I am so invested in Kirsty's pregnancy. She really deserves something wonderful to happen and on her own terms #TheArchers

This is one of the things that's made campaigning for fair trade so much harder, especially wrt fast, cheap fashion. Because you constantly have to caveat your campaign messaging with "We know some people can only afford cheap and fast" when often the answer is buying pre loved which is cheaper

I love this. Unmute.

"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is, 'never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well-known is 'never let a man only known for bankruptcy and pedophilia negotiate terms'!"

"Have you made all these?" All these: knitted toys, wooden toys, fabric toys, jute bags, bamboo ducks, drums, silver jewellery, soapstone pebbles, ceramic coasters, felt coasters, coconut bowls, raffia basket bags, recycled aluminum bowls, woven bracelets, beaded earrings Hand made yes. Not by me

While there's racist rioting in Glasgow it's worth remembering the Commonwealth Games will be held there in about 6 weeks' time. Birmingham 2022 really played to the strengths of its immigrant communities from around the Commonwealth and felt warm and welcoming. Hopefully Glasgow can be the same.

Really, really, really object to any news corporations labelling people setting fire to cars, houses and attacking police as 'protesters'

Watching Channel 4 news in Tehran I'm struck by how few women out and about in the streets are wearing hijabs. It's roughly equivalent to the percentage you find in Bolton town centre.

No one should be making profits from vulnerable children. Yet £1 out of every £5 paid to private providers of children’s social care is taken out in profit. Time to end this scam! Add your name now. weownit.org.uk/act-now/no-p...

It's really quite simple. #FairTrade

We have a brilliant community radio station in Bolton and they invited me in yesterday to chat about Great Big Green Week which is happening next week www.boltonfm.com/listen-again...

Compared to white people, black people are: 2 times more likely to die in police custody >3.5 time more likely to be stop and searched >4.5 times more likely to be strip searched Two-tier policing is very real, but the BBC consistently ignore the truth and push far-right disinformation. #r4today

I don't know the full circumstances but I would suggest that Henry Novak was treated the way he was by the police because he was 18, not because he was white. Because I am pretty sure the same thing wouldn't happen to me as a 53 year old white woman. Youth scares the police - and wider society.

trans rights and women’s rights are not in opposition, they are in fact two fronts of the same war, and cis women should support trans folk not just because it’s the morally correct thing to do but also because an attack on trans folk is an attack on us

This is superb reporting, a really heartbreaking story.

I'm extremely conflicted about Makerfield, in a "region before country" kind of a way. I suspect the country will be better off with Andy Burnham as PM, but I also don't know who could stand for a progressive party and beat a Reform candidate in the mayoral election.

A friend who visited China on a tour once told me how everyone on the tour was demanding noodles for an "authentic" taste of the country but they had to be brought in from a neighbouring province because noodles were not traditional in that part of China.

Nick Robinson sneering that people who buy mangoes and olive oil are middle class is one of the most egregious racist micro aggressions I have ever heard #R4Today

I still can't hear Rob Titchener's voice without making a spontaneous fist #TheArchers

"Africa does not need to become a replica of the West. Africa has the opportunity, and perhaps the responsibility, to help design a different civilizational model altogether; one rooted in solidarity rather than extraction...." globalsouthperspectives.substack.com/p/africa-day...

At a market in a church in Preston yesterday a customer confidently asserted that "We" aren't allowed to wear a crucifix any more but "They" get to wear a burka (I assumed from her hand gesture she meant a niqab) I was shocked. Told her it was not a law but a policy and most employers allow both

Fascinating thread on the origins of the frankly egregious US tipping culture

The web, at its core, was about giving people the freedom to use their voices on a global stage. AI, at its core, is about telling you to shut the fuck up and let a billionaire tell you what you think.

Can we create separate bathrooms for transphobes please? I don't feel comfortable at the idea of sharing a space with one.

My husband's brother died aged 15 in Ghana in the late 1990s with tooth decay given as the cause of death. The family lived in unimaginable poverty with no access to healthcare. His uncle still claims it was due to witchcraft or a curse visited on them because my mother in law was a single Mum.

We're witnessing a human experiment on the psychological effects of mass social cruelty, on the victims, the perpetrators, and the bystanders. We don't know when or how the experiment will end.

The fact that a neo-Nazi teenager who attempted to behead a Kurdish barber in Bristol last year has just been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison isn’t *national* news is enormously telling. It’s really not just a South West story, is it?

We can't underestimate the appeal of a Prime Minister who "gets it". People in Makerfield will know there's a good chance if they elect Andy Burnham then he becomes PM then Downing Street will have their backs. If you doubt it then look at all the infrastructure built in Tatton under George Osborne

While I agree this is A Good Thing I have issues with the pictured EV charging etiquette No way are you parking that far away and plugging in your Type 2 charger and why is someone else's Type 2 charging lead just trailing out the front outlet? Those things are precious - you don't just leave them

Put my washing out just before going to Specsavers. While waiting for my eye test there was a cloudburst so violent all the opticians came out of their little rooms to make sure it wasn't the Apocalypse. No point bringing it in now. It's probably wetter than it was mid cycle.

Watching Race Across the world and I can't stop thinking about September 1993 which I spent inter railing round Europe with no mobile phones, pre euro so we had to keep changing money and on a budget of about twenty quid a day. Just a big fat guidebook and a wing and a prayer

Today is World Fair Trade Day. This is entirely separate and distinct from Fairtrade Fortnight (or as a customer insisted on calling it yesterday, Fairtrade Week) Why? In the UK Fairtrade when written as one word is copyrighted and owned by the Fairtrade Foundation. They license this mark

It's worth remembering that in a lot of places (here in Lancashire for example) the people who we elected yesterday will only serve for a year before council boundaries are completely and radically redrawn. A good time to do a low stakes protest vote #LocalElections

Missed out on Crucible tickets for next year so I am going to tick another item off my Bucket List and go to the Masters instead This completes my own personal Triple Crown having gone to the UK championship in York in 2022 and many times to the Worlds.

"Take it seriously but not literally" Because there are lots of reasons they can't actually do this. Not least because Planning Permission is currently under local authority control By the way I am a classic Green voter and work happily alongside asylum seekers every week. We'd just open the doors

My most controversial opinion: ear pieces at snooker matches are an unnecessary affectation and a distraction to both the players and refuseniks like me. The game is not that complicated. If you want to hear the commentary stay at home and watch it on the telly. And they're twelve quid!

I remember it well. Usually I leave the country to avoid excessive Royal coverage so I was visiting friends in New Jersey when the wedding happened. I missed my flight back from JFK (due to a cycle race) and took the bus back late that evening with New Yorkers almost literally dancing in the streets

Not sure if it counts as favouritism from the BBC choosing Fools Gold to back coverage of the Higgins v Murphy match given that John has chosen I Am The Resurrection as his walk on music #StoneRoses #Snooker

In all my 53 years I have never had a hairdresser who realises that my hair neither understands nor respects the concept of a parting and 20 minutes after I leave the salon it will have chosen violence and anarchy will once again reign on my head

It's frustrating how many people seem to think we can tackle the climate crisis by planting a few trees I know it's easy to feel powerless and planting makes you feel good but as a society we need to fundamentally change our consumption habits The answers exist but they're not easy or comfortable

Broccoli

I made my annual pilgrimage to the Crucible on Tuesday and was lucky enough to see Ronnie O'Sullivan's match I noted with some amusement that the VIP seats are actually worse than the conventional priced seats because your view of the table is obscured by the camera operators #Snooker

What perfect album came out when you were 16? I think we can all agree I win

Primary school workshops are all different. Today we had Year 5 and 6 in Ormskirk who were bright, knowledgeable and curious, and a surprise Reception class. We had to think on our feet as we've never had to adapt our workshop for 4 and 5 year olds before but we kept the main bits and it was lovely.

High streets need footfall, so employers and service providers need to be using empty units. Workers shop in their breaks or on the way to and from their shifts, customers / patients shop on the way to and from appointments. This is how we save the high street. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

My main context for the name Luigi is as the owner of an Italian restaurant in Royston Vasey I know this places me in a very specific demographic and that's ok by me

Not about current abuser but very worthwhile read: open.substack.com/pub/celestem...

It's breaking my heart every time I pass a mound of unsold Easter eggs at half price in supermarkets and shops. It's not so much the waste, but knowing how hard cocoa farmers work to produce the beans for the chocolate. I hope there's a mechanism for them to be recovered and remixed into new bars.