Andrew Fisher
@fisherandrew79
Writer, broadcaster, trade unionist and socialist
'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who championed the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.
Households have done what has been asked of them and significantly cut back on energy consumption (mostly passively I suspect as electrical goods/boilers have become more efficient) But energy bills have soared despite using less. And the energy companies are making record profits. It's a racket.
Labour Party membership more than halved in Starmer's time as leader, falling by c.70,000 in his final year. Though Labour membership is till c.70,000 above the pre-Corbyn years Will be interesting to see in the 'Burnham bounce' in the polls is reflected in party membership too.
Thames Water as the five stages of grief: Earlier in the week they were threatening multi-billion pound legal challenges. Denial Now they're offering a golden share to government. Bargaining Can they hurry up and get to acceptance. The company is functionally bankrupt and should be nationalised.
NEW: Unemployment fell marginally by 20,000 over the last 3 months, but is up 87,000 in the last year. On the wider measure including underemployment, there are now 5.2 million seeking (more) work up 320,000 in the last year. There are 7.32 people seeking work for every vacancy.
Policies not personalities - glad Burnham has said the same thing today. We showed during Covid that we could end (or at least massively reduce) rough sleeping.
Remember the UK economy grew more in the 1970s than in the 1980s. Unemployment trebled, inequality widened and crime doubled. Yeah well done Thatcher. Oh, and thanks for selling off our industries and utilities on the cheap.
Do not criticise the (not so) great leader. Lord Gavin Barwell purged from the Conservative Party.
The statement took place shortly after the 'chicken coup' - an attempt by Labour MPs to force out the Labour leader elected just nine months before. This is how @financialtimes.com reported it at the time:
In the House of Commons, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the invasion was an "act of military aggression" that "fuelled and spread terrorism across the region". "I now apologise sincerely on behalf of my party for the disastrous decision to go to war"
Military families who had lost loved ones in the war called for Blair to be prosecuted for war crimes. Sadly, 10 years on, the alleged war criminal remains at large. This is how the nation's newspapers reacted ...
#OnThisDay 10 years ago ... The Chilcot Report was published showing that Tony Blair exaggerated the case for war, that Iraq posed no military threat to the UK, that Blair had committed the UK to war come what may, and that there was no post-invasion strategy 🧵
Want to stop people smugglers? Open safe and legal routes. Speaking to BBC #PoliticsLive earlier this week about the asylum system
Is the triple lock unaffordable? No And the group who it's most in the interest of to maintain it is young people Speaking to BBC #PoliticsLive earlier this week
Quite extraordinary sentence in Emily Maitlis's piece mourning the passing of PM Starmer ... Mandelson, freebies, Labour Together, winter fuel, disability benefit cuts, Gaza? Ultimately he went because Labour was sinking in thr polls and elections, but that was as a result of the above
Your regular reminder that not a single new reservoir has been built in England since privatisation. Water companies have increased our bills above the rate of inflation and made 10s of billions in profit.
Andy Burnham has said "neoliberalism has failed" and he wants to build "an economy that works for all". Good lines.
LOL - could you live on £115,000? Given about 97% of the UK population do live on less than that, the answer is yes, very comfortably Huddled masses outside the Telegraph offices, "please 'curse' me!"
RIP Roy Hattersley Here's an anecdote Roy told, recounted in Robin Cook's memoirs.
Labour’s 2nd term was underwhelming domestically. By September 2001, Robin Cook wrote in his diary: “It is a sharp contrast with Thatcher’s second term in which the political ideology came to the fore much more strongly… it is hard to spot the more radical second term which Tony promised” 🧵ends
Future PM David Cameron was elected in Witney, succeeding Shaun Woodward who was elected as a Tory in 1997 but defected to Labour Future austerity chancellor George Osborne was elected in Tatton, succeeding independent Martin Bell, who ousted Neil Hamilton in 1997, but did not stand for re-election
Future Prime Minister, pathological liar, and now Daily Mail columnist, Boris Johnson was first elected to Parliament in 2001, succeeding Michael Heseltine as the Conservative MP for Henley.