Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA

Arts & Culture Professional / former professional dancer / loves music, dance, theatre, tennis, sea-kayaking, outdoor swimming. @kenneththarp.bsky.social

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

Between Jan and March 2021, I had the privilege of hosting a series of conversations on @colourfulradio, with six amazing trailblazers in classical music, who were all featured in The African Concert Series, founded by @RebecaOmordia.

You can listen here: https://t.co/ISZfwrOaJL

[Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy]

Interesting question.

As founder & director of Bylines Network, I can tell you.

Answer: Labour isn't.

The govt have set up a fund to support local news. This here is the panel of people who assess competitive bids --> https://t.co/kKoNHanJy5

So it was those industry figures who, as you can see, span a political range - and which collectively decided that two of our bids should win funding to support 1) citizen journalism training and 2) hyper local news organisations all over the UK.

If you'd like to know more about what we're actually doing with these grants to help local journalism everywhere in England and Wales, here's a piece I wrote on it --> https://t.co/mSKAp1i2gW

The article by Andrew Gilligan is a pretty sloppy hit job, in which he attacks Byline Times (separate legal entity) more than us. We've written a complaint to the @spectator, copying in IPSO, highlighting factual errors and misrepresentations.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Victoria Derbyshire tries not to laugh

As Katie Zacharia - the lady who survived just four days as the White House Press Secretary - has a meltdown on Newsnight, repeatedly talking over VD

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

The appalling Home Office scandal regarding the Windrush generation…

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

HOME OFFICE CALLED PAULETTE WILSON ILLEGAL AFTER 50 YEARS

Paulette Wilson had to report to a Home Office centre every 2 weeks for 2 years.

The Home Office had told her she was an illegal immigrant. She'd lived in Britain for nearly 50 years.

She was one of the Windrush generation, people who came from the Caribbean as children in the 1950s and 60s and had every right to be here. Paulette had left Jamaica at 10, nearly 50 years earlier.

For a few days she told nobody, because she was too scared to tell her daughter. From that month she had to report to a Home Office centre in Wolverhampton every 2 weeks.

She kept going for 2 years. On 18 October 2017 the Home Office detained her at that centre. She spent 6 days in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, then was moved to Heathrow ahead of a flight to Jamaica. Her MP stepped in at the last minute.

Paulette then went public with Amelia Gentleman at the Guardian. The Guardian reported that her decision encouraged dozens of others to come forward. She won leave to remain in January 2018.

On 19 March 2020 an independent review by Wendy Williams found the scandal was foreseeable and avoidable. In June 2020 the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, committed to implementing all 30 of its recommendations.

Paulette Wilson died on 23 July 2020, aged 64. A month earlier she had delivered a petition to Downing Street.
On 7 December 2022 Suella Braverman, then Home Secretary, decided not to proceed with 3 of those recommendations. She told Parliament in January 2023 that she had considered officials' advice.

In April 2024 Home Office lawyers told the High Court the recommendations were not legally binding. On 19 June 2024 Mrs Justice Heather Williams ruled that dropping 2 of them was unlawful. She found it indirectly discriminated against Windrush victims, and that nobody had consulted the Windrush community or Wendy Williams first.

Trevor Donald, a Windrush victim, brought the case. Black Equity Organisation, which intervened, argued that institutional racism shaped the decision. The Home Office said it was carefully considering the judgment.

In March 2026 David Hanson, Lord Hanson of Flint, answered for the Home Office in the Lords. He said it is in the final stages of reviewing all 30 recommendations.
Almost 6 years after accepting them, the Home Office is nearly done reviewing them.

What I want answered is what it has decided on the 2 recommendations the court found it was unlawful to drop. One was a Migrants' Commissioner to speak up for people affected by the immigration system. The other was a review of the powers of the chief inspector of borders and immigration.

Paulette Wilson never saw the Home Office drop 3 of those recommendations.

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

Heartbreaking. 💔

[Tamer Nahed @Tamer_Alnoaizy]

I admit that I completely broke down today. I cried uncontrollably. I couldn’t hold myself together after witnessing what I saw with my own eyes.

Today, we went to film a journalistic report inside the displacement tents along the seashore. I swear, what we witnessed was beyond what any human being should have to endure.

I saw men crying bitterly. Men I had never seen cry when they lost their children or when their homes were destroyed. Today, I saw them crying because they were powerless to do the simplest thing: protect their children from the water and the cold.

We spoke to families who told us they had spent the entire night carrying their children in their arms after floodwater covered the floors of their tents and soaked their mattresses. They couldn’t find a single dry place to put their children. They couldn’t even give them a few hours of sleep.

I saw children no older than five, without proper clothes to protect them from the cold, without heating, and without a dry place to sleep. Children shivering inside tents that cannot keep out the rain, protect them from the wind, or provide even the most basic sense of safety.

What more must happen for this world to act? How much more suffering must people endure before someone remembers that they are human beings?

I am sick of this world. I am sick of its hypocrisy and empty slogans. To hell with a world that talks endlessly about human rights while leaving children to drown inside their tents. To hell with everyone who has witnessed this suffering and chosen silence, and to hell with the governments and institutions that have the power to act but continue to turn their backs on us.

[NewsCord @newscord_org]

In a BBC article titled “Tens of thousands of tents flooded after heavy rains in Gaza”, published on 7 November 2026, The Watchdog has flagged the following issues:

- Adopted Israel’s stated aim in Gaza as fact, in the BBC’s own voice: “Israeli war against Hamas”

- It never says why the walls and roofs were cracked. Coverage of the same day, from other outlets, reports that families were living in buildings damaged by Israeli bombardment, which the rain now threatens. Without this, a reader believes the injuries were caused by the weather alone.

- For the first 259 words of the article, it does not mention Israel’s restriction of aid and supplies as having a role in the dire conditions of Palestinians. When it finally does, it says so by relaying only what Israel says, before moving on: “Israel has said it restricts the entry of items into Gaza that could be used for military purposes.”

The full list of issues as automatically identified by The Watchdog: https://t.co/6kWN3BEFOy

Watchdog Score: 6.0/10.0

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

British salmon stripped of Soil Association organic status
due to environmental and welfare failures throughout the industry.

Well done @SoilAssociation 👏👏👏 of course you can also now drop that appeal you made to the Upper Tribunal against the @WildFishCons ruling that you must disclose your inspection records. Why not publish them voluntarily this afternoon?

And as for the others that still greenwash for the salmon industry? @RSPCA_official @rspcaassured are you next to withdraw your support?

https://t.co/f7jLaYuXaj

[Vibrato Eterno @LatidosDePasion]

Grabada en 1966 por Toots & The Maytals, "Bam Bam" se consolidó como una reliquia fundamental de la música jamaicana al ganar la primera edición del Jamaica Festival Song Competition.

La canción estableció desde su origen un mensaje claro de resistencia, dignidad y lucha por la justicia, funcionando como un himno contra el silencio ante la opresión.

Décadas después, en 1982, Sister Nancy presentó su propia versión, transformando el tema en uno de los pilares absolutos del dancehall.

Esta reinterpretación no solo revitalizó la canción, sino que proporcionó la base rítmica que influiría profundamente en el desarrollo del hip-hop mundial, manteniendo a "Bam Bam" como un estándar ineludible en los sound systems de todo el planeta.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

The images of kids submerged in freezing floodwater, in flimsy tents that won't survive another winter, make me SICK.

I think of Primo Levi’s words that every European learns by heart at school - only to forget when entering politics or diplomacy.

The shame of our time.

[The Voice Newspaper @TheVoiceNews]

MPs have now called for:

1) in-depth research on the long-term and intergenerational impact of the chemicals in Black women’s hair products,

2) a new government body that will be responsible for consumer complaints and assessing where harm has occurred;

3) stricter regulations on online marketplaces like Amazon

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

🎵🤎🎵

[Vinyl Records🎱✝️🇧🇷👪🗽 @j_c_domingues]

Sugarhill Gang
Rapper's Delight - 1979

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

Dear @TulipSiddiq,
As one of your constituents, I sincerely hope you will be attending this important debate on the climate and nature emergency, at 4.30pm on 16 November 2026.

#climateemergency
@nebriefing

[National Emergency Briefing @nebriefing]

@chrisgpackham's petition for a government emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis will be debated in Parliament on 16 November at 4:30pm 🏛️

Please ask your MP to attend and speak:
https://t.co/LoLH5keBIU - and tag them in the comments.

#NationalEmergencyBriefing

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Nimrod. Sir Edward Elgar.

Played at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, Whitehall, London.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.”

#RemembranceSunday

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

🎵🤎🎵

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Has the the human race not invented secure, portable, quickly constructed housing?

[Nels Abbey @nelsabbey]

Lest we forget.

#RemembranceSunday

[NewsCord @newscord_org]

On the flip side, look at how the BBC interviews Israeli guests.

Following on from the compilation we released yesterday of the BBC interrupting its guests with "Israel would say", the double standards, which we've also archived and categorised, become clear when you see how they interview Israeli guests.

In this example, the presenter interviews the "former IDF chief of staff" Dan Halutz on 14 October 2023.

Halutz asserted that Israel was “fully compliant with international law” and “acting in proportion”. The interview ended without a concrete contrary fact or humanitarian objection to those assurances.

Earlier in the same programme, Save the Children’s Gabriella Waaijman warned that forcing people to move without safety or assistance risked forcible transfer. The BBC interjected and put Israel’s civilian-protection rationale to her. It did not put that humanitarian argument back to Halutz.

This was over three years ago, when Israel was just a week into its genocide in Gaza. It is therefore hard not to wonder what could have happened if the media, including the BBC, had practised more moral and ethical journalism.

Our job is to ensure that Western media's role in sanitising a genocide and laundering the perpetrator's propaganda is concretely quantified and never forgotten.

We are working around the clock to update the stats and clips here: https://t.co/qEYyFnMyCV

[This Is My Glasgow @is_glasgow]

Love this skinny little building at 108 Hope Street in Glasgow. It was originally built for the Scottish Temperance League in 1894, but it's also the former Woolwich Equitable Building.

Cont./

#glasgow #architecture #architecturephotography #hopestreet

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

Lest we forget 🌺🌺🌺

[The Voice Newspaper @TheVoiceNews]

Today, we remember all who served and sacrificed.🌹

Among them were thousands of men and women from the Caribbean and Africa who served as pilots, navigators, engineers, nurses, clerks and infantry.

Their stories are a critical part of Black British history.

Today we honour them all 🌹 #remembrancesunday

[Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA @KennethTharp]

🎵🤎🎵

[Vinyl Records🎱✝️🇧🇷👪🗽 @j_c_domingues]

Stevie Wonder
As - Live In The Studio 1976

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Israel wiped Gaza from the face of the earth.

The survivors have been living in tents for three years.

Those tents are now being flooded.

The West has condemned them to these apocalyptic conditions.

This abomination must end.