Today we kick off our first in the “What If? “ series @thenewsagents.com . Your qs begin with… “what if Scotland had voted YES… / what if Murdoch hadn’t bought The Sun / .. What if Gordon Brown hadn’t lost it with Gillian Duffy .. - at 5pm - as we dabble with the counterfactual..(Merry Xmas!) - ThreadSky

maitlis.bsky.social • 67 days ago

Today we kick off our first in the “What If? “ series @thenewsagents.com .
Your qs begin with…
“what if Scotland had voted YES… /
what if Murdoch hadn’t bought The Sun / ..
What if Gordon Brown hadn’t lost it with Gillian Duffy ..
- at 5pm - as we dabble with the counterfactual..(Merry Xmas!)

Comments

andrewlaughland.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Margaret Beckett hadn’t nominated Jeremy Corbyn to get him on the Labour leadership ticket?

newtyke.bsky.social•63 days ago

Brown's mistake was not losing it with Gillian Duffy but failing to lose the Sky microphone before sounding off in what he thought was a private conversation.

alhearts.bsky.social•67 days ago

Scotland could have been in the EU with a government working to improve the lives of everyone who lived there. Geographically one of the most important places on earth. Instead Eng/Wal are on the path to giving us Farage. Voting No has been an unmitigated disaster for Scotland.

pennyflynn.bsky.social•67 days ago

But these things cannot be undone. The damage Murdoch has done is permanent and his malevolent offspring will continue. This die is cast.

milneorchid.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Farage hadn't survived that plane crash, and Britain was therefore still a successful country?

thebigredape.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Eton burned to the ground?

mrsvsmegma.bsky.social•67 days ago

With all the traitors in it preferrably

sizzleabizzle.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Mac Culkin kicked Trump in the nuts

wingletang.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if John Smith hadn't died.

ric68.bsky.social•67 days ago

100% 💔

jjbillyd.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Evan Harris MP had told the voters of Oxford West and Abingdon that the 2010 boundary changes meant the seat was no longer a safe Lib Dem one, hadn't subsequently lost to the Tories by fewer than 200 votes, and instead given Lab/Lib 2 more against the Tories?

saintyick.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Sky had kept what was said off camera off camera?

jonnythatcher.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the booker for Have I Got News For You hadn’t thought Boris Johnson would be an amusing guest?

brainbomb.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the booker for Question Time had thought "Farage? No let's 'no platform' fascists." (Griffin too, obviously.)

daryltu.bsky.social•67 days ago

Quite!

robin.bobin.uk•67 days ago

Guest host even!!

tlazolteotl1519.bsky.social•67 days ago

Interesting Scotland segment but 100% a London perspective, concluding that had we voted yes, the only win would be rUK being saved from Brexit! Implying a natural drift back to 'normality', & that the indy argument's over - for now.

So - entirely oblivious to our day-to-day political reality!

guru666.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Ghislaine Maxwell has kept a detailed list of everything?

guru666.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the majority of the UK’s media wasn’t owned by right wing billionaires?

guru666.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the pro-Brexit side hadn’t broken the rules, taken Russian money or used Cambridge Analytica?

guru666.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if David had beaten Ed?

smilingsoor.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if tufton street, Farage and Johnson had not been promoted on bbc; politics live, question time, hignfy.

jaminatin.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if my aunt got her legs turned into wheels?

lucyarnold.bsky.social•67 days ago

If Scotland had voted Yes, we'd be in the EU, England and Wales would have has a very soft Brexit and there would be no Irish Sea border.

50ishgardener.bsky.social•67 days ago

I doubt Brexit would’ve happened at all… Cameron resigns after Yes vote; Coalition collapses so General Election in 2014… Tories only just won in 2015 so under this scenario Milliband forms government and Tories/UKIP knock lumps out of each other

acewiz8.bsky.social•67 days ago

I’d have presumed reality being enough of a challenge not to throw in “what ifs!”.
What if no one commented on this?🧐

dpmanchee.bsky.social•67 days ago

Imagine if the UK had good jobs spread around all regions and nations.

This from a recent @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social article says it all

bobb5.bsky.social•67 days ago

Scotland would be in a much better place.

We cannot make the same mistake the next time.

lucyarnold.bsky.social•67 days ago

Which is why they won't give us a next time.

bobb5.bsky.social•67 days ago

We can't rely on anyone giving us a next time.

If/when support is high enough in May next year that should be enough.

lucyarnold.bsky.social•67 days ago

2/2 Look, I'm with you, we need to fight for it, I'm just trying to be realistic. It's probably not going to happen for another 10 years (or if Farage gets into No. 10, then I'll be fighting for UDI, quite literally if I have to, there's no way I'm being governed by that little turd).

lucyarnold.bsky.social•67 days ago

Unfortunately it's hovered around 50/50 since the last referendum. The longest streak of yes was in 2020 and that peaked at 52% yes. That doesn't mark the end result, I admit, but we'd have a hard time demanding it when it's that close, this close to the last ref. 1/2

toplandscaper.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the #AngloState stopped lying to the Scottish people......

thebeardidlady.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if there had been no pandemic? Or, what if vaccines against covid had not been developed?

thebeardidlady.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if income tax were increased to 99% for all income over £1,000,000 in any tax year, whether from work or from investments?

thebeardidlady.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Theresa May hadn't called the election that led to her downfall?

tgannawade.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Brown had called the election when he took over and before the global crash..?.

thebeardidlady.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if private medical insurers had to pay significant amounts of money to the NHS any time they fell back on relying on NHS staff and resources because their own provision is inadequate?

thebeardidlady.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Nigel Farage hadn't benefited from so many appearances on Question Time.

daryltu.bsky.social•67 days ago

Indeed 👍

freedomforall.net•67 days ago

Hope there will be a "what if the Labour right hadn't decided to undermine Corbyn".

toplandscaper.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the #AngloState stopped lying to the Scottish people......

mydogbert.bsky.social•66 days ago

What if the bbc hadn’t been strategically seeded with Tories in the top jobs by the last conservative government, would you still be at the bbc?

louthforever.bsky.social•67 days ago

🙃

https://bsky.app/profile/theguardian.com/post/3le2bsmzwjc2t

timang.us•67 days ago

Ssssshhhhhh, you'll wake the cybernats!

helenstyle.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Boris Johnson had dropped dead of drink before the Brexit referendum?

slamb.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if the country hadn't sold every piece of its infrastructure to the highest bidder

johnrodway.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Gordon Brown had called an election in 2009 but decided not to ?

brendanl2011.bsky.social•67 days ago

Perhaps ask what if Gordon Brown had stuck to his guns and not backed down under media pressure on his comments to Gillian Duffy

scotswahey.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if Scotland had decent journalists that reported facts👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

mrsvsmegma.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if someone had a camera when the pigs head was in the room with Cameron?
What if the UK electorate (especially the English) weren’t so gullible lazy and terminally stupid?
What if the BBC actually were impartial?

endofmeoldcigar.bsky.social•67 days ago

No Murdoch? That alone would’ve made the world an infinitely happier place. No-one has caused so much misery to so many millions in the Anglosphere.

sirtom.bsky.social•67 days ago

With hindsight, Brown should have doubled down.

sirtom.bsky.social•67 days ago

It's an excellent example to illustrate how much the Overton window has shifted since the Tories last came to power.

lucyarnold.bsky.social•67 days ago

Agree, she was a bigot!

gregwa.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if we had nationalised all failing banks (or let them fail if they refuse and then buy them after the event) rather than rescued them in 2008?

jayfer55.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if we had followed Icelands example and jailed the "bankers"👍

andrewblueskies.bsky.social•67 days ago

What if London wasn't the capital ...

toplandscaper.bsky.social•67 days ago

London is the capital of England, not the UK. Each country has its own capital.

andrewblueskies.bsky.social•67 days ago

Of course; But, London still distorts the way the country, and indeed the regions, are viewed and managed; the South East enjoys a disproportionate level of investment and news interest