Anna Payne

Juggling family life and a career in Research Admin. Wife to @commsdad and mum to two wonderfully energetic, wacky boys. Also has hair that just won't quit.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

Here is Robert De Niro’s full statement about how Donald Trump should NEVER be president again:

“I’ve spent a lot of time studying bad men.  I’ve examined their characteristics, their mannerisms, the utter banality of their cruelty.

Yet there’s something different about Donald Trump. When I look at him, I don’t see a bad man. Truly.

I see an evil one.

Over the years, I’ve met gangsters here and there. This guy tries to be one, but he can’t quite pull it off. There’s such a thing as “honor among thieves.” Yes, even criminals usually have a sense of right and wrong. 

Whether they do the right thing or not is a different story — but — they have a moral code, however warped.

Donald Trump does not. He’s a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No regard for anyone but himself — not the people he was supposed to lead and protect, not the people he does business with, not the people who follow him, blindly and loyally, not even the people who consider themselves his “friends.” He has contempt for all of them.

We New Yorkers got to know him over the years that he poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego.  We knew first hand that this was someone who should never be considered for leadership.  We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The repercussions of his turbulent presidency divided America and rattled New York City beyond imagination.  Remember how we were jolted by crisis in early 2020, as a virus swept the world.

We lived with Donald Trump’s bombastic behavior every day on the national stage, and we suffered as we saw our neighbors piling up in body bags.

The man who was supposed to protect this country put it in peril, because of his recklessness and impulsiveness. It was like an abusive father ruling the family by fear and violent behavior.  That was the consequence of New York’s warning getting ignored. Next time, we know it will be worse.

Make no mistake: the twice-impeached, 4-time indicted Donald Trump is still a fool. But we can’t let our fellow Americans write him off like one. Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously.

So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke — right here in the beating heart of New York — to the rest of America:
This is our last chance.

Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator.

And it won’t overcome evil if we are divided.

So what do we do about it?  I know I’m preaching to the choir here.  What we’re doing today is valuable, but we have to take today into tomorrow – take it outside these walls.   We have to reach out to the half of our country who have ignored the hazards of Trump and, for whatever reason, support elevating him back into the White House. 

They’re not stupid, and we must not condemn them for making a stupid choice.  Our future doesn’t just depend on us. It depends on them.

Let’s reach out to Trump’s followers with respect.  Let’s not talk about “democracy.”  “Democracy” may be our holy grail, but to others it is just a word, a concept, and in their embrace of Trump, they’ve already turned their backs on it. 

Let’s talk about right and wrong.  Let’s talk about humanity. 

Let’s talk about kindness.  Security for our world. 

Safety for our families. 

Decency. 

Let’s welcome them back. 

We won’t get them all, but we can get enough to end the nightmare of Trump, and fulfill the mission of this “Stop Trump Summit.”

[Emily Darlington MP @emily4MK]

5 years ago Milton Keynes was dubbed ‘tent city’ by the media. Today, no one needs to sleep rough on our streets. How did we do it? A thread by the Cabinet Member responsible 👇

[John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch]

NEW: we need to talk about UK graduate wages, and the idea that Britain sends too many people to university.

American readers should stick around for the UK/US comparisons 👀

Let’s start with this: the UK graduate wage premium has fallen substantially over the last 25 years

[The Centre for Health Economics @CHEyork]

Share your views on the long-term challenges for the health and social care sector at the online launch event for the REAL Supply Unit, 10am 7 November. Register now: https://t.co/tMGq6NJzDh

[Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart @C_BruceLockhart]

I made a giant graphic this week... to highlight just how many countries are already well into a period of fossil fuel decline in their power sectors.

Half of the world's economies (107!) are already five years past a peak in fossil power generation.

https://t.co/EpTW5cKGzj

[emily m @maitlis]

“Sound money under the conservatives or run out of money under Labour “ says the chancellor Jeremy Hunt - who was literally brought in to rescue the economy from a previous conservative chancellor’s policies .. #cpc23

[Robert Peston @Peston]

If Sunday Times is correct that Sunak wants to abolish inheritance tax, this quote in its scoop from a government insider is just priceless, by way of justification for the tax cull: “a lot of people don’t know that they won’t pay it”. The point, which this government adviser thinks few people know, is that the tax is only payable on estates worth more than £1m, for most families. So the PM would be campaigning to give a tax break for a minority, predominantly in London and the rich south, but his colleagues apparently think the vast majority won’t notice

[Dr Dan Goyal @danielgoyal]

Yesterday’s announcement by this Govt about winter beds was really devious and dishonest.

The message they were sending to the public was ‘we are investing in the NHS to prepare for Winter’

The reality was quite the opposite…
1/7

[National Institute for Health and Care Research @NIHRresearch]

We are pleased to announce that we have awarded over £100 million to 20 new NIHR Policy Research Units to tackle important emerging health and social care issues including #reproductivehealth #addiction and #dementia. Read more: https://t.co/Yke8ADJlWE
@LucyChappell2 @DHSCgovuk

[Ashley Cowburn @ashcowburn]

Keir Starmer tells Labour’s National Policy Forum if the party wins power “the rescue job will be like none other”.

“Think of it like this: if our job in 1997 was to rebuild a crumbling public realm, in 1964 - to modernise an economy left behind by the pace of technological change, or in 1945 - to build a new Britain out of the trauma of a collective sacrifice, then in 2024 - it will have to be all three.”

[Cary Cooper @ProfCaryCooper]

What damage the Conservatives have done to the UK over 14 years is summarised by this Newsnight panelist

[Dept Health Sciences @HealthSciYork]

Lovely to welcome Prof Chris Whitty to the department today. He'll be receiving an honorary degree later but this morning he took the time to give a short talk to staff and PGR students on current priorities, followed by a Q&A.

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

WARNING. THIS IS A SCAM BY CRIMINALS TRYING TO STEAL MONEY. PLS SHARE.

This is frightening, it's the first deep fake video scam I've seen with me in it. Govt & regulators must step up to stop big tech publishing such dangerous fakes. People'll lose money and it'll ruin lives.

[Charles Fonge @fonge_bob]

@CastelliAdriana @CHEyork Happy birthday @CHEyork!

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

Love this from Ben Elton on the BBC…

More of this please.

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Sunak claims he had a long standing private engagement that prevented him being in the Commons. It was a Monday. He is a Parliamentarian. Unless it involved the death or serious illness of someone very close to him, I’m sorry, there is literally no excuse. In failing to 1/4