Alex Clarke

I'll be turning 95 this coming Monday. In my younger years, I was often filled with worry - worry that I wasn't quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn't live up to my mother's hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude."** My life didn't quite take shape until my forties. I had worked steadily - on provincial stages, in radio plays, in West End productions - but I often felt adrift, as though I was searching for a home within myself that I hadn't quite found. At 50, I accepted a television role that many would later associate me with Hyacinth Bucket, of Keeping Up Appearances. I thought it would be a small part in a little series. I never imagined that it would take me into people's living rooms and hearts around the world. And truthfully, that role taught me to accept my own quirks. It healed something in me. At 60, I began learning Italian not for work, but so I could sing opera in its native language. I also learned how to live alone without feeling lonely. I read poetry aloud each evening, not to perfect my diction, but to quiet my soul. At 70, I returned to the Shakespearean stage - something I once believed I had aged out of. But this time, I had nothing to prove. I stood on those boards with stillness, and audiences felt that. I was no longer performing. I was simply being. At 80, I took up watercolor painting. I painted flowers from my garden, old hats from my youth, and faces I remembered from the London Underground. Each painting was a quiet memory made visible. Now, at 95, I write letters by hand. I'm learning to bake rye bread. I still breathe deeply every morning. I still adore laughter - though I no longer try to make anyone laugh. I love the quiet more than ever. **I'm writing this to tell you something simple:** **Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter - if you let yourself bloom again.** Let these years ahead be your *treasure years*. You don't need to be famous. You don'…

She was a good one Patricia. This hit me right in the feels

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children.

This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

In all honesty, it’s not rhetoric any more. It’s not narrative. I’ve experienced more racism in the last 4 months than I can ever remember. The wheels are off in the UK and it’s being led by 3 political parties.

The truth: we need migration.

The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it.

Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality.

Reject it. Draw the line.

A government doesn't announce they have become fascist, they announce #AntiFascists are enemies of the state. Another truth from @filmsforaction.bsky.social https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-10-tactics-of-fascism-jason-stanley/

A government doesn't announce they have become fascist, they announce #AntiFascists are enemies of the state.

Another truth from @filmsforaction.bsky.social

www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-10...

Happy for you. I find it consistently startling.

Butlerian jihad now!

Solidarity to the @brumgreens.bsky.social for being on the right side of history - the side of anti-fascism and anti-racism! We defeated them before, and we most certainly will defeat them again. ✊🏽🪧💚

It's physically unsafe for people like me to go into the centre of our home city this Saturday on account of the colour of our skin.

Most politicians are either failing to stand up to this or actively contributing to the situation.

We don't owe any of those politicians our votes. Not one of them.

Could we please stop pretending that the flags being hung from streetlamps or painted on roundabouts are innocent expressions of patriotic pride? This is the far right marking out its territory. It uses these flags to intimidate its traditional victims and opponents. 🧵1/3

Over the past 10 years, the UK has had:

- 6 Prime Ministers
- 8 Chancellors of the Exchequer
- 9 Foreign Secretaries
- 10 Home Secretaries

Tell us again how First Past the Post leads to stable and effective governments.

Nobody is “grooming” your kids to be gay or trans but people ARE grooming them to be Nazis.

Another day, yet ANOTHER stupid, pointless announcement on immigration from this stupid pointless government.

Today: you are a student - we're going to write you a stern letter about how you better not be thinking of staying!

Insanity. Racist, cowardly, insanity. #r4today

edited panel from the Watchmen comic. On a pink, barren mars, a blue cow stands behind a small rock formation with a table on it. The table contains 4 crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with a handle, a stick with two hooked prongs at the end, and a hand saw with irregular teeth. On the cows forehead is a symbol resembling the lump-with-handle, with a dot in the middle. A blue text box reads, "I'm tired of this pasture. These farmers. I'm tired of being caught in the sophistication of their tools."

always appreciated Dr. Moonhattan's arc

Keir Starmer and David Lammy belong in The Hague.

So we can't socialise the energy companies but we can socialise the hallucinating slop machine? Fuck off

‘Operation Raise the Colours’ Organised by Well-Known Far-Right Extremists – HOPE not hate Union Jacks and the crosses of St George have begun to appear on lampposts up and down the UK in recent days. Much of the...

Union Jacks and St George’s crosses are going up on lampposts across the UK. The Daily Mail called those behind it an “army of patriots.”

But the truth is very different.

hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/22/o...

Operation raise the colours: 🧵

1/12

2 mini-islands on my road now painted to be Saint George's flags.

I don't think quoting legislation about what the council does or doesn't allow in terms of flag poles etc is an adequate or even helpful response to what is going on in the UK at the moment.

Where Is the Political Leadership Against This Violent Far-Right Movement Terrorising Britain? The silence of senior mainstream politicians and media organisations against the rise of a new well-organised far-right movement on Britain's streets is a disgrace, argues Adam Bienkov

This is an urgent and important question from @adambienkov.bsky.social

Again this summer, British citizens are being terrorised by the organised far right and the silence of mainstream media and our political leaders is astounding and dangerous

bylinetimes.com/2025/08/20/w...

I've got sleep apnoea and a friend who's a GP, and her solomn and sincere advice to me is that I should learn to play the didgeridoo.

I saw this sketch very young. I think it was the first time that I ever saw anyone portraying Spider-Man, and has coloured my expectations ever since.

I just voted for @zackpolanski.bsky.social

Sorry it's 1966. I mistyped

ELIZA - Wikipedia

Could be ELIZA (1965) It cropped up in an Adam Curtis documentary on the iPlayer recently.

ELIZA - Wikipedia share.google/foZd48kdWEQc...

Absolutely this. Autistic "missing social cues" is eg me infodumping at you for ten minutes because you asked a polite question and not noticing your eyes glazing over. It's not sexual assault.

I just read about this and came straight here to make sure you had been made aware.

The world isn't silent on Gaza - this is by far the most vocal I have seen the general public on a political issue in my lifetime. I have also never seen a bigger difference between the anger of the public and the inaction of specific institutions and governments. That's the crucial disconnect.

A statement

About the preparation

For the *potential* research

Into a currently non-existent system

To reach an arbitrary benchmark

That is impossible to quantify

And functionally meaningless

Reading that headline actually reduces your brain power. This is sabotage!