Given the collapse of the Conservative Party, the BBC should of course be inviting experts on to explain what’s happening. At the same time, “twice-sacked” Tory minister with several axes to grind Suella Braverman may not be the most enlightening person to listen to right now:
Sacked twice within 14 months by two different prime ministers, Braverman invited on to BBC headline politics show. Media is everything to do with why we’re in this mess.
— Lou Calvey (@LouCalvey) May 5, 2024
Incredible.
Conservatives trounced in the local elections, but the bbc flagship politicial programme #bbclaurak lead “interview” is an unchallenged rant from the delusional, divisive, twice-sacked, right wing crank, Suella Braverman.
Why was she platformed?#LauraKuenssberg pic.twitter.com/RpuW3Y90Zz
— Deirdre Heenan (@deirdreheenan) May 5, 2024
Braverman: failing upwards
We don’t know if you’ve ever been justifiably sacked, but if you have, we’re almost certain you weren’t subsequently invited to events to speak as an expert on the career you were rightly ejected from. Politics is far from a normal career, of course, although that’s arguably because it’s filled with far-from-normal people – chief among them Braverman:
https://twitter.com/David__Osland/status/1787052254425452925
Her first departure, just weeks into the role under Liz Truss, was officially labelled a resignation, but in fact Braverman had no choice but to step down for sending an official document from her personal email to a fellow MP, a serious breach of ministerial rules.
The piece noted of her second sacking:
Sunak’s decision to sack Braverman brings down the curtain on a turbulent and often controversial tenure, one succinctly and accurately summarised by her Labour counterpart, Yvette Cooper, in the Commons on Thursday: “No other home secretary would ever have done this.”
“This” was writing an opinion piece in the Times that accused the police of being inherently biased towards left-leaning protests, including clumsy comparisons with Northern Ireland, which caused genuine anger.
Tories like Braverman seem to have forgotten that the first rule of maintaining a police state is that you keep the police on board. This is arguably a good thing, as we’d be in a much worse state of affairs if the Tories were competent. Because they’re not, all they can do is lash out at the failing country they’ve spent the past 14 years failing:
Having crashed the country into a wall, Suella Braverman’s judgment is that they weren’t driving fast enough. You can’t BUY brilliance like that. #bbcnews #Kuenssberg
— Rory Bremner 💙🇺🇦 (@rorybremner) May 5, 2024
Braverman claims she regrets backing Sunak. We’re sure that’s true: we’re less sure if there’s anything a Tory wouldn’t express regret over given their record of abject and public failure:
Laura Kuenssberg; “Do you regret backing Rishi Sunak?”
Suella Braverman; “Honestly, yes I do.”
I wish more MPs would be more honest about the mistake of crowning Rishi. #BBCLauraK pic.twitter.com/oPmoYJWNt0
— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) May 5, 2024
Personally, we think that this is the worst thing she said:
Watch Suella Braverman spit her dummy out.
"Keir Starmer has the charisma of a peanut… Labour is a party of hard left maniacs, who would undo brexit, who would open our borders & who would indoctrinated our institutions & schools with PC madness.. " #bbclaurak pic.twitter.com/DbMRCnPzxP
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) May 5, 2024
Not the part where she started frothing at the mouth; the part in which she likened Starmer to a peanut – Britain’s favourite legume.
Peanuts are flavoursome and reliable – all the things Starmer isn’t.
Good right-wing banter would be to compare him to a souffle – a soft, European trifle which always fails to rise.
Good god, does she not even understand the country she pretends to be patriotic about?
If it wasn’t for the BBC and the mainstream media propping these Tory goons up, people would have seen through them a long time ago.
Local fiasco
The person interviewing Braverman was none other than Laura Kuenssberg. Would you believe that both she and the BBC have received additional criticism for their coverage of the local elections? Particular criticism was attached to this tweet:
What's going on in the London Mayoral race? No votes have been counted yet, so hold on to your hats.. but it is clear tonight that the race is much much closer than some polls had suggested… https://t.co/51KTMDicDY
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 3, 2024
What transpired was a swing towards Labour:
London has spoken
Sadiq Khan has WON a historic third term #LondonMayoralElection as London Mayor
Sadiq Khan 44%
Susan Hall. 33%Beating Susan Hall decisively with a 3.2% SWING from Con to Labour
Yes Susan Hall did even worse than #SexistShaun Shaun Bailey pic.twitter.com/XzOYGubYuH
— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) May 4, 2024
The Savanta survey reported on by the Standard on 2 May had Khan getting 42% and Hall receiving 32%, although to be fair this was less of a gap than the 22 point lead YouGov predicted.
People weren’t happy, anyway:
In that case can you please investigate why last night Laura Kuenssberg was confidently declaring that it was "clear" even before vote counting had begun that it would be closer than polls suggested? Doesn't seem like particularly good journalism to me. pic.twitter.com/BmazPGyJSx
— Dan Whitehead (@DanWritehead) May 4, 2024
Last night's rumours, helpfully amplified by Laura Kuenssberg, were all about creating a story to distract from the thumping losses the Tories suffered on Thursday. It would be easy to say this is all Robbie Gibb's fault, leaning on BBC news & current affairs, but it runs deeper. https://t.co/DK16VD6bSN pic.twitter.com/feSJ7yOlsE
— Miles King (@MilesKing10) May 4, 2024
Knowing that the YouGov poll existed and reading Kuenssberg’s tweet again, we’re going to be annoyingly contrarian and say that for once she wasn’t wrong. Because she’s been unfairly rewarded throughout her career, however, a bit of unfair criticism can only balance things out.
It won’t be alright on the night
Election night did generate some quality screengrabs anyway:
Of the many pleasures afforded by last night's disastrous results for the Tories, Laura Kuenssberg's many wonderful expressions as she announced the crushing defeats of her paymasters are surely a highlight. #ToriesOut #kuenssberg pic.twitter.com/spy6rcpNze
— Dave King 💙 (@daverking) May 3, 2024
The precise moment that Kuenssberg realised she couldn’t spin this as a Tory victory. pic.twitter.com/ngcLQwb4ZC
— Supertanskiii (@supertanskiii) May 3, 2024
Labour taking over from the Tories might not fundamentally change much, but it should mean we don’t see as many frothing weirdoes on our screens – be they failed Tory ministers or failing BBC presenters.
Featured image via BBC
