It is worth recalling that the position of U.K. Ambassador to the US was not vacant at the time the Prime Minister chose to appoint Peter Mandelson to the role. A highly competent and respected woman was replaced.

The second amendment is only for people Trump likes

Last day of Lanza today - 8.2k swim, and some practice feeding in the water. Been a perfect week of swimming, reading, naps, food and friendship.

No one has cosier shoes than my Lanzarote bargains!

I felt this

Gervais’s Law: celebrities should never share their political views except in a sitcom, Netflix comedy special or national arena tour where they can pretend they’re just joking even when they’re clearly not

I am not interested in being a person on Instagram, doing collaborative posts with people or filming myself talking to the camera. I want to be a person who fucks off away from the noise and works hard and writes better and better books for the rest of his life and then dies. Why is that not ok?

A shorter, more relaxed, swim for me today - some much needed recovery But no less beautiful for that. And the first half swimming alongside my swim wife which always makes me happy and inspired me to write this #poems #poetry #swimming

All this does is encourage pity and an old medical model of disability It does nothing to challenge the social and political reality of disability or to get people to listen to... actual disabled people I am so bored of this stuff

I'm sorry but encouraging people to cosplay disability is not the answer metro.co.uk/2026/02/02/p...

Ok I get it but please don’t do this. One day soon we will be able to afford for that not to matter but not while I still can’t afford food for the last week of every month.

First "proper" day in Lanzarote - had to spend all day yesterday sleeping to recover from the flight and just general life. Just shy of 4.5k swum this morning and I am in my mermaid element - sunshine and sea - heaven!

I'm sorry this one is so long, but once it started coming out it wouldn't stop. Thank you @thebrokenspine.co.uk for yet another traumatic/cathartic #PoemsAbout prompt. #BlackVeils #narrativepoetry

Hurray!!

Submitted third round of slur complaint to the BBC ECU. Love the brass on the BBC, still insisting that they're using slurs for 'clarity'. While also referring to anti abortion transphobic activists as 'gender critical feminists'.

Never thought I'd be inspired to write about an airport queue, but here we are #poetry #poems

Have been at Lanzarote airport now for an hour and a half (our plane landed 1:45 ago). I have not yet made it to even nearly the front of the passport queue. It is loud. It is crowded. People are bumping into me. I can feel a meltdown bubbling

Sometimes when life is going OK and I'm in a flow state I can almost forget I am disabled. Then I have to navigate an airport and OMGI so am

Suella Braverman is a one-nation Conservative. That nation is 1930s Germany.

After Suella Braverman's defection, 12.5% of Reform UK MPs have been photographed stepping on a guide dog

once again when i tweeted this years ago IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE

Alex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning

A teacher literally shaking as she describes the threat from her own government to the children she teaches www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Very, very good @quietriotpod.bsky.social

I really understand very little about the current version of reality.

They are SO bad at this! Apparently inspired by Bad Enoch getting a polls bounce for kicking out Jenrick. They can't see that throwing out a traitor is not the same thing as standing up to an opponent who wants to change the direction of the party Either way I've been a Green member a while now

Bear witness #micropoetry #blueskypoetry #poetry #bearwitness #writingcommunity

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

The BBC claims to have “research” that supports its decision to use abusive transphobic terms for trans women. But it will not share that “research”. At the most basic level research is not research if it is not published. It is just a lie. The BBC is lying.

No. They do not "appear to" contradict it. They contradict it.

Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now

Alex Pretti "used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians. He bought me coffee when I had a really bad day as an intern...I laughed alongside him daily. He made a point to teach medical residents without judgement, but with a smile on his face and a joke."

Absolutely, a drink sounds like a *terrific* idea. One thing I probably should mention, though, beforehand: the pub was built hundreds of years ago, which means the doorways are extremely narrow.

Anyone on the left who condemns these remarkably moderate statements as ‘utopian’ has simply lost sight of what the left should be for

If you have two trains of thought, one leaving your brain in a westerly direction and the other going 60 mph, how long before they become a skeet?

"And if my parents had made a different choice, I wouldn't be here today leading Congress into helpless irrelevancy, providing cover for a brutal American dictator, setting the stage for World War III, and ... hang on, hang on, let me start again."

It's Friday, it's #PoemsAbout day. Here is my offering for #FalseCrowns. @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Incredible that Starmer's line in the sand is apparently 'where's your poppy?'. bsky.app/profile/news...

#poemsabout #falsecrowns

Thanks for the prompt @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk. Made me think about paper crowns and th stresses of December #falsecrowns #poemsabout

Dear @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and the #poetrycommunity here for #PoemsAbout #FalseCrowns a not very serious attempt, which I’ve not had time to work on. Hope it fits. Thanks to all who read and repost. Will check out the offerings over the weekend. #poems #poetry

For #PoemsAbout we have been given an easy and prescient carrot to savour with #FalseCrowns. For this week my dramatic personae are: Jack, Lord of the Flies Biff, Back to the Future II You may guess where I'm going with this. @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

For #PoemsAbout #FalseCrowns this is ‘32 Pieces’ ♟️👑 Will catchup at lunch, after work, over the weekend. @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

For this week's #PoemsAbout theme #FalseCrowns @thebrokenspine.co.uk

A reminder: there is nothing feminist about enforcing a static biological definition of sex and insisting on gender policing based on how “manly” or “womanly” a person appears. These are logics of fascism. Just saying.

I think our system falsely peddles intelligence as the key to success - it’s definitely overated! 😂Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk 🥰 for the #PoemsAbout #FalseCrowns prompt. Apologies to those who aren’t familiar with our exam system! (GCSEs at 16 - graded 1-9) #poetry

Nothing prepares you for the quiet scorn of a cat. You could rescue it from a tree, and it’ll look at you like, "I was minutes away from learning to fly!