Vee🐝

Manchesterford twinned with Schitts Creek ❤️⚽☘️
Recovering collapsed Catholic.
Musicaholic.
MAFSaholic.
You are what you Tweet.

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

George Michael was perfect; I hate that he's no longer here. The most generous, humble and kind man. The greatest songwriter and singer. This is what he would have tweeted daily if he were in this shitshow with us #GeorgeMichaelAtTheBBC #GeorgeMichael💜

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

When Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard, Nigel Farage released a five-minute video urging people not to attack men or the police.

Today, in response to the murder of Henry Nowak, he called for "pure cold rage."

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

My God…

Please see this man for what he is.

[Sangita Myska @SangitaMyska]

I have close friends who are Sikh. Their community has been a credit to the UK. They’re devastated by the heinous crime committed by Vikrum Digwa. They’re vocal in condemning the brutal and senseless murder of young Henry Nowak. I stand by Henry’s family and the Sikh community as hard right forces shamelessly exploit this tragedy.

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

@reece_dinsdale @pictureladyjan Gisèle Pelicot.
Courage and empowerment.

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

Not seen all episodes yet but I'm heading straight over to IMDB to give Tip Toe 10 out of 10
@russelldavies63 @Channel4

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Current summary of right wing UK politics:

Conservatives - We've suddenly remembered lots of things we accidentally forgot to do during our 14 YEARS in government that we would definitely do straight away this time, promise

Reform - The Conservatives who messed the country up for 14 years were worried you wouldn't vote for them again so have made another party and are hoping you won't notice it's full of the people who messed up the country for 14 years

UKIP - We still think it's 1998

Restore - Led by a bore in need of a golf club. Been chucked out of Reform for being racist? We're the party for you!

[Dr Sanjoy Kumar @drsanjoykumar]

I lost my beloved daughter Grace O’Malley-Kumar in the Nottingham attacks. She was a 19 year old medical student. She fought a marauding man almost twice her age armed with a dagger. She tried to protect a friend and paid the ultimate price. She placed,
‘friendship before fear’
#graceomalleykumarfoundation #graceomalleykumarcup

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

A suggestion. The removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center should be celebrated by an improvised 24 hour festival of music, dance and - of course - comedy; Stephen Colbert presiding.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

A federal judge just ordered Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Center because it honors JFK, not Donald Trump.

America deserves a president, not a narcissist-in-chief who treats public office as a vehicle for self-promotion and personal enrichment.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

They should livestream the removal of his name from the building - it would set records

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

11 & 12 year sentences are nowhere near enough for these arrogant murderers. I avoid this road like the plague; not enough being done to deter these man baby speeders.
RIP dear Syl 💔
Pair jailed over 139mph fatal crash in 30 zone 🚨
https://t.co/9dTAQjfS7L

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

Huge congratulations, Alfie. So well deserved! One of the few shows worthy of many a repeat listen 😍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Alfie Moore - Comedy @alfiemoore]

Omg! We only went and friggin won the Best Comedy Award!!

[Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 @reformexposed]

Following Reform UK’s @RobKenyonReform being revealed to have made disgusting remarks in response to a horrific post about @carolvorders, she’s responded.

See her response here: https://t.co/jUHE9nW7wf

#PervyPlumber

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

@raven_brah Do you actually know the age range for Boomers? I'm Gen X and fast food was NOT the norm for us either. Don't lecture people on an experience you didn't live.

[Lorna_TVeditor @Lorna_TVeditor]

Participants from BBC1's #RaceAcrossTheWorld will take part in the Great Manchester Run on May 31 in memory of late contestant Sam Gardiner.
The 24-year-old, who featured in the second series with his mum, died following a car accident last year.
https://t.co/K2OSuj5YO8

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

So lucky to have the incredible Royal Nawaab Pyramid on our doorstep 🇮🇳🪷🇵🇰
@Channel4

[lemn sissay OBE FRSL @lemnsissay]

Today is my birthday. As a birthday gift please visit https://t.co/4Za7OHf9e6 and tell me something about family. Especially today. It's the last day for entries. It means the world to me

Photographs by Philip Sinden.

#tellmesomethingfamily

[Vee🐝 @veefeeley]

@lemnsissay Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, dear Lemn 💚

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

Emma Thompson spent years trying to have a second child.

IVF after IVF failed.

The grief stayed with her for a long time.

Then, in 2003, a 16-year-old Rwandan refugee came to her house for Christmas and quietly became part of her family forever.

His name was Tindyebwa Agaba.

And the story of how he entered Emma Thompson’s life says more about family than almost anything Hollywood has ever produced.

By the early 2000s, Emma Thompson already had the career most actors dream about.

Oscars.
Classic films.
Screenwriting awards.
Worldwide recognition.

But privately, the center of her life was much smaller and more ordinary:

her husband Greg Wise,
their daughter Gaia,
and a London home built around warmth, humor, and connection.

Emma once said:

“Family is about connection, not necessarily about blood ties.”

That belief would eventually reshape all of their lives.

Emma gave birth to her daughter Gaia in 1999 after IVF treatments that made the pregnancy feel almost miraculous.

She desperately wanted more children afterward.

For three years, she tried IVF again and again.

Nothing worked.

Later, she admitted the loss was painful.

But with time, she came to see it differently — because if life had gone according to plan, there may never have been room for Tindy.

Tindy’s childhood could not have been more different from Gaia’s.

He grew up in Rwanda during one of the darkest periods in modern history.

His father died of AIDS.
His mother and sister disappeared during the genocide.
At 13, he was kidnapped and forced into life as a child soldier.

By the time he arrived in Britain as a refugee teenager, he carried trauma most adults would struggle to survive.

Emma and Greg met him at a refugee event in 2003.

At the time, he had been sleeping rough in London.

They invited him to Christmas.

That was all.

Just one invitation.
One meal.
One open door.

But then came more conversations.
More visits.
More trust.

Eventually, he became family.

And honestly, one detail from this story wrecks me.

Years later, Tindy was sitting in a Shakespeare class when his teacher played Much Ado About Nothing.

Suddenly he saw Emma Thompson, her mother Phyllida Law, and other familiar faces on screen.

He still didn’t fully understand how famous Emma was.

To him, these weren’t celebrities.

They were simply the people who had taken him in when he had nowhere else to go.

Emma and Greg helped him rebuild a life:
school,
confidence,
stability,
belonging.

Tindy eventually studied human rights law, became an activist, and later worked in criminal investigation.

He built a future that once probably felt impossible.

And Gaia — Emma’s daughter — grew up with him as her older brother.

Different countries.
Different childhoods.
Different histories.

But inside that house, none of that mattered very much.

That’s the part of this story I keep thinking about:

family is sometimes created by biology…

and sometimes by someone looking at another human being and deciding:

“There’s room for you here too.”

Emma Thompson once said Tindy brought “so much joy” into her life.

But I think what she really built was something even bigger:

a home where survival eventually turned into belonging.

And honestly, that might be one of the most beautiful things a person can do.

[Jay Darkmoore @JayDarkmoore]

I have seen a lot of posts and videos in relation to the new MAFS BBC Panorama documentary, essentially asking why, if women were being mistreated on the show by their partners, they didn’t just leave.

I was a police officer for many years, specialising in cases of domestic abuse and abusive patterns of behaviour.

I thought we had got past victim blaming in relation to domestic abuse?

People don’t leave abusive relationships, even short-term ones, for a variety of reasons.

The person is not abusive 100% of the time. When they are kind and compassionate, it can become intoxicating, especially in contrast to when they are awful. This makes victims crave the good parts, and they are conditioned to believe that the bad parts are their fault. This makes them want to “try harder” and “be better” for their abuser, because the good times become the reward.

There is also the fact that abusers can be scary, and they can play serious mental games with a victim. The victim literally may not understand that they are being abused.

The victim may fear that they will not be believed, or that the abuser will create a smear campaign against them, making them out to be the bad one, and trying to ruin their life and/or reputation.

Abusers deny that they have done anything wrong when called out, and are masters at turning the tables on their victims, convincing them that they are the abusers, not them. This is called DARVO: deny, attack, reverse victim and offender.

Throw in a reality TV show with cameras, the promise of fame, and the impact of leaving a show and the reputational costs this can have depending on what is aired in your absence, and it creates the perfect scenario for abuse to breed, go unchallenged, and for victims to feel trapped with someone who is hurting them.

Instead of asking ‘why don’t they leave?’ we need to ask ‘why does the abuser act like this?’

@Rachel_SUTDA