Author Nunns gives FT journo an object lesson in anti-Tory Twitter pwnage

Alex Nunns is the author of the excellent The Candidate, an account of the 2015 Labour leadership contest that first put Jeremy Corbyn at the head of the party. He’s also one of the Labour social media activists who have helped change the political scene.

Tories don’t know how to do social media – so the pro-Tory Financial Times leader writer Sebastian Payne might have been wiser not to jump when Nunns praised the outstanding video Corbyn made in response to a huge financial services company’s claim Labour would be bad for those who like to play the markets:

But Payne went ahead anyway – and may already be regretting it:

Nunns seems to have a good memory. In March, Payne had tweeted his confidence about the Tories comfortable polling lead over Labour – and mocked Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot’s prediction that Labour would ‘close the gap’ in polling within a year.

Ms Abbott under-promised. A year after her prediction Labour are polling eight points ahead of the Tories, while the Conservatives’ own internal polling makes it twelve points.

Nunns was just warming up. Next he moved onto Payne’s cocksure prediction that Len McCluskey’s win in the Unite General Secretary election was the end of the Labour Party:

Which that 8- or 12-point lead makes look just a little off the mark.

Nunns applied the coûp de grâce by taking aim at Payne’s descriptions of various events during the General Election campaign – and on election night itself – which are no less hilariously wrong:

It was elegantly done as well as brutally effective, which is no mean achievement – and the end result was perfectly captured by one observer, who tweeted pleadingly with Nunns to stop the carnage:

pic.twitter.com/nc0jwbcf72

— Michael (@mquinnNUFC) December 8, 2017

Enjoy. And for the record, Payne’s initial point about the 1% and their tax was also misleading. See here for why.

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