Rebecca Gower

Thanks, but I might disappoint you by being rather serious much of the time.

Image Credit: Tiny Buddha

That is going to add 45 minutes to my commute!

British politics is basically a doom spiral of increasingly unhinged hostile policies.

Reform says something unhinged
⬇️
Labour counters with their own unhinged policy
⬇️
Tories shout from back they'll be even more unhinged
⬇️
Reform announces different unhinged proposal in response
⬇️
And repeat...🔁

Any time a politician says we should leave the ECHR, the very next questions any interviewer should ask are
🚨Which human rights are you willing to lose personally
🚨Which methods of torture are you going to allow people to be sent to face
🚨Which family members would you be willing to lose

#r4today

We all know why Nigel Farage is accusing Labour of inciting violence against him while cutting his security. Because if he didn’t, people might remember to ask him who paid for his house in Clacton and why he hangs around with people who take bribes from Russians.

Where did the "1 in 5 call it a success" come from? I didn't notice it in the article, and it doesn't match the 11% quoted.

Secret BBC filming exposes hidden culture of racism and misogyny inside Met Police Panorama undercover investigation captures evidence that "toxic behaviours", far from being driven out of the Met, have been driven underground.

Secret BBC filming exposes hidden culture of racism and misogyny inside Met Police

Rachel wearing very flimsy looking apron, mask and visor in NHS setting

Here I am in 2020 in the flimsiest, most pitful PPE - like so many other NHS staff, some of whom died from the Covid they caught in their hospitals.

Tory peer Michelle Mone - who today lost her legal case & must repay the govt £122m - dares to claim she’s been ‘scapegoated’.

What, Michelle? 🧵

Yes, I agree, but it is hard for me to do much about it. I try to keep abreast of the main threads, but there is a lot of noise and I can't devote *all* my spare time to it.
I can have more influence in the UK as a voter here, so I need to keep some time for local issues.

I was referring, that day, to news from Europe about Russian incursions into other nations' airspace. That is important too.
And not every utterance from the USA is important. Most are, but not all.

Richard Tice with his Reform chum Nathan Gill, who has just admitted taking bribes for spreading Kremlin misinformation. What could be more patriotic than that?

Reform UK's ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.

Nathan Gill is no fringe politician.

He was the leader of the Reform Party and before that UKIP in Wales.

A Brexit Party MEP.

A friend and ally of Nigel Farage, who in 2016 called him:

"terrific," and "as honest as the day is long."

This is a MASSIVE story

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Look, other countries have ID cards, there's nothing inherently wrong with them. The thing is to implement them properly, which means free, physical as well as digital, and not used to potentially exclude individuals from any aspect of life. I just can't see that happening with this government.

I know three elderly people (aged around 80 years old) who don't have smart phones. The digital world increasingly excludes them.
You might think that they could just switch to smart phones. But it would not be practical for them. All have bad eyesight, and one has a degenerative disability.

Some of them may still be inhabitants from before 2014. Many will be newer.

The people with what we might now call long polio have almost all passed away. One of my mother's friends was affected for life. She died earlier this year in her late eighties have suffered the consequences for over 70 years.

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

Love having to chat to feckless worthless AI bots to receive any service in our society. So thrilled to get 13 call screening messages telling me I can do online what I explicitly called you to do. Love how the useless AI that never has the capacity to understand a situation let alone give solutions

This news is also on the BBC website but buried under so much other news about America. I had to search for it.
Russia is a menace to us all.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Abingdon Reservoir will cost £1.9bn to run for the first 65 years Thames Water, Affinity and Southern Water customers will pay for the reservoir through their bills

"The company previously revealed that the estimated price for building the reservoir has risen significantly, from £2.2bn to between £5.5bn and £7.5bn."

And the consumers are forced to pay for it with no choice in the matter.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

And when I see babies/children in the fridge/freezer aisles at the supermarket in scanty summer clothes, shivering!

They are discussing the report on Israel by the UN Commission of Inquiry.
Glad to see it.

Keir Starmer tells his Cabinet that scenes of police under attack at a march "led by a convicted criminal and egged on by a foreign billionaire calling for violence" sent "a chill through the spines" of British people.

Says UK in "the fight of our times" against "toxic division" and "we must win"

REPORTER: How much wealthier are you now than when you returned to the WH?

TRUMP: The deals I made for the most part, other than what my kids are doing - they're running my business - were made before. Where are you from?

R: Australia

T: In my opinion you are hurting Australia right now. Quiet.

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

Systems take time to get in motion. Will this help? Will the UK take significant action now, with sanctions?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Following the UN's independent commission of inquiry finding that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:

"What is happening in Gaza is a genocide. And the President of the United States who wants a Nobel Peace Prize is doing nothing to stop it." (1/2)

It bothers me that the BBC is _so_ caught up in certain news topics from the USA that some other important news from Europe hardly gets a mention. Sure, if you dig around the website you can find other news, but the coverage feels unbalanced in terms of geography.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Imagine how relieved the World Bank is that they don't do an "ease of doing business" report anymore and thus don't have to work out how to factor in the possibility of having your tech specialists manacled hand and foot into the US score.

A man has been left with “potentially life-changing injuries” after an assault with a motor vehicle in Oxford city centre last night. Thames Valley Police say “The driver of a grey Mercedes mounted the pavement and ran over two men in their twenties in St Clements at around 10.30pm.”