6 years ago I was the day before yesterdayโs person but they cancelled me anyway, destroyed my life in secret and Iโm now broken. But I am still breathing.
If May had the good sense to attach Kyle-Wilson to her Deal, Bercow would allow a vote, itโd go through, the electorate would get a final say and sheโd win an awful lot of new fans. More than sheโd lose. She wonโt though.
These people literally, and here explicitly, have no shame. โEverybodyโ may have โhad high hopesโ that test and trace would work. But โeverybodyโ wasnโt in charge. Everybody didnโt trouser a sum equivalent to two-thirds of the UKโs entire defence budget.
#fullPublicInquirynow
'Expectations were set too high.'
In an exclusive interview,
@DidoHarding
joined
@EmmaBarnett
to discuss her tenure as head of the NHS Test and Trace initiative until her resignation in April of this year
Poverty is a political choice.
And this Conservative Government is choosing to take ยฃ20 each week from the poorest families in the country.
For me this is more than political. It is personal.
#CancelTheCut
Today, Labourโs grassroots in Lewisham East stood firm against Momentumโs machine. Momentumโs full time staff, phonebanks from at least 2 other boroughs, Owen Jones on the doorsteps and all they managed was 167 votes out of 455.
#grassrootsnotAstroturf
Thought I might go to the Stop the War Coalition march on Saturday against the Russian invasion of Kazakhstan. Anyone know the details? When and where?
Knock knock.
Whoโs there?
The Labour Party.
What do you want?
To tell you all about how we are going to end rough sleeping.
Didnโt you do that last time you were in government?
No, that was the Red Tories. Weโll do it by leaving the EU and destroying the economy first.
Always amusing to behold the Scottish Nationalist Party having a pop at Labour for being Thatcherite when it was the SNP that voted against Labour and FOR Mrs Thatcher and so put her in Downing Street, ushering in 18 years of Tory rule.
If you going to a Momentum phone bank today, either the national one or those around Lewisham East, can I ask you to use a Labour Party script? Keeping Owen Jones, Paul Mason and the Shadow Cabinet away from the constituency would be very helpful. Weโd like to win this! Thanks.
In case you havenโt heard, my father, Alan McKenzie (b 7.10.30), died yesterday. The kindest, finest person Iโve ever met, he leaves a huge gap. Most of his friends are long gone but younger generations who met him will remember him fondly. Itโs been an honour to be his son.
I was suspended from the Labour Party at 9.25am by email, although journalists had been been briefed many hours ago. I now know what the issue is and will clarify my position as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone who is sending private or public messages of support.
PMโs Liaison Committee appearance was a Blair innovation. No notes and no staff next to him. Chairs of all the Select Cttees ask questions on any subject. Have a look at a Blair session and youโll understand why Johnson has run away in fear. Clowns donโt make very good PMs.
Iโm saying Lewisham East Labour Members were sick of two outside organisations, Momentum and Unite, trying to rig our selection. We humiliated them and Iโm allowed a few hours to crow about it over a cup of tea before going out canvassing to beat the Tories and Libs, again.
โBut he shouldnโt take that goodwill for granted.โ Truโ dat.
Starmer is leading a slow march towards a softer Brexit โ he just wonโt say it out loud | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian
@RhonddaBryant
Has to be Skinner to Parkinson on the letterโs first speech following the affair story. โGet your hand out of your pocket man. He canโt leave it alone.โ
Iโm disappointed and shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that Stop the War have not organised a march tomorrow in protest against Putinโs imminent annexation of Kazakhstan. Itโs almost as if they want Putin to reassemble the USSR.
Thought I might go to the Stop the War Coalition march on Saturday against the Russian invasion of Kazakhstan. Anyone know the details? When and where?
A member of the
@UKLabour
Shadow Cabinet is rightly concerned about rough sleeping. Canโt bring herself to mention that it was almost eradicated by Blairโs Government in about two years at a time she was relentlessly attacking Labour from outside.
#bbcaq
In cheerier news, my 60 year-old brother, whose medical condition necessitates his shielding, had his second Covid vaccine jab today. And our 90 year-old Dad has his first jab. Grateful thanks to all concerned.
Thatโll do for me. Solid values. Contrition. Looking the electorate in the eye. Strong on security. Crushing the cancer of nationalism. A measured three nods, no more, to Labourโs three winners. Pride in our record not denigration. A proper Labour leaderโs speech. Been 11 years.
I was, and am, a Blairite; I supported the 2nd Iraq War and still do; he will be the best PM of my lifetime (Iโm old); Labour 1997-2010 did more to redistribute wealth than any other Govt in my lifetime; no genuinely Labour person would attack it.
@JDBakewell
Because the ERG are trying to follow up on Johnsonโs ridiculous tenure and continue his Americanisation of our system making it more presidential. It is deeply worrying.
Suited and almost booted for my Dadโs funeral at 3pm. The phoneโs going off soon, obviously. He taught me too many things to list but one of them was how to shine shoes properly. Heโd approve of these, I hope.
Alan McKenzie, the finest human being Iโve ever known.
Covid-19 was rough but never life threatening so Iโve got survivor guilt and cry every time I hear of someone whoโs died. Not been out since 18 March, Iโm depressed, missing my mates (though hugely heartened by those who keep in SM touch) but boy I laughed out loud at Bastani. ๐
Dear
@ipsaUK
please organise your website so itโs not possible to characterise staffing costs as โMPsโ expensesโ. Itโs used by MP haters to corrode confidence in our democracy and itโs really, really annoying as an MPโs staffer to have your salary presented as an MPโs perk.
Things are grim. Thereโs no real alternative but learn from Momentum. Iโm going to have to ring my brother and persuade him that we need to sell the Picasso and the Rothko. No way Iโm selling the Schiele or any of the Van Goghs.
Imagine being a revolutionary so-called socialist, spending decades trying to take over the Labour Party, managing it (with a little help from soft left morons) and then not having a Plan B when your chosen successor puppet loses her seat. Embarrassing or what?
#ferretsinasack
Some of the desperate people that MPs and their staff help will be their constituents who are NHS workers without enough PPE. This lazy, populist, pitchfork army nonsense is diverting MPsโ staff away from essential work helping desperate people. Back off.
I like to ask you to raise your glass and drink a toast to Aaron Bastani. I like to, but I canโt. No decent person would do that. Instead, why donโt we drink a toast to the end of his
@UKLabour
membership?
The fully automated luxury hipsters seem a tad surprised and upset that the trade unions want a say in how the Labour Party is run. I mean, Iโve had my criticisms and Iโm no expert but I know a little Labour History.
#wewillbeherelongafteryouhaverejoinedtheGreensandtheTrotparties
Please watch thisโฆ
The Iranian freedom fighter and human rights activist
@freenargesmhmd
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize tonight. But sheโs imprisoned in Iran, so her children had to accept the award on her behalf.
A group of prominent Iranians also attended the Nobel
Fred & Anne Jarvis became my spare set of parents. Anne left us 13 years ago and now Fred. Iโm trying to do him justice with some erudite heartfelt comments. I canโt. Iโm devastated. Knew it was coming, the man was 95 after all. Now itโs happened Iโm beyond upset.
Because in 2015,
@davidschneider
when many people like you were warned by many people like me that Corbyn was a serious risk you dismissed those warnings and vilified us. You voted for this. Help fix it.
You might not have realised it at the time, but if in August 2013 you were against stopping Assad and his friends like Putin from killing half a million Syrians then, you were helping Putin in Ukraine today.
Thisโll be a bit tricky for certain senior UK politicians. The Kurds helped defeat mass-murdering, misogynist, theocratic ISIS fascists as Hilary Benn so splendidly advocated, but others wanted to negotiate with said fascists. I support these real feminists. What about you?
AMAZING:
#Kurdish
female soldiers dancing in
#Raqqa
after defeating ISIS, on streets where
#ISIS
bought and sold women.
These are real feminists that fight for womenโs rights.
#IWD2019
In our 122-year history โฆ
@UKLabour
โฉ has only ever won five working majorities: 45, 66, 97, 01, 05. Attlee, Wilson, Blair, Blair, Blair. And, of those, only one was achieved by ousting the Tories. Once, in 122 years. 1997. And look what we did๐๐ป
The Leader they wanted, the manifesto they wanted, the Brexit โpolicyโ they wanted, the NEC they wanted, the senior staff they wanted, the target seat list they wanted. Our time will come? You gave us 1935. Your time will come. It canโt come soon enough.
Only just seen this. Fabulous little speech. This fine young man will be a force to be reckoned with very soon, and for decades to come. Remember his name.
@ThatTimWalker
If Sunak had the bottle heโd remove the whip so Johnson canโt be the candidate, giving him a taste of his own 2019 medicine. If he stands he splits the vote and letโs Labour in. If not, a fresh candidate might win. Either way Johnson and his clowns are history for real this time.
To those who ask โhow can you stomach staying in a party run by people like McDonald, Milne, Murray and McLuskey?โ, my answerโs simple: โbecause for every one of them there are hundreds of people like Alf Dubs.โ Thereโs only one Alf Dubs, mind. This is glorious.
.
@AlfDubs
letter to the 1st 'Dubs child' from Greece: "This is your country now too. The young refugees like you who I've met in Calais and Greece and here in Britain are some of the most determined, bright and brave young people Iโve ever met...you will be a credit to Britain.
That Skwawkbox has only just realised CorbynSuperFan is a parody account has cheered me up no end. Goodness knows what heโll think when he reads the Corbyn Annual.
The woman whose question about negotiating with ISIS I answered in December 2015 has very bravely supported me. Letโs see how those calling me misogynist deal with it.
To all members of Lewisham East Labour Party who have received the email from the General Secretary and who are contacting me: first, thank you for your support, and second, sorry for slow response but there are a lot of you and Iโll get back to you asap.
#memberleddemocracy
Hard for some to remember, and some even now try to airbrush her out, but the convicted criminal on the right once chaired the
@UKLabour
NEC Disputes Cttee and referred people to the National Constitutional Committee. How embarrassing is that?
#notfitforpurpose
Wondering how our politics got in the state it is in? Decades of spittle-flecked, holier-than-everyone, talentless, tiresome, laboured, pointless attacks by Williams and others, and editors who gave them house room.
@mikegapes
is worth a hundred of you.
8 years ago, horrified by the then 2 years of mass murder of his own people by Assad, I tabled a motion at my GC calling for Labour to condemn Assad and support action to remove him. I lost. The death toll was then 65k. I had asked โhow many was enough, 250k?โ Its over 600k now.
Why are people so shocked that the ultra left condemn the last Labour government? Without this betrayal myth (which, btw, repeats a Tory mendacious mantra about the Crash) their whole revolutionary house of cards collapses.
#defendtherecord
#45
#66
#97
#01
#05
(And 74-79, btw)
Blair favoured deregulation of the banking industry - leading to one of the worst crashes in modern history.
While spending on public services was higher, his legacy will ultimately be the austerity that followed his failure to stand up to big finance.
At last! A grown up as Labour spokesperson on the economy on
@BBCr4today
Felt really good. Especially when Robinson teeโd up a little lob: which is your Labour Chancellor role model? โGordon Brownโ says
@anneliesedodds
Gone is Corbynโs โ40 years of neo Liberalismโ nonsense.
Covid update. 3 weeks since my last obvious symptom, still feeling knackered all the time but so far as I can tell, my sense of taste has followed my sense of smell back to normality. Earl Grey tea no longer tastes like hot water, orange juice doesnโt taste fishy! Beer is beer!
No hint of remorse, no sense that he himself is part of the problem, no glimmer of understanding that those whoโve taken over Labour - with his help - care not for electoral politics and even less for our EU membership, this chancer is waking up. Haringey? Ring any bells, sonny?
At the
@UKLabour
Lewisham East election thank you party after winning 54/54 seats and the best Mayoral result ever. 50 fab activists singing โThings Can Only Betterโ at the top of their voices.
#joybeforetheiminentshitfest
#watchthisspace
After 16 years getting along together nicely in the Never Stopped Any Wars Coalition, UK Trotskyism and UK Stalinism both joined the UK Labour Party. Hereโs what happened next.
The Corbyn tide going out is a glorious sight but, like real tides, ultra left entryism in
@UKLabour
is cyclical. Better sea defences next time, people.
@Maomentum_
Corbyn was a problem but much worse was voters not being able to forgive Attleeโs creation of the UK independent nuclear deterrent without even telling the cabinet. Came up time and time again.
โFor the Many not the Fewโ: the essence of Blairism. I love that those who fought the 94-95 inclusion of it in the new Clause 4, then left the party and have now come back, are parading it as evidence that only Corbyn cares about poor people.
This is spot on and badly needed to be said. Bookmark the piece. When this all goes belly up itโll be a handy guide for those trying to rebuild the broken system.
Allegra Stratton is a troubling pick for a bad role