Steven Fielding | Lightnews

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 1h

At the very least, their unpopularity has forced them to ramp up the soft left elements that were already there.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 1h

But the govt is now pursuing a soft left economic policy b/c of the hatred its other policies & rhetoric generated. EG Starmer-Reeves wouldn’t’ve abolished the 2 child benefit right now & outright had they not found themselves in such a hole re: their own MPs & Green-inclined voters.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 2h

No idea why your campaign is getting nowhere despite gets a lot of support from the far right GBNews (and so obvs Badenoch).

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 2h

So of the 5 named: 3 are women; 2 are of Afro-Caribbean descent; and Rayner is identifiably working class. You just stay classy, farmers.

Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · 6h

I think at this point if you're including Diane Abbott - a woman who has never held government office, has been a backbencher since 2020, and is scarcely a government ally - on your list of political wrongdoers, we all know exactly what your real concerns are

A yellow tractor on a London street, driven by a man dressed as Father Christmas. The sign on the front reads 'Farmer Christmas: The Naughty List. Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Angela Rayner, the BBC.'

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 4h

But they should.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 4h

It’ll be a bold Labour figure who argues this!

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 5h

I wonder why I’ve never heard of it? But just reading the summary makes you feel dirty.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 5h

I’m pretty sure that the govt wouldn’t’ve straightforwardly abolished the 2 child benefit cap if it wasn’t for Starmer‘s position of weakness with MPs. Nothing suggested this is what they would do in the 1st year or so of the govt. But now they have to sell abolition to a public that likes the cap.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 5h

Will you ever be showing Bill Brand?

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 5h

Shirley, not?

Tom Baldwin @tombaldwin66.bsky.social · 5h

Brace yourselves for some predictable howls of outrage in the media over new taxes on Britain’s most expensive homes. Suspect this will be a better reflection of the financial circumstances of newspaper editors and broadcast execs than those of their readers and viewers.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 5h

Shamefully I’ve never heard of the rape clause and I am utterly staggered that this is what it is.

Tom Baldwin @tombaldwin66.bsky.social · 5h

Brace yourselves for some predictable howls of outrage in the media over new taxes on Britain’s most expensive homes. Suspect this will be a better reflection of the financial circumstances of newspaper editors and broadcast execs than those of their readers and viewers.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

In the binary world of 2 party politics Labour might be doing okay at this point & this budget would be fine. Reeves positioning herself between reckless borrowers dangerous cutters as the sensible stability chancellor might yet see her thru the new multiparty world but she needs growth!

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

🧐

Dr. Jeevun Sandher MP @jeevunsandher.bsky.social · 6h

The OBR has got their key judgements wrong for 14 years. Consistently underestimating the impact of public spending (cuts) on growth.

Today they’ve released the forecast document early.

Completely unacceptable.

Dr. Jeevun Sandher MP @jeevunsandher.bsky.social · 6h

The OBR has got their key judgements wrong for 14 years. Consistently underestimating the impact of public spending (cuts) on growth.

Today they’ve released the forecast document early.

Completely unacceptable.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

A bit weird for Reeves to cite OBR forecasts as biblical truths when it can’t even release their own document at the right time.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

👍🏻

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

From what you can gather from the OBR leak this budget will go down well with most labour MPs & will probably have a neutral effect re: voters & markets. So short-term survival of Starmer-Reeves maybe helped but long-term situation for Labour not much changed - but no disaster.

Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · 6h

I think at this point if you're including Diane Abbott - a woman who has never held government office, has been a backbencher since 2020, and is scarcely a government ally - on your list of political wrongdoers, we all know exactly what your real concerns are

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 6h

But one big dead cat.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 7h

Hugh Dalton spinning in his grave just now.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

Given the age & disposition of Reform’s core support it might work but it wouldn’t necessarily draw many more towards Farage, especially if they have some questions about his Putin loving and Ukraine abandoning policies.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

I’ve literally no idea what the reality is, but whenever I watch repeats of Crown Court, I am variously appalled and heartened by how some of the juries randomly confirm or challenge 1970s prejudices. I would hate to be a defendant in front of a jury given this.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

‘We were all members of the Hitler Youth’?

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

Most of these Granada one off plays including Mr. McGill cast future stalwarts of Coronation Street. There was a time Granada had a virtual repertory company of northern bit part actors/comedians who then became Corrie characters. For me at least it helped shape my sense of place.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

Yes, as part of that series I think was also one written by Jack Rosenthal about a Sunday morning football referee and the match he tried his best to manage. I imagine they’re all on YouTube.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

Yesterday on Radio 4 the self-described Christian & actual Reform propagandist Tim Montgomerie defended Farage from accusations of antisemitism by saying he was 1 of Israel’s biggest UK supporters. As we know one can be a huge antisemite & support Israel. So the matter isn’t that clear cut for some.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 9h

It is extremely funny, his exasperated director is just one of its peaks. The extras all chatting away in the coach waiting for their call is especially amusing especially as most of the actors playing the extras were basically extras. I think there are a lot of TV production in-jokes going on.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 10h

He was essentially the face of radical TV drama in the 1970s: I’m not entirely sure what Trevor Griffiths would’ve done without him if he couldn’t have used his haunted, cadaverous face to front his anguished - but sometimes bleakly funny - works.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 11h

Just seen that Jack Shepherd has died. He had quite a career, from playing Gramsci to Neville Chamberlain.

MJ Herbert @mjherbert.bsky.social · 11h

"It is the people who create"... Bernadette Hyland looks back at the 1976 tv series Bill Brand by Trevor Griffiths in which Jack Shepherd, who died this week, played a left wing Labour MP from Manchester who clashes with his own party lipsticksocialist.com/2012/05/17/b...

Bill Brand; It is the People who Create………

Bill Brand (played by Jack Shepherd) speaking at a workers occupation Bill Brand, a TV series broadcast on ITV in the summer of 1976, was written by one of Britain’s (and Manchester’s) greate…

lipsticksocialist.com

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