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, 3 tweets, 3 min read
I'm behind with my reading, but last week's @newstatesman was a barnstormer, with three esp. good reads. First: @harrytlambert's brilliant profile of Dominic Cummings. If you want to understand the man driving Britain's political crisis, start here. newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
@NewStatesman @harrytlambert Second: @steverichards14 on the lessons Boris Johnson should have learned from his predecessors - but didn't. A consistently brilliant analyst of British politics, who always brings historical depth to his writing. newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
@NewStatesman @harrytlambert @steverichards14 Third: the ever-excellent @stephenkb on David Cameron, whose "greatest political gift" was "to convey a sense of infinite reasonableness and moderation while advancing a programme of radical right-wing reform". newstatesman.com/culture/books/…
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Robert Saunders
@redhistorian
Two important reads today on the reporting of Brexit. First, @davidallengreen on the ability of anonymous "No. 10 sources" to flood the media with fake loopholes, get-outs & "dead cat" stories - none of which were legally plausible - to drown out the reality of a govt in retreat.
@davidallengreen Every day the papers led with some breathless new plan to thwart the Benn Act: by an Order in Council, or the Civil Contingencies Act, or some secret loophole no one had spotted, or the PM defying arrest, or the three letters stunt. All garbage, but it led the news day after day.
@davidallengreen Second key read: the @ConUnit_UCL on the failure of too many journalists to understand basic parliamentary procedure, which has allowed Number 10 to spin "a parliament versus people narrative" and set up artifical confrontations with the Speaker. constitution-unit.com/2019/10/24/par…
Read 5 tweets
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Robert Saunders
@redhistorian
MPs face some exceptionally difficult decisions today. There are no easy options: they're weighing up different types of harm, based on uncertain calculations for the future, amidst rising public fury. If I were an MP I'd back the Letwin Amendt & a referendum. Here's why.[THREAD]
1. The case against Johnson's Deal is very strong. It puts us on course for a much harder Brexit than anyone envisaged in 2016. All serious economic projections suggest a substantial hit to GDP, household income and the public finances - and we all know who will bear the brunt.
2. The Deal is being sold on a lie: that it "gets Brexit done". In fact, it simply creates a new cliff edge at the end of 2020, when we will face the whole Deal/No Deal scenario again. If FTA negotiations founder, we'll have until July to request an extension: another cliff edge.
Read 16 tweets
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Robert Saunders
@redhistorian
The @UKandEU programme has attempted to model the economic impact of Boris Johnson's Brexit Deal. As the authors of the report acknowledge, economic modelling is not an exact science, but the results make grim reading. Some highlights follow. ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
@UKandEU 1. Changes to trade: "Relative to staying in the EU, income per capita in the UK would be 2.5% lower under Mr Johnson’s proposals, compared to 1.7% under Mrs May’s deal". "The decline in income per capita under Mr Johnson’s proposals is 50% greater than for Mrs May’s deal".
@UKandEU 2. Include the effects of trade on productivity, and the costs are even greater. "Under Mr Johnson’s proposals, income per capita falls by 6.4%, whereas under Mrs May’s deal it falls by 4.9%".
Read 8 tweets

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FranchiseKF
@FranchiseKF
Week 2 SEC & ACC Thread:
Wake @ Rice (+19/58.5) Two played last year and Wake won 56-24. Deceptive scoreline though. Only 414-370 yardage edge for Wake, but 6.8-4.9 YPP edge. 137 plays so pace wasn't great, mainly due to Rice hogging it & Wake hitting big plays. Dortch 4 TDs w Hartman at QB n first start
Wake now has better QB and realize what capable of in air. They were still 17-20-243-4-1 last year, but that should be higher this year. Wake won great battle last week. Defense still rough, run game is bleh, but they are gonna go fast and stress teams via air and w QB run game
Read 84 tweets
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Graham Kings
@GrahamRKings
This @thetimes article on Dominic #Cummings is Cummings’ & #No10’s spin to rehabilitate him after recent media attacks. It may work, because, typically, it conceals well its aim... However, it reveals also worrying traits. See below 1/several...
thetimes.co.uk/article/domini…
1. #Cummings was mentored at #Oxford by Prof Norman Stone. theguardian.com/books/2019/jun…
2. He had ‘an unsuccessful spell setting up an airline in post-communist #Russia.’
3. Cameron described him as a ‘career psychopath’.
4. His wife is @spectator writer Mary Wakefield. 2/several
5. He deliberately got himself, wearing T-shirt & jeans - in famous photo of #Johnson being welcomed by Sir Mark Sedwill in No10.
6. He is not a back-room operator. He loves the limelight. [hence the film ‘The Uncivil War’ and this article...] 3/several
Read 5 tweets
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Carl
@terrible_help
No one can still in denial about what Daenerys is after she just burned a million women, children and men with impunity.

There's also no way we can blame this on bad writing, because it's not. It's the culmination of years of hollow morals. And it's also brilliant.
It's horrific, tragic, and brilliant. And it's high time for a lot of people to wake up and look critically at what they've been stanning, because the point of this story is very much about them. It's about anyone who has uncritically stanned unchecked, destructive power.
There's a quote by George RR Martin where he likens Dany's dragons to atomic bombs, and to me it summarises a lot of the intent behind her character. Martin goes on to say that ”You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn't give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.”
Read 63 tweets
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Mr Brad!
@Mr_Brad_I_Am
Does your swamp need draining?

These will be the top Brexit battlegrounds next GE.

Let's have a look at a few...........
Boston & Skeg.

@mattwarman greatly increased his majority in 2017 and seems to have renounced his remaining ways. One of only 160 MPs to vote Aye to leaving without a deal last week.

Verdict: Respects his constituents.👍
Walsall North.

The good people of Walsall North rightly booted out David Winnick in 2017 for his treasonous remoaning ways and replaced him with @EddieHughes4WN

Eddie is an ERG member and a staunch patriotic Brit.

Verdict: 👍Hope he increases his majority next time.
Read 27 tweets
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Victoria Brownworth
@VABVOX
#Cummings to press rn: "In 2016 I said, this is not about Hillary & this is not about Donald Trump. This is a fight for the soul of our democracy. And that statement is truer now than it was then....We have strayed so far away from normal in this country."
#CohenHearing
#Cummings: "There has been no accountability in this country. The Constitution is abundantly clear. Part of that Constitution is about checks and balances....The Republicans didn't want to hear any of that."
#CohenHearing
#Cummings adds: "I want to be clear: I would rather have no hearing than one that interfered with Mueller. We STILL have a situation where folks are messing with our elections."
#CohenHearing
Read 4 tweets

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