Alex retweeted
He was born in a small village in West Yorkshire. His father was a WW2 vet with PTSD from Dunkirk- but Stewart never thought that excused the man's violence towards his kids and his wife. They were poor, it didn't stop him
A teacher put Shakespeare in his hands. Dropped out of school at 15 to pursue acting. First kid to get a grant to study at the Old Vic who wasn't from Oxford or Cambridge.
And then he became... anyone he wanted to be. Roman emperors, Russian revolutionaries, a starship captain. The last changed his life.
See, when he got to Star Trek, he had a massive stick up his ass about acting. But there were long shooting days and to make the time go easier, the rest of the cast loved to play pranks and make jokes. Eventually, Stewart HAD it with them.
"This is acting- it's not supposed to fun!" He famously bellowed at them. The rest of the cast broke out laughing. And Stewart says that chilling out over those 7 seasons, embracing the humor the rest of the cast used to get through those long days, changed him as an actor and a person. He learned to loosen up, to take himself less seriously all while still bringing it to every performance.
He died today in the Hollywood Hills, thousands of miles from the humble circumstances of his birth. Acting took him around the world, and into the hearts of millions.
Alex retweeted
This is why the Liberal Democrat’s are a joke I’m sorry
11 years ago they would’ve been fighting against this ridiculous law (or at the very least pretending to)
Alex retweeted
Capitalism isn’t about greed or profit.
It’s about freedom, growth and personal responsibility.
Alex retweeted
What a heartbreaking week it has been. Sir Patrick Stewart was a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor. From the stage to the bridge of the Enterprise, he brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did. Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him. I was filled with affection and admiration for him and his work.
My heart goes out to Sunny and his family. He will be deeply missed.
I don't agree with this. I think communism is bad but it should be faced with social shame and ridicule, not censorship.
The Czech Republic has officially criminalized the promotion of communist movements that suppress human rights, placing them on the same legal footing as Nazi movements.
The amendment, signed by President Petr Pavel, explicitly targets anyone who establishes, supports or promotes Nazi, communist or other movements seeking to suppress fundamental freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, religious, national or class hatred.
Offenders face prison sentences ranging from one to five years, with additional provisions addressing the distribution of extremist propaganda and symbols.
The legislation follows decades of debate over the country's communist past. Czechoslovakia endured more than four decades of communist one-party rule, beginning in 1948 and ending with the peaceful Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Supporters, including historians from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, argued that communist totalitarianism should be treated as seriously as Nazism under criminal law.
What a terrible loss. Such a legend.💔
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
Then why did he just raised it by £97.5bn in the budget?
Burnham says he wants to cut welfare bill 'as soon as we possibly can' bbc.in/4iq10L0
Alex retweeted
The mental breakdown from some people to completely ban gambling is the same people that claim they don’t want to live in a nanny state and want less government control… 😂
Alex retweeted
Journalists and commentators again have fallen for the govt crafted talking points in their headlines about the budget.
Below is the reality for UK business owners and families.
At least you can save £2 a year in pickles and marmalade though…
Alex retweeted
Today, Ofcom said age verification for social media could support a ban on under-16s. It will mean showing your passport, face, bank details or digital ID before being able to post on Instagram.
Yet Ofcom and the government refuse to admit one big problem: there's no evidence Australia's equivalent ban is working.
Australia's ban has dented account numbers but barely touched usage, and there is no sign of better mental health or safer children, if anything the opposite:
- The eSafety Commissioner's own evaluation undertaken by Stanford found that account ownership fell from 52% to 42%, yet use of banned platforms only fell from 86% to 82%.
- The same study concluded there had been "little to no change" in children's wellbeing, offline activities or problematic use.
- Parents who did not know their child had used social media rose from 23% to 33%, raising serious safeguarding issues.
- A seperate BMJ study found that more than 85% of under-16s were still using banned platforms.
- An NBER working paper estimates that just 6% of 14–15-year-olds were complying by June.
- Complaints about cyberbullying and image-based abuse show no notable change since the ban was implemented.
Ofcom has claimed that Australia only required "reasonable steps", while Britain will demand "highly effective age assurance". But that is untested hope, not evidence. Ofcom also admits that no method is robust against circumvention, VPNs remain legal, and already a quarter of children have used a VPN in the past six months.
This is a dangerous game, and the consequences fall on the rest of us. Ofcom has admitted that 16- and 17-year-olds will, in effect, need photo ID to get online, even though many don't have it, while many adults will have to scan their faces or upload documents to access social media.
The UK's ban is set to start in March, well before Australia's 12 month results or statutory review. We are supposedly learning the lessons from a policy implemented elsewhere, while practically learning nothing.
Alex retweeted
In my Substack analysis at rwerner.substack.com I show how exactly the Bank of England toppled a sitting Prime Minister.
Ex-PM Liz Truss deserves all credit for her courage to battle the unaccountable central planners & not being intimidated by their vast but covert powers.
Former UK PM Lizz Truss says unelected central bankers wield more power than democratically elected world leaders.
She attributes the pound's "massive inflation" and devaluation to money printing by the Bank of England, which she describes as "completely unaccountable".
"The Bank of England governor can't be sacked, as I found out, but the prime minister can be."
"Why do you think young people can't get on the housing ladder? Again, it's because of the actions of this organisation, and yet nobody will hold them to account."
Alex retweeted
Ofcom now wants every British adult to prove their age with photo ID, banking details, facial scans or digital ID just to use social media.
Protecting children is the pretence. A surveillance state is the result.
As a grown adult, I shouldn’t have to prove my age and identity to use the internet.
Tim Berners-Lee made it free for all to use!
The responses are overwhemingly negative but they are still ploughing through with it.
This is not about protecting children and it won't do that. It is about state surveillance and control. This will kill off online annoyminty and privacy.
Alex retweeted
"Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), warned [about] reinforcing the dangerous misconception that vaping is as harmful as smoking." <- I reckon the massive new vaping tax that ASH supported has already done that! 🤦♂️dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Alex retweeted
“If an experiment in private enterprise is unsuccessful, people lose money and they have to close it down. If an experiment in government is unsuccessful, it’s always expanded.”
Alex retweeted
We warned that a social media ban would force digital ID and biometric scans just to go online. Now Ofcom has confirmed it.
To prove you're over 16, Ofcom recommends methods like banking checks and facial age estimation.
All of this invasive infrastructure - and they STILL admit "the risk of circumvention cannot be entirely eliminated, and some children will succeed in bypassing age checks".
The death of online anonymity will come at the expense of a policy that doesn't even work.
Alex retweeted
Well said. The 2009 expenses scandal was mind altering for the median IQ citizen. The risk/reward @BovrilG describes is one of the reasons for our pitifully weak crop of parliamentarians.
Those in our legislatures should be learned, well remunerated, and ideally aristocratic degenerates with English blood flowing through them and the passions and good humour of this nation driving them. Obviously not what we have today.
Due in large part to the 2009 scandal, we ended up in a situation where only dullard middling office workers who (ideally) have done and said nothing in life may enter our sole elected lawmaking body. Various hysterias around acceptable speech and sex furthered this aim of creating weak, whippable, replaceable parliamentarians - recently created disciplinary bodies and vetting procedures to ensure only drones and charity workers may enter have merrily assisted. Accordingly, We now have the weakest parliament in our entire history.
I wrote about this phenomenon of legislative emasculation as part of my wider diagnostic essay “England Is Under Attack, From All Sides & Within”
Published here in @ReinersProject: reiners.org.uk/england-is-un…
And here in @mansworldmag_, the magazine of @Babygravy9: mansworldmag.online/england-…
The most catastrophic British political event of my lifetime was the Expenses Scandal of 2009, which ensured at a stroke that the Conservative Party (which had displayed some interest in serious reform of the State prior to that) would spend its next term in office shackled to a party that clearly loathed the idea of governing and was barely more intellectually coherent than it is now in its degraded Ed Davey Rubber Dinghy Rapids Era; that journalists would be able to snipe away at MPs indefinitely; and that the talent pool for MPs would diminish to people prepared to be paid £85k per annum in return for five years of tabloids publicising them claiming Yorkies on expenses. We lost a decade of politics to this.
I think Martin Lewis is a really good at being a consumer rights advocate and giving people advice in order to make better financal decisions. That doesn't mean that he should be brought in to shape government policy. Those are two very different things.
"I had a list of seven or eight things that I suggested to the Chancellor and I've been pretty gobsmacked that five of them were in the budget."
Martin Lewis, Founder of Money Saving Expert, reacts to Chancellor John Healey's first budget.
#Newsnight
Alex retweeted
Ofcom should be abolished and all of its staff sacked. It's difficult to understand how anyone could, in good conscience, work for such a vile censorship organisation. Perhaps some of them are quasi-Bolsheviks who think the state should tightly restrict freedom of speech.
Ofcom outlines ways social media can verify ages of users bbc.in/4zlKt2a
