Richard Johnson @richardmarcj Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Richard Johnson

@richardmarcj

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Senior Lecturer at @QMPoliticsIR @QMUL . Author of books on race & US democracy, US foreign policy, UK Labour history. Co-editor of book on UK constitution.

England

https://t.co/bSAq5B1OAv

Joined December 2009

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@richardmarcj

Richard Johnson

1 day

🚨NEW POLLING DATA Last week, I asked YouGov to poll over 2,100 adults in Great Britain about their views on constitutional reform. Voters were asked their views on the electoral system, devolution, planning, the judiciary, House of Lords, citizens' assemblies, and more. 🧵

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@richardmarcj

Richard Johnson

2 years

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, more than 780 libraries have been closed. 10,000 library staff lost. Per capita library spending is down from £18 to £12. The book stock down from 103 million to 75 million. Dreadful.

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Richard Johnson

3 months

I don't understand how you can support requiring people to have state-issued ID cards to vote but also oppose state-issued ID cards.

@Jacob_Rees_Mogg

Jacob Rees-Mogg

@Jacob_Rees_Mogg

3 months

Identity cards make us the servants of the state rather than its masters.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

In 1956, Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin visited London. All smiles, they met with the Conservative Prime Minister Anthony Eden. It was deemed a charm offensive, but on one evening with the Labour Party, Khrushchev's charm was very much switched off. 🧵

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Richard Johnson

2 years

34-year-old rugby player David Pocock has just been elected to the Australian Senate as an independent.

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Richard Johnson

4 years

Starmer won with 52.6% of the vote. When will there be a confirmatory referendum on his leadership? Today's result is only advisory, right? Put it to the people!

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Richard Johnson

5 years

Barbara Castle's introduction of compulsory seatbelts, alcohol limits for drivers, and the breathalyser, in the face of fierce and sometimes quite sexist opposition, gives her plausible claim for being directly responsible for saving more lives than nearly any other minister.

@labour_history

Tides of History

@labour_history

5 years

#OTD 1965. Barbara Castle appointed Minister of Transport. Told by the media that 'you’re only a woman, you don’t drive, what do you know about it?’, she introduced the Road Safety Bill, the seatbelt and breathalyser after discovering the large number of road fatalities.

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Richard Johnson

5 months

This was the last YouGov poll released before Rishi Sunak resigned as Chancellor to bring down Boris Johnson in July 2022... Labour: 36% Conservatives: 33% Lib Dems: 13% Green: 6% Reform: 3% Labour's 3 point lead has become a 27 point lead.

@ElectionMapsUK

Election Maps UK

@ElectionMapsUK

5 months

Westminster Voting Intention: LAB: 47% (+2) CON: 20% (-2) RFM: 12% (+4) LDM: 8% (+1) GRN: 7% (-1) Via @YouGov , tbc. Changes w/ 10-11 Jan.

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Richard Johnson

17 days

Amazing clip of Clement Attlee saying why he opposed joining the Common Market. 'It breaks the unity of the Commonwealth. In mind, the Commonwealth is immensely important. This is because it is multi-racial...I think it's a retrograde step to go back to a purely European union'.

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Richard Johnson

2 years

The Queen Mother dressed up for a night at the ballet. She was 101 in this photo.

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Richard Johnson

10 months

Remarkable facts about 2017: Biggest increase in Labour vote since 1945 (from 30%➡️40%) Only election Labour has gained seats since 1997 Highest turnout since 1997 Highest % of eligible voters voting Labour since 1997 Labour's best performance in England as %vote since 2001

@ettingermentum

ettingermentum🥥🌴

@ettingermentum

10 months

To this day this trendline is still one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen in global politics

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Richard Johnson

3 years

A photo of Keir Hardie at home, in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Look at what flag he has behind him...

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Margaret Thatcher did this. Asylum seekers housed on the ferry 'Earl William' took to hunger strike. @HackneyAbbott and @jeremycorbyn boarded the ship to show their solidarity. The ship became unmoored in a storm and floated away. All were safely recovered & granted asylum.

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@PolitlcsUK

Politics UK

1 year

🚨 | NEW: The government will move ALL migrants OUT of hotels and put them into disused ferries instead

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Richard Johnson

3 years

When Barbara Castle introduced breathalyser tests in 1967, she was condemned for infringing on personal liberties. Castle reflected, 'I was interfering, the opposition said, with people's civil rights. I said I do not recognise anybody's civil right to kill somebody else'.

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Richard Johnson

4 years

At 24, Ann Eliza Young married 67-year-old Mormon leader Brigham Young. 5 years later she filed for divorce. She became a national campaigner against polygamy & testified before Congress. She wrote 'Wife No 19 or The Story of a Life in Bondage'. She was actually Young's 52nd wife

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Richard Johnson

5 years

A few points Labour must consider: 78% of the 45 seats Labour must gain from the Conservatives to win the next general election voted Leave 72% of Labour's 25 most vulnerable constituencies (majorites under 2,000) voted Leave 61% of all Labour constituencies voted Leave

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Richard Johnson

5 years

Reporter asks, If by leaving the EEC the UK faced graver economic consequences than staying in, would you still back Leave? Michael Foot replies, I don't see how we can solve our economic problems by weakening our democratic institutions. Wish more on Left today had that faith

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Richard Johnson

3 years

Bring back the tradition of senior Labour politicians being so hungover that they have to wear sunglasses on the final day of party conference. Proud of Harold Wilson, Joan Lestor, and Barbara Castle

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Khrushchev concluded, 'It is far more difficult to discuss things with you Labour leaders than with the Conservative government of this country'. If this was British socialism, Khrushchev would rather be a Tory. /end

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Richard Johnson

2 years

Blair in @NewStatesman this week. Worth noting that Corbyn's 2017 vote share (40.0%) was much higher than Blair's result in 2005 (35.2%) and nearly equal to Blair's landslide 2001 vote share (40.7%).

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Richard Johnson

3 years

Sorry this is nonsense. The United States *invaded Canada* in 1812 and burnt down Canadian towns. The British attack on Washington was a reprisal for the American attack on York. It was not some weird cult of George III, who was by that point severely mentally and physically ill.

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Richard Johnson

4 months

A party that was polling over 50% in this same Parliament, now at 18%. Few will say it, but I genuinely believe (as I said at the time) that removing Boris Johnson was an act of electoral self-sabotage by the Tories on par with Labour’s embrace of a 2nd referendum in 2019.

@ElectionMapsUK

Election Maps UK

@ElectionMapsUK

4 months

Westminster Voting Intention: LAB: 46% (+1) CON: 18% (-2) RFM: 13% (+1) LDM: 10% (=) Via @PeoplePolling , 7 Mar. Changes w/ 25 Jan.

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Richard Johnson

3 months

In 1998, the House of Commons debated Roy Jenkins's report on proportional representation. Tony Benn rose to oppose it. 'Introducing proportionality completely destroys the idea of representation', Benn told MPs. 🧵

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Richard Johnson

1 year

In his weekly meeting with Clement Attlee, King George VI urged the PM to accelerate house building: 'We discussed Housing...I told him I had heard that Local Authorities had had their plans turned down & were unable to build any houses because they could not get a permit...'

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Richard Johnson

6 years

During the 1966 general election, Clement Attlee was canvassed by a couple of Labour students at his home in Buckinghamshire. He listened to them explain why he should vote Labour, apparently unaware of who he was. 'Already a member', Attlee said, and closed the door.

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Richard Johnson

6 years

The EU has never seen a referendum result it didn't like that it hasn't tried to overturn. The Danes, the French, the Irish, the Dutch, and the Greeks all voted against the EU and then were forced to vote again or were ignored because apparently the voters were 'misinformed'. /1

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Richard Johnson

2 years

Anthony Albanese has gone to see the Queen to request to form a new government

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Richard Johnson

7 months

Incredible statistic in this week's @NewStatesman . There are 40% fewer GPs today than in 2010. Is it any wonder people are struggling to get appointments?

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Richard Johnson

18 days

The rumours that Labour is seeking to ban 80+ year-olds from being in the House of Lords strikes me as a policy that will undoubtedly weaken the quality of the House of Lords while providing no discernible benefit. So many interesting, experienced figures booted out for no reason

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Richard Johnson

3 years

Isn't the problem less the flag than the fact that Keir Starmer and his allies spent years trying to overturn a legitimate election result that a majority of working class voters supported?

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Richard Johnson

4 years

Characteristic of @CatharineHoey in her maiden speech in the House of Lords today to speak about the staff working on the paliamentary estate. One of those MPs who had a very good reputation for treating staff well. It can't be said about all of them, unfortunately.

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Richard Johnson

3 months

As a councillor in London in the 1930s, Barbara Castle (then Betts) was nominated by a male councillor to be on the Maternity & Child Welfare committee. She replied, 'I'm not married and I've no children. You are both. You go on...I want to go on Highways, Sewers & Public Works'

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Richard Johnson

7 years

'Ireland decides'? Just as they decided in 2001 and 2008 before being told to go back and decide again.

@guyverhofstadt

Guy Verhofstadt

@guyverhofstadt

7 years

“Ireland decides”. Well said, @donaldtusk ! Proud of ‘our’ Donald. EU must fully unite behind Ireland. #IamIrish 🇮🇪 🇪🇺

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Richard Johnson

5 months

Today is the 49th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming Leader of the Opposition. Here she is that same year with Delaware Senator Joe Biden.

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Richard Johnson

7 months

I wrote a Queen's speech and asked my 80-year-old grandmother to wear a crown and read it to camera.

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Sohail Charef

7 months

10 years old boy writing program in python...what were you doing at his age?

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Richard Johnson

3 years

'The Labour Party owes much more to the teachings of Jesus than it does to the writings of Marx' -Tony Benn (1980)

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Richard Johnson

3 years

I was rejected from Labour's Future Candidates programme, which is fine. Not the reason I've been a member since 2009. Happy for those chosen, but really hope party has selected people who understand why 2nd referendum policy was a disaster & key fissure in historic Labour areas

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Richard Johnson

1 year

At this, Nye Bevan could not contain himself any further. He leapt up: 'Your view of who is an enemy of the working classes is not our view. Conduct an inquiry into this matter, or, better still, let them all come to England, where we are quite willing to receive them'.

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Richard Johnson

6 years

The Queen has had to entertain some awful types over her reign. I still laugh when I think about her meeting with Martin McGuiness. McGuinness asked, 'How are you?'. The Queen replied, 'Well, I'm still alive'. Perfect response.

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Richard Johnson

4 years

Today is the third anniversary of @CatharineHoey 's final victory for Labour in Vauxhall. Kate's 20,250 majority was the largest of her 8 elections as a Labour parliamentary candidate. No one in Vauxhall has ever won a bigger majority.

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Richard Johnson

4 years

I'm overwhelmed. I have had this book on trade union rights on my book case for years. But only now have I seen to whom it originally belonged(!!!). This would have been one of the first times Barbara Castle used her married name. She married Ted Castle only the month before.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

When Tony Benn was Minister of Technology, he hung a map of Britain in his ministerial office upside down. Benn explained that it minimised the significance of the South East. If you turn Britain upside down, he thought, it resembles Italy, including with the wealth in the North

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Richard Johnson

2 years

Happy 80th birthday to Frank Field, a man of great personal integrity and moral courage.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

I love this anecdote about David Amess. What a character

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@TheCriticMag

The Critic

3 years

He was always chatting to the low-paid workers of Westminster, researchers and security staff, with no thought of their relative position:“They all knew him and liked him. The little people often remember your kindness better than those of high status”

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Richard Johnson

5 months

I was saying this only yesterday. This country does not feel markedly improved since 2010. Beyond Crossrail, conceived pre-2010, what major legacies have the 2010-24 governments bequeathed future generations? What new industries, infrastructure, public services, anything?

@JohnRentoul

John Rentoul

5 months

Are you better off now than you were in 2010? Trying to think of positive answers to the Ronald Reagan Question...

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Richard Johnson

3 years

In December 1981, a delegation of Labour MPs went to Brussels to discuss Labour's plan for leaving the EEC with the Commission. The confidential report of the meeting provides a fascinating look at what were in effect the first negotiations on Brexit, covering familiar themes/1

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Richard Johnson

1 year

How does anyone, not least the Labour Party leader, look at the economic & social stagnation of the last 13 years, the decline of the public realm, the creaking infrastructure & conclude that Britain *doesn't* urgently need more public investment & better funded public services?

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Richard Johnson

1 year

An elected upper chamber will not be cheaper than the House of Lords. We will have to pay these politicians actual salaries, fund their staff and offices, cover their expenses, etc. This is a terrible reason for introducing a new veto player (among many).

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Gaitskell then charged the Soviet Union with persecuting Jews ('Nonsense!', roared Khrushchev) and accused them of imprisoning social democrats and trade unionists. 'Why should we care what happens to enemies of the working class?', Khrushchev spat back.

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Richard Johnson

1 month

Michael Foot was a great believer that politics was a battle of ideas. He celebrated the adversarial nature of British politics and warned against attempts to forge a more consensual form of politics. Foot understood seemingly sensible reforms could lead to deadening centrism🧵

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Richard Johnson

1 year

The Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell rose. He was trembling. He told Khrushchev he had not expected a history lesson that night. But he was confident that all authoritative historians on earth, 'with the exception of Mr Khrushchev and his colleagues' took a different view of events.

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Richard Johnson

2 years

Jim Callaghan lends Harold Macmillan his arm at Rab Butler's funeral in 1982. Behind them are Willie Whitelaw and Margaret Thatcher.

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Richard Johnson

2 months

Ben Pimlott described Judith Hart as ‘probably the most left-wing member of the Cabinet’ in the 1960s. As Social Security Minister (DWP), she took a hard line against benefit cheats in the name of socialism. Her attitude reflects an instinct that is rarer on the left today🧵

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Richard Johnson

1 year

'God forgive you', Brown muttered. Khrushchev stopped. 'What did you say?', he demanded. An icy silence. 'Don't be afraid. Say it again', Khrushchev challenged. 'God forgive you!', Brown repeated.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

The elder Khrushchev could sense something was amiss. He asked his interpreter what Brown had just said. He flew into a fury, 'Interference in family affairs is even worse than interference in another country's internal affairs'. A menacing silence fell across the room.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

It's quite striking where the immigration debate in France now sits. A supposed moderate politician calling for the total stopping of immigration and the prioritisation of total assimilation to the French culture of those who live on French soil. Frankly goes further than Trump.

@CNEWS

CNEWS

3 years

Manuel Valls : «aujourd'hui, il faut arrêter l'immigration», dans #LeGrandRDV

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Sergei insisted that he did. Brown was having none of it. 'I have a daughter about your age in the university', he bellowed. 'She disagrees with me all the time. That's the difference between your country and ours', Brown declared.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Last year, John McDonnell got up at 5am, drove to Lancaster to march in a trade union march at 11am, addressed rally in afternoon, spoke at a Labour fundraiser in Morecambe at 7pm, and then drove back to London at 9pm. Courteous & charming to everyone. I respected his dedication

@AaronBastani

Aaron Bastani

1 year

One of the strangest things about British politics is that John McDonnell, who is seen as some wild outsider by media, is genuinely one of nicest people I’ve ever met (one might argue too nice for the very highest level - although I’d hope not, obviously).

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Khrushchev was defiant. 'We are Communists. Don't ask us to give up our principles', he shouted. 'Don't try to bully me', Bevan replied to the Soviet leader. When it came to the end of the dinner, Khrushchev refused to raise his glass in a toast. He gave only an icy stare.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

It began, as many of these diplomatic misadventures so often did, with George Brown. Brown was seated next to Khrushchev's son Sergei. Turning to the 22-year-old, Brown challenged, 'You don't always agree with your father on everything, do you?'

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Richard Johnson

3 years

In 1966, Barbara Castle, wearing what she described as a 'daring new hat' hosted the Queen & Duke of Edinburgh at the opening of the Severn Bridge. She recorded, 'Had a very lively chat with Philip over lunch. He and I always argue like mad. I like his utter lack of stuffiness'.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

As part of their visit, the Soviet leaders were invited to dinner with the Labour frontbench in a private dining room in the House of Commons. With the help of wine and stubborn characters in the room, the encounter was nothing short of disastrous.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Later, during the dinner speeches, Khrushchev launched into a lengthy tirade about World War II. He blamed Britain for betrayal at Munich and France for failing to stop Hitler. When Khrushchev said the Soviet Union had singlehandedly won the war, George Brown couldn't resist...

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Richard Johnson

2 years

At 42, Rishi Sunak will be the first British prime minister born in the 1980s and the youngest prime minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1812. He is 38 years younger than Joe Biden. He was too young to vote in the 1997 general election.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

The Greens and Conservatives have joined ranks to overthrow the Labour-led administration of Lancaster City Council. Disgraceful.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Interesting story from 2000 when Jeremy Corbyn criticised Tony Blair for being too close to Vladimir Putin and condemned the Russian president's human rights record

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Harvard classifies a student as being disadvantaged as one whose parents earn less than $80,000 per year...! That's £66,000! The median household income in the UK is less than half that amount (£32,000).

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Selfish man. Is it so much of a sacrifice for him to shop at Aldi at 11am (or go somewhere else that is open earlier) in order for this shop's many employees to get a lie in/time with family on a Sunday morning? Liberal individualism on full display.

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Freddie Poser

1 year

Good old Sunday trading… vitally important that this Aldi dare not open before 11

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Richard Johnson

4 years

A woman of great integrity. As Peter Shore used to tell new MPs... your integrity is all you have when you enter this place. It's all you better have when you leave it. Caroline Flint has shown that in droves.

@CarolineFlint

Caroline Flint

4 years

Office cleared. Keys handed in. Thanks to my staff. Doncaster still home. The end .....and a new beginning.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

A week after Labour's victory in the 1945 election, President Harry Truman arrived at Portsmouth, where he was greeted by George VI. 'You've had a revolution', Truman said, remarking on the first majority Labour government. 'Oh no, we don't have those here', the King replied.

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Richard Johnson

5 years

I have quite a few friends who voted Remain but accept the principle that election results must be put into effect. I really thought this would be a completely uncontroversial stance, not an 'odd' one.

@bbcquestiontime

BBC Question Time

@bbcquestiontime

5 years

“I’m one of the odd people that voted remain in the EU election, but I accept democracy” This Remain voter says she accepts the referendum result. #bbcqt

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Richard Johnson

2 years

Terrible. PR would destroy the Labour Party, splintering it into smaller parties and making any future Labour government conditional on non-socialist parties. An appalling act of self-sabotage with the biggest beneficiaries being the Lib Dems & far right

Keir Starmer to face calls at Labour conference for electoral reform

Delegates expected to approve motion calling for party to replace first past the post with a proportional system

www.theguardian.com

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Richard Johnson

6 years

Respect to Alan Johnson. He led the Remain campaign, yet understands a second referendum would lack legitimacy without implementing the first.

@bbcthisweek

BBC This Week

6 years

“I am against a second referendum. You can call it a People’s Vote. What the first one? it was not androids that took part, it was people.” Alan Johnson tells @afneil #bbctw

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Richard Johnson

8 months

A total ceasefire in effect is telling Israel it must tolerate an organisation that killed its civilians in the most brutal fashion, holds hundreds of them hostage, and is sworn to its national destruction. How is Israel supposed to protect itself and disarm Hamas?

@BoardofDeputies

Board of Deputies of British Jews

@BoardofDeputies

8 months

"You cannot both believe that Israel has the right to defend itself against atrocities like this and also call for a ceasefire while Hamas says it will do the exact same thing again, and continues to hold over 200 hostages." Our joint statement with @JLC_uk :

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Richard Johnson

9 months

Reeves proposes, 'never will a prime minister or chancellor be allowed to repeat the mistakes of the “mini” Budget.' I understand the sentiment, but I am very wary of efforts to try to stop governments from being 'allowed' to take economic decisions.

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Rachel Reeves: From the OBR to new fiscal rules, we will bring back stability

Labour’s charter of Budget responsibility aims to give businesses certainty — with no repeats of the ‘mini’ Budget

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Richard Johnson

11 months

In the 1920s, Queen Mary learned that the wives of some working-class Labour MPs were too shy to come to evening functions at Buckingham Palace. So, she instead organised 'afternoon parties' at the Palace at 4pm. 'The ladies can come to these if the evening parties alarm them'.

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Richard Johnson

5 months

Very good piece by @yuanyi_z in @TheCriticMag about the muddled thinking which led to the creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He makes an eloquent case for its abolition and a return to the respected, but less prominent, Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.

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Richard Johnson

11 months

In 1997, New Labour cut higher income support & child benefit for single parents who couldn't prove they were looking for work. Ann Clwyd was one of the few Labour MPs who defiantly stood up to the minister Harriet Harman & refused to support this change

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Ann Clwyd: Tony Blair and Mark Drakeford pay tribute to ex MP

She represented the Cynon Valley constituency for 35 years before standing down in 2019.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

Labour MPs Barbara Castle & Edith Summerskill stand outside Lancaster House with protestors from the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1961 to demand South Africa's expulsion from the Commonwealth. They succeeded. They wore sashes commemorating the Sharpeville massacre the previous year

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Richard Johnson

1 year

When Caroline Lucas was first elected an MEP in 1999, she was regarded as a eurosceptic alternative for centre-left voters. She campaigned against monetary union and against further EU centralisation. In this she joined forces with Peter Shore & Tony Benn. A political journey!

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@CarolineLucas

Caroline Lucas

1 year

In 2010 #Brighton Pavilion made history by electing me UK’s 1st Green MP & it’s been the honour of my life. My open letter to residents & friends explains why I’m not standing at next General Election. With love & gratitude, I hope I've done you proud 👇

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Richard Johnson

9 months

This is actually rather disappointing. If the UK flag is to appear on the membership card, it should be on all of them. It is the flag of everyone in the UK, not just of people in England.

@PAShanky

Paul Cruikshank

9 months

Before the Nats get too excited/incensed about this - Scottish cards will have the Saltire; and Welsh cards will have the Welsh flag. Because we're comfortable with that kind of thing.

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Richard Johnson

9 months

1992 story in the Daily Mirror attacking European Commission President Jacques Delors as 'ARROGANT' with the headline 'Jacques-ass Delors'. The author of the piece? @campbellclaret

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Richard Johnson

2 years

This is an important point. Commentators have implicitly analogised the 4 nations of the UK to member states of the EU or other multinational bodies. This is not accurate. The UK is a constitutionally unitary state whose core feature is the legislative freedom of UK Parliament.

@DavidGHFrost

David Frost

2 years

That view is not correct. The UK is not a confederation of four equal and sovereign parts. Rather, all its people are legally equal within a single, sovereign state. If a part of the UK leaves it, that is secession, not re-establishment of an already-existing sovereignty.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

Labour's Ernest Bevin on free speech (1947): 'There is a good story told of a friend who came from the United States to Great Britain. He had heard a good deal about the orators in Hyde Park. He had never been here before, and he thought he would go up and have a look...'

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Richard Johnson

3 years

I feel poorly represented by my union. We should be desperately fighting to keep in person teaching. We are destroying the educational experience of our students. We cannot shut down universities every time there is a new variant. I accepted it before vaccine roll out. Not now.

@DrJoGrady

Jo Grady

3 years

We need clear instructions to move universities online right now, not a repeat of the same mistakes we saw in 2020. Doing so will prevent immediate and further spread of Omicron on campus, whilst scientists get to grips with the emerging picture presented by the new variant.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

@timfarron @pphaneuf @TimesRadio Not trying to pick a fight. I respect your position. But I think Biblical scholars generally say the Gospels are recordings of oral traditions about Jesus from different communities, written 30-60 years after his death, plus a now lost older common source of sayings of Jesus (Q).

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Richard Johnson

2 years

This is crazy. Labour is not only proposing having an elected upper chamber but one that is chosen on a different electoral cycle, which will almost certainly become used to weaken the government and make the likelihood of legislative gridlock much worse.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

As I posted a month ago. Stitching up the Labour selection for an anti-Brexit candidate like Paul Williams was a shocker. Shows how little Starmer or his team understand. Labour's 2nd ref policy was utterly catastrophic. The ultimate 'we don't care what voters like you think'.

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Richard Johnson

3 years

Labour's best result in Hartlepool in the last 20 years was when it stood on a bold left-wing manifesto that was committed to leaving the EU. It's not really rocket science why public cheerleaders of a 2nd referendum are not flavour of the month.

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Richard Johnson

3 months

In the 1950s, a grace-and-favour home was intended for use by the highest ranking woman in the British government. A 'Woman Minister's Chequers' was gifted to the nation, but it was never used by any female ministers. What happened to this rural retreat? 🧵

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Richard Johnson

3 months

A Labour MP in the 1990s describing Neil Kinnock as 'contemptuous of people like Jeremy Corbyn, who was dressing down and slopping round the place. If you come from a working-class background as Neil does, you would know that basically [as an MP] you wear your Sunday best'.

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Richard Johnson

5 years

Not hugely comfortable with Helen Lewis's depiction of Vote Leave as run by men. She's not the first to do this, but I'm not keen on erasing an immigrant woman from the story of the 2016 referendum. Gisela Stuart was Vote Leave's chair and one of its most public figures.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

It's release day! 'Sceptical Perspectives on the Changing Constitution of the United Kingdom' is now out. @yuanyi_z & I hope this volume will make an important contribution - and challenge - to understandings of the post-1997 British constitution. Let's look inside 👀

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Richard Johnson

2 years

So sad about Angela Lansbury. Probably the last living person to know Labour leader George Lansbury (her grandad)

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Richard Johnson

7 years

There are 42 women still alive who claim a federal pension for their husbands' service in the Spanish-American War, which concluded in 1898.

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Richard Johnson

1 year

90% of Labour MPs went to university. Mick Whitley is one of just about two dozen Labour MPs who didn't. Left school at 15, Merchant Navy and Vauxhall Motors. Came up through the trade union movement. Whatever else you can say about him, it's a rare path for an MP these days.

@MickWhitleyMP

Mick Whitley

1 year

It's an honour to serve as Birkenhead's voice in Westminster. I was born and raised in Birkenhead. I know the challenges facing our town and I know the difference that Labour can make to the lives of local people. Together, let's #BuildABetterBirkenhead

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Richard Johnson

4 years

The Labour front bench after the 1966 landslide: Harold Wilson seems to have said something to make Jim Callaghan smile. Tony Benn is giving a Conservative MP an ironic thumbs up. Barbara Castle is as radiant as ever.

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Richard Johnson

4 years

This is a beautiful portrait of the biggest loss of the last election. I am in such admiration of @CarolineFlint : an extraordinary life, sharp mind, and genuine warmth. Her analysis of the GE is bang on: 'overwhelmingly it was about trust in democracy'.😭

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Caroline Flint: the night I lost my job on live TV

Long before she entered the Doncaster count, Caroline Flint knew she had lost. She’d seen the exit poll, of course, but for weeks her canvassing returns had come back covered in the letters NC....

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Richard Johnson

8 months

I can't stand David Cameron, but constitutionally there is nothing improper with his appointment as Foreign Secretary. When Harold Wilson won the 1964 general election, he ennobled Alun Gwynne Jones as Lord Chalfont & made him Minister of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs

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Richard Johnson

3 years

In 1980, during the leadership of Jim Callaghan, 71% of delegates at Labour Party conference voted in favour of leaving the EEC.

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Richard Johnson

2 years

The Social Democratic government of Denmark has signed a deal with the Rwandan government to transfer some asylum seekers from Denmark to Rwanda. Immigration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek said asylum must be based on need, not ability to pay people smugglers

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