The Sunday Mirror reports that after Tory Conference Boris Johnson left for a week's holiday in Marbella. He is reported to be staying at a property owned by Lord Fink, tax avoider & hedge fund manager...
I read in the Murdoch Times that various business types think a Bank Holiday on the day of the Queen's funeral will be bad for business. How unpatriotic. I hope the police are on their way to arrest them
David is my MP & I'm afraid this is very poor stuff. He appeared on the same platform as Corbyn at the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham on 13th March 2020 (I was there) to mark the 20th anniversary of Bernie's death. Corbyn was the keynote speaker. Rewriting history doesnt work
particularly after the racist thuggery today we cant edit history. Its time to have a permanent reminder that the leader of London Chartism in 1848 was a black man & the son of a slave
#BlackHistoryMatters
Huge thanks to all at nhscymru for caring for me at the University hospitals Cardiff over the last 2 months & saving my life twice. My beard remains trimmed
Two years today since the first lockdown & we're still not learning from our history. Sajid Javid says rise in Covid cases is of 'no particular concern'. Chris Whitty examining the reality suggests otherwise
BBC reports that Netanyahu wont back a truce negotiated with US & Egypt which Hamas has agreed & Israel is now bombing civilians in Rafah. More than time for Cameron to send the Israeli Ambassador home & stop all arms sales to Israel.
Beard of Wales 2020 poll update. After regaining the lead overnight
@hef4caerphilly
is now trailing to
@michaelsheen
once more. Competition is bristling. Vote at the link below (ends midnight, Friday)
The Beard Liberation Front has confirmed the final figures in the Best Beard of Lockdown poll.
@MichaelRosenYes
with 62.39% of the votes
@michaelsheen
was in 2nd place with 14.16% of the votes
Note a Tory MP says the new BBC Political Editor should be more pro-Brexit. As a long time supporter of Public Service Broadcasting I'd like someone who I couldnt tell from their reports where they stood on the matter.
While Gove's cocaine use story is entertaining in one register in another it is not. While well off people use cocaine, the supply chain leads to gang war & stabbings in areas like North London where Gove also lives. Pleasure for the rich, lives ruined for the poor
@DavidLammy
National Beard Week concludes today with author & Arsenal fan
@MichaelRosenYes
being named Beard of Summer 2020. He shaved
@michaelsheen
for the honour by several beard lengths
The Official result of the Beard of the Year poll is in:
Jeremy Corbyn 13, 365
Prince Harry 9,480
@jeremycorbyn
has won Beard of the Year for the first time since 2001
As a Black woman, and someone on the left of the Labour Party, I have unfortunately been forced to reach the conclusion that I will not get a fair hearing from this Labour leadership.
To University Hospital Cardiff for post discharge review. Consultant pleased with chest x-ray & notes 'remarkable recovery'. Key point now is to take time to recover full fitness. I can only thank the
@NHS
again for excellent care
Concerning news that Priti Patel has a Sociology A Level & is therefore likely to be classified as Woke by Suella Braverman (Times 16th August)
@MichaelRosenYes
After the Sunday Times front page (19.4) a reminder of what his Eton reports said: 'lateness, non-appearance of work and a lack of organisation’. >that was in 1981. It proved to be deadly serious in 2020
Terry Venables 1943-2023. Plenty of coverage of his extensive footballing career & business activities in the media today. One dimension is missing. He was a founding signatory of the Anti-Nazi League in 1978
@BellBelltoons
the alleged Shakespearan analogy in the message hardly fits the political message of the cartoon, except possibly to someone who is ignorant of both
Gareth Southgate & the England team took a knee against racism (even when criticised by Ministers). That will be the enduring legacy of
#Euro2020
& a good one. They can be proud of what they did
I note that
@grantshapps
who as an MP & Minister is paid £151,000 a year is criticising
@ASLEFunion
train drivers some of whom are paid up to £60,000 a
a year for democratically deciding in a ballot they don't want a pay cut.I know who I think deserves the money
@MickWhelanASLEF
I see tweets pondering whether Jeremy Corbyn has ever done drugs. I've spent 40 years trying to get him to drink a glass of beard friendly beer,& failed. At least in recent times he has shown interest in the rise of craft beer but that hasn't extended to drinking it..
The first 15 minute quarter
#SuperBowl53
has taken 42 minutes to complete & there is no score. Truly Geoffrey Boycott got into the wrong sport
#bbcnfl
@bbctms
while Ive enjoyed the cricket commentary
@bbctms
since the 1960s it remains the case that its at its very best when rain has stopped play & there is no actual cricket to describe
David Starkey has been talking about
#BlackHistoryMonth
on (obviously) GBNews. Yet another ill judged attack on
@MirandaKaufmann
& Tudor black history & an assertion that black history in Britain is at best 60 years old. As usual he is wrong
Suella Braverman who spent a good deal of time as Home Secretary trying to ban protests she didnt agree with has complained about a ban on a far right event in Brussels she spoke at today
Very sorry to read of the death of Bruce Kent at 92. A veteran campaigner for a better world. If anyone deserves a statue it's him (which he'd hate) but more than that a continuing peace campaign to stop wars
@CNDuk
@STWuk
Back to work today after 4 months sick absence (2 months seriously ill in hospital). Thanks to the NHS, my union
@ProspectUnion
& my employer for support & forbearance. Just the 3,478 emails,but taking it gradually for a few weeks
The Italian election results remind of
@MichaelRosenYes
poem:
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
For those interested still in hospital recovering from lung op. Saw consultants collective earlier. Improving every day & I feel much better
@Megfdavies
Author & Arsenal fan
@MichaelRosenYes
has been voted Best Beard of Lockdown in a special poll. He shaved the opposition with over 60% of the vote. Details here
My late father fought at Monte Cassino & was at the liberation of Belsen. He rarely spoke of it but remained a lifelong anti-fascist, active in the Anti-Nazi League in later life
@DerbyChrisW
see Tressell's Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Hastings Council in early C20th banned socialists from meeting in the town. They hired a boat & spoke to an audience on the beach from just offshore
Letters Murdoch Times (11th Aug) on their silly season story about two Universities making a couple of books not essential reading. No blacklisting was involved & the letters aren't Tunbridge Wells classics either
The Beard Liberation Front has recieved & rejected a complaint that
@MichaelRosenYes
does not have a beard but is simply 'unshaven'.
@michaelsheen
@MichaelRosenYes
are confirmed as joint Beards of the Year 2020
Terry Venables 1943-2023. He had interesting & varied life in football & business but he was also a man of wider principle. He was a founding signatory to the launch statement of the Anti-Nazi League in 1978
The Beard Liberation Front has been celebrating the very welcome return of
@MichaelRosenYes
beard today. A reminder from 2017 when he was voted Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year
@MichaelRosenYes
One of my neighbours died of COVID in the first wave. He worked at the North Mid hospital. Just one of quite a few (too many) COVID BAME deaths in Tottenham of people who were out doing essential jobs. People the Government doesnt know exist
Today after 48 years the sentences of the Shrewsbury pickets were quashed. As Ricky Tomlinson notes there was a conspiracy between employers & the Tory Government in 1972. It wasnt the first-collusion to break unions had gone in the area since 1821
The Beard Liberation Front has said that while
@michaelsheen
was not eligible for Beard of the Year 2021 (tho he was joint winner with
@MichaelRosenYes
in 2020) he has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award
It is with great sadness the family of John Pilger announce he died yesterday 30 December 2023 in London aged 84. His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved Dad, Grandad and partner. Rest In Peace.
@MichaelRosenYes
its important to remember today. My late father(Durham Light Infantry) was at the liberation of Belsen. He had all the medals but could not speak about it. A regular on ANL marches in later life.He never forgot
I note that Starmer is calling for the cancellation of rock concerts by someone he doesnt agree with, which I suppose is just the kind of thing that goes on in a liberal democracy as well as quite a few very illiberal ones
62 years ago today the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa took place.Labour MP Barbara Castle asked the Tory Minister if UK weapons had been used. The answer of course was 'yes' & UK arms sales continue to this day
#SharpevilleDay
Here is a simple message Johnson will not be conveying:
1 Dont return to work until you feel its safe to do so.
2 Check this with your union first of all
3 If you're not in a union,protect yourself & others. Join one now
I'm always minded to defend public service journalism & the BBC. However Ms Kuenssberg's politicisation of a father's grief today crosses a line in the same way a Guardian Editorial on Cameron's grief over his child did. The personal is political but there are limits of decency
The Ambridge Socialist is very sorry to read of the death of actor Edward Kelsey. He played one of the great proletarian figures in
#TheArchers
Joe Grundy. The cider barn won't be the same without him. Condolences to his family both real and fictional
When England won the Ashes in 2005 Channel 4's free to air coverage got 7.4m viewers. England's great victory against Pakistan on Saturday got 1.7m on Sky. Cricket has dropped out of the national conversation
Minister Robert Jenrick says British history shouldnt be censored. One example we need to know more about is Tory MP Richard Drax who owns a Barbados sugar plantation which dates back to the days of slavery
This is the first picture of a demonstration ever taken anywhere in the world. It shows a 100,000 strong Chartist protest for the vote on Kennington Common on 10th April 1848
via
@kmflett
So, farewell then any lingering elements of a liberal education. Hello, to the business University. If a subject doesnt make profit its got to go. Goodbye,Eng Lit, History, Humanities & for that matter PPE (which Sunak has a degree in)
Thanks to
@TheCockTavernE8
for card. I am getting better(I'd like to get better more quickly). Wires are nothing to do with me just standard NHS stuff. Beard is flourishing
Bad news for Suella Braverman. The first people to call themselves English were part of mass waves of immigration that formed the origin of modern England
I'm 63 & I voted Labour again today. Definitely part of
#OldQuake
now. It goes back a long way. I met a bloke in Haringey in the 1970s who had a very good beard. He said his name was Jeremy. We agreed about socialism but not how to get it but for tonight I really hope he's right
Bernie Grant died 21 years ago today on 8th April 2000. Stopped by the old Tottenham Town Hall to pay my respects. His work remains an inspiration for socialists & anti-racists