3 brilliant English food & drink makers worth a follow:
๐ถ๏ธ @CondimentsKitch โ artisan chilli jams, chutneys & hot sauces
๐ฏ @eve_bees โ pure Lincolnshire honey from their own hives
๐ฐ @Chococake46 โ gorgeous handmade celebration cakes
Support small, eat well. ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ
Dartington Crystal.
Handcrafted in Torrington, North Devon since 1967.
One of the very few remaining large-scale crystal factories still operating in the UK โ where skilled glassblowers continue the traditional craft.
In an industry where so many famous British names have moved production overseas, Dartington has kept the skill alive here in England.
We donโt want to lose these companies.
Thatโs why we're building https://t.co/eWD8weWXHH ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ โ to help people discover and support the brilliant makers who are still producing here.
If you love beautiful glassware, consider backing the ones still doing it in Britain.
3 English makers to follow today:
@HawksheadRelish - chutneys, relishes and preserves from the Lake District.
@FineCheeseCo - Bath-made crackers and biscuits for proper cheese boards.
@ChapelDownWines - English wine that helped change how people see our vineyards.
No affiliation - just good English makers worth knowing about.
More tomorrow.
#MadeInEngland
Le Creuset makes brilliant cookware. Itโs also French.
Samuel Groves makes superb cast iron in Birmingham.
24cm Britannia pan: ยฃ130. Le Creuset equivalent: ยฃ149.
Same premium cast iron game, but supporting local industry feels better.
#MadeInEngland
For a thousand years, when nobody was coming to help the British people, the British people helped each other. ๐ฌ๐ง
That has always been our answer.
Long before any state asked it of us. Long before any law required it. We were already looking after each other. ๐
In the year 900, every Anglo-Saxon man was bound by oath to nine of his neighbours. If one was wronged, the other nine were responsible for putting it right. โ๏ธ
The whole village answerable for each other. It wasn't charity. It wasn't kindness. It was the law.
By the 1300s, every English parish kept what they called a poor box. ๐
Bread for the family who couldn't farm. Wool for the widow who couldn't weave. Coin for the orphan with no one.
The state didn't tell them to. The state didn't even exist yet. They just did it.
In the 1400s, the wealthy started leaving their fortunes in their wills. Not to their children. Not to the church. To strangers. ๐๏ธ
To houses where elderly neighbours could live for the rest of their lives. Some of those almshouses, founded six hundred years ago, are still housing British people today.
In the 1700s, the working men came together. They didn't own land. They didn't have fortunes. They had a few pennies a week. So they pooled them.
They called themselves Friendly Societies. โณ
If a member fell sick, his family was fed. If a member died, his children were buried with dignity. If a member was injured, the doctor's bill was paid.
By the 1870s, half the working men of Britain belonged to one. Long before there was a welfare state, the British working class had built one for themselves. Penny by penny. ๐ช
In 1824, William Hillary watched a ship break up off the Isle of Man. He could hear the sailors calling for help. Nobody was coming for them.
No navy. No coastguard. No state. โต
So Hillary asked the British people to be the ones who came. Volunteers. Donations. Lifeboats.
Two centuries later, the RNLI has saved more than 146,000 lives. Still volunteer-run. Still funded by donations. Still no state involvement. ๐
In 1862, half a million Lancashire mill workers were out of work. A naval blockade had cut off the slave-grown cotton from America. Their families were starving.
Someone offered them slave-grown cotton from elsewhere. Just to keep working.
They voted on it. In Manchester's Free Trade Hall.
They voted no.
They chose hunger. For people they would never meet. For people enslaved on the other side of an ocean. ๐
In 1911, a chancellor named Lloyd George stood up in Parliament. He had a plan. Workers would pay a few pennies a week. Their employers would pay too. And in return, when a worker fell sick, his family would be fed. The doctor's bill would be paid.
He didn't invent the idea. He copied it. From the Friendly Societies the British working class had been running themselves for two hundred years.
Thirty-seven years later, a Welsh miner's son named Aneurin Bevan made it national. ๐ฅ
They called it the National Health Service. One of the proudest achievements in British history.
And it was built on the model the Friendly Societies had been running for two hundred years before it.
British working people had already invented it.
The state finally caught up.
The state didn't give us this.
We gave it to ourselves. โ
https://t.co/rih7iKwnvf ๐๐ฌ๐ง
Be part of us.
Be Proud Of Us. ๐๐ฌ๐ง
๐ฌ๐ง The story we got told is that kings made British history.
That parliaments did. That armies did.
That isn't what the record shows.
๐ 1215. The barons dragged King John into a field at Runnymede and made him sign. Two years later ordinary people came back, and the Charter of the Forest gave common people written rights for the first time in history. British people stood together, and they won.
โ๏ธ 1381. A hundred thousand peasants, labourers and craftsmen marched on London with farm tools and the longbows the Crown had trained them to use. A fourteen-year-old king rode out to meet them and negotiated face to face with a peasant at Smithfield. Serfdom never recovered. British people stood together, and they won.
๐ฏ๏ธ 1791. Three hundred thousand British households stopped buying sugar. No leader. No orders. Women led it, putting notices in their windows that said this household does not use slave-grown sugar. Sales collapsed. It started the momentum that ended the slave trade. The Royal Navy spent the next fifty years intercepting slave ships. British taxpayers paid the loan until 2015. British people stood together, and they won.
๐ณ 1834. Six Dorset farm labourers asked for a living wage. The government made it illegal overnight and shipped them to Australia in irons. Eight hundred thousand people signed a petition. Tens of thousands marched through London. The Tolpuddle Martyrs came home, and the global trade union movement had its moment. British people stood together, and they won.
๐ญ 1862. The American Civil War cut off the cotton. Half a million Lancashire mill workers were starving. Slave-grown Confederate cotton was on the docks, and would have ended the famine overnight. They voted, in meeting after meeting, not to touch it. They chose hunger over slavery. Abraham Lincoln wrote them a letter calling it an example to the world. British people stood together, and they won.
No empire did any of this. No king ordered it. No parliament voted for it.
A field in Runnymede. A road to London. A kitchen window. A tree in Dorset. A meeting hall in Manchester.
Every time it mattered most, British people stood together. And every time they did, they changed what it meant to be human.
This is who we are. This is what we're capable of.
Now it's our turn.
Find each other. Stand together. The next chapter is ours to write.
Your support pays for the research, the production, and the hours it takes to get it right. Stories like these don't find themselves.
Be part of us. ๐ https://t.co/rih7iKwnvf ๐
Be Proud Of Us. ๐๐ฌ๐ง
To all the Supermarkets and big commercial stores that operate 'Self Check-outs'....... You are heading towards almost exclusively self-checkout now. Today I went shopping at one such store and the lady checking receipts at the exit was stopping everyone.
I didn't choose to participate in that nonsense, I had already filled my cart, emptied my cart and scanned the items, refilled my cart and so I just skipped the exit line and left.
I heard her saying "Umm - Excuse me โ as I kept walking and raised the receipt above my head, leaving the store.
You can either trust me to do self-checkout, or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be.
โข I'm not interested in proving that I did your job for you.
โข If you want me to be a cashier with no training then that's your problem not mine.
โข Keep employing young people and give them job opportunities.
YOU DON'T PAY ME TO SCAN MY OWN SHOPPING.
YOU DONโT GIVE ME STAFF DISCOUNT FOR WORKING FOR YOU.
Signed ......All of us
People we need to share this statement its basically about PROFIT to the stores AND putting People out of a JOB....!!!
~ unknown author ~
Please share and urgently help police find missing St Helens teenager Abigail Hanwright.
Abigail, 18, was last seen in Ecclesfield Road at around 9.45am yesterday, Thursday 8 May, and Merseyside Police said they are increasingly concerned.
Evening Twitter folk. We are two weeks away from Easter and I am still on the cadge for Easter eggs for kids, families and community organisations who are all in need. Please help if you can, even if it's a retweet. My thanks in advance as always. ๐๐๐ปโค๏ธ๐๐ป
It is 18 years since my proudest moment of buying my first business Hawkshead Post Office .
In 2007 post office ruined me, losses of ยฃ36k forced us into bankruptcy, we lost our business and our home and fled the village . I had a nervous breakdown
Itโs over 3 years since I applied to the HSS scheme and still I have only been offered 30% of my legally compiled claim .
๐ท๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐
I cannot progress any further with my claim
I have battled litigation, I have appeared before the select committee , I have shown my private life on TV documentary I have give interviews and TV and media , NONE of this I wanted to do.
https://t.co/85YUc9jCiz
Where is full and fair ? Where is putting me back into the position I should have been. What more damage can you do to me . You @PostOffice have shattered me and ruined me
I am one of hundreds of ruined people who are not getting treated fairly .
Where now do I turn ?
@stugoo17@liambyrnemp@biztradegovuk@SarahLudford@nickwallis@RtHonKevanJones@kevinhollinrake@Karlfl@ElCShaikh@GMB@BBCEmmaSimpson@carolvorders@JoshReynoldsSL6@RosieHeys
You support your players when they pull on the Red shirt, thro thick & thin..good times & the not so good.
Players come & go, but while they're here..you support them, it's that simple.
We win as a team & we lose as a team.
You'll Never Walk Alone..don't ever forget that.
Pre Horizon, Bettyโs Post Office didnโt even have a stamp missing. Then Horizon arrived. It showed a ยฃ500 deficit when first turned on. She poured in her own cash - but Betty was chasing ghosts. She lay awake at night, teeth chattering in fear.
Betty is 92. Compensate her fully.