More from @sturdyAlex

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

5 Nov

There’s a widely held belief that, if these voting cases get to the Supreme Court, all the people Trump appointed will come good and just give him the decisions he needs to win the election. I think that’s quite a bad take, for two reasons: 1/4

First, the common strand between the people Trump appointed is that they oppose Supreme Court interference in state laws. Every decision they’re looking to reverse hinges on this “originalist” constitutional view that SCoTUS should stay out of state legislation. 2/4

Second, Trump has very little to offer them and very little to threaten them with. He’s appointed them. They’re there for life. In some cases, they have decades of a judicial career ahead of them. They will not trash their reputation to do Trump any favours. 3/4

Read 4 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

14 Oct

Momofuku Ando invented pot noodles, aged 61.

J.R.R. Tolkien published the first volume of Lord of The Rings, aged 61.

James Parkinson identified Parkinson’s disease, aged 62.

Read 24 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

19 Sep

Ponder this Times exclusive: thetimes.co.uk/article/overbu…

Once you're over the HOW-DARE-HE hump of "many people live on 1/20th of that" - a perfectly legitimate reaction, to be clear - a more interesting question emerges: Who would brief this story to the Times? 1/3

Seems too detailed to be fabricated; more likely it comes from a source genuinely close to the PM. It's definitely not succession planning. That ground is covered by the honourable discharge narrative "his health has not recovered" stories. This shows him in an awful light. 2/3

It's also not a "dead cat". Much of the media corps is already focused on his poor performance (full of 'insider' briefing). This story adds fuel to that fire rather than distracts from it. It's intended to wound him, to tip him over as he teeters.

Someone is on manoeuvres. 3/3

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Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

17 Aug

The other dimension to the A-Levels fiasco is that it shows astoundingly poor political judgment. Even to the most casual observer it's been blindingly obvious for days that the gov't position was untenable. But - Classic Dom - his dislike of teachers made it a blind spot. 1/4

Choosing to grind it out has done the Johnson administration significant and lasting damage. Not only do they have every newspaper, usually cheer-leading for them, calling them "dunces", but they have managed to incite a backbench MP's rebellion, during recess - not easy! 2/4

Voting records show backbench rebellions are habit-forming. Once an MP has gone against the front bench, especially successfully, they're much more likely to do so again. Incidents like this, take the shine off No.10; they damage the gov't's glamour spell over their new MPs. 3/4

Read 4 tweets

Alex Andreou

@sturdyAlex

21 Jul

Key part of the report, esp. re Twitter:

"Equally, the spreading of disinformation is not necessarily aimed at influencing any individual outcome; it can simply have broad objectives around creating an atmosphere of distrust or otherwise fracturing society."

#RussiaReport 1/4

"Russia’s promotion of disinformation and its attempts at broader political influence overseas have been widely reported.

Examples include ‘bots’ and ‘trolls’: open source studies have identified significant activity on social media;"

#RussiaReport 2/4

This can result in a "general poisoning of the political narrative in the West by fomenting political extremism and ‘wedge issues’, and by the ‘astroturfing’ of Western public opinion; and general discrediting of the West."

#RussiaReport 3/4

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