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Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

May 15

Todays #PMQs shows why Sunak's latest Vote-for-Me-or-it's-World-War-Three "relaunch", just like the many resets before it, is doomed to fail. A short 🧵 1/

Here is the basic issue: Tory MPs, at every level, look at the same polls we do and they are desperate. That panic is poor counsel. They will get more tribal, noisier, more aggressive, baser. They will reach for personal attacks, for culture wars, for stunts, for cheap digs. 2/

In today's #PMQs, the biggest noise came when the PM made a cheap jibe about Sue Gray. "MORE MORE MORE" his MPs chanted, as he tried (and failed) to pivot to cosplaying a grown-up.

For "trust us, we are serious people" to work, actually being serious people is a precondition. 3/

Read 6 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

Mar 20

The poet Odysseas Elytis wrote that the truth of someone is contained in the character that only they know and the memories that only they value - and so, it is lost when they die.

It wasn’t so with Mama. And this was the gift Alzheimer’s granted us, along with the horrors. 1/

There was a time - fleeting and at once immense - when she was still well enough, but the disease had lightened every burden and stripped every veneer - of duty, of marriage, of self-consciousness, of the rush to cook and scrub and wash, of work, of motherhood, of religion… 2/

… of propriety, of bereavement, of fear, of pretence, of pride and false modesty. And, for a time, the truth shone through. I met the girl that predated the woman, and the woman that predated the mother. The three coexisted like friends at ease with each other. 3/

Read 4 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

Mar 14

Last night, my beautiful, darling Mama, having been serenaded by her grandson on the guitar, obviously decided it didn't get much better than that, drifted off to sleep, and didn't come back to us this morning. 1/

She snuck off - just like she used to, far too early, to go and clean somewhere before her 9-5, to make sure that we wanted for nothing. There were times she worked three jobs and yet was somehow, miraculously, still, always there - to cook and iron and help with the homework. 2/

She was the love of my life. I feel numb and inconsolable, as well as happy for her and relieved. And guilty about feeling relieved. I feel, above all, exhausted. For fifteen years, since her diagnosis, there has been a part of me permanenantly on alert for That Phone call. 3/

Read 7 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

Jul 2, 2023

https://twitter.com/miss_snuffy/status/1675607314974273536

Blessed as I feel to be unblocked, you’re doing it again. Screen grabs don’t carry the time of the grab, but of the tweet. You were in a Twitter storm before Phillips got involved, to the extent that you’d already deleted your original post before she first tweeted you. 1/4

https://twitter.com/miss_snuffy/status/1675607314974273536

You say I excused her behaviour. I didn’t. Maybe you feel she shouldn’t get involved; lthat she should be more mindful of her position and following. But that’s NOT the argument you chose to make. You chose to say she instigated the issue and did so because she’s a racist. 2/4

I simply assessed the material you provided to support a serious allegation and found that it fell apart on inspection. You complain that JW did not engage with your argument. But *I engaged with it* - civilly and in detail. Your reaction was to call me a racist and block me. 3/4

Read 4 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

Jul 2, 2023

https://twitter.com/Miss_Snuffy/status/1675064540508168192

Just a few factual points on Birbalsingh's letter about @jessphillips, which involves - rather unsurprisingly - several dubious claims. 🧵1/

https://twitter.com/Miss_Snuffy/status/1675064540508168192

The timing of events, as described, is entirely misleading - and I would point to the time being cropped off tweets selectively as evidence that this is deliberately. Birbalsingh's original post was all over twitter and trending, an hour before Phillips got involved. 2/

What really set Twitter aflame was Birbalsingh claiming it was a GIF (she may well have intended that, but it's clear in every screengrab she actually posted a static image), and that anyone saying otherwise was "a lunatic". That tweet also PRECEDES Phillips' and got 1m views. 3/

Read 14 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

Mar 31, 2023

Watch Badenoch get into trouble, saying bilateral FTAs are no substitute for comprehensive multilateral deals, "we haven't joined a bloc like this in 50 years", "there is strength in numbers", etc.

Then slowly panic, as she realises she's basically making the case for Rejoin. 🤣

"Being in a trade bloc means you have more influence," she added.

No. Way.

Badenoch went on to admit the CPTPP deal is not worth much now, but said "people should look at it as buying a start-up".

I'm sure all those former colonies, not to mention G7 members Japan or Canada, will be delighted to know the UK sees them as a "start-up" it just "bought".😬

Read 4 tweets

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