Kathy O'Donnell
@kathyodonnell
Journalist, parent to two grown-ups, LGBT+ rights campaigner, former night editor of The Times, Scotland. Lives in France. [she/her]
I present to you this found verse, translated from French Facebook marketplace, entitled: Don't start anymore!
Simon the stag beetle says: Yes, Kathy, you should definitely walk around the workshop without shoes on and I absolutely won't nip your toes. Promise.
First of several large pots of pitted cherries, ready to become jam. Our own crop, which is an early variety was frazzled by the heatwave. Thankfully our friends and neighbours have later-ripening varieties that survived. I have cramp in my hand from pitting them! But oh the jam...
The tall chap in the middle is my father's younger brother, Don O'Donnell. Don was the bombardier on this Sexton 25pdr of 431 Battery 147RHA Essex Yeomanry. On 6 June 1944, he and his crew landed this gun, 'Dunmow' on Gold Beach, Normandy to liberate Europe from fascism. Like almost ...
Just imagine reading Starmer's speech and being any of the minorities Labour has disowned and oppressed, any of the people locked up for peaceful protest, disabled or elderly? Everyone who sees greedy, evil, wrecker corporations suckled on public funds? The scale of this lie is vast.
False framing, outright lies and stomach-churning faux concern. I will say this as clearly as possible: Streeting has the blood of trans kids on his hands. I hope to live long enough to see him pay for it. Also, fuck Pink News for publishing this.
"... sending them back to be murdered is the only way we can defeat Reform. I'm sure if you think about it carefully you can see that."
Aww! Sweet Rosie. This is Momo, who is staying with us for the week. He wants some of my breakfast, but he's a lover not a fighter.
Neil McIntosh is the editor of the Daily Record. He uses the phrase 'trans ideology' when justifying his papers hostile stance on trans people and rights. I asked him to explain what he understands 'trans ideology' to mean? He blocked me. Perhaps other journalists might ask him the same question?
I'd forgotten what a cracking film is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Beautifully shot, properly sweaty, grubby and gritty and a cast that splits a fabulous performance three-ways ... just like the gold.
Someone rolled in something during the walk and is about to get a wash and no amount of adorable eyes can save him. He's generally fine with an outdoor bath, but it's freezing outside so the bathroom shower beckons and things are going to get messy!
CW: use of racist 'N' words. I have not blanked them because the context and intent is crucial. Thank to @ottoenglish.bsky.social for this 2014 interview with UKIP founder Alan Sked, where Sked talks bluntly of Farage's racism:
Here's the Health Secretary Wes Streeting explaining that a clinical trial of a safe drug used in the UK and across the world for decades is necessary in order that it can be banned. He wants to be PM.
When I saw this I thought it was an Onion-style gag riffing on the awfulness of the spineless and power-pleasing New York Times of recent years. I mean, "conservative feminism". That's so ludicrous that I laughed and scrolled on. But, of course, it is real and the NYT is utterly undone.
"But I do still jack off a great deal and that is why I don't really have the energy to even contemplate going back to work."
1. Although moving 70% of Britain's wealth out of the hands of top 1% would seem fair. 2. Which you're not doing. 3. But not migrants, refugees or ILR or trans people, disabled, pensioners. 4. By repeating same mistakes and not nationalising. 5. You have no idea what you're here for.