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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 4h

YEAH, GUYS, COME ON! If you continue to expose what the people Nigel recruited and got elected actually say and do, then everyone will know what the people Nigel recruited and got elected actually say and do. NOT ON! Such exquisite victimhood. Everyone is to blame, except the big man in charge.

Nigel Farage
@Nigel_Farage

My thoughts are with Charlie Latchford. This is awful but now part of a pattern - every underhanded media ploy to paint the party as evil makes these dangers worse.
Unsurprisingly the mainstream media doesn't seem to want to cover this vile incident.

The Mercian
@TheMercian News
Oct 16
BREAKING: Birmingham Reform UK councillor was sent suspected asbestos package in the post.
Dr Charlie Latchford, the Reform UK councillor for Longbridge and West Heath, reported receiving a package containing suspected ...
...

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 4h

About four people got the joke and I am delighted.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

We were just recording bits of @quietriotpod.bsky.social Sunday School with @pimlicat.bsky.social and speculating whether she would even last a whole Scaramucci. Back in the studio tomorrow, I guess.

A black-and-white photo of Katie Zacharia, with "IN MEMORIAM; Tuesday-Friday".

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Google, who was the piano accompanist in a 1973 Franco Corelli/Renata Tebaldi duets recital in London's Royal Albert Hall? Gemini: "No such concert ever took place. It is a common misattribution in collectors' circles." Gemini's source for this? An ebay listing of *the actual concert programme*. 😂

ROYAL ALBERT HALL
General Manager FRANK J. MUNDY
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9th, 1973
S. A. GORLINSKY and DENNY DAYVISS
present
RENATA TEBALDI FRANCO CORELLI
and
in Duo Recital
At the piano:
GORDON JEPHTAS
S. A. GORLINSKY Lid. 35 Dover Street, London, W.I.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I cannot tell you how many times in the last year I have said to folks here: Politics changes very fast nowadays; do not pledge devotion from party to party easily; leave yourself the intellectual and emotional space to assess things in the round much closer to an election, armed with more data.

Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
As you know I have huge reservations about moving expectations of saintliness on to anyone. It is very much the left's MO. We set ourselves up for disappointment, our politicians for failure, then become furious when they fail. The experience with Tsipras in Greece was instructive.
1:51 PM Sep 7, 2025
Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
To me it is a reason not take the entire stack of chips and go all in on someone else, but to distribute eggs in as many baskets as possible and avoid taking an absolute position three-and-a-half (probably) years from a general election.
10:06 PM Nov 16, 2025
Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
I love the Greens and really like Zack, but I need to see a bit more detail and sustained success before going all-in. I see an awful lot of enthusiasm for him and sometimes it feels a bit brittle and manic. I worry that inflated expectations set politicians up to fail and voters to be disappointed.
12:09 AM Dec 12, 2025

Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
I am fully supportive. I think you may be on to something. My fear is that a lot of people have simply transferred their impossible expectations to someone new and the moment Zack takes a position on which they disagree, which is bound to happen, he will become another never-could. Let's see.
9:01 AM Sep 24, 2025
Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
As you know, I'm a fan of Zack - he's been on QR twice. But I am worried that a lot of people are transferring extremely unrealistic expectations to yet another politician they want to hail as a saviour - based on a very short period - and, in doing that, setting up yet another good person to fail.
12:37 PM
Oct 19, 2025
Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
I love the Greens and really like Zack, but I need to see a bit more detail and sustained success before going all-in. I see an awful lot of enthusiasm for him and sometimes it feels a bit brittle and manic. I worry that inflated expectations set politicians up to fail and voters to be disappointed.
12:09 AM Dec 12, 2025

Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
The pattern people in the progressive space must break (I include myself):
I support Leader A; all teams except A are evil.
A has disappointed me.
I am transfering wholesale huge expectations overnight to B.
I support Leader B; all teams except B, especially A, are evil.
B has disappointed me, etc.
2:31 PM May 17, 2026
Everybody can reply

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social.
Sep 7, 2025
I am genuinely just trying to interrogate the frame of mind. Critical voters are great - a crucial part of democracy. But to me "critical" includes rationality. I worry that social media encourages people to take extreme emotional postures as a way of absenting themselves rather than engaging. 2/
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social. Sep 7, 2025
Like there is a race for who will throw up their hands highest and quickest. That is a horrible strategy for wellbeing. It is to resign oneself to anguish for the next X years. And the only thing with which I can explain such an extreme reaction is the dashing of pretty inflated expectations. 3/
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social.
Sep 7, 2025
Now, of course, one can choose individual totally unpalatable policies - I would accept and agree with most - and say "I don't think that was unreasonable to expect Y" but an inability to find *anything* that has improved, results in a really lopsided and nihilistic view. 4/
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social.
Sep 7, 2025
And I worry about what I see happening then: this entire menu of demands just transfering onto some other political leader or entity - The Greens, or Your Party, or Reform - and really the voter has just set themselves up for another massive, crushing disappointment. 5/
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Alex Andreou
@sturdyalex.bsky.social
And I wonder if this cycle then becomes BOTH the result AND the source of the politics we see. If progressive or left-leaning voters make ourselves, essentially, impossible to please and very easy to lose forever, doesn't that make it rational for parties to compete for right wing votes? 6/6
3:47 AM
Sep 7, 2025

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I particularly love the distance travelled in a month by the Mail's Jason Groves, from "living in the past" to "old school values".

Britain's problems? I blame Thatcher and Brexit, says Burnham: No wonder Kemi mocked him for 'living in the past' as the 'Messiah without a mandate' made his Commons debut as PM
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Spare us the history lesson, Burnham...
By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR
PUBLISHED: 23:43, 1 September 2026 |

Kemi's common sense blueprint: Unveiling policy blitz at party conference, she hails 'old school values' on economy, law and order and borders as the key to election victory
By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR
PUBLISHED: 01:46, 5 October 2026 |

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Badenoch, last month: Why is PM obsessed with Thatcher? SO WEIRD! I was not even born. He wants to take us back to the 70s. Badenoch, this week: I'm like Thatcher, a new Thatcher, possibly possessed by Thatcher, LOVE Thatcher, Thatcher was right, and I'll take us back to the 80s. Tory Conference:

Priti Patel displaying Thatcher merchandise.

Limited edition Thatcher toby jug, £47.50

Telegraph: "BADENOCH: I'LL TURN BRITAIN AROUND LIKE THATCHER"

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Can you imagine the derisory coverage and outright mockery if any other party with single-digit MPs decided to "declare a General Election" and go on a bus tour? Yet when this outlandish nonsense comes from Farage, it is treated as somehow brilliant. "Subscribe to continue..." No thanks. I'm good.

Farage to launch general election campaign with national tour
Reform leader to begin in Yorkshire next week where party sees ‘many Cabinet scalps to be had’ in Labour heartlands

Annabel Denham
Senior Political Commentator
Show biography
Annabel Denham
Published 26 September 2026 6:00am BST

1610

Gift this article free

Add us as preferred source
Nigel Farage campaigning in Southend-on-Sea for the local election in May
Nigel Farage campaigning in Southend-on-Sea for the local elections in May Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph
Nigel Farage is to “fire the starting gun” on Reform UK’s general election campaign with a nationwide tour beginning next week, The Telegraph can reveal…

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A cynical person might ask, of course, why are "young men of fighting age" wearing hijabs? 🧐

Main on Sunday front page:

"As one of Kemi's top female frontbenchers calls them 'instruments of suppression...
UK HANDS OUT 1,000 HIJABS TO CHANNEL MIGRANTS"

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

You know, children, there was a time, not so long ago, when serious journalists - even right wing propagandists cosplaying objectivity - would applaud an experienced, even-tempered Foreign Secretary, like Hague or Hammond, being a bit dry, rather than jumping on stuff as if they were Perez Hilton.

Tim Shipman
@ShippersUnbound
"Incident".
Wow
Ed Miliband
@Ed_Miliband
14h
Deeply concerned about the incident that occurred on the Flydubai flight to Israel and very relieved that the plane landed safely thanks to the actions of those on board.
All of my thoughts are with those injured in the attack and all those...
Rate proposed Community Notes
10:01 PM
Sep 30, 2026
49.7K Views
...

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Burnham on Social Care in July: "I ask the media, can we not let the country look at this in a clear-eyed way without all of the overwriting? On this issue, please, can we not have a factual debate? Allow people to weigh up the options and come to a considered view based on the facts?" The media:

The Daily Telegraph: TRIPLE LOCK SCRAPPED BY 2030 (with a monstering photo of Burnham)

Daily Express: IT'S A CRYING SHAME FOR OUR NATION

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

What Newsnight should have taken away was that it shouldn't adopt tabloid narratives unquestioningly and made the appropriate correction. What it did instead was to report the correction as if it were gossip and go "OOOOOH! THEY'RE VERY SENSITIVE!" What? To accuracy? You used to be, too, BBC.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Here is a sample of Denby's economic expertise: "Bond markets... don't believe in Britain, they think we are too much of a risk, because of our out-of-control spending and our out-of-control taxes and all of those things." I hope the Nobel Economics Prize Committee is paying attention.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

AB: "I don't think you get the welfare bill down with crude cuts. It plunges people into crisis and they show up in other parts of the system which end up costing more." LK: "Yeah, you've said this before, but I'm looking for a specific commitment you will cut the bill by the next election." WOW

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Absolutely fascinating to see Laura Kuenssberg interviewing Burnham, flailing to adjust her stance to a politician with a moral argument and a positive message, who stands up for his policies and answers her questions clearly. She is getting so agitated at him not playing the game by the 'rules'.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What a laughable take. Simply incredible to look at this two-day Trump car crash - including no coverage of state dinner because of press ban and huge "stop the communist Dems" ad campaign launching while Trump rolls our the Red Carpet for The Reds - and have your top takeaway be: Xi Failed A Bit.

BBC screen grab: "Xi got Trump's red carpet welcome - but not everything he wanted". Yeah, sure. Trump failed to entirely accurately hum "Mo Li Hua" while guzzling Xi's ballsack.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It's a fair point, but that is a feature of the weirdness of the US system - the only country where major parties decide to be without a leader for three years, after a loss. How about this? Trump's pure approval numbers on the economy, at exactly this point before the 2018 Midterms, versus now.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

To wit, get a load of these. I don't recall having ever seen an 86-point swing among independents, in the space of two years. And I doubt I will see one agai- OH WAIT, until the next card, which asked indies specifically for approval on the economy. Where the swing is NINETY-NINE PER-CENT (99%). 😱

Screengrab from CNN, Trump approval among pure independents has gone from +15 in favour of Trump at the 2024 election to -71 against.

Screengrab from CNN, Trump approval among pure independents on the economy has gone from +22 in favour of Trump at the 2024 election to -77 against.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Only if the first is held in St Olaf.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

ExcuseMeSorryWhatPardon. Republicans tried to HURT the election chances of this <checks notes> superhot gay marine veteran, by publishing his youthful risqué photos, and he is standing as a Dem for Congress in <checks notes again> New York? 😂😂😂 I reckon this translates into a ten-point poll bump.

THE QUEER POST
The Queer Post
They leaked his old photos to try to shame a gay veteran out of a congressional race. He's still running.
Chris Gallant flew Black Hawk helicopters in the Middle East, enlisted at 17, and now volunteers as a firefighter on Long Island.
The New York Post thought leather modeling pics would end his campaign.
Gallant didn't apologize. He called it exactly what it is: "This is a coordinated political hit meant to drive me out of the race, and this represents everything that is wrong with our politics today."
"I am very proud of who I am, and I won't be shamed into silence."

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So what if it is ONLY one fig? It is MY first British rooftop fig and it is PERFECT.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Yes. The rest of us can only aspire to this level of truth and sophistication in presenting it. SIT. DOWN.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Whately on big crypto donations: "I'm concerned to see all the things that I'm seeing... uhm... from Labour." 😳 Even as Reform is punching the Tories, stealing their lunch money, and giving them a wedgie, their only instinct is: NOOO! Don't prohibit policies being bought! We hope to sell ours soon!

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'm old enough to remember Farage saying "raising huge money has not been easy" and Reform was a grassroots movement that depended entirely on small donations. And only now have I clicked that this "appeal" was May 2024 - six weeks AFTER he got his £5m quid "unconditional gift". Man of the Paypal.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I wonder if there is a single person still at the Telegraph who feels even a smidgeon of shame, that in just over a decade it has gone from newspaper-of-record to fluffers-for-rent. It is revolting. Farage, apparently, "lands" a record crypto bung.

Gabriel Pogrund
@Gabriel_Pogrund
The Sunday Times approached Nigel Farage and Reform about this story this morning.
A confidential source told us that Delo, a crypto billionaire criminal pardoned by Trump, had given £35m to Reform.
...
Now, as with other stories on Reform finances, it has been given elsewhere.
Gordon Rayner @gordonrayner.
1h
Farage lands record £36m donation
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/...
9:37 PM
Sep 11, 2026
73.4K Views

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I lack adequately aplified plesionyms for "stupid" to explain just how stupid this point is.

Post
Calgie
@christiancalgie
11% of people are more likely to vote Reform because of the Channel 4 sting...
Matthew Lesh
@matthewlesh
| NEW: Reform's donations scandal is cutting through with voters
Have you heard about the allegations?
Yes: 70%
No: 25%
Unsure: 5%
Is this a problem?
Real problem: 62%
Exaggerated: 26%
Unsure: 11%
Does this make you more or less likely to vote Reform?
More: 11%
No difference: 44%
Less: 41%

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This German comedy sketch (with English subtitles) perfectly captures so much of what is going on right now in the UK, the US, and across Europe. "Playing the 'Nazi Card' in the Third Reich", by Browser Ballett.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Coming thick and fast. Sky News had to interrupt a report in which it spoke to whistle blowers from Durham Council, where Reform has lost 13 councillors, to report the Met Police has opened another investigation. Reform seems to be taking all this with its usual cheer. news.sky.com/video/inside...

This reporting by Sky News is misleading and malicious. Taking the opinions and testimonies of former Reform councillors who have been suspended for bullying and employing illegal workers as fact is not serious journalism.
Reform UK spokesman

"Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Sky who are currently being investigated by Ofcom for harassing Nigel Farage's daughter at her own home."

Reform UK spokesman

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

One of those two looks like an invasion to me.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

JFC, the Telegraph description reads: "Fresh from their 'stop the boats' demonstration in Dover on Saturday, masked protesters board a train as three female passengers, unconnected with the men, look on." And the title is - I kid you not - "Race for the train". AREN'T MASKED RACIST MILITIAS FUN?

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I like Pamela Anderson going to the Golden Globes and Venice Festival with very little makeup. I know she is one of those messy celebs who try to do activism-without-the-homework and sometimes get it badly wrong, but this sort of quiet FU, I can really get behind.

Anderson in a classic orange gown at the Venice International Film Festival. Still from pool video.

Anderson in a pink classic dress at the 2026 Golden Globes. Michael Buckner / Getty Images

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I have a theory. I am pretty sure when I read the original piece, the quote followed the bit on the left. It was clear piece had moved on to gen bckgrnd about crossings. Some junior intern has been adding responses to the actual disorder in a way that has separated the context from the quote.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

tl;dr law, schmaw, the problem apparently is how gleeful we, establishment liberals, are being... Is there really no fascist hole too freshly soiled even for the professional rimmers at Spiked?

The law in this area is convoluted. Whether there is sufficient evidence for any prosecution will depend on the full recordings and surrounding evidence, much of which is not yet public.
But none of this really matters to the broader point. Those calling for a police investigation and prosecution are not really interested in the dispassionate application of electoral law. They are weaponising the law for political ends.
Reform has suffered, and will continue to suffer, the political consequences of what has been revealed. Maybe it will hurt its electoral chances; maybe it won't. But those gleefully demanding the police effectively destroy a popular political party are setting a very dark precedent.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"Rather than defeat Reform in a battle of ideas, the political and media class wants them defeated through the law." You see, I quite like "we should not allow dark money to infect our politics and corrode our democracy" as an idea. But that includes the Koch brothers funding pretend-journalism.

Reform’s critics are weaponising electoral law
The latest donations scandal is being exploited for anti-democratic ends.

Luke Gittos
Luke Gittos
Columnist
5th September 2026
Reform’s critics are weaponising electoral lawi
Share

Topics
Politics
UK
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What is happening to Reform UK right now, from a legal perspective, is alarming. Reform is the breakout party of the moment. A party that has come from nothing to threaten the exhausted duopoly that has long dominated UK politics. Now, rather than defeat Reform in a battle of ideas, it appears that there is a solid constituency within the political and media class that wants them defeated through the law.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

You see, I don't blame you. This is the problem with our media environment inflating every negative angle and then simply not reporting when it turns out it was a blip.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A few people have asked me to post this astonishing clip, from Reform Party conference, so they can share it. OUTRAGE at something that didn't happen, but could have, maybe, she thinks. Within three hours is repackaged by Jeremy Kyle and offered to Farage as a real anecdote that actually happened.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A man who's not even an MP declares himself Shadow Home Sec, another resigns from a Great Office of State he's never held, two men with zero standing to represent UK and France sign a treaty and instead of exposing this bizarre festival of delusion media is praising their reenactment costumes. WTAF

Dear Nigel,
5 September 2026
MY COMMITMENT
At Reform UK's conference today, I have publicly committed to increasing the tax-free Personal Allowance to £15,000, in my first Budget called within the first 100 days of a Reform government.
This change would cut taxes for 40 million British taxpayers.
It would take 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether. It would ensure that the State Pension was not taxed.
It would be worth almost £1000 to an average working couple.
It would form the centerpiece of a new bargain with British workers; a new bargain that puts them first, and ahead of welfare cheats, foreign nations, and the bloated civil service.
MY OFFER OF RESIGNATION
This isn't an aspiration, nor is it an aim. It is a promise. It is a promise I made to thousands of party members in Birmingham and millions of voters across the country live and on camera. And it is a promise I plan to keер.
If I do not deliver it, I should not remain Chancellor. Please consider this my letter of resignation.
failing to The British people are sick and tired of Chancellors and Governments deliver on their promises. In business, those who fail to deliver are sacked, not given honours. Reform, as a party of successful businesspeople, will bring that culture to Westminster. The British people deserve accountability and, with you as Prime Minister, they will get it.
Britain is broken. Britain needs Reform. And we must deliver.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Jennick.
Robert Jenrick MP

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

From "I'm not a compliance officer" to "I know electoral law, I know donation law better than anybody" in 35 seconds.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Braverman's education programme. The audience is in ecstasy.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Robert Jenrick, who believes he is Shadow Chancellor, just offered to resign as Chancellor, and I am now wondering if this is a Memento-type-deal, in which we are watching him discover in reverse that he is, in fact, the villain.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Every time I think Jenrick could not make my skin crawl even more, he somehow manages to creep under that limbo bar of revulsion.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm old enough to remember Nigel Farage ruling out any association with Le Pen's lot "now or in the future" because he considered them "far right". But I guess that's ok now. Here is what he said in 2013 and 2015.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Jeremy Kyle and boy-genius George Finch FIZZING with policy ideas. This amoeba, dressed like an extra from Bugsy, currently runs TWO councils.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

You cannot script this level of cringe. Even for Partridge it would be too much.

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