racism against Jews + standing up for the traditional decent values that used to define Labour. Sadly history will be less kind to many others in the PLP
#CowardsFlinch
As a Lab MP, I used to attend meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party. But I’ve never felt that the fight against antisemitism should be left to Jews alone. So tomorrow I’ll proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with my good friends in the Jewish Community to say
#EnoughIsEnough
#EnoughIsEnough
We call on members of our community and all those who oppose antisemitism to join us in Parliament Square at 5:30pm to show solidarity.
I’ve disagreed with lots of things this & all previous UK govts have done. But for the first time in my life, including having spent most of the last 20 years in either govt or parliament, I am genuinely experiencing a new emotion: I’m ashamed to be British tonight
#Afghanistan
What goes around…
When I was asked by Corbyn to leave his shadow cabinet Cat told the media: “He is perfectly within his rights to do that. He is trying to realign his top team to match more what the PLP is & more what the party is”.
I’m sure Keir is only trying to do the same
It’s been an honour to serve on the Labour front bench since 2015 but I’m looking forward to spending even more time at home here in Lancashire and standing up for my constituents.
Well said
@IanAustinMP
. It’s time that Owen - the boring, pious, self-appointed moral conscience of the movement, who has never been elected or held a surgery in his life - is called out for what he is 🐈
🚨 BREAKING: Rishi Sunak's former special adviser is plotting to remove him as prime minister
Will Dry, who conducted polling for Sunak and quit in November last year, is working with a secretive group of 20 former advisers and MPs to force Sunak out
[
@thetimes
]
Very sad to hear about Frank Dobson. I was very lucky to work for him once. Years later, he heard I was a bit down. So he called me up, took me for a walk round the British Museum and then out to lunch. Such a kind guy. Wicked company. And he made a real difference to people RIP
WE’RE STOPPING other HEAVY-HANDED MEASURES (that were not going to happen):
❌Turning the M1 into a cycle lane
❌Making vegan food compulsory in schools
❌Only allowing people to have 1 child
❌Forcing pubs to close at 6pm
❌Fines for anyone taking a shower for more than 3 mins
We wish to point out that any similarities between the “posh, public school educated” Rory Stewart and the “posh, public school educated” Jeremy Corbyn and Mr Corbyn’s “posh, public school educated” advisers is entirely coincidental.
Rory Stewart threatens alternative parliament to avoid no-deal>That we find ourselves cheering a posh,public school educated,Willem Dafoe lookalike for next PM tells us what a mess our politics is in.Chosen by a 160k people. That’s less even than ‘the few’
Len McCluskey has got more front than Blackpool. He’s the architect-in-chief of Corbyn’s leadership. This disaster for Labour is as much down to him as anyone else. Ironic he blames “incontinent” promises, given how much sh*t McCluskey comes out with himself.
EXCLUSIVE: Len McCluskey blames Labour election disaster on: 'incontinent' mess of promises voters didn't believe, Corbyn's failure to apologise for anti-Semitism and most of all a London-centrice 'metropolitan' worldview
Not sure some Lab MPs should be attacking
@ChukaUmunna
for changing his political affiliation. Some have gone on quite a political journey themselves. I remember they used to slag off Jeremy to me, but now they’re born again Corbynites. Wonder what they’ll be after the election..
7. Lastly a question: Are Lab surrendering the moral high ground? It’s delusional (& vain) to think voters believe Lab has some sort of moral high ground. If you want to help people/deliver change, you have to win. So the real question for Labour is: how much do they want to win?
I have known
@IanAustinMP
for years. We have worked together, campaigned together, even argued occasionally. But a more decent human being you will never meet. And I have never met a more dedicated constituency MP. He cares so much about the people he grew up with. Terribly sad.
Interesting twitter spat here: one is a leading campaigner on antisemitism who spent many, many years serving Labour in govt to transform the lives of millions. The other is someone who couldn’t even manage a year as a junior press officer in Jeremy Corbyn’s office
#NoCompetition
@mattzarb
@marievanderzyl
@BoardofDeputies
As for “backbencher”, let me very clear: there are literally no circumstances in which I would be part of a frontbench led by Jeremy.
But I was proud to serve as a member of the party staff, special adviser, PPS, whip & minister in theee Labour govts that transformed the country
Corbyn was not simply naive, he was wilfully ignorant: born out of vanity, arrogance & petulance (believing he knows what’s best for the workers) + a complete lack of intellectual curiosity (to put it politely) & a life where he’s been utterly out-of-touch with working people.
Labour’s defeat stemmed from Corbyn’s naivety about politics and inability to grasp what motivates both lifelong Labour and swing voters alike, writes Lord Mandelson, reflecting on Corbyn's leadership.
Hardly anybody liked your plans. That’s why you inflicted such a devastating defeat on Labour. You might want to worry about why so many hard-pressed, working class, traditional Labour voters in former heartlands so comprehensively rejected your leadership & your politics...
#OTD
2000. On Frost, Tony Blair pledges an extra £12bn for the
#NHS
- to bring spending up to EU average by 2006.
It resulted in one of the biggest ever increases for the NHS - exceeded by the £24bn extra in 04/05 - with nurses also receiving a £1k pay rise.
Tonight, City Hall is lit with the colors of the
#British
flag as a token of solidarity with our partner city
#London
and with the British people as a whole. 🇬🇧
I’m not sure this is the case. Suspect Jeremy in 1939 would have argued that the League of Nations needed more time to investigate “alleged” German aggression in Poland and called for the violence “on all sides” to cease etc etc etc
Diane Abbott, asked about the circumstances in which Labour would support military action, says “the Second World War”. She refuses four times to find any circumstances now
I never realised just how popular the Home Sec is. But the way so many parliamentarians have unilaterally, suddenly and spontaneously burst into praise for her is quite something. Is she about to get a Nobel Prize? The good thing is that it definitely doesn’t look orchestrated.
Not sure that this is an election-winning pitch:
1. It’s his fault we blocked Brexit.
2. We’ll get it sorted - in another 6 months or so.
3. We can’t tell you if we’re in favour of remain or leave.
4. But we will carry out what you decide next time (but not last time obviously)
Boris Johnson has spent months promising we'd leave the EU today. The failure to do so is his and his alone. Labour will get Brexit sorted by giving the people the final say within six months with the choice of a credible leave deal or remain. And we'll carry out what you decide.
Jeremy Corbyn has denied bullying exists on a "wide scale" in the Labour Party, telling Sky News he disagrees with comments made by his deputy leader.
Read the full interview here:
#OTD
2000. Gordon Brown's spending review commits the gov to £43 billion extra in public spending. It amounts to the biggest ever NHS and education rise. Includes a 20% increase to 'neglected' transport infrastructure. Brown admits: "It is time to invest in the causes of poverty"
Well that was all very unexpected I have to say.
A massive thank you to the readers and everyone at
@angling_times
for the support, Outstanding Contribution to Angling.
Humbled, flattered and really rather excited.
A honour.
This is a great GIF... Really enjoyed
@MWGoneFishing
tonight with
@Feargal_Sharkey
. Well done that man. Great fun + a good chance to highlight the scandal about what’s happening to our chalk streams. As my mate says: “And the
@EnvAgency
does what exactly?” 🎣 💩
I gave up going to the pub for lent. It was difficult start, but I’m really proud of the way I got stuck into it eventually. In fact, I haven’t been to a pub for nearly a month. I always knew I had the self-discipline to achieve this. I may even stick at it for while after
#Lent
Page one elephant traps for a politician paying tribute to someone who has just died: 1. It’s not about you. 2. Don’t make a political point. Apart from that, this is a great tribute. Well done to the staff member who wrote it.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of Paddy Ashdown.
He represented Yeovil very well and I got to know him in the 1980s when we often found ourselves voting in parliament together against damaging government policies.
He will be greatly missed.
I’ve known
@angelasmithmp
for years. She &
@shefstevewilson
have helped tens of thousands of people in Barnsley & Sheffield - as opposed to the arduous public service that is writing occasional online commentary for the Guardian... (And using 6 asterisk in a tweet looks deranged)
There are certain right-wing Labour MPs and sympathetic commentators who now treat *any* scrutiny, *any* criticism, *any* challenges from the left as either inciting abuse, or just straightforward abuse.
It's sinister, and it undermines the fight against genuine online abuse.
I’ve written some terrible lines-to-take in my time. I’ve delivered some shockers too. But this might be the worst one I’ve ever heard.
(Loved the “she can’t wait 25 years to go for a swim” retort).
What is sickening is this tweet. The Royal British Legion do amazing things to help veterans all year long. We spend money on poppies to help that work + as a mark of respect & remembrance for the service & sacrifice of our veterans & the fallen. This guy is not a patriot.
Absolutely sickening that as a country Britain spends £45 million on poppies to feel good and help a worthy cause while 13,000 ex veterans are homeless.
When was the last time the Royal British Legion challenged the government on homelessness and public services? Joke.
Only around 260 boys leave Eton each year. Britain has a population of 65 million, half of whom are female. 93% of children are educated in state schools. Trying looking there for “new talent.”
No, I can’t imagine a crowd chanting “Oh Keir Starmer”. But I can imagine him winning a general election. I would have thought that most people in Labour have had enough with the “excitement” of record defeats.