Claire Russell

Journalist, PR consultant and rugby addict. Allergic to poor punctuation and supporter of the apostrophe. All tweets are my personal views only.

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@nationalexpress Your webpage lists one of the options for contact as email. I need the address.

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@nationalexpress I need to email your company for clarity on luggage allowances. Your live chat could not provide answers. What email address can I use?

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@nationalexpress That still doesn’t answer my query. I have written out a full email, I need to know where to send it

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@nationalexpress Please supply an email address as this page does not answer my query

[Secretglasto @secretglasto]

Crows Nest Line Up
16:00 - Hinako Omori
17:30 - Jakob Alon
19:00 - Sorry
20:30 - Miss Tiny
21:00 - Soul Jazz Soundsystem
22:15 - Madawsto Band
22:45 - Soul Jazz Soundsystem
00:15 - Getdown Services
01:00 - Lauren Verge & Chris Tindall (Dj)

[Alison Kriel 💚 @AKLondon UpScrolled @AlisonKriel]

Can’t share this often enough

#Riots

[B&S @_B___S]

Get a dog, they said...

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@gralefrit That was always going to be a tough gig up against a penguin tonight. But your excerpt about reading the room was the one that prompted most discussion between me and my husband afterwards.

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@Rachel_Rice9 @HackedOffHugh I get the impression he’s one of the good guys, so I’m glad to hear your memories mirror that xx

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

25. Baby elephants don't learn to control their trunks until they're about one year old

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@thatcymraes Is that the place where you go down some stairs? If it is, I haven’t been there for at least 30 years. Have I been missing out?

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Matt Leys @mattleys]

A man is sitting
in a car
he is wanting to buy.

He gets out of the car
and dances.
Why?

Keith Rayner, 'Why?' (2024)

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@AOLSupportHelp I can log in on my laptop. But can’t access on my iPhone. Slightly reassured knowing it’s not just me.

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

@rachelburden I had to come off it after a breast cancer diagnosis. I must have been through the worst of it as menopause symptoms didn’t return.

[Nicholas Drummond @nicholadrummond]

This was the NATO Christmas greeting from 2022. It's so good, I hope you won't mind me sharing it again this year. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all serving and retired members of our armed forces, and especially to those deployed away from their families.

[Jason Mohammad @jasonmohammad]

This Christmas - treat yourself and watch one of the greatest Christmas messages of all time.

What a voice. Am lais.

Nadolig Llawen 🎄

(@BBCArchive)

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

A very angry pro-Rwanda LBC caller was so over the top that people can’t believe he’s not a comedy character https://t.co/L3JnmeCkmD

[Claire Russell @SunnyDe]

Majority of voters believe UK government is 'institutionally corrupt' https://t.co/Gsfr7AcUl4