Rob Ford @robfordmancs Twitter profile

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Rob Ford

4 months

One of my favourite Krakow traditions is the “szopka” competition - each year cracovians of all ages construct elaborate nativity scenes. The best are put on display in the city museum

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Last Seen Profiles

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

The mismatch between the ideal of 100,000 jolly patriots marching through verdant English countryside and the reality of a few hundred old men stomping miserably through mud is a really on point Brexit metaphor.

Chris Deerin

@chrisdeerin

5 years

this Brexit March is *fantastic*

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

7 years

I'm sure the BBC will be happy to broadcast what happens if you walk onstage at Glastonbury too Nigel.

Nigel Farage

@Nigel_Farage

7 years

Why should we pay the BBC licence fee just so they can promote @JeremyCorbyn ? Outrageous.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Seeing as the Bring Back Boris Barmy Army is now on the march, time for a little public service thread on Johnson's electoral appeal in 2019 and popularity since. Tl;dr - he wasn't popular then, and he *certainly* isn't now 1/?

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

Good piece of advice from the chief advisor to govt on epidemic modelling just now on Newsnight: don’t behave as if you’re trying to avoid getting the virus, behave as far as possible as if you *already have it* and are trying to stop others from getting it.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

In an odd coincidence, I've been reading Kwasi Kwarteng's "Ghosts of Empire" (which is really good, highly recommended). One of the repeated themes is the dangers of handing massive discretionary power to inexperienced, out of touch graduates of grand public schools

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 months

The true figure is not 90%. It is 10% (thread with data and sources in next tweet). This is the kind of scaremongering campaign the BNP used to run back when Goodwin studied them.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

“Do what’s in the best interests of your family what happens to everyone else is secondary” says Dan Hodges on national radio, defending Cummings. Illustrating exactly how this story has the potential damage adherence to isolation rules going forward.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 months

This is rapidly becoming one of the more pernicious zombie myths regarding immigration. Recent arrivals to Britain *cannot* claim housing benefits or social housing (except asylum seekers whose claims have been accepted. “Foreign born” stat imcludes - and is mostly driven by -…

Tom Harwood

@tomhfh

4 months

Is it right that some recent arrivals to the UK have the same eligibility to apply for housing benefits as people who have lived here all their lives? A higher proportion of the foreign-born population live in subsidised social housing than the UK-born population.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

I believe PM has just in one half hour of PMQs stated that there will be: 1. No hard border between NI and Ireland 2. No hard border between NI & UK 3. No customs union between UK & EU But it is impossible to have all of 1,2,&3. No wonder the EU get frustrated with us.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

BBC should refuse and insist on Neil, empty chairing if necessary. We really need something like debates commission to oversee and properly regulate this kind of set piece campaign event

Harry Cole

@MrHarryCole

4 years

💥Tin hats on over at BBC. Bit a row over in W1A coming. Understand the Tories have offered up the Prime Minister for an interrogation by the BBC. ...on Andrew Marr's show this Sunday.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

So the idea of Bring Back Boris has only a few small flaws: He isn't popular. He never was. He can't govern. He can't unify. Scandal & chaos follows him wherever he goes. And enough Con MPs know all of this to leave him unable to govern from day 1.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

Revealing that Downing St strategists thought a bungled announcement to cancel HS2, dragged out over days, then announced in the city set to lose out most, would generate a positive public reaction

Steven Swinford

@Steven_Swinford

6 months

No 10 said to be 'bruised' that conference, particularly HS2, did not shift dial Tory MPs concerned King's Speech & Autumn Statement will underwhelm Economic constraints will severely limit room for manoeuvre in Autumn Statement

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

While this topic obviously stirs deep passions, it is nonetheless remarkable that we could be looking at multiple front bench resignations over what form of words a party not in government uses about a conflict not involving Britain, in a statement which will be ignored by all…

Ashley Cowburn

@ashcowburn

6 months

Shadow Home Office minister Naz Shah tells the Commons she will defy the Labour whip and vote for the SNP amendment for a ceasefire in Gaza. "Despite all the risk to our personal positions we must do what it is right," she says.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

Here's a little story about the @DVLAgovuk - the organisation in charge of managing the legal registration of cars. To register a car to the DVLA, all you need to do is fill in a form saying you live at an address. No proof is required 1/?

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

What do we call it in other countries when a minister from the governing party threatens the national broadcaster with funding cuts for criticising the national leader?

Times Politics

@timespolitics

3 years

Nadine Dorries has privately expressed her fury at the BBC’s Nick Robinson after he told the prime minister to “stop talking” during a tense interview The culture secretary has told allies: “Nick Robinson has cost the BBC a lot of money.”

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

Denial is an understandable reaction to shock but it is still depressing to see many Labour supporters reacting to their party's worst defeat since 1935 by portraying the voters who rejected them as stupid or bigoted. Insulting voters is no route to recovery

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

7 months

A v strange claim to make when we have just had several days of unambiguously radical right rhetoric being rolled out on prime time TV by sitting cabinet ministers, and the current PM saying he would welcome the most prominent radical right politician in Britain into his party.

Ian Leslie

@mrianleslie

7 months

Very good from Janan Ganesh on why Britain is now one of the few countries in Europe without a powerful far right movement

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

Isabel Oakshott journalistic ethics: Masses of emails linking leading Brexit campaigners to Russia: "No need to publish yet,we need to see these things in context" Single anonymous source claims Cameron snagged a pig's head decades ago: "This must be published immediately!"

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

Greens now polling twice what AfD have ever polled. Yet weirdly not getting the avalanche of media attention AfD got with half the support #narratives

Europe Elects

@EuropeElects

6 years

Germany, Forsa poll: CDU/CSU-EPP: 27% (+1) GRÜNE-G/EFA: 24% (+3) AfD-EFDD: 13% (-1) SPD-S&D: 13% (-1) LINKE-LEFT: 9% (-1) FDP-ALDE: 9% Field work: 29/10/18 – 2/11/18 Sample size: 2,502

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

7 years

But the people already voted for him. Shouldn't you respect the mandate Nigel? Or do changed circumstances require a second vote?

Sky News Breaking

@SkyNewsBreak

7 years

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage says "we will write to every house in Clacton" to ask people whether they want Douglas Carswell as their MP

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

9 months

If you wanted to be honest with people about a complex problem, maybe endless repetition of a simplistic, unachievable three word slogan wasn’t the best way to frame things?

ITV News Politics

@ITVNewsPolitics

9 months

. @RishiSunak is unable to confirm whether he will be able to 'stop by the boats' by the next general election 'I want it to be done as soon as possible but I also want to be honest with people that it is a complex problem,' he says

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Boris backers imagine that Johnson can turn this around. But you can't unburn toast. Here are Johnson's final ratings with YouGov on different characteristics: Competence: -43 Trustworthiness: -65 Decisiveness: -35 Strength: -24 Likeability: -13

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

I tell my graduate students not to trust data from an unrepresentative non-random sample of 30 with a tiny response rate (5%), an unreliable measure (self-reported hours) and where response bias is likely (workaholics more likely to participate, and more likely to exaggerate)

Nicholas A. Christakis

@NAChristakis

6 years

I tell my graduate students and post-docs that if they’re working 60 hours per week, they’re working less than the full professors, and less than their peers.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Today's random survey fact: When asked what was the most important issue facing the country, 11 out of 3,075 respondents to the 2010 British Election Study named "Britain's relations with Europe". 0.4% of the total sample.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

The cost-benefit on "shutting things with a vaccine literally being rolled out" is not the same as the cost-benefit on "shutting things with no idea when a vaccine will come, if ever." Can we please stop pretending the policy debate now is the same as then?

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Here is a word cloud of descriptions of Boris Johnson from @jamesjohnson252 polling in April 2022 - just 6 months ago. People imagining these impressions have somehow disappeared or been reversed are deluding themselves.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

David Cameron's successful efforts to get talented young ethnic minority candidates selected for safe Conservative seats may end up being one of his most consequential legacies

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

I knew Brexit debate would get ugly when reality started to bite. I didn't think it would get "shadowy Jews are pulling the strings says former PM adviser" ugly. Disgraceful of Telegraph and Nick Timothy to weaponise the far right's favourite conspiracy theory.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

If it's Grayling we will probably end up joining the Euro

Beth Rigby

@BethRigby

6 years

May to announce her new Brexit secretary after 9am. One Brexiteer source reckons Grayling or Fox - they have been the most loyal. Gove possible too; but trickier to handle

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

I don't think referring to your opponents' victory in a free and fair election as a "coup" is remotely helpful to anything. Losers' consent is a vital principle for democratic stability. We only have to look across the Atlantic to see what happens when it is lost.

Leanne Wood 💚💛

@LeanneWood

3 years

Miriam Margolyes is right.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 months

Jeremy Corbyn's resistance to calling out anti-semitism a few years ago looked to be rooted in a deep resistance to admitting such prejudice against Jews existed among some of his most passionate supporters on the radical left, even when the evidence for this was very clear.…

Sayeeda Warsi

@SayeedaWarsi

2 months

This is absolute nonsense Kemi and you know it. I met you alongside other colleagues over a year and a half ago and the definition was explained to you in detail - you were asked to detail your concerns / any objections and the basis of it . You DID NOT follow up. Instead all…

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 months

Claiming only people born in Britain count as British is far right ethnic nationalism. Goodwin now makes this claim over and over again, day in and day out.

GB News

@GBNEWS

4 months

'Fundamentally, British people need to be housed first.' @GoodwinMJ says 'close to half of all social housing in London goes to households who are headed by somebody who is not born in Britain'. 🔓 Become a GB News Member:

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

What an ugly and ignorant view, to assume that someone's exam results at 16 should be a final judgement on their intelligence and worth for life. Someone needs a better education here, and it isn't Angela Rayner.

Allison Pearson

@AllisonPearson

5 years

No GCSEs above a D. Our shadow Secretary of State for Education.... Scary.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Regardless of the merits of this individual case, we should all be rather worried by a government claiming the power to unilaterally revoke citizenship rights.

Rohit Kachroo

@RohitKachrooITV

5 years

Breaking: ITV News learns Shamima Begum has been deprived of British citizenship

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

1 year

This is a frankly bonkers stance from a public opinion perspective - voters have incredibly positive views of migrant NHS workers. For every voter favouring this stance there are four voters taking the opposite view

BBC News (UK)

@BBCNews

1 year

Keir Starmer: Too many people from overseas recruited to NHS

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Boris Johnson was *not* popular in 2019. He was less popular at every point of the campaign than Theresa May was in the 2017 campaign (see graph). He had the good fortune to run with two strong fair winds - a toxic opponent (Corbyn) and a winning issue (Brexit). Both gone now.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

This *will* mean Dutch, German, Polish,Spanish born pensioners being thrown out of their homes, denied healthcare, deported in the middle of the night after decades living here. That *will happen* 5 yrs from now unless there is fundamental reform of Hostile Environment policies.

the3million

@the3million

5 years

BREAKING: Secretary of State @BrandonLewis confirms that EU citizens in UK WILL be subject to full immigration enforcement and liable to removal if they miss Settled Status deadline in exclusive Interview with @StefanieBolzen in Germany's @welt 1/

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

In more depressing but not surprising news, that slogan is back yet again. Obstinate refusal to consider the offence it causes isn’t really helping the marchers’ cause.

Lewis Goodall

@lewis_goodall

6 months

“Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.”

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

Underlined why claiming Tommy Robinson is a major national political figure, as Newsnight recently did, isn’t very credible.

James Bickerton

@JBickertonUK

6 years

However badly your day went you can rest assured it didn’t go as badly as the EDL’s ‘national demonstration’ in Manchester.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Sing along if you know the song: A majority for Leave in a Labour seat doesn't mean a majority of Labour voters in that seat supported Leave. In nearly all cases, a majority of the Lab support in Lab Leave seats came from Remain voters.

Bloomberg UK

@BloombergUK

5 years

Why Labour also needs to deliver Brexit

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Incredible. Less than 100 days from the no deal cliff edge and people who were recently in Cabinet either don’t understand what it means, or do understand but are happy to lie about it

Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺

@Haggis_UK

5 years

Here's deluded Esther McVey still saying there will be a transition with a #NoDealBrexit 🤔 #BBCBreakfast #PeoplesVote #FinalSay

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 months

Firstly, as many are pointing out, foundation courses are not same thing as standard courses. This is not an apples for apples comparison. Secondly, if anyone imagines cutting overseas student intakes wld free up spaces for UK students, they don't understand uni finances at all

Katherine Forster

@forster_k

3 months

My middle son is hoping to study economics at uni from September - this makes my blood boil: Cashfor courses: top universities recruit foreign students on low grades

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Thugs in black outfits intimidating the free press. This is what fascism looks like.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Absolutely vile. Soros spent his childhood in hiding from the Nazis - to call him a Nazi collaborator is truly sickening.

Jack Mendel ✍️

@Mendelpol

5 years

Toxic stuff from @RaheemKassam and @andywigmore falsely saying @georgesoros was “not Jewish” and “a Nazi collaborator”

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Warning signs... Roman bust profile pic Angry dog profile pic Political hashtag in profile name Random string of numbers in twitter handle "Classical liberal" Profile boasts about who's blocked them Only tweets are angry replies to other ppl Aaron Bastani

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

This was predictable, and predicted, by many who urged govt to act sooner in November/December. Great successes in 2021 on vaccine rollout should not blind us to the huge policy failure which immediately preceded it - a policy failure which cost thousands of lives.

Russ Jones

@RussInCheshire

3 years

The real meaning of Christmas #COVID19

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Boris Johnson was also *not popular at all* for most of the last year of his premiership. His lowest ebb was a net rating of -46 with MORI, the 6th worst ever & only 5 points better than Truss's worst rating. This period ended all of three months ago!

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Succinctly but wrongly. Most Labour voters in nearly every seat, including John Mann’s, are Remain voters and more Labour voters everywhere are middle class than working class and have been for a while

Allison Pearson

@AllisonPearson

5 years

“Most Labour Party members are middle-class Remainers. Most Labour voters are working-class Leavers.” Problem succinctly put by @JohnMannMP @BBCNewsnight

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

“What if we made up a job that’s got all the stuff Suella rants about in the title but it’s got no power or portfolio so the holder can’t actually *do* anything stupid or harmful. A sort of minister for anti-woke hot air?”

Robert Peston

@Peston

6 months

Esther McVey will be minister without portfolio within the Cabinet Office. She will attend cabinet though won't be a full cabinet member. Her role will be to represent Rishi Sunak's government on TV and radio as much as possible, and to speak what he sees as "common sense" on all…

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 months

I do think the change in political tone and urgency we are going to see on this next year will be abrupt. If Lab win a majority we go from a Con govt whose base are largely insulated from housing crisis to a Lab govt whose base is drawn from those hit hardest. Massive shift in…

John Burn-Murdoch

@jburnmurdoch

4 months

NEW: we don’t reflect enough on how severe the housing crisis is, and how it has completely broken the promise society made to young adults. The situation is especially severe in the UK, where the last time house prices were this unaffordable was in ... 1876.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

I think Today producers, editors and presenters have some serious questions to answer about why they have today invited a discredited scientist with a repeated track record of making falsely dismissive claims on COVID threat to offer her views to the nation this morning

Sonia Sodha

@soniasodha

3 years

Update: the answer is no, no reflection from Gupta on why she’s been so wrong. She just doubled down in on @BBCr4today this morning, reasserting unscientific beliefs about herd immunity & questioning the infectiousness of new variant despite the figures.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

So what you’re saying is that shutting down a decision making forum to prevent it from delivering a result you don’t like is wrong?

Leave.EU

@LeaveEUOfficial

5 years

Philip Hammond's local association are desperate to shut down the huge deselection campaign we have going on in his constituency by reselecting him on the sly - and guess what? The reselection meeting on Monday isn't open to members... How democratic! @CCHQPress @PhilipHammondUK

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 months

When 30p Lee says it, it is unacceptable. When one of the front runners to be the next Tory leaders says it, it becomes acceptable

Pippa Crerar

@PippaCrerar

2 months

Deputy PM Oliver Dowden asked by ⁦ @SkyNews ⁩ if Suella Braverman's comments that Britain is being taken over by an "islamist mob” were acceptable. "I don't believe the language used by Suella Braverman has crossed the line, where she should apologise for it, no I don't."

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

This was a bit too lazy and glib on my part. This subject deserves more careful, clear explanation on what's wrong and why here. So that's what I'm going to do here 1/?

Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

I knew Brexit debate would get ugly when reality started to bite. I didn't think it would get "shadowy Jews are pulling the strings says former PM adviser" ugly. Disgraceful of Telegraph and Nick Timothy to weaponise the far right's favourite conspiracy theory.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

This claim re: trust in the BBC bothered me a bit - the decline seemed implausibly large and, to the extent there has been a decline in trust, this seemed unlikely to be a BBC story.

Matt Goodwin

@GoodwinMJ

4 years

In only twenty years trust in the BBC has crashed from 80% to 44%. I'd hazard a guess that it is things like this -BBC journalists included in openly partisan takes- that plays a role ...

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

This projection has pro-EU liberals and Greens gaining as many seats this month as anti-EU radical right nationalists. One of these trends is getting constant media attention. The other, in my experience, is barely covered at all. Why is this? Bad news bias? Power of narratives?

Pippa Norris

@PippaN15

5 years

Neat Polity data viz est. the outcome of the EU elections based on most recent polls. Basically, a pox on the mainstream parties but gains for the Greens/ALDE AND authoritarian-populists.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

Another sleeper story in the English locals results is Con decline and LD/Lab advance in "blue wall" constituencies which voted Remain in 2016 but returned Con MPs in 2019.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 months

Nothing demonstrates a commitment to expunging sleaze and scandal like picking the girlfriend of a disgraced MP as your candidate to replace him in a by-election triggered by Parliamentary sanctioning of his behaviour

Sunder Katwala

@sundersays

4 months

The Conservatives have chosen Helen Harrison for the Wellingborough byelection. She had the support of outgoing MP Peter Bone,her partner. Bone is now unlikely to stand as an independent candidate, having indicated he may do so if Harrison was not selected

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

"Every criticism of a Jew" isn't antisemitism. Portraying George Soros as a shadowy puppetmaster - a trope employed by *every far right movement in Europe and the US*, building on a *long established antisemitic trope of shadowy Jewish puppetmasters* IS antisemitism. Not hard.

Leave.EU

@LeaveEUOfficial

6 years

Behave! If every criticism of a Jew is now anti-Semitism then the current leadership of the Labour Party really does have a lot to answer for... X

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

As for scandals, where to start? Partygate, Pincher, Paterson, Barnard Castle, Lebedev and much, much more. He is still under investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee, who could yet recommend suspending him from the house *next month*.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

We literally are a "papers, please" society - the whole and explicit point of the "Hostile Environment" policies introduced by this government's predecessors, and still in force, is to make a wide range of service providers demand papers of every not-citizen resident here.

Darren McCaffrey

@darrenmccaffrey

2 years

Conservative MP Marcus Fysh who is opposing vaccine passports this morning on BBC "we are not a 'papers please' society" "This is not Nazi Germany," he says "It's the thin end of an authoritarian wedge"

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 months

“Immediate and massive action” would mean huge cuts to one or more of the following groups, who drive most of the inflows: Foreign students whose fees most universities rely on Migrant workers in the NHS and social care High skilled workers in other sectors

Neil O'Brien MP

@NeilDotObrien

5 months

Here's net migration since 1947. In every election since 1992 we have promised to reduce migration. Today's extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action to do that to do just that.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 months

The Telegraph

@Telegraph

4 months

🗣 "We know you who you are, Starmer: you are a lawyer, not a lance corporal. Stop trying to pretend you know one end of a bazooka from another," writes @RossjournoClark . Read more here ⬇️

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

People seem to be forgetting there are a lot less Labour Leave votes in Labour Leave seats now than in 2016 because a lot of them switched to Cons in 2017. So BXP candidates in Lab Leave seats will usually take more votes from Cons (mostly Leave) than Lab (mostly Remain)

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Zeno’s Brexit paradox: Labour is always moving towards backing a 2nd referendum but somehow never arrives at this destination.

PoliticsHome

@politicshome

5 years

John McDonnell says Labour ‘moving towards’ backing second EU referendum

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

Opposition leader satisfaction ratings, 2 mths in, per IPSOS-MORI: Starmer: +31 Corbyn: -3 Miliband: +9 Cameron: +15 Howard: +1 Duncan Smith: +6 Hague: -3 Blair: +14 Smith: + 7 Kinnock: + 13 Foot -21 Callaghan + 13

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

One of the most depressing things about the post-Brexit political debate has been the total ignorance so many Brexiteers have about Northern Ireland, and in particular why "the will of a narrow majority must be respected without compromise" is such a dangerous stance there.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

If this is what “partisan journalism” looks like then I’m all for it. Public sector broadcasters who hold incumbent governments to account are an asset to democracy. When such broadcasters kowtow to governing elites they become a tool or corruption and oppression.

Lewis Goodall

@lewis_goodall

4 years

There's a small but significant number of students who have not been helped at all by the govt u-turn. They've neither been upgraded, or downgraded. Because they have no grade and now, a v uncertain future. They're the external exam candidates. For example, Ferdaus. (Thread)

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

He's not even the best candidate to unite the Johnson family.

Guido Fawkes

@GuidoFawkes

5 years

Boris Seen As Candidate 'Best Placed To Unite Country'

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

8 years

"Vote Leave" team announce new slogan to replace "Take Control".

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

A very significant development. With Unite also calling for electoral reform, and Labour's membership also strongly in favour of it, the chances of Labour going into the next election committed to fundamental reform of the electoral system are the highest in a long time

West England Bylines 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

@WEBylines

2 years

Breaking news - Unison, one of the UKs largest and most powerful unions, has just voted, today, to support Proportional Representation. This is MASSIVE and means that, her majesty's opposition will almost certainly have to commit to PR at the conference in Sept this year.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

One of the most damaging zombie beliefs in the whole politics of Brexit debate is the "Lab needs to win/hold Leave seats and therefore needs to win/hold Leave votes". The second does *not* follow from the first.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

I've made this prediction before and I'll repeat it now: If we end up with no deal, public support for no deal will fall by double digits within a month or two. Support for Cons & PM will drop substantially too. Voters who welcome the idea of no deal won't welcome reality.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 months

This is horrific. A Kafkaesque tale where everyone involved can see data protection rules but no one can see a desperate son trying to trace and help his stricken mother.

Darren Collins

@classiccarguru1

4 months

A few days ago I found out my 86yr old mum with dementia had had a fall & been admitted to hospital I didn’t know which hospital so had to cold call the ones in the area No luck I thought this can’t be so called them all again Fortunately I got a different receptionist at one….

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

1 year

Has any politician ever had a better name than this?

ALGOP

@ALGOP

1 year

Congratulations Young Boozer! #ElectionDay

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

The Johnson government was characterised from start to finish by chaos, scandal, self-inflicted blunders, and screeching U-turns repeatedly humiliating ministers who defended unpopular lines only to see them abandoned hours later. Again, this all happened only a few months ago.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Lab MPs like this are as illogical and destructive as the ERG. Spring this year: "I want Brexit, but I won't vote for May's deal because it is too damaging" Now: "I want Brexit and will vote for the most damaging of all possible Brexits because reasons".

BBC Politics

@BBCPolitics

5 years

Labour MP Sarah Champion on #Brexit without a deal “If it came to it, I would take no deal, if that meant we could leave, because we have to leave” #politicslive

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

“The best way to protect free speech is by threatening people with government action for their views.” This rubbish is just beyond parody.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 months

I think this misunderstands the reasons for Johnson’s ouster. Partygate was both proxinate cause but more importantly symptom and illustration of a deeper problem - a PM who ignored all rules, who could not be trusted and whose behaviour towards colleagues and everyone else over…

Richard Johnson

@richardmarcj

2 months

Of course, there was much outrage over 'partygate', but much of the furore was media-driven and amplified by people who hated Boris quite specifically for his role in Brexit. I was never convinced it mattered as much for the Tories' 2019 coalition, especially in the long run.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

Swings required for seat to fall: Sunak (PM) - 23.6 pts to Lab Dowden (Deputy PM) - 20.4 pts to Lab Hunt (Chancellor) - 7.3 pts to LD Cleverly (Foreign Sec) - 24.4 pts to Lab Braverman (Home Sec) - 22.8 pts to Lab Shapps (Defence) - 10.5 pts to Lab

jonn elledge

@JonnElledge

7 months

Is anyone keeping the "Portillo list": Tories who are probably going to lose who haven't ruled themselves out of humiliation by standing down?

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

7 months

Given what a disaster appointments systems are this could go down as one of the all time great policy blunders. Millions of poor and unwell elderly receiving fixed penalty notices for appointments they were never told about or reminders sent to ancient & wrong addresses/phone nos

Pippa Crerar

@PippaCrerar

7 months

Rishi Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment is also understood to be back on table…

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 months

A strangely unbalanced article. Seems to imply there is no evidence of switching from Con to Lab - but there is lots of evidence for this and it is easily available! Might be useful to speak to public opinion researchers as well as Conservative sources?

Liam Thorp

@LiamThorpECHO

3 months

This piece, which seems desperate to downplay Labour’s by-election successes, uses only Conservative source quotes at any point

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Is the argument really “we need Johnson around because there might be a major crisis to handle”?

Jim Pickard 🐋

@PickardJE

2 years

some Tory MPs believe Johnson may receive a temporary reprieve from an unlikely source: the Kremlin. “If you look at what’s happening in Ukraine, I don’t think now’s the time for a leadership contest,” said one Tory MP

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

By our count Lab have now lost at least 15 seats which they have held in all general elections since 1945

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

OK, so that's the polling, how about his performance in actual elections. He's a proven winner, right? Erm... There were 5 contested by-elex after"partygate" scandals. Averaging Con fall across all 5 was -17.3% Average Con fall across 3 Con-Lab or Lab-Con contests was -11.2%

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

25 days

Starmer has school age kids. I don’t think they should face harassment at their home because their father is a politician.

LBC

@LBC

25 days

Campaigners stage protest outside Keir Starmer's house over arms sales to Israel

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

This is pretty significant - relaxation among "Leave" voters about "no deal" is driven by super-relaxed attitudes among economically secure leavers. Struggling Leave voters are a lot more worried about what No Deal will mean.

Prof. Christina Pagel

@chrischirp

5 years

But, among Leave Voters, support for No Deal is driven by those most likely to weather any economic downturn. Financially struggling Leave voters are MUCH MORE worried… it's not the "left behind" who really want No Deal... 3/6

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

Good news, bad news on this front. Good news: the ID checking app worked fine Bad news: “We need more evidence”. My mum’s been here over 40 years, most of them working in the NHS. She draws two NHS pensions (second widows pension for my dad who was also nhs) 1/2

Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

On my way down to London to help my mum (Dutch citizen but here since the mid-1970s) with the EU citizens registration process. Very much hoping the app and website outages reported yesterday are now over. Fingers crossed...

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

4 years

A nice illustration of why compulsory statistics training for journalists is a good idea.

(((Dan Hodges)))

@DPJHodges

4 years

We were told we were seeing the rate of infection accelerating exponentially. But again, what does this graph actually show has been happening for most age groups.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

The BBC is wrong about this I think. Social norms are a powerful force for good in society but they rely on figures of authority calling out and stigmatising unacceptable speech and acts. Trump's statement was, beyond doubt, racist. The BBC could, and should, call it so.

BBC Press Office

@bbcpress

5 years

Explaining the Editorial Complaints Unit's decision on BBC Breakfast and President Trump's comments

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

5 years

The Polish government is at the end of its term and it is completely standard to end legislative activity for an election campaign. This is an utterly disingenuous comparison as you must know.

Steve Barclay

@SteveBarclay

5 years

In Poland to discuss a deal minus the backstop so we can deliver Brexit on 31st Oct. Polish government has prorogued its Parliament for a General Election on 13th Oct. Remain MPs in UK surprisingly quiet about this prorogation.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

This was the guy who hired the guy - Lee Atwater - who convinced millions of white Americans that his 1988 opponent was going to release black rapists in their neighbourhoods. Polite concessions are nice but let’s not overstate the grace of past times.

Jonathan Freedland

@Freedland

3 years

At the time, this was a routine political moment. Now I find it quite moving

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

You don’t get to fly that flag with pride until you open our doors to those fleeing the butcher of Moscow. Ukraine’s citizens need safe refuge not gestures. Your inaction shames us all.

Home Office

@ukhomeoffice

2 years

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 Today we're flying Ukraine's flag in support of the Ukrainian people, including those here in the UK. #StandWithUkraine 🇬🇧🇺🇦

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

7 years

Next time you're trying to buy a house, start by saying "Accept my offer or I will burn down my own house" & see how negotiations go

James Cleverly🇬🇧

@JamesCleverly

7 years

Next time you’re making a significant purchase, a house perhaps, start by saying “I will not accept no deal” and see how the negotiations go

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Johnson supporters may have forgotten all this, but voters and more critical MPs have not. Much of it happened this year, after all. We are already seeing MPs pledge to resign the whip and/or trigger by-elex rather than serve under a Johnson Lazarus administration

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 years

Tory commentators: Momentum are angry fanatics aggressively pursuing anyone who dares deviate from their ideological doctrine Also Tory commentators: DESELECT BREXIT SPLITTERS

Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧

@montie

6 years

Hopefully, deselected soon

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

2 years

Great column today by @stephenkb on why, despite all of this, Johnson may well make the ballot on Monday (and may well win a vote with members). If he does, I suspect buyer's regret won't be long in coming (nor will internal opposition):

Will Boris Johnson come back?

There are definitely 100 MPs desperate or committed enough to the former prime minister to set aside grievances over his potential return

www.ft.com

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

6 months

"Muslims make up a majority in more than 30 constituencies" - that seemed off to me so I checked. Census 2021 data is easily available. This is incorrect. Muslims were a majority of the 2021 resident population in 3 constituencies, not 30.

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

11 months

This is disturbing. I find it highly unlikely the majority of UCU members share the STW view of Ukraine conflict. Unrepresentative hard left activists hijacking the union agenda once again. I find this code abhorrent, is hard to remain in a union which would endorse it.

Ukraine Solidarity Campaign 🇺🇦✊🏽🚩

@UkraineSol

11 months

We think UCU members should be outraged that the STW motion, calling in a few words with little explanation for an end to UK arming Ukraine, was passed. We look forward to working with the growing network of pro-Ukraine UCU members to push back, while organising active solidarity

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Rob Ford

@robfordmancs

3 years

Pretty revealing that when the Society of Editors asked themselves "who do we want to get to defend us on broadcast re: this sensitive matter?" the answer they came up with was "shouty middle aged man who talks over female presenters".

Tom Hourigan

@TomHourigan

3 years

Quite the exchange between Victoria Derbyshire and the head of the Society of Editors this morning

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