Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” Harper Lee

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@virginmedia - permit NK110ANSL267711 (27-29/04) currently we have no legal access allowing us to return to our property. There has been no work at this location since lunchtime of 27 April. @KentHighways been to inspect site and will be contacting you as a matter of urgency

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@graveshambc 403 Valley Drive DA12 5TA - thank you

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@graveshambc - please can you explain why refuse collections have become so unpredictable since the recent change to collections and why there was a need to change the collection days in the first place? Thank you.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@JamesLucasIT This is it

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@Morrisons - as a long time online delivery shopper it would have been nice to know that you’re moving away from bagged shopping to crates. Taken totally by surprise this week when shopping was delivered therefore took your delivery guy twice as long.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@dotmatryx @ThoNg676733 @grok The Hindley Street Country Club - an Australian covers band from Adelaide.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@Jenny_1884 I’m 67 and yes, I would

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@MartinSLewis My local NatWest branch closed just under a year ago. I live in a large town. Until that time I visited the branch once a month on average. I now have to travel to a neighbouring town if I need to go into a branch.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@PoliticsPollss To be eligible for paternity leave in the UK, you generally need to have been continuously employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due. This is the "qualifying week".

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@lowerthames Government Treasury Minister @EmmaforWycombe doesn’t even know where the tunnel will be situated or its total cost. Car crash interview with @NickFerrariLBC

[Alan @A1an_M]

The reason why I do my restrained, online version of someone completely losing it when I encounter the pensioner / boomer hate which seems increasingly prevalent in the media these days is this:

When someone says "pensioner", I don't think of the caricature in the Telegraph of a selfish, greedy 70 year old couple in a leafy Surrey suburb who own two cars, two houses, holiday abroad several times a year, voted Remain for the cheap Polish builders and charming Estonian baristas and who think lockdown was "absolutely wonderful".

I think of my two elderly neighbours and their increasing struggles with life in their 80s. Their falls in the garden and on the stairs. The distraction burglary one suffered in which her engagement and wedding rings were stolen. Their struggles to deal with technology as the world turns digital. Their isolation from their families during COVID. Their increasing lack of mobility. Their difficulties dealing with tradespeople to keep their houses maintained. The loss, in their 80s, of their spouses of 50+ years. Their later lives consisting mainly of a seemingly never-ending series of funerals as all of their nearby friends died.

I also think of the hours they continued to give as volunteers at the church, the Rotary Club, the Scouts and the British Legion, well into their late 70s. Their love of their children and grandchildren, and of our children. Their determination to "keep calm and carry on". Their determination to keep their homes and gardens and neighbourhood tidy and spotless.

They bought their homes when they were built in 1972. They worked hard and paid off their mortgages before they retired. They chose to remain in the family home because of all the friends and family who lived nearby and because, after 50 years, their entire life was connected with their home town. Moving elsewhere to "downsize" was inconceivable in their early days of retirement, and impossible later, as they became more frail.

Yes, that home rose in paper "value" enormously in the intervening years, thanks to government policies they never wanted or asked for, but that was of no interest to them. Its value was as a home, a place to feel safe and keep their treasured possessions. Determined to live an independent life, they remained there almost to the very end.

Having worked and saved hard, they no doubt had private pensions in addition to the state pension. They were, in income terms, probably comfortably off. But life was not a bed of roses, as it is not for most elderly people.

So when I see politicians, and journalists foment hatred of the elderly with their lazy tropes about "greedy, selfish boomers" and "millionaire pensioners", it makes me really angry. Because for me, it's personal. They're talking about real people, like my neighbours. Exemplary, morally upright, selfless, generous, warm-hearted citizens.

The people fomenting this pensioner hate don't seem to realise that one day, they too, will be elderly, incontinent, falling in the bathroom, pressing the emergency button on their lanyard, and wondering if anyone will come to their aid.

If hatred of the elderly becomes the norm, they may come to regret their foolish, childish, envious, short-sighted words.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@A1an_M Well said 👏👏

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@ArrivaKent Thanks. Name’s Julia by the way 😉

[Bobbie @bo66ie29]

This beautiful remastered footage was captured by an off duty policeman on 8th May 1945 after Churchill officially declared Victory in Europe. 🇬🇧

[Paul Embery @PaulEmbery]

The fathers of two of the young girls murdered in the Southport massacre have just completed the London marathon in memory of their daughters. I am truly in awe of these brave men - Sergio Aguiar (father of Alice) and David Stancombe (father of Elsie).

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@JohnBishop100 Had a medical emergency flying back to Gatwick from Alicante last year with @easyJet. Had to land at Brest in France to take passenger off. Must say staff were exemplary. Passengers kept informed throughout. Only delayed by 90 minutes.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@Se_Railway Any update?

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@Se_Railway - please have a word with your barrier team at Gravesend station. Took a few disgruntled passengers to get them to open the barrier before 09.00 so they could access correct platform for 09.00 (off peak train) to London.

[Julia 🍊🇺🇦🧡 @broad_julia]

@Se_Railway Thank you