Stan Abbott

Writer, publisher, occasional entrepreneur. Hates bigotry & loathes Brexit & all the self-serving people that come with it. #nufc @freenorthnow. 🇺🇦

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

I gave this the following rating on TheArticle @tweetthearticle: Well written 5/5, Interesting 5/5, Agree 5/5. https://t.co/jKLlCiiqxr

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

Trump is burning the house down. I watched him plan for this https://t.co/GkSWnJZ6wr

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

Margaret Thatcher at 100: the professors pay tribute https://t.co/6ZbzITcPKN

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

It’s because yes actually a very-good mayor...

[Ant Middleton @antmiddleton]

How is he still Mayor of London! HOW??? Actually we know why…

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

Brilliantly put!

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[4th July - Tory wipe Out @snb19692]

Putin's Puppet Farage! And if not licking the arse of a one dictator is enough, he goes to lick Trump's too!!!

[Carole Hagan🖤🇪🇺💙 @carole_hagan]

How disgusting is this man?

[Leyla Hamed @leylahamed]

Yesterday, Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso announced a ban on symbols of support for Palestine in schools.

Today, at least 89 schools across Madrid have defied the measure: instead of disappearing, solidarity is multiplying.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Rep. Greg Caser: " If Watergate happened today, would our biggest news outlets be allowed to run the story? Or would a billionaire owner decide that crossing the administration just isn't worth it for his bottom line?"

[Daniel Goldman @danielsgoldman]

This is absolutely disgraceful.

Trump pushed DOJ to investigate a state AG who brought a lawsuit against him (where the judge found him liable).

An independent US Atty would not authorize charges that were unsupported by facts and evidence.

He was fired.

Banana. Republic.

[The News Agents @TheNewsAgents]

"We saw it in Weimar Germany and Mussolini's Italy... It's not a million miles away from this."

Former US Ambassador to the EU Anthony Gardner tells @maitlis that curbs on free speech put America on “slippery territory” for democracy.

[AMC #MakeLyingWrongAgain 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @AbhorBrexit]

@BotFinderUK Ask Reform, ask the Tories, ask Boris Johnson, ask Jenrick, ask Farage, ask The Daily Mail, ask The Telegraph. Ask every f-ng right wing voter and politician. Ask the Leave voters.
They all know why this happened - and how we got here.

[Overlord Mekon 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇦🇪🇺🌌 @the_mekon]

@LAMBDENA @BotFinderUK I don't think hospitals & care homes want these kind of hooligans though.
They want folk who are diligent and educated.
Not pissheads and violent thugs who fight, litter, pee and vomit in the public space.

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

@AngellinaBrady 😎

[Stan Abbott @StanDare]

What an odious, privileged little turd he is. Lewis now unwatchable!

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Laurence Fox condoning and therefore encouraging the behaviour of a nasty little thug intimidating people who are simply doing their job.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

BREAKING: Trump has ordered the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.

This famous photo is one of them.

Please paste this image everywhere. Don't let them erase history.

Information at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, where George Washington kept slaves is also being removed.

[FibbyMcFibFace #RejointheEU @FibbyMcFibFace]

Hello Nigel? How do I defect? I've tried crossing the floor, but I just ended up in the kitchen

[Sir Michael Take CBE @MichaelTakeMP]

Great news!
President Trump has ended speculation about his poor health by making his first public appearance in over 5 days…
🇺🇸

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him