"I've never seen anything like it!"

Emily Thornberry is not a child. She was the Shadow Attorney General for heavens sake and she has made a PR disaster for Labour.

Emily Thornberry has no qualms about talking about her childhood and at practically every interview or debate I have seen her taking part in she mentions it.

To those who try and say it is all to do with the right wing press who are the devil incarnate, you are wrong. Emily Thornberry tweeted this photo on the day of the Rochester and Strood election. There was a backlash on twitter and the tweet was being talked about on the BBC and SKY News very quickly afterwards. If you ever read other posts you will see the Thornberry 'gaff' was discussed all evening and into the early hours of the following day whilst t.v stations were covering the count.

The Newspapers had not even been printed and by the time they hit the shops the story was most certainly well on it's way.

Emily Thornberry was brought up in council house with little money, so were thousands of others myself included. Because she had that background some excuse her tweet saying 'because she lived in a council house she couldn't possibly be sneering'. To others the fact she was brought up in a council house means 'she was taking the p--s'.

A poster on this thread said Islington is the 8th most deprived area in the country. I can't dispute that fact.

However in the 1960's the georgian terraces were popular with the middle classes and the area was revamped, displacing a lot of poor families by the aspirational middle class and this is known as GENTRIFICATION. Even the saintly Guardian's description of Islington on wikipedia says 'Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of the left wing intelligentsia'. I won't argue with the Guardian.

The fact that Labour millionaires such as the Blair's, Thornberry, Hodgson, Mandelson etc. have/had homes there has obviously been under scrutiny because of Thornberry and her tweet. It has done Labour no favours trying to stop the point that the Labour Party is being run by millionaires , privately educated , champagne socialists.

She had to go, not because she made a crass error of judgement but she threw the spotlight back onto Miliband et all who are struggling to get through to their core voters.

One in the back of the net for UKIP.

Very good post, POGS

I won't argue with the Guardian. POGS

Of course, with the proliferation of social media and instant communications this sort of thing happens more and more. I have heard the term 'verbal diarrrhoea' - not a very pleasant expression but it does it does describe quite aptly the ability some people have to talk endlessly without engaging brain before mouth. Nowadays these thoughts can be tweeted and instantly relayed to thousands, if not millions, of people around the world and can't be retracted.

If she is the person she purports to be then she will be regretting this bitterly, if she is the smug champagne socialist portrayed in some sections of the media then she will be bewildered and she won't understand what all the fuss is about.

However, a person who is intelligent, educated, lived life in different strata of society and who holds the position of Shadow Attorney General should have the ability to think before she acts and speaks, so perhaps she wasn't the best person for the job.

Poor Ed, this is all he needed!

Excellent well written post. POGS.

I would think Ed is anything but "poor" rosequartz

Excellent posts POGS and rosequartz.
To the poster who said I am opinionated...... 'pot calling the kettle black' hmmmn? I never say that all Labour MPs are bad/ lazy/arrogant unlike some who say that all the time about other political parties. I think for myself and don't get sucked into any idealogical black hole.Nor do I live in the past.
The price of flats/houses in the centre of London is astronomical, but that's market pressure and they were just as expensive a few years ago [in real terms] when Labour were in power.It has nothing to do with what party is in power.
For the other poster who asks if I have nothing better to worry about, then the answer is yes, I have family problems to worry about, but that doesn't stop me from posting an opinion on here, and was a very snide comment to make.

I wouldn't worry about it rosesarered we are all entitled to our own opinion and yours is just as valuable and relevant as the next persons.

Not commenting on rosesarered or gillybob or their posts just making a general point.......everyone has an equal right hold any opinion. They are also entitled to express their opinions. The right to hold and express opinions does not make all our opinions of equal value or relevance. I'll get my coat.

I thought this article about the 'incident' was good.

Another tweet I saw today said this: @annie80778: The Sun call Emily Thornberry a "snob" but the man flying flags outside his house because "ethnic minorities don't like it"? Oh he's A-OK.

The right to hold and express opinions does not make all our opinions of equal value or relevance

But, Lilygran who exactly has the right to decide that someone's opinions are not of equal value to their own, or in fact relevant?

Unless, of course, those opinions will cause danger, misery and/or warfare.

Interesting, bags, but would the article have been written if her parents lived in a Welsh street and the Welsh flag was flying when people who were not British moved in to that street?

The English need to reclaim the English flag. We need also to have an English national anthem, which is proud but not jingoistic.

Until I read the comments below this article I must admit I hadn't realised there had been a football match between England and Scotland the night before the photo was taken. Or that one of the flags had a West Ham crest on it. It seem quite obvious what the flags were there for, even though the writer seems convinced otherwise.

I would be interested to know where the tweeter @annie8078 found out that the man flew the flags 'because ethnic minorities don't like it'. I don't read twitter so I can't read the relevant thread (or whatever they're called).

Emily Thornberry told Mail Online: "It was a house covered in British flags. I've never seen anything like it before."

"It had three huge flags covering the whole house. I thought it was remarkable. I've never seen a house completely covered in flags."

I still can't work that one out. One large flag nearly obscures one window, there's a smaller one hanging next to it and another which appears to be hanging from the large one by one corner!

Anyone who's seen the tweet will realise what she said is utter nonsense!

nightowl, I asked about the football match in my post of Thu 20-Nov-14 20:03:21 (on page 1) as it was the first thing that came to my mind as the reason for the flags being festooned on the house.

It's a little bit worrying if the Shadow Attorney General did not know the difference between the Union Flag and the Flag of St George (of course, the Mail online could have misreported what she said )

Sorry rosequartz I missed that. I think I came late to this thread and have repeated what several people have already said quite a few times!

I get what you're saying, ana, but it's not utter nonsense: English flags are British flags, as are Scottish ones and Welsh ones.

forgot to add a

No - I meant the part about the house being 'completely covered in flags', bags, which it obviously wasn't!

Nothing to do with the flags themselves.

If it had have been, there might have been more point to her tweet.

Not being snippy, nightowl , as I find it impossible to wade through a long thread if I come to it late.

It was me who was differentiating between the flags; yes they are all British flags, but I think we all know what ET meant.

Exactly rosequartz we do indeed.

Lilygran Yes, we are all on this forum to have an opinion on matters, I have no problem with anyone holding socialist views [or Communist, Green, Tory, or otherwise] and posting their opinion , that's what we are here for, as to some views being more valid?A personal opinion is just that, personal, and we are all different.Before this thread was posted, it had become so one sided as to be ridiculous[oh, the evil Lib Dems and Tories etc ] this thread has evened it out some. Some posters like nightowl have been honest with their posts and expressed regret that a Labour MP did this, and some have been frankly.... in denial.To say the least.
If a Conservative or Lib Dem MP had posted this tweet, I would have condemned them just as roundly, their politics would have made no difference to me, a crass remark or act is every bit as bad no matter what their politics.

So what did Emily Thornberry mean, rose?

About being in denial.... I rest my case .

And she's obviously completely ignorant as to what comprises the frontage of an ordinary house. One window obscured = 'completely covered'...