Mike 💙

Green activist, RNLI Governor, housing landlord, husband, father, collector, spacefan, shipfan, amateur librarian. Occasional historian, author, broadcaster.

[Mike 💙 @themikehm]

I rejoice in the existence of people like #saffiyah_khan, who gives me hope in this dark hour. She is the very model of a modern Britannia.

[𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @SundaeDivine]

Nature is healing.

[Eastern Bloc Visuals @eastblocvisuals]

You're an East German border guard Harry

[Masked Rogue 😷 🇵🇸 @unMaskedRogue]

A queer teenager in Cambridge was invited to speak about her experiences at the city’s Pride flag raising ceremony. When she began to detail the harm caused by homophobia and transphobia on city council, the mayor took her mic away and said she wouldn’t stand for such disrespect

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Strange isn't how Elon Musk told everyone to mark this post, then he deleted it.

Must have been a mistake.

Let me repost it for him.

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room.

She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill.

Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final.

Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat.

Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped.

She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won.

By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million.
One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working. Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region – to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt. Our long-range sanctions also reached about 500 kilometers into the Krasnodar region – and hit an oil depot. These are important results of the joint efforts by warriors from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine. Russia must end its war and stop its attacks on life. Any manifestation of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response. I thank our warriors for their precision.

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber back.
~A.A.Milne

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

Perfect cartoon.

[Orkney Library @OrkneyLibrary]

Today is #WorldEnvironmentDay so we're taking back all the books that people have read, putting them onto shelves for people to look at, then giving them out again to other people who haven't read them yet. For free.

What a system. ❤️

#LoveLibraries #GreenLibraries ♻️

[Sir Michael Take CBE @MichaelTakeMP]

@TiceRichard Surely you support Dubai Richard?

[BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking]

Anthony Head, best known for TV roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso and Little Britain, dies aged 72 https://t.co/obPVwf7MdJ

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Lady in glasses, "I'd just like to say that if there should be any cold rage that is happening, it should be directed towards the politicians"

Fiona Bruce, "What, all of them?"

Lady in glasses, "No, the ones trying to sow the seeds of division between us"

"Because we're basically being manipulated by billionaires at this point"

"And it shouldn't be like that"

[🌻 Go Wild With Annette @writethewrongs2]

What the bloody hell is wrong with people? 😡

'No signs of life' in River Lugg after John Price destruction

An ECOLOGIST has warned that it could take up to 30 years for a river that has no "signs of life" to recover after it was "obliterated" by a local farmer.

Although then and now photos show that the landscape around the River Lugg near Kingsland has been drastically transformed, an ecologist has warned it could take decades to fully recover after farmer John Price used an 18-tonne digger to dredge a section.

Price also stripped a mile-long stretch of the bank of trees back in 2020.

He was jailed for 12 months in 2023 by a judge who told him he had committed "ecological vandalism on an industrial scale" along a section of one of Britain's most important salmon rivers.

He had claimed he had carried out the work to help protect locals in the nearby hamlet whose homes were devastated by flooding and to help fix riverbed erosion.

But the Environment Agency said the damage was one of the worst cases of riverside destruction it had ever seen, leading to a "devastating" effect on local wildlife - which has still not recovered six years on.

Although trees, bushes, and greenery are growing back around the river, a leading ecologist believes there are "no signs of life" in the river itself.

Environmental designer Richard Fishbourne said: "It is quite disturbing to see how much damage one person can cause in just a couple of days.
"When I went down recently there was no sign of any fish where you would usually expect to see minnows, graylings, trout and salmon.

"There's just no sign of life - there's nothing in the water here now and it has become an impoverished landscape.
"It can take decades to build up this wonderful community of species and habitat but it can all be destroyed in a moment of insanity."

More here:https://t.co/1MH3mRDo4A

[CrémantCommunarde #NION💙🤍🩷 @0Calamity]

A man was violently stabbed to death.
The murderer was arrested and convicted.
One of the murderer's family members was also convicted of aiding and abetting him.
No, I am not talking about poor Henry Nowak; I am talking about poor Mohammed Algassim, a Saudi Arabian student, here to learn English, who was murdered in Cambridge by a drunken, coked-up, white Englishman.
If you are astute enough to go to the BBC News website, then click on "England",
then click on "Local News",
then click on "East"
then click on "Cambridge"
you will find a report on it...
#TwoTierOutrage
https://t.co/rrwCqNWJ4a

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Exceptional comments from the Green's Sarah Wakefield #BBCQT

"I only recently got involved in politics in this way, I'm actually on maternity leave at the moment"

"I realised that there is no one else coming to save us, if you have an opinion about what we should do as a country, you have to get involved"

"We've seen on the panel here exactly the problem people have with trust and confidence, because we're all knocking points with each other, saying we're more honest than the other person"

"When actually, the fundamental problem we have in this country, for 40 years, deindustrialisation, topped off with 15 years of austerity; which to be honest the Labour government haven't done enough to address"

"And we're all feeling the squeeze, the pinch"

"We should be looking at the massive inequality in this country"

"50 of the wealthiest families in this country hold more wealth than 50% of the county - that's 34 million people"

"That cannot be right"

"For the Green party, it's not just about changing culture in Westminster, changing Westminster culture won't change the country"

"We need to start having serious conversations about who is contributing for a better future for our children, to solve the climate crisis, to get our high streets going, to make sure we can have the money back in towns and villages so our young people stay here, work hard and have better lives"

"That's what we're all about"

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

For years, the Irish Police (the Garda Siochana) considered Prawo Jazdy as one of the most prolific offenders in the country with more than 50+ traffic related offenses. The case was later dropped when it was established that Prawo Jazdy meant Driver's License in Polish.

[Supertanskiii @supertanskiii]

Fuck me, that sexist plumber that Reform found in a pub DIED ON HIS ARSE.

It was the worst performance I’ve ever seen on QT. I almost felt sorry for him at one point then recovered by remembering that he’s a misogynistic arsehole standing for a racist party.

#QuestionTime

[vibe instructor✌🏾🐝 @Vanessa_ABee]

was it by “drinking raw milk”

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

“What’s happened to your tail?” Pooh said in surprise.
“What HAS happened to it?” said Eeyore.
“It isn’t there!”
“That Accounts for a Good Deal,” said Eeyore gloomily. “It Explains Everything. No wonder. Somebody must have taken it. How Like Them.” ~A.A.Milne

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

There's a new initiative in Makerfield to put signs up pointing at places where idiots live.