Laura Johnson

[Laura Johnson @LauraFrankJ]

A thousand times this!
My mam has spent the last week walking with an impacted hip fracture because ‘it hurts a hit but will get better’.
It takes a village to look after us when children and it’s an honour to do the same back as that same village needs us when pensioners.

[Alan @A1an_M]

The reason why I do my restrained, online version of someone completely losing it when I encounter the pensioner / boomer hate which seems increasingly prevalent in the media these days is this:

When someone says "pensioner", I don't think of the caricature in the Telegraph of a selfish, greedy 70 year old couple in a leafy Surrey suburb who own two cars, two houses, holiday abroad several times a year, voted Remain for the cheap Polish builders and charming Estonian baristas and who think lockdown was "absolutely wonderful".

I think of my two elderly neighbours and their increasing struggles with life in their 80s. Their falls in the garden and on the stairs. The distraction burglary one suffered in which her engagement and wedding rings were stolen. Their struggles to deal with technology as the world turns digital. Their isolation from their families during COVID. Their increasing lack of mobility. Their difficulties dealing with tradespeople to keep their houses maintained. The loss, in their 80s, of their spouses of 50+ years. Their later lives consisting mainly of a seemingly never-ending series of funerals as all of their nearby friends died.

I also think of the hours they continued to give as volunteers at the church, the Rotary Club, the Scouts and the British Legion, well into their late 70s. Their love of their children and grandchildren, and of our children. Their determination to "keep calm and carry on". Their determination to keep their homes and gardens and neighbourhood tidy and spotless.

They bought their homes when they were built in 1972. They worked hard and paid off their mortgages before they retired. They chose to remain in the family home because of all the friends and family who lived nearby and because, after 50 years, their entire life was connected with their home town. Moving elsewhere to "downsize" was inconceivable in their early days of retirement, and impossible later, as they became more frail.

Yes, that home rose in paper "value" enormously in the intervening years, thanks to government policies they never wanted or asked for, but that was of no interest to them. Its value was as a home, a place to feel safe and keep their treasured possessions. Determined to live an independent life, they remained there almost to the very end.

Having worked and saved hard, they no doubt had private pensions in addition to the state pension. They were, in income terms, probably comfortably off. But life was not a bed of roses, as it is not for most elderly people.

So when I see politicians, and journalists foment hatred of the elderly with their lazy tropes about "greedy, selfish boomers" and "millionaire pensioners", it makes me really angry. Because for me, it's personal. They're talking about real people, like my neighbours. Exemplary, morally upright, selfless, generous, warm-hearted citizens.

The people fomenting this pensioner hate don't seem to realise that one day, they too, will be elderly, incontinent, falling in the bathroom, pressing the emergency button on their lanyard, and wondering if anyone will come to their aid.

If hatred of the elderly becomes the norm, they may come to regret their foolish, childish, envious, short-sighted words.

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

If facts hurt your feelings, you need new feelings, not new facts.

[Cait O'Ryan @_CaitlinORyan]

The response to this poem across all platforms has blown me away.

Thank you to everyone for sharing and for your kind words. The fact it has resonated with so many people is incredibly moving.

So much love ❤️❤️❤️

[𐚁 @Whxtevxrr]

#Newcastle 🫶🏽

[Munya Chawawa @munyachawawa]

Forget riots - why not compete in the The EDL-ympics! 🎾🥋🏓

A safe space to express your misdirected hatred 😃

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

A rock band is performing and the singer sees a kid with a banner asking to play guitar with them. The singer asks him:

- Do you really know how to play guitar?
- Yeah!
- What's your favorite band?
- Guns N' Roses

What happens next is incredible.

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

This is the message everyone should be taking home from today’s despicable announcement.

The number of people of working age with a health condition or a disability is going up.

And not because they’ve all suddenly become work-shy scroungers🙄

Long (sorry!) 🧵

1/25

[Remembering Ruby @KindlyLoudly]

Why does cancer evoke so much talk of conflict?

Ruby was a lover not a fighter. A dyed in the wool pacifist who avoided all forms of conflict.

She was the child in the kindergarten playground trying to broker a peace-deal between friends who had fallen out.

🧵1/n

[Susie Dent @susie_dent]

I’m sure no one needs this, but a gentle reminder that to be ‘crambazzled’, from old Yorkshire dialect, is to be prematurely aged from excess drinking.

[UsdawUnion @UsdawUnion]

There is NEVER any justification for assaulting a shopworker.

Failed Conservative policies have emboldened criminals and created a perception that shoplifting has been effectively decriminalised.

We urgently need a protection of workers law for the whole of the UK.

#Respect23

[Tesco News @tesconews]

Meet Beamish Football Club, recipients of a @TheSun ‘Footie for All’ grant from Tesco Stronger Starts. Apply by 13 November, 12PM and you could win a £1k grant for a grassroots football club.

Click here to apply: https://t.co/KLAbIJEALu

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

If you’re feeling vulnerable tonight, remember, there are no such things as ghouls & ghosts, & zombies & vampires. LOL
There are of course murderers & deviants & drugged up mental cases & dirty little feral teenagers who stab you and stick it on TikTok .
Happy Halloween 🎃

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

There are currently 15 suspended MPs, all without the whip, due to their scandals…

From sex scandals to bullying scandals to gambling scandals

And yet where is The Sun and every other offshore billionaire baron-owned newspaper to draw our attention to this?

[PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇧 @prideukorg]

👏👏👏

[TechnicallyRon (On all the platforms) @TechnicallyRon]

It's important to remember that Boris Johnson said his staff worked so hard they deserved parties as a thank you, but the doctors and nurses had to listen to the rest of us smash our kitchen appliances together at them as a thank you.

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

To help with the cost of living crisis, Jeremy Hunt is going to allow people with a pension pot of over £1million to save even more without paying tax. Great news for the 4% of the workforce who are rich enough to benefit from it!
#BudgetDay #Budget2023

[Frankie Boyle Updates @frankieboyle]

A river of boiling shit flows through your town. You haven’t seen a tomato for 18 months. MOTD is 3 minutes long and narrated by a parakeet. Your salary is paid directly to British Gas. You solve a riddle to speak to a GP. You feel people come here because they want an easy life

[All On The Board @allontheboard]

True friends might want to be somewhere else, but, in your time of need they will be there for you.

[Braveheart @braveheart13205]

Good to see there will be an independent investigation into Zahawi. We can expect the results about the same time as Sue Gray report, Michelle Mone investigation, Russian Report, Gove's Scottish independence Poll, test & trace £37b fiasco, multiple PPI scandals, the list goes on.

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

The important thing to remember is that the record waiting times, the 133,000 vacancies, the lack of GP appointments, the trolleys in corridors and burnt-out staff are the fault of nurses, not 12 years of Tory government.
#NursesStrike #NHSWorkersNeedAPayrise