Tweet

More from @MrBenSellers

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

19 Apr 20

[thread] About halfway through the 2017 General Election campaign, this handsome guy, Simon Baker, cautiously crept into Labour Headquarters on Victoria Street. He’d been brought in on the recommendation of a very good friend & comrade. (1/9)

Once through the ordeal of security, I shook his hand & we sat down for a chat. It was obvious that it wasn’t his natural environment. But within a few minutes, we were excitedly discussing the opportunities ahead. (2/9)

@KenLoachSixteen

In the next few weeks, Simon worked his arse off, on @KenLoachSixteen cut material amongst other things. His joy at being given that job & the enthusiasm with which he went at a dozen other things, much of it beneath him technically speaking, was something to behold. (3/9)

Read 9 tweets

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

18 Mar 20

@Conservatives

Undoubtedly, #GE2019 was a shock. To an extent, Cummings & co seemed to have found a magic formula (and a slogan). But look how short lived it was. The last couple of days have been a case study of how out of touch the @Conservatives are in reality. Three big signs: (1/5)

1. The idea that you could, as the Government, advise people to avoid pubs etc, whilst pulling the rug from under the owners. The sheer arrogance to think that small business people would be ok with being abandoned & fobbed off with the most woeful #Budget2020 measures. (2/5)

@Conservatives

2. Ignoring completely the fact that small businesses are not just one-person operations, as if it was the Apprentice, but collectively the employers of millions. Whole Government response to #Corvid19uk ignored the workers, because to the @Conservatives, they hardly exist. (3/5)

Read 5 tweets

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

12 Feb 20

@LauraPidcock

I’m going to say something that might surprise people: Hilary Armstrong has a point. It’s hard for MPs to come in to the HoC & almost immediately be promoted to a Shadow Cabinet role, as happened to @LauraPidcock. That meteoric rise has consequences. 1/10 politicshome.com/news/uk/uk-reg…

@LauraPidcock

People’s perceptions in the constituency were that @LauraPidcock had her sights set on the top. Anyone who knows her, knows that isn’t true. I remember sitting together as a team in the 1st few weeks, where we made a commitment that the constituency would always come 1st. 2/10

@LauraPidcock

If you look through @LauraPidcock’s social media, you’ll see how much of her time was devoted to surgeries, public meetings, visits & campaigning within NW Durham. You’ll also see that none of those posts & tweet would get half the traction that the national stories would. 3/10

Read 10 tweets

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

23 Jan 20

@DurhamGala

[thread] With a few local exceptions, the media / political establishment have never quite understood this: the @DurhamGala isn’t a just a nice day out, or a celebration of the NE & it’s heritage - or even a community festival. It’s a celebration of the labour movement. (1/6)

Coming from Durham, you naturally understand this. That is not to say everyone sees it as a ‘political’ event in the strict sense, but most do understand the culture behind it: that awareness of what the miners & the community endured & pride in what they built in response. (2/6)

To really understand the Big Meeting though, you have to know it’s history, forged in bitter struggles against ideological enemies: from brutal mine owners to PMs who called the miners’ ‘the Enemy Within’. The idea that it could be politically neutral is a joke & an insult. (3/6)

Read 6 tweets

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

20 Jan 20

@LauraPidcock

[thread] While we’re at it, I worked for @LauraPidcock for 2.5 years & the way right-wing outlets like @politicshome, @GuidoFawkes , @DailyMailUK, @TheSun, @spectator etc treated her was a case study for me of why we can’t have an honest political culture in this country. (1/11)

Because none of it is journalism in any real sense. There’s not even the cursory commitment to factual reporting or debating the arguments. What we have instead is sly propaganda for a narrow, right-wing politics. Most people don’t recognise it as such because: (2/11)

(a) it’s hidden within the language used & small falsehoods in the reporting of what left-wing politicians & activists say & (b) because these slippages are spread via social media & wider liberal media outlets, so their origin is never really checked. (3/11)

Read 12 tweets

Ben Sellers

@MrBenSellers

16 Jan 20

@UKLabour

[The Don’t Go! thread] Five years ago, I wrote a blog 👉 …worldturnedupsidedownne.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/sta… arguing that socialists should stick with @UKLabour. Ironically, it was easier to make that case then, for two main reasons: (1/12)

1. We had such low expectations. Ed was the leader & we were in the margins. The fight was really to get a voice, to create a left space in amongst all the other groups that were pulling Miliband & the party this way & that, whether that was Blue Labour or Progress. (2/12)

2. Because of that marginal status, no one cared about us lefties. There was no attention from right-wing bloggers, no one could be bothered to harrass or threaten us. Party hacks could hardly even muster the energy to troll us. We just went about our business, quietly. 😴 (3/12)

Read 12 tweets

Share this page!

Ben Sellers

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @MrBenSellers

Ben Sellers

Ben Sellers

Ben Sellers

Ben Sellers

Ben Sellers

Ben Sellers

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?