This thread went viral but it might take you a while to see the bigger picture
12/ They keep going on about the vote and how we simply must go through with it. And bloody Iain in Flat 5, the one with the strange smell of bleach and the haunting bagpipe music, won’t shut up about the lady up the road.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
13/ She lives in a little isolated bungalow without any sort of management firm and, according to Iain’s analysts, is doing “just fine” on her own, as though this comparison is at all valid.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
14/ It’s madness. The building is deteriorating. £20k has been knocked off the value of my flat – which is sort of academic as I can’t see anyone wanting to buy it, particularly given the neighbours (and I’m next to Nigel).
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
15/ There’s literally one sane course of action: going back to the management firm and telling them we made a mistake. I’m even willing to put it to the vote again but Theresa, our robotic residents’ committee chair, won’t have it.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
16/ “Bedsit means bedsit,” she keeps saying. (I have no idea what she means but she’s been reading the dwellings inventory and there are a couple of bedsits here.) So that’s not happening.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
17/ Or rather it’s not happening if the 12 flats that didn’t vote and the 13 that voted my way keep quiet, unwilling to rock the boat. I’m trying to put pressure on them to speak up.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
18/ They’re losing money too and the neighbours across the street are laughing at them. But – and f*** knows why, as it’s meaningless drivel – they seem to have quietly bought the “bedsit means bedsit” line.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
19/ I won’t give up, though. And if you ever find yourself in a similar situation I’d advise you to choose the path of sanity too, even if it looks like you’re going against the tide. #PeoplesVote /Ends
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 4, 2018
How long did it take you?
Sorry to say this but the body of people who ended the contract may find themselves facing legal action from the building owner. Not having a contract to cover important preventative & reactive maintenance of the various crucial building systems is dangerous, illegal & foolish.
— Phil Murphy 💚 (@MancCommunities) June 6, 2018
oh, i assume they absolutely would if this wasn’t an elaborate metaphor
— Jason Fox (@Intuimmae) June 6, 2018
And then th epenny dropped. *rolls eyes* I’m not a bit slow, I’m very slow.
This is about #Flexit isn’t it?— Phil Murphy 💚 (@MancCommunities) June 6, 2018
#6 here – it was the vote difference that gave it away.
— Andrew (@Optimaximal) June 7, 2018
Round about seven for me. When he said ‘deliveries’ I was certain.
— RO•TA•TION (@rotationUpNorth) June 7, 2018
7/ is better than average based on what those who have admitted have admitted.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 7, 2018
I cant believe it took me until number 12 to get this! #brexitmeansbreakfast
— Sara-Jane (@sarajanereally) June 6, 2018
15. Though, in my defence, I’m shortly going to sleep because I’m tired.
— Andrew Marsden🏳️🌈 (@atmarsden95) June 7, 2018
I think I might be living in the same block of flats 😡
— Twomuch77#FBPE#WATON (@twomuch77) June 6, 2018
Could you go and live somewhere else, or have you lost your freedom of movement?
— Elizabeth Porter (@lizzyporter123) June 6, 2018
Excellent – assume it all stemmed from ‘bedsits means bedsits’
— John M (@mulcs85) June 6, 2018
Ha! No, that was a happy epiphany as I was writing it.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 6, 2018
I was so cross when I worked it out. I was really invested in that guy and his maintenance company. They seemed like really decent people. I wanted it to work out
— Mairead (@tiny_m) June 7, 2018
Here’s what the person who wrote it had to say later.
1/ Dispiriting place Twitter, sometimes, isn’t it? Yesterday I idly composed a longish thread while getting the children to sleep. It seems to have resonated with people, given the volume of likes and shares from strangers. But two anonymous users took very odd potshots at it.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 5, 2018
2/ I say “odd” because their responses were basically non-sequiturs: the first angry, self-righteous and unhinged; the second smug, superior and sarcastic (despite a bio that – rightly – questions the power of sarcasm to reach accord when there’s conflict).
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 5, 2018
3/ I replied to the first but ignored his follow-ups. The second I had a good rejoinder but held off using it, favouring instead this subtweet here. I’m sufficiently thick-skinned and confident of my opinions and levels of self-awareness to cope with this irritation.
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 5, 2018
4/ But I mention this and flag it up as dispiriting for what it says about discourse in this country. I know that sounds a bit pompous but imagine if you were David Lammy, for example, speaking truth to power? How people like him cope in this atmosphere I have no idea. /Ends
— Alistair King (@Alistair_King) June 5, 2018
In conclusion …
