Blackbird retweeted
Nope, it's not April 1st. This is really the nonsense our government is spending their time - and our money - doing. 🤦🏻♀️
Blackbird retweeted
How about apologising for your family's role in communism - the most evil ideology on the planet?
Blackbird retweeted
Dear @andyburnham
I do not need an apology for slavery or reparations. Nobody should apologise for the sins of their ancestors.
I would like an apology for the present list of lies, broken promises, immigration betrayals and why I'm paying more in tax without any improvements.
Blackbird retweeted
Once again Caribbean and African countries have got their begging bowls out, demanding that Britain pays them 'Reparations'- If you don’t know what 'Reparations' are, it means people who have never been slaves, experienced slavery, or been in any way adversely affected by slavery, demanding financial compensation for slavery, from people who have never owned slaves, benefited from slavery, or been in any way involved in any kind of slavery...
Blackbird retweeted
For a while, before it was centralised I was an OST instructor for my branch. I did the cadre (my last beasting ever), did the instructor training, did the regular continuation training. Got the T-Shirt (red! - as was), certificates on the wall the lot.
Repeatedly stabbing a child with the steel loop of a quickcuff is a technique that was never taught. That's not to say that there aren't occasions where it might be reasonable, but a small child sat on the floor? No.
No matter what he'd done to deserve arrest, if I was the child's father I'd be looking to have a conversation with that officer, he's a fucking disgrace.
Not my video, a copy of a copy, happy to acknowledge the OP).
Blackbird retweeted
You are becoming more insufferable than Gary Lineker. Now off you pop love to your next luxury holiday and give the virtue signalling a rest for a bit.
Having just left Elmina Castle in Ghana, where enslaved Africans were imprisoned before being shipped across the Atlantic, I think Europeans should never tire of acknowledging the horrors of our shared history and asking forgiveness from our African friends.
Britain played its own shameful part in that history.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Elmina Castle was built by the Portuguese in 1482, seized by the Dutch in 1637 and acquired by Britain only in 1872—after Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807. Africans captured in wars and raids supplied most enslaved people sold to Europeans at such coastal forts.
britannica.com/place/Elmina-C…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmina_Ca…
britannica.com/topic/transatl…
rmg.co.uk/stories/mariti…
Blackbird retweeted
Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.
If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?
On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.
There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again.
This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.
Blackbird retweeted
Rachel Reeves says that "Britain’s future is in the EU."
If the most out of depth, economically illiterate, treacherous and by far the worst Chancellor of my lifetime is saying this, then Britain’s future is best staying out of the EU.
Blackbird retweeted
Someone please remind Rachel Reeves that rejoining EU would cost UK 1.5 times her last budget ON TOP! It would now be £35bn a year. How on earth would we find such extra spending? And what about having to join Euro - requirement of any new member? Mention these and support for Rejoin collapses bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62l…
Blackbird retweeted
As a gay man, I'll say what a lot of us are thinking.
We fought to be left alone. To marry the man we love, keep our jobs, and live a quiet life.
We won.
Then woke activists took our letters, stapled on a dozen causes we never signed up for, and started calling us bigots for saying sex is real.
That isn't our movement anymore.
Blackbird retweeted
Children in the East End of London 1890. I’m four generations from these children. They could be my family.
I’m not ever going to feel guilty or more importantly pay money for something that has nothing to do with anyone ever in my family because someone else goes on an archeological dig to find some race baiting grievance.
Blackbird retweeted
Elmina Castle in Ghana was built by the Portuguese in 1482, captured by the Dutch in 1637 and only acquired by Britain in 1872, some 65 years AFTER Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807.
The castle's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade occurred under Portuguese and Dutch control, NOT British.
Many enslaved Africans were supplied through African trading networks, including captives taken in wars and raids. European merchants purchased them from AFRICAN traders and intermediaries. The Ghana people sold their African brothers and sisters into slavery....
Historical accuracy matters. The transatlantic slave trade involved both European buyers and African suppliers, a distinction too often overlooked in today's debate.
Blackbird 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.
Blackbird retweeted
Bridget - we are far beyond Liz Truss territory now.
Maybe you and your Labour comrades would like to apologise to this young Northern business owner?
You and your government and doing great damage to the UK.
Shameful.
@andyburnham
@JohnHealey_MP
@jreynoldsMP
@TorstenBell
Blackbird retweeted
We are worse off now than after the mini budget, you've done more damage to our economy than Truss ever did, stop gaslighting people.
Blackbird retweeted
John Cleese paid his third wife $20 million when they divorced. They had no children together.
The payout left her richer than him. At 70, he had to go back on the road on what he called “The Alimony Tour.”
They married in 1992. There was no prenup. Every hit that made him famous was written decades before they ever met.
During their 16-year marriage, Cleese even paid to put her two sons from an earlier marriage through private school and college.
In 2008, Alyce Faye Eichelberger filed for divorce in California. She asked for half of everything he had earned since 1992, plus $125,000 a month.
The judge gave her $13 million in cash and real estate, including a New York apartment, a London flat, and half of his Santa Barbara beach house. Then he added $1 million a year for seven years.
Cleese had to sell his own homes just to wire her the cash.
About the payout, he said: “Think what I’d have had to pay Alyce if she had contributed anything to the relationship, such as children, or a conversation.”
In the video below, Cleese walks out on stage and tells the crowd why he’s still working at 71: “I call it The Alimony Tour Year 3, or Feeding the Beast.”
The case for Alyce: 16 years is a long marriage, and California splits marital wealth 50/50 when there’s no prenup.
The case for John: handing $20 million from a childless marriage to a spouse who didn’t help build the fortune is legalized robbery.
Do the math. Sixteen years of marriage. No kids. $1.25 million for every year.
Should a childless divorce ever cost $20 million, or is that the price of skipping a prenup?
