Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy.

Brexit was a coup and it's ongoing.
I block idiots and idiots block me.
I've got lots of opinions that take my time up. I wish I were paid for them. I'm not.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

I wrote a piece on the old Turkish proverb (not) that has been a thread running right through my year from January and still ongoing:
https://t.co/tUwClXCabh

[Harriet Symonds @harriet_symonds]

BREAKING: Andy Burnham has announced he will challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins the Makerfield by-election.

Labour figures already fuming. Could this backfire?

Labour MP texts: ‘There’s no way I’m going to Makerfield now, good luck to the whips!’

Labour source texts: ‘Andy Burnham ran for leader in 2010 and lost. He ran for leader in 2015 and lost. He has spent the last two years undermining this Labour government at every opportunity in pursuit of his goal of becoming Labour leader. To suggest he’s only running because of Wes is an insult to everyone with a modicum of intelligence.’

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

The BBC made you. And their only mistake was failing to realise that is what they were doing.

[Tom Baldwin @TomBaldwin66]

I’m sure @spectator will protect their source” but the suspicion is this was from Mandelson himself. If so, it’s a bit creepy that those who loudly condemn the government for having had anything to do with Mandelson will then take their “exclusives” from him - and “protect” - him

[Chantelle Lunt @chantelle_lunt]

🛑 Nigel Farage should resign and face criminalinvestigation.
I do not often speak publicly about the riots of 2024, because my family still carries the scars of what happened afterwards. My son was followed by a far-right thug who threatened to burn and kill him, before smashing up our car when my husband arrived to protect him.

So it is not lost on me that Nigel Farage has escalated from suggesting, in the wake of Southport in 2024, that the truth was being hidden from the public, to now explicitly calling for “pure, cold rage” in 2026.

We know where this kind of rhetoric leads. Calls like that, alongside Tommy Robinson’s calls for people to gather outside police stations, have been followed by violent disorder in our communities.

Tuesday night in Southampton, 11 police officers were injured, people were reportedly arrested for offences including possession of weapons and assaulting police, property was damaged, cars were smashed, and communities were left frightened and distressed.

This is not responsible leadership. This is not justice for victims. This is the politics of rage, hate and division, and it has real consequences in communities like ours, and for families like mine.

Nigel Farage is a dangerous politician. He is dealing in a mendacious, hate-fuelled style of politics that puts ordinary people at risk.
He should resign.

[John Simpson @JohnSimpsonNews]

37 years ago the Chinese army killed large numbers of people in Beijing and elsewhere when it cracked down on student protests. I was there and saw it happen myself. Nowadays China tries to claim the Tiananmen massacre was invented by the international media. That’s a total lie.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@ClareTa97789912 unless only one person stands

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

Remember cash for questions and the egregious Hamiltons? Such small fry it looks now in the face of fucking loot for leverage on an unimaginable scale and trying to get traction on basic concern let alone outrage is proving nigh on impossible ffs.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

In my opinion, riots wouldn't just be a by-product of a Reform govt. Inciting war on the streets would be a primary aim. The situation would then be used to consolidate power violently.
Classic far right strategy, already being actioned, and still the press kneels to the leader.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@BBCNewsnight and the difference is...?

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

What a strange country we have become under the influence of our press and social media.
A country with a death wish.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@11Notabot I see.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

In the Henry Nowak case, the police were called to the scene by the perpetrator(s) of the crime. Especially in knife crime, this strikes me as so unusual it's a plot twist. Discussing it as only about misjudgement linked to race/DEI is wrong. Other operational issues arose too.

[Waqas🔶️ @m0w4q45]

I was a prison officer, Nick. You can't preach "tough on crime." Your lot cut nearly 7,000 prison officers since 2010 and handed our jails to G4S and Serco. You broke the system, then act shocked it doesn't work.

You know what actually works? Lads out on licence getting their track tickets, learning a trade, coming home as taxpayers instead of reoffenders. That's using human capital, not warehousing it. A lad sat in a cell doing nothing helps nobody.

And funny how quiet you all go on the tax dodgers and the oligarchs bankrolling Putin's war. Boris took a Russian ex-KGB man's hospitality at his Italian villa, dodged his own officials, then made the son a Lord. Where's your "lock them up" energy for that?

[Viviane: 🌹Labour led by Keir for me @LaindonFEMINIST]

Government busy making announcements, 11 in just 2 days. Many new projects with Poland, international initiatives around VAWG and food prices down alongside savings for motorists. Starmer’s Gov is delivering!!

#DoingTheMediasJob
#FixingBritain
#LabourAchievements

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

So, on the far right, big money has doubts about Reform, cash diverts to Restore, hey presto Restore gets traction and commentators suggest voters are turning to them all by themselves, just thinking about it? We're all supposed to act like all this is completely fucking normal?

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@LaindonFEMINIST Unfortunately for us and the PM, Mandelson week/ Burnham week are the same thing. One of Burnham's actual credits in the political bank is his longstanding intense dislike of appalling snake Mandelson. It seems Mandelson's toxicity, once you've been touched by it, is for life.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@AnnMile71721158 @JohnPar99252817 Of course. Huge hill still to climb, especially there. Again, though, it's often doctor/consultant access that holds things up.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

On the NHS, Blair's govt had this problem. The NHS objectively improved, vastly, from the usual Tory deterioration, but all people would say was 'I was lucky, I had a better experience but it hasn't improved overall'. It took YEARS for them to accept that it had. It was a thing.

[Phillupton @Phillupton]

@HonestHalo @Anniepop2027 @ChrisMcDonaldMP No one believes that the service has improved.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@campbellclaret Not sure?? I'm sure! They couldn't, of course. They could, however, run the country right down. If we think we've been through enough already, if that chaos of clowns gets power, even through coalition, we're not going to know what's hit us.

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

@mackey198 @HonestHalo @ChrisMcDonaldMP It's been invested in. With a Labout govt, the backdrop for them has improved. And it's a gnarly city centre practice with patients who have a lot of issues. Not a leafy area.
Main issue now is at consultant level. They need sorting out. Too many of them are snotty gits.