Stephanie Merritt's avatar

Stephanie Merritt

@stephmerritt.bsky.social

1209 followers 512 following 1358 posts

Alter-ego of Sunday Times #1 best-selling author SJ Parris. Words for The Observer. Legally Irish. ‘Alchemy' out now.

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Twlldun 's avatar Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social
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Inside you are two wolves

10 replies 8 reposts 26 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Fair enough - I guess living in a marginal, protest voting always makes me nervous!

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I think as the idea of 'safe seats' becomes a thing of the past, protest voting is a risky strategy. And I don't think this was the election for anyone left of centre to be protesting against *the Labour Party*

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Simon Threadgold's avatar Simon Threadgold @dimwittedly.bsky.social
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‘Starmer scraps Rwanda policy’ But I was told Starmer’s Labour and the Tories are the same. It’s almost as if anyone saying that is some kind of cretinous buffoon, so emotionally hung up on not getting their precisely exact perfect version of Labour, they dismiss anything else as being Tory. Huh.

1 replies 18 reposts 79 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Yes, I should have said 'covert' rather than 'mild', apologies

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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The Basildon result is incredibly upsetting - Green or LD voters there could have returned a Labour MP, instead they helped deliver a far right one. Big win for your protest vote there guys, nice work. 🙄

1 replies 1 reposts 11 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I felt like this when Biden came in - look, people who know what they're doing (let's not think about that too much now 😬)

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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A cabinet full of experts instead of the worst grifters you can find to agree with you. I might just have a little cry.

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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It's beginning to sink in now. Things might actually... get better?

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Yes - it's a long-term project and has to start with education, I think. But of course you're going up against the might of everything that's accessible online encouraging far right narrative

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I don't know what the solution is. If Labour try to appease that demographic they lose their educated metropolitan centrists. I do get that a lot of Reform voters feel abandoned. I just don't get how they can look at F*rage and feel he speaks for them

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Yeah but then they'd meet you and discover that you are a riot of volatile and untameable excess

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Could be - for me it's more of a 'why didn't I appreciate Gordon Brown more when we had him?' vibe

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Right, I have to go and finish a book so I can pay all the extra tax for the new hospitals - wishing everyone a happy new era of stability and moderation!

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Definitely a little something in my eye

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Great speech. God, what a relief to see Labour unshackled from the inexplicable personality cult of recent history

0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I've never been so aroused by the idea of stability and moderation

5 replies 1 reposts 22 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Wait, are you the bloke on the wire from The Room Next Door?

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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They just nicked your jokes!! Sue them

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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This from @stephenmcgann.uk on the other place can’t be said often or loudly enough. It’s why ideological purity on the left makes me grind my teeth to dust

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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He's a performance art project. He must be.

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Naomi Alderman's avatar Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social
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Hey listen. We’re not going to be sending vulnerable asylum-seekers to Rwanda. That’s a low bar, as a country, but it’s still a relief.

3 replies 8 reposts 110 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I was just thinking - if the Telegraph's worst fears come true and we get a good decade of Labour, my 80-something parents might not have to spend their last years on the floor of a hospital corridor.

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Anyway, I'm going to stop the Reform handwringing now and focus on the fact that the Lib Dems have an astonishing 71 seats 😲

3 replies 0 reposts 20 likes

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Dr Francis Young's avatar Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
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Yes but you have to do it while bungee-jumping in a zorb

1 replies 4 reposts 22 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Oh I think pre-social media there definitely were things that were considered unacceptable to say. It's a mark of my massive privilege (education etc) that until social media came along I had no idea how rife eg misogyny is. Life spent in nice lefty-lib arty circles where no-one said that stuff

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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yes - I guess it was, pre-Brexit, a stance that probably would have stayed in the pub - now there's an official outlet for it. I boggled but then I rarely leave my bubble.

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Every election I observe that, whatever bollocks people spout about decency & the NHS etc, when it comes the ballot box it seems a large number of us are motivated principally by self-interest and mild racism.

2 replies 1 reposts 10 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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She just can't wait to get to California, can she

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Reposted by Stephanie Merritt

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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It's almost comical to watch the hard left over on Twitter furiously coming up with all the takes on why this is a terrible result for Labour and Starmer personally 🤦🏻‍♀️

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Holy God. Show this to the young people in your life next time when they say their vote doesn't count 😲

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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It's only just occurred to me - this is the first time my son has actually voted in a general election (he missed the 2019 one by a month) and on his first go, he got rid of a Tory!! Some of us had to wait years for that to happen...

2 replies 0 reposts 14 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I grew up in Tory safe seats where the only challengers were Lib Dems. My parents instilled in me from a young age the dream of PR. In 2010 I fervently hoped the coalition might deliver it. For the first time in my life I've gone right off it 😬

3 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Hard to imagine finally having a prime minister we don't have to be ashamed of on the world stage for the first time since Gordon Brown

2 replies 1 reposts 15 likes

Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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I mean, I've always assumed he was courting a racist vote but I guess the present situation has made it more focussed.

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Trying to let the Hunt thing go, but no, I'm going to be annoyed by it all day. Doing a tribal/protest vote at the expense of real change is pure luxury activism

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Yes, my very basic take is this is the Leave vote who are amazed to find that actually leaving hasn't made their circumstances any better

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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For data, sure. What I can live without is the centre-left doing its usual thing of 'we must try to understand Leave/Trump/Reform voters'.

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Stephanie Merritt's avatar Stephanie Merritt @stephmerritt.bsky.social
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Word on the street in Bramley (my PT) is that people there generally feel he handled that pretty well

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