Nigel Farage has just called for an end to working from home and the focus on work-life balance They’ll be suggesting we send kids up chimneys next Whatever you do JUST DON’T VOTE REFORM

• Name your favourite thing to find in a book (genre, style, characterisation, etc) - Complex characters you root for - Slow building tension - Authors that don't talk down to their audience & use the right word not the simplest one #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writing #Books #Tropes #BookSky

•Name your least favourite trope(s) of any book genre? - The chosen one trope 🥱 - Unnecessarily inserted romance🤦‍♀️ - Character sereotypes that reinforce prejudice (sexism,racism, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamaphobia etc)🤬 #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writing #Books #Tropes #BookSky

Need a break from the relentless bad news #Writers Let's go: •Name your least favourite trope of any book genre? • Name your favourite thing to find in a book (genre, style, characterisation, etc) #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writing #Books #Tropes #BookSky

Aye…and only about a year after removing the whip from ‘rebels’ who voted in favour of such measures. 🤔🙄 Your virtuous principles are more changeable than the weather. 🤬

4.5 million children (31%) in the UK live in poverty (Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions, 2024). You've helped precisely 0.1% of children living in poverty There are 29,202 schools in the UK(TES 20.06.25). You've created breakfast clubs for 0.017% of UK schools. Shocking!

One of the wickedest things Wes Streeting has ever done is push politically convenient falsehoods about suicide rates amongst young trans people. We have new data from the National Child Mortality Database that exposes the truth he tried to cover up.

Tim Allan, who just quit as Starmer's director of comms, was on the board of the trans-eliminationist hate group "Sex Matters", whose director of advocacy Helen Joyce urged transphobes to get through to "decision makers" so that the "numbers" of trans people could be "reduced." That's what they did.

It's not about "enforcing immigration laws." They don't actually care. Every immigrant could follow every rule, no matter how arcane, and they'd still want them gone. They just hate everyone who isn't cis and white and straight and we all desperately need to stop pretending otherwise.

Even in this thoughtful and excellent essay, the exceptionalism is hard to shake. "Where else but in America could a left-wing, brown-skinned immigrant, a racialised ‘other’, become the mayor of a globally influential city?" Who is the mayor of London? Who are the mayors of Montreal and Toronto?

I can never get enough of Waldorf and Statler. Their sarcasm and cynicism have always been in simpatico with my temperament. They made the Muppets for me Also, calling someone a "complete muppet" is a uniquely British insult, which is used liberally in my house #Muppets tenor.com/en-GB/view/m...

"Thousands of people are protesting in cities across Australia, denouncing a state visit by Israeli president Isaac Herzog"

Thanks to @aplante.com for the awesome prints and stickers, they're perfect.

Centre left people who've been abandoned while Starmer chases far right votes using performative cruelty to attack disabled people, refugees, trans people, UC claimants & human rights advocates who don't think our rights should be gutted for disingenuous claims of "law and order" want Starmer gone.

And why no journalists are asking #Farage about #Reform UK treasurer & donor Nick Candy who was friends with #Epstein & continued that relatonship AFTER Epstein was convicted of child sexual exploitation? searchlightmagazine.com/2026/02/refo...

Allowing refugee children to reunite with family members settled in the UK is morally the right thing to do and also removes the need for them to take dangerous journeys in search of safety. Lord Dubs gets this. The government must listen to him. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

My Gen X heart felt this from my permed locks to my Dirty Dancing feet. Growing up, reading was quicker than waiting for dial-up Internet connections. I beg you by the power of Greyskull to give us the original material and not the "influencers" commentary. Have eyes, can read (with glasses).

It rained pretty hard, Ok, it hacked it down. But we completed the 5k walk and raised £70 for The Christie, Manchester's Cancer hospital. The steel band, jazz groups, dance music with smoke machines and the neon dresses, hula and stilt volunteers were amazing. #NightOfNeon #TheChristie #ShinyMedal

It's that time of year again 🥰🥳 Tonight is The Night of Neon, a 5k walk in the dark covered in bright neon t-shirts, glow sticks & brightly covered bits. It's in support of The Christie, the cancer hospital in Manchester Despite the weather -raining again - it's always a lot of fun. Wish me luck!

An educated populace bolsters the economy, are highly skilled members of the workforce, enhance innovation, increase productivity & provide services for the community. It's in a nation's interest to have an educated populous. The anti-intellectual bent of the media aids public antipathy to education

Dance like people are watching and you’re trying to make them upset

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Hating the ITV split screen advert insert mid play. I want to watch one half of a rugby game without you fucking pivoting from the action on the pitch. It interrupts the mood and diverts us away from the game. As someone who experiences sensory overload, it's a nightmare. #SixNations

Unsolicited writing advice. Write what you know is almost as misunderstood as "Show don't tell". If everyone wrote only what they "know", it'd create asinine, vanilla literature. Understand, embrace & consider what you're writing. It doesn't mean you can't write stuff. #WriteSky #WritingAdvice

Hungary has charged the Mayor of Budapest for helping organize a peaceful Pride march after it was banned. Punishing peaceful assembly threatens freedom and democracy for everyone. The EU must act. Sign and speak out. a.allout.org/s/P29lG/

"Research" procrastination is the nemesis of writers Writer - opens up laptop. Spends 20 minutes writing. Realises they don't know the construction of 16th century Scottish sheep farm outbuildings ... two hours later, come back to writing the novel Writer: That was a good days #Writing #WriteSky

Big positive list of stuff you like. Even in the darkest times, we need to celebrate the things we love. So tell me your list of stuff you love, that you're a fan of 🥳 I'll start: • Writing days - Big fan of #writing days when you can get words on the page and you're feeling creative #WriteSky

You don't like everyone you meet or meet everyone you'd like (to). The same is true for our writing, our books, our writer's voice. Find your writer's voice. Hone it and perfect it until you're ready to show it to the world. Stay unique and true to yourself. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

just as not all people are for everyone. we are all different and so are our stories.

My book of the month (and I am aware it's only the 3rd February) has to be Queer Georgians by Anthony Delaney. Entertaining, well researched and packed full of hidden queer history. You'll want to keep turning the pages, well after it's time for lights out. #Books #AmReading #Queer #LGBTQ+

James Acaster hits the nail on the head here. Funny how particular "edgy" comedians are so blasé about attacking minority communities but also incredibly touchy about criticisms of themselves. Isn't it ironic...don't you think 🤔

How i handle criticism:

Get to know me. 1 like = 1 answer Everything I say will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Unless the answer may incriminate me 😉

Normally (this time being the exception), I write hot and edit cold It's absolutely possible to #write a shitty first draft, get all the way to the end before applying the editing process to your #writing There's no one way to write. Only the way that works for you Keep bloody writing! #WriteSky

Paraphrased, but an incredibly successful author once said 'the first draft is you telling yourself the story' They're allowed to be shitty. That's what revising, rewriting, and editing are for. The author? Sir Terry Pratchett.

Your first draft is the bones of the story. It's not always pretty or poetic. It can be shitty. That's the point of editing. And of learning from experience the art and craft of writing. Even then, some WIP have shitty first drafts. Every story differs The point is to keep #Writing #WriteSky #Edit

British people have always been and always will be a people descended from immigrants from across the world. It is what makes us unique, strong and diverse. Our blend of histories, cultures, languages and colours are united by our sense of community, kindness, neighbourliness and fairness #British

The Sausage Redemption

The Council of Europe has voted to ban conversion practices. It's not been a good day for the transphobic activist organisation, Sex Matters today. GOOD! Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender et al people know who we are and can not have our identities forcibly changed. #LGBTQ+ #SexMatters

Hampstead Heath ponds are to remain inclusive. The high Court has blocked a legal challenge from the Transphobic group Sex Matters. Good. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Our safety depends on us standing together. #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransRights #LGBTQ+

Not in our name with @goodlawproject.org is a collective of women who reject the weaponisation of our identities to justify trans discrimination. We want the media, government and other bodies to focus on the real threats that prevent women from thriving. notinourname.org.uk?utm_source=N...

If you like Patience, you'll love Astrid: Murder in Paris(stream on All 4). I think we're on series 4 or 5 now. A detective (in Paris) Raph, is helped by autistic archivist Astrid. It's a brilliant, subtle, nuanced depiction of autism. The stories are fantastic too. In French with subtitles.

Using Trumpian logic, there are a lot of white Europeans about to be deported back to Europe by ICE since America is for Americans first... Oh sorry, of course not! He only meant brown and black skinned immigrants.

My least favourite thing to see when I'm reading is the use of lazy stereotypes/bigotry. Misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia etc used as lazy character descriptions. Hate that! My favourite thing is to see characters who are unique & well written. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Booksky #Books

Similarly, Labour is not trying to save the UK from racist, xenophobic authoritarianism. They're trying to figure out how to hold on to power by becoming increasingly right wing & enforcing rights restricting legislation. They have thrown trans, disabled, working class and poor people under the bus.

It tells you everything you need to know that Reform are parachuting in a rent-an-extremist - this isn't about representing the people of Gorton and Denton, it's about using this place as a platform for their careers. Manchester will show him the door.

#WritingCommunity Please - if you're sharing an excerpt or snippet of your writing as an image - put the text into the ALT text for the image. If there's no ALT text, I'm a lot less likely to engage. Some people *cannot* engage if there isn't, too. Help yourself - and your community - out! <3

You know people know you well when you get surprise book related presents like this 📚 😊 #Books #BookSky #AmReading #Happy #BookJoy