Claire Spencer 🐙
@thedancingflea
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Devolutionary | Agathist | Lab and Co-op | Lvl. 9 Paladin | Speaking to connect, not on behalf of others | Just get the bus, FFS
Kings Heath, Birmingham
Joined February 2009
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اليوم الوطني
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Pinned Tweet
You don't have to choose between being kind and being effective. That framing tends to be used by those who are neither.
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This is heartbreaking. Boris Johnson should be moving every mountain to right the wrong he did to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe while Foreign Secretary.
Instead, he distracts us with his personal life. What a Prime Minister.
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@Nigel_Farage
As someone who is half Iraqi, I hope you never have to know what it is like to need to seek safety and stability elsewhere. Those people can do without you stalking them like some sort of malevolent spectre.
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@robmayor
I suspect it is not in your habit to tell your sources to give their heads a wobble, but that Hamas quote is grim.
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I don't care about this. Rishi Sunak, Gavin Williamson and the rest of the Cabinet did not consider hungry children a priority, so allocated no resources to feeding them. It's not one man's gaffe: it is what this administration is made of.
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@katiedippold
Solidarity. I once went to a James Bond Ball dressed as Dr No. Everyone else went in black tie.
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In a rather tumultuous day, I am pleased to have collaborated to create a new Myers-Briggs test wherein the personality types are replaced with varieties of Magnum.
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"We have to rebuild trust in the Labour Party. Because some people think a foodbank parcel is a treat"
This is hard to listen to, because many important, true things are hard to know. Some people see poverty as nothing but an inconvenience to their progress.
Spent yesterday dealing with the upset but today I am up and fighting back. Here is a part of the speech I made after winning my seat. Here is the story of how an opponent reported me to the electoral commission for "treating the electorate."
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One of my Iraqi cousins died today. He was named after the brother who was murdered before he was born. My Aunty has now lost three children. Almost unimaginable.
A reminder that life is too short for hate and disrespect. You can't control everything, but you can be kind.
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You don't empower women by telling them what to wear. You create a society and fiercely protect rights that enable them to choose.
You don't empower women by depriving them of their right to representation based on their clothing.
Don't normalise oppression and prejudice.
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Must be another rule change.
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🧵Government created a target out of thin air, with no strategic context or meaningful delivery plan, then met it in a random way to save face.
Even in a time of crisis, we get old politics and headline-chasing. It's wearisome, and not at all what people deserve:
Thread on testing:
Government Ministers were hell bent on hitting the testing target by any means necessary. The scattergun approach wasn’t sensible and isn’t long lived - driven by a desire to prove others wrong, instead of doing the right thing.
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I can't believe that Birmingham hasn't yet had a black MP - we have so many amazing black leaders. It would be awesome if
@SThompson_JP
was the first, and for a wonderful, diverse constituency like Hall Green.
@UKLabour
@WMLabour
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.
@RobertJenrick
is seeking "shovel ready" infrastructure projects to boost the economy. This one has long since been ready.
#JusticeForGrenfell
Two thousand high-risk residential buildings are still covered with dangerous cladding, according to a committee scrutinising the government
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10 years of
#localgov
cuts. Housing benefit cap. Dwindling stocks of social housing, with capital receipts going to central Gov, not to the local Council. Escalating rents in the unregulated private rented sector.
So yes. 135,000 children will be homeless at Christmas this year.
An appalling fact I learnt just now: At least 135,000 children will be in temporary accommodation this Christmas, the highest level for 12 years. 183 children become homeless every day. That’s 915 between now and the general election and 3,294 between now and Christmas Day.
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Never let kindness and inclusion be painted as woke - this is just life for social creatures. Ignore the scorn and shame they will drip on you - they want you to have their conversation. Make them have yours instead.
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@JamesCleverly
I guess getting into a fight with some ice cream is a higher priority for the people who drafted your tweet than tackling coronavirus or showing compassion to human beings. Politics is so inspiring right now.
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Your regular reminder that there is apparently no Parliamentary time or bandwidth to settle things like "how will we fund social care", but seemingly plenty of time for Government to stuff cotton wool in their ears over their botched
#Brexit
, at our expense.
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@jodymcintyremp
The division came from your leadership. If you cared about rights and justice for Palestinians, you would see Jess as an ally. But this was all about power and vengeance. Tyres slashed, women harassed, jeering in the streets. There is no path to peace that takes that route.
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A gentleman / bot / plasma ball styling himself as Bobby Brexit has just RTd a tweet wherein
@jessphillips
and I are discussing oppressive ten pin bowling scoring software.
It may not be the gotcha he imagines it to be.
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A lovely treat at the end to hear
@jessphillips
share our exit poll tradition. Hearing it with one of the bravest humans I know steels me for the onslaught of reality.
New Electoral Dysfunction out tonight 👇
@JessPhillips
@BethRigby
and
@RuthDavidsonPC
are reunited, recording a new episode this afternoon and in your feeds later this evening – with what they think about a new era of UK politics
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@zatzi
I think they give you an iPad so that you can do your work on it. You know, read papers, answer emails. It's an investment in your productivity, and one which only doesn't pay off if you do no work.
It can't be that you intend to do no work.
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@PaulEmbery
You not being interested in her political ideas is not the same as her not having any. Furthermore, the obsession with the 'debate' form of politics is getting wearisome. Ideas can be built collaboratively. Not everything is a two-sided battle.
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There is room in my heart for both Angel Delight *and* avocados.
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Even now, Westminster and Whitehall matter more to Government than your local services. So:
⚠️Families end up living in Travelodges.
⚠️15 minute social care visits to elderly people.
⚠️Children with special education needs left without a school place.
...and the rest. 👇
Just to cheer everyone up, a quick reminder from me that cuts to local government are continuing, as they have for the past decade, during this pandemic. It's just the usual day to day local government, stuff like social care and bin collections, so few care. But it's happening.
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Mentioning Hitler, a handy guide:
Are you teaching someone about WWII?
Y: Best mention Hitler
N: Leave it pal
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@QuantumCopy
@TellMamaUK
@jessphillips
This is about human rights. People can believe what they want in private, but in our schools and other shared places, we uphold human rights as the glue that binds us. That means learning that we value LGBT people, Muslim people, and LGBT Muslim people equally.
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A two for one deal on dangerous drivers. Sainsbury's
#KingsHeath
, you never disappoint.
I hope very much to see both in court.
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Levelling up, through the cunning removal of investment. I guess the government must have a school friend's pocket to line, or some children to starve.
"Transport for the North’s budget slashed by 40% by government and more than £100m funding for contactless tickets cancelled" >
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@MyDoncaster
Where do hook-ups sit, constitutionally speaking? Would your Mayor have to attend on your behalf?
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This makes it look as though he is the Metro Mayor for heaven.
Labour's Andy Burnham has won the Greater Manchester mayoral election.
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So, I have a new job...
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You know, you are allowed to say nothing when someone you dislike leaves your party.
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@bbclaurak
Appreciate that you have made a career out of tactical litote, but I don't think you're bringing much to the table here. If you can't be respectful of the danger, at least be silent.
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Outrageous. He only liked The Black Parade a bit, and barely ever wore eyeliner.
Former Cabinet minister launches stinging attack on Sir Ivan Rogers, accusing outgoing EU ambassador of being ‘emo…
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Jesus will be relieved.
Easter could be cancelled thanks to Brexit as experts warn chocolate could be in short supply
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Politics can be noisy, tumultuous, and cruel, and there are people who take advantage of that to suit their own hunger for power.
There is always a cost. This time, an innocent woman, and every person who saw that video and felt the sting of that slur.
MUST READ: A doorbell video showing a purported Labour member door-knocking in the local elections in
#Dudley
went viral this week. It was shared by
@Akhmedyakoob1
on his socials, and blew up. It alleged the person in the video said racist terms. THREAD /1
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Guys. If you are sick of watching Nigel Farage on
#bbcqt
, stop watching it. It is not going to improve, or change its limited and unimaginative contact list.
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✉ I wrote to Roger Godsiff about his stance on
#AndertonPark
School.
I hoped, when I wrote it five days ago, that he would reflect. But he has dug in. He needs to be better, because he is letting everyone down, not least the children of that school.
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People who have a problem with
@jessphillips
being a human who has experience of being both working and middle class, part 9,537 of a (presumably) endless series.
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@YairNetanyahu
That is in incredibly poor taste. Only someone insulated by their privilege and hate for others could write such things.
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My heart swells for the children of
#KingsHeath
Primary, a school where I am so proud to serve as a governor. 💕
They express themselves so beautifully, and show what is put at risk by Government underfunding:
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I will repeat. If you don't wish to pay to park in (relatively cheap) Council car parks, do not drive. And note that the Council budget has lost £700 million since 2010. So leave out the "profiteering" bullshit.
City records £11m parking surplus - but denied profiteering
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It's more complicated than this.
The most recent equal pay liability and the poor commissioning of Oracle are both failures of local leadership. But austerity and inflation - choices of national government - created the pressured environment in which those decisions were made.
1/4 The headlines from Birmingham’s budget are so depressing, laying bare the scale of the damage the council’s leadership have inflicted on this great city & its residents.
A dark day that sets the city back, just as we thought we had turned a corner and were on the rise again.
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If the Labour Party grievance process is truncated or compromised for political expediency, it cannot be trusted. Worse, it tells victims of all forms of harassment, racism, and discrimination that they are not welcome, or at least, less important than the Leader's buddy.
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It's easy to give our attention to the spectacle of hate. Do the same for the love that these folk have for their community, and remember that these people are everywhere.
And now, the community clear up. A local construction company deployed men and machines in Southport, locals turning out with brooms and wheelbarrows to clear the debris.
@GMB
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@BorisJohnson
You have been an MP in the ruling administration since 2015. You could have been investing into all of the things that you describe for the last four years.
You chose not to. Therefore, I can only assume that feeding "toxic polarisation" was and is a higher priority for you.
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I am loving that both Andy Street and Richard Parker will be attending the Christmas Moseley Farmers Market, on different sides of the street. This is exactly the sort of weird election shit that I live for.
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Nothing makes me more sure about trying out Low Traffic Neighbourhoods than these months of working in my front window. For every thoughtful, careful person driving past, there are at least three people who are aggressive, entitled, and seemingly unaware that people live here.
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This whippet starts all contributions to political meetings with "it's more of a comment than a question..."
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@marthasydenham
Jess' parents worked hard to progress in their careers and to give their children a good start, like thousands of other parents do. That doesn't invalidate their roots, or values. How about waiting for the ideas instead of attacking the humans?
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Expertise during breaking news, a guide:
1. Were you an expert on the subject this time a week ago?
Y: Share your insight, with awareness of the limits of your knowledge.
N: Reflect on whether expressing your half-baked reckonings as facts is what the world needs right now.
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Hello. Stop being pretend offended about Tusk and do some governing.
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MPs can rightly be subject to challenge from their party members. But what you can and should do are different. Reselections are not for petty grievances or power plays. If you want a pregnant MP / unborn child to go through that stress, it should be due to the MP's misconduct.
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📰 "A thousand people are dying every day and some members of the lobby would very much like to know if Mr Raab has written to a submarine captain" -
@MarinaHyde
is spot on. We have been let down by Government and the journalists closest to it:
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I was stopped in the street today by a man who I did some housing and benefits casework for, a couple of years ago. He told me that his life has improved since I helped him. He looked so much better. Calm, healthy, enjoying life.
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.
@tchee
was one of the people who made (old) Twitter a beautiful place. A friend you hadn't met yet, filled with kindness, warmth and a brilliant mind.
Learning of her death today, I am thinking of all the people who grew towards her light. She will be so missed.
💗💗💗
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Preserve national unity by:
1️⃣ Respecting and understanding regional variation
2️⃣ Giving the non-London Mayors a seat at COBRA
3️⃣ Ensuring places have the investment they need to ensure people stay well
Constructive challenge from
@AndyBurnhamGM
:
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@mrmarksteel
Cut the misogyny, please. Our party is committed to enabling politics to be for everyone. Comments like this do not help.
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📰 A decade of austerity has left a social safety net with yawning gaps, which cannot cope (in any sense of the word) if the lowest paid people in society cannot work. Saving people from
#COVID19
by pushing them deeper into poverty is not acceptable:
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@BBCPolitics
I'm not interested in quotes minus analysis, and I don't see the point in having political correspondents if all you do is quote. Anyone can do that. The BBC is an important resource, and you can do better.
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@NadiaMuradBasee
Thinking of you and the other survivors, Nadia. How you lost your mother was a horror beyond imagining, and I can't imagine how this must feel. I hope you will get a chance to give her a burial that matches the strength of the love you shared.
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Nice mini interview with Jess. Looking forward to all the people pretending to misunderstand figurative language this time. "Why would I cut her?" "How do you bleed a city?" Etc...
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@Peston
@MattHancock
Getting it wrong implies that you formed an incorrect view in the right way. You, on the other hand, repeated a message, without reflection, or fact-checking. The only judgement you made was not to exercise any. We expect rather a lot more, I'm afraid.
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I think they're a little busy trying to protect vulnerable children with half as much budget as they used to have, mate.
Councils should do more to promote 'county days' and historic boundaries says Government minister Jake Berry via
@Telegraph
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My mother fled a burning home in the north of Iraq when she was four years old. She now lives in Bath, married to a civil engineer. Life is random, complicated and taking opportunities to make it work shouldn't be something to sneer at.
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People need to respect Metro Mayors and local leadership: you can praise Andy Burnham without suggesting he should be back in Parliament.
Parliament isn't a promotion from Metro Mayor - it is a different type of power.
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Try not to be cruel to one another in your exhaustion, disappointment and anger. A lot of people worked hard for results they did not get, and it burns. The challenges are as serious as they ever were, and will require listening, power sharing and bridge-building. So pause. Rest.
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McCluskey says soft left Labour MPs like Nandy have been "seduced by sinister forces".
#Marr
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One thing that is rather odd about the 'Workers Party' narrative around LTNs is their apparent belief that working class people don't drink coffee, or walk, or use public transport.
It's such a strange caricature, almost as if they don't *know* any working class humans. 🤔
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...because if you learn anything as a woman in politics, it is that you are only relevant if you are enabling some bloke to hold or gain power.
Why Labour has abandoned plans to create a new female deputy leader.
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"There's also racism!"
Paul Nuttall: this is a great day for Ukip, but there's more to us than Brexit
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Looking after and respecting one another is not our sole response to terrorism. But there is no solution without this as a backdrop.
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Colleagues who mindlessly parrot Russia Today might want to reflect on who they believe to be more accountable to us: The Kremlin, or the European Parliament.
Don't let someone who doesn't care about you plant hate in your place:
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Labour folk might want to remember that their criticisms of potential leadership candidates will only end up being used by the Prime Minister and the press. You can make a positive case for your favourite candidate without being hateful to another.
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@ShabanaMahmood
Conversation and involvement of parents is important, yes. But those resources are age appropriate, and are about understanding and tolerance, as anyone who has taken the time to read them would know.
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@bbclaurak
It's fine, Laura. Use your power and platform to make excuses for him, by all means. The harm is already done. Bad policy, confused leadership, poverty, dead people.
The Prime Minister has already flouted the rules, that his attention shield has done likewise is no great shock.
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@llowssco
@jessphillips
Indeed. We don't lack the money to invest into children - the Government chose to give the money to wealthy adults, to preserve their power. They certainly need to face the consequences of that decision.
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💖The secret is out!
After 4.5 years with
@WestMids_CA
, I am taking my insight on how to get s**t done in hard times to
@LocalLeadership
, who do wonderful work to support people and places all over the country.
This week we were delighted to have
@thedancingflea
join us in her new role as our Associate Director – Public Sector & Politics.
Welcome Claire! 👋 You bring such a wealth of knowledge and experience with you and we're excited have you as part of the Leadership Centre Team.
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🌹Cast a vote for
@Tahir4HallGreen
at home in
#KingsHeath
, in the hope of gaining an MP who will bring people together.
Now on an
#11bus
to join Team
@jessphillips
, who gives me hope, always, that politics can be human, place-focused and compassionate.
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Raheem and Rahimah both have a physical disability, but with the right support, they can learn 📚, play 🏐, and thrive 🌻 in a mainstream school. It works for all of the children, who are at ease in a diverse world.
The Government is putting this at risk:
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Whoever the Labour candidate for Birmingham Hall Green is, they will have to resist the urge to buy into Roger Godsiff's cynical LGBT vs. Muslim framing. It does not have to be our reality, and it will do great harm if it is.
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Frontline workers need the right equipment. That has to be the focus of now.
But after this is over, a politician needs to be held accountable for the chain of decisions which led to our frontline workers paying for bad decisions with their lives.
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People who were being hateful to Angela Eagle literally hrs ago now hand-wringing about her being out of the race. Sexism is a nimble dance.
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@mrmarksteel
Oh aye? So humour makes it OK to diminish a female MP to the bringer of hand jobs? Glad to know we're cool with that now.
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Early help goes, universal weekly bin collection stays. Money follows power, as usual.
Austerity and inflation has hurt Birmingham and its people. This government owns that pain. But equal pay was a political fuck up made here, and the owners of that are staying pretty quiet.
I don’t like constantly being the bearer of bad news but nobody
@BhamCityCouncil
seems keen, and there’s no sign of any public consultation worth its name so…here you go. £112m of cuts lined up for children’s services &
@Bhamchildtrust
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I guess every voting age woman in the UK must have been busy.
Here is a look at tomorrow’s panel for our show in Hull. Joining Fiona we have
@JamesCleverly
,
@JonAshworth
,
@IBlackfordSNP
,
@EdwardJDavey
and
@TiceRichard
#bbcqt
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One of my least favourite political tropes is people with power pretending that they don't have it. It is an insult to the people who they derive that power from.
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So, in 2018 - don't cede your power, your social and economic *space* to those who will use it badly. Collaborate with others who share your aims. Enjoy what is done more than the credit for doing it.
Trust yourself to shape your world, and do it. It's always better to try.
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Absolutely honoured to have become the new Labour Co-operative councillor for
#Moseley
&
#KingsHeath
. Thank you all so much.
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I have thought about this overnight, and the kindest comment I can muster is that marriage-as-diplomacy is a tactic that has very much had its day.
NEW: Liam Fox expects Harry and Meghan's wedding will boost UK-US trade ties.
He tells Sky News it will be “a very helpful adjunct to that relationship”.
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