Ewan Carmichael

So Lisa Nandy is leaving Twitter/X and what a dramatic farewell it’s turned out to be. Part puritanical, part petulance, part Garboesque in her wanting to retreat from the seething on-line @X society that sees the good and the bad in all its messy glory. Her righteous indignation aside, Lisa has shown herself over the years to be one of the most ruthless factional operators in the @UKLabour Party. She was there at the formation of the Morgan McSweeney and Steve Reed syndicate Labour Together - an underhand organisation that soon became completely focused on destroying Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. And as Paul Holden shows so graphically in his book The Fraud, no-one operated more ruthlessly or unethically than Labour Together (now rebranded as @ThinkLabour). In her zealous determination to see the back of Corbyn, Lisa was also one of the main organisers of Owen Smith’s unsuccessful leadership bid against Corbyn in 2016. This came after a carefully coordinated coup against Corbyn earlier that year had also failed. Lisa was at the forefront of that coup. In her farewell tweet on @X Lisa said that the platform is a threat to democracy. But there was Lisa and her fellow factional plotters in 2015 and 2016 doing everything they could to destroy the democratic mandate that Corbyn had been given to lead the Labour Party. Lisa and her cronies have continued to denigrate and defame Corbyn in the succeeding years, the latest being a crude charge of antisemitism against Corbyn in the Commons on Wednesday by @HFalconerMP. Lisa has for some time now prevented anyone responding directly to her on Twitter/X. Twitter/X is the unwanted fly in the political ointment of her career - a career that has seen her accepted for years as the acceptable face, the darling even, of the Labour Party by the @BBC and the political/MSM establishment. Proof of how Lisa has been a favourite at the #BBC can be seen in the number of times she’s been invited to appear on @bbcquestiontime - 25 times. Corbyn’s standing at the BBC is reflected in the fact that he’s only appeared on #bbcqt 5 times in 40+ years including two leadership specials. The two most robust and passionate defences of Corbyn that I’ve ever seen were from Labour stalwart John Prescott and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Incidentally, both of these defences of Corbyn were on @bbcquestiontime. Zephaniah’s defence of Corbyn came during an appearance on 29th November 2018. Sitting alongside him on the panel that day (and looking conspicuously uncomfortable) was Lisa Nandy. facebook.com/share/v/17fnTvW… John Prescott made his defence of Corbyn in February 2018 and called the charges of antisemitism against Corbyn the “dirtiest slur” he’d seen against any politician in his fifty years in politics. Benjamin Zephaniah’s defence of Corbyn had always been easy to access on @YouTube. It was essential viewing and much more for it went to the very heart of what was being done to Corbyn politically and personally, not least by Lisa Nandy who was sitting right there. But then a curious thing happened. After Labour was elected to govern in July 2024, Lisa Nandy was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. And not long after she was appointed the aforementioned Zephaniah appearance on #bbcqt disappeared from You Tube. I’d referenced it on a regular basis if only to witness how rare a phenomenon it was to see Corbyn defended so robustly in the face of the abuse and slander that was the norm on television and in the press. What I’ve always wondered is did Lisa Nandy use her newly acquired clout as a Minister of State to remove that particular appearance of Benjamin Zephaniah on Question Time from You Tube? Knowing Lisa’s aversion to democracy, transparency and anything that portrays her in an unfavourable light, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. @lisanandy @DCMS @UKLabour @jeremycorbyn @BBCNews @Channel4News @MichelleDewbs @SkyNews @pauleholden @AJEnglish @GBNEWS @GMB @andyburnhamHQ