James Heard

Just trying to enjoy my time on the platform where nuance comes to die.

[LubnanBoi🇵🇸🇱🇧 🇮🇷 @AgitatorAK]

Dear @JeremyClarkson I saw this on my feed on another platform and instantly thought you needed to see it.

"Jeremy Clarkson thinks people who receive benefits should have to send a weekly thank you email to a randomly chosen working person, explaining what they did with the money, or have their payments stopped.

So here is mine. If you’d like to give it a share to help Jeremy see it, that would be great.

Dear Jezza,

Thank you for your concern about my contribution to society.

I should say first that you were aiming this at young people you believe are sitting at home doing nothing.

But you wrote it as a blanket rule applying to everyone whose benefits are paid.

That includes more than thirteen million pensioners, millions of people who receive benefits while working, who may find themselves being ordered to thank another benefit claimant, and me.

I receive PIP.

That money goes towards the Motability car I use to travel to work.

It is not a free car. It is not even my car. I exchange the mobility part of my PIP to lease it.

The car takes the lot.

Which is awkward, because that same payment is also meant to help cover the additional costs of being disabled, including a wheelchair that is actually usable for my job and hearing aids that allow me to do it.

There is nothing left for either.

I chose the thing that gets me to work.

That car enables me to work and, because I can work, I now pay considerably more in tax than I have ever received in PIP.

But my contribution does not end with my own tax bill.

I have built programmes that hundreds of people now use to earn a living.

They pay tax too.

Those programmes have helped thousands of people overcome anxiety, return to their lives and, in many cases, return to work.

Then there are all the people supported by the coaches and practitioners I have trained.

That is what disability support can do when it is designed to enable people rather than humiliate them.

My PIP did not disappear into some great benefits black hole.

It helped provide the transport that allowed me to work, build a business, create opportunities for other people and contribute far more than I could ever have done without it.

But as we are exchanging thank you letters, perhaps you could send me one too.

I paid my television licence throughout the years the BBC gave you the platform that made you famous.

I now pay for Amazon Prime, which helps fund the television programme about your farm.

I do not choose to watch it.

But that is how society works, Jeremy.

We all contribute towards things we may never personally use because the entire country would fall apart if every payment had to provide us with an individual benefit.

Perhaps you could also thank the taxpayers whose public services and infrastructure support your businesses.

And while you have the stationery out, perhaps you could explain the farm.

In 2021, you told The Times that avoiding inheritance tax was “the critical thing” in your decision to buy land.

In 2024, when that became rather inconvenient, you said it had never been true. You claimed you had actually bought the farm because you wanted somewhere to shoot and that tax avoidance had simply sounded like a better story at the time.

I am not sure which version helps your argument.

It is funny how public support and clever tax arrangements are treated as perfectly respectable when they benefit wealthy people.

Yet when a disabled person receives help to leave the house, go to work and participate in society, you think they should be made to perform gratitude.

So thank you for your concern, Jezza.

I hope my licence fee, Amazon subscription, taxes and contribution to the economy have all been gratefully received.

Please send your thank you letter weekly, along with a full breakdown of how you spent the money.

If it is not sufficiently fulsome and effusive, I assume your income will be stopped.

That is only fair."

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Elon Musk wouldn't know Socialism if it made him pay all his workers, made him pay all his taxes, and forced him to allow unions.

He wouldn't know Communism if it seized the means of production and tossed him in the gutter.

[Nels Abbey @nelsabbey]

In 2011 a college student was sentenced to six months inside for taking a £3.50 case of mineral water from Lidl.

[Mark Davyd @markdavyd]

"So tell me, Nigel... What was it that first attracted you to the views and opinions of the rapist, human trafficker and criminal gang leader Andrew Tate?"
#FaragesRiots #FarageUnfitForOffice

[Kentish Made @kentish_made]

A sitting MP thought that Andrew Tate was a reliable source.
https://t.co/tjqoZfIzWG

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

This should be our Dunblane moment. Only with social media not guns.

@elonmusk is a feckless billionaire whose algorithms pose an imminent threat to life. He won’t act. So it’s critical that we now do.

https://t.co/o0fPgFTMzp

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Should the Government Recall Parliament so emergency measures can be put in place to deal with the rioters?

RT if it should be.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

He knows what he is doing. His algorithms are a party to incitement to violence. He is publishing Tommy Robinson’s words & pumping them to millions.
He has no protection from Section 230 in the UK. He is a publisher. And publishers have responsibilities.

[Will @wsebag]

IMAGINE BEING IN A HOTEL FEARFUL FOR YOUR CHILDREN WHO COULD POSSIBLY RELATE TO THAT?

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

Seriously @BBCNews ?!

'pro and anti-immigration demonstrations' ?!

Are you for real?!

One is a group of organised far-right racists intent on causing harm to innocent people

The other is citizens standing up for the vulnerable in their community who are literally under attack

[Yvette Cooper @YvetteCooperMP]

The criminal, violent attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham is utterly appalling. Deliberately setting fire to a building with people known to be inside.

South Yorkshire Police have full Government support for the strongest action against those responsible.

[James Heard @jameslheard]

@ls_wba @DPJHodges ..Immigration that in some cases is causing issues. However many people agree with that and the fact it's not been dealt with by many gov gives no credibility to people throwing stones and rioting. Even if some people cause those with real concerns racist.

[James Heard @jameslheard]

@ls_wba @DPJHodges A lot of people point out fairly racism is also a factor. People who are not racist don't try and burn down hotels full of asylum seekers. Now regarding the actual debate, asylum seekers should be processed quickly but that ignores a bigger issue thier is too much legal ...

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

Come on @BBCNews - these are not 'protests'

They are organised violent riots - fueled by looting, vandalism and hate crime.

Stop legitimising them.

[(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges]

"People feel they aren't being listened to". We know there's anger about immigration. It doesn't take riots to tell us that. But we don't hand public policy making to those who are burning down police stations and assaulting their black and Asian neighbours in the street.

[TheRealChrisMiddleton @strategistmag]

The UK is currently being held to ransom by fascists, egged on by a convicted thug with a fake name who lives on the Costa del Sol, an out of work public school actor, and a conman who has spent longer in Milwaukee than he has in Clacton. Can I have my country back? #Riots