Margaret Greenfields

Back in the Academy again (12/21)...but probably still a policy wonk/lawyer at heart.. Passionate about diversity and equality - tweeting in a personal capacity

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

@TPScheme Your new provider seems to have unilaterally decided I have NO death in service grant available & no nominated beneficiaries despite these all being recorded before. Secure messages unanswered and phone auto cuts off on entering TPS reference when attempt to call. Is this legal?

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

@TPScheme I’ve been utterly unable to download a statement for months as not shown, repeated requests for my pension statement are ignored.

Logged onto the new system - which is a nightmare & although can now see a statement I apparently no longer have death in service protection.

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

https://t.co/ACdbEvBxjn devastating but not unforeseen threats to ancient woodlands driven by voracious drive to build new developments.. once destroyed our environment is gone for ever. Strong protections /enforcenent required @mhclg @UKLabour @TheGreenParty

[🌻 Go Wild With Annette @gowildannette]

Please RT 💚

It is always good to start the day with some good news, and this is huge.

The most ambitious fundraising appeal to date by The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust has closed with the entire Rothbury Estate purchased.

The estate is 9,500 acres, and equivalent to the size of Athens.

The campaign was backed by Sir David Attenborough...

@WildlifeTrusts #northumberland

https://t.co/w6MIKCtObn

[Tony Juniper @TonyJuniper]

Tens of thousand of people have enabled the @WildlifeTrusts to buy the Rothbury Estate. Largest land purchase in a generation brings an area of Northumberland the size of Athens into Nature recovery. Brilliant & bold work that sets a new bar for ambition for Nature in England.

https://t.co/BSStqzKQAa

[Simon Harris @SimonHarrisMBD]

This seems like a great time to reshare my favourite Sir Patrick Stewart performance, ‘What has the ECHR ever done for us?’ It’s just perfect in every possible way … including the ending 😂😂😂 RIP.

🎥 The Guardian

[Jack Grove @jgro_the]

Thank you to the two @Cambridge_Uni medical students who saved my step-brother's life. He was running with girlfriend on Midsummer Common and his heart stopped for 14 minutes. They didn't give up on him, kept him alive til paramedics arrived. He is on the mend and should make a full recovery

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds https://t.co/U2Fwlqespo

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show https://t.co/UeUuCtzdRL

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Concerns grow over increased global ties with Taliban in Afghanistan https://t.co/Fkh9cZf62T

[Hedgehog Cabin @HedgehogCabin]

As we enter yet another week of drought conditions please, I beg you, put out water for the wildlife.
They have nothing.
No puddles.
No ponds.
No streams.
All have dried up.
Sometimes the birds are thought of and provided for.
But the nocturnal animals go unseen.
Unthought of.
No kind dishes.
Just the tantalising smell of water from a pond they may drown in, or a drain they may get trapped in.
Or a stagnant, dirty old birdbath they may get fatal fluke from.
Hedgehogs need to drink a lot of water to stay healthy. Please provide clean, fresh, safe, ground level water each evening for our precious nocturnal wildlife.
Tap water is best.
Pop a dish or two out tonight.
Dying of thirst is a terrible, painful way to die.
It should never happen to any animal, and certainly not in a country that has the safest tap water in the world.
The few minutes it takes you to fill a dish will make the difference between life and death.❤️

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

‘We cannot magic up more water’: the supply problems putting housing targets in England at risk https://t.co/hlKNgBt81b

[kat @saffy123uk]

Wildife needs our help. Please put water out

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Really not sure how to respond to this other than with slack jawed astonishment.. I wonder how said administrator views libraries which hold ‘real’ as opposed to e-books.. a good thing they’ve never set foot in my house as would probably collapse with apoplexy when see my shelves

[Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih]

These are prisoners inside Qezel Hesar, one of Iran's most notorious prisons, known for mass executions and brutal conditions.
One of them secretly got hold of a phone and risked everything to record this message for the outside world.
Executions are surging. They are asking for your help.
Listen to them. Be their voice.

[Lily Craven @TheAttagirls]

Woman of the Day motoring journalist and driving instructor Aileen Graham-Jones, (1889-1974) of Co. Armagh, the first woman in the UK to qualify for a Royal Automobile Certificate and Emmeline Pankhurst’s first lady chauffeuse.

When her father died, Aileen’s newly widowed mother moved her children from Northern Ireland to Richmond. Mum had her own ideas about women’s inequality. As head of the household during the 1911 census, she firmly wrote “Unenfranchised” in the “Infirmity” column for every female member of the household, including her three servants. (I quite like the sound of Mum).

Aileen’s interest in motoring led her to enrol for a motor mechanics course at a local motor works which caused conniptions, but when the men realised she was serious about learning, they decided to help her. “I emerged with a fair understanding of how a combustion engine worked.” Driving lessons followed and Aileen became the first woman to qualify for a Royal Automobile Certificate.

The next hurdle was finding a job as a driver. At that time, the Morning Post (now the Daily Telegraph) was the most popular paper in Britain. Aileen took a chance and placed this ad in its Classified Ads section:

“Lady chauffeuse, RAC certificate and running repairs. What offers?”

She received three replies. The first was from a doctor in Bristol who wanted her to drive him to his home visits in the mornings, take his lady wife to her many social events in the afternoons and walk the dog in the evenings. The second was from a Guards officer who had always fancied the idea of a lady chauffeuse and “offered to meet me in a hotel in the Kings Road to ‘discuss the proposition’.” (Oh yes, even in those days, creeps abounded).

The third was by far the best. Emmeline’s secretary wanted someone “to drive the great lady of the militant suffrage movement for five months on a campaign throughout England, Wales and Scotland. That appealed to me greatly.”

Aileen took the job. “My family were livid. They thought I was going straight into the dark arms of Hell - to be going to that dreadful woman, as her chauffeur. It was an awful blow, but I thought it was the most wonderful job. At a pound a week, it was wealth.”

When she reported for duty, she found “an enormous car [a donated Wolsesley] placed at our disposal…Five women, baggage and much literature…Of course we were swathed in motoring veils and swamped in dust…” and they set off in April 1911. She described the shocking state of the roads, the very hot weather, plus “garages were not plentiful”.

“I learned early on in the tour that Mrs P must be got on time to her meeting so there were some harrowing moments. She was always deeply concentrated [on her work] and so in the event of any puncture, I would have to jack her up, as well as the car!”

Going over the Kirkstone Pass in Cumbria was a challenge. It was an unmade single track road which Aileen had to navigate very slowly. “Even in first gear, I do not use the brakes for fear of overheating…Overheating results in fire..It was a very hazardous journey.” Cattle gates were an obstacle. She did not dare stop, so a suffragette would jump off the car, open the gates, close the cattle gates, and jump back onto the running board “all in a long skirt…It was an unforgettable experience.”

After her five month tour of the country, Aileen started her own motor school and was keen to teach other women the basic rudiments of motor mechanics and how to drive. Business was good. A Miss Carver became her business partner and she advertised in Votes for Women ‘The modern girl is admirably suited for the life, and as a chauffeur should receive a salary of 30 shillings to £2 a week – the same, of course, as that paid to a man.”

When WW1 broke out, Aileen joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and served for eighteen months, took a year off to marry an Army doctor, and rejoined the VAD in April 1916 when she was put in charge of the first all-women ambulance unit at a hospital in northern France - 13 women drivers - and was mentioned in despatches.

Of Emmeline, she said, “Life is dedicated to her cause and we all gave our best.”

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

https://t.co/B7G7QyI92r - a good news story for native wildlife for once.. :-)

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Completely insane display from the Queen of the Night mother plant. Never seen or smelt anything like it. !!
16 buds all bloomed simultaneously in the space of the last 20-30 minutes and the cats and I are all feeling quite zonked/ out of it, purely on the over-powering perfume!

[Margaret Greenfields @MGreenfields]

Most asylum seekers rejected under tightened laws will remain in UK https://t.co/6IpOOUZQn4

[dominic dyer @domdyer70]

It’s a life saver