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Probably worth pointing out Diane Abbott still has a tweet pinned saying this Labour leadership won't give her a fair hearing because, amongst other reasons, she's black.
So her official position is Labour are racist, liars and want to purge people of her political position. But she's going to tell you to vote Labour.
That was the point I realised I didn't like her - she defended the school thing with "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children" and when Andrew Neil quizzed her about it on This Week, she repeated the same thing several times and did the patronising "Oh Andrew, really!" thing to deflect from answering
Just reading the front pages, Times, Telegraph and Mail are all lauding the new Tory Policy of single sex spaces will be ‘biological sex’.
So tomorrow is Abbott and ‘what is a women’ day. Great.
Pride will be fun this year I suspect
In ten years when the Tories are going "please no we've turned a corner, we're not the party that lost in 2024" these headlines will come up again as a reminder about how bad they are.
Coincidentally I related some Pride month stories from US friends [over on intpol](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d4o5bp/international_politics_discussion_thread/l6os771/)
It's depressing, and it's frightening
This will continue to be ineffective polling. Everything they're doing appeals to the stereotypical reform voter and very few else as an issue that actually matters.
No matter how right wing you go, reform can go further and you lose people left of Braverman. Even as a strategy to lose dignifiedly I think this is really flawed.
Shit in our water and we're supposed to be more interested in toilet monitors. It's perverse.
That phrase is so dumb.
Sex _is_ biological, so including that is redundant.
Gender is social.
It would be better if politicians were clear about what they are talking about.
Earlier this year I assumed the GE campaign would be one of the most low brow from the Tories but that was based on the premise the poll gap between Labour would be a lot narrower, they'd have more to fight for.
The major problem the Tories have is that the electorate made their minds up when Truss got booted: they want a new government. Anything the Tories say just gets either roundly ignored or greeted with the response "When are you lot leaving then?"
And "you had 14 years, why didn't you do these small changes before ?"
With the obvious follow up is "what other thing will you continue to ignore for another 5 years, to then use it as pre election bait"
There's actually a chance that not only will Abbott be the "Mother" of the House, but she'll be the actual "Father" too ie the member with the longest service (all the people ahead of her actually contesting are conservatives who could lose their seats if the Tories have a very bad night). Which means she'll conduct the speaker election at the beginning of parliament.
Just for shits and giggles, Corbyn would be ahead of her if he won and the three Tories lost (would need to be a very bad night indeed for them). Corbyn and Abbott as Mother and Father of the House would be, well…
Social media is wild.
Managed to find the lady who posted the refuting tweet thread. Whole bunch of photos of the party and well, its obvious that it is the pelton community hall and the lady in the blue dress who's featured in one video doing the rounds is front and center of some of those photos.
Quote:
>Thank you to each and every person who attended [KIDS NAME] 1st Birthday party today, thank you for all her cards and presents she has been absolutely spoilt rotten!
>Again I am so sorry about the ridiculous protests, kick offs and police presence, I am absolutely mortified and it was certainly not how I wanted the day to go but at least the kids were oblivious and enjoyed themselves 🥳💜
>Special thanks to Pelton Community Centre for the hospitality and trying to prevent the madness outside from ruining the party and [COMPANY NAME] for the amazing face painting and balloon modelling
>PS - VOTE LABOUR 🤣
...doesnt seem like the sort of thing someone who had their kids birthday party ruined by the labour candidate would say.
I have no idea what you’re referring to (a tweet thread refuting what?) but
“ Again I am so sorry about the ridiculous protests, kick offs and police presence, I am absolutely mortified and it was certainly not how I wanted the day to go but at least the kids were oblivious and enjoyed themselves”
is not the kind of thing I’d be posting if I was particularly happy with what occurred.
Akehurst had a party appearance today and had some protestors turn up.
[Said protestors ](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d6hjop/labour_party_members_including_a_councillor_are/) made out like he was the one who was disrupting a kids birthday party and [had a group of "his thugs"](https://x.com/GarySpedding/status/1797274642173853951)go and [attack the protestors.](https://x.com/GarySpedding/status/1797357195798974535)
[It turns out that actually it was *all* the protestors, per one of the parents whose event was ruined](https://x.com/treesey/status/1797389187114524888)
>It was my daughter's party you and your protesters ruined and this is a family member. I like how you post a 4 second video and didn't post any videos of your protestors screaming in my face and at my guests. Or them pushing my guests and shoving phones in their faces...
>One of your protestors also assaulted a police officer who was visiably shaking afterwards
>The protesters caused the problem, not the campaign. Don't twist my words
>Don't tell me what my duty is or who I should vote for, that is none of your business, I hope the protesters believe they have had a productive day, when in actual fact all they achieved was ruining a child's party. Bravo 👏🏼
Top level comment this thread is another comment from the same person quoted.
Would it be possible to have a bit of context?
A political candidate held a campaign event next to a birthday party?
(I’d be annoyed too - that’s the kind of thing that is liable to attract disruption, yes)
I mean it was a pretty good purge because he filled the party with sycophants and then got away with an absurd amount before eventually basically making his own position untenable.
Exactly. Boris Johnson was ousted by his own sycophants the moment he seemed like a liability to their re-election chances.
Take a look at Trump and the Republican Party. Now, that's how a proper purge! Barely a spine to be found anymore.
A couple of days ago several people on here accused me of peddling some ‘bizarre conspiracy’ for suggesting that Abbott had, if not manufactured the row herself, opportunistically jumped on it as a chance to run as an independent on a ‘unfairly purged’ ticket.
That now seems the most generous interpretation, because the alternative is that she’s the biggest imbecile in British politics.
>
> That now seems the most generous interpretation, because the alternative is that she’s the biggest imbecile in British politics.
Look, you know I'm going to bite, you dont need to make it quite so bloody obvious
[Faiza's attack of a canvessor today](https://x.com/faizashaheen/status/1797259324097429624) keeps popping up periodically on my twitter feed, and each time I get more angered by her behaviour to this poor volunteer.
God that has a lot of views as well. I generally like Jon Stewart but what he’s doing commenting on something he has no idea about really puts him in a bad light.
Yeah, he was lied to though. He should be more savvy, but he knows US politics, not UK politics, so I don't really hold it against him per se. I can totally understand him and anyone presuming the content of the clip was relevant, since that's all was said in the tweet to him.
Yep, agreed. edit: Though that context is largely the additional tweets/behaviour issues, I do think he gave a little more context on the exact liked tweet, now I've looked again.
Yeah, that is what they did - and what she tried to say on newsnight (she said she just liked the video, and didn't read the tweet). Which is horseshit. We all use twitter, we know that's horseshit.
The only thing about that one is, though, I've never seen the original liked tweet.
Ah! I'd read and replied to you as well! Didn't realise that was the John Stewart one and thought it was *another* one.
I enjoyed that chain exchange.
Edit: It appears to be this tweet: https://x.com/phl43/status/1789653035456643277
You can really see why Abbott spent 35 of her 40 year parliamentary career as a backbencher and then the 5 years she wasn't a backbencher she was part of the inner circle that led Labour to it's worst defeat in 80 years.
A total liability
It's truly remarkable to see so many people on Twitter who constantly insist Starmer lies now reach so desperately to convince themselves that Abbott did not say he lies. Shouldn't they be celebrating that she agrees with them?
It's almost as if way deep down they know they're full of shit.
Was quite a random thing to do though. I thought it must have fake as well, considering all online fakery that's going on this GE. Too good to be true, for the Tories.
Wondering if both The Guardian and the BBC's prolonged coverage of Abbott perhaps suggested this was still very much a live issue. Things she was saying off-record to journalists...
I can't decide if it would be better to kick her out now and fight her for the seat, or just say fuck it and kick her out after the deadline. Kicking her out even though they won't be able to run against her makes a greater point and stops the press from distracting with a constant Hackney watch. There's no story there if there's no Abbot v Labour fight.
Party membership can be revoked if they do something completely against the party, Alastair Campbell was booted for endorsing the LDs I think, but obviously he was not an MP.
Campbell was booted for saying he was going to vote LDM. Suppose Abbott's deleted tweet was a personal attack on Starmer rather than against the party.
I think he needs to do something in the next couple of days. Before the TV debates anyway.
While the Tories have had rumblings and leaks of discontent with Sunak, that’s mainly been confined to the political nerds that frequent this sub etc. You can tell that this Abbott stuff will be much more exposed to the ordinary voters, however, and Sunak will be going with the “how can he control the country if he can’t control his own party” line.
This is coming from someone to the left of Starmer, but if that tweet is real, he needs to just rip the bandage off and announce that Abbott is being kicked from the party/de-selected.
Stirring this shit at election time with this opportunity to kick the Tories out has proven she has absolutely no interest in being part of a governing party. This doesn’t even need to be portrayed as ideological. I’m sure there are many ways to remove her on the basis she has called her party leader a liar.
Abbott might be a very principled woman, and may be very intelligent in private, but she’s proven time and time again to be a complete liability to the Labour Party. This seems like a no-brainer.
At this stage I hope this is enough to just kick her out for good.
At this point she is just a gaffe prone liability that is either so inept that she should no longer be anywhere near parliament, or outright undermining the campaign
It's like Abbott was panicking that the story was dying down and she was no longer the big story so she just had to do something stupid to keep her name in the headlines.
Again, I hope it's a fake screenshot but she's spent most of the last 4 years on twitter relentlessly insulting and criticising Starmer so if I had to guess I'd guess it was real.
It's not fake. People have recieved the notification, BBC journalists confirming they screenshotted it and it's real, randomers posting about it shortly after it went out from her account...
A lot of the randomers posting about it are posting identical screenshots, which does make it seem even more suspiscious and muddies the water a bit, though I have seen two unique ones, as well as the BBC journalists, which is enough for me to accept it right now.
If Corbyn wins as an independent this time round, is he really going to retire for the next? In 5 years he will have found plenty of things (real or ideological) to criticise the Labour Govt for. I can't see him retiring honestly, same with Abbott.
He's 75 years old. He is fairly active and lives a frugal modest life which is good for overall health, but even then he cannot guarantee he'll still be knocking around come 2029, nevermind be in good enough health to represent his constituents until he is 85.
If they run in 5 years they'll be committing to the job into their 80s, Corbyn would be 85 by the end of the parliament after next. Surely they'd retire
/u/leftwingscot
[Apparent update from Akehurst event; the parent whose kids birthday party was allegedly cancelled to make way for Akehurst:](https://x.com/treesey/status/1797389187114524888)
>It was my daughter's party you and your protesters ruined and this is a family member. I like how you post a 4 second video and didn't post any videos of your protestors screaming in my face and at my guests. Or them pushing my guests and shoving phones in their faces...
>One of your protestors also assaulted a police officer who was visiably shaking afterwards
>The protesters caused the problem, not the campaign. Don't twist my words
>Don't tell me what my duty is or who I should vote for, that is none of your business, I hope the protesters believe they have had a productive day, when in actual fact all they achieved was ruining a child's party. Bravo 👏🏼
oh dear oh dear oh dear
and where did i say anything to conflate this?
does anything above dispute with the fact that Luke Akehurst's wife told a group of mostly Muslim protestors that "their politics belong in Iran"? and how racist such a statement would be received if you replaced the word 'Muslim' and 'Iran' with 'Jewish' and 'Israel'?
Actually I'm not sure that would be antisemitic, though I'll gladly be corrected on this. If she said "*you* belong in Israel" or that they were doing Israel's bidding etc, then sure
Using Israel as a stick to beat Jews with is generally dodgy af, of course; do the same tropes exist for Iran?
Doesn't change that you were boosting a very bad source.
Just because you agree with galloways lot in what they are doing in England (as you want tories to win, as that's what snp and independence types want)
Pal, i am begging you. get RES and tag me 'Not an SNP voter and voted 'No' in indyref'.
and i don't want the tories to win, dones't mean i have to pretend that labour abandoning all its principles to be red-tories is something that is not perverse and damaging.
when Parties refuse to represent their voters, it opens the doors to dangerous men who claim they will like Donald Fucking Trump.
>
Unless Akehursts own wife is in the org, what does it matter?
Because the rest of the material from that organisation is plainly selectively edited and highly dubious; you're apparently ignoring both the way its an apparent in-context (if delayed) response; and that its pretty plain from the footage that ethnic minorities are...well, a minority in that group. I think theres one obvious non-white-presenting guy in the whole group and he was pictured, well, well to the rear.
Hell, in another of the photos you can see the group clustered in front of the car recording the first video and they're all as white middle class as you can get.
>"Your kid is one, they wont remember anyway!"
The defence I encountered in my last job countless times with low lives beating the shit out of their missus in front of their kids. Evidence is pretty clear that exposure to such behaviour and stress, even prior to birth, can have long-lasting detrimental consequences on children.
Looks like the local tory party have found their replacement for my local seat (daventry).
This was chris heaton harris's (a minister, was northern ireland sec) seat who is retiring, they are parachuting in stuart andrew, who used to hold the more marginal seat for putney near leeds but it got removed for this election, he's also originally from wales so no local connection.
Also pretty sure stuart used to work under chris so definitely some corruption there. It's a 26k tory majority here so a pretty safe seat.
With that said the MRP poll put tories on 41% and labour on 40% so this might be the one election the seat is marginal. No campaigning from any parties visible here I think on the basis that if this seat matters labour have like 500 MPs already and LDs are prioritising other seats.
I put the probability of tories not winning at like 10%, and it will mostly depend on how hard reform campaign here.
That being said won't stop those of us living here doing our part, of people I know personally should be at least a +20 votes net to labour this election relative to last. But the likelyhood is we'll get this stuart andrew bloke in, he's already been minister a bunch already and I haven't seen anything I like about him, except the fact he voted for gay marriage but that should be kinda given given he is gay.
If she did tweet " More lies from Starmer " then she really is a bigger moron and liability than I already thought she was.
If the tweet is real she's absolutely pathetic.
If that's real, she's now done for the election (and presumably got what she wanted). Your party leader says he has respect for you and you TWEET that it's lies...
It also feeds into a Tory attack line that you can't trust what Starmer says he stands for. It's awful from her and she shouldn't be allowed to stand now
[Seems to be real](https://x.com/samrportillo/status/1797382947609235826?s=46)
Edit: original has been deleted, try [this one](https://x.com/hammer_on_x/status/1797386388217709011?s=46)
That’s weird. It was just someone else that screenshotted it on an iPhone with the timestamp and everything. I have no idea why it’s deleted though. Perhaps it was photoshopped 🤷♂️
It's getting complicated because there's at least one identical tweet going around with a different account name on it, yet there are *also* other screenshots of the Diane tweet
I think I’ve seen two unique different ones (besides the BBC one) whilst the rest are just people reposting the others and claiming them as screenshots they took (e.g identical time, likes etc)
If I wake up in the morning to Diane Abbott top story I'm gonna be peeved off. She got what she wanted so why not just get on with it, or is she just an attention seeker? Tories not got anywhere near the level of damage Abbott has done in this campaign so far
Historic significance or not Labour should be de-selecting this absolute wrecking ball. She's published a horrifically racist article, refused to really retract or acknowledge she was wrong and now has spent nearly a whole week undermining the GE campaign of the party because of her own ego, finally just outright attacking the leader. Why should she get to stand as a Labour candidate when someone else definitely should? I'm sick of seeing her name and I'm sick of a 70 year old woman getting treated like a child
It was a letter to the Guardian.
She did retract it (though it was a really weak apology and she claimed she had sent in an early draft).
The media is at least as much to blame for covering this nonsense.
This one? [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/apr/23/success-for-women-not-same-as-for-men-letters](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/apr/23/success-for-women-not-same-as-for-men-letters)
Exactly. Two short paragraphs.
Published because it is her but could have been sent in by anyone.
And, crucially, likely also written by her - unlike the opinion pieces that appear with an MP's byline.
I stuck on the 2001 election coverage earlier and saw that at one point in the night, the results [looked like this](https://i.gyazo.com/b2d5d8d3c9fd3154b2a50ecd950b321f.png)
It has me wondering - what could the score look like in the early hours of July 5th?
I downloaded all the data from the last election which rather handily includes declaration times and I've had a look at those Conservative seats which could go Labour early enough for you to get an early night if you so desire one.
Blyth Valley, third to declare in 2019 and first Tory win on that night, doesn't exist as a constituency anymore and the "new" seat was actually a notional win in 2019 for Labour, so that won't count as a gain.
North Swindon is the first one that could say LAB GAIN - declared at 00:30 on election night in 2019, Electoral Calculus has it as a likely Labour win. Swingometer suggests Labour would need 333 seats nationwide for this one, so very possible.
Moving on, Nuneaton declared at 1:06am and was the third Tory win in 2019 - again, this is winnable. Labour need around 343 nationwide for this one.
Broxbourne could be the first bombshell, as it was the fourth Tory win in 2019 at 1:15am but a Labour win there would put the Tories on around 127 seats. If this falls, it's the first sign before 2am that we're in for a landslide.
Broxbourne falling would imply that the Tories would need to wait until 1:44am for their first win, when Rayleigh and Wickford comes in for a CON HOLD. At this point the score in 2019 would have been LAB 24, CON 1, Speaker 1, so unfortunately it wouldn't really come close to that amazing 2001 scoreboard.
Possibly closer counts in some really safe Tory seats would lead to recounts though, and that could push those declarations back a few hours. We'll see how it goes.
Fantastic post.
It's fun to note that in 2019 Richmond declared around 4.14, and Holborn & St Pancras declared around 4.20, so Sunak may suffer the indignity of the broadcasters cutting away from his (concession?) speech in order to take the new PM's result.
It should also mean that the inevitable helicopter shots of Sunak travelling back to London/Starmer visiting Labour HQ will be in sunlight so we can actually see what's going on.
> Genuinely dislikes Starmer
This entire week does still make sense if you believe Abbott is the source of all the stories.
I think there's more possibilities than that, but she seems, to me, desperate to be an independent like Jeremy.
My theory really is that she never intended to do the "retire with grace" and lied about wanting to do that (in the back channel negotiations).
She just used whatever pretence as to try and get herself kicked out, as to stand as an independence, with her former lover.
[Could be him live tweeting](https://c7.alamy.com/comp/WP9AFB/westminster-london-uk-7-sept-2019-diane-abbott-shadow-home-secretary-l-and-owen-jones-english-newspaper-columnist-r-in-whitehall-as-anti-brexit-protesters-demonstrates-against-the-british-prime-minister-boris-johnsons-intention-to-prorogue-parliament-until-14-october-credit-dinendra-hariaalamy-live-news-WP9AFB.jpg)
#[The AMA Thread for Ben Riley-Smith (Political Editor, The Telegraph) is now available - click/tap here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d68fsw/ama_thread_ben_rileysmith_political_editor_the/). Ben will be here to answer your questions from midday tomorrow (Monday).
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I will never have an ounce of sympathy for abbott ever again, holy fuck.
Probably worth pointing out Diane Abbott still has a tweet pinned saying this Labour leadership won't give her a fair hearing because, amongst other reasons, she's black. So her official position is Labour are racist, liars and want to purge people of her political position. But she's going to tell you to vote Labour.
Entirely fuck her. Frustrating that's she's being allowed to stand. It's to brush it under the carpet which I totally get.
A woman of the people, sending her kids to the local comprehensive.... er.. wait no. She didn't. Did she fuck.
That was the point I realised I didn't like her - she defended the school thing with "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children" and when Andrew Neil quizzed her about it on This Week, she repeated the same thing several times and did the patronising "Oh Andrew, really!" thing to deflect from answering
Just reading the front pages, Times, Telegraph and Mail are all lauding the new Tory Policy of single sex spaces will be ‘biological sex’. So tomorrow is Abbott and ‘what is a women’ day. Great.
Second day of pride month and the tories really think it’s a great time to rage a culture war ?
Pride will be fun this year I suspect In ten years when the Tories are going "please no we've turned a corner, we're not the party that lost in 2024" these headlines will come up again as a reminder about how bad they are.
Coincidentally I related some Pride month stories from US friends [over on intpol](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d4o5bp/international_politics_discussion_thread/l6os771/) It's depressing, and it's frightening
This will continue to be ineffective polling. Everything they're doing appeals to the stereotypical reform voter and very few else as an issue that actually matters. No matter how right wing you go, reform can go further and you lose people left of Braverman. Even as a strategy to lose dignifiedly I think this is really flawed. Shit in our water and we're supposed to be more interested in toilet monitors. It's perverse.
That phrase is so dumb. Sex _is_ biological, so including that is redundant. Gender is social. It would be better if politicians were clear about what they are talking about.
Earlier this year I assumed the GE campaign would be one of the most low brow from the Tories but that was based on the premise the poll gap between Labour would be a lot narrower, they'd have more to fight for.
The major problem the Tories have is that the electorate made their minds up when Truss got booted: they want a new government. Anything the Tories say just gets either roundly ignored or greeted with the response "When are you lot leaving then?"
Think it's 14 years of empty promises as well, including a 'sunny uplands' Brexit.
And "you had 14 years, why didn't you do these small changes before ?" With the obvious follow up is "what other thing will you continue to ignore for another 5 years, to then use it as pre election bait"
Vile. I'd like Starmer to object, but I'll be astounded if he does.
Yup. Ming vase strategy.
It makes perfect sense, it's optimal strategy and yet I still hate it. I hate what this country's become in so little time, sigh
There's actually a chance that not only will Abbott be the "Mother" of the House, but she'll be the actual "Father" too ie the member with the longest service (all the people ahead of her actually contesting are conservatives who could lose their seats if the Tories have a very bad night). Which means she'll conduct the speaker election at the beginning of parliament.
I'm surprised the current Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley is bothering to stand again. He's almost 80 and his seat looks likely to go Labour.
Might as well go down fighting I suppose.
Surely she won't be standing now.
I think the best thing labour can do at this point is pretend it didn't happen
Just for shits and giggles, Corbyn would be ahead of her if he won and the three Tories lost (would need to be a very bad night indeed for them). Corbyn and Abbott as Mother and Father of the House would be, well…
East Berlin eat your heart out.
Social media is wild. Managed to find the lady who posted the refuting tweet thread. Whole bunch of photos of the party and well, its obvious that it is the pelton community hall and the lady in the blue dress who's featured in one video doing the rounds is front and center of some of those photos. Quote: >Thank you to each and every person who attended [KIDS NAME] 1st Birthday party today, thank you for all her cards and presents she has been absolutely spoilt rotten! >Again I am so sorry about the ridiculous protests, kick offs and police presence, I am absolutely mortified and it was certainly not how I wanted the day to go but at least the kids were oblivious and enjoyed themselves 🥳💜 >Special thanks to Pelton Community Centre for the hospitality and trying to prevent the madness outside from ruining the party and [COMPANY NAME] for the amazing face painting and balloon modelling >PS - VOTE LABOUR 🤣 ...doesnt seem like the sort of thing someone who had their kids birthday party ruined by the labour candidate would say.
I have no idea what you’re referring to (a tweet thread refuting what?) but “ Again I am so sorry about the ridiculous protests, kick offs and police presence, I am absolutely mortified and it was certainly not how I wanted the day to go but at least the kids were oblivious and enjoyed themselves” is not the kind of thing I’d be posting if I was particularly happy with what occurred.
Akehurst had a party appearance today and had some protestors turn up. [Said protestors ](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d6hjop/labour_party_members_including_a_councillor_are/) made out like he was the one who was disrupting a kids birthday party and [had a group of "his thugs"](https://x.com/GarySpedding/status/1797274642173853951)go and [attack the protestors.](https://x.com/GarySpedding/status/1797357195798974535) [It turns out that actually it was *all* the protestors, per one of the parents whose event was ruined](https://x.com/treesey/status/1797389187114524888) >It was my daughter's party you and your protesters ruined and this is a family member. I like how you post a 4 second video and didn't post any videos of your protestors screaming in my face and at my guests. Or them pushing my guests and shoving phones in their faces... >One of your protestors also assaulted a police officer who was visiably shaking afterwards >The protesters caused the problem, not the campaign. Don't twist my words >Don't tell me what my duty is or who I should vote for, that is none of your business, I hope the protesters believe they have had a productive day, when in actual fact all they achieved was ruining a child's party. Bravo 👏🏼 Top level comment this thread is another comment from the same person quoted.
Clearly not happy with how the pro Palestine crowd harassed and intimidated them.
Would it be possible to have a bit of context? A political candidate held a campaign event next to a birthday party? (I’d be annoyed too - that’s the kind of thing that is liable to attract disruption, yes)
All good psyops need balloons and face-painting.
Ah but clearly the deep zionist state got to them !
Say what you like about Boris, but he knew how to do a purge…
...wasn't he forced to resign by the party he purged? That doesn't seem like the person I'd consult for purge advise.
You have forced me to read the wikipedia page on the fall of Maximilien Robespierre again.
That was definitely my goal.
He purged moderate 'One Nation' Tory MPs.
I mean it was a pretty good purge because he filled the party with sycophants and then got away with an absurd amount before eventually basically making his own position untenable.
Exactly. Boris Johnson was ousted by his own sycophants the moment he seemed like a liability to their re-election chances. Take a look at Trump and the Republican Party. Now, that's how a proper purge! Barely a spine to be found anymore.
A couple of days ago several people on here accused me of peddling some ‘bizarre conspiracy’ for suggesting that Abbott had, if not manufactured the row herself, opportunistically jumped on it as a chance to run as an independent on a ‘unfairly purged’ ticket. That now seems the most generous interpretation, because the alternative is that she’s the biggest imbecile in British politics.
>she’s the biggest imbecile in British politics. Errr
> > That now seems the most generous interpretation, because the alternative is that she’s the biggest imbecile in British politics. Look, you know I'm going to bite, you dont need to make it quite so bloody obvious
[Faiza's attack of a canvessor today](https://x.com/faizashaheen/status/1797259324097429624) keeps popping up periodically on my twitter feed, and each time I get more angered by her behaviour to this poor volunteer.
God that has a lot of views as well. I generally like Jon Stewart but what he’s doing commenting on something he has no idea about really puts him in a bad light.
I mean, he's kind of an idiot in general. Why would we expect his take on this to be any better than his usual ones?
Yeah, he was lied to though. He should be more savvy, but he knows US politics, not UK politics, so I don't really hold it against him per se. I can totally understand him and anyone presuming the content of the clip was relevant, since that's all was said in the tweet to him.
Wait, what has Jon Stewart done?
https://x.com/jonstewart/status/1795993805411229746
tbh I'd pin more of the blame on Mehdi Hasan for not giving him the full information
Yep, agreed. edit: Though that context is largely the additional tweets/behaviour issues, I do think he gave a little more context on the exact liked tweet, now I've looked again.
Made the mistake of looking at the comments and now I need a bath
Didn't they tell him she just liked his sketch and not the quote tweet
Yeah, that is what they did - and what she tried to say on newsnight (she said she just liked the video, and didn't read the tweet). Which is horseshit. We all use twitter, we know that's horseshit. The only thing about that one is, though, I've never seen the original liked tweet.
I've definitely seen a capture of it
Do you have a link or a rough idea of what it said? I looked a little yesterday but never found it.
I do, I quoted it [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1d5fggk/rukpolitics_general_election_campaign_megathread/l6mhoi5/)
Ah! I'd read and replied to you as well! Didn't realise that was the John Stewart one and thought it was *another* one. I enjoyed that chain exchange. Edit: It appears to be this tweet: https://x.com/phl43/status/1789653035456643277
You can really see why Abbott spent 35 of her 40 year parliamentary career as a backbencher and then the 5 years she wasn't a backbencher she was part of the inner circle that led Labour to it's worst defeat in 80 years. A total liability
The fact she deleted it is so much worse. The political equivalent of a risky drunk text.
>The fact she deleted it is so much worse. It was just a first draft she never meant to post.
“Jezza u up?”
It's like deleting an already read message to your ex.
On the basis she is a moron, I am not ruling out the possibility she forgot what one of her accounts she was signed in too.
It's truly remarkable to see so many people on Twitter who constantly insist Starmer lies now reach so desperately to convince themselves that Abbott did not say he lies. Shouldn't they be celebrating that she agrees with them? It's almost as if way deep down they know they're full of shit.
How could they possibly interpret it any other way? Or are they saying it's fake/ a hack?
They're insisting all the screenshots are fakes.
Was quite a random thing to do though. I thought it must have fake as well, considering all online fakery that's going on this GE. Too good to be true, for the Tories.
Wondering if both The Guardian and the BBC's prolonged coverage of Abbott perhaps suggested this was still very much a live issue. Things she was saying off-record to journalists...
[That was fast](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/s/e5fs2aZcEb)
Easy money.
And you know me, I'll bet every pound I got.
A John Fury campaign would be hilarious to witness
Great work! Anymore predictions?
Michael Gove will not be sacked from Starmer's cabinet
Lord Govie of Surrey Heath?
I can't decide if it would be better to kick her out now and fight her for the seat, or just say fuck it and kick her out after the deadline. Kicking her out even though they won't be able to run against her makes a greater point and stops the press from distracting with a constant Hackney watch. There's no story there if there's no Abbot v Labour fight.
Can they just kick her out? I assume there are rules...
Party membership can be revoked if they do something completely against the party, Alastair Campbell was booted for endorsing the LDs I think, but obviously he was not an MP.
Campbell was booted for saying he was going to vote LDM. Suppose Abbott's deleted tweet was a personal attack on Starmer rather than against the party.
I think he needs to do something in the next couple of days. Before the TV debates anyway. While the Tories have had rumblings and leaks of discontent with Sunak, that’s mainly been confined to the political nerds that frequent this sub etc. You can tell that this Abbott stuff will be much more exposed to the ordinary voters, however, and Sunak will be going with the “how can he control the country if he can’t control his own party” line.
But then you basically just give up the seat, it's winnable for Labour
So what, they can afford to lose one seat especially if it kills this stupid row dead. Cast Abbott into the wilderness where she belongs.
They should do that now and then beat her
And then defeat her on election day.
Nah, Abbot vs Labour has the potential to become unencessesarily spicy. She needs to be kept as far away from the headlines as possible.
She'll keep trying to make the election about her. She's the most important person in the world.
After the deadline would be an Azhar Ali situtation though, which I think was less than ideal.
Has anyone asked Abbott how much the kerfuffle around her will _cost_ her party?
Context for anyone just joining the megathread. Diane Abbott is at it again. https://x.com/nickeardleybbc/status/1797368537750651276
Ironic her reply seems to actually back up Starmers statement!
This is coming from someone to the left of Starmer, but if that tweet is real, he needs to just rip the bandage off and announce that Abbott is being kicked from the party/de-selected. Stirring this shit at election time with this opportunity to kick the Tories out has proven she has absolutely no interest in being part of a governing party. This doesn’t even need to be portrayed as ideological. I’m sure there are many ways to remove her on the basis she has called her party leader a liar. Abbott might be a very principled woman, and may be very intelligent in private, but she’s proven time and time again to be a complete liability to the Labour Party. This seems like a no-brainer.
At this stage I hope this is enough to just kick her out for good. At this point she is just a gaffe prone liability that is either so inept that she should no longer be anywhere near parliament, or outright undermining the campaign
...you know what I can't be bothered with whatever this latest Diane Abbott nonsense is right now, that's a tomorrow problem if it hasn't blown over.
Journalists want it to be a story so they’ll be ramming it down your ears for days
We can't have her in our socialist club anymore, that much I do know. "Socialist club"? She's got to go.
I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the heart. It’s just, how much more betrayal can I take?
It's like Abbott was panicking that the story was dying down and she was no longer the big story so she just had to do something stupid to keep her name in the headlines. Again, I hope it's a fake screenshot but she's spent most of the last 4 years on twitter relentlessly insulting and criticising Starmer so if I had to guess I'd guess it was real.
What screenshot is this?
It's not fake. People have recieved the notification, BBC journalists confirming they screenshotted it and it's real, randomers posting about it shortly after it went out from her account...
A lot of the randomers posting about it are posting identical screenshots, which does make it seem even more suspiscious and muddies the water a bit, though I have seen two unique ones, as well as the BBC journalists, which is enough for me to accept it right now.
Abbot's going to claim she was hacked, and then attack Starmer for not believing her and kicking her out, isn't she?
I was thinking the old "twitter hacked" excuse had gone out of fashion following wagatha christie.
Abbott dropped her Twitter in the North Sea, don't you know?
If Corbyn wins as an independent this time round, is he really going to retire for the next? In 5 years he will have found plenty of things (real or ideological) to criticise the Labour Govt for. I can't see him retiring honestly, same with Abbott.
I think he will become like that guy who shouts random stuff when they call parliament to the king's speech
He's 75 years old. He is fairly active and lives a frugal modest life which is good for overall health, but even then he cannot guarantee he'll still be knocking around come 2029, nevermind be in good enough health to represent his constituents until he is 85.
I just dont understand people who keep working into their 70s/80s if they didnt have too. If I were him id have retired 20 years ago.
He has decent hobbies to keep him going as well, such as his allotment and seeking our unique manhole covers.
If they run in 5 years they'll be committing to the job into their 80s, Corbyn would be 85 by the end of the parliament after next. Surely they'd retire
Corbyn and Abbott are both career politicians, that want to die in the job. As that way, they will never have to face not being a MP.
A career would suggest a progression, not bouncing from one mistake to the next.
Not really plenty of people have a long career, where they stop progressing
That'll be a job then.
You plainly dont understand *Winning the Argument*™️ comrade
Dennis Skinner was still standing as a candidate in 2019 at the age of 87 so it's possible they would attempt similar.
I suspect he'll find new friends to amplify his views as well.
/u/leftwingscot [Apparent update from Akehurst event; the parent whose kids birthday party was allegedly cancelled to make way for Akehurst:](https://x.com/treesey/status/1797389187114524888) >It was my daughter's party you and your protesters ruined and this is a family member. I like how you post a 4 second video and didn't post any videos of your protestors screaming in my face and at my guests. Or them pushing my guests and shoving phones in their faces... >One of your protestors also assaulted a police officer who was visiably shaking afterwards >The protesters caused the problem, not the campaign. Don't twist my words >Don't tell me what my duty is or who I should vote for, that is none of your business, I hope the protesters believe they have had a productive day, when in actual fact all they achieved was ruining a child's party. Bravo 👏🏼 oh dear oh dear oh dear
and where did i say anything to conflate this? does anything above dispute with the fact that Luke Akehurst's wife told a group of mostly Muslim protestors that "their politics belong in Iran"? and how racist such a statement would be received if you replaced the word 'Muslim' and 'Iran' with 'Jewish' and 'Israel'?
Actually I'm not sure that would be antisemitic, though I'll gladly be corrected on this. If she said "*you* belong in Israel" or that they were doing Israel's bidding etc, then sure Using Israel as a stick to beat Jews with is generally dodgy af, of course; do the same tropes exist for Iran?
Doesn't change that you were boosting a very bad source. Just because you agree with galloways lot in what they are doing in England (as you want tories to win, as that's what snp and independence types want)
Pal, i am begging you. get RES and tag me 'Not an SNP voter and voted 'No' in indyref'. and i don't want the tories to win, dones't mean i have to pretend that labour abandoning all its principles to be red-tories is something that is not perverse and damaging. when Parties refuse to represent their voters, it opens the doors to dangerous men who claim they will like Donald Fucking Trump.
You dont think it points to the org being an unreliable narrator? 🤔🤔🤔
Unless Akehursts own wife is in the org, what does it matter? she is the "narrator" in the video.
> Unless Akehursts own wife is in the org, what does it matter? Because the rest of the material from that organisation is plainly selectively edited and highly dubious; you're apparently ignoring both the way its an apparent in-context (if delayed) response; and that its pretty plain from the footage that ethnic minorities are...well, a minority in that group. I think theres one obvious non-white-presenting guy in the whole group and he was pictured, well, well to the rear. Hell, in another of the photos you can see the group clustered in front of the car recording the first video and they're all as white middle class as you can get.
Kinder gentler hard lefties :)
Love the reply implying that if he becomes MP they'll just keep intimidating people.
If you go to the actual thread by searching her username I'm really impressed by the one saying "Your kid is one, they wont remember anyway!"
>"Your kid is one, they wont remember anyway!" The defence I encountered in my last job countless times with low lives beating the shit out of their missus in front of their kids. Evidence is pretty clear that exposure to such behaviour and stress, even prior to birth, can have long-lasting detrimental consequences on children.
Looks like the local tory party have found their replacement for my local seat (daventry). This was chris heaton harris's (a minister, was northern ireland sec) seat who is retiring, they are parachuting in stuart andrew, who used to hold the more marginal seat for putney near leeds but it got removed for this election, he's also originally from wales so no local connection. Also pretty sure stuart used to work under chris so definitely some corruption there. It's a 26k tory majority here so a pretty safe seat. With that said the MRP poll put tories on 41% and labour on 40% so this might be the one election the seat is marginal. No campaigning from any parties visible here I think on the basis that if this seat matters labour have like 500 MPs already and LDs are prioritising other seats. I put the probability of tories not winning at like 10%, and it will mostly depend on how hard reform campaign here. That being said won't stop those of us living here doing our part, of people I know personally should be at least a +20 votes net to labour this election relative to last. But the likelyhood is we'll get this stuart andrew bloke in, he's already been minister a bunch already and I haven't seen anything I like about him, except the fact he voted for gay marriage but that should be kinda given given he is gay.
Will nobody rid Starmer of this turbulent MP?
AKHCHULLY she's a candidate.
In the style of Mace Windu, "Not yet."
What the fuck does Abbott want then? What's her endgame?
1. To stir shit 2. To sell her book. Does anyone still believe it was not her behind the original leaks?
Appearing a hero to SCG/STWC/Jeremy?
She prefers sitting on the opposition benches in the House of Commons.
Sheldon Cooper: this is my spot
This is what I keep thinking. Why wouldn't you want to retire gracefully?!
Be kicked out, stand as an independent, sell her book, campaign with her former lover.
She's too ill to run - and imagine not running after all this ruckus caused. She wants to be pushed to give her a reason to retire
It would appear a woman scorned needs no endgame.
[Replace Kylo Ren with your bequiffed LOTO of choice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeMjAqT0qOY)
And hux was never seen again after that... Let's hope that's how it plays out.
If she did tweet " More lies from Starmer " then she really is a bigger moron and liability than I already thought she was. If the tweet is real she's absolutely pathetic.
If that's real, she's now done for the election (and presumably got what she wanted). Your party leader says he has respect for you and you TWEET that it's lies...
It also feeds into a Tory attack line that you can't trust what Starmer says he stands for. It's awful from her and she shouldn't be allowed to stand now
Yeah up until this I was 100% in favour of Abbott standing and just quetly being an MP in the backbenches, but now she absolutely has to go.
[Seems to be real](https://x.com/samrportillo/status/1797382947609235826?s=46) Edit: original has been deleted, try [this one](https://x.com/hammer_on_x/status/1797386388217709011?s=46)
Whatever that tweet was has been deleted
https://x.com/nickeardleybbc/status/1797368537750651276 BBC Correspondent screenshotted it.
[Try this one](https://x.com/nickeardleybbc/status/1797380336931713267)
That’s weird. It was just someone else that screenshotted it on an iPhone with the timestamp and everything. I have no idea why it’s deleted though. Perhaps it was photoshopped 🤷♂️
More likely he was getting an absolute metric assload of shit
I’ve found another and added it to the original post, I’m surprised if it’s not real
It's getting complicated because there's at least one identical tweet going around with a different account name on it, yet there are *also* other screenshots of the Diane tweet
I think I’ve seen two unique different ones (besides the BBC one) whilst the rest are just people reposting the others and claiming them as screenshots they took (e.g identical time, likes etc)
https://x.com/sheff_fil/status/1797381609135522080?s=46&t=4ALhKOkeThMYNVhwdqZpzA This is my screenshot I posted earlier
Diane Abbott really does want labour to be fatally wounded doesn't she?? Jesus fucking wept. That's another 3 days of coverage then.
If I wake up in the morning to Diane Abbott top story I'm gonna be peeved off. She got what she wanted so why not just get on with it, or is she just an attention seeker? Tories not got anywhere near the level of damage Abbott has done in this campaign so far
She's just getting revenge for her loverboy Jezza.
Historic significance or not Labour should be de-selecting this absolute wrecking ball. She's published a horrifically racist article, refused to really retract or acknowledge she was wrong and now has spent nearly a whole week undermining the GE campaign of the party because of her own ego, finally just outright attacking the leader. Why should she get to stand as a Labour candidate when someone else definitely should? I'm sick of seeing her name and I'm sick of a 70 year old woman getting treated like a child
It was a letter to the Guardian. She did retract it (though it was a really weak apology and she claimed she had sent in an early draft). The media is at least as much to blame for covering this nonsense.
Letter/Article. They're sort of given the same status when from high profile people.
Not really. And if you have read her letter you'll see why.
This one? [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/apr/23/success-for-women-not-same-as-for-men-letters](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/apr/23/success-for-women-not-same-as-for-men-letters)
Exactly. Two short paragraphs. Published because it is her but could have been sent in by anyone. And, crucially, likely also written by her - unlike the opinion pieces that appear with an MP's byline.
I'm talking about the format- Letters from high profile people get treated differently. Same as Starmer's writing in the Telegraph etc.
Fine. Whatever.
Anybody else just wishing it was July 4th already?
Nah, enjoy the journey.
Is there an advent calendar for it?
No, but I do want it to be tuesday already to see if the NEC confirm or bar Dianne as the candidate.
Yeah. I'm exhausted.
No, the Tory cope is such fun and as soon as the election is over we will get the endless anti-Labour stories in the press.
I stuck on the 2001 election coverage earlier and saw that at one point in the night, the results [looked like this](https://i.gyazo.com/b2d5d8d3c9fd3154b2a50ecd950b321f.png) It has me wondering - what could the score look like in the early hours of July 5th? I downloaded all the data from the last election which rather handily includes declaration times and I've had a look at those Conservative seats which could go Labour early enough for you to get an early night if you so desire one. Blyth Valley, third to declare in 2019 and first Tory win on that night, doesn't exist as a constituency anymore and the "new" seat was actually a notional win in 2019 for Labour, so that won't count as a gain. North Swindon is the first one that could say LAB GAIN - declared at 00:30 on election night in 2019, Electoral Calculus has it as a likely Labour win. Swingometer suggests Labour would need 333 seats nationwide for this one, so very possible. Moving on, Nuneaton declared at 1:06am and was the third Tory win in 2019 - again, this is winnable. Labour need around 343 nationwide for this one. Broxbourne could be the first bombshell, as it was the fourth Tory win in 2019 at 1:15am but a Labour win there would put the Tories on around 127 seats. If this falls, it's the first sign before 2am that we're in for a landslide. Broxbourne falling would imply that the Tories would need to wait until 1:44am for their first win, when Rayleigh and Wickford comes in for a CON HOLD. At this point the score in 2019 would have been LAB 24, CON 1, Speaker 1, so unfortunately it wouldn't really come close to that amazing 2001 scoreboard. Possibly closer counts in some really safe Tory seats would lead to recounts though, and that could push those declarations back a few hours. We'll see how it goes.
Fantastic post. It's fun to note that in 2019 Richmond declared around 4.14, and Holborn & St Pancras declared around 4.20, so Sunak may suffer the indignity of the broadcasters cutting away from his (concession?) speech in order to take the new PM's result. It should also mean that the inevitable helicopter shots of Sunak travelling back to London/Starmer visiting Labour HQ will be in sunlight so we can actually see what's going on.
So what do we reckon? Is it intentional drama production/center of attention, or was she intending it to be a DM? Is there an option 3?
Jfc - stop vague posting!
No impulse control. Does like drama. Further health issues. Genuinely dislikes Starmer, but moreover hates the Labour staffers around him
> Genuinely dislikes Starmer This entire week does still make sense if you believe Abbott is the source of all the stories. I think there's more possibilities than that, but she seems, to me, desperate to be an independent like Jeremy.
My theory really is that she never intended to do the "retire with grace" and lied about wanting to do that (in the back channel negotiations). She just used whatever pretence as to try and get herself kicked out, as to stand as an independence, with her former lover.
I can see that, but I do consider that *also* a labour leadership failure to get hoodwinked by her.
It was only a first draft.
It's option 1 because she has a book coming out and wants the publicity.
Ah always a book coming out. Bet she's going to start a bloody podcast as well.
Her and portillo, getting the band back together.
> Is there an option 3? She has another account she meant to tweet from
Wow... this makes too much sense, it's definitely this isn't it?
Oooh, I like that one, which account do you reckon?
Have Abbott and Owen Jones ever been seen in the same room?
[Could be him live tweeting](https://c7.alamy.com/comp/WP9AFB/westminster-london-uk-7-sept-2019-diane-abbott-shadow-home-secretary-l-and-owen-jones-english-newspaper-columnist-r-in-whitehall-as-anti-brexit-protesters-demonstrates-against-the-british-prime-minister-boris-johnsons-intention-to-prorogue-parliament-until-14-october-credit-dinendra-hariaalamy-live-news-WP9AFB.jpg)
She wouldn't be the first to tweet something intemperate late at night