Freelance #poet, educator, lecturer. Nine collections and four pamphlets. Knitter, maker of books. Former teacher of English/Drama. Remainer, Labour Party. ♿️
Cheshire, UK
Joined February 2010
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I have a series of three pamphlets from a collaborative project a while ago. I now need to clear some space. They were originally £6 each, but I'm selling them as a set, 3 for 2, £10 plus £2 post and packing. They are contemporary poems inspired by Shakespeare, Austen, Brontes.
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Angela retweeted
My latest article, on the new series of A House Through Time, staring tomorrow on BBC Two at 9m. Set in the amazing, beautiful, gothic city of Edinburgh.
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio…
Vest thing on Newsnight for years. Souped up podcast!
Loved this take down of @BBCNewsnight from @CountBinface
“A programme that used to be serious investigative journalism is just a souped up podcast”
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Angela retweeted
The more I dig, the more I realise that Nigel Farage is literally done for. It's over for him. The £5 million bung is big enough to take the entire Reform movement down and possibly land Nigel in jail.
1) The fact the donation was made BEFORE Nigel was MP is absolutely irrelevant. Parliamentary Code of Conduct requires all receipts for the full 12 months before election. Nigel receiving his bung just a few days before he announced his candidacy makes it so much worse, not better.
2) "Category 5: Gifts and benefits from sources outside the UK - THRESHOLD FOR REGISTRATION Section 39. Members must register, subject to the paragraphs below, any gifts or benefits with a value of over £300 which they receive from a source outside the UK."
Nigel argues this was 'purely personal' but the Code refers to partners or families when it comes to personal gifts... this takes us to the next issue...
3) Christopher Harborne has a long track record of making SUBSTANTIAL political contributions to Nigel's parties, first to The Brexit Party, and later to Reform. He is a POLITICAL DONOR - any "gift" he made to Farage CANNOT be argued as personal or without political context due to this track record.
4) Using his platform as an MP, Nigel went on to promote 2 companies in which Christopher Harborne holds $ billions in stock - Nigel NEVER publicly endorsed or mentioned these companies prior to the "gift". Nigel also began actively pushing for policy that would directly interest Christopher Harborne and his business affairs. These were not interests that any could argue could possibly be of interest to his constituents - deregulation of crypto, and lowering of taxes on crypto gains. Nigel spent a substantial amount of time and effort pushing these policies.
It is beyond a doubt that this is the biggest breach of Parliamentary Code of Conduct rules in relation to donations in parliamentary history.
But even more concerning for Nigel will be that if it can be proven he was secretly incentivised to use his public office to push for policies to support a wealthy donor, then he should very likely face a criminal probe for corruption and bribery. I suspect Harborne might also be exposed to this. The United Kingdom and Thailand have a bilateral extradition treaty. Maximum prison sentences of up to 10 years for the offence.
This is not going to go away.
Angela retweeted
Sally Nugent just did something almost nobody in British broadcast media has managed. She actually pressed Farage on the £5m from Christopher Harborne, and didn't let him wriggle off it.
His answers shifted as they went. It was for security. Then it was for cars. Then it was nobody's business. Then he questioned why it mattered at all. When Nugent kept pushing on how much he'd actually spent, he accused the BBC of putting him in danger by asking.
At one point he tried turning it back on her, asking what she does with her own salary. She didn't blink. "My salary is on the public record." His isn't, not the £5m anyway.
Then the line that mattered. He let slip that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards "may disagree" with him on the donation rules. That's not a denial. That's a man who knows which way this is going.
Farage has prior form here. The Commissioner already found he breached the rules once, failing to register 17 payments worth around £384,000 within the required 28 days. No action was taken that time, it was called an error. A second breach, on a £5m personal gift, is a different category of problem.
Three minutes and forty five seconds of someone actually doing the job. Worth the watch.
Angela retweeted
THE QUESTION THE PLOTTERS NEVER ANSWER
Keir Starmer rebuilt Labour from the ashes.
He took a party written off as unelectable and turned it into a government.
He won the mandate.
He inherited the problems.
Now, before the work is finished, some seem more interested in replacing the architect than completing the building.
That is the question nobody answers.
If Starmer is failing, where is the evidence?
If he is succeeding, why the hurry?
Politics is full of people who want the crown.
It is rarer to find those willing to carry it.
#Labour #KeirStarmer #UKPolitics
Angela retweeted
Well done @UKLabour on delivering.
The fascists have nothing to cry about now though.
Had a great idea for a children's book: Where's #Nigel. Scenes could include Clacton, the Houses of Parliament, Trump's America, Johnson's fridge, prison, Brussels where he lives. Instead of spiky hair and specs, a fag and a pint. #WheresWally
Angela retweeted
This week I’ve published two lists of things the Gov are doing/planning including this help for families. Labour are doing very well. We need to get this out to people.
I found this very moving.
Before I disappear for the weekend, I want to write this.
I am not a Labour member, and I do not believe in blindly following leaders. I refuse to act as if I am in love with a politician or to ignore their mistakes.
But I will tell you a story so you can fully understand the motives behind everything I do.
This poem, 'If' by Rudyard Kipling, holds a very deep, personal meaning for me. When my daughters left for university, I handwrote this entire text on a piece of cardboard with my own hand and pinned it to their wall. I wanted them to carry this message of resilience with them.
It perfectly mirrors my own path. I arrived in the UK at the age of 50 because my own country and its democracy were losing the battle. I was exhausted and broken by that fight.
Then I discovered this country and its people, but I also found a government that felt all too similar to the one back home, full of corruption and lies.
When the 2024 general election came, I told myself that I had to lend a hand to this country, which is now my new homeland. I joined the Labour Party, even though I am more of a Liberal at heart, just so I could volunteer. I wanted to knock on doors and ask people to support the manifesto.
In my country, we do not do that. Voters there are often part of the corruption, giving their vote to whoever promises them a job or money.
A friend asked me, 'Cherry, you cannot even vote in the general election, only in the local ones. Why are you helping them?'
Yes, because I have settled status, I only have the right to vote in local elections. But it did not matter. They deserved to be helped. For me, this was like stopping the government back home. Conservatives are exactly the same, they put the country on its knees, used it, chewed it up, and spat it out.
I believed Starmer could fix it. I trusted him.
So, I went out for days with Labour members and spoke to voters without an ounce of shame.
And then, the speech about 'the island of foreigners' happened.
It made me furious. I wrote an angry email and I left the party. I told myself I was more of a Liberal than Labour anyway. But I was angry, disappointed, and frightened.
I am a foreigner. Yet, I have paid my taxes all these years, I helped a daughter here who graduated as the top student of her generation, I volunteered for over a thousand hours, and I am trying to start my own business to give back to this country.
And then, Starmer apologised. He said he was wrong to have said it.
I forgave him because I knew the political forces pushing him in the election wanted him to say that about the island of foreigners. He realised it shortly after and apologised.
For me, Starmer distanced himself from the Blue Labour agenda at that moment. Those are the kind of leaders I respect. Leaders who are strong enough to say 'I made a mistake' and apologise. People of flesh and blood, just like I am.
So no, I am not blinded. I am not in love with him, and I am not frantically lobbying for him like a fanatic, which only does him harm anyway.
I am simply a voter who is applying for citizenship, waiting in fear of what the Home Office and Shabana Mahmood have decided, am I a 'Foreign or Citizen'? I am writing a book about this very theme.
If I get my citizenship, I will give my support to the Labour Party only if he is leading them.
Because I want a leader, a PM who can admit a mistake. A human being, and human beings make mistakes.
I want a man who represents everything the last three Prime Ministers were not, a decent British person.
This is my new homeland, he is my Prime Minister, and I am proud of that. I am here as a citizen in service to my new country and a decent Prime Minister.
I know I cannot vote if there is ever a leadership challenge in the party.
But today, I decided I will rejoin and send them this exact text in an email too.
I am doing it for the Prime Minister who brought decency back to us. 🇬🇧
Have a great weekend and bank holiday ❤️
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Angela retweeted
The Guardian: “Net migration down by three-quarters, the biggest fall in NHS waiting lists for 17 years, knife crime cut by 10%, the economy growing the fastest in the G7, rising wages, energy bills and petrol prices held down, the biggest sustained rise in defence spending since the cold war, a massive expansion of free childcare …
If Keir Starmer did tub-thumping lists of Labour’s achievements in the style of Gordon Brown, he would not actually have a shortage of things to talk about.”
During the two years of Labour government, following fourteen years of Tory mismanagement, there have actually been significant improvements in Britain. Why does the Tory media not report them?
Angela retweeted
I really wanted to show my support for @KeirStarmer so I joined the @UKLabour party, signed the @LabHoldtheline petition and sent a message directly to cabinet office. If you’re #TeamStarmer please let him know. Here’s the link I used contact.no10.gov.uk/
Angela retweeted
“I do not expect there to be a leadership challenge” Housing Secretary Steve Reed tells #BBCbreakfast
Angela retweeted
I will vote for Starmer again. Never Burnham (I don’t like chancers), Miliband has been there before and failed (albeit he is a very good minister), and Rayner, sadly, would never win a General Election. Wes Streeting is not even worth a mention.
This is all so unnecessary. It was a bad result in a midterm council election. So what?!
#StandWithStarmer
