“The verb ‘to context fuck’ came into common circulation in 2026, when Green Party MP @carla_denyer was so severely context fucked that a new term had to be invented.”

Assuming you are referring to Oli Dugmore? The New Statesman, which he is the digital editor of, is generally considered left-wing, progressive, and centre-left. IMHO you cannot live and work in an a leftist environment (even if you call yourself an 'editor') and not be affected by the self-imposed echo chamber you work within. I think he, and some of the younger generations who believe in "intergenerational wealth inequality", often close their minds to the alternative rationale (which I have expounded on in other posts). The state pension is a safety net for their future too and defending a strong state pension today ensures that the system will still exist when younger generations reach retirement age. Lowering the bar now hurts them later. If the state pension is insufficient to cover basic living and health needs, the financial and emotional care-giving burden falls directly onto their adult children (spookily enough, the younger generation). Life, in reality, is swings and roundabouts, and older people (parents and grandparents) actually do an awful lot of heavy lifting for the younger generations that often criticise them. Parents and older generations in the UK support younger generations through childcare, financial assistance, housing support, and practical life mentoring. The 'bank of Gran and Dad' is one example. Many older adults and parents provide financial gifts or loans to help younger generations pay for university costs, clear debts, or save for high living expenses. Older family members frequently help younger relatives fund house deposits to navigate high UK property prices. Grandparents regularly look after grandchildren, saving families large amounts of money on nursery and babysitting fees. And a rising number of young adults live rent-free or low-rent in family homes or with grandparents while saving money towards their future. It's convenient for agenda driven people like Oli Dugmore to ignore how much the older generations actually contribute to society on an intergenerational level. And I haven't even mentioned the the lion's share of volunteering, informal care, and financial backing for charities and hospices, that older people provide on a volunteer basis.

Sir Anthony Hopkins says he never tolerated tyrannical directors who believed they could bully actors on set. He recalls one director who started shouting at a young actress while giving her notes. Hopkins immediately stepped in. “Hold it. You raise your voice one decibel to this lady and i’m going. And you my dear, should leave as well” Afterward, the actress thanked him. Hopkins then asked how long the director had been treating her that way. “How long has he been doing that?” She told him it had been happening throughout the entire film. For Hopkins, no performance or movie was worth allowing someone to be humiliated on set. “Don’t raise your voice. It’s a film. It’s a stupid film. That’s all it is. It’s not important.”

If the Human Rights Act 1998 means anything in today's bizarre policing world, it means what it states in para 1 which states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers." It then goes on to talk about rights coming with responsibilities. I agree, they do indeed. This particular quotation has stuck with me over the years: "Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought." I may despise certain opinions, I may not like what I perceive as misguided or misinformed people, but I would rather live in a country where everyone has the equal right to state their opinion, no matter how offensive our government, and others, deem it to be, than have opinions stifled because people are afraid to say what they think. The moment our government started policing criticism of religion and criticism of government policy, that's the moment I knew we were being governed by ideologues and not people who held democratic principles as a guiding light. If ever there was an example par excellence of mission creep, this is it.

But you might if you don't begin to look at the bigger picture. The real issue isn't just about protecting the state pension of today, it's about protecting the state pension of tomorrow - the one many younger people are being critical about. The state pension is a safety net for their future too. Defending a strong state pension today ensures that the system will still exist when younger generations reach retirement age. Lowering the bar now hurts them later. If the state pension is insufficient to cover basic living and health needs, the financial and emotional care-giving burden falls directly onto their adult children (spookily enough, the younger generation). A strong pension keeps older people independent (if it's their only source of income). Everyone: and that includes those criticising: is only one diagnosis away from vulnerability. A society is judged by how it treats its oldest and frailest citizens, and a good pension ensures dignity when health fails as it does as one grows older. You may not need a state pension when you get to a certain age, but it isn't about you, or me, or any one individual for that matter, it's about protecting everyone's future in their older years.

That is a weird response which conflates various issues. Firstly: "The Free State" is legally and historically obsolete, and using it today to describe modern Ireland is an outdated trope and a politically charged colloquialism. Secondly: the issue with this march is that it is a return to the old Triumphalism of the traditional Orange Lodge. Garvaghy Road is an overwhelmingly Catholic nationalist area, and residents argue that marching bands and Orange regalia through it isn't neutral heritage but a display of dominance: a legacy of the "not an inch" unionist supremacy that characterised Portadown's local politics for decades - the Order's own choice of Drumcree church, associated with the historic Protestant "siege" self-image, reinforces that reading. Unless the old sectarianism of the past can be put to rest for good, Northern Ireland is doomed to these continued conflicts between communities. Rather than fix the issue, the Good Friday Agreement formally categorised politicians and voters into designated communal blocs in a vain attempt to ensure neither side could dominate the other. Yet here we are again, with one side dominating the other.

Gripe of the day. There doesn't seem a lot of point in following someone you admire just to be shown this message when you'd like to express support for a comment they have made: "Only some accounts can reply".

Please consider signing this petition: "Make hospice funding a national priority". c.org/7fsnN74Cd4

To elaborate on the video clip you show. There is a lot more in this video which is worth highlighting. This particular video is from a 19 May 2023 Libya Mostakbal TV program (NB: before October 7 happened). The woman is Libyan host Afaf Abdel Mohsen. She is not speaking as a Palestinian mother; she is quoting and praising an answer she says she heard about why Palestinians have many children and says: "Why do [the Palestinians] give birth to so many boys and girls? I heard a beautiful answer to this question: 'We give birth to so many [children] so that we can push them to death, to martyrdom.'" She then continues that Palestinian mothers raise children "on resistance… using their blood, by sacrificing them." A Palestinian journalist on the same show adds an "offspring bombs" remark. In the same video clip, Palestinian journalist Muhammad Abd Al-Haqq is heard repeating a line he attributes to his late grandfather: "They have nuclear bombs, and we have 'offspring bombs.'" He means children as a demographic and political weapon. The contrast being that Israel has advanced military power, including nuclear weapons, and Palestinians compensate by having many children who will grow up to continue the struggle, become fighters, or become "martyrs." This is the part uninformed pro-Palestinian activists do not want to hear because the truth clouds the long-time brainwashing of their baised belief system. If they acknowledge the facts in videos like this, it destroys their life, because hating on Israel (and Jews) is all they have. Note: YouTube auto-captions of MEMRI’s own upload are slightly looser ("push them even to their deaths") but convey the same meaning. There is no prominent counter-translation that treats the line as a mistranslation or as meaning something milder. MEMRI’s wording is the one that has been used across reporting of the clip.

Bit of language trivia. Hollywood created the myth of Native Americans saying "How" when in fact the word the Lokota used was "Háu". Because it sounded the same (ish), that's how early Hollywood westerns pronounced it, but the acute accent on the á indicates a higher or stressed pitch on that vowel. Demo here: youtu.be/G63s6ebeM3s?si=SR0l…

This band was big in the 1980s (hence why the all look older now, duh). To mark the song’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, "Men Without Hats" gave this performance of their 1987 hit ‘Pop Goes the World.’ This IMO is a quintessential pop song. Enjoy it for what it is. youtu.be/JMTJNot3oV0?si=T_zz…

An excellent description of the instinctively spiteful nature of the Labour government

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." So said Albert Einstein many years ago. There will always be people who will try to kill your dreams and your spirit. What they don't know is that nothing and no one can do that to you unless you let them. And not letting them annoys them even more. Stay strong.

I grew up on the classics in an extended musical family in Ireland. One of my Aunts was a well known soprano back in the day. She introduced me to Nessum Dorma long before Pavarotti made it 'pop'. I've never forgiven him. Well, maybe. Here he is in a legendary performance of Nessun Dorma in Hyde Park. youtu.be/gKnjiQeaeCY?si=Xkcv… via @YouTube

Another music moment. Rory Gallagher from 1980. facebook.com/share/v/1CLSewk…

Interesting development in the Channel 4 story. The polling firm itself is now under investigation over the way these polls were commissioned and disclosed. So let’s be clear, questions over the polling company’s procedures are not the same as evidence that Reform UK broke the law. Yet the media narrative was very quick to point the finger at Reform. Investigations are investigations, they are not convictions. Facts, evidence and due process should matter, regardless of which political party is involved. #ReformUK #FactsMatter #MediaBias

TBF Nick, I don't think either of us know what Nigel Farage was thinking at the time although he has today distanced himself from Dan Jukes and what he referred to in today's speech as "loose bar talk" which he suggested at best was "injudicious". There are investigations going on at present though how impartial they will be remains to be seen. These are two distinct clips edited into one report by Verbatim Investigations which reminds me of how the BBC edited the now infamous Trump January 6th video to make it look like he'd said things he hadn't said. Treating these two clips as one continuous scene overstates what Farage himself thought or proposed. You may wish to see it one way, I may wish to see it another, but if I'm being brutally honest, it's this kind of nitpicking - and I don't mean from you specifically - that makes me want to support Farage and Reform UK again. It is quite obvious to me in my current political no-man's land, that the whole left wing establishment has conspired, and will continue to conspire, against Reform, as they did for instance by supporting a Bin in Clacton. Think about that: really think about it. And then Restore Britain conspired against Reform in Dover. And lest we forget, Labour called a democratic by-election in Clacton a "circus". This, people like @BenObeseJecty would call democracy. It's hypocrisy with a capital H. But that's just me and my sense of fair play.

More music moments! The amazing Olivia Dean - So Easy (To Fall In Love)- LIVE on The Graham Norton Show. youtu.be/dLzpNstMHZY?si=QCoG… via @YouTube

Music thought for the day. One of my all time favourite artistes Lara Fabian, performing "Adagio" at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 2024 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The song "Adagio" is a modern vocal adaptation built on the famous 20th Century neo-Baroque composition 'Adagio in G minor' (widely attributed to Tomaso Albinoni and composed by Remo Giazotto). youtu.be/ikWpOJT4y9g?si=jXs-…

Moments in music part whatevs... this is one hell of an interpretion of Leonard Cohen's "The Tower of Song" from one hell of a singer, still sounding great, probably better, as he's aged. youtu.be/cTWyaOg9K8I?si=pxqb…