Celine

Irish. NHS 45 years. medical secretary 27 years. CCA then nurse. community nurse. now retired. Baker and gardener

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

Dear @EnvAgency.

In February this year, after 4 years of asking you to look after the Aldersbrook, I led a team of volunteers to do your job for you & clean out tonnes of silt & leaves, as well as hundreds of bags of rubbish. Through the effort of community volunteers & donations, & at zero cost to the taxpayer, we turned a forgotten silted up ditch back into a river again.

Last nights intense rain storm showed why our actions are the very definition of “strengthening water resilience”. A huge amount of rain fell in a short time, but the restored section of the Aldersbrook has been able to hold 100’s of thousands of litres more water, stopping this water running into the Roding, & thereby *reducing* local flood risk. The first photograph below is of the Aldersbrook after the rains this morning- a big contrast to the area before we did the work.

Perhaps more importantly, this water, instead of running straight off into the Roding & hence the sea is now being held in the Aldersbrook & gradually released so it can be used by nature. It is feeding marshes, trees & wildlife, topping up groundwater & helping to reduce our flood/drought cycle. If you want to strengthen water resilience, we need thousands more projects like the Aldersbrook around the country.

So the question I ask you, Environment Agency, is why you are threatening me with two years imprisonment, rather than offering to meet & discuss how we can work together to restore the Roding & its tributaries, which could become a blueprint for you cooperating with local river guardians nationwide?

[RiverActionUK @RiverActionUK]

Clean up a river. Get threatened with legal action.

After decades of sewage dumping and fly-tipping in the River Roding, the @EnvAgency has finally taken action…

..Against the people restoring it.

Not against Thames Water for dumping BILLIONS of litres of sewage into the Roding. Not against the polluters who have left thousands of tonnes of rubbish on its banks. But against the River Roding Trust for... restoring a river without a permit.

You couldn't make it up.

We stand with @paulpowlesland and the River Roding Trust. 👏

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

On a stretch of the River Roding in Barking strewn with waste and detritus, a barrister named Paul Powlesland did something the British state has spent decades failing to do: he cleaned it and made it look like a river again. He now faces legal action.

Yep. He and a group of volunteers hired a digger for £1,000 of their own money and hauled more than 200 bags of filth out of the water - packaging, broken appliances, used needles, even weapons. By any sane reckoning it was a small act of public good, civic spirit at its most potent and wholesome.

For his trouble, he received a letter from the Environment Agency informing him that he is under investigation for working without a permit, an offence that carries up to two years in prison.

The same Environment Agency that found the will to come after a volunteer for cleaning a river without the right paperwork has not, on that same river, prosecuted a single one of the illegal sewage spills that have fouled it for years. Not one. It's too fat, scrofulous, and indolent to fight the sort of people who'd do this. But it has energy to spare for the man with the digger and the bin bags because they expect he's likely to be a reasonable sort of Englishman who pays his taxes and honours procedure, however unreasonable it may be, when levied upon him.

Protecting rivers? They have no interest in that.

This is the thing about our institutions that the public grasps in its bones and the people who run them never will. Our institutions fail, and the manner of their failing is the worst part of it - the bloodless, box-ticking, permission-withholding callousness of bodies that have forgotten they exist to achieve anything at all.

They should all be cleared out; every decision-making body in the building responsible for the dereliction of duty, and for daring to persecute a member of the public, must be hollowed out. The whole thing started from scratch.

Better yet, I'll tell you what an outfit like Progress will do once it gains power; we'll put people like @paulpowlesland in charge of the very body now threatening to jail him. The institutions meant to look after this country - the Environment Agency and a dozen like it - are dying of exactly the defensive, do-nothing culture that sent that letter. They need to be run by people like him who actually give a toss. People with the brains to understand the problem and the plain human instinct to go and fix it themselves, while the rest stand on the bank writing their little sociopathic missives to the ones who already did.

I don't know the first thing about Paul. I've never met him. I don't know what his political preferences are, the shape of his beliefs, what else we would agree or disagree on. None of that means a thing to me. He's a good man, and the right kind of man to make things work; and Progress is an attempt to make the country work, not a club made to serve a certain type or belief profile. A country is made to work by the people who, whatever their politics, cannot walk past a problem without trying to solve it. There are such people everywhere in Britain - on the rivers, in the schools, the wards, the workshops - and almost none of them are running anything, because the institutions have been built to keep that exact kind of person out.

Drop the case against him. Then go further: find the hundred other Paul Powleslands the country is currently ignoring or threatening, and give them the keys. Put the responsibility and the authority, together, in their hands. Britain will be cleaned up - its rivers, and a great deal besides - in no time. It will be done by the people willing to get in the water, not by the ones writing letters about permits from the bank.

[MarshFamilySongs @MarshSongs]

In the nick of time for the celebratory weekend in the USA, here's "Trumpy Doodle" - our 250th anniversary version of "Yankee Doodle" that you can also download as a song on Bandcamp, with the lyrics:
https://t.co/AzgAt4Zolz

#nokings #america250 🎶🚫👑✊

[Love Music @khnh80044]

When “Time After Time” completely captivated the entire room on The Tonight Show in 1984 ❤️🎶✨

[Love Music @khnh80044]

Imagine walking out in front of 72,000 people, with millions watching around the world, then sitting at the piano and performing one of the greatest songs ever written with pure confidence and passion.
Freddie Mercury truly was the ultimate rock star ❤️🎹

[🎼🌺Music Love♥️ @ThoNg676733]

I am still so sorry for this girl. She was a genius.🕊️💙

[Ladytron Fan Account @Lady_FanAccount]

"Careless Whisper" was written by George Michael when he was just 17 while traveling by bus to work. The iconic melody of the saxophone popped into his head. George tested more than 10 saxophonists until he found the perfect sound with Steve Gregory, who recorded the legendary solo in a single session.

[🎼🌺Music Love♥️ @ThoNg676733]

Suffering as she did from a life ending illness, she could still sing softly and gracefully. What a life that woman led. She was the Queen of Song💖

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Robin Williams warned the US about Donald Trump and his links to Miss America Pageants and underage girls in 2012.

Really should have listened.

[@robbingneoliberals @neoliberalscam]

Excellent

[Love Music @khnh80044]

We lost Freddie Mercury on this day in 1991… but what he left behind will live on forever 🙏🏻
A voice, a legend, a legacy that time can never fade 🎶❤️

[NancyH @NancyH_60]

A young boy in a green sweater stepped onto The Voice stage and delivered a cover of Someone You Loved with a level of emotional depth that felt far beyond his age. As he sang, the judges sat with their backs turned - listening, waiting, letting his voice fill the room before making their move. Every note carried a softness and sincerity that made the moment feel intimate, even on a massive stage.

What makes this clip resonate is the contrast: a child's voice carrying an adult heartbreak song with honesty instead of imitation. No theatrics, no over-singing - just pure feeling. It's the kind of audition that reminds you why blind performances hit so hard: the story disappears, and the voice becomes everything.

Let us know your thoughts below!

[Love Music @khnh80044]

This performance always brings tears to my eyes. His voice is pure magic❤️

[Love Music @khnh80044]

What a voice!!!! What a performance!!! Elvis forever!!! ❤

[Love Music @khnh80044]

When "Time After Time" stopped the entire room on The Tonight Show in 1984

[Britney Online Brasil @xbritneyonline]

A REALEZA! Em 2001, Michael Jackson convidou pessoalmente Britney Spears para dividir o palco com ele e performar “The Way You Make Me Feel” em seu icônico especial televisionado de 30 anos de carreira.

Wade Robson, amigo íntimo do cantor na época, revelou que Michael era completamente encantado por Britney, admirava sua presença, seu talento e seu magnetismo, sendo ela uma das pouquíssimas artistas que conseguiram performar ao seu lado nesse momento histórico.

Não era apenas um convite. Era reconhecimento vindo do próprio Rei do Pop.

[Love Music @khnh80044]

What a great video. I never saw this one before. 1960 Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra singing each other’s songs.
Such a rare and iconic moment in music history.❤️

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

We will never see anything like this again in our lifetimes.

If you have a few minutes, watch it. Probably the greatest music video ever made.

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1983)

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

No one in the history of Pop music has ever reached this level