Erskine Holmes

UK Labour NI #Right2Stand. Co-op Party. Irish Labour Party. Likes lurchers & collies. Reads Co-op News, shops Co-op!

[Erskine Holmes @Sherlocker2]

@richardtgarland All that is missing is “We were wrong so we support a change.”

[Polski Patriota @Cogito1918]

Gdy Niemcy zestrzelili go nad
okupowaną Francją, myśleli, że to
koniec.

Kilka tygodni później, po
brawurowej ucieczce przez Pireneje
i Gibraltar, Tadeusz Koc znowu
polował na Luftwaffe w kokpicie
Spitfire'a.

Ponad 500 godzin lotów bojowych.
200 misji nad okupowaną Europą.
4 zniszczone samoloty wroga.

Dowódca legendarnego Dywizjonu
303.
Żołnierz Września 1939.
As polskiego lotnictwa.
Kawaler Virtuti Militari.
Po wojnie na emigracji.

3 VI 2008 odszedł na wieczną
wartę
PŁK PILOT TADEUSZ KOC.

Cześć Jego pamięci!

[Belfast Telegraph @BelTel]

Jon Burrows is trying to reach out to his alienated MLAs, but those with the “biggest concerns” in Stormont about his leadership believe it is too late, sources said.

https://t.co/3EEzQb3Q2c

[Prof Colin Talbot (rerum cognoscere causas) @colinrtalbot]

Angela Rayner - £40k underpaid stamp duty - repaid. Lost jobs in Cabinet and Dep. PM.

Peter Murrell - £400k theft from SNP - going to prison

Huge coverage of both

Nigel Farage - £5m undeclared bung (possibly more) - goes to ground for a month.

Media coverage? You judge.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

BREAKING

Israel is now threatening to bomb the Christian Quarter in the city of Tyre, South Lebanon.

There are no military targets.

This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian areas in southern Lebanon — over 2,000 years old.

Not a peep from Western governments

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel killed Lara and her parents today in Nabatieh, South Lebanon.

Israel dropped a bomb on their home in the village of Doueir — wiping out an entire family in a single airstrike.

[Suzanne Breen @SuzyJourno]

The damage to the UUP brand in the last 24 hours has been immeasurable. Divided parties don’t win elections. Doug Beattie may well not be the last MLA to leave. The gulf between UUP councillors/members & the Stormont team is growing bigger by the day.
https://t.co/ASWqOQ6LX7

[British Poles @britishpoles]

Saint John Paul II's first pilgrimage to his homeland began on 2 June 1979. The communist authorities feared that his visit would awaken the Polish longing for freedom and independence.
During this historic journey, the Pope spoke the now-famous words: "And I cry out from the depths of this millennium – let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth. The face of this land."
This apostolic visit marked a turning point in the peaceful resistance against communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The Pope inspired the Polish people to stand tall in the face of oppression and never lose hope.
The extraordinary legacy of Saint John Paul II will remain forever in our hearts and memory.

[British Poles @britishpoles]

During WW2, Germany kidnapped ~200,000 Polish children to Germanise those with Aryan traits.
Their identities were erased, they were given German names, and the Polish language was banned.
A whole generation was stolen to reshape the future.
https://t.co/PRw3z8Kq3E

[William Crawley @williamcrawley]

Doug Beattie’s (former) constituency association has posted this statement:

[Erskine Holmes @Sherlocker2]

@MariaMc05048077 @SuzyJourno He’s leading a party but may not have the support of a single MLA. He’s adopted a Churchillian style of speaking in Assembly but all his speeches are solo runs: there is never a follow on from his own benches.

[Erskine Holmes @Sherlocker2]

@SuzyJourno It simple: someone in Upper Bann wants Doug’s seat. Identify that person now & you have the scoop!

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

On this day in 1940, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force was told to abandon his army.

His name was John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort. He held the Victoria Cross from the First World War, where in 1918 he had personally led a battalion across a canal under machine gun fire with a shattered arm. He was 53 years old. He had spent the last three weeks watching his army die on the road to Dunkirk.

Churchill's order was direct. Lord Gort was to leave Dunkirk that night by fast motor launch. The British government could not afford to let the Germans capture the commander of the British Army as a propaganda prize.

Gort tried to refuse. He was told it was not a suggestion.

He left in the dark from the East Mole on the evening of May 31, in a small naval vessel, having handed command of the rear party to Major General Harold Alexander. Witnesses on the boat said Gort was close to tears the entire way back to England.

That same 24 hours was the largest single-day evacuation in British military history.

68,014 men came off the beaches and the mole. Royal Navy destroyers ran shuttle runs across the Channel, each one loading 1,000 soldiers in twenty minutes and racing back through Stuka attacks and floating mines. The little ships of England ferried thousands more from the open sand out to the deeper water. By dawn on June 1, more than 250,000 British soldiers were home.

But Dunkirk did not save itself.

Eighty miles south, in a town called Lille, 35,000 French soldiers had been holding out for four days, completely surrounded by seven German divisions.

They were the rearguard of the French 1st Army. Their commander, General Jean-Baptiste Molinié, had been ordered to die in place to keep the road to Dunkirk open. He had done exactly that. By May 31 they had no artillery shells, almost no rifle ammunition, no food. They had eaten their cavalry horses on the 29th.

When Molinié finally laid down his arms, the German corps commander, General Kurt Waeger, was so stunned by what they had done with nothing that he refused to take their swords. He ordered his own men to present arms as the French marched out into captivity. He saluted Molinié in person on the road outside Lille.

It was the only time in 1940 that a defeated French army was granted the honors of war.

Most of the British soldiers who got home that night never knew the price.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel executed Theodosia today in Qlayaa, South Lebanon.

She was on her way to take her exams.

Israel dropped a bomb on her car, killing her and her parents.

[Máiría Cahill @cahillbooks]

Sinn Féin's New Mid Ulster Mayor has deleted her X account. Unfortunately for her, she was one of my trolls when I first went public about my abuse, and she continued to troll for over a year. And I kept the screenshots. Dopes.

[Michelle O’Neill @moneillsf]

This evening, six new Sinn Féin Mayors and Chairs were elected across councils in the North.

In Antrim and Newtownabbey, history was made with the election of the council’s first ever Sinn Féin Mayor, reflecting the positive change taking place across our society.

Each Mayor and Chair will work tirelessly to represent all communities, create better opportunities for people, and have the backs of families through these difficult times with the cost-of-living crisis.

I look forward to working together with all incoming Mayors and Chairs across every council to build a better future for all who call this place home.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

As President, I would read 10 letters a day sent to me by ordinary Americans. At the Obama Presidential Center, we’ll have some of the letters I read — and responded to — every night. I still get emotional reading them, and it’s one of my favorite exhibits.

[TK @TKbytesback]

Tom Kelly: We will forever be in debt to selfless men like Desmond Rea -they did the heavy lifting on policing reform https://t.co/EfZtWCG8v4 @ChiefConPSNI @HughOrde @Keir_Starmer @PoliceFedforNI @nipolicingboar1 @ClaireHanna @hilarybennmp @ArleneFosterUK

[Micheál Martin @MichealMartinTD]

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Sir Desmond Rea who, as the inaugural chair of the NI Policing Board, made an enormous contribution to the transformation of policing in Northern Ireland in the years after the Good Friday Agreement.