dougie

Here passive scrolling through the ever worsening feed 🏳️‍🌈

[dougie @DougieAber]

@SullyDrummer @Smithey21026 It’s a Russian bot.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@rustyrockets I hope whatever god maybe smite those of false tongue that may use his guidance for nefarious means.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@savagetr0yy @vacill4tor My god l, that’s perfect sight to see

[dougie @DougieAber]

@DannyBeales Damn!! A Labour MP with a sense of humour!!

[dougie @DougieAber]

@RepOgles Was it wrong though? And do you apologise for it? You are human, show some Christian compassion for once and be contrite you absolute tool!

[dougie @DougieAber]

@PolitlcsUK I’m sorry but this should be life in prison, treason is the highest offence of the land. I Don’t believe in the death penalty, but believe this man should never breathe free air again for he was too keen to sell out this country!!

[dougie @DougieAber]

@Manterik @ChrisNewsR @s8mb If you think her appointment was down to merely being a woman and not her CV then I can’t help you.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@ChrisNewsR @s8mb Show me a public company that puts a person in the role purely on their characteristics? The vast majority of people are there on merit or they have the backing of the major shareholders.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@GrumpyOldGit5 @s8mb Well it’s not just to the regulator it’s to the public. As a Public company do you not think you have a right to know who’s on the Board.

You can take umbrage at the Parker review and others that promote diversity, but it’s not a requirement to have 40% woman on the board.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@ChrisNewsR @s8mb Mate I work for FTSE250 company and it’s my job to verify this data. You think this is burdensome try the indirect emissions we have to report on which takes up 25 pages. Trust me thats worse.

Just look at the Parker review. Form more context on this.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@reformparty_uk “Reform UK” - I can’t believe it’s not Tory.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@Nigel_Farage “Reform UK”- I can’t believe it’s not Tory.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Believe it or not, I had an old school friend on today’s marches in London. He sent me some photos from the crowd.

We went to middle school together and grew up on the same Eastern District council estate in Northampton.

I asked him why he was there. He gave me two answers:
1.“The government doesn’t listen to us.”
2.“I want to feel proud of my country again.”

He wore a Union Jack, not a St George’s Cross as he said that one had been hijacked by racists.

He wasn’t there for Hopkins, Musk, or any of the professional ‘grifters’ as he put it. He was there to feel part of something bigger, though he admitted there were a lot of, in his words, “assholes” there.

He’s an electrician. He’s smart. He’s not racist, but he’s not “PC” either. He’s not a fan of Keir Starmer but he also believes Farage would be a disaster.

Oh yes, he’s a bundle of contradictions! But aren’t we all?

I don’t know what ‘box’ we put him or the millions like him in. And I think pretending they’re all racists or fascists would be a massive mistake.

Some were. But not all.

This is about something bigger than immigration slogans or GDP numbers. For decades we’ve hollowed out our national life, underfunding and undermining the very institutions that once brought us together.

Karl Polanyi, writing in The Great Transformation, argued that when markets are “disembodied” from society, when land, labour, and life itself are treated as commodities
society pushes back. He called this the “double movement”: people seeking to protect themselves, to reclaim dignity and meaning when everything solid seems to melt into air.

That’s what I saw in my friend’s photos. Not just anger, but a demand for belonging.

We’ve replaced collective experience with atomisation. Without getting too nostalgic, programmes like the BBC’s Generation Game once pulled in millions every Saturday night, giving us something we could all talk about on Monday morning. Now we watch Netflix, Disney+, Prime, or Paramount, alone, in algorithmic silos.

Football used to be affordable and rooted in community; now it’s millionaires playing for the profitability of billionaires. The NHS, the post office, the railways - all chipped away, run down, sold off or centralised, leaving people feeling powerless and disconnected.

And don’t get me wrong: some kind of “Hovis Labour” nostalgia for the 1950s isn’t the answer. The country back then was often intolerant, grey, and deeply unequal. But what we’ve built since is a society that gives people little to hold in common, no collective story about who we are or what we’re for.

I reckon that’s partly why my mate marched. Not because he wants to turn back the clock. But because he wants to feel pride again. Pride in a country that is inclusive, fair, and offers a role for everyone. Pride in a nation that has a respected place in the world, tackles grotesque inequality, and gives people something real to believe in.

Polanyi warned that when democracies fail to provide a humane alternative, the backlash can turn authoritarian. This is how fascism grew in the 1930s, not because everyone became a true believer, but because millions felt abandoned and looked for strength, identity, and meaning wherever they could find it.

If Labour and progressives don’t offer that story of renewal, if we don’t rebuild our national institutions, restore collective pride, and re-embed markets within society, the far right will do it for us, in their own image.

And by then, it will be too late.

[British Business Bank @BritishBBank]

🔢 Out today, our Annual Report and Accounts shows that we supported £6.8bn of finance for 28,000 smaller businesses in 2024/25 and we returned a statutory profit before tax of £144m 💪

Download the full report here: https://t.co/lwCM3ELOzc

[dougie @DougieAber]

@rraccoonluvr Your arse needs to bury a face or two

[Funding Circle UK @FundingCircleUK]

So, what does Sale Sharks fly-half George Ford feel most fortunate for? Find out and hear more of his honest conversation with Flats in Episode 2 of The Team Behind The Shirt. Coming soon to our socials…

[Funding Circle UK @FundingCircleUK]

It’s time for Sam Underhill to spill all. From parenting to crucial advice from former Bath chairman Ed Griffiths, watch the first episode of our brand new series, Team Behind The Shirt. Check it out on the link below.

[dougie @DougieAber]

@Nlitsardopoulos @ChrisGiles_ What would you say should be done? Do you believe people are gaming the system, or that there should not be extra time, even for legitimate persons with ILP?

[Going Underground @GUnderground_TV]

On this day in 2013, Nelson Mandela passed away. He was an unashamed ally of Washington’s adversaries that aided South Africa in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Here he is humbling a US journalist who criticised his support for Cuba🇨🇺, which had given the anti-apartheid struggle political and military support.