Ian King

Professor Ian King University of Nottingham – food security – wife and collaborator Professor Julie King. Children: Gethin, Gareth, Ffion and Aled

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@MichaelVaughan Not my side but what a fabulous tribute - very well done guys a very genuine tribute- you make all cricketers proud

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@ClarksonsFarm1 Most definitely

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@CarolineLucas Because most politicians are interested in the now not what will happen after. This describes the incredible short comings of political systems. But yes you are 100% correct

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@JeremyClarkson Harvests like this year will occur more frequently as the climate warms. Research is urgently needed to help farmers - pity that the funding body specialising in strategic agricultural research was closed in the 90’s - apparently agriculture is done!

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

We were promised action; all we get is betrayal.

In 2023 water companies in England and Wales spent 4,608,494 hours dumping sewage into the environment. @Ofwat say if you get a 1 star environment rating your bonus will be banned.

Q: How many water industry fat cats do you think would get their bonuses banned for dumping 4,608,494 hours worth of sh*t into the environment in 2023?

A: None. Every single bonus would be paid.

What a shambles!

[Surbhi Grewal @SurbhiG6]

🌟Our latest work published in @ScientificData today is the chromosome-scale genome assembly of wheat wild relative Aegilops mutica in collab with @sangerinstitute and @EarlhamInst
Blast available at @GrainGenes ✅
https://t.co/co0qeJHHyS
@UoNresearch @UoNBiosciences @Notts_WRC

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@ukrainiansquad 🇬🇧

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@realDonaldTrump Europe and is much bigger than Russia and the US - are we being forced into becoming a 4th imperialist power in the world by both the states and Putin? Who shall we invade Greenland?

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@Feargal_Sharkey The situation we are in with the water industry is totally unacceptable in one of the worlds leading countries- what has happened is no less than vandalism of the environment. It will be interesting to see if the new government has the balls to sort this out.

[Ian King @sbzipk]

Listen to Atmospherics & Greatest Hits [Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2022] by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD)

https://t.co/nhmQ0d8uPX

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@bluessherpa I’m a Brit so - what the hell are they? Are you on magic mushrooms?

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@JohnCleese Idiots but unfortunately not surprising

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@JohnCleese Yes

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@bluessherpa Quite brilliant!

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@JohnCleese What is concerning is that the ministry of silly walks would do a much better job of protecting our rivers - it’s not funny!

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@brianmoore666 Strange thing for a wales supporter to say - but Brian I love you - bang on the mark, his got a German passport!

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@brianmoore666 He was a great man and so are you Brian thank you - even if you are English

[Deirdre Heenan @deirdreheenan]

Junior doctor starting salary in:

🇦🇺 Australia: £60,000
🇨🇦 Canada: £46,000
🇫🇷 France: £43,700
🇺🇸 USA: £41,900

🇬🇧 UK: £29,384

Any ideas why they might be leaving in their droves?

We simply cannot afford to lose these skilled dedicated professionals

#JuniorDoctorsStrikes

[Ian King @sbzipk]

@potatodoctor We love you 🥰 you old Tosser!