Andie Cox

Potato waffler

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@ivanalefebvreh What a load of old bollocks. London is safer now than it has been for ages. Well done Sadiq 👍

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@TheCinesthetic

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@PaulMarcoe Plastic bags

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@ScoutMocking @WestminsterWAG @anitathetweeter Exactly what I thought. She’s contradicting herself

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@London_W4 I’m sorry that happened to you, I’m not sure I like your description of them as a ‘third world person’ though

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@originalhartman I’m on it

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@EnzoCherici @FXMC1957 I found this out from The Sopranos 🤣

[Damian Low @DamianLow3]

The level of personal hostility directed at Keir Starmer over the last week deserves scrutiny in its own right. Not because he should be immune from criticism, but because the tone and intensity of the attacks tell us something unhealthy about the state of democratic politics.

1. Starmer is a conventional political figure. Cautious, legalistic, incremental. He frustrates people precisely because he is managerial rather than messianic. Yet the reaction to him often goes far beyond disagreement, tipping into visceral hatred more commonly reserved for authoritarians or demagogues.

2. Much of this hostility is disconnected from concrete policy. It is not about specific votes, proposals or outcomes, but about projection. A belief that Starmer embodies betrayal, bad faith or hidden malice. That kind of politics runs on suspicion rather than evidence.

3. This matters because democracy depends on the assumption of good faith among opponents. You can think a leader is wrong, timid, or misguided without believing they are fundamentally illegitimate. Once politics becomes moralised to the point of demonisation, compromise is reframed as treachery and pluralism as weakness.

4. The pattern is familiar. In fragmented, polarised systems, anger concentrates not on extremists, whose intentions are clear, but on moderates, who disappoint maximalists on all sides. The centre becomes the lightning rod precisely because it resists totalising narratives.

5. There is also a media and online dynamic at work. Incentives reward outrage, not proportionality. Algorithms favour contempt over analysis. Over time, this creates a political culture in which relentless personal attack feels normal, even virtuous, rather than disgusting.

6. None of this is a defence of Starmer’s decisions, instincts or record. Those should be argued over robustly as you do in a democracy. The problem is the substitution of critique with hostility and the quiet erosion of democratic norms that follows when political opponents are treated as enemies rather than rivals.

7. A democracy cannot function if every election is framed as an existential struggle against internal evil. At some point, the target may change, but the damage to trust, restraint and culture remains.

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@RoryStewartUK I think we may need another emergency podcast please. 😬

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@RoryStewartUK happy birthday Rory! I think you might need to do an emergency pod…

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@thetimes I don’t actually think Betty was a narcissist

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@BrooksElms 💪

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@ayaonx La La Land

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@Hickman2722 @ShadowofEzra Read the news do you?

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@TRobinsonNewEra What a ridiculous thing to say.

That woman has done more to protect women and children than any single person in the country I bet.

She is an absolute credit to the Labour Party.

[Nick Robinson @bbcnickrobinson]

It is easy…tempting indeed…to be distracted by the sound & fury of the battle between two powerful men – the billionaire who owns X and has turned it into a megaphone and the British Prime Minister. However, this story is much more important than a clash between Elon Musk and Keir Starmer. It is about how to protect girls and young women from terrible sexual abuse. For more than 10 years official reports and police investigations have revealed that some have covered up and others have played down the fact that gangs of men - mainly but not exclusively of Pakistani origin - have targeted, groomed, raped and tortured mainly white girls. Musk has attacked and abused the PM and his safeguarding minister Jess Philips for refusing to agree to a new inquiry into what really happened. The Conservatives and Reform UK have echoed his call if not his language (which, the former head of counter terrorism, has warned risks inciting violence). Now the one woman who had not commented when so many others had has broken our silence. Professor Alexis Jay - who chaired the Independent Inquiry into child sexual abuse which reported more than two years ago and who led the investigation into the cover-up of masss rape in Rotherham more than a decade ago - has told me on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme there is no need for a new inquiry. What’s more she argues that it would get in the way of what needs to be done – implementing the findings of her report which was published more than two years ago. Professor Jay refuses to comment on the words used by Musk or, indeed, Farage or the shadow Justice secretary – the Conservative Robert Jenrick who has argued that what is to blame is mass migration of millions of people with what he calls "alien cultures". However, she had a clear message for them all. Those who "politicise child sexual abuse" are ignoring the needs of the victims she says. In another interview on the Today Programme I asked Robert Jenrick whether he accepted the Conservatives in government for 14 years had failed to do enough to tackle a problem that was first highlighted more than a decade ago. Why, I asked him, had Tory ministers failed to implement the recommendations of the inquiry? Why had they refused calls for a second wider national inquiry when they had the power to set one up. I asked him whether he’d ever raise these issues as a minister in the Home Office and pointed out that there was no mention in the parliamentary record Hansard of him ever raising the subject before Elon Musk did. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, I asked Jenrisk whether he now wanted to stop immigration from those "alien cultures" he condemns despite the fact that immigration from, say, Pakistan has recorded since Brexit and that many of Pakistani heritage have and are serving this country proudly - not least the former Home Secretary Sajid Javid and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. You can hear his answers by listening back to the Today programme on @bbcsounds at 8.10 (that's 2 hours & 10 minutes into the programme) and Professor Jay's at 7.30ish (one hour & 30 minutes into the programme)Jenrick, like Messrs Farage and Musk insists that much more is now known about what happened in the past and much more needs to be known about what might be happening now right across the country. So they argue that there is a case for that second enquiry. Jay argues that that would distract from implementing the protections that are needed now and which the Home Secretary hastily announced last night - making it an offence to know about but not report or to actively cover up child sex abuse and improving the collection of the data on who the offenders really are.Having spent years investigating these crimes - unlike some who read a few tweets before firing off their own ill informed opinions - she is clear about two things. Firstly, the scandals exposed in Rotherham and Oldham - the covering up of mass child abuse - has undoubtedly happened elsewhere any may still be happening now. Secondly, child sexual abuse is not limited to any one group in society as repeated scandals have revealed.
I've written this long post to put into context the clips of the interviews I'm also posting which I know will be taken out of context by some who want to abuse their political opponents more than they want to stop the abuse of young girls

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@CrowleyOnAir @gene_band @ship_soho Oh wow. I loved them. London , Can You Wait is such a beautiful song.

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

Hello! Does anyone know of a sound/lighting person who is available for 2 performances at @CamdenFringe on 10th and 11th August at 3pm, please?
Tech needs will be pretty basic.
Thank you

[Andie Cox @whatsoffstage]

@karenmitchell__ Jimmy Savile is a classic example of this

[Moog @a_toots]

Finally finished Detectorists. I’ve enjoyed lots of comedy series over the years but none have made my heart quite so full as this. Every second of it has been a huge, warm hug. This scene with Terry and Shiela absolutely killed me. A moment of simple joy and contentment. 😭