A country boy in a big city, living with a long running obsession with the
#Eurovision
Song Contest. Designer, writer & campaigner.
#F1
fan,
#avgeek
& musician.
It’s just a silly little song contest. But it’s my silly little song contest. A difficult year, but we move on. Back to where it all began. See you next time (aka in 3 days when we probably start getting news and speculation about Switzerland 2025). Tack Sverige 🇸🇪
#Eurovision
December 14, 2020. This was the *very* day Boris ‘cancelled Christmas’. The day they told everyone to be ‘extra careful’ and Hancock was on the airwaves pleading with people not to accidentally kill their grannies. The day millions felt crushed, upset and fed up.
Each year on Remembrance Sunday, we assemble at the Cenotaph to honour the sacrifice of the fallen and pay tribute to the servicemen & women we place in harm’s way.
Today - as every day - we will remember them.
#LestWeForget
Labour’s current positions:
- For Brexit, but also against it
- For a deal, but not this one
- For a referendum, but also against one
- For an election, but not right now
Tonight, in his first few hours as Prime Minister,
@Keir_Starmer
has spoken to allies and partners across the world.
The UK stands ready to continue to work with them to deliver security and growth at home and abroad.
This is where we have got to now. Not that anyone is forgetting but she was Prime Minister - now says being an LGBT ally was a mistake. Quite something. This is the line coming from GB News and the right. We aren’t ready.
The Spanish fans hated Chanel when she won, and now we witness their change of heart. She deserves it by a mile. Incredible. Brilliant to have Spain back.
#Eurovision
Spain are delivering the best pre-tour display of a song I think we’ve ever seen on the
#Eurovision
circuit. New edits, different staging, pitch perfect singing every time. Blanca is head and shoulders above the rest of the field.
Very strange how the markets and pound have stabilised after the Bank of England stepped in to correct the government’s disastrous mini-budget but don’t seem to somehow have crashed again following a 33% Labour lead… 🤔
I get it’s easy to poke fun, particularly as they made it *so* easy. But at the end of the day they stood up for what they believed in. That’s politics. It’s also what the left begged them to do but then claimed they were all just self serving. They weren’t, they knew the risk.
Fragile men burning LGBTQ flags aside, it feels like a more dangerous time for LGBTQ people in the UK than I’ve felt for a very long time. More people saying they’ve been attacked physically. More openly verbal abuse and harassment of LGBTQ families. Not a surprise but unnerving.
Just to be clear: it was seen as near on impossible to do nil points under the new split voting system. The UK is currently on track to do it easily or avoid it by an absolutely whisker.
#Eurovision
The BBC has put on one of the most comprehensive
#Eurovision
nights to mark the first time in its history the show hasn’t taken place since 1956. As fans (devoted and casual) we often moan, bicker, debate and argue about our broadcaster’s performance but tonight: THANK YOU.
I just keep reflecting on the fact that by a massive stroke of bad luck, the one year we take it seriously, the UK is entering a song called ‘My Last Breath’ to Eurovision in the middle of a crippling respiratory pandemic.
I was automatically expelled because I tweeted May was a better candidate for PM than Leadsom. If the party can process that why is it so difficult to do the same for someone who says ‘Heil Hitler’ or puts a picture of a scorpion with a Star of David on the Statue of Liberty?
I’m (luckily) blocked nowadays by Owen, someone I used to actually quite respect for having a view, values and sticking to them. Then for some godknown reason he decided to jump the shark in aid of magic grandpa. And this is where you end up. Disgusting.
Labour’s next leader, if they want to win an election, would already be on a train to Redcar to speak to Tory voters face to face. They’d visit a synagogue and apologise for the state of the Labour Party. They’d go to Welsh mining towns and have lunch with pensioners.
Honestly believe if the song revamp did something like this at the start, cut out the repetition so it actually develops and with that final 30 seconds as it is now? *Bang* - Spain could win
#Eurovision
.
A lot of people are tense and angry but for me this whole thing is just extremely depressing - not because of
#Eurovision
but just shows how we can go from calling for zero tolerance for alleged abuse one day to excusing it the next because you like the person involved.
Why Gary Neville should be given no special platform or voice in the Labour Party let alone a seat or a mayoralty. He’s not ‘just going to Qatar’ to commentate for the BBC as some bystander. He’s taking Qatari state money for their TV network. Get in the bin. 🚮
Italy, when they finally win again, will host the longest, most ridiculous Eurovision final of all time, and every second of it will be absolutely fantastic.
#sanremo2021
Jewish women supporting each other while the fandom descend into disgusting antisemitism and rapid misogyny around them - hardly surprising is it?
#Eurovision
I mean Keir Starmer is clearly in the wrong. Let’s deal with it but please spare me the lectures and posturing from people on the left who gave and give absolutely no shits about the constant and ongoing associations of Corbyn - not just visits he made but friends he had.
Thanks for the private flight
@jet2tweets
, your staff were amazingly funny and adaptive to the fact there was only 6 of us on your plane back from Greece to the UK. A 10/10 service. 🇬🇷 🇬🇧
Wow Portugal. Easily their best attempt since Amar Pelos Dois. Absolutely stunning. Sensational performance. If the jury doesn’t go for this, get rid of it.
#Eurovision
Labour is now four years into a crisis caused by the very same leaders who have failed to tackle it. We are also now weeks into an election where that same leadership and all its backers and apologists are tougher on Lib Dem bar charts than they are antisemites.
Sorry for existing. Is that what you want us to say? This hypocrisy is ridiculous. People impose the entirety of their religion on their children from birth and yet complain that simply teaching them that LGBT people *exist* from about the age of 4 or 5 is outrageous?
My latest in
@5Pillarsuk
.
“Respect and acceptance are two different things. Live your life however you want but do not impose it onto others."
Important we do not lose our rights as parents.
Please read and share.
Whatever happens tonight at the final, Olly and the BBC should be extremely proud. They’ve thrown their hearts and souls into this and certainly not tamed ambitions. The very best of luck
@bbceurovision
. (From tonight’s jury
#Eurovision
flag parade 📸 )
If the BBC wanted a plan for
#Eurovision
then I highly recommend ignoring Paul McCartney and the Spice Girls and pick up the phone to Sam Ryder and Red Triangle (who have links to Ruth Lorenzo and Saara Aalto). This is the kind of entry to aim for:
Forgot about the scene in Game of Thrones where Rose West, a serial killer who murdered nine young women, was compared to Meghan Markle. Oh no wait, that was you.
Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.
“TheSe RIoTS wOuldN’T hAVe HaPPeNed if yOU JUsT LiSTenED tO oUR VeRY LegITIMaTE CONCerNS” - a) we’ve spent 10 years not just listening but actively following your demands including leaving the entire European Union. b) the connection of this to immigration is a conspiracy theory.
Owen Jones interviewing George Galloway as he stands for the Batley and Spen MP seat. Enjoying our fresh fizz mocktails and Gourmet teas....
Location: Batley WF17 7SE
The Chancellor
@Jeremy_Hunt
will make a statement this morning, bringing forward measures from the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan that will support fiscal sustainability.
A statement to
@HouseofCommons
will follow this afternoon.
Read more: