Oliver Kamm
@OliverKamm
Followers
34K
Following
5K
Media
2K
Statuses
26K
Journalist, author & linguist. Rep’d by @JanklowUK.
London
Joined June 2010
In June, @TheLondonLib hosted an event arguing that Shakespeare may not have been the true author of the works bearing his name. I protested. At the High Court today, Dr Ros Barber, a prominent academic proponent of this theory, apologised to me for a series of false allegations.
22
32
184
She is absolutely right because her grammar is not “incorrect”. Her speech contains non-Standard constructions, and these are no less “proper English” than the PM’s dialect or mine. It’s an immense benefit to public life that she stands her ground n this.
🗣️ Angela Rayner has revealed she refuses to allow Hansard to correct her grammar in Parliament in order to stay true to her working-class roots
236
2K
17K
It is not very sensible that the MPs concerned have fallen silent. When you mess up this badly, the apology needs to be abject & immediate.
Health minister Nadine Dorries and two other Tory MPs share edited 'far-right' video smearing Keir Starmer.
177
1K
6K
I can recall when Conservative MPs closed ranks round Neil Hamilton to change the law to enable him to sue @guardian (it did not end well for him). Today’s events are far worse: a party tearing up the rule book to protect one of their own. Decent Tories are, I know, appalled.
812
1K
5K
No, Sadiq did exactly the right thing. London is a great cosmopolitan capital city and his message of openness is vital to its ethos and future.
Sadiq Khan has dedicated the fireworks this evening to celebrating the capital's relationship with Europe. @ianpaynesport asks: has the Mayor of London politicised the New Years Eve celebrations?
115
657
4K
Elon Musk is a pernicious, ignorant & inflammatory conspiracy theorist who any decent social media platform would bar from posting, let alone owning.
2K
923
4K
Anthea Bell OBE, Order of Merit of 🇩🇪, died this morning aged 82. She was a literary giant: among great C20th/C21st translators, whose work included Kafka, Sebald, Zweig, Freud, Willy Brandt, Simenon, Goscinny et al. @richkamm & I will miss our mother a lot. Cc @GermanEmbassy
270
1K
4K
You just know he hasn’t done the research, has no idea what experts in language say, and is making a thinly veiled insinuation that foreigners are a problem. What a disgraceful man he is.
'Too often there are parts of our country where English is not spoken by some people as their first language'
187
883
4K
I recall Paddy Ashdown once describing John Major as a decent man at the head of a truly appalling party. You could say the same thing about Rishi Sunak, apart from the first bit.
This is what we’re up against. The Labour Party, a subset of lawyers, criminal gangs - they're all on the same side, propping up a system of exploitation that profits from getting people to the UK illegally. I have a plan to stop it. Here’s how 🧵.
102
522
3K
If you have a record of taking large sums of money from Iran’s state propaganda apparatus and referring to Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends”, you inevitably lack credibility in criticising Trump’s reckless actions.
361
957
3K
I finished Middlemarch today. What a magnificent achievement; the final words are a peerlessly wise & humane philosophy of life. I’ve never seen the much-lauded 1990s BBC adaptation, which is on iPlayer. Grateful for advice on whether I should watch it.
309
385
3K
This channel has legal obligations to adhere to requirements of due impartiality and accuracy. It’s far beyond time @Ofcom revoked its UK broadcast licence and decent people shunned it.
'If we're going to pretend this is about the far-right, rather than this groundswell of opposition on issues where the British people have been lied to, then this is going to escalate.'. @GoodwinMJ claims if Starmer prioritised immigration the protests and riots would dissipate.
891
572
3K
I don’t mean to pick on this Tory MP but this is getting silly. Brexit is “anti-growth”, which some people think is a reasonable trade-off for securing other goals. I don’t, but it shows not even the PM believes in growth at any cost. To claim to be “pro-growth” is just vapid.
It’s pro Growth Conservatives .v .The Anti Growth Coalition. I know which side that I am on.
91
406
3K
My goodness. This channel is a megaphone for extremism and there can be no possible reason for @Ofcom to delay in rescinding its UK broadcasting licence.
'The second that white working-class Britons have the audacity to take to the streets about something that they're passionate about, out comes the 'boom, we're tough on you.'. @MichelleDewbs fumes at Keir Starmer's approach to the Southport riots.
2K
530
3K
Mpox my absolute arse.
770
337
2K
My view, fwiw, is that even if the death penalty could be proved to deter murderers like Lucy Letby (it can’t), and even if there were zero possibility of a miscarriage of justice (there isn’t), it would still be a moral abomination. Thankfully Britain will not restore it.
New: two-thirds of the public back capital punishment for Lucy Letby following her sentencing.
129
230
2K
I don’t understand why people like this are given air time. It’s not a free speech issue but a competence issue, on a matter of life & death.
Broadcaster Denise Welch: "I am not prepared to listen to the mainstream media narrative" on coronavirus. Watch the full interview ► @danwootton | @RealDeniseWelch
135
223
2K
Well, let’s see if @MichelleDewbs of the rightwing propaganda station @GBNEWS takes up this selfless offer. My sole stipulation is that it needs to be in the studio, lest there’s any funny business in fading me out.
469
437
2K
Whenever Rees-Mogg tries to show cleverness, he gets it wrong. Aquinas maintained that for happiness of the saints in heaven to be perfect, they will be “allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned”. It’s a vile notion. Tusk OTOH expresses sympathy with us who suffer.
78
512
2K
Brexit cannot “work for the British people” and it’s dishonest or dogmatic to suppose otherwise. The most that can be achieved is to mitigate the damage. I don’t understand why Labour won’t say this when most people, especially the young, increasingly recognise it.
I want to reset our relationship with the EU and make Brexit work for the British people. Looking forward to visiting Brussels next week to start discussions with @vonderleyen.
192
517
2K
Worth recalling the valiant efforts of 47 Labour MPs who voted against triggering A50, unlike their titular leader who urged this course immediately after referendum.
47
422
2K
We report today the further activities of Tim Hayward, an academic who’s previously spread pro-Assad disinformation & conspiracy theories and now does so with the foul & preposterous notion that Ukrainians are shelling themselves.
115
635
2K
I don’t recall a pressure-group demand in recent British politics that is more spurious and less meritorious than this. The govt is absolutely right to slap it down.
Just a reminder, @leicesterliz of what you promised. Hard to see how your statement refusing #WASPI women justice today is a "fair solution".
157
70
2K
One hard truth that Labour figures are already evading is Corbyn’s personal responsibility for the disaster. It took colossal vanity to cling on to the leadership in spite of record negative poll ratings & an inability to even understand policy issues, let alone articulate them.
87
354
1K
A statement of the merest common sense, by the only Labour leader born within the last 100 years to have won an election.
80
217
1K
Alice Mahon appeared as a witness for the defence in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic for genocide & war crimes, where she suggested that the Račak massacre of 45 Kosovan Albanians in 1999 may have been a US false flag. She debased public life and disgraced @UKLabour.
Today, I said goodbye to a dear friend, Alice Mahon. Much-loved by the people of Halifax and beyond, she was a fearless working-class woman who loathed inequality, racism & injustice in any form. Alice was one of the most caring & friendly human beings I ever met. Rest in peace.
47
297
1K
This whole thread is devastating for the reputation of @GBNEWS and demands the urgent attention of @Ofcom & @CommonsDCMS. I’m thankful never to have appeared on this station.
As for the bigger problem of the sympathy between @GBNews and online conspiracy culture, that is a matter for the regulator, and, I’d suggest, requires the urgent attention of the @CommonsDCMS.
53
371
1K
Indeed. This doesn’t look like a winning strategy or a thoughtful one. Brexit is now an accomplished fact where the demonstrated costs greatly outweigh any speculative benefits. And while Corbyn was electorally catastrophic, he is not a Labour MP and no one likens Starmer to him.
49
254
1K
It won’t trouble JK Rowling but it troubles me very much that this ad has been taken down on grounds that it could cause “offence”. I am, so to speak, offended by the illiberalism & intolerance this dismal episode evinces.
54
265
1K
I’ve written an assessment of the career of the late John Pilger. It’s titled “John Pilger was a charlatan and a fraudster”. Regrettably the facts do bear me out in this judgment. My thanks to @CapX for publishing it in full, for it is necessarily long.
122
350
1K
Absolutely don’t want to start pile-on but I note one or two comments asking for recognition of Jeremy Corbyn’s role in GFA. For the record, it was exactly zero, and he voted against the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which provided Dublin with a consultative role in NI affairs.
Securing the Good Friday Agreement is one of the Labour Party's proudest achievements. Today we pay tribute to the incredible Mo Mowlam, who was instrumental in making it happen. Labour will always work to secure peace and prosperity for future generations in Northern Ireland.
71
201
1K
A flawed politician, of mercurial character & with a history of policy error, got the single greatest issue of modern times right and literally saved western civilisation from barbarism. We’re all in his debt. This doesn’t seem to me a complex, let alone a contestable, judgment.
51
157
1K
Just despicable. What a dismal election this is.
EU migrants have been able to “treat the UK as if it’s part of their own country” for too long, Boris Johnson said yesterday as he reprised the core message of Vote Leave’s 2016 EU referendum campaign.
34
294
1K
@democracynow @jeremycorbyn He’s not a Labour MP and his claim is flatly untrue. Some wars end without peace negotiations (eg war in the Pacific, in which the Allies demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender), and it’s desirable they do. The war in Ukraine is like that: lasting peace requires Putin’s defeat.
91
58
1K
Obviously he’s a man of monumental ignorance born of privilege, but that’s no excuse. The principles of liberty & self-determination, along with the solidarity of western democracies, are precious; and they are alien to Farage and his allies.
West provoked Ukraine war, Nigel Farage says
288
209
1K
Please note this statement by Dawn Butler MP.
59
181
1K
Brexit is not merely a remediable mistake but an act of self-harm, irrationalism & folly. The notion that the issue is settled presupposes that it’s not really a big deal. For those who weren’t old enough to vote in 2016, it’s a huge loss, which is why the argument will return.
50
228
960
My mother, Anthea Bell, would have been 88 today. These, I think, were the best things she ever did.
67
90
1K
A long-overdue sanction would be to revoke the UK broadcasting licence of this state-propaganda outlet, whose editorial policies are obviously dictated from the Kremlin.
33
194
980
Media outlets really should correct this stuff. The amount lost by Ms Neil & other women of her generation due to rises in state pension age is zero. They have not been betrayed, robbed, cheated or deprived, and it’s undignified of them to demand special treatment from taxpayers.
'It's a betrayal'. Labour has ruled out compensation for almost four million women who claim they lost thousands of pounds because of changes to the state pension age. Former headteacher Frances Neil shares her message for Sir Keir Starmer.
97
130
1K
That's a noun phrase, not a pronoun.
Since we’re all allowed to self-identify as whatever we want these days, I’ve decided my new preferred pronoun is “your imperial majesty”. If you don’t use it, I’m going to report you for hate crime. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
20
91
909
“We do not endorse the call for any worker to be summarily sacked…” No, just discreetly & deniably harried & defamed till she understandably gives up. This is shocking indeed.
21
167
994
I did not expect Rebecca Long Bailey to be sacked from the shadow cabinet for indulging an antisemitic conspiracy theory. I'm impressed & thankful that she has been. Symbols matter, and Labour is back in the hands of genuine anti-racists.
101
114
907
No one puts it better.
Tony Blair on #Brexit: Literally why are we doing it?. Former PM, who supports a #PeoplesVote, tells #marr the choice is between “painful and pointless”. Read more:
55
213
857
One lost a seat held by Labour since 1950 on an 11% swing to the Tories. The other “led” the party into electoral catastrophe. Lavery himself barely retained, with a majority of 814, a seat held by Labour since 1945. Priceless.
I love this photo. Thinking of you both tonight. The political contribution you’ve made. priceless.
34
229
886
This addendum to a column by Owen Jones is quite something.
38
154
934
I’m posting again Matthew Parris’s fine column today, urging MPs to do their duty & tell the voters they were wrong to opt for Brexit.
57
405
822
The MP, @zarahsultana, wrote that she would celebrate the death of Tony Blair. She is unfit to be a member, let alone an elected representative, of a constitutional party.
Labour MP, 26, demands end to '40 years of Thatcherism' in first speech attack.
95
249
863
It is quite extraordinary that instead of posting Guardian copy, Owen Jones copies-and-pastes material that Sunday Times journalists have researched & written, and sees nothing wrong in doing so. I hope someone explains the issue to him.
67
131
873
She lost a seat that Labour had held continuously since 1950, and it’s not hard to see why.
Love & solidarity to @jeremycorbyn, a good man with a beautiful soul. Now is not the time to be tearing each other apart. Jeremy’s suspension should be lifted immediately. I will work tirelessly alongside the hundreds of thousands of people for his reinstatement.
34
119
849
“His sense of righteousness and humourlessness meant there were rarely apologies for questionable personal behaviour.” @thetimes obit gets to the heart of John Pilger’s personality & career. He was a fraudster & charlatan, as I’ll evidence in due course.
85
148
863
The last Cold War - started by Stalin but then justly waged by the western democracies, under the auspices of Nato - did in fact bring peace, justice & human rights to the peoples of central & Eastern Europe.
Starting a new cold war will not bring peace, justice and human rights to the world. #AUKUS.
211
146
835
"It’s time to ask whether Boris Johnson is up to the job." Brutal assessment of the PM by Matthew Parris.
125
300
784
The edifice of antisemitism is not just xenophobia: it’s essentially a conspiracy theory, and has been throughout history.
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters on the October 7th Massacre:. “We don’t yet know what happened”. “Maybe there were some individual cases of civilians getting killed”. “Israel is making up stories”
66
187
803
@billybragg @Jane66588568 @void_if_removed @twtomwilson You should have the elementary sense of shame to depart from public life at this point.
14
49
794
Laura Murray, former aide to Jeremy Corbyn, loses her appeal in the libel case brought by Rachel Riley. The judgment is well worth reading - and serves as a reminder, should anyone still be in doubt, that posting on Twitter is publication.
107
207
789
@nytimes I don’t know why you pursue this vendetta but I wrote about it last week. Fwiw, I’m a liberal and an Atlanticist, and you’ve published me, and I’m baffled by your promotion of sectarian nonentities in order to depict this country as a Dickensian dystopia.
85
91
814
You tried to murder them.
#Salisbury: UK failure to provide information on two Russian nationals is a clear violation of UK’s obligations implied in relevant international and bilateral agreements, let alone a disregard for universally recognised norms of diplomatic relations.
17
174
732
I’ve known Julian Lewis for a long time & have great respect for him. He is a real expert on defence issues and we’ve cooperated in arguing the necessity of Nato & collective security. What a ludicrous & vindictive decision to deprive him of Tory whip.
39
211
683
A pleasure to be reminded, in @guardian’s coverage today of lobbying scandal, of this truly great front page of a quarter-century ago.
22
274
699
It will be obvious to all but dogmatists that Labour & the Tories (the only parties from which a PM will come) have done immense damage to public life & governance by widening the franchise for party leader beyond MPs alone. MPs need to say it rather than flatter party activists.
104
115
716
Can we all do this? The independent MP Jeremy Corbyn attended a private prep school whose fees for Year 6 are £9,675 a year. His adviser Andrew Murray attended Worth School (annual boarding fees £43,170). His lieutenants Seumas Milne & James Schneider are Wykehamists (£49,152).
99
171
721
This is an appalling tweet by a man of singular boneheaded stupidity. (The crimes to which he’s alluding are evil beyond measure. He still has responsibilities as a public servant.).
354
95
800
I’m glad to see Labour are running with this. For obvious reasons, no such critique would have been credible or even possible under Corbyn’s titular leadership.
33
179
648
I’ve read this back several times. Whether through political calculation or a lack of imagination, it’s gross & inflammatory. The Home Secretary insinuates, without having the gumption to openly state, that the victims of hooliganism helped bring it upon themselves. For shame.
I condemn the appalling disorder in Knowsley last night. The alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation. Thank you to @merseypolice officers for keeping everyone safe.
17
138
650
I’m flummoxed to say it, but he’s absolutely right. As my friend Christopher Hitchens said: “Is nothing sacred? No, nothing is sacred.” And that’s a vital principle of a free society.
A Labour MP calls for a law to ban criticism of prophets. Starmer does not rule it out. The answer was simple: Blasphemy laws have no place in the UK.
32
81
771
Your government tried to murder them, and did actually murder Dawn Sturgess. That may be why the Skripals don’t wish you to know where they are.
🎙Embassy Statement. Still no news from two Russian nationals – Sergei and Yulia Skripal. It has been more than five years now since Yulia’s most recent public appearance. Her brief pre-recorded message in 2018, apparently translated from English, raises many questions. ❗Our
14
108
688
We can surely all agree that the main issue raised by the worst global pandemic since 1918-19 is the reputation for posterity of Jeremy Corbyn. The PM was wrong to flatter Corbyn as a man of principle. His main characteristic is a colossal vanity, unmatched by imagination.
"I was denounced as somebody that wanted to spend more money than we could possibly afford". Outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the government's coronavirus response proves he was "right" about public spending at the 2019 election. @bbclaurak
63
153
684
1/2 The vanity & sense of entitlement are off the scale. Corbyn destroyed Labour electorally & morally. He presided over & personally exemplified its antisemitism crisis. His pitiful grasp of public policy was cruelly exposed in A Neil interview in 2019.
229
138
647
A govt without principle or direction encounters a Labour leader who is a far better candidate for PM than the incumbent & is not an antisemite. That about sums it up, I think.
Opinium/Observer: The Conservative’s lead drops from 12 points to 4 points in a week, giving the government its lowest lead since August. 37% now approve of the job the PM is doing, down from 45% last week: @OpiniumResearch. Con: 43%.Lab: 39%.LibDem: 6%.SNP: 5%.Green: 3%.
22
150
627
@ScottBentonMP Doubtless I’m being excessively fastidious, but there’s something not apt about an MP deriding the head of government of a democratic ally on the day she announces her voluntary departure. There’s a time & place for vigorous partisanship: this isn’t it.
14
21
603
“I think the way I’ve been treated is disgraceful, and the allegations that have been made against me are disgraceful.” A man lacking the capacity for introspection, let alone dignity or decency, descends ever deeper into self-pity. It’s pathetic, really.
156
96
643
I hope @SalmanRushdie is all right. His cause is that of civilisation against theocratic barbarism.
15
111
649
@IsabelOakeshott In New Zealand’s most stringent lockdown, she had an approval rating of 65 per cent. That doesn’t mean her policies were right (though I have little doubt they were), but it hardly suggests voters shared your assessment that they were being imprisoned by a sinister authoritarian.
45
13
642
It’s quite pathetic that Corbyn blames anyone for electoral catastrophe but himself. The media was in reality broadly fair & even generous to him. His failure was due to his own deficiencies: inability to grasp technical issues, blustering arrogance and, not least, antisemitism.
We live in a world that is damaging itself through inequality, injustice, poverty, pollution and war. Surely we can do better than that. My interview with @DoubleDownNews.
773
92
629
Hardly surprising as you tried to murder them.
We are perplexed that for the past four and a half years the Russian side has remained in the dark about the fate of two our citizens, Sergei and Yulia #Skripal.No official information is available about their state of health, legal status & whereabouts. 🔗
5
125
615
Benn’s preceding words were: “If one meets a powerful person - Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates - ask them five questions…” . When Benn not only met but interviewed a person with absolute power, viz. Saddam Hussein, he made no mention of these sententious questions at all.
17
63
644
This should absolutely not be on the new govt’s agenda. No injustice has been done to these women, nor have they “lost thousands”, and there are vastly more pressing demands on public spending.
'People like myself who were affected by the change in the state pension age'. Kim Pearce told #BBCBreakfast she wants the new Labour government to take action to help the WASPI women who lost thousands when the pension age was increased .
5
44
648
@guywalters A deeply sinister figure in so many ways. The notion that he was some lovable rogue obscures a great deal.
14
22
596
You don’t have to be an uncritical admirer of the BBC to find this a disgraceful comment. Rees-Mogg is a presenter on @GBNEWS, which was fined £100K by the regulator last month for a serious breach of its legal obligation to maintain due impartiality.
Of course the BBC backs the Labour Party. It is after all its mouthpiece, much as the China Daily is for the Chinese Communist Party.
84
148
654
The whole is characteristic of Corbyn, who inspired widespread fear among British Jews during his leadership. He’s hopeless, ignorant & inarticulate, and - perhaps derived from his private schooling - has such a sense of entitlement that he explodes when asked a direct question.
Piers Morgan asks Jeremy Corbyn 15 times whether the former Labour leader thinks Hamas is a terror group. Jeremy Corbyn refuses to answer. @piersmorgan | @jeremycorbyn
74
101
615
Question Time is now going for expertise on a subject dominating the news. These are unusual times.
29
54
582
Durham NW was held continuously by Labour from 1950 to 2019. You’d imagine the person who lost it would be a bit more self-critical than this.
Attacks on @jeremycorbyn continue because they know his politics are powerful and that there are hundreds of thousands of people who still have deep and unwavering respect for what he was and still is trying to achieve. We will not stop in our pursuit for a better world.
24
96
559
A mag called LM, a forerunner of @spikedonline, libelled honest journalists from ITN & Guardian by claiming they’d faked these horrifying pictures (the man in the foreground is called Fikret Alić). These people are still around & their defamatory lies should never be forgotten.
On April 30 1992, Serb forces forcibly took over the town of Prijedor which led to months of systematic abuses, massacres, forcible removal and numerous concentration camps. This month we’ll be discussing the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Prijedor. Follow along and join in.
23
178
538
This is disgracefully stupid. Ukraine’s people aren’t living in fear of Nato imperialism.
Today I joined a demo in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. I said, “We must fight against imperialism on every front. We must demand that Russia dial down the threats, the arms race and the militarisation. And we must demand the same of NATO. Neither Washington, nor Moscow.”
25
102
544
Fine piece by @simonmontefiore, a heavyweight historian, refuting the notion that the Jewish state is a colonial enterprise - a voguish fallacy that has “dehumanized Israelis to the extent that otherwise rational people excuse, deny, or support barbarity”.
48
161
566
No. The fault does not lie with the reader but with the author and, I’m saddened immeasurably to say, with the JC, to which I’ve contributed over many years. It’s an abominable piece that grievously misunderstands history while needlessly inflaming community relations.
"Anyone who reads my column in the JC this week who can read will know exactly what I've said. And I stand by it.". On the latest episode of the JC podcast, @DouglasKMurray discusses protests, Hamas horrors, and his latest JC column with @JakeWSimons
47
106
537
I bring @MarinaHyde the good news that Sir Richard Evans reviews Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new book on the Victorians in @NewStatesman. 😱
27
159
534
Well, of course Rachel Reeves worked at the Bank of England. Her boss at the time was Andrew Bailey. This is all a matter of public record. And it’s alarming that a former newspaper editor apparently regards the test of veracity as whatever is in Wikipedia.
When did you work in the Bank of England? My research says you were only there briefly as a graduate hire…. @RachelReevesMP Certainly no true dates your Wikipedia page - all very very vague. Plagiarism again? Buffing a CV? And u have never run a business. Or come close to it.
26
97
517
The suffocating bipartisanship of “realism” regarding Bosnian war of 1992-95 was a low time in British politics. Paddy Ashdown was the most prominent MP who broke it & who understood the stakes involved. Much credit & respect to him; his high reputation will deservedly live on.
4
164
534
This sententious farewell exemplifies the problem. She has no conception that her work was an intellectual & moral disgrace that would shame anyone more scrupulous. I’ve devoted some time & effort to exposing this conspiracy of fraud & am unsurprised it’s now ending in disgrace.
21
104
505