Steve Pryde

I could say more... but you get the general idea.

[Un Étrange En Terre Étrange @LoinDuTribu]

I hesitated to comment on Ann Widdecombe’s death because, for most of my life, she seemed less like a genuine political threat than a national eccentric: a crank with enough wit, media savvy and ballroom exposure to turn reactionary politics into a marketable personality.

Tory elders adored her precisely because she was a wingnut. The party establishment had enough residual sense to keep her away from its highest offices and never elevate her to the Lords. She could be wheeled out to harrumph about civilisation without being permitted to redesign it.

None of that remotely justifies her apparent murder.

She was found dead in her own home. Whatever the eventual facts, nobody should meet a violent end alone and frightened. You can’t really call that justice. It is not politics. It is barbarism.

But being appalled by her death does not require us to perform a posthumous lobotomy on her politics.

A Britain remade according to Anne Widdecombe’s wishes would have resembled a clerical-fascist state concealed beneath parliamentary procedure, Christian morality and the tasteful antimacassars of respectable Middle England.

She opposed abortion rights, LGBT equality and the human-rights protections restraining state power. She supported capital punishment, mass detention of asylum seekers and a criminal-justice system built around punishment, humiliation and fear.

She did not want to set human rights back by a few regrettable decades. She wanted to reverse the foundational principle that adults possess individual rights which do not depend upon Anne Widdecombe approving of their lives.

All the people now presenting her as some great trailblazer for women might take five bloody minutes to examine what she actually wanted women to be permitted to do with their bodies, relationships and futures.

She was not a misunderstood feminist revolutionary.

She was not a harmless old eccentric who occasionally became overexcited about Brussels.

She was a profoundly authoritarian moralist whose immense personal confidence convinced her that her religion, disgust and prejudices should become everybody else’s legal obligations.

The eccentricity was the camouflage. The politics underneath it were vicious.

She was essentially Aunt Lydia with a novelty television career, except without the redemption arc. A woman convinced that repression became compassion when administered briskly, in sensible shoes, for your own good.

Condemn her killing completely.

But spare me the canonisation.

Death deserves dignity. It does not confer innocence.

[Guz Khan 🥶 @GuzKhanOfficial]

You disgraceful old wanker @RupertLowe10

16 children and their teacher were murdered.

Anyone working class who thinks this posh twit complaining that he can’t shoot his “clay pigeons” anymore is a good potential leader needs to grow up and realise he IS the establishment.

[Guz Khan 🥶 @GuzKhanOfficial]

If you have a shred of moral integrity and you care about women and children, just go through this.

The actions of Israel in its true form.

Murder, destruction, genocide of the Palestinian people.

[John Cusack @johncusack]

This is wrong, evil - a moral atrocity - have human beings lost all sense of reality ?
Anyone who doesn’t condemn the Netanyahu genocide is complicit .

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

Have any UK leaders condemned Israel yet?

…or is deliberately targeting children cool with them?

[Adnan Hussain MP @AdnanHussainMP]

Israel committed genocide in Gaza by deliberately killing Palestinian children, UN inquiry says.

https://t.co/TpJb3VsS3D

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

A UN commission has found that Israel is committing genocide through a "deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children".

The truth always comes out in the end — and we must never, ever let it be forgotten.

[Sangita Myska @SangitaMyska]

Netanyahu is a criminal. First he perpetrated a human genocide. Now he’s attempting a cultural one. And no world leader will do a thing to stop him.

#BeaufortCastle #Lebanon

[Tim Burgess @Tim_Burgess]

Retweet for a chance to win!

We are giving away 4 pairs of Sproston socks (one pair each to 4 winners)

They will be available to order from our online store from 10am Friday May 29th to 11pm Monday June 1st (winners announced 9am Friday)

[Tim Burgess @Tim_Burgess]

Retweet for a chance to win!

We are giving away 4 Sproston Bags - signed by me 🤘

They will be available to order from our online store from 10am Friday May 29th to 11pm Monday June 1st (winners announced 9am Friday) - each bag comes with a pair of Sproston socks too

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

At what point do we stop pretending our newspapers are ‘news’ and start calling them what they are…

Promotional pamphlets for the billionaires who own them and the agendas they’re selling.

[Double Down News @DoubleDownNews]

This is the shocking story of how the British Department for Education has been captured by Israeli forces.

It's time to ask ourselves, who do our politicians actually work for?

@BobbyVylan

[Route @Route_News]

Happy birthday to John Maher, born in Manchester on this day in 1960. You know what you know you know you know now.

[Route @Route_News]

Pete Shelley believes in his mam and dad

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

This is what a leader looks like @Keir_Starmer…

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

Genocidal Intent:

“There must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

- United Nations

Exhibit A:

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

One month after starting the war in Iran, this is the statement of the President of the United States on Easter Sunday.

These are the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual. Congress has got to act NOW. End this war.

[Steven Beschloss @StevenBeschloss]

This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.

[Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran]

I’ll take it a step further.

Failing to invoke the 25th amendment at this point, is a violation of their own oaths to this country.

It should be seen as nothing short of criminal negligence, and they should be held fully liable for the death and destruction that stems from this.

[Carolyn @Carolyn_on_X]

OTD 1 April 1976 2 students at Bolton Institute of Technology Howard Trafford (Devoto) & Peter McNeish (Shelley) play their 1st gig with Garth Davis on bass & Mick Singleton on drums. Pete: "We started the 2nd (song) so fast they couldn't switch us off" #Buzzcocks
📸 David Corio