Dr Jenny Andrea Thatcher

US-Israeli strikes ‘undoubtedly an illegal aggression’ – former British Ambassador to Iran We spoke to former British Ambassador to Iran, Richard Dalton.

US-Israeli strikes ‘undoubtedly an illegal aggression’ – former British Ambassador to Iran

www.channel4.com/news/us-isra...

Couldn’t agree more.

Israel attacks Iran as blasts heard in Tehran – live updates Israel’s military sounded air raid sirens across the country ‘to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward Israel’ in retaliation * Full report: Israel bracing for retaliation after strikes on Iran Reports are emerging that the US is involved in Israel’s strikes on Iran’s capital. Associated Press reported that a US official and a person familiar with the operation said the US is participating in the Israeli strikes. They who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military operations, AP said. Continue reading...

Israel attacks Iran as blasts heard in Tehran – live updates

I'm so glad the BRIT Awards is being held in Manchester. It's a great city. One of my favourite.

Manchester is also a brilliant place to organise a large scale international event in - in my opinion, it's better than London because of it central location and transport infrastructure.

Exclusive: Woman paralysed by violent ex urges more awareness of coercive control Trudi Burgess' partner was charismatic, capable and much admired. But he was also a "manipulative, entitled" abuser.

Exclusive: Woman paralysed by violent ex urges more awareness of coercive control
www.channel4.com/news/exclusi...

‘Our own people hate us’: Labour given byelection wake-up call after 13,000-vote majority disappears Labour billed it as ‘two-horse race’ with Reform UK, but Greens’ media campaign, and Hannah Spencer’s authenticity, wins the day

‘Our own people hate us’: Labour given byelection wake-up call after 13,000-vote majority disappears

Bear with me over the next few weeks while I configure the different types of features and posting methods on Bluesky!

I noticed back in January when it was snowing people are still living on the streets. Also when looking at Biffa bins there a sticker about danger sleeping inside - deeply dehumanising and possible crush in a refuse truck. 😔

Every spring I fill the garden with daffodils. They remind me of Phyllis and that doll. They were also my mother's favourite flower as her birthday was in February.

My philosophy is always let children play with their toys!

...you could wind it up to play a traditional Welsh tune. I loved it and so desperately wanted to play with as I didn't have a lot of toys. But my aunt wouldn't let me take it out the box and told me that it wasn't the type of doll you play with. I couldn't wait to get it home.

...when I was 7 years old my grandfather's sister (Phyllis) and her family came to stay with my aunt as well. Phyllis was a very kind elderly lady and she brought a gift along for me. It was a traditionally dressed Welsh girl doll holding a daffodil and with a with...

When my grandfather was an adult he went in search of his adopted sister and found her. She'd had a very nice childhood in Wales and had a large family with children and grandchildren.

Every summer I was sent to stay with one of my mother's sisters in the countryside. One summer...

His father married a very cruel woman that emotionally & physically abused him & his brother. My mother once told me that as a 7 year old child he was so hungry one day he ate dog food. She cried when she told me.

John Arthur Thatcher. I have the same initials as him: J.A.T, Jenny Andrea Thatcher.

His mother (my great grandmother) was Spanish. I never found out why she was in Wales. She died when he was a child & his sister was given up for adoption.

My grandfather always had some unused food (usually fish on its sell by date) from the restaurant and would show me haw to prepare it.

I remember prawns being my favourite. I would sit on his lap and he would show me how to remove the heads and tails. 🦐

He was from a mining family in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, but left home as a teenager to become a chef in London after losing one of his eye down the pits at 13 years of age.

I loved my him so much. When I was a little girl, and mum wasn't unwell, we used to go and visit my grandparents every Sunday.

One of the things I'm exploring on both side of my family is intergenerational working class trauma. I'll be sharing little stories on here about my family.

This is my maternal grandfather John, seen there with the glasses. He was a more positive male role models in my life while I was growing up.

Record number of rough sleepers in England last year, official figures show An estimated 4,793 people spent night in tents, doorways or parks on single night in autumn – up 3% year on year

Record number of rough sleepers in England last year, official figures show

2025 was the fourth year in a row that rough sleeping numbers have risen.
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Other kids on the street got taken to the cinema, or a museum, or an adventure park on the weekend – I got taken to the needle and syringe exchange centre.

My dad had a terrible start in life in the slums of the Gorbals in Glasgow in the 1950s & 1960s.The poverty, the symbolic violence he suffered at grammar school, the physical & emotional abuse he experienced from his violent alcoholic father – addiction issues were always going to be his adversary

The academic conference funding system produces two kinds of opportunities with very little room in the middle: a large number of precarious PGRs & ECRs who have to pay all costs to present & a smaller number of prominent academics in high paying academic positions who get all their expenses covered

The academic conference funding system produces two kinds of opportunities with very little room in the middle: a large number of precarious PGRs & ECRs who have to pay all costs to present & a smaller number of prominent academics in high paying academic positions who get all their expenses covered

Why I No Longer Attend Academic Conferences After years of attending academic conferences as a delegate, organising on an unpaid basis for a number of subject associations, winning external funding to organise events and being employed as an…

When for you’re from a working-class background with no family financial support and you’re expected to pay: £500 in registration fees, £300 in hotel expenses and £300 in travel, attending academic conferences remains out of reach
sociologistslefttotheirowndevices.wordpress.com/2022/07/03/w...

Hi Andy 👋

Introducing Felix my adopted cat

Childhood Lived Experience of the Heroin and HIV/AIDS Epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s in the UK Trigger Warning Some of the issues discussed in this article may feel difficult to read or might cause strong or upsetting feelings. Please only continue reading if you feel safe to. Links to helpf…

Longer more recent piece. After leaving academia it took me a long time to start writing again. But I have started again.

Please note, I'm also dyslexic, had a disrupted schooling experience, left school at 16 years of age.

sociologistslefttotheirowndevices.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/c...

I Left Academia to Work in a Pub Because I’m Working-Class When you grow up working-class you learn quickly that the majority of middle-class society has nothing but contempt for you. Usually, it comes from your first experiences within education, or a soc…

A few years old now - but this explains a bit about my terrible experience in academia as a working class person

I Left Academia to Work in a Pub Because I’m Working-Class woman

sociologistslefttotheirowndevices.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/i...

Hello 👋

This is my first post on Bluesky. I’d thought I’d give the app a try.
Not sure how it will go or how much I’ll be using it as I also have a x/twitter account.

I’m going to be using this account mainly to circulate writing about my lived experience.