John Foster @john85foster Twitter profile

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John Foster

@john85foster

1 year

John Foster (@johnfoster.bsky.social)

Just happy to be here

bsky.app

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 months

Has anyone heard of landlords limiting the number of days their tenants can work from home? Sounds insane to me (and insanely illegal) but a colleague is being told he's not allowed to be in his own home more than two days a week!?

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 months

@steakob I'd never heard of one either! Colleague seemed to think it wasn't uncommon but judging by the reaction here it is fully batshit

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@shmisvader @rzhongnotes I love the "probably", like maybe this cat has indeed seen a parking ticket before

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 months

@PettyWakandan I don't believe my colleague is doing any of those, at least not during working hours

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 months

@craigcavyleader Just an employee! Judging by everything it seems like a simple abuse of the landlord-tenant relationship

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@KeithJGamble @stevenmklein Your daughter's moral courage is hugely admirable and she should be celebrated. Support and solidarity.

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 months

@judeinlondon My colleague seemed to think it was normal! We have told him to arm himself (FIGURATIVELY)

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

Been reflecting a lot on this important point, which articulates something I've not been able to: Corbyn does not view Britain as inherently superior, and many people will never forgive him for this.

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

This is genocidal

The New York Times

@nytimes

3 years

Breaking News: President Biden is moving to split $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets between 9/11 victims’ families and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. The highly unusual set of moves is expected to be announced on Friday.

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

Example no.697 of something that would be widely acknowledged as corruption on a massive scale if it happened in any other country

Jonathan Lis

@jonlis1

4 years

Imagine a country where a politician’s think tank calls for abolition of a major public health body, it gets broken up during a pandemic, its replacement is established in a few days, and the politician’s wife, with no public health experience, is appointed to run it. That’s us.

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John Foster

@john85foster

1 year

@MarkSeddon1962 @jimcaris @oxfamgb Mark, we all use singular they and them all the time, including you. These tweets took less than a minute to find

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

If this is true, the Guardian has bigger problems than I realised

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@coyleneil "Do you want to swap the Tory prime minister for a different Tory prime minister" and "do you want a general election" are not the same question

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@gearymj @giannako @UniWestLondon To be clear Michael, you favour a blanket ban on Russian students because of the actions of the Russian government?

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@Nicole_Cliffe @mattyglesias My "neither Zuck nor Matt Yglesias sexually harrassed me in the Kirkland Senior Common Room and then awkwardly apologized for the next hour" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

I have concluded my in-depth report into why Labour lost in 2019 and I have concluded that everyone in the party needs to discard their priors, reconsider their policy stances, learn the lessons of history, and face up to some uncomfortable hard truths, except me

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@AVFCOfficial @emimartinezz1 You're cowards for not using this picture

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

What's your favourite way to express your dislike for something or someone? Mine is to call them "fundamentally unserious" and I say this multiple times every day

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@Alex_Niven Perfection

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

We criticise politics in Italy, but an Italian Jess Phillips would absolutely have started her own party by now, taken around 20% of the PLP with her, and be polling nationally at 3.5%

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

All of these are the same perspective

Matt Goodwin

@GoodwinMJ

4 years

I've enjoyed listening/reading/learning from following who I'd recommend having in your feed. Different perspectives @coldxman @unherd @Miss_Snuffy @Yascha_Mounk @Edsall @henryolsenEPPC @shadihamid @kenanmalik @epkaufm @David_Goodhart @VictoriaPeckham @BretWeinstein @edwest

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

Can anyone explain this sticker of Roy Hodgson in a Morley's uniform that I've just seen in Kennington Park?

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@coyleneil I'm sure it'll happen if you insult enough of your constituents on Twitter

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

Javid's main political legacy ought not to be that he resigned on a matter of principle, but that he allowed a newborn baby to die in a Syrian refugee camp so that Conservative party members would think he was tough

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@redlightvoices

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@coyleneil I'm fully aware of the rules thanks Neil, and of the current parliamentary arithmetic, but I'd better let you get back to building bridges and uniting the party

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

Finally reflecting on the last few days in Brighton at TWT. It's been such a demoralising, disorienting time since the 2019 election, and I was afraid the festival would reflect that sense of exhaustion and defeat we're all feeling. Instead, it was utterly life-affirming.

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@coyleneil No need to be snide, Neil. You seem to be saying that an internal Tory no-confidence vote and a parliamentary no-confidence vote are comparable, or do I misunderstand you?

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@lea_ypi Strong t-shirt choice

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

Still gobsmacked that Aman Thakar is being dragged through the mud by the liberal press following a hit job by hard right scumbags Guido Fawkes - all for the crime of *mocking a fascist*

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@DreyfusJames @louloufell That'll be a no then

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@DreyfusJames @louloufell Please could you explain how?

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

One of these things is not like the others

Nick Martin

@nickmartin

4 years

1. NEW: Facebook announced today it is cracking down on three types of groups: - QAnon - Militias - Anti-fascists The company says the goal is to limit the reach of groups that have “demonstrated significant risks to public safety.” A thread. 👇👇👇

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

If your baseline is that British lives *are* more valuable than other lives, which most UK politicians (and many of its commentators) do believe more or less explicitly, Corbyn's kind of universalism will look anti-British.

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@AbiWilks Guido: "the left thinks anything they don't like is fascist" Also Guido: "if I like it, it cannot be fascist"

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@JamesBower93 The CHUK-TIG gang, by forming a new party and having it fail almost immediately because of their vanity, ineptitude and pointlessness, was the most Italian thing to happen to British politics in years

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

Here is Neil Coyle MP, a constant source of division, hostility, personal insults and petty factionalism, decrying nastiness in the Labour Party in defence of his transphobic colleague.

Neil Coyle

@coyleneil

4 years

The only Labour MP ever to win Canterbury and the only Labour MP in Kent needs ‘booting’ according to this, erm, Labour supporter... Still work to do to end the nastiness of the last few years in the Party that took us to such a dismal defeat in December.

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@lukewbarratt I think you could have got £100

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@hawchcf1 @mattzarb @IanDunt At some point Corbyn's critics are going to have to answer two questions: who would do better, and how?

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

And as Luke says downthread, you cannot defend Corbyn against this charge because it is true.

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

Highest daily death toll in world, govt adviser flagrantly breaking law, ministers not even telling plausible lies, PM ignorant of own immigration rule, state broadcaster disciplines journalist for factual statement. If this wasn't the UK, people here would call it a failed state

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@LordAshcroft Might there possibly be some relationship between intolerance in the UK and your generous donations to the party that has ruled it for a decade?

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@Shayan86 Surely not your intention, but this kind of framing appears to 'both-sides' the problem of misinformation and political violence in the US. The issue here is not polarisation, it's far right extremism. Focusing on polarisation is a distraction.

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@RachelConnoll14 Has anyone compared her to Caroline Calloway yet? I feel like that's the kind of persona she's trying to construct

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@satinisland Merlot-Ponty

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@GraceOnFootball Can't believe they've nicknamed him Rod Liddle

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

If you're surprised by this you haven't been paying attention. This has been building in plain sight, not for weeks but years. The far right has been indulged, cosseted or ignored, and their threat has never been taken seriously.

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@VICEUK @Psythor

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@GoingMedieval Yglesias, reading Dante: "thank god there are no thinly veiled arguments about contemporary politics in here!"

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this LabourList piece from 2011 calling on the party's internal critics to stop carping and get behind the leadership. It's quite remarkable in the context of today, given the identity of the author

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@oldspeak1 When singing happy birthday, remember not to start too high

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@AbiWilks Been out in Ruislip today to GOTV! Everyone likes Ali Milani, nobody likes Johnson

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

Great point, this. The young are told it's on them to build bridges with the older generation, just as immigrants are told it's their obligation to integrate. Nobody ever suggests that the responsibility cuts both ways.

Jon Stone

@joncstone

5 years

The young mostly understand modern Britain, but it’s clear a lot of over-65s need to get out into the real world: learn what workplaces are like today, meet some non-homeowners, and people who weren’t born here. National service for pensioners.

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@flying_rodent They're not actually trapped in a permanent 1997, like we sometimes accuse them. They're in a permanent 2007, where they've got no ideas left and their only thing they're offering the public is not being the Tories

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@AHizanidis Definitely agree with this. I think more than a few people whose politics were basically just anti-Toryism, and who got used to thinking of themselves as left wing, saw the re-emergence of the left as a challenge to their personal as well as their political sense of self

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@garetharnolduk I hold no brief for O'Mara but this is contemptible behaviour on your part and I hope you take the time to reflect on what you've done and learn from it.

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@timparrique Defending it in group discussion

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@pdkmitchell @piercepenniless "First they came for the communists, and I joined in, because I was in the Freikorps"

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

I'd expand on this - Corbyn's consistency was the reason he was widely liked in the PLP, until he stood for and won the leadership and still refused to compromise to the degree they expected

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@coyleneil Neil, honestly, I know it's only a tweet, but do you really think this helps in any way?

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

Video endorsements tweeted out by Bolsonaro in the past 24 hours: Trump, Orban, Abascal, Andre Ventura (Chega), Jose Antonio Kast, Netanyahu, Juan Guaidò. All either fascists or thoroughly at ease with fascism

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@Iromg @ayeshahazarika Hi Ayesha, when your analysis draws a sympathetic response from Concrete Mike, does it give you pause for even a moment?

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@SteffanBlayney Cannot believe we've lost the support of 2015 Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@LukasMukasPukas "The socially liberal grown-ups are back in charge" I say to myself, as the party abstains on a bill to deport anyone who doesn't do a little curtsey when they see a policeman

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

(To my discredit, I have actually read more than 127 guardian articles)

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John Foster

@john85foster

1 year

@GoingMedieval Exactly the question I imagine John Lennon asking if he were alive today

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@AyoCaesar Not even Tories want to date Tories

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@dbessner Are you saying people shouldn't summarise your argument

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

Major highlights included the panels on Ireland and the left, on Black Marxism, on the "war on terror" 20 years on, Matt Wrack leading a rendition of Bella Ciao (including all the verses), and Zarah Sultana's pub quiz, with @owenhatherley in the role of team Britney Spears expert

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

I think this is absolutely correct, this crisis is revealing the extent to which the public sphere in the UK is more broken than anyone realised

Joe Bilsborough

@joebilsborough

4 years

This really isn't normal. If 900+ daily deaths, in a country which had weeks of warning - whose journalists initially trolled the British people and have regurgitated government spin - isn't even *mentioned* on BBC front page, something is deeply broken.

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@shirleymush Kid on a bike once shouted ALIEN HEAD at me as he cycled past, I had absolutely nothing in response

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@JamesBower93 The career of Boris Johnson is the second most

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

The alternative - that Twitter is now flagging "Keith" as a slur - is incredibly funny

glamdring

@_gothlorien

4 years

Twitter just told me that “union buster” is a slur.

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

I've been wondering: has anyone on the Labour right engaged seriously with what happened in 2017 and tried to explain it, rather than just pretending it never happened?

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

A huge, heartfelt thanks to everyone at @TWT_NOW and their army of volunteers for a truly fantastic few days. Next year in Liverpool!

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@maitlis One of those numbers is ambitious but feasible (and the fact it is ambitious is good). The other is false *on its own terms*, as even the government has been forced to admit. If you cannot or will not see the difference, then you are part of the accountability problem.

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@AbiWilks [Paul Staines, making sure the Contras never raised taxes]: "Looks like their record's clean, nothing to object to here"

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

But most of all, it was such a joy to reconnect with comrades again, and to meet new ones - @MarkSedd0n , @davidwearing , @ComradeChoppy , @shirleymush and many others, plus all the people I recognized from On Here and didn't get a chance to say hello to

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@DurstApologist Plus, he plainly didn't like them on a personal level, and he thought they were wrong ideologically, not merely well-meaning but misguided. It's just a much sounder base to build a critique on

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@emrazz @davidsirota @mat_ushh @notsoundmind @OscarFactsOnly Finally someone's standing up for the big guy

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

Very proud of my brother @samfoster99 for winning his council seat - congrats to him and all other socialist candidates elected last night 🌹

Southwark Council

@lb_southwark

2 years

Results for Faraday Ward: Sam FOSTER (Lab), Ketzia HARPER (Lab) and Kimberley Natasha MCINTOSH (Lab) are elected. Turnout was 29.87%

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

If I were Gramsci, I would simply not have died in detention

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@ItsTheBrandi @NifMuhammad Underrated tweet

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

Great line from @AyoCaesar on Brexit: "52% of the country voted to make 100% of the country unbearable" #EuropeForTheMany

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@shirleymush Possibly apocryphal, but Dulwich Hamlet apparently chant "State apparatus! Repressive state apparatus!" at Metropolitan Police FC

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@NotNihal Fondly remembering a trip to Armenia many years ago when I learned, contrary to what I'd previously thought, that burek, coffee, dolma, baklava, wine, feta, kebabs, and decorative rugs are all Armenian

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@ImogenWK You might already know about it but Under My Thumb is a wonderful collection of essays about songs like this (shout out editors @eldavldn and @RhianEJones )

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@theobertram @IanAustin1965 @JZWoodcock Reasons like facing investigation for sexual harassment?

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@LukasMukasPukas Utterly unmoored from reality. So many people tripped over themselves to yell about Stalinism and gulags and could not or would not conceive that Corbyn's leadership was solidly non-authoritarian, especially when compared to the rest of the Labour party

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@Will_deF @tristandross Tech blogger and wood expert, I think you'll find

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

The standard response from any Labour councillor taking criticism from the left: "know your place"

Jon Burke MIEMA CEnv 🌍

@jonburkeUK

4 years

@samfoster99 I am a left wing politician; and I've undertaken more act of practical socialism than you've written tweets about it. Happy to compare records any time you want.

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John Foster

@john85foster

3 years

@piercepenniless I genuinely believed that era was gone for good. Not that the press and parliament is any better now than it was 20 years ago, but I thought their obsessions had moved on, and it's almost surreal to relive it - the delusion, the incurious hysteria, the rage at the left

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@Mr_Considerate This is exactly what makes this tendency so supernaturally annoying – insisting that they are so serious and so sensible, while refusing to accept any shred of moral responsibility (and, frequently, acting affronted any time this is raised)

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

@judeinlondon2 For a moment I genuinely thought you were subtweeting the last two leaders of the Green Party

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@b_judah @n_srnck Agree 100% on both points. Constructive ambiguity is very smart and FBPE is deeply odd. Where have you seen the latter being written about?

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

@thedalstonyears @daliagebrial I (born 1985) was never taught tenses or formal grammar, and I think it really hindered me learning other languages - the teacher would say something like "the passato prossimo is the present perfect" and I would be like, ok then

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John Foster

@john85foster

5 years

I would genuinely love to know what self-hating hedge fund is donating $147 to Bernie Sanders

Rob

@philosophrob

5 years

Hedge fund money received (2018) $201,564 - Beto O'Rourke $176,765 - Kirsten Gillibrand $76,845 - Cory Booker $68,560 - Amy Klobuchar $53,550 - Seth Moulton $50,812 - Ted Cruz $44,518 - Elizabeth Warren $38,125 - Michael Bennet $32,400 - John Delaney $147 - Bernie Sanders

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John Foster

@john85foster

4 years

Amid a pandemic, economic disaster, and a looming climate catastrophe of unthinkable proportions, Goodwin and friends are exercised about "cancel culture" and "new podcasts"

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John Foster

@john85foster

2 years

@latimeralder @BadDataTakes Maybe you shouldn't be tweeting about it then

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John Foster

@john85foster

6 years

@nmsonline @rowlsmanthorpe @Conservatives @DawnHFoster broke the story, delete this tweet and apologise to her

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