Aruna Jagroep

Ardent about green spaces. Advocate of tolerance, diversity and equality. Passionate about marketing, business, humanity & sustainability🙏

[The News Agents @TheNewsAgents]

"I have never seen a party with such a gap between those who own it - the two crypto kings - and the people who vote for them."

Can Reform really claim to be the anti-establishment party of the 'little person' when its funding comes from just two people?

@maitlis | @jonsopel

[Leena-Palestine @Leena53022916]

*BRILLIANT*
The French made a short film about what could happen after all immigrants would follow the ‘_white, angry old man’s_’ advice to go back where they came from.*

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Ian McKellen reciting Shakespeare's writing on racist anti-immigration riots in London.

It is excellent.

They have been banging the same drum for 400 years.

[LubnanBoi🇵🇸🇱🇧 🇮🇷 @AgitatorAK]

Dear @JeremyClarkson I saw this on my feed on another platform and instantly thought you needed to see it.

"Jeremy Clarkson thinks people who receive benefits should have to send a weekly thank you email to a randomly chosen working person, explaining what they did with the money, or have their payments stopped.

So here is mine. If you’d like to give it a share to help Jeremy see it, that would be great.

Dear Jezza,

Thank you for your concern about my contribution to society.

I should say first that you were aiming this at young people you believe are sitting at home doing nothing.

But you wrote it as a blanket rule applying to everyone whose benefits are paid.

That includes more than thirteen million pensioners, millions of people who receive benefits while working, who may find themselves being ordered to thank another benefit claimant, and me.

I receive PIP.

That money goes towards the Motability car I use to travel to work.

It is not a free car. It is not even my car. I exchange the mobility part of my PIP to lease it.

The car takes the lot.

Which is awkward, because that same payment is also meant to help cover the additional costs of being disabled, including a wheelchair that is actually usable for my job and hearing aids that allow me to do it.

There is nothing left for either.

I chose the thing that gets me to work.

That car enables me to work and, because I can work, I now pay considerably more in tax than I have ever received in PIP.

But my contribution does not end with my own tax bill.

I have built programmes that hundreds of people now use to earn a living.

They pay tax too.

Those programmes have helped thousands of people overcome anxiety, return to their lives and, in many cases, return to work.

Then there are all the people supported by the coaches and practitioners I have trained.

That is what disability support can do when it is designed to enable people rather than humiliate them.

My PIP did not disappear into some great benefits black hole.

It helped provide the transport that allowed me to work, build a business, create opportunities for other people and contribute far more than I could ever have done without it.

But as we are exchanging thank you letters, perhaps you could send me one too.

I paid my television licence throughout the years the BBC gave you the platform that made you famous.

I now pay for Amazon Prime, which helps fund the television programme about your farm.

I do not choose to watch it.

But that is how society works, Jeremy.

We all contribute towards things we may never personally use because the entire country would fall apart if every payment had to provide us with an individual benefit.

Perhaps you could also thank the taxpayers whose public services and infrastructure support your businesses.

And while you have the stationery out, perhaps you could explain the farm.

In 2021, you told The Times that avoiding inheritance tax was “the critical thing” in your decision to buy land.

In 2024, when that became rather inconvenient, you said it had never been true. You claimed you had actually bought the farm because you wanted somewhere to shoot and that tax avoidance had simply sounded like a better story at the time.

I am not sure which version helps your argument.

It is funny how public support and clever tax arrangements are treated as perfectly respectable when they benefit wealthy people.

Yet when a disabled person receives help to leave the house, go to work and participate in society, you think they should be made to perform gratitude.

So thank you for your concern, Jezza.

I hope my licence fee, Amazon subscription, taxes and contribution to the economy have all been gratefully received.

Please send your thank you letter weekly, along with a full breakdown of how you spent the money.

If it is not sufficiently fulsome and effusive, I assume your income will be stopped.

That is only fair."

[LBC @LBC]

“This is the first time LBC has made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!”

Caller Chyna impresses @TomSwarbrick1 with her ‘core four’ alternative solution to PIP.

[Meidas_Charise Lee @charise_lee]

Brilliantly summarized. Thank you for your service.

[Don Salmon @dijoni]

Powerful response from this comedian about reverse racism. Just listen to it finish.

[sim @simscircuit]

INCREDIBLE ARABIC COMMENTARY ON LEWIS HAMILTON'S FINAL LAP TO THE WIN.

THIS IS POETRY. READ THE SUBTITLES!!

[video & translation by @landorablee]

[Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions @mynamesnotgordy]

10/10. No notes.

[💖🌼Music, Kindness, and Inspiring Stories @Hoainguyen888]

Obviously we want part 2! This is phenomenal❣️🎹🎹

[BlackSword @Blacksword011]

"Trump is a raw unfiltered reflection of what millions of people are"

[Simons @Simon_Ingari]

I was forced to train an intern.
Spent 6 months teaching him everything I knew - every system, every client quirk, every shortcut I'd learned over five years.

They made him my boss yesterday. Double my salary. Everyone in the conference room stared, waiting for a reaction. I just smiled and congratulated him.

The next day, everyone froze when they opened my company-wide email.
It said, "Effective immediately, I will no longer be providing training, guidance, or assistance to management. My role description does not include mentoring supervisors."

HR called me into a meeting within an hour. My new boss looked panicked - he had no idea how to do half his job without me. Management tried to guilt me, saying I was being unprofessional and hurting the team.

But here's the thing. I'd been doing two jobs for years. Fixing everyone's mistakes. Staying late while others went home. And for what? To watch someone I trained get the promotion I deserved?

Now my boss keeps showing up at my desk with questions, and I redirect him to HR every single time.

The tension is unbearable. My coworkers are divided - some think I'm brave, others say I'm being petty.

------

This is called performance punishment.

You’re getting punished for being good at your job.

And here is the part that makes it worse.

When that promotion time comes around, they don’t promote you because you are too valuable exactly where you are.

“We can’t afford to move you. You’re doing the work of three people.”

So they promote the mediocre employee who has time to network and play politics because they are not buried under the workload that you created by being competent at your job.

So stop being the best performer — start being strategic.

Do your job well, but not exceptionally, because exceptional work gets you more work, not more money.

And if they want exceptional performance, they can pay exceptional rates.

Otherwise, you’re just working yourself into exhaustion while someone else gets your promotion.

[Rod (Izzy) 🇺🇸🦅 @1zzyzyx1]

The wisdom of the great Dr. Maya Angelou still lives on today. We can always look back and find her words that ring true today. #DemsUnited

[Trevor Noah @Trevornoah]

You can’t say ‘no immigrants’ and still expect Taco Tuesday.

Maybe we should have a rule: if you don’t want immigrants, that’s fine, but then you don’t get to eat their food.

[CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ @CBSSportsGolazo]

"People did fight, way before my time, for us to be able to perform... and to be in 2026 talking about the same thing, it's tiring.

Thierry Henry and @MicahRichards share their experiences and frustrations about how far football still has to go to fight racism 👇

[Modern Dad @ModernxDad]

When your intentions are pure you don't..

[Ish Sankara @100kara305]

Funny how we can literally go through a lifetime without stumbling on this information

[✭ 🅑🅤🅑🅑🅐 ✭ @BubbatheOG]

Jane Elliott pointed out the hypocrisy decades ago.