Gareth Bowman

Husband, Humanist, Democratic Socialist, Scientist, Environmental Health Professional

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

Anyone in the right areas of the UK please use your vote, but please avoid Blue, Turquiose or Restore.

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

Can we get this story about Farage and his dodgy tax Retweeted 10,000 times?

#NoTaxNigel #FarageOut
#FarageTheFraud

https://t.co/2bwATYQRPS

[Just Dave now @justdavenow89]

If you will never vote for reform please like and repost

Let's show the polls are incorrect

[Mark Cockerton @CockertonMark]

This could be interesting.

[Cymru am Byth #FBPE @Penyrheolgerrig]

@JAHeale Since Sep 2023 Wales' 20mph limit, road casualties fell 26% (630 fewer), with 80 fewer fatal/serious injuries.

Over 18 months, 882 fewer casualties (25%), incl. 14 fewer deaths, 98 serious injuries.

Q1 2024: 23% fewer KSIs.

20% less insurance claims - premiums cut £45.

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

A message from a Kindergarten teacher:

After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old:

“My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.”

No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.”

My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me.

When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic.

But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe.

My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown.

And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice.

They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer.

The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.”

As if kindness were a weakness.

Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure —
a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.”
a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.”
a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.”

Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up.

But this last year broke something in me.

The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival.

I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times.

So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998:

“Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.”

I sat on the floor and cried.

No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications.

I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced.

I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers.

So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try.

Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@dumbasluck Which surgeon do you use please?

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

Expect your mobile to go off 3pm Sunday! Be prepared for a test of the Govt's emergency alert system. Full info... https://t.co/3zSKJ6yjYD

LIVING WITH DOMESTIC ABUSE? If you've a hidden mobile, the link above has details of how to opt out of the alert.

Pls share

[Auschwitz Memorial @AuschwitzMuseum]

We were deeply concerned by the incident involving the Israeli military delegation at the entrance to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The Museum had not been informed in advance about the planned official ceremony involving a military formation marching with flags through the grounds of the former camp. Failure to follow the required procedures led to an unfortunate and entirely avoidable situation.

The regulations about ceremonies and commemorations at the Memorial Site clearly state that flags and banners on poles „may only be brought onto the grounds of the Museum during organized and registered ceremonies, commemorations, or assemblies.”

These measures are in place to protect the dignity, solemnity, and neutrality of the space that is the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Approximately 1.1 million people were murdered here, primarily Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, and others. The special safeguards exist due to numerous past attempts to misuse this historical site.

Under no circumstances can the grounds of the former camp be a space for uncoordinated manifestations or ceremonies, even those carried out with good intentions. This is in no one’s interest. What is at stake is our shared and solemn responsibility to protect this site and honor the memory of all its victims.

In this case, the organizers submitted a request solely to hold a ceremony at the monument in Birkenau at the end of their visit. The entrance into the Memorial in the form of a procession with flags and banners had not been declared in advance. Therefore, the Museum Security had to intervene (not the Polish Police).

The failure to follow procedures by the organizers was the primary cause of this completely unnecessary incident. It is clear that had they, like many others before them, submitted a request for such a ceremony, the necessary permission would have been granted.

Therefore, we appeal to all those organizing similar visits to adhere strictly to the established procedures. Doing so helps to prevent any misunderstandings, which is surely in the best interest of everyone who carries the burden of this difficult memory.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@maddisonfox It is like most advances in Medical diagnostics. You find all the people who have a condition but have been undiagnosed so there appears to be a peak where as it is just the amount afflicted but from all generational cohorts.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@nicholadrummond No ATGM/Brimstone Launcher?

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@slingitbikinis @daniellederekxo, @jazmynedayy, @Penny_Underbust & @omystephanie

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

This whole store in a tea cup about the Online Safety Act, one question, do you expect every parent to go to a shop with their child to prevent them buying age restricted products or do you expect the shop staff to do that? This is the same but online.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@BlackHorseLE2 I am sorry but he willfully misses the point of many of the things he is negative about, just to score a political point. That is the sort of politician he is don't be fooled.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@BlokeOnTheRange Can't you see the utility of the connected cap?

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@MrsCLewis1995 Ffion had a great day with you! So much so in about 30 minutes of leaving to go back to Leicestershire she was fast asleep!

[Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 @reformexposed]

This is hilarious…

Sara Pascoe can't forget what Nigel Farage said to her

https://t.co/ejfN9j5pKf

[John O'Connell @jdpoc]

People who want to ditch #ECHR fall in 4 categories.

1. People who have no idea what it protects.
2. People who are happy to let millionaire media tell them what to think (like #Brexit)
3. People who think it's part of the EU.
4. All three of the above.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@JohnHealey_MP @DefenceHQ @10DowningStreet we need more typhoons not F-35A and the full compliment of F-35B to sustain both carriers with losses.

[Gareth Bowman @GarethBowman]

@nickbse @CAMRA_Official @BrewshedBrewery Almost like you helped with some policy on that @nickbse