Disability is no parasite.
Do you understand me? It’s coming for us all.
These Tory bastards would murder us if they could.
Disability comes for you, too, in the end.
But I’m no parasite.
Left the UK at the end of Covid for pastures new. Five years later, now a full national & EU passport holder. Seeing how other countries news media portrays the UK and laughs at the hugely stupid mistakes it has made have completely vindicated my decision.
Summer, summer, summertime ☀️
June 21 is the summer solstice for folks north of the Equator. This is when the Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt toward the Sun and has its longest stretch of daylight all year. https://t.co/LmLttEnj9Y
French President Emmanuel Macron pulls off what could be the greatest diplomatic troll of all time by getting Trump to sign the "$300 Billion US Surrender to Iran" deal in... Versailles. The ignoramus Trump will have been clueless as to the historical significance of the location
I’ve had lots of messages from very worried former colleagues at the BBC. The corporation’s news operation is respected around the world but for many, this latest announcement about major cuts and job losses feels like the ‘managed decline’ of a trusted institution and a huge hit to morale.
The direction of travel is one of reasons why, whenever I get asked if I miss the BBC, I say that I miss the people and I miss working with my friends. I do not miss the mess.
A small public service announcement from the Department of Things That You Should Know…
It has not “peeked” your interest.
Nor has it “peaked” your interest.
…It has piqued your interest.
You are not “phased” by something.
You are fazed by it.
If you’ve had a long day, you are weary.
If you suspect someone is an idiot, you are wary.
It is “due course”, not “do course”.
“Per se”, not “per say”.
And while we’re here, it’s “could have”, not “could of”, but that particular battle may already be lost.
Thank you for your attention during this brief outbreak of grammatical housekeeping.
This has been a @LairdofthManor announcement.🎩💙
2pm in High Street coming from @U105radio. A young black muslim woman was in front of me. A racist thug ran up and yelled in her face. She paused rubbed her face and as I stopped she smiled saying "its ok" Through the smile she was fighting back tears. It's so far from Ok. #vile
A regional diplomat with knowledge of the details of the US-Iran agreement says that the text being circulated by CNN and other news outlets is not the text that was signed this past weekend. He tells me that the text being reported is a draft from May. @NBCNews
I'm in Istanbul's Blum Coffee for Bloomsday - and the delicious coffee, the meat, the sun that keeps me coming back to Beşiktaş. Jesus, you'd think you were in Dalkey.
The streets are worth a pub crawl but for coffee, and they've got form: the first coffee houses here (1550s) predate by about a century England's. (Oxford's Grand Cafe – where I have a tab – according to Pepys dates to about 1650.)
But these were controversial things at the start: in Istanbul, Sultan Murad IV decreed keeping a coffeehouse punishable by cudgelling for a first offence, and being sewn in a bag and thrown into the Bosphorus for a second. Unclear what happened on the third.
The Dutch eventually break Yemen's monopoly on beans, by getting hold of plants from Mocha and planting them in Java. France follows and pots a coffee plant in 1714 Paris's Jardin des Plantes – where I was with my wife weekend before last, ironically, in our search for a morning coffee. (Paris has an infinitude of excellent baristas, with tiny shops and a few stools inside, and queues of faithful followers ut on to the pavement.)
Ironically, now Turks drink more tea than coffee – whereas in my own Ireland, we've in the last generation gone the opposite way. Nice trick would be cross South Dublin without passing an independent barrista.
Random side point but I'm reminded of a funny story I heard from a girl. She said in the 90s she had to stand outside her classroom when Tufty the road safety squirrel came to school because Tufty was a member of a Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Like millions of Canadians, my ancestors left Ireland in the shadow of the famine. They carried hope across the Atlantic and helped build the Canada we know today.
To return to Mayo, and receive a welcome such as this, is a testament to the life they built for their children — and to the indomitable spirit of the Irish, everywhere — whose pride in their heritage is unbroken by distance and time.