Sean Kemp
@seankemp.bsky.social
Advised the Lib Dems during coalition. Somehow still able to get work
Reposted by Sean Kemp
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
October 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
Man, this person in No10 really wants to get something off their chest about a career bureaucrat who takes ages to make decisions for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on
October 22, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Man, this person in No10 really wants to get something off their chest about a career bureaucrat who takes ages to make decisions for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on
If you’re going to post a supposedly unhinged literary opinion. Please make it unhinged, I’m just getting quote tweets with stuff like ‘EM Forster was a bit overrated’.
October 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
If you’re going to post a supposedly unhinged literary opinion. Please make it unhinged, I’m just getting quote tweets with stuff like ‘EM Forster was a bit overrated’.
Slightly amazed at his description of this as a ‘low-level mistake’. Just a completely untrue implication of Government corruption on prime-time TV. No biggie! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’
Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract
www.theguardian.com
October 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Slightly amazed at his description of this as a ‘low-level mistake’. Just a completely untrue implication of Government corruption on prime-time TV. No biggie! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
Reposted by Sean Kemp
It'll be wild when Charlotte Church reveals she's been pretending to be Welsh this entire time #TheTraitorsUK #CelebrityTraitors
October 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
It'll be wild when Charlotte Church reveals she's been pretending to be Welsh this entire time #TheTraitorsUK #CelebrityTraitors
Have had it up to here with people who think telling you off for pointing out racist things are racist makes them the modern day equivalent of Philip Gould.
October 1, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Have had it up to here with people who think telling you off for pointing out racist things are racist makes them the modern day equivalent of Philip Gould.
We have another “Let Keir Be Keir” quote by a cabinet member doing the rounds. As any student of politics knows, the moment this appears the politician in question is doomed
October 1, 2025 at 10:45 AM
We have another “Let Keir Be Keir” quote by a cabinet member doing the rounds. As any student of politics knows, the moment this appears the politician in question is doomed
If Labour MPs really are approvingly sharing the essay here then maybe the problem isn’t Starmer
Come for the really good essay by Patrick Maguire, stay for the really bad one being shared (approvingly!!) by some Labour MPs: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
There’s a void at the heart of Labour: it needs a battle of ideas
A withering analysis shared among Keir Starmer’s MPs says his vague incrementalism and absence of critical thinking is steering the party to disaster
www.thetimes.com
September 27, 2025 at 7:43 AM
If Labour MPs really are approvingly sharing the essay here then maybe the problem isn’t Starmer
Reposted by Sean Kemp
There is huge market share for the Lib Dem’s to run with the motto of “enough of this American nonsense let’s be sensible British people
Again” and not sure anyone’s weird arguments that specific voters should be chased is needed at all.
Again” and not sure anyone’s weird arguments that specific voters should be chased is needed at all.
September 24, 2025 at 1:46 PM
There is huge market share for the Lib Dem’s to run with the motto of “enough of this American nonsense let’s be sensible British people
Again” and not sure anyone’s weird arguments that specific voters should be chased is needed at all.
Again” and not sure anyone’s weird arguments that specific voters should be chased is needed at all.
Lib Dem MPs having literally no idea how hard it is to get ‘cut through’. Part of an endless series that has been going on since the party was founded.
Exclusive @theipaper.com: Sir Ed Davey has been told to raise his game by Liberal Democrat MPs amid growing concerns that the party is failing to cut through with the public inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Ed Davey told by his MPs to raise game and drop ‘bullsh*t stunts’
Dissatisfaction has been fuelled by a feeling that the party have not received the media attention that many MPs expected after their election performance
inews.co.uk
September 14, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Lib Dem MPs having literally no idea how hard it is to get ‘cut through’. Part of an endless series that has been going on since the party was founded.
Reposted by Sean Kemp
I am not convinced that getting Keir Starmer to say the same thing about Angela Rayner six times is the open goal some people seem to think it is
September 3, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I am not convinced that getting Keir Starmer to say the same thing about Angela Rayner six times is the open goal some people seem to think it is
“Fancy working in Downing Street? The hours are brutal and it’s high stress.”
“Is there much job security?”
“Most people last a year before being sacked.”
“And will I get a reference?”
“Oh yes. After you get kicked out we’ll tell the newspapers you were shit.”
“Is there much job security?”
“Most people last a year before being sacked.”
“And will I get a reference?”
“Oh yes. After you get kicked out we’ll tell the newspapers you were shit.”
September 2, 2025 at 7:17 AM
“Fancy working in Downing Street? The hours are brutal and it’s high stress.”
“Is there much job security?”
“Most people last a year before being sacked.”
“And will I get a reference?”
“Oh yes. After you get kicked out we’ll tell the newspapers you were shit.”
“Is there much job security?”
“Most people last a year before being sacked.”
“And will I get a reference?”
“Oh yes. After you get kicked out we’ll tell the newspapers you were shit.”
Sometimes when dealing with the comms around a bad story you put down the blunt reasoning for a decision to help begin the process of turning it into something palatable. Here they just… used that as the statement?
I kinda love that Alex Beard's argument is explicitly 'but look, you have to understand. When we said that, it was really easy'.
August 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Sometimes when dealing with the comms around a bad story you put down the blunt reasoning for a decision to help begin the process of turning it into something palatable. Here they just… used that as the statement?
Reposted by Sean Kemp
it's time for the most fiendish literary quiz of the year. "Who said it - John Wycliffe or Wyclef Jean"
August 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
it's time for the most fiendish literary quiz of the year. "Who said it - John Wycliffe or Wyclef Jean"
Terrific times. Trying to convey a message of ‘don’t panic, but also make sure you aren’t at risk of running out of petrol’. What could possibly go wrong?
"Delete your photos to save water" is terrible advice, but it's not in the same league of truly terrible government advice that was David Cameron's office urging the country to stockpile petrol.
August 13, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Terrific times. Trying to convey a message of ‘don’t panic, but also make sure you aren’t at risk of running out of petrol’. What could possibly go wrong?
Reposted by Sean Kemp
This is a wonderful piece about all the times that people hit him (and includes an incredible Stanley Holloway line that I won’t spoil in advance): www.comedy.co.uk/features/com...
Rex Harrison: His greatest hits - Comedy Chronicles - British Comedy Guide
The jaw-dropping tale of Rex Harrison, who may have been one of Hollywood's biggest stars but elicited far more anger than admiration amongst those he met.
www.comedy.co.uk
August 12, 2025 at 8:59 PM
This is a wonderful piece about all the times that people hit him (and includes an incredible Stanley Holloway line that I won’t spoil in advance): www.comedy.co.uk/features/com...
Seeing the original Naked Gun as a sullen teenager with my father and both of us ending up helpless with laughter will always be one of my favourite memories.
One of the best evenings out is watching comedy in a full house, whether it is a movie, a play or a set.
Side consequence of how much I enjoyed “The Naked Gun” is having to fight the urge when asked “single?” about a gin and tonic to reply: “No, I’m married.”
August 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Seeing the original Naked Gun as a sullen teenager with my father and both of us ending up helpless with laughter will always be one of my favourite memories.
Anthony Seldon writing a piece of analysis that should never have been published? Colour me shocked!
sorry, I cannot let it lie: I do believe this is one of the worst articles I have read for a while. I don't know how The Times allowed it through.
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Set aside the quite dreadful use of "rearranging the deckchairs", appalling cliche that no editor should allow
1/
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Set aside the quite dreadful use of "rearranging the deckchairs", appalling cliche that no editor should allow
1/
July 30, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Anthony Seldon writing a piece of analysis that should never have been published? Colour me shocked!
The next few years are going to be an enjoyable drumbeat of Conservatives discovering what it means when you're not one of the big two in a two-party system. Wait until they work out what being the third (or even fourth) party is like in Parliament! conservativehome.com/2025/07/15/n...
Nigel Evans: It might be time to think the 'unthinkable' about our electoral system | Conservative Home
I know all the arguments against PR because I have utilised them all on many occasions over the past 50 years. I don’t have the answer as to which system would be the best to use, but I sure know whic...
conservativehome.com
July 22, 2025 at 9:57 AM
The next few years are going to be an enjoyable drumbeat of Conservatives discovering what it means when you're not one of the big two in a two-party system. Wait until they work out what being the third (or even fourth) party is like in Parliament! conservativehome.com/2025/07/15/n...
Strongly agree with this. No10 aside - where they get a lot of spads- we are still basically marooning inexperienced people in massive departments
Being a spad, in current form, is basically impossible job
If you have way more, it becomes “normal” job, opening it to more people than “childless people in their 20s and early 30s”
Heck, you could even have people with experience. 55-year olds. Imagine!
If you have way more, it becomes “normal” job, opening it to more people than “childless people in their 20s and early 30s”
Heck, you could even have people with experience. 55-year olds. Imagine!
July 19, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Strongly agree with this. No10 aside - where they get a lot of spads- we are still basically marooning inexperienced people in massive departments
Reposted by Sean Kemp
Live Aid was shit, though. Sorry.
July 12, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Live Aid was shit, though. Sorry.
Reposted by Sean Kemp
New Bluesky slogan just dropped.
It smells like the left wing of the day of judgment
July 11, 2025 at 6:23 AM
New Bluesky slogan just dropped.
Anthony Seldon weirdly just seems to regularly say things that imply he doesn’t know that much about the history of Prime Ministers or politics. Despite it having been his career
Irritating quotation from Seldon. Thatcher had a "clear and consistent plan", so the 79-81 crisis was fine.
Except her government performed a screeching U-Turn on its core economic (monetarist) policy, despite her rhetoric.
I don't expect most people to remember that, but I do expect historians.
Except her government performed a screeching U-Turn on its core economic (monetarist) policy, despite her rhetoric.
I don't expect most people to remember that, but I do expect historians.
July 4, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Anthony Seldon weirdly just seems to regularly say things that imply he doesn’t know that much about the history of Prime Ministers or politics. Despite it having been his career