Jo Rickhards

Call me old fashioned but I still believe being a journalist is about telling the truth without fear or favour.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@ripx4nutmeg What rage!! Really scary. Like a toddler tantrum but a huge and very strong man. It took three cops to restrain him.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@Jebadoo2 It’s the same lack of willingness/interest to get involved when it comes to tackling violence against women and girls.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@BBCScotlandNews And did you choose a photo of Anne Widdicombe rather than one of Herbert to avoid revealing that he’s a transwoman (ie man) I wonder.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@BBCScotlandNews I thought BBC guidelines now say we have to report accurately ie ‘Transwoman (biological man’.
This article entirely treats Herbert as a woman and doesn’t even mention ‘trans’.
This is not telling readers the truth BBC Scotland.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@BoyGeorge @MisterMarilyn ♥️ @MisterMarilyn ♥️

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Dear Adam,

I have taken time to think about your apology. Mostly because, having made a mistake publicly before, I was keen to accept yours. It hurts when people don’t understand that you are sorry for messing up. I get that, probably more than most.

But here’s the thing… I’m not sure you understand what you did wrong. And so you don’t really understand what you are apologising for or why. With that in mind, I want to help you.

I didn’t know Ann, except as a powerhouse in politics and that so many people have spoken of her friendship and great loyalty. How lovely, I wish I had known her.

I am utterly disinterested in her sexual prowess or the state of her virginity. But I would have enjoyed hearing you speak of her great accomplishments. Not as a woman, but simply as a human being.

Here’s a list.

She served in the House of Commons for 23 years and won five general elections.

She served as a government minister in Social Security, Employment and the Home Office, where she was Minister of State for Prisons.

She rose to become Shadow Health Secretary and then Shadow Home Secretary.

She was appointed to the Privy Council.

After leaving Westminster, she built an entirely new career as an author, broadcaster, documentary-maker, stage performer and television personality.

Then, at the age of 71, she returned to elected politics and became a Member of the European Parliament.

She was a longstanding advocate for Britain leaving the European Union and, when the political establishment failed to deliver the referendum result, she left the Conservative Party after more than 50 years and stood for the Brexit Party.

She was elected as an MEP and took the argument for British independence directly into the European Parliament.

She was also an unapologetic defender of free speech. She continued to speak openly on difficult and unfashionable subjects when others chose silence, it was easier to do that, she accepted the criticism and hostility that came with it rather than surrendering her convictions.

Her Catholic faith was central to her life. She converted to Catholicism, met Pope John Paul II in Rome and was later made a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI for her service to politics and public life.

She remained a powerful public voice well into her late seventies, defending her beliefs despite decades of ridicule and hostility.

That is an extraordinary life of public service, courage and reinvention.

Yet, when asked to speak about her after her sudden and violent death, you chose to tell the country that she was a “spinster”, an “old maid” and a virgin. You discussed a failed relationship and suggested that afterwards she simply dedicated herself to other activities.

Do you understand the reduction involved in that?

You took the life of a highly accomplished woman and assessed it according to whether she had married, whether she had sex and whether a man had wanted her.

That is what was wrong. That is what you should have known.

It wasn’t simply that your words were poorly chosen or badly timed. It was the instinct to view a woman’s entire life through her relationship with men, even when her achievements should have rendered that completely irrelevant.

Nobody discussing the death of an accomplished male politician would think it necessary to tell viewers whether he was a virgin, speculate about his sex life or describe him as an ageing bachelor whose romance had failed.

I don’t want you cancelled. I don’t believe that people should be denied forgiveness when they make mistakes.

But a meaningful apology has to identify the actual wrong.

Ann was murdered after a lifetime of public service. At the moment her achievements should have been remembered, you diminished her to an unmarried woman who apparently hadn’t had sex.

She deserved better than that. And I’m still not sure you get it. But every woman who watched you speak of her and then read your apology does.

Bernie.

[John Boyne @JohnBoyne]

I rarely post on here anymore, but I have to say to @PeterTatchell:

It shouldn't take the news that an elderly woman was murdered rather than dying of natural causes to change a post from revelry & name-calling to 'R.I.P. Ann.'

The sheer hypocrisy of that cannot be lost on any person of good character.

This is why so many people - gay, straight and anywhere in between - find your rhetoric misogynist, divisive & hateful. People are allowed hold different opinions. We can disagree with them, we can even judge them, but every life is of value and we all leave loved ones behind.

A little bit of kindness, compassion and, quite honestly, basic human decency can go a long way.

[Restoring Your Faith in Humanity @HumanityChad]

Little man knows what track he wants to listen to 🤘

[狗鷲イヌワシChapter II @emoemo78354888]

助かって良かったよ〜😭人間がごめんなさい🙏助けてくれてありがとう🙇

[Wimbledon @Wimbledon]

Tennis royalty in the Royal Box

Great to see you, @Martina 👋

#Wimbledon

[Razas de perros @iRazasdePerros]

Y el Oscar es para:

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@CityHallLibDems @HinaBokhariLD @LondonLibDems This is history being rewritten in plain sight. Ask people who were actually there, like @FredSargeant .

[The Animal Hub @Animals2f5o]

Funny dogs 😂 #funnydogs #cutedogs

[Martina Navratilova @Martina]

🙄🙄🙄

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@jan_murray @blablafishcakes Great piece! There are not many brave enough to expose these stories in the prevailing wind because there’s such a forceful backlash.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@OkekeUche71650 Looks pretty dead! Not how I remember it. #oldtimeralert

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

A 2018 video of Russian daredevils Angela Nikolau & Ivan Beerkus climbing a Hong Kong skyscraper for a wild selfie has resurfaced

Today they got arrested after scaling the Empire State Building spire and getting engaged

Imagine us pulling that off on the Kremlin domes 🇷🇺

[Johnny Midnight ⚡️ @its_The_Dr]

🤣😂🤣😂😳🤣😂

[Fox News @FoxNews]

BREAKING: Two people have climbed to the top of the Empire State Building in New York City, holding a banner from the skyscraper's antenna reading, "When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace."

As of now it's unclear how the pair reached the top of the building as police work to get them down from the spire, 1,454 feet above the ground.

[Jo Rickhards @JoRickhards]

@bindelj @Martina It’s not you. Martina deffo looks like the only sane one. 🤪🙂🤪🤪