Robert Bonallack

iBarefoot

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@NiallHarbison Poor you Niall, having to struggle these last few days. I enjoy your posts more than any other and admire all you have achieved. You are very much loved by so many, humane and dog. Get well soon.

[S Tominaga (Aka Dr Craig Wright) @CsTominaga]

When I was young, the air hummed.

You couldn’t cross a field without being judged by a dozen bees, each one drunk on clover and sunlight, each one reminding you that the world was alive and armed. You would get stung, of course — that was the tax for childhood, for movement, for daring to exist where life was busy making honey. The fields were orchestras back then; now they’re morgues with good lighting.

We built a culture that fears inconvenience more than extinction.

Spray the mosquitoes, kill the midges, sterilise the air. People call it progress — the grand human march toward a landscape so safe it’s silent. They don’t notice the trade. The hum goes first. The sweetness follows. And all that’s left is the smooth, flat sound of chemical wind.

I’ve walked this ground, done the numbers, seen the desolation dressed up as cleanliness. The #bees are vanishing like guilty secrets.

Four or six hives won’t fix it — they’re just a prayer whispered into the exhaust fumes. But I’ll do it anyway. Because someone has to. Someone has to remember that the world once vibrated.

Someone has to put back the sound we killed.

[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.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@BSTHydePark Very sad and disappointing for all. How about getting a tribute band in, would help revenue for stall holders and give fans a centre to congregate and wish Jeff well.

[Amjad Taha أمجد طه @amjadt25]

To my friends in the West: Civilizations collapse not by bombs, but by excuses. So, don't intellectualize terror. Justice begins when language is cleaned. Call terror by its name. Be like us in the UAE, which was the first Muslim Arab country to condemn the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the armed wing, is banned in the UAE. Meanwhile, in the West, particularly in the UK, Hamas has lawyers, charities, mosques, and even members of Parliament defending it. Yes, civilization is not a slogan. It is action. Civilization is not about tea and tweets. It is about drawing the line. In the UAE, we know that Islamist evil rarely arrives screaming. It comes dressed in reason, legality, and politeness until it owns the house. For example, Islamist extremists now hide behind seemingly innocent corporate fronts like “Cambridge Education and Training Center Ltd.” The UAE has banned it. The UK has not. This is not education. It is indoctrination. It is a propaganda factory exploiting the trust of British society, turning your children into ideological hostages. They hijack the name Cambridge, once a symbol of enlightenment, to spread antisemitism and Afghanistan Alqeeda-style hate narratives.

Why is London’s police not investigating Islamist-linked entities like Yas for Investment and Real Estates LTD and Holdco UK Properties Limited? These are not just business names. They are potential Trojan horses. They are acquiring properties, displacing local citizens, and possibly paving the way for former Al-Qaeda jihadist members and illegal networks to anchor themselves in your cities. How many more warnings will it take before the West understands? Safety is not racism. Security is not bigotry. There is no virtue in letting terror dress up as charity or extremism masquerade as education. We know what the Muslim Brotherhood is, the ideological parent of Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. And yet, you give them home and citizenship.
With love and prayers, my heart is with every British, Canadian, Austrian, and everyone in the West.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@YesterdaysBrit1 Margate?

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@wideawake_media I’m pretty sure the RSPB in the UK is in support of Widmills. Lord knows how migrating flocks in crap weather negotiate massive wind farms

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@CurtisCup @RandA That was fabulous watching. Wonderful golf, played in a happy but competitive atmosphere. Many congratulations to both teams. (esp. GB&I)

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@tragicgolfer @johnhuggan Thank you. As my housemaster, I was very fond of Blakeway (Biggles) and have a lovely picture of Dad and DGBS together. Please pass on my best to John & your family.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@tmsproducer @bbctms @BBCSounds @BBCRadio4 @BBCSport For info. 5 live sports xtra is not showing /accessible from BBC Sounds

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@icelandrichard @BrainAppeal Delighted for you all. Congratulations and safe journey down.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@JamesBledge @RCPgolfclub Deal is fantastic at the moment. Many congratulations to both yourself and Andrew.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@HbyCricket @Andrew_attheDux @CricketerCup Hi Mark S. if you get this greetings! A few of us going to Haileybury next Sat. to watch v Oundle (Nick Shirley’s kids)

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@piersmorgan Campbell and Berko yesterday was diabolical.

[David Poulton @doglegpar3]

Jones 1930

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@davidwoburn I miss his commentary and his wishing you’re Mum a Happy Birthday. Mind you, Butch et all are doing a great job. I’m loving it.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@RishiSunak Dear Chancellor, How about a decree that anyone caught blatantly cheating the furlough will be clobbered. Mandatory 5 yrs in jail or similar.

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@KensingtonRoyal @NHM_WPY You are both fantastic. Thank you, it’s mist appreciated in these shitty times

[Robert Bonallack @Barefootbobby]

@JeffLynnesELO Long overdue and very deserved. Delighted for you and many Congratulations.