I want to say something many will hate but it needs to be said. I have met Nigel Farage. I do not know him well but I know the world he moves in. We move in similar circles sometimes. The kind of private rooms and members clubs that most people in Britain will never see. I know how the rich speak about ordinary people. They laugh. They joke about how easy it is to wind you up. They know exactly which buttons to press. They know you are angry and tired and struggling and they know you want someone to blame. That is why they point at boats while they pick your pockets.
I did not grow up rich. I did not grow up in privilege. I understand struggle and the real world. But my life changed and now I see both sides. I sit with billionaires and politicians and decision makers and I hear conversations you never will. I know the truth. They do not care about you. They do not care about your future. They care about profit and control. They see ordinary people as tools or distractions. I am telling you this because I am tired of watching good people being manipulated.
Look at your life before Brexit and look at it now. Look at your shopping bills. Look at what food costs in Europe right now. Look at how much tax you pay on imports. Look at your wages and energy prices and mortgages. Look at the 10,000 NHS staff we lost when freedom of movement ended. Look at the ambulances that do not arrive. Look at nurses and teachers using food banks. Tell me honestly. Are you better off?
Nigel helped build the crisis you are living in. Then he pointed at immigrants and told you to blame them. That is the con. He pulled the UK out of the Dublin III agreement which means we cannot return asylum seekers to Europe anymore. He created the boat chaos then told you to panic about it. Someone who worked in immigration for more than ten years told me they saw it coming. It was planned. It is a strategy. And you are falling for it.
Now he wants austerity again. He wants to cut wages for young people. He wants to rip up workers rights. He wants private health insurance and a French style NHS where the rich get treated first and the poor get nothing. He wants you fighting each other so you never see who is robbing you. If you vote for him you are voting to destroy your own life. Not mine. Yours.
None of this affects me personally. I drink champagne with the people who control the money. I will be fine no matter what. Reform will not hurt me. Reform will hurt you. It will hurt your children. Your parents. Your future. I am telling you because I care. If I did not care I would stay silent and watch you suffer.
You think I am your enemy because I make you uncomfortable. I am not. Your enemy is the one who lies to you and blames the vulnerable while he empties your pockets.
Reform will not save you. Reform will finish you.
Think. Before they take everything.
💷🇬🇧☕️🏴🫖
"Dear Lemn. Your poem ‘You Are So Perfect’ is just written for my darling and beautiful son Marc. He died earlier this year following a serious mental health episode. Thank you so much for putting him into words. With love, Sophie"
PERFECT
You are so perfect
When you kick them the leaves flit to the trees
Look back to you and applaud
You are so perfect
Branches part in forests to share sun's shine
Squirrels watch you betweenacorns
Foxes wake.
You are so perfect
Your winter coat buttonsitself and hugs your heart
Library books unfurl on tables, stretch
And wait for you to walk past
Fast winter wind daren’t touch you
But can’t help brush your hair.
You are so perfect
Rivers build their own bridges
Knowing that one day you’ll walk across them –
Just to catch your reflection
they left a pile of stones for you to throw
And the waves carry each stone to the bed, count them,
Look up at you and applaud.
You are so perfect
Traffic lights time themselves days before you arrive
So your stride won’t be broken and the cars can rest
And the world can stop.
A table outside a cafe lays itself to the waiters amazement
Knowing that a man will stop for a coffee
knowing that you will walk past at 3.30pm
And he’d been waiting for you all
of his life too.
@NoContextBrits I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
@NoContextBrits Methinks it were an easy leap to pluck bright honour from a pale-faced moon, or dive into the bottom of the deep where fathom line could never touch the ground.
A few, or many, of you may have read about Tom Boyd, an autistic young man whom Waitrose declined to offer paid work after he had voluntarily stacked shelves for the store, unpaid, for 5 years.
Good news.
@Asda has offered Tom two paid 5 hr shifts/week.
https://t.co/FlOSJyrfbU
@MartinSLewis I went to first Uni and wasted a year’s ’grant’ so had to self-fund first year at second uni (fees paid by DfES) doing bar work and claiming HB for rent. Third Uni P/T and self funded. No fees. Life was good. Guess the decade.
I hope everyone who voted for Reform councillors is pleased with the calibre of people now in charge of multi million pound budgets across the country. Watch the whole thing and then maybe vote for a competent adult next time. Cretins.
Catching up on Friday's publication of the final Law Commission paper on modernising the law on wills.
It follows 3 years of analysing how the current law is working, consulting with experts & then refining the proposals.
A marked contrast with the Assisted Dying Bill, (1/6)
Corporate gender equality plans are coming for large UK companies. What can they achieve and what will it take to make them a success? @mmu_decentwork@resfoundation@CIPD@CommonsWEC What are Gender Equality Plans – and why the UK needs to get them right - Metropolis
Kimberley biscuits are a huge disappointment. I never actually liked the originals: it is the principle. I will not be trying Mikado or Coconut Creams https://t.co/gWaxR6t0el