Dining Duet

The time has come to shout about the fantastic places to eat and drink in london and beyond!

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

The hair started falling out first.

Then came the blackouts.
The crushing exhaustion.
The unexplained pain.

For years, Gisèle Pelicot knew something was terribly wrong with her body.

One day, she looked at her husband and asked directly:

“Are you drugging me?”

Dominique Pelicot looked offended.

He denied everything.

After nearly fifty years of marriage, she believed him.

Why wouldn’t she?

They had raised children together.
Built a life together.
Retired to a quiet village in southern France where people saw them as the perfect couple.

But in 2020, everything shattered.

Police arrested Dominique for secretly filming women under their skirts in a supermarket.

When investigators searched his computer, they uncovered something horrifying:

Thousands of videos showing Gisèle unconscious in her own bed while men assaulted her.

For nearly a decade, Dominique had allegedly crushed sedatives into her food and drinks before inviting strangers into their home to rape her while she was unconscious.

He filmed everything.

The men came from all walks of life:
firefighters, nurses, journalists, soldiers,prison guards, husbands and fathers

Many later claimed they thought she was pretending to sleep.

Others argued that because her husband allowed it, it must have been consensual.

But an unconscious person cannot consent.

Gisèle remembered none of it.

She only knew she was constantly sick, confused, exhausted, and slowly losing herself while the man she trusted most manipulated her reality.

Then came the trial.

French law would have allowed Gisèle to remain anonymous.

She refused.

At 72 years old, she chose to reveal her identity publicly and demanded an open trial.

Her reason was simple:

“Shame must change sides.”

For months, she sat through testimony and watched evidence of what had been done to her.

She listened while men tried to excuse the inexcusable.

And she never backed down.

In December 2024, all 51 defendants were convicted.

Dominique Pelicot received the maximum sentence:
20 years in prison.

Outside the courthouse, Gisèle said:

“I wanted society to see what was happening. I never regretted this decision.”

Her courage transformed the conversation in France around drug-facilitated assault, consent, and victim shame.

Because what made her story so powerful was not only the horror of what happened.

It was what she refused to carry afterward.

Silence.
Embarrassment.
Shame.

She handed those back to the people who deserved them.

Gisèle Pelicot showed millions of survivors something the world too often forgets:

The shame does not belong to the victim.

It belongs to those who chose to harm them.

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

Slavery existed for over 5,000 years.

Every major civilisation accepted it.

For most of history, nobody seriously tried to stop it at scale.

Then Britain did something different.

It didn’t just pass a law.

👇

In 1807, Britain abolished the slave trade.

Then it enforced it.

For 60 years, the Royal Navy hunted slave ships.

1,600 ships captured.
Around 150,000 people freed.
And it cost lives.

Around 2,000 British sailors died doing it.

Then in 1833:

Britain abolished slavery across its empire.

800,000 people set free.

It paid £20 million to do it. Around 40 percent of government spending.

This wasn’t quick.

This wasn’t easy.

And it didn’t start with politicians.

It started with ordinary people.

Women boycotted sugar.
Hundreds of thousands of them.

Thomas Clarkson rode 35,000 miles to gather evidence.
A movement that took decades.

This is part of British history.

Not perfect.

But not what most people are told either.

Almost no one explains it like this.

Proud Of Us is funded entirely by our community.

No sponsors.
No advertisers.

If you believe this history deserves to be told properly:👇

Be part of us. 👉 https://t.co/rih7iKwnvf 🙏

Be proud of us 🇬🇧

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

They were starving. The cotton was right there. They refused to touch it.

Lancashire, 1862.🇬🇧

The cotton mills that clothed the world. The cotton came from American slave plantations.

Then the Civil War began. Lincoln blockaded the Southern ports. The cotton stopped coming.

331,000 people lost their jobs. The most prosperous workers in Britain were queuing for charity soup. Children went hungry.

Everyone expected them to break. Demand the government side with the slaveholders. Get the cotton flowing again.

They didn't.

New Year's Eve, 1862. Manchester Free Trade Hall.

Workers packed the hall. Hungry. Unemployed. Freezing.

The Manchester Guardian told them not to come.

They came anyway.

They voted to support Lincoln. To keep the blockade. To keep starving.

They refused to buy their survival with someone else's chains.

Lincoln wrote back. He called it "sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country."

Then he sent ships full of food to Lancashire.

There's still a statue of Lincoln in Manchester. His words are still on it.

But here's what most people don't know.

That hall, the Free Trade Hall, was built on the exact site of the Peterloo Massacre.

In 1819, cavalry charged into working people on that same ground. Demanding the right to vote. At least fifteen killed.

Same ground. Same working people. Two generations apart.

In 1819 they were cut down for asking to be heard. In 1862 their children chose to starve for someone else's freedom.

Lancashire. Every time.

Help us get the stories of our ancestors out of the archives and into the people.
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No sponsors. No ads. Just us.

Be part of us.

Be proud of us. 🇬🇧

[A simple man 😎 @BabaDClint]

I think this should be taught to all girls.

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

He was DEFEATED ELEVEN TIMES.

Attacked. Threatened with DEATH. Nearly blind.

Addicted to opium just to function. They told him to stop. He spent forty-six years refusing.

His name was William Wilberforce. Born in Hull, 1759.

He could have lived a comfortable life. Wealthy family. Safe seat in Parliament.

Instead he chose to destroy the most powerful economic system in the British Empire.

The slave trade.

He didn't fight alone. Thomas Clarkson rode 35,000 miles gathering evidence.

Olaudah Equiano, man who had been enslaved himself, gave testimony that no politician could ignore.

Wilberforce took their evidence to Parliament.

They voted no. He came back. They voted no. He came back. Lost by eight votes.

MPs deliberately stayed away so they wouldn't have to choose a side.

He came back. Again. And again. And again.

By now his eyesight was nearly gone. His body was breaking. He'd been on opium since he was 29.

Twenty years after he started, they voted again.

283 to 16.

The slave trade was abolished.

But he wasn't finished. Slavery itself was still legal. He fought for another twenty-six years.

In July 1833, lying in bed, barely able to move, he received word. Parliament had voted. Slavery was abolished across the entire British Empire.

Three days later, William Wilberforce died.

He held on just long enough.

They buried him in Westminster Abbey.

Help keep our stories alive.

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Be part of us.

Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

@Lfromthenorth I am so disappointed that our grandmothers and great grandmothers fought so hard for our rights, and there are women desperately stripping them away. Create a third category and apply rights to that, do not force women to give up the space we've had to fight so hard for!

[Sharron Davies HoL MBE @sharrond62]

I’m not religious but I respect anyone’s beliefs providing they are based in peace & equality. Somehow we’re back here with one rule for one but not for the other. This is never ok in a country that must apply the law to everyone exactly the same or laws become worthless.

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

@StevenPayn5521 @darrengrimes That's why they want them shut

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

I second this, Sunday's seafood boil is a huge delicious feast. And the Irish Martini might be my new favourite cocktail!

[Nick Procter @nickprocter27]

The Pale - Lincoln.

If you haven’t been, I suggest you do.

Absolutely sensational Irish/seafood cuisine.

Great service and great Guinness!

[The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole]

“Nobody has the right to live their lives being protected from offense or from insults or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard of living in society.”

— Ann Widdecombe

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

Shockingly there is a middle ground, or compromise in most arguments. Even now when life seems so thoroughly divide, there is a not polarised route to success #weonlyhaveoneplanet
#onelife #humanity

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

@BrewDog With peach, on tap, yes please!!

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

If you are a public servant, or employed in public or civil service... you are funded by the the public, UK tax payers, and should be accountable to the UK tax payers. Surely this is not a difficult concept? #DWP #DSHC #DfE #NHS

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

Love a lazy Sunday breakfast at wellington farm shop

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

Monty Python's Life of Brian is 46 years old today.
13 Life of Brian Classic Moments - A THREAD
Brian could well be the funniest movie ever made, and one clip alone won't do it justice. So dive into this thread and find out why Brian was a very naughty boy. You splitter!
1/

[Thomas Skinner ⚒ @iamtomskinner]

If you’re reading this…
You are perfect, you are enough, and you are loved.
Never forget it. Keep going. You’ve got this. ❤️💪

Bosh❤️

[Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat]

He knew the BBC would never let him on the show again but he said it anyway.

[🤍𝕁𝕆🤍 @jomickane]

Well bloody said to that woman 👏👏👏

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

He speaks for millions of people in the UK. 🎯

“We end up with economically illiterate people in the government. There are not fit for office. This is our money. I’m sick of being asked to pay more and more for less and less.”

We are being fleeced.

[Dining Duet @DiningDuet]

@AaronBastani As a country we train apprentices and engineers, military and civil service who could easily repair and build... but we don't allow them too as it would be 'unfair' to these companies that offer poor return on investment