mickld @mickld

Every year society in Northern Ireland is expected to tolerate what would be prosecuted as hate crimes elsewhere in the UK. Celebrating one’s own culture should not require the oppression of another’s.

Some journalists here harrumph about Kneecap like retired Home Counties colonels reading the paper over breakfast. Others demand the rappers are treated like they're MLAs. Meanwhile, here's a piece from the Express. The Daily Express, ffs. express.co.uk/news/uk/206030…

It would have been less embarrassing if JD had just fucked the couch he was sitting on.

Over 150 GAA members were murdered in the North during the troubles. Many of them were murdered by off duty British soldiers & police officers. The killers were armed & protected by the state. Michéal Martin says it was our own fault. irishnews.com/entertainment/…

Rachel Reeves announces plans in #Budget2024 that NO ONE in England on waiting list more than 18 weeks In England 0.038% of people have been waiting over 2 yrs Equivalent in NI is 38.5%, over a THOUSANDx higher In NI, 1 in 29 waiting 5 yrs+ some 8yrs+ How is this acceptable?

He asked his wife to buy an energy saving bulb, she bought a voice activated one - the rest is history

British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump? A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. • You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.” -Nate White

When the UK Biobank was set up in 2006, the public was promised their sensitive health data would never be sold to insurance companies. That was a lie. Volunteers’ data is being sold to private health insurers for profit. A scandalous betrayal of trust. theguardian.com/technology/202…

Msg from ICU Dr "That’s bollocks, we continuously made those decisions. That’s why it was so fucking horrible. Who to admit? Who to escalate? Who to withdraw on? There’s a reason we never exceeded physical limits & it wasn’t that the virus magically knew how many beds we had" 1\2

A thread for the ultra-wealthy. If you are wealthy, you may think that if the U.K. switches from an NHS-model to a private model of healthcare it will either a) be better for you, or b) will not affect you. Here is why you are wrong… 🧵

GM - this is the hot and stupid future I ask for.

Former First Minister and DUP leader, Arlene Foster openly stating she would vote against the GFA again if she had the chance. The Agreement saved lives. It has transformed NI. A good reminder that the intention of the DUP has never been to protect the Agreement, but destroy it.

Wow

Horrendous reading papertrail.pro/british-soldie…

So, this afternoon the BBC gives in to fascists over Gary Lineker’s support for asylum seekers and on David Attenborough’s desire to highlight the impact of climate change. Fascism isn’t a threat. It is happening here and now, with the BBC enabling it.

What strikes me above all about the leaked Hancock WhatsApps is the vastness of the gulf between those NHS staff giving the utmost, their all - even their lives - to help patients while this bunch of charlatans spun & sneered & lied & buried evidence & chortled like schoolboys.

A hard listen but, keep in mind, one of the gang members that carried out these attacks is now a high ranking member of the Orange Order.

This statement rightfully causing alarm today. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 already confirms that Northern Ireland remains a part of the UK until the people decide otherwise via a border poll. Placing impediments to that vote would be against the GFA. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northe…

There is no such thing as an insignificant unilateral alteration of the constitutional issues section of the Good Friday Agreement.

The constitutional guarantees in the Good Friday Agreement are legally precise and carefully crafted compromises. Agreed, endorsed, foundational. Suggestions that the British Government now plans to unilaterally amend/alter/supplement these provisions are of grave concern.