Michael Frearson

Communications, content, copywriting, consultancy.
I like drinking coffee, eating cheese and lying down.

[Dr Mark Williamson @markwilliamson]

Glad to see this Sunday feature sharing 10 ideas from my book:

1. Get off autopilot
2. Be a realistic optimist
3. Try small “happiness experiments”
4. Make good habits easy
5. Shift your perspective in tough times
6. Build your social fitness
7. Help people feel truly heard
8. Stay on your side of the net
9. Stop hoping for a better past
10. Build trust and spread kindness

https://t.co/LtDGpDv4RE

[Sam @SamCKx]

I can no longer hold my tongue seeing the utter lies being spread about Britain, our history of migration, and how this country was built into what it is today. For those so deeply buried in fake news, manufactured outrage and billionaire‑funded propaganda, I’m going to lay out the truth – and exactly why you’re being fed all this poison.

Britain was never a sealed white island. From Roman times there were African soldiers stationed on Hadrian’s Wall and living in British towns, people from across the empire walking these roads nearly 2,000 years ago. Through the Middle Ages and Tudor England you still find Black people in the records – sailors, craftsmen, servants, musicians – even Black musicians at the royal court and Africans being baptised, marrying and being buried in English parishes like anyone else. This isn’t some modern experiment; it’s older than half the castles people visit on their bank‑holiday tours.

As Britain went out into the world, the world came here. Sailors and traders from India, Yemen and beyond were arriving in British ports from the 1600s. Some of those men were practising a new faith to most Britons at the time, praying quietly in boarding houses near the docks while they worked brutal shifts in the engine rooms of British ships. Over the centuries, more people from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia passed through and settled, bringing their languages, foods and beliefs into port cities that were far more mixed than today’s nostalgia merchants like to admit.

After two world wars, the truth is simple: this country asked the Commonwealth to come and rebuild it. People from the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia didn’t sneak in; they were recruited. They came to drive buses and trains, staff the NHS, work in mills and foundries, clean offices, run corner shops, open takeaways and small businesses, and yes, build prayer spaces and community centres alongside churches and temples in the neighbourhoods everyone now pretends were always “traditional” and “unchanged”. They did the work that kept Britain going while being told to go home, refused housing, and treated as permanent outsiders.

And what have they been paid back with? Scandals where people who’ve lived, worked and paid taxes here for decades get told they don’t belong. Policies designed to make life so hostile that some give up and leave. A media that uses their names, accents, clothes or places of worship as props in endless scare stories. The message is always the same: you might toil for this country, but you will never fully be of it.

So when you hear that “Britain was white until recently” or that the country has been “overrun”, understand that you don’t arrive at that belief by accident. You get there because your history has been deliberately ripped out and replaced with a comforting myth: that “real” Britain is white, homogenous, and constantly under siege from people who look, speak or pray differently.

Now look at when this myth has been turned up to max volume. Wages frozen. Housing a sick joke. Energy and food prices out of control. Public services hacked to pieces. At the same time, the number of people hoarding unimaginable wealth at the top has exploded. Funny, isn’t it, how every front page is about boats and “swarms” and “our culture”, and almost never about the landlords, hedge funds, private equity and offshore trusts quietly buying up your city and your future.

That’s because this isn’t just prejudice; it’s a strategy. If you’re sitting on a mountain of wealth, the last thing you want is ordinary people – of every colour and background – realising they have the same problems and the same enemy. Much safer if the factory worker is furious at the new family down the road. Much safer if the person who can’t see a doctor blames the nurse with an accent instead of the minister who cut the funding. Much safer if a man who can’t afford his rent spends his rage on the woman in a headscarf at the bus stop instead of the billionaire who owns half his city.

Racist rhetoric, religious dog‑whistling, all of it, exists to break solidarity. It turns neighbours into enemies and stops people seeing that Black, brown and white working‑class communities have far more in common with each other than any of them will ever have with the people flying in on private jets. It keeps you so busy policing skin colour, passports and prayer mats that you never get round to asking why your kids can’t afford a home, why your parents can’t get a hospital bed, why you’re working harder and standing still.

The real story of Britain is this: a crossroads, not a fortress. Africans on Hadrian’s Wall. Black people in Tudor courts and city streets. Sailors, traders and workers from South Asia, the Middle East and beyond in the ports. Caribbean, African and Asian workers rebuilding the country after the war, staffing surgeries and hospitals, driving cabs, running shops, cooking food, teaching kids. Today’s multi‑ethnic, multi‑faith working class is not a glitch; it is Britain. It built this place and it keeps it running.

If you’re genuinely angry about what’s happening to this country, good. You should be. But aim it where it belongs. Britain was never pure, never untouched, never “theirs” to take back. The people ruining your standard of living are not the ones risking their lives to get here, or the ones whose names you struggle to pronounce. They’re the ones buying politicians, owning media outlets, writing the story of this country so you never learn your own – and never realise who is standing beside you.

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Friendly February - Day 1: Send a message to let someone know you’re thinking of them https://t.co/BZj11Sfacg #FriendlyFebruary

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Start where you are and do what you can. Your actions matter 💖✅ Join us for #HappierJanuary and get the new year off to a calmer and happier start https://t.co/FzbUA9CFgU

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

It's helpful to stay hopeful, especially in difficult times🌈 Join #OptimisticOctober and find ways to make things better and take positive steps forward https://t.co/Zwx28pfkXB

[Michael Frearson @pulse_content]

@LapPods The score brave souls inside (orchestral trip hop)
Jellyfish (US ska punk)

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

General Election Voting Info
Pls share
1. Register to vote. If you're not registered, you must do it by 18 June for the General Election. https://t.co/yQR5rF1yNn
2. Voting in person? You need valid photo ID. Check if yours is valid https://t.co/nIuoR7yYFX
3. Apply for postal vote by 19 June. If you'll be away, or want a postal vote do it here... https://t.co/jD5LdADmza

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Mindful March - Day 1: Set an intention to live with awareness and kindness https://t.co/wkmRsnJIwx #MindfulMarch

[MoneySavingExpert @MoneySavingExp]

A Leap Day can only mean one thing... more time to save money! So make sure you use your extra 24 hours wisely 🧙‍♂️

Which ones will you try?

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

We need each other more than ever 💕🌎
Join us for Friendly February and take action to boost your relationships and be a good friend to others
https://t.co/BZj11Sfacg #FriendlyFebruary

[Michael Frearson @pulse_content]

@tarbard @CountBinface running mate? This is the kind of problem solving that fits perfectly into your manifesto

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Do Good December - Day 1: Spread kindness and share the December calendar with others https://t.co/ujxdATqhyq #DoGoodDecember

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

New Ways November - Day 1: Make a list of new things you want to do this month https://t.co/VeJd1azPJQ #NewWaysNovember

[Michael Frearson @pulse_content]

@crockpics April, come she will

[Michael Frearson @pulse_content]

Scenes from an Italian restaurant, of course

[Classic Rock In Pics @crockpics]

Billy Joel released The Stranger, September 29, 1977. Favorite track?

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Self-care isn't selfish, it's essential 💕 Join us for Self-Care September and find ways to be kind to yourself as well as others
https://t.co/rry9VO5ADi #SelfCareSeptember

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Doing good feels good. Join us for Altruistic August and help create a happier and kinder world 💕🌍

https://t.co/9GXWDRE7ia #AltruisticAugust

[Michael Frearson @pulse_content]

I'm not scraping the barrel! This is Melba from @thornbridge at @ealingbeerfest it's a tasty way to wrap up a delicious - if desperately unhealthy - week