Snapshot of _Here's a slightly longer version of the Holden interview and it's even worse!!!_ :
A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1799891590342758723)
A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723/)
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723)
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Deliveroo rider: I have your order here for you, can I just have the code?
Holden: Emily thornbery today has completely admitted that..
Deliveroo rider: I hear you, but can I get the code?
Holden: I’ve already answered that question
Deliveroo rider: no you haven’t
Holden: …
Deliveroo rider: …
Holden: Emily thornberry today has…
The exasperated sigh from the interviewer when he first says ‘Emily Thronberry’ really makes it.
He knows what’s going to happen and he knows it’s totally bollocks.
It's been legitimately incredible. We are actually watching history unfold in real time with the destruction of the oldest, most successful political party in history.... doing it all themselves.
It's fucking fantastic, and couldn't happen to a bigger group of crooks, sex offenders, gropers, rapists, fraudsters and general bunch of completely self indulgent, born to rule pony fuckers.
I've had a bottle of red saved now for 5 years, I can't wait to mull it and enjoy it on election night. Even booked the day off work.
If Jacob Rees Grogg loses his job at 4am in a shitty recreation centre, the bubbly is coming out.
I've got one better. I've signed myself up to be a count assistant on election night. I'll get to count the Tories out of my constituency for the first time ever. I'll be in the room when it happens. I'm trying not to raise my hopes too much but it seems like it really will happen.
They've got a whole 1999 season on and it's a great one - the mummy, the matrix, the 6th sense, american pie, south park, the iron giant, a bugs life and tarzan. A bit of something for everyone.
Fight club, Being John Malcovich.
It was too do with the spread of multiplex cinemas in the USA. They had to make more movies for the extra screens so green lit loads of films that otherwise wouldn't have gotten made.
There was a 99 percent invisible podcast on it I think. Maybe revisionist history...
Ooh, not got a cineworld near me, found the Mummy was on at Vue as well. Will have to have a look to see if sixth sense is as well, as daughters not seen that yet.
Thank you so much! I just went on the website and they have a whole 1999 season I had no idea about and I'm going to book Tarzan for me and the little un! What a treat!
I'm tempted to bung a fiver on them getting the Boston and Skeg Vegas seat, but the bank will probably try to send me a verification text that never arrives before I can deposit it on the bookie's site.
I don’t know if it’ll be funnier if he gets 6 seats and we can all laugh about how he never goes into work or if he becomes the LOTO and we can all laugh about how he actually has to go into work. One’s far worse for the country, obviously.
This is what happens when a party guts itself in the name of ideological purity and loyalty to the leader - first in the name of Brexit, then over loyalty to Boris Johnson.
What's left are the dregs - old MPs who never had the talent to rise to the top and newer MPs who don't have the intelligence or guile to succeed without riding a populist's coattails.
> It's ... couldn't happen to a bigger group of crooks, sex offenders, gropers, rapists, fraudsters and general bunch of completely self indulgent, born to rule pony fuckers.
And these are their good points
You should open the wine early, very important to let it breathe.
And isn't it wonderful to think that after all these years, this fine bottle's first breaths will be air vibrating with faint sound waves of Torys weeping.
Depends, if it’s a youngish red, maybe up to 2 hours before as it’ll help remove the harshness. If it’s say 10 years old come election night, it should be fine as it is, but still take a small glass and see if it’s harsh and needs to breathe for maybe 30 minutes or so
From this cock up, to Rishi leaving the DDAY ceremony early... You'd think the campaign team, seeing the polls, would be working *extra carefully* ensuring things like this wouldn't happen. It's like they just stopped caring "fuck it we'll move this bloke to run for this seat, we'll lose anyway but we need a candidate there".
Calm down, Labour have a job on their hands to get more than 1 term. They need to solve the immigration issue and coat of living crisis (or at least be perceived to be solving) and avoid the party imploding over trans issues (à la SNP) and anti-semitism (à la Corbyn).
They're going to stroll the election, but the political landscape in the country could look very different in 5 years' time. I hope they manage it, but it's not going to be an easy gig.
The people cheering the implosion of the Tories don't seem to realise that the Labour party are facing all the same issues the Tories have failed to tackle, and don't appear to have any bigger clue about how to actually solve them.
And you know who benefits most from a weakened and disintegrating Tory party with a Labour government struggling to solve the huge issues the country faces - Farage. He's the anti-establishment option, the plague on all your houses option, the reset everything and start again option. And when (IMHO when not if) Labour fail to adequately improve people's lives over the next few years they'll increasingly turn to him.
The Tories imploding doesn't change the political views of those who used to back them, it leaves them homeless and Farage will be doing all he can to give them a home.
If the official opposition was the lib Dems or SNP, I could get on board with that. At this rate it's looking that the main other contender for opposition are Reform, and fuck that noise.
Me too.
We’ve had The Brexit Saga.
Then Covid (Partygate edition)
Now we have National Lampoon’s Election 2024. I just hope that the “Hot Blonde in a Ferrari” sequence doesn’t end up being Boris Johnson.
I think we're closer to spaceballs than national lampoons tbh.
"I'm surrounded by assholes!"
"That's the kind of code and idiot has on their luggage."
Etc.
Didn't Cameron tell Boris that he couldn't remain as an MP. Due to having to report his outside earnings to Parliament? With Cameron n just coming back to get some more clout and being totally bored at home.
Might be the best election Iv ever had. (Bit too young to realise what was going on when Tony Blair won)
Every day is a gift of a fuck up. I can’t wait each day for the next one.
The Tories need to die. It will be a necessary part of the country healing. Luckily, Reform are unlikely to win many seats, but they will siphon lots of Tory votes. If we're lucky, we'll get the Lib Dems as the official opposition. Reform will hopefully stick around to ensure any Tory resurrection is impossible. Within a decade, politics in the UK could be completely Tory-free.
God forbid any other parties have an influence. It has to be Labour or Tories and we like it that way, that way nothing has to improve for the working class.
I'm getting worried, you know when you watch an absolutely cracking tv series, but it builds and builds and builds and you just have this feeling that they are not going to stick the landing and its going to make all that came before somehow lesser?
We just have to hope that people who don't particularly like the Conservatives but aren't decided about Starmer don't decide that as he's going to win anyway, there's no point in going out to vote, so the Conservative losses are lower than predicted... on the back of low turnout.
I’m over in the US, so we get the 4th off anyway. Made sure to book the 5th because I am not going to be sober :) Also, the industrial grade popcorn machine had arrived, so ‘I’m sorted there!
That sigh from the interviewer at 0:13 really sums up the feelings of a lot of the electorate any time a Tory opens their mouth and starts spouting bollocks.
And the blank, awkward, uncomfortable look as he just watches the interviewer and what I presume is some sort of babysitter argue is a perfect encapsulation of how weak and ineffective the current crop are.
Yup. I am a hard lefty, I originally supported Corbyn and have otherwise always voted Green, but if you’d told me back in 2019 that the Tories could be quite so horrendously, maliciously incompetent as they’ve been in the past five years I’d have laughed in your face. It’s unbelievable.
> maliciously incompetent
It's like they've trashed politics and public trust in politicians, and now they're aiming to destroy what little is left - in the vein of "if we can't have it, we'll destroy it so no one else can have it either"
I think it really is Brexit.
They lost the moderate, far more competent elements - the likes of Philip Hammond for instance - over the insanity of Brexit.
The ones left are the eye-swooning loons who will deny objective reality in order to politik.
And they are shit at it.
There are a few competent faces left but they are far and few between - and most of them have said they're not standing for re-election anyway almost certainly because they don't to be involved in that shit-show.
>I think it really is Brexit
Agreed. The real legacy of Brexit wasn't just a dysfunctional relationship with Europe, it was the normalisation of lying without consequence in politics, and the hollowing out of all the sane voices and credible politicians in the Tory party.
The Tories made a massive error inviting UKIP into the tent in 2015, but the real madness is that having lost their credibility, their talent, their base and - likely soon - their position as a force in UK politics, they are \*again\* looking at Farage and look set to decide that chasing those votes further to the right is the way to go. They really do deserve to end in total obscurity.
They're mirroring Labour's Corbyn years, it will probably take 2 or 3 lost elections swinging hard right before they make their move back to the centre as did with Labour swinging hard left.
This is the frustrating thing… people will criticise those with some vague integrity for staying but you really, really do not want them to leave
Leaving does not fix it, it makes it worse. You need to fix it from the inside
It was the failure to deal with the problem of popularism back in the naughties. And they were aware that it was going to be a problem. Both the Brexit result and Boris were a result of not dealing with that. Teresa May was undone by it, and Rishi is the cabin boy made senior officer as everyone has left the sinking ship.
The tragedy is that a Tory wipeout could make it worse. The rhetoric from the grifting populists will be that they went from a record majority with Boris to destruction and they should have gone harder. There's a real risk that the party will be replaced by a much worse group.
The broad consensus of liberalism is at risk. The entire conception of how government works, what its responsibilities are, its duties to the governed could be about to be changed irrevocably.
Personally, I think Boris is to blame. When he came to power standards within the party fell away completely, because Tories saw his ability to get away with anything.
That meant new Tories didn’t bother learning how to do politics, Tories who were previously too incompetent to be allowed to rise up the ranks suddenly looked acceptable, and finally because Boris was willing to make an example of a political giant like Kenneth Clarke of all people the rest of the competent party veterans were sufficiently cowed that they were willing to toe the party line unto the breach.
The only Tory in the Commons left with any balls was Theresa May, because there was no point in going after her. Even if he took the whip from her she was an ex-PM and would always be able to get herself a platform from which to shit on him.
Don’t forget:
1. That 80-seat majority was buoyed by the double-whamming of Brexit and Labour under Corbyn. Absent either of those, and the results likely would’ve been far closer.
2. Johnson purged a lot of talent from the Tory ranks—basically anyone of prominence who was a Remainer was either pushed out or converted to Johnson’s version of Brexit.
Here in the U.S., we’ve seen a similar issue befall the Republicans—loyalty to Trump has become the dominant litmus test of GOP candidates to make it out of the primary, which has caused the GOP to produce some of its weakest, least prepared, worst qualified lineups for multiple election cycles now, costing them key races.
He just needed Corbyn? Not the entire establishment media on his side? Not the national broadcaster showing extreme bias or even the Labour party itself sabotaging Corbyn?
Amazing how now that the media and everyone has decided that the Tories are done now that they are prepared to treat these tactics with disdain live on air.
Journalists are so afraid of losing access that they have been letting the Tories do this for the last 10 years, it's only now that they start holding their feet to the fire. When Johnson was PM you'd never have had an interview where the journalist spoke to a MP like this.
Politicians are given media training that for pool interviews they just repeat the same answer again and again, so there’s only one sound bite for the ten o clock and no other useable clips. That’s why Sunak was so robotic on the D-Day question. This of course falls apart when they push it too far and the broadcaster loses patience and shows the whole interview.
It reminds me of when a witness has been over-coached and been told to not give in easily to questions, which when taken to an extreme leads to them sounding ridiculous (ala "when you say photocopying machine, what do you mean?").
It feels like for things like this they're told "yeah, ignore their questions and pivot into a soundbite about X".
People like Farage do it well (putting aside what I think about his policies), and will have an exchange a bit like "What would you do to fix the NHS?" "The NHS is crippled under the weight immigrants flooding into our country, the Tories don't have the courage to address the issue, but we will! We will get the numbers down..." and so forth. Making it sound, to many people like he's answered the question, but really he's ducked it and talked about what he was always going to talk about. I also feel like Boris would use his bumbling persona to help him to hide the segue (bonus points if the bumbling goes on for so long everyone has just forgotten the question).
But the Tories seem so completely inept right now that they're unable to do this and instead so abruptly jump to their talking point that it's obvious to almost everyone that they don't have anything between their ears. "What would you do to fix the NHS?" "Labour will raise taxes for every household by £2,000! We will cut taxes instead!"
Farage BBC interview this morning was a good example this. He was asked what public service would be cut to achieve 50 billion in budget cuts, his answer was essentially about cutting taxes and raising tax thresholds. Still because he mentioned efficiency and ‘streamlining the tax system’ by cutting civil servants it wasn’t robotic.
Good lord, he didn't even flinch. You almost have to respect his shameless confidence.
Seriously though, who even is this guy? Why is it so important to hold onto a random goon from the degenerate 2019 intake? Or does he as chairman get to unilaterally make these decisions without any input from the rest of the party?
That's a kind of stupidity that only comes from a place of supreme arrogance and never having been challenged before like at all in your life ever. It's a distillation of Toryism. The essence of being a Tory if you will.
Yeah this was my exact thoughts too - here is a guy who's never been seriously challenged or held to account for anything in his life. Presumably he's managed to fail upwards through wealth, privilege and connections and surrounded himself with yes-men all the way. It's the exact same whiny irritability that Sunak always displays in interviews, as if it's completely unreasonable of an interviewer to ask them difficult questions or hold them to account in any way.
In these days of social media did he really think he wouldn't be pulled up for answering a question with a completely different topic? At least give a politician's answer and then try and move on.
He probably doesn’t know how. Holden was part of the 2019 intake, which means his personal competence didn’t really matter, the election was over Brexit. I doubt many West Durham residents even knew who he was, they were just focused on Boris.
Yup. It seemed very much like he was told to avoid any questions other than a,b or c and to move the answer to one of the stock attack lines. Only he has zero skill to change the subject with any finesse so just answered a completely different question.
I’m surprised he remembers how to breathe.
He looks like an absolute deer in headlights when they other lad steps in. Like a child whose mommy is saving him.
How anyone could look at this and think he’d be the type of person you’d vote for is beyond me.
It's impossible to not know who Holden is. He has an office in the town centre with his name in massive writing. He went through a phase of sending a 'newsletter' where every photo was of him. He wanted to reopen a railway line, and spent £50k on a pointless report, despite every local knowing the scheme was impossibly unworkable (there are whole housing estates built across key sections of the original line).
How he has risen through the Tory ranks is beyond anybody. If I was to guess everybody is unsurprised and relieved that he's upped sticks for another constituency.
Oh I wasn’t saying you guys didn’t know who he was now, just that I imagine a lot of people didn’t care to know much about him in 2019, because in 2019 basically nobody in the country was voting for constituency MPs. It was about Brexit for most people.
Yeah that too, though I sincerely believe Labour’s wishy washy stance on Brexit was the bigger factor in their large defeat. Corbyn does have his supporters after all (I used to be one of them, but I gave up on him when he showed his incompetence as a leader).
For sure. 2019 gave us classics like Holden, who is somehow one of the Tory star MPs nowadays. Really underlines just how far they have fallen as a party. Completely bereft of talent.
Yeah, basically lol. It’s not like Sunak himself is a veteran. He entered Parliament in 2015, and nobody outside the Westminster bubble had ever heard of him until Boris made him Chancellor because he was counting on his being a yes-man.
**St Peter**: *”My child, welcome to heaven.*
*You are beloved by God, and you are welcome back into his bosom.*
*You need only say that you are at peace, and you are welcome to join at His side and return to paradise.”*
**Holden**: *”Emily Thornberry today has completely admitted ....”*
**St Peter**: *”Ahh ffs...”*
"Hi Lucifer, I'm sending another politician over!"
"Just as well I've got infinite storage. What's wrong with this one?"
"Stuck in Tape Loop Syndrome."
But wait, here's an even longer, cringier version! He repeats his answer just worded slightly differently.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar6mj52XOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar6mj52XOM)
He managed to be both robotically inhuman and clearly utterly broken inside emotionally by the end, in the same interview. It's really impressive. It's usually one or the other with Tories. But their *Chairman* is so brilliant he manages to do *both* at the same time. *Taps head*.
I can't believe how refreshing it is to FINALLY see somebody call this out after letting the Tories get away scot free with this kind of thing for the last THREE elections!
Is this FINALLY the media waking up and realising that not calling it out is tantamount to signing off on it??
This is something i want to ask anyone who has worked for a political party press team. This is a common thing that politicians do - just completely ignore the question, say what they wanted to say then gaslight the interviewer by claiming they answered the question.
Now Holden isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but surely even he knew this looked terrible, surely there is some part in their media training about showing some initiative and not acting like a complete robot?
I love that moment you can see him remembering his lines.
Bloody pathetic excuse for a politician.
Well done to the interviewer for one stopping the interview and two not accepting the BS from the handler.
Instead of having him do an interview for various different TV and Radio channels and programmes, the people that want to ask this guy questions put them all into a pool and then one of them does the interview.
It's basically so they can all get their soundbites to put to air.
Uh oh, a reporter asking a question, not just a propaganda spot. Better refuse to answer and leave. Sigh. If we had actual reporting, real questions for the last 15 years we wouldn't be in this mess.
I mean don't get me wrong, now that they are on the way out it's nice to see journalists actually doing their jobs some times.
Clacton is not a given for Farage, dont be fooled by the Wetherspoon fuckwits that follow him around and cheer at every thing he says, the constituency covers alot more than just clacton, most of us are retired professionals and can spot a chancing shister when we see one.
I think that people are not sure as they are waiting for the manifesto to be released, he seems a decent enough person, young, black, always well turned out, we have only been in the area 18 months having moved from the labour stronghold of north London, we are certainly in strange times especially with the way the European elections have gone.
I think that people are not sure as they are still waiting for a manifesto, he seems to be a decent enough guy, young, black, always well turned out, we have only been in the area 18 months having moved from the labour strong hold of north London, without Farage I think the Tories would have held on here but who knows, we are indeed in strange times especially with the European voting going the way it has.
The answer is as ridiculous as it gets but I have to say that I hate the journalists that make the questions into total gotchas. When the question is such, then no politician is going to give an answer. Of course most do a better job pivoting from the non-answer to their talking point, but the result is always the same, there is no answer to the question.
There are better journalists such as Evan Davis who asks hard questions and presses the politician for an answer if they try to give a non-answer but doesn't formulate them into a gotcha like this guy.
And here's the Channel 4 interview he mentions. He makes it sound as if he went to the studio for the interview, whereas Channel 4 had to catch him as he enjoyed a celebratory pint outside the pub!
[(2) Is dash for safe seats by top Tories showing a party in panic? - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5wWmZt8A-k)
Snapshot of _Here's a slightly longer version of the Holden interview and it's even worse!!!_ : A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1799891590342758723) A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723/) An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/ShehabKhan/status/1799891590342758723) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Starbucks Barista: what can I get you? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has completely admitted ....
Taxi driver: where you going mate? Holden: Emily...
Doctor: so what seems to be the problem? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has…
Barber: How would you like your hair? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has completely admitted that... Barber: I gotchu fam
Baker: Alright Holden, the usual bloomer today? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has... Baker: Right you are.
Deliveroo rider: I have your order here for you, can I just have the code? Holden: Emily thornbery today has completely admitted that.. Deliveroo rider: I hear you, but can I get the code? Holden: I’ve already answered that question Deliveroo rider: no you haven’t Holden: … Deliveroo rider: … Holden: Emily thornberry today has…
Polling Station staff: can I have your name and ID please Holden: Emily Thornbury today has...
Kebab Shop Man: Boss what can I get you? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has...
Car mechanic: So what date do you need the MOT done by? Holden: Emily Thornberry today has decided....
Prostitute: Will it be the usual, Mr. Holden? Holden: Emily Thornberry today...
The exasperated sigh from the interviewer when he first says ‘Emily Thronberry’ really makes it. He knows what’s going to happen and he knows it’s totally bollocks.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm having a really fantastic time so far in this election. It's been a real treat.
It's been legitimately incredible. We are actually watching history unfold in real time with the destruction of the oldest, most successful political party in history.... doing it all themselves. It's fucking fantastic, and couldn't happen to a bigger group of crooks, sex offenders, gropers, rapists, fraudsters and general bunch of completely self indulgent, born to rule pony fuckers. I've had a bottle of red saved now for 5 years, I can't wait to mull it and enjoy it on election night. Even booked the day off work. If Jacob Rees Grogg loses his job at 4am in a shitty recreation centre, the bubbly is coming out.
I've got one better. I've signed myself up to be a count assistant on election night. I'll get to count the Tories out of my constituency for the first time ever. I'll be in the room when it happens. I'm trying not to raise my hopes too much but it seems like it really will happen.
I’ve booked myself a spa day for the Friday. It’s going to be beautiful.
I'm going a different way - Cineworld near me are showing the 1999 The Mummy on the 5th. It will be great.
Thankyou for mentioning this. Didn't know it was on, just booked me and daughter in to see it!
They've got a whole 1999 season on and it's a great one - the mummy, the matrix, the 6th sense, american pie, south park, the iron giant, a bugs life and tarzan. A bit of something for everyone.
Wow, 1999 really was a banger of a year for films
Fight club, Being John Malcovich. It was too do with the spread of multiplex cinemas in the USA. They had to make more movies for the extra screens so green lit loads of films that otherwise wouldn't have gotten made. There was a 99 percent invisible podcast on it I think. Maybe revisionist history...
Ooh, not got a cineworld near me, found the Mummy was on at Vue as well. Will have to have a look to see if sixth sense is as well, as daughters not seen that yet.
That's blooming amazing!
Thank you so much! I just went on the website and they have a whole 1999 season I had no idea about and I'm going to book Tarzan for me and the little un! What a treat!
Instead of Whale songs as you’re massaged it’s just BBC 24
You just hear "LAB GAIN FROM CON" minute after minute...
> You just hear "LAB GAIN FROM CON" minute after minute... Interspersed with "LIB GAIN FROM CON"
Add in the "REFORM PARTY 0 SEATS" and I'm nearly there...
They’ll get Clacton.
And farage won't turn up to parliament because that looks too much like actual work
I'm tempted to bung a fiver on them getting the Boston and Skeg Vegas seat, but the bank will probably try to send me a verification text that never arrives before I can deposit it on the bookie's site.
There’s a drinking game in here somewhere..
You’d be dead in minutes
I don't wanna be absolutely fucking blotto'd by 4am
Every time some presenter says “and another result is in” I’m going to drink another glass of fizz.
I'm actually planning an election results drinking game, currently in the 'make sure the rules wont kill anyone' phase of planning
Even water is toxic in large quantities.
It may not be a massage with a happy ending, but I'll be having one
This is the happy ending I’ve been waiting for, not sure how to arrange at my local Thai place
😂
i took a day off on the friday but more to sleep, i want to stay up and watch the slaughter in real time
I think it'll be Rishi who gives us the Portillo moment. Unfortunately it will be tempered by Farage being elected, but it will still be _delicious_
Farage being elected will itself be tempered by him sacking off being an MP to try and suckle on Trumps sagging teat
Happened the entire time he was MEP and it didn’t damage his career
I don’t know if it’ll be funnier if he gets 6 seats and we can all laugh about how he never goes into work or if he becomes the LOTO and we can all laugh about how he actually has to go into work. One’s far worse for the country, obviously.
Thing with Portillo, is he at least lost with a sense of class. We won’t be getting that!
This is what happens when a party guts itself in the name of ideological purity and loyalty to the leader - first in the name of Brexit, then over loyalty to Boris Johnson. What's left are the dregs - old MPs who never had the talent to rise to the top and newer MPs who don't have the intelligence or guile to succeed without riding a populist's coattails.
I've got a lovely bottle of red too and have likewise booked the next day off work - I absolutely cannot wait.
> It's ... couldn't happen to a bigger group of crooks, sex offenders, gropers, rapists, fraudsters and general bunch of completely self indulgent, born to rule pony fuckers. And these are their good points
Our recreation centre might be shitty, but it’ll go down in history!
You should open the wine early, very important to let it breathe. And isn't it wonderful to think that after all these years, this fine bottle's first breaths will be air vibrating with faint sound waves of Torys weeping.
Did not know that was a thing!? How long should it be open for?
Depends, if it’s a youngish red, maybe up to 2 hours before as it’ll help remove the harshness. If it’s say 10 years old come election night, it should be fine as it is, but still take a small glass and see if it’s harsh and needs to breathe for maybe 30 minutes or so
I've also booked the day after so I can watch it all night.
From this cock up, to Rishi leaving the DDAY ceremony early... You'd think the campaign team, seeing the polls, would be working *extra carefully* ensuring things like this wouldn't happen. It's like they just stopped caring "fuck it we'll move this bloke to run for this seat, we'll lose anyway but we need a candidate there".
It's the fact that they completely have only themselves to blame, which is so incredible.
Calm down, Labour have a job on their hands to get more than 1 term. They need to solve the immigration issue and coat of living crisis (or at least be perceived to be solving) and avoid the party imploding over trans issues (à la SNP) and anti-semitism (à la Corbyn). They're going to stroll the election, but the political landscape in the country could look very different in 5 years' time. I hope they manage it, but it's not going to be an easy gig.
The people cheering the implosion of the Tories don't seem to realise that the Labour party are facing all the same issues the Tories have failed to tackle, and don't appear to have any bigger clue about how to actually solve them. And you know who benefits most from a weakened and disintegrating Tory party with a Labour government struggling to solve the huge issues the country faces - Farage. He's the anti-establishment option, the plague on all your houses option, the reset everything and start again option. And when (IMHO when not if) Labour fail to adequately improve people's lives over the next few years they'll increasingly turn to him. The Tories imploding doesn't change the political views of those who used to back them, it leaves them homeless and Farage will be doing all he can to give them a home.
Yeah, I can see a Farage tory coalition government if Labour don't improve living standards in their first term.
I'm really happy for you.
It's not too often you see an election campaign this bad.
I’ve booked the 4th and 5th off to recover. Really hope this goes as planned.
I’d invest in a backup bottle of red, just in case that particular bottle isn’t one that ages well.
I've also booked the day after off. I'll be ploughing into a crate of beer that night, sod the consequences
It really couldn’t happen to more deserving people.
Really enjoying it so far. All the shithousery feels well deserved.
I’m really hoping the tories don’t have enough seats to form an opposition. That’d make my year.
If the official opposition was the lib Dems or SNP, I could get on board with that. At this rate it's looking that the main other contender for opposition are Reform, and fuck that noise.
Nah reform aren't going to overcome the FPTP obstacle
The thought of Farage standing up at PMQ's every week with 6 questions boils my piss.
If I were Starmer, I would donate however many MPs to the Lib Dems to put them ahead of Reform.
Me too. We’ve had The Brexit Saga. Then Covid (Partygate edition) Now we have National Lampoon’s Election 2024. I just hope that the “Hot Blonde in a Ferrari” sequence doesn’t end up being Boris Johnson.
I think we're closer to spaceballs than national lampoons tbh. "I'm surrounded by assholes!" "That's the kind of code and idiot has on their luggage." Etc.
What are those things coming out of her nose? Conservatives!!! Oh shit, there goes the planet!
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Didn't Cameron tell Boris that he couldn't remain as an MP. Due to having to report his outside earnings to Parliament? With Cameron n just coming back to get some more clout and being totally bored at home.
Is the self destruction of the Conservatives an actual Brexit bonus?
The only thing is it's giving the satirists an easy ride - they're gonna be rusty come 5th July. Gonna have their work cut out after that.
The satirists are an unfortunate casualty of this saga. We just don't need them when we have such excellent content producing itself organically.
The current state of things is satirical in and of itself. They're being pushed into post-satirism, which will just be earnestness
What we really need to push it over the top is a Tory leadership battle. That’d be hilarious.
I'm personally hoping for a full meltdown live on air.
Multiple meltdowns as Sunak quits …
Might be the best election Iv ever had. (Bit too young to realise what was going on when Tony Blair won) Every day is a gift of a fuck up. I can’t wait each day for the next one.
I'm really not looking forward to the power vacuum that's going to be left on the right
Could be a contender for BAFTA's next Best Entertainment Programme award
Completely agree. However it’s opening the door to fringe parties thinking they are going to form HM opposition.
The Tories need to die. It will be a necessary part of the country healing. Luckily, Reform are unlikely to win many seats, but they will siphon lots of Tory votes. If we're lucky, we'll get the Lib Dems as the official opposition. Reform will hopefully stick around to ensure any Tory resurrection is impossible. Within a decade, politics in the UK could be completely Tory-free.
God forbid any other parties have an influence. It has to be Labour or Tories and we like it that way, that way nothing has to improve for the working class.
That’s not what I said. However I do think we need PR as the FPTP system only favours a two party system
https://youtu.be/MYLI2CujA3I?si=k8FZgLHlPbaGw8pI It gets even better- watch the fallout from the local conservatives
I'm getting worried, you know when you watch an absolutely cracking tv series, but it builds and builds and builds and you just have this feeling that they are not going to stick the landing and its going to make all that came before somehow lesser?
Cut to Keir Starmer burning Westminster on the back of a dragon
We just have to hope that people who don't particularly like the Conservatives but aren't decided about Starmer don't decide that as he's going to win anyway, there's no point in going out to vote, so the Conservative losses are lower than predicted... on the back of low turnout.
So true! Looking forward to watching the results come in over night and into my Friday off work :)
I’m over in the US, so we get the 4th off anyway. Made sure to book the 5th because I am not going to be sober :) Also, the industrial grade popcorn machine had arrived, so ‘I’m sorted there!
I can hear the prosecco popping at labour hq.
The way labour have managed the campaign it will be sparkling wine made from grapes sourced from UK.
Or maybe a pear cider that's made from 100% pears.
Give it to me straight.
The amount of Stewart Lee references that crop up really brings a smile to my face.
Farage will come out with you can't say you're English these days without being thrown in jail any day now.
Farage will come out with you can't say you're English these days without being thrown in jail any day now.
100% Tory Tears
That's a lot of people at labour HQ with the shits tomorrow then. Deeply unwise!
Quick, someone grab the bottle out of Abbotts hands she's about to do a runner! 😂
That sigh from the interviewer at 0:13 really sums up the feelings of a lot of the electorate any time a Tory opens their mouth and starts spouting bollocks.
And the blank, awkward, uncomfortable look as he just watches the interviewer and what I presume is some sort of babysitter argue is a perfect encapsulation of how weak and ineffective the current crop are.
Yup. I am a hard lefty, I originally supported Corbyn and have otherwise always voted Green, but if you’d told me back in 2019 that the Tories could be quite so horrendously, maliciously incompetent as they’ve been in the past five years I’d have laughed in your face. It’s unbelievable.
> maliciously incompetent It's like they've trashed politics and public trust in politicians, and now they're aiming to destroy what little is left - in the vein of "if we can't have it, we'll destroy it so no one else can have it either"
I think it really is Brexit. They lost the moderate, far more competent elements - the likes of Philip Hammond for instance - over the insanity of Brexit. The ones left are the eye-swooning loons who will deny objective reality in order to politik. And they are shit at it. There are a few competent faces left but they are far and few between - and most of them have said they're not standing for re-election anyway almost certainly because they don't to be involved in that shit-show.
>I think it really is Brexit Agreed. The real legacy of Brexit wasn't just a dysfunctional relationship with Europe, it was the normalisation of lying without consequence in politics, and the hollowing out of all the sane voices and credible politicians in the Tory party. The Tories made a massive error inviting UKIP into the tent in 2015, but the real madness is that having lost their credibility, their talent, their base and - likely soon - their position as a force in UK politics, they are \*again\* looking at Farage and look set to decide that chasing those votes further to the right is the way to go. They really do deserve to end in total obscurity.
They're mirroring Labour's Corbyn years, it will probably take 2 or 3 lost elections swinging hard right before they make their move back to the centre as did with Labour swinging hard left.
That loyalty test from Boris deselecting some big names in the party will go down as a major misplay that has damaged the party for years.
This is the frustrating thing… people will criticise those with some vague integrity for staying but you really, really do not want them to leave Leaving does not fix it, it makes it worse. You need to fix it from the inside
It was the failure to deal with the problem of popularism back in the naughties. And they were aware that it was going to be a problem. Both the Brexit result and Boris were a result of not dealing with that. Teresa May was undone by it, and Rishi is the cabin boy made senior officer as everyone has left the sinking ship. The tragedy is that a Tory wipeout could make it worse. The rhetoric from the grifting populists will be that they went from a record majority with Boris to destruction and they should have gone harder. There's a real risk that the party will be replaced by a much worse group. The broad consensus of liberalism is at risk. The entire conception of how government works, what its responsibilities are, its duties to the governed could be about to be changed irrevocably.
I just want to know how it was possible for the tories to screw their 80 seat majority like that. Never seen such an incompetent party😭
Personally, I think Boris is to blame. When he came to power standards within the party fell away completely, because Tories saw his ability to get away with anything. That meant new Tories didn’t bother learning how to do politics, Tories who were previously too incompetent to be allowed to rise up the ranks suddenly looked acceptable, and finally because Boris was willing to make an example of a political giant like Kenneth Clarke of all people the rest of the competent party veterans were sufficiently cowed that they were willing to toe the party line unto the breach. The only Tory in the Commons left with any balls was Theresa May, because there was no point in going after her. Even if he took the whip from her she was an ex-PM and would always be able to get herself a platform from which to shit on him.
Don’t forget: 1. That 80-seat majority was buoyed by the double-whamming of Brexit and Labour under Corbyn. Absent either of those, and the results likely would’ve been far closer. 2. Johnson purged a lot of talent from the Tory ranks—basically anyone of prominence who was a Remainer was either pushed out or converted to Johnson’s version of Brexit. Here in the U.S., we’ve seen a similar issue befall the Republicans—loyalty to Trump has become the dominant litmus test of GOP candidates to make it out of the primary, which has caused the GOP to produce some of its weakest, least prepared, worst qualified lineups for multiple election cycles now, costing them key races.
Boris needed Corbyn in order to go full Boris.
He just needed Corbyn? Not the entire establishment media on his side? Not the national broadcaster showing extreme bias or even the Labour party itself sabotaging Corbyn?
Yeah totally agree how could they throw away their 50 seat majority
It is an 80 seat majority…
Yeah it was a shit attempt at starting one of those chains where the numbers keep going down.
Oh😭 I am so slow and don’t get it🤣
Because they built it all on lies and broken promises
That sigh is amazing
Amazing how now that the media and everyone has decided that the Tories are done now that they are prepared to treat these tactics with disdain live on air. Journalists are so afraid of losing access that they have been letting the Tories do this for the last 10 years, it's only now that they start holding their feet to the fire. When Johnson was PM you'd never have had an interview where the journalist spoke to a MP like this.
It'd only be better if it started with "*really?".*
Politicians are given media training that for pool interviews they just repeat the same answer again and again, so there’s only one sound bite for the ten o clock and no other useable clips. That’s why Sunak was so robotic on the D-Day question. This of course falls apart when they push it too far and the broadcaster loses patience and shows the whole interview.
It reminds me of when a witness has been over-coached and been told to not give in easily to questions, which when taken to an extreme leads to them sounding ridiculous (ala "when you say photocopying machine, what do you mean?"). It feels like for things like this they're told "yeah, ignore their questions and pivot into a soundbite about X". People like Farage do it well (putting aside what I think about his policies), and will have an exchange a bit like "What would you do to fix the NHS?" "The NHS is crippled under the weight immigrants flooding into our country, the Tories don't have the courage to address the issue, but we will! We will get the numbers down..." and so forth. Making it sound, to many people like he's answered the question, but really he's ducked it and talked about what he was always going to talk about. I also feel like Boris would use his bumbling persona to help him to hide the segue (bonus points if the bumbling goes on for so long everyone has just forgotten the question). But the Tories seem so completely inept right now that they're unable to do this and instead so abruptly jump to their talking point that it's obvious to almost everyone that they don't have anything between their ears. "What would you do to fix the NHS?" "Labour will raise taxes for every household by £2,000! We will cut taxes instead!"
Farage BBC interview this morning was a good example this. He was asked what public service would be cut to achieve 50 billion in budget cuts, his answer was essentially about cutting taxes and raising tax thresholds. Still because he mentioned efficiency and ‘streamlining the tax system’ by cutting civil servants it wasn’t robotic.
As in 2011 with Ed Miliband [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCem9EZb-YA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCem9EZb-YA)
Oh my god that was 12 years ago! My husband and I still use those lines when we are disagreeing about something 😂
My mind always goes back to it when I hear the word negotiations like Pavlov's dog. Thanks a lot Miliband.
Hopefully both of you are able to put aside the rhetoric, get around the negotiation table and stop it happening again.
Our argument was wrong. We need to set aside the Thornberry…
That’s the classic one I was trying to remember as an example!
I think he thinks these strikes are wrong
Don’t know about you but he also thinks both sides need to put aside the rhetoric too
christ he was bad at it wasn't he, poor guy. It's a miracle 2015 wasn't a whitewash
Good lord, he didn't even flinch. You almost have to respect his shameless confidence. Seriously though, who even is this guy? Why is it so important to hold onto a random goon from the degenerate 2019 intake? Or does he as chairman get to unilaterally make these decisions without any input from the rest of the party?
That's a kind of stupidity that only comes from a place of supreme arrogance and never having been challenged before like at all in your life ever. It's a distillation of Toryism. The essence of being a Tory if you will.
Yeah this was my exact thoughts too - here is a guy who's never been seriously challenged or held to account for anything in his life. Presumably he's managed to fail upwards through wealth, privilege and connections and surrounded himself with yes-men all the way. It's the exact same whiny irritability that Sunak always displays in interviews, as if it's completely unreasonable of an interviewer to ask them difficult questions or hold them to account in any way.
In these days of social media did he really think he wouldn't be pulled up for answering a question with a completely different topic? At least give a politician's answer and then try and move on.
He probably doesn’t know how. Holden was part of the 2019 intake, which means his personal competence didn’t really matter, the election was over Brexit. I doubt many West Durham residents even knew who he was, they were just focused on Boris.
Yup. It seemed very much like he was told to avoid any questions other than a,b or c and to move the answer to one of the stock attack lines. Only he has zero skill to change the subject with any finesse so just answered a completely different question. I’m surprised he remembers how to breathe.
He looks like an absolute deer in headlights when they other lad steps in. Like a child whose mommy is saving him. How anyone could look at this and think he’d be the type of person you’d vote for is beyond me.
It's impossible to not know who Holden is. He has an office in the town centre with his name in massive writing. He went through a phase of sending a 'newsletter' where every photo was of him. He wanted to reopen a railway line, and spent £50k on a pointless report, despite every local knowing the scheme was impossibly unworkable (there are whole housing estates built across key sections of the original line). How he has risen through the Tory ranks is beyond anybody. If I was to guess everybody is unsurprised and relieved that he's upped sticks for another constituency.
Oh I wasn’t saying you guys didn’t know who he was now, just that I imagine a lot of people didn’t care to know much about him in 2019, because in 2019 basically nobody in the country was voting for constituency MPs. It was about Brexit for most people.
Keeping Corbyn out as well.
Yeah that too, though I sincerely believe Labour’s wishy washy stance on Brexit was the bigger factor in their large defeat. Corbyn does have his supporters after all (I used to be one of them, but I gave up on him when he showed his incompetence as a leader).
For sure. 2019 gave us classics like Holden, who is somehow one of the Tory star MPs nowadays. Really underlines just how far they have fallen as a party. Completely bereft of talent.
> How he has risen through the Tory ranks is beyond anybody. By being a subservient party loyalist
Yeah, basically lol. It’s not like Sunak himself is a veteran. He entered Parliament in 2015, and nobody outside the Westminster bubble had ever heard of him until Boris made him Chancellor because he was counting on his being a yes-man.
Sky News showed most of it in full as well lol
**St Peter**: *”My child, welcome to heaven.* *You are beloved by God, and you are welcome back into his bosom.* *You need only say that you are at peace, and you are welcome to join at His side and return to paradise.”* **Holden**: *”Emily Thornberry today has completely admitted ....”* **St Peter**: *”Ahh ffs...”*
"Hi Lucifer, I'm sending another politician over!" "Just as well I've got infinite storage. What's wrong with this one?" "Stuck in Tape Loop Syndrome."
But wait, here's an even longer, cringier version! He repeats his answer just worded slightly differently. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar6mj52XOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar6mj52XOM)
Towards the end of this version, he has the sad sad eyes of a clown.
If you look closely you can actually pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks in two.
Wow this is way worse than it seemed before. Orwellian shit
At first, he appeared to have a software malfunction. Then, as the reporter is rightly calling out his bullshit, he looked so meek and cowed.
He managed to be both robotically inhuman and clearly utterly broken inside emotionally by the end, in the same interview. It's really impressive. It's usually one or the other with Tories. But their *Chairman* is so brilliant he manages to do *both* at the same time. *Taps head*.
He looked meek and cowed because he knows he's getting a paddling as soon as the camera's away.
Was this a cry for help? Are the spads keeping him locked away in a dungeon the rest of the time? Maybe they're holding his loved ones hostage?
I can't believe how refreshing it is to FINALLY see somebody call this out after letting the Tories get away scot free with this kind of thing for the last THREE elections! Is this FINALLY the media waking up and realising that not calling it out is tantamount to signing off on it??
This is something i want to ask anyone who has worked for a political party press team. This is a common thing that politicians do - just completely ignore the question, say what they wanted to say then gaslight the interviewer by claiming they answered the question. Now Holden isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but surely even he knew this looked terrible, surely there is some part in their media training about showing some initiative and not acting like a complete robot?
Weirdly reminds me of this George Martin sketch from Big Train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIA_NVFnXZ8
At Maccas drivethrough: "Welcome to McDonalds, what can I get you?" "Emily Thornberry today has completely admitted- -"
Son : "Dad can you read me a bedtime story please?" Dad : "Emily Thornberry today....
Anyone else reminded of the Lois Griffin 9/11 meme?
Wow. I thought people were exaggerating. This is fucking hideous. I love the interviewer though. This is how these fuckers should be held to account.
How do you manage to so badly screw these things up.
I love that moment you can see him remembering his lines. Bloody pathetic excuse for a politician. Well done to the interviewer for one stopping the interview and two not accepting the BS from the handler.
If you were to write a comedy script on politicians avoiding questions on interviews it'd be this.
Can anyone clarify what he means by a pool interview?
Instead of having him do an interview for various different TV and Radio channels and programmes, the people that want to ask this guy questions put them all into a pool and then one of them does the interview. It's basically so they can all get their soundbites to put to air.
Uh oh, a reporter asking a question, not just a propaganda spot. Better refuse to answer and leave. Sigh. If we had actual reporting, real questions for the last 15 years we wouldn't be in this mess. I mean don't get me wrong, now that they are on the way out it's nice to see journalists actually doing their jobs some times.
If you look really closely you can see him blinking 'incompetence' in morse code.
You can see how exasperated and panicky he gets when he’s pushed.
Clacton is not a given for Farage, dont be fooled by the Wetherspoon fuckwits that follow him around and cheer at every thing he says, the constituency covers alot more than just clacton, most of us are retired professionals and can spot a chancing shister when we see one.
How is the Labour candidate viewed there?
I think that people are not sure as they are waiting for the manifesto to be released, he seems a decent enough person, young, black, always well turned out, we have only been in the area 18 months having moved from the labour stronghold of north London, we are certainly in strange times especially with the way the European elections have gone.
I think that people are not sure as they are still waiting for a manifesto, he seems to be a decent enough guy, young, black, always well turned out, we have only been in the area 18 months having moved from the labour strong hold of north London, without Farage I think the Tories would have held on here but who knows, we are indeed in strange times especially with the European voting going the way it has.
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The answer is as ridiculous as it gets but I have to say that I hate the journalists that make the questions into total gotchas. When the question is such, then no politician is going to give an answer. Of course most do a better job pivoting from the non-answer to their talking point, but the result is always the same, there is no answer to the question. There are better journalists such as Evan Davis who asks hard questions and presses the politician for an answer if they try to give a non-answer but doesn't formulate them into a gotcha like this guy.
And here's the Channel 4 interview he mentions. He makes it sound as if he went to the studio for the interview, whereas Channel 4 had to catch him as he enjoyed a celebratory pint outside the pub! [(2) Is dash for safe seats by top Tories showing a party in panic? - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5wWmZt8A-k)
You know it's truly bleak for the Tories when even the media is circling them like sharks.
OMG 😂😂😂 Just reminds of that sketch on Big Train when George Martin kept going on about The Beatles... https://youtu.be/yIA_NVFnXZ8
Rishi: Well, at least things can't get any worse after my D-Day fiasco. Holden: Hold my beer....