Reader, @pshares | Co/Tanka ed, haikupresence.org | short fiction/poetry | Soc of Authors, Edinburgh | Latest: Walking Home & Squashing Snails (⚡fic)
Edinburgh
- Tweets 138,279
- Following 7,500
- Followers 5,705
- Likes 396,203
James Roderick Burns retweeted
- “Room 8” ( 1947–1968 )
Room 8 was a neighborhood cat who wandered into a classroom in 1952 at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California. He lived in the school during the school year and then disappeared for the summer, returning when classes started again. This pattern continued without interruption until the mid-1960s.
News cameras would arrive at the school at the beginning of the year waiting for the cat's return; he became famous and would receive up to 100 letters a day addressed to him at the school. Eventually, he was featured in a documentary called Big Cat, Little Cat and a children's book, A Cat Called Room 8. Look magazine ran a three-page Room 8 feature by photographer Richard Hewett in November 1962, titled "Room 8: The School Cat". Leo Kottke wrote an instrumental called "Room 8" that was included in his 1971 album, Mudlark.
As he got older, Room 8 was injured in a cat fight and suffered from feline pneumonia, so a family near the school volunteered to take him in. The school's janitor would find him at the end of the school day and carry him across the street.
His obituary in the Los Angeles Times rivaled that of major political figures, running three columns with a photograph. The cat was so famous that his obituary ran in papers as far away as Hartford, Connecticut. The students raised the funds for his gravestone. He is buried at the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, California. 🐈 ❤️
11
139
705
10,898
Witness the more than 330 THOUSAND excess deaths as a result of austerity.
Never forgive
Never forget
Never vote tory or lib dem
1
6
123
James Roderick Burns retweeted
The hit the poor and cut corporation tax (CT) brigade are out in force.
UK headline CT rate is 25%. Companies pay about 10% less as govts give them numerous reliefs which reduces taxable profits.
Companies also dodge tax by shifting profits to tax havens
obr.uk/box/corporation-tax-i…
7
110
125
2,967
The list of privatisation benefits is tremendously long, as well as fictional!
In the UK it is now 'too expensive' to diagnose people with ADHD because it costs over £1000.
For a person who is paid about £25 an hour to work for 2 hours doing it.
That is another brilliant benefit of privatisation.
66
My wife likes to sit out for Halloween to give away buckets of sweets (sadly this is likely our last year - new flat; no yard).
Exchanges jokes with 5 years olds, and has one good one: what's a pirate's fav letter? Ya think it be R, but it's all about the C!
Anyone got more?
ALT Stuffed parrot
4
1
24
378
James Roderick Burns retweeted
The reality of Britain’s food poverty crisis: ‘Everything is so expensive, I only eat one meal a day’.
14m face food insecurity.
High rents, water, energy, food prices & low incomes create a crisis.
50 families have more wealth than 34m people combined.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho…
34
269
377
9,618
James Roderick Burns retweeted
If it were possible, I would swap my life for yours quite easily. We would start with a two week trial period. Just to check you were comfortable with somebody having to lift you on and off the toilet and perform associated cleaning duties every time you needed a pooh. Also, be warned that you'll only be able to use a one typing finger, or two on an extremely good day, but don't worry because you can easily learn the joys of speech recognition software. It definitely never fucks up on a monumental scale.
Now, what else is that you need to know? Oh yes, among other things, say goodbye to leaving the house whenever you like, you'll find that you will only be able to go anywhere if there is somebody available to take you and look after your whilst you are there.
Still think I have a good life, "courtesy of the taxpayer"
It’s always those that have a life courtesy of the taxpayer that have something to say about the taxpayer wanting more of their hard earned money for themselves.
31
159
713
14,088
James Roderick Burns retweeted
Please engage brain before posting anything that could amplify suicide ideation in the immature or very ill younger or people out of their minds with sorrow. 🙁 suicide prevention.
2
3
53
Vital - a truly excellent post
Andrew Neil on #bbcqt: "The big problem we face is 6.7 million adults of working age who aren't working and are living on out-of-work benefits. 6.7 million. No country can prosper with that number of people able to work who are not working."
The first half is broadly right. DWP figures show 6.7 million people in Great Britain claimed some combination of out-of-work benefits in March 2026. However, the second half is misinformation because it misdescribes that statistic.
DWP's out-of-work benefits category deliberately includes people the state has assessed as unable to work, or does not currently expect to work.
DWP's own breakdown shows that 4.6 million of the 6.7 million, around 68%, have no work requirements at all.
DWP explains that this is generally because they are too sick to work or are the main carer for a very young child. That group includes 2.8 million Universal Credit claimants on the health route and 390,000 on Employment and Support Allowance and older incapacity benefits.
Only 2.2 million, about a third, are expected to take any steps towards work, and 590,000 of those are themselves on the health route.
Treating the whole 6.7 million as available labour turns a count of claimants into a count of idle workers, which the data simply does not support.
The official labour market figures tell a very different story. The ONS puts unemployment, meaning people actively looking for and available for work, at 1.78 million for May to July 2026. The Learning and Work Institute estimates that 3.9 million people are out of work but say they want a job, and that there are 5.5 of them for every vacancy.
There is a serious debate to be had about rising sickness claims and appropriate support. It is not helped by presenting people the state itself has judged unable to work, or not required to, as if they were simply choosing not to.
Nobody challenged Neil. Nobody corrected the misinformation. Neil got a round of applause. Someone could have told Fiona Bruce the facts in less than a minute. This is just one example which helps explain why many people understandably treat @bbcquestiontime as a joke.
Sources: DWP Benefit Combinations, March 2026; ONS/House of Commons Library, September 2026; Learning and Work Institute, September 2026.
1
1
6
212
"Ah'm partyin' anyways, ya buncha pantywaists!"
#PossumShots
1
1
10
222