Julia Bellis

Principal consultant. Cold water swimming enthusiast and reluctant parkrunner.

[Jennifer Sey @JenniferSey]

To @TomSteyer --

What about the girls? Don't they matter?

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

A farmer dies in April 2026.

His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.

The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.

On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.

In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.

The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.

The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.

A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.

The Treasury collects £140,000.

The land never produces British food again.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@michael_merrick This was mean spirited, spiteful and unnecessary. Not to mention hugely culturally impoverishing.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

It feels like time to read Madame Bovary.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@blablafishcakes @BBCRadio4 @BBCWomansHour It was the Kathleen Stock interview that made me realise Woman's Hour had gone horribly wrong. The world has never been the same since.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@HallisseyC @neilDCFC @wrexhamris51760 @JennyAscendant @mara_yamauchi Of which I am one. Goal is to be in top 10 for my demographic. Sometimes I manage it.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@jan_murray Is there a UK version of the Giggle crowd fund? Or do we just donate in AUD? Does anyone know?

[Garrads Rd & neighbours SW16 @LambethLook]

Judicial Review
"Protect Streatham Hill".
https://t.co/VnCVAQq8Ih #Streatham

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@SamaHoole I cook my eggs in lard. Mushrooms in butter. Never ever bought margarine or any other butter substitute ever.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@not_that_CK @FondOfBeetles @SexMattersOrg We all do.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

My morning coffee today. Mug is @denbypottery 2026. Jug is @denbypottery 1972.

[PictureThis Scotland @74frankfurt]

Bus Stop of The Day: Isle of Skye

[Di (Yee) @nguyenhdi]

I'm reading "Dombey & Son", & hate this mentality with a passion.
I have zero in common with Florence Dombey: my ethnicity is different, my experience is different. But Dickens makes me care for her, & feel for her grief & loneliness. That's what literature is about.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@millihill That is what I thought. Is this exactly the low level misogyny that women need single sex spaces to escape? I felt like he was putting you in your place and it was unnecessary. Then I thought 'No. I'm just paranoid.'

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@millihill @Nettleshippy I found that unbearably smug.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@Nettleshippy @millihill I had to stop listening to this in fact. @millihill was brilliant but listening to two men dismiss girls schools (where girls get better results than they do in mixed sex schools) as toxic environments that need to be abolished was intolerable.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@Nettleshippy @millihill I find it quite telling how @millihill is gently admonished for 'selling selling selling' at the beginning. This felt like unnecessary power play to me. An attempt to get her on the back foot? Maybe I'm oversensitive.

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

Outside the airport in Trondheim is a concrete table. There's a sign on it that says 'Smokers' table. Meet, smoke, talk. '

[Julia Bellis @Hooliaaa]

@CoffeewClassics I absolutely loved CS Lewis as a child. I read all the Narnia books over and over again. Despite going to a church school I only saw Aslan as 'good'. And that you were safe if he was around. It never occurred to me that there was any other reading.

[Bo 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇵🇱 @Bozenka_2023]

Funny how allowing men to compete in women's sport was never made into 'a landmark decision' and women athletes were never consulted. But the righting of that wrong necessitates interviews with the men and a lot of chest beating from male sports journalists on their behalf 🧐