Profile picture
, 6 tweets, 1 min read
My Authors
Read all threads
Just to give an idea of how confusing these labels can be, here's a rundown of Labour and Tory leaders from my point of view:

Churchill: centre-right (but Tory left)
Attlee: left (but Labour right)
Eden: centre-right (Tory centre)
Gaitskell: centre-left (but Labour right)
Macmillan: centre-right; Tory left... but seen as Tory centre?
Wilson: centre-left; Labour right
Home: God knows. Just very very posh.
Heath: centre-right; Tory leftish... drifting rightwards towards the end
Thatcher: right; Tory right (but her Cabinet started out Tory left)
Callaghan: centre-left, drifting rightwards (Labour right)
Foot: left (Labour left)
Kinnock: centre-left (originally Labour left - but Labour right from shortly after becoming leader)
Major: centre-right (Tory centre-left)
Smith: centre-left (Labour centre-right)
Blair: centre (Labour right)
Hague: right (Tory right)
IDS: further right (Tory right)
Howard: hard right (Tory centre)
Cameron: centre-right, but right from becoming PM onwards (Tory leftish)
Brown: slightly centre-left (Labour centre)
Miliband: slightly more centre-left (Labour centre-ish)
Corbyn: left (Labour left)
May: hard right (Tory centre)
Johnson: right (seen by public as centre-right; Tory centre)
Oh... and me? Centre-left; Labour centre. 😇
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Shaun Lawson

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @shaunjlawson see all

Profile picture
Shaun Lawson
@shaunjlawson
For the record, the 'left wing' (ie. the Tory left and Tory moderates) ran riot in the Tory Party from 1945 to 1997. Also for the record: throughout the Western world, parties in Parliament have almost always been closer to the centre than their grassroots and activists.
Why is that? Because politics is the art of the possible, not the impossible.

That it's finally changing now - horribly right wing Tory membership, very right wing Tory Parliamentary Party, mirroring the Republicans - isn't a good thing. It's a very bad thing.
And before anyone pops up: of course I don't think Thatcher was a moderate! But much of her Cabinet was... and it constrained her. When she broke free of its shackles, it got rid of her.
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
Shaun Lawson
@shaunjlawson
I've just been speaking to a Spanish friend of mine. He told me how happy he is with their new leftist government: specifically, the recent announcement of a rise in the minimum wage there. From 900 euros a month to 950.

Extraordinarily, it was below 800 until 2019.
This got me googling. I was pretty dumbstruck at what I found in terms of just how much worse 950 euros a month is compared to Germany, France or the UK.

And then I became increasingly confused. Even somewhat perplexed.
Dear followers: can anyone explain the following?

In the UK, for 25s and over, the minimum wage is currently £8.20 an hour. It will rise to £8.72 an hour from the start of April. So my first question is: how do we calculate an annual salary from that?
Read 18 tweets
Profile picture
Shaun Lawson
@shaunjlawson
This is like a constant straw man just trotted out again and again and again. Any mindset of "anyone to the right of RLB is a centrist" is so hollow, so baseless, and so plain bankrupt, it isn't even worth engaging with. It's just total drivel.
Every candidate in the leadership contest has accepted, embraced, advocated for almost all the policies in the 2019 manifesto. Yet when Starmer praises Corbyn for anti-austerity, wants to harness the membership and slags off free market economics, he's called... a centrist.
Grown-up political discussion, this is not. It's actually quite mad.
Read 12 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
DATA=CURRENCY=POWER
@Cue1DataWalker
WE THE ]#PEOPLE[ Have to Pick Up Where Our #Founders Left Off. Protect The #Nation Protect the #Family, [Protect the #Children] living in our Great #UnitedStates of #AMERICA..
…
#WWG1WGA. WW Q Q++

@realDonaldTrump
This is for the like #minds, and everyday #thinkers who do right and care for the future of our nation. IF you just found out #WELCOME!! #America Needs you!, We need you!

We #communicate, post, #network and RESEARCH #RESEARCH @WhiteHouse
RESEARCH, #INFORM REPEAT...(and #joke poke & prodd #ideas/people minus the hate of course(sometimes) (we get it)). get the #word out!! If 💩 hits the fan! Just know WE r HERE& #TRUST we R #UNITED! Please #Guide and #Teach like mind who will add @NSAGov
Read 41 tweets
Profile picture
Julian Jessop
@julianHjessop
If Jeremy #Corbyn becomes PM on Friday 13th, here's my rundown of 13 of #Labour’s worst policies which will hurt many, not just the few.

PS. I could have chosen a completely different 13, and these are in no particular order… (thread)

#GeneralElection19
1. Expropriating up to 10% of the value of corporate equity. Employee share ownership is usually a good thing, but dictating the terms would deter job creation and investment, and encourage firms to relocate overseas. More explanation here... capx.co/the-10-share-p…
2. Rent controls. Almost all economists agree that these are a bad idea and, like many of Labour’s policies, would actually end up hurting the very people they are supposed to help. And before replying ‘well, it works in Germany', read this… iea.org.uk/blog/qtwtain-h…
Read 14 tweets
Profile picture
Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن❌
@EveKeneinan
The error is the guilt transference from persons to groups.

“An eye for an eye” is a very crude way of expression the demand for JUSTICE AS RESTORATION.

The folks counter to folk idea of “an eye for an eye” is “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Aristotle noted long ago that folk wisdom usually expresses a half truth, but there is also usually an opposite bit of folk wisdom that says the opposed truth, e.g.

“jackdaw to jackdaw” but also “opposites attract.”
The problem with thinking it terms of SYSTEMS is that, when one assumes that the SYSTEM is the problem, and wants to abolish the SYSTEM—well, there MUST BE some SYSTEM, since “system” is just “the way things are put together.”
Read 16 tweets
Profile picture
Pasquale "Pat" Scopelliti⭐️⭐️⭐️⚔️
@ThyConsigliori
John Minford, #SunTzu 8: 5 "On enclosed terrain, make strategic plans."
Today's verse was not a brain breaker for me like verse 2 was, but it did benefit from some of the brain breaking work I did for verse 2, for sure! And yes, we might call it a bit of a brain bruiser as well. I had to invert my thinking, and it did take a fair bit of research.
When you start diving into the commentaries and cross referencing, you pretty rapidly get led to chapter 11, verse 9 for a definition, which is kind of interesting in its own right. We're now seeing Master Sun's layers coming at us.
Read 22 tweets
Profile picture
1919raceriots
@1919raceriots
1. Here's a #rundown of what has happened thus far on Friday 13th June 1️⃣9️⃣1️⃣9️⃣:

#Cardiff1919RaceRiots
2. At two pm 🕑 this afternoon, an argument broke out between a French man 🇫🇷 and an Algerian man 🇩🇿 somewhere in #Cardiff

#Cardiff1919RaceRiots
3. Three hours on, I'm uncertain as to what happened next. I'll check twitter and Facebook and that.

#Cardiff1919RaceRiots
Read 16 tweets
Profile picture
Joseph Stalin
@StalinIsBack
1/8 My favorite #quote by #JosephStalin, which explains the scientific, #DialecticalMaterialist explanation of true freedom in material reality, not just as an abstract ideal. #StalinIsBack #StalinLives #JVStalin #Stalin #StalinQuote #StalinQuotes #Truth #MELS #MarxismLeninism
2/8 Having an #objective, #rational, #ScientificSocialist, #Dialectical, & #Materialist viewpoint allows us to accurately see & evaluate & analyze #Truth & #Reality as they truly materially exist in this universe.
3/8 An idealistic, dogmatic viewpoint, which capitalists have, however, makes one irrational enough to 'see' freedom where freedom stays trapped on a piece of paper while people are oppressed in their actual lived lives.
Read 586 tweets

Trending hashtags

#CONSERVATIVES #Zond5 #USALoses #BanHorseracing #DiaMat #MarxismLeninism #ToryLandslide #Occupation #Primary #mathematical #Afghan #ByeBye #evil #BoycottNickiMinaj #corruption #CapitalistLies #Italy #Molniya1 #thinkers #Voskhod1 #Socialist #Ageism #algorithms #Art50 #Haitian
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!