Malcolm Fewtrell

Working class. Trade Unionist. Labour man. Anti-Brexit. #FBPE. Proactively blocks bots, trolls and shills. Still planning that Twitter hiatus...

[Malcolm Fewtrell @MalcolmFewtrell]

As we on the left look at the carnage in front of us, a few observations on what we might need to do differently in future in order to win. 1/

[Steve Jones @antoniosteve]

Here's some context for the Mail polling on #Cummings #CumGate .

The current resign figure is 66% resign, 17% stay, for a net of -49.

These are the polling figures from Thatcher's poll tax. Lowest net -46.

[Molly Scott Cato is on Bluesky @GreenPartyMolly]

No senior medical or scientific advisor at #DailyBriefing today

After the apparent walkout by Vallance and Whitty yesterday this looks significant

Did they agree that #CummingsMustGo? And are they boycotting the press conferences until that happens?

[Shouting into the void, feeding AI. @VoxLibero]

It's 2am and I'm awake, unable to sleep because the Cummings thing just wound me up. Again the journos let us down. I have to get it off my chest. He shouldn't resign because of the trip, he should resign because

1/10

@BorisJohnson @MattHancock @DominicRaab @OdysseanProject

[Malcolm Fewtrell @MalcolmFewtrell]

@ytcitraining @lewis_goodall I suspect this is what this DC story is really about. He knows how despised he is by progressives, so engineers a scandal that we would amplify for days/weeks provides cover for deadly govt policy to become old news. That's likely why the Tory press are also pushing the story.

[Robert Ford @robfordmancs]

“Do what’s in the best interests of your family what happens to everyone else is secondary” says Dan Hodges on national radio, defending Cummings. Illustrating exactly how this story has the potential damage adherence to isolation rules going forward.

[Malcolm Fewtrell @MalcolmFewtrell]

@IanDunt Given the Surkovian style multiple conflicting stories, I'm starting to think that this was a pre-planned distraction to push when the public anger about the 60,000+ deaths got too much. That the Tory media haven't buried the story either raises alarm bells.

[James O'Brien @mrjamesob]

Downing Street didn’t describe ‘campaigning newspapers’ by accident last night...

“One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

[Jonathan Lis @jonlis1]

When you boil all this down it’s quite simple. Because of Johnson’s actions in March there are people now dead who would otherwise be alive, and because of his actions yesterday there are people now alive who will shortly be dead.

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

What a grim and exhausting day.

Still hard to believe that the Prime Minister stood before the country and decreed that the rules that apply to us do not apply to his chum. The sacrifices demanded of, and willingly given, by the rest of us, are not required of him.

Night all.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

I love this. The last time the @observer published ‘fake news’ about Cummings, his campaign was found guilty of electoral fraud. That time round, the BBC, r/w press & opposition united in pretending it hadn’t happened so that was that. This time?

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Right. If you haven’t watched this, you need to do so now. If John Lewis sold dystopia, this would be the ad

[Chris Giles @ChrisGiles_]

Update: A cautious estimate of the number of UK excess deaths linked ot coronavirus during the pandemic is

63,300

There are growing signs of a longer tail to this epidemic limiting the decline in deaths than when we first passed the peak

1/

[Lauren Bravo 🚨 PROBABLY NOTHING IS OUT NOW 🚨 @laurenbravo]

DO YOU THINK when pubs finally reopen with social distancing, it will mark an end to men moving us out of the way by putting their hands on our waists? Can we dare to dream

[richard horton @richardhorton1]

What kind of person is it who owes his life to overseas health workers and then not only insists they have to pay a surcharge to use the NHS themselves but also plans to increase that surcharge in the worst recession for 300 years. Answer: Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister.

[Deborah @debsi70]

1) The UK government keep justifying their decision to reopen schools by saying they are mirroring Denmark who have successfully reopened schools, and directed the unions to find out how it has been achieved safely, so we did and this is what we found:

[Marian @Marian__Kennedy]

This quiet, lethal questioning is a thing of beauty. Change at last. No #tracing in the U.K. since abandoned on 12 March, says Starmer, A huge hole in our defences... Johnson blusters ‘vast progress’ says less of the negative tone. Starmer refers to our dead, not about tone.

[Brexitshambles @brexit_sham]

Despite the Prime Minister's rumoured four days of intensive coaching to combat Keir Starmer's forensic onslaught at #PMQs, Johnson, once again resorting to bluff, bluster and lies over his government's testing and tracing programme, comes a poor third in a two horse race...1/2

[Ian Dunt @IanDunt]

That is obviously exasperated by the fact Johnson's bumbling approach is vulnerable to Starmer's barrister-like cross examination. But primarily the issue here is that the government is hopelessly inept.