Story that keeps happening 1. Scandal breaks out involving someone with obvious bad vibes 2. Colleagues and admirers circle the wagons 3. Another revelation 4. Doubling down intensifies for some reason 5. Damning no-way-back career-wrecking revelation 6. “But how could we have known?”

Is this good comms

Feel like I'm going insane here but I need to break this down for myself. Badenoch's position on former neo-nazi's is: - they can stand as councillors because they should only deal with parking/bins - doesn't want them becoming MPs - but happy on them becoming official Tory Party advisors

Are you politically savvy enough not to say something that would allow your name to appear in the same headline as the word "neo-Nazi"? Congratulations! You're sharper than at least two UK party leaders

i kid you not, this is the YouTube channel of the candidate Kemi's defending

just had a horrific vision of the future in which Zack Polanski and Kemi Badenoch have a podcast and now I need a lie down

Polanski gives Badenoch a run for her money in the “party leader stealing a living” stakes.

Andy Burnham Accepter@jorisbinned.bsky.social · 10h ago

Hello I'm an idiot

Translated: “I can’t be arsed to do the merest Google.”

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 10h ago

Why are you commenting if you don’t know the specifics of the case!!!!!

Jump to 50 seconds in and listen to the music they use. Trust me. Your flabber will have never been so gasted.

Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra@fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Special bonus feature:

We now know Badenoch’s response to this very pertinent point would be, “No, because we put up better candidates at general elections” and she’d genuinely consider it a good comeback.

Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 14h ago

That Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a suitable Tory candidate but Grant Shapps and Gavin Barwell have been excluded is quite a good indicator of how many seats the Tories will realistically regain at the next election.

Sorry, I’m sort of weirdly obsessed by this - I’ve never seen a politician do quite this thing before - but her line is ‘oh, it’s fine that he’s was a Nazi, we’d never give him an important job’ (hugely insulting to her councillors) but she has made it her *main comms priority defending him*

Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 13h ago

It's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.

It’s disgusting for the Conservatives to ask Jewish groups to meet their ex-neo-Nazi candidate, presumably in the hope he will charm them and they’ll offer their blessing. They should not expect Jewish people to sanitise this appalling choice. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tories offer Jewish groups meeting with ex neo-Nazi activist candidate

Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed over neo-Nazi activism, but has been selected to stand in a new Somerset Council seat in 2027.

bbc.co.uk

Defund the BBC.

Dan@danofthewibble.bsky.social · 22h ago

Reminded of elsewhere, but here you’ll find Vernon Kay getting as close to calling Jeremy Vine a stupid cunt as you’ll ever get on daytime BBC radio.

Oh so having hobbies is illegal now is it

It amazes me to still see anyone referring to “moderate Tories”, because they basically don’t exist now.

Dan Sohege@danielsohege.bsky.social · yesterday

I grew up among Conservative politics. This is beyond that now. Defending a neo-nazi candidate shows how far Badenoch has shifted them to the far right. There is now no difference between her party and that of Restore and Reform. That should not be normalised. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

I just can’t believe we’re seeing this sort of stuff from a sitting MP Just want to say to British Somalis that you are loved and I’m so, sorry this is happening.

I respectfully disagree with this. If you’re a public figure you should do better, simple as that.

When did you last pay attention to him, 2002 or something?

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · yesterday

Apologies: I’m not online much, I haven't paid any attention to Rod Liddle for a long time, I didn't really know his extremes. I do now: I wouldn’t have posted if I'd known. I’ve seen death of difficult people up close (and its impact on others): that’s the only reason it was on my mind as an issue.

This is the inevitable conclusion of three decades of increasingly looking at college education as purely a vocational exercise

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d ago

President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v

Does she realise Dunkirk wouldn't have even been possible if French forces had surrendered as opposed to fighting a rearguard action which allowed the BEF to assemble in Dunkirk and the evacuation flotilla to be formed?

Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · yesterday

The war. It always comes back to the war. That happened long before they were born.

God that's a vicious summation but entirely accurate

Chairman Moët@chairmanmoet.bsky.social · yesterday

you can't build a big enough coalition if Gavin Barwell is too radical for you but an ex-Neo Nazi who broke into a police station isn't

What those in Reform fantasy world want is to see them shot dead.

JoelTaylorhack@joeltaylorhack.bsky.social · yesterday

In a Reform fantasy world, what would the Royal Navy do here other than take those on board to the nearest safe landing? In this case they were nearer France and have been taken to Boulogne, but if it had been nearer the UK? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m so furious that we’re in a situation where now everybody in the world has to check their own behaviour, be on their guard in public and be suspicious of anyone wearing glasses, in case they’re being filmed by a pervert. All because Mark Zuckerberg is a greedy creep

Ruth Watson@ruthwatson.eurosky.social · yesterday

Pervert glasses should be banned from general use.

This is absolutely how the right is now. They deny it, because they’re fundamentally disingenuous, but their worldview is entirely shaped by “do I agree with them politically” rather than “is this actually right or wrong?” It’s fucking hypocritical and intellectually bereft.

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · yesterday

Absolutely crackers, extremely self serving as a defence as there is absolutely no chance she'd extend this same benefit of the doubt elsewhere, which becomes obvious in the, factually incorrect, statement on early release she can't resist tagging on at the end.

Absolutely crackers, extremely self serving as a defence as there is absolutely no chance she'd extend this same benefit of the doubt elsewhere, which becomes obvious in the, factually incorrect, statement on early release she can't resist tagging on at the end.

Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · yesterday

Kemi Badenoch certainly seems to be advancing with her agenda to turn the Conservatives into Reform.

The sort of people who enjoyed Liddle’s columns only enjoy the sort of humour that involves punching down.

The Times, one of the leading voices when it comes to 'protecting women and girls' calling a man who assaulted his young pregnant girlfriend, said he would rape the kids if he was a teacher and called for child sex abuse porn to be legal, 'brilliant'

I don't want to add to any ratios here, but there have been a few incidences of 'I am deeply saddened and shocked at the reaction to the death of [X very nefarious journalist and proven abuser]' Yes, that's kind of the point. These responses act as a warning and deterrent against abusing your power.

Kate Watson@loreandordure.com · 3y ago

Once again for those at the back: ‘Don’t speak ill of the dead’ is about your great aunt Elsie, who liked a long gin with a short tonic at elevenses, and blew your inheritance money betting on the horses. Speaking ill of absolute monsters is a moral obligation, actually.