to thank Emily Thornberry profusely

[longfingernails]

She has just shown how much Labour detest the aspirational working class, the swingiest of swing voters. Labour will be hit with this again and again and again; ever denial and denunciation will just bring Labour's true views to a wider audience. Fundamentally, it will only reinforce the undeniable fact that Miliband's centre of gravity is firmly ensconced in Islington.

She has made a Tory/UKIP coalition, perhaps the best possible electoral outcome, much more likely. Thank you Emily!

The biggest issue for me is that anyone, of any political hue, thought, "do you know what, this is a sensible tweet!" I am astounded that she didn't have the sense to think it might be considered provocative. Anyone without that inner voice of reason, should not be in a position of power.

Sadly, it seems that across the board, we are saddled with these thoughtless individuals.

DrE thoughtless individuals across the board is right: My DH drew the parallel with the board running Sheffield Wednesday and I thought of the entire team who allowed ScienceGuyWithAwfulShirt out on TV.

BakewellSlice
more 'harsh reality' than 'head in the sand'.
I personally don't care how much of a charisma lacking geek Milliband is, i don't think they are negative qualities in terms of running a successful gov/country. However, many people do seem to think they are important; a Farage style quip is much more newsworthy and media -friendly than Milliband's strange third-person style of delivery.
Labour have always been portrayed negatively by the media, whether it's Foot's coat, or a modern ill-timed tweet.

*Mark Reckless suggests turfing out all foreigners and is duly elected.

Thornberry tweets a pic that mildly implies plastering your house in England flags is undesirable; instant resignation.*
So true, and so very sad.

It most definitely is selective, ArcheryAnnie. Very selective. I would be very surprised if there are any/many kids there now who made it through the entrance exam who haven't been tutored. They state openly that you need to be working comfortably within level 5 across the board by the end of year 5 or you do not stand a cat-in-hell's chance of getting in.

Once upon a time, bright kids from ordinary backgrounds (like Gary Kemp for example) could get in. Not any more. For the most part, it's about kids with parents like Emily Thornberry. Chris Whitehead derided the hypocrisy of her sending her kids there.

I'll concede the academy status having looked at DAO's Wikipedia entry. That said, the school itself does not describe itself as an 'academy' openly on its own website and you have to dig to find any reference to it, hence the fact that I wasn't aware of this. It is in practice an old-style selective grammar.

PaIeo don't mind a geek at all.

I do mind a Labour snob, so sue me.

Emily T like Pilae Scientist guy is probably good at what she does (human rights?) -some interesting comments from constituents though! But both needed to take some responsibility for how their respective visual messages can be interpreted.

I had no issue with Foot's coat and wasn't moved by media coverage, he was unlucky to be there at the start of closer media scrutiny of politicians.

Emily's tweet didn't need any media spin to look clunking to me.

Is the day coming when politicians just stay off Twitter altogether? The game doesn't seem worth the candle half the time and they could be using their time far more productively. The 24-hour newscycle has a lot to answer for, and the rot set in with Blair & Alistair Campbell's relentless focus on presentation and media-messaging. Twitter's just amplified that.

bob it would save a lot of nonsense.

I really don't think it's fair to judge someone based on how they educate their children.
Principles aside, all parents want the best they can possibly provide for their kids, whether backbencher or prime-minister (or van driving, flag toting voter).

In the case of a politician it's of legitimate interest to constituents if they endeavour to have their children educated outwith their catchment school.

Then again they are right to put the interests of children ahead of career.

It's more relevant than them judging a random by their house styling and choice of vehicle tbh.

It does seem to represented a lot of these labour types these days. Sneering and looking down their noses at anyone who could possibly vote for Tories or UKIP. She is a silly ignorant snob IMHO and I wouldn't want anyone like her representing me. I will absolutely not be voting Labour although I did at the last GE. She should be expelled from the party.

expelled from the party
Bloody Hell....some perspective?

to repeat Boulevard's excellent point

Mark Reckless suggests turfing out all foreigners and is duly elected. Thornberry tweets a pic that mildly implies plastering your house in England flags is undesirable; instant resignation

Paleo: Repeatedly referring to Reckless doesn't make Thornberry any more sensible.

Back to your link to the tweeted house photo , did you not see the difference between the prior tweet and her Rochester one?

OK that was a bit over the top. . But somebody said her mask slipped. How true. And he didn't say turfing out all foreigners. It was raised in Question Time and apparently he didn't say that exactly. I expect Emily Thronberry would rather deport people with white vans and flags outside their houses. They're not the type we want in the UK. Ghastly woman.

I'm a lifelong Labour supporter and will be voting Labour in May. I heart Thornberry - she is a fantastic MP - and am dismayed that she could be so ridiculously snotty and misjudge this so very badly.

I detest the Tories and UKIP and shudder at the thought of a coalition between these two parties...but sadly agree with the OP that this sort of thing plays right into their hands by perpetuating the idea that Labour are Londoncentric champagne socialist snobs. Which isn't true. Milliband has a far too male, Oxbridge-led inner circle - thats is true - but the majority of the party activists and supporters are NOT like this. Its infuriating that this message isn't getting through.

And I do wish politicians would lay off social media. I abhor it. Its so cringeworthy to see politicians trying to be witty and being so personality driven on Twitter etc. Urgh. Policy over personality...please!

i don't think it's about trying to make Thornberry more sensible, rather it's showing the difference between a mild mistake and jaw-dropping xenophobia, the latter being acceptable (apparently) and the former deserving of expulsion from the party. i despair if that is really the case.

Of course I can see the difference between the two tweets, in that the last one, without explanatory text, can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and only Thornberry herself knows which is true. What the reaction by Labour shows is that they are so shit scared of loosing more voters to UKIP, and being portrayed as further out-of-touch with working people they jumped on it like a ton of bricks.
It's a very sad state of affairs, and personally i'd rather have MPs who occasionally make ill-judged remarks/tweets than those who ideologically and dogmatically believe that furriners should be deported.

I'm surprised she's resigned over that tweet. Seems fairly innoculous - bit like Gordon Brown's 'That woman' thing. We all know that's what the Labour elite think of the average people: and that's why they move heaven and earth to get their kids educated away from them, (eh Thornberry) while telling the rest of us to send our kids to the local state. (I'll never understand the love for Dianne 'My kids are alright - screw yours' Abbot on this forum too).

Vivienne, I think what I'm referring to was at a local hustings?

Someone asked him what would happen about a Polish plumber, say, who already lived and worked here, and he said they probably ought to be allowed to stay for a transitional period, and then as further q's were asked dug himself into a progressively deeper hole.

"Milliband has a far too male, Oxbridge-led inner circle - thats is true - but the majority of the party activists and supporters are NOT like this."

But that's the problem! The Miliband-drones hold sway and the activists and supporters are bottom of the heap. That is part and parcel of this debacle; the perception that Thornberry and her ilk are destroying what the party traditionally stood for and despise what was represented in the photo she tweeted.

This was being complained about when Blair was still in charge. The party cannot survive when identikit politicians who've never had a job outside politics or the legal sphere remain in the majority and are the ones in charge, with favoured candidates parachuted in and imposed on local constituencies. The Tories have similar issues. Traditional party politics is imploding but those at the top refuse to see it and refuse to change their approach.

honestly, it just gets more and more like "the Thick of It"

"Powell came slightly unstuck when Andrew Neil, the presenter, asked her what it was that Thornberry was trying to say. Powell replied:

I don’t know. But I don’t think it was acceptable and that’s why she’s resigned."

so, we don't know what she meant or was trying to say, but we know it was unacceptable.....errrr what

I agree with mrs Devere.
It made me lol on the news just now apparently the man who's house it was has said I don't have a clue who she is but she is a snob. Just about sums it up really.

Thornberry SHOULD have said:

"So fucking what? I posted the picture because white van man in Rochester is like Romford man and the BNP. These people are the fucking gormless imbeciles that will allow shitheads like Farage into power and wrap their racism in the flag of St George. Now get out of my fucking way I have an election to win."

One of the first responses to Emily Thornberry's tweet was "And your point is?", and there has not been a clear response to that question so it is unsurprising that people have placed their own interpretation on the purpose of her tweet.

Even if she wasn't sneering, it is incredibly crass to put up a picture of someone else's property it is inviting others to sneer, deride and make fun of the image and the person/people who live there all without their permission or knowledge. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence or common sense and awareness of social media would be well aware of that possibility and for a sitting MP to blithely subject a member of the public to that says a lot about her disconnect from the public she seeks to serve.

Paleo you earlier said that the tweets she took of other houses explained this one.

I don't know why you are shifting your ground in order to keep on defending her.

I agree it's not a major policy blunder but the tweet , and the defences of it, show a disconnect for Labour.

That would have been refreshing bodhranbae!