That's put a rapid end to 'flexible' Andy Burnham's campaign already

The thing about Farage’s ”Immigrants are eating swans” claim is that it doesn’ matter that decent and rational people realise it’s total nonsense. The claim is not aimed at decent and rational people. It is aimed at racist bigots, who will accept it and repeat it. Farage knows his audience.

In 2015 I went to the Burnham/ Cooper/ Kendall/ Corbyn Hustings in Brighton. Burnham was deeply unimpressive...tacking rightwards because he thought that would garner more votes.

In Sept 2014, I was standing next to Andy Burnham in Manchester one afternoon at conference. We were both looking at our watches; me to make sure that I was on time for a meeting with Shadow Health Sec Andy Burnham, and he, I suspect, to make sure he was late and could make an entrance.

A bit sick of Labour politicians appearing in the right wing hate-press in order to further their short term ambitions.

Why the left are turning to Burnham is beyond me. In the 2015 leadership race against Corbyn, he was considered a Blairite. And his Faragesque remarks about immigrants is anything but socialist. Burnham is just a shape shifting opportunist. www.businessinsider.com/andy-burnham...

Burnham seems to have no real principles either. Just says whatever he thinks is popular even when he doesn’t believe it. How is that different or better than Starmer?

It’s gone so quickly from ‘boat people’ to all immigrants. So quickly from ‘I don’t mind if they come here legally and pay taxes’ to ‘actually it’s anyone foreign’. We are living in the ‘first they came for’ poem. All to give the population a scapegoat so the super rich can hoard yet more wealth.

Andy Burnham needs to put a stop to this "Prince across the water" nonsense. He's being played by the right wing press. He had his chance and there's more than enough talent in the PLP to follow Starmer, many of whom did the hard yards in Opposition. Side before self, Andy.

My main problem with believing that Andy Burnham is our saviour is his behaviour in the 2015 leadership comp, where he proved able to say *anything* that would get him more votes and then lost disastrously, only staying loyal to Corbyn so he could become Manchester mayor

Burnham’s bond market comments, coming just three years after Truss blew up her own premiership by ignoring the bond markets, are spectacularly unhelpful to the government, but surely to his own campaign. Some MPs saying it shows his weaknesses is glaring terms.

The wheel turns. This week there's a definite sense that we've reached the top of the market in both Nigel Farage and Andy Burnham.

Bored? Be more like William Morrell: - Born 1801 - Became shoemaker - Became boxer - Became shoemaker for boxers - Abandoned boxing - Became one of Nottingham's first cops - Became a Methodist preacher - Did good things for slums - Walked right across town for his Christmas dinner aged 102

I am beginning to think that the idea deputy leader of the Labour Party would be Keir Starmer.

Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.

I have liked living on the Isle of Thanet but IT HASN'T BEEN AN ISLAND FOR 400 YEARS. Some locals are not sure about this fact.

I am leaving Kent soon and moving inland. Looking forward to avoiding BBC Radio Kent news programmes beginning with a boat/ refugee count.

I remember when Radio 4's Today program spoke about things other than small boats

Despite widespread claims, there are not many mediaeval pubs still serving. The ones that survive are all inns. The best preserved is the New Inn at Gloucester. We know from tree-ring dating that construction began in 1432 and it was first mentioned in the records in 1455 🧵

This is Huyton, where I come from.People are upset by the unfairness they see and can understand,and have it rammed down their throats by a poisonous media The truth is the whole system is rigged against the people of Huyton and is bugger all to do with migration www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"It was a complex mix of people who attended that (Robinson) march" Amol Rajan #r4today . No it wasn't - they were all thick racist scum.

I was interviewed by @Bread_Rosaries podcast about my book on the German Peasants' War. We discussed religion & rebellion in some depth. Listen on most podcast platforms such as podcastaddict.com/bread-and-ro... Watch on Youtube youtu.be/4cEqdBTj21Y?... Also see below to win a book

True this- 'flags' as a talking point makes this a home fixture for the bigots. The key talking point should be 'bigotry'

Racists who are allowed to be racists don't stop being racists because its easier to get an NHS appointment.

Lucy Powell's endorsement page includes this line '117 MPs nominated Lucy Powell at the fist stage of this contest including..' I presume this is a typo www.lucyfordeputy.co.uk

I never believed in epiphany until last night; until then I thought that that worthwhile opinions are formed gradually But Starmer is incompetent, possibly dangerous and maybe a moral coward.

Keep thinking of arguments for why it would be completely insane to dump a prime minister with a huge majority just 14 months in, and also about how if he's not going to say a single word in opposition to the kind of shit we saw today then I no longer feel convinced by any of those arguments.

A Labour government that does not fight back against the far right, racism and extremism fundamentally misunderstands the nature of its electoral support.

I left Labour over antisemitism and I will leave Labour again if we have a *Labour PM* who can't even stand up to a group of knuckle dragging racists on our streets and a drug addled tech bro. I genuinely do not understand what they are playing at.

Ten years ago today, a desperate Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn as their leader.

I wonder what would happen if a #r4today presenter penned an article for the 'Morning Star' about the long-term effects of austerity on UK society.

British right-wing politicians and their press allies are going to lionise someone most have never heard of & they won’t repeat what he actually said

Justin Webb is a problem. He has been no better than a Trump propagandist for a few years, and now seems to get his talking points from twitter

Killing the other side's negotiating team (multiple times!) should make it pretty clear the Israeli Government does not want a negotiated peace in Gaza. Netanyahu wants an end to Palestinian statehood as a possibility. This is becoming abundantly clear to everyone, except it seems, our leaders.

In 2015 I went to the Burnham/ Cooper/ Kendall/ Corbyn Hustings in Brighton. Burnham was deeply unimpressive...tacking rightwards because he thought that would garner more votes. Burnham is not the answer to any question about the Labour Government except 'what would make thongs worse?'

In Sept 2014, I was standing next to Andy Burnham in Manchester one afternoon at conference. We were both looking at our watches; me to make sure that I was on time for a conference meeting with Shadow Health Sec Andy Burnham, and he, I suspect, to make sure he was late and could make an entrance.

I've just found this unattributed quote in an old post of mine: "When faced with complaints, the BBC has no middle position between arrogant dismissal and abject surrender."

These people are scum. Not rationally concerned, not economically disadvantaged, not seeking for a political home, not a silent majority. Scum.

I am Mr Labour Loyalist by any definition, including 'canvassing in Broadstairs on a November weekday when only one other person has turned up' I don't do the ripping up the card and flouncing out. But Starmer has no idea about how to stand up to newly confident racism. What is to be done?

Not a fan of the Green Nimbys - but #r4today has given their new leader scant coverage, and continued their immigration love-in. The continued focus on the issues that fire up the right is clearly a deliberate editorial decision taken at a senior level. It's a disgrace.

Its their Jeremy Corbyn moment.

There are two Green parties, aren't there? The radical ones, Brighton and Bristol, and the Countyfile Nimby types They opposition to NATO is another problem for me as well

Its 28 years since the death of Diana Spencer, when the country went round the bend. It was the first symptom of what we have now. I

Later that day and out of curiosity, I found myself in the Mall with my mate Roddy. I've never experienced any atmosphere like it in this city before or since. I remember Rod turning to me and whispering, "It feels like if you said one inappropriate thing, the whole place would go up in violence."

29 August 1782: HMS Royal George sank off Portsmouth while undergoing routine maintenance. About 900 lives were lost. #History #RoyalNavy

Just removed the date label from an old book and discovered that someone has drawn a design for a teapot that can serve either tea or poison how's your day going?

Why in God's name is this man employed by the BBC to present news?

This is a defining moment. Far right activists are seizing the best opportunity since WWII to redefine Englishness as white nativist hostility to black and brown people seeking asylum. We’re at the edge of a precipice. We either condone or resist that definition. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Its international dog day! Here's a #Georgian perspective about1816.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/5...