Morning editor @katiecouric. Talk @papercutsshow. Words @CNN, iPaper, New European, etc. Autocorrect to American English. Happy to chat.
London, England
- Tweets 20,783
- Following 1,726
- Followers 4,952
- Likes 14,359
Pinned Tweet
Update: I got a distinction 🤓🤯
I just finished a graduate diploma in law at City University. In the last three weeks I’ve done seven 24-hour exams, in each of which I wrote 4,500 words of legal analysis. I finished each exam a few hours early to go to work, so it came to 31,500 words in less than six days.
45
3
259
Just boarded a 3-hour flight. A man in the queue ordered me to "sit down" v brusquely before moving further down the plane. The woman next to me asked what had happened. I replied "he was a bit rude." He has returned and is now sitting between us. He and the woman are married.
279
635
57,724
2,823,173
Who had "duck army" on 2020 bingo?
China may send 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to battle locust swarms. Pakistan has declared an emergency saying locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades. A single duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day, more effective than pesticides: expert
bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-ch…
220
6,768
30,713
Update: we were all scrupulously polite for the entire flight and are now ignoring each other on the shuffle bus
17
41
21,760
386,089
Been pretty concerned about Harvey in this heat, so I pulled down all the kitchen blinds, made him a bowl of ice, and redirected our most powerful fan to his fave cooling corner, and he immediately went outside to sunbathe.
200
423
21,511
445,716
An understated point re the puberty blocker discourse:
Puberty blockers are prescribed normally for kids who go through puberty early. They're available, for *cis* kids.
They've been deemed safe, for *cis* kids.
nhs.uk/conditions/early-or-d…
767
1,000
4,502
489,266
Two women just had sex in the Wetherspoons toilet cubicle next to mine, I declare this weekend officially open
49
46
1,670
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness, yet NHS provision for eating disorder sufferers is woeful - even when they are on the brink of death. Please, please - sign this & share it x
petition.parliament.uk/petit…
96
848
1,354
Beside himself with joy after yet another extraordinarily expensive trip to the vet
2
16
1,413
23,016
'Initial inquiries suggested the attack happened in Cator Park at around 8.30pm on Friday, “a time when the park was likely being used by many people from dog walkers to joggers”.'
I hope Sabina's death sparks the outrage it merits. Her poor family. theguardian.com/uk-news/2021…
25
508
1,293
Really pro the government's lockdown measures, really freaked out by the speed & ease with which police forces are exaggerating the limits on freedoms & acting beyond their brief & official powers.
31
201
1,064
The average (& median) salary is higher in America talentup.io/blog/salary-comp….
25
2
1,045
96,248
I love this. Live feeds connecting two cities, strangers communicating without words. Now imagining ocean portals, rainforest portals, mountaintop portals... bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-euro…
10
152
797
I wrote 99% of this days ago, & things feel even harder & darker now.
Changing women's behaviour cannot be the solution to a problem that overwhelmingly starts with men.
edition.cnn.com/2021/03/12/o…
44
138
717
Thinking about things I believed as a kid would feature more significantly in my adult life — toxic shock syndrome & acid rain are strong contenders, any more for any more?
248
17
647
218,999
I spoke to Senayt & Chris, who've experienced the horror of what's going on in Ethiopia firsthand, for @katiecouric. Senayt, 26, hasn't been able to speak to her family in Tigray for months. Her brother, sister-in-law, & their baby have been arrested. katiecouric.com/news/ethiopi…
35
478
462
Today's fifty and sixty-year-olds turned 18 in the eighties and nineties, a time of Madonna and Depeche Mode, Twin Peaks and bumbags. The Tories' determination to curate an experience for today's youth that bears no resemblance to their own is so wild.
32
36
473
38,188
Hijacking the welcome news that Emile Ratelband's request to legally change his age has been rejected to re-up my piece about his rank comparison with trans people. edition.cnn.com/2018/11/15/o…
60
108
488
Imagine the @metpoliceuk response if this was done by any other demographic on any other occasion.
Bottles thrown as Leicester Square, London, becomes unofficial ‘fan zone’ for thousands of England fans. #ENGITA #EnglandvsItaly #England #ENG #EURO2020
21
101
478
I don't understand how 23-year-olds go into consulting & have a single thing to say. I'm sure lots of them are very smart & useful, but how?
(really though if someone knows, please tell me before I lose the whole weekend to this)
65
12
483
181,965
Just got ID-d buying mincemeat.
Them: ID please
Me: I don't have it on me, I'm 32
Them: Can you prove that
Me: I'm buying mincemeat
15
12
485
you mean like a........ sail
Giant kites could pull cargo ships across the ocean – and slash their carbon emissions cnn.it/3NV8ec3
4
59
467
81,124
1. He said he'd never met her.
2. She was a child.
3. How is this relevant to the question of whether he abused her?
Prince Andrew has sought to turn the tables on Virginia Giuffre by claiming that in fact she was involved in the “wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse” thetimes.co.uk/article/princ…
7
63
366
Why be merely uncomfortable when you can also be in mortal danger
Why camp by a river when you can camp on one? nitter.app/mashable/status/116273…
9
23
355
I just received an email from a man who told me that he disagreed with my stance on Julian Assange, explained point by point why I was wrong, & signed off "hang in there."
Not only have I never written on Assange, the piece he was referring to was written by a literal man.
15
19
300
Because MPs shouldn't just be independently rich hobbyists with multiple other jobs.
“If that money isn’t good enough for a firefighter or nurse, why is good enough for an MP?”
Newly-elected Labour MP @NadiaWhittome is donating half her salary to community causes
She rejects it's “virtue signalling”
bbc.in/2Mc2WIL
13
42
313
What if there is a point to university besides getting a job at the end, though?
The number of degrees that are *actually* useful in terms of doing jobs later is so limited. & even in those cases where a relevant degree is essential (eg law), theory is so different to practice.
Too many students are being sold a university education that won't get them a decent job at the end of it.
So I'm cracking down on rip-off degrees and boosting apprenticeships to ensure students get the best deal possible.
Widening access. Boosting jobs. Growing the economy.
8
27
288
33,247
CDC Report: Dining out is one of the riskiest possible activities you can do during the pandemic. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/m…
14
163
285
Calories have been available on almost all the food we buy for years & it's not made us thinner, being thinner doesn't equal being healthier anyway, calorie counting is associated with EDs, perhaps putting calories on stuff isn't the magical sticking plaster it's cracked up to be
8
36
285
63,192
This is the best sort of everybody wins marketing & I look forward to subsidising this decision heavily.
M&S to give staff 15 per cent pay rise for hard work during pandemic bit.ly/3bJfstw
2
21
288
I have banged on about this before, so apologies, but getting beaten up in broad daylight on a street close to two hospitals with cameras all around & multiple witnesses, only to have the police close the case due to "insufficient evidence" days later, pretty much did it for me.
“Nobody is quite sure why Londoners can’t rely on the police anymore” - we watched @edcumming stolen laptop travel to Algiers and @metpoliceuk gaslighting @faisalislam about his stolen bike for starters
4
27
280
Keen to hear more about how homosexuality stopped being illegal in England, can only assume it happened spontaneously against a backdrop of an ambivalent public.
3
5
241
I may well have missed something, but as far as I know, Wes Streeting hasn't publicly addressed this inconsistency. So either he's unaware (bad) or is aware and just not going there (bad).
81
6
201
22,659
Ever feel tempted, when you’ve been talking to someone over the course of days/weeks & they’re yet to ask a single actual q about you or how you are, to just throw an absurd, false piece of life news out there, like “gotta dash, sub’s about to go down & I’m on periscope duty”
7
20
197
When are we finally going to admit that panettone isn't good? It is dry puffy bread with sultanas in.
54
1
209
Also, telling women to stay inside on the assumption that that's safe is a bit rich when the vast majority of domestic violence is committed by men towards women. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49459674
7
36
188
Also for that to be your priority angle, as opposed to "really sorry to hear how devastatingly awful the last few years have clearly been for you"
3
39
185
It all brought up so much for me that I’ll spare you now. I am so so glad that I went back to university. It’s been amazing. I am so tired. I can’t wait to catch up with those of you who would like to, now that I am finally (kind of?!) free.
31
2
175
Pret shoots to the top of the list of places we should patronise like crazy when this is over.
4
48
191
I already have a favourite story today, & it's gonna take some shifting. huffpost.com/entry/belgians-…
7
41
188
"A Metropolitan police officer has been revealed as a serial rapist who committed more than 40 attacks, despite the force being told of repeated allegations over two decades that he was a threat to women."
The second half of that sentence though. theguardian.com/uk-news/2023…
6
61
161
37,773
Absolutely love the valley girliness of Trump's post-surrender interview:
“In my whole life I didn’t know anything about indictments, and now I’ve been indicted like four times.”
edition.cnn.com/2023/08/24/p…
10
21
163
33,775
The Polish people queueing at the Ukrainian border with offers of free transport and shelter for refugees are putting a lot of politicians around the world to shame.
32
156
Women don't need to be more aware of their surroundings. We are aware. Men need to stop attacking women. #SabinaNessa bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lo…
4
47
154
*So* illuminating that people are replying to this as though it's mad, when women are regularly reprimanded for going out alone at night, as though *they're* doing something wrong. Why should women pay the price because men are so much more likely than they are to attack people?
11
6
150
Wrote a personal thing -
Two years ago, a man beat me up in the street, in daylight. He smashed my face. There were witnesses & cameras. Days later, I got a letter saying the case was closed, citing “insufficient evidence.” I think about it every day now. huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/c…
17
36
148
God it's just so rank that the Ghey's should have to spend any of their precious energy dealing with this.
🚨 BREAK: Brianna Ghey's father has told Sky News that Rishi Sunak should apologise for his "degrading comments".
Peter Spooner said the PM's comments in parliament were "absolutely dehumanising".
More here: news.sky.com/story/politics-…
3
15
144
7,530
On side effects:
- Many medical interventions have them. They are weighed against the risk of non-intervention, which in the case of trans kids, can be v high
- It is odd to assume disinterest re side effects on the part of the community with the highest stake in the medication
28
5
141
22,123
I know we're all meant to eye roll at YouTubers, but I'ma come out & declare: @IISuperwomanII is smart piped.video/watch?v=MjnUxdHn… (& piped.video/watch?v=eTUMXeRw…)
3
21
161
Would be good if we could stop framing having illnesses as fighting battles and recovering from them as moral victories.
4
17
133
Heartening to see so many awful men express their very public support for the Lionesses, can only assume this means they've totally changed their actual attitude & behaviour toward women for good <3
2
8
134
Would love to see "I'm a father of daughters" replaced with "I'm a father of sons, better check they're not creeps."
4
9
123
"Hi, yes, I'm expecting a violent crash with a cyclist at about 5pm, do you have availability early evening?"
Patients will have to book slots in A&E by calling ahead first, ministers confirm independent.co.uk/news/healt…
7
16
125
Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty on five out of six counts. Prosecutors say Epstein could not have sexually abused girls as young as 14 without Maxwell serving as his “lady of the house.”
This is so important for everyone who was cheated by Epstein's death.
BREAKING: Jurors say they have reached a verdict in the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. The British socialite is charged with recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein. apne.ws/gBllH61
3
35
131
Last week Berlin decided that everyone, irrespective of gender, could swim in its pools topless, because it was the fairest way of doing things.
Such straightforward logic implies a straightforward issue. Yet America keeps tying itself in knots over it.
edition.cnn.com/2023/03/16/o…
12
24
106
31,550
Ffs has a single person understood the baby swap bit at the beginning of Good Omens, I am at the same point in both book & TV show & honestly I am still nodding along like 22yo me pretending to understand what PAYE meant
17
5
126
Waking up early (as long as you don't cripple yourself with the pressure of waking up early). I've heard second-hand rehab advice along the lines of "get up before your addiction" & I think it can be useful in a similar way - beat anxiety to the day x
5
1
120
12,916
This is devastating. There's so much chat about destigmatising mental illness. But what good is telling people it's "OK to talk," when they are also in desperate need of medical help. Nikki only recently went into hospital (again) because friends raised money for a private clinic
2
41
120
I just finished a graduate diploma in law at City University. In the last three weeks I’ve done seven 24-hour exams, in each of which I wrote 4,500 words of legal analysis. I finished each exam a few hours early to go to work, so it came to 31,500 words in less than six days.
5
2
122
Dance like you're the only person in the country for whom life is about to get more relaxing.
18
121
Genuinely true: I once went into work not wearing blusher, which is almost the only makeup I normally wear, & I was sent home ill. When I protested that I felt ok, my boss told me I looked dreadful & not to be a “martyr”
8
9
116
I fell in love with Agnes the moment I met her. I'd promised myself I'd never fall headlong in friend love again, because it'd be too heartbreaking if it went wrong. But she was irresistible. As soon as I knew her, I couldn't imagine life without her. She was too wonderful.
Agnes Mary Frimston, the love of my life, died Friday night aged just 35. We don't yet know why. She was the kindest, funniest, most beautiful and all round best person I have ever known, and she was adored by pretty much everyone who ever met her. I loved her so, so much.
4
5
111
77,261
My point is basically that the onus should be on men, not women, to reduce violence by men towards women.
18
4
97
If you are having a hard time at the moment ("if"), I can really recommend catching the sunrise as often as possible.
7
11
106
My face was smashed inside out by a man on a residential street at 3pm. I was at hospital the rest of the day being checked for brain bleeds & brain damage. The swelling was so bad initially that they couldn't tell whether I'd need reconstructive surgery. The police did nothing.
6
15
104
Bf woke up a few hours later than me today, so by the time we said hi I'd worked out, showered, got cracking on work, was feeling pretty boss.
Upon seeing me fully dressed, he, jumped to the most obv assumption: "Did you sleep in your clothes?"
1
2
113
Just left the puppy alone in the flat for the longest time yet & when I got back he just quietly walked over to me, sat down, & leaned his head into my stomach face-down. Now he's going about his usual business, but with one paw on my foot.
Anyway I'm never going out again.
7
3
97
Strong "UK anti-lockdown protests in July 2021" vibes.
A small protest has gathered outside Parliament in protest of the Afghan war.
The protesters are joined by Jeremy Corbyn, who has long been an ally of the Stop the War Coalition
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
97
24
113
If an issue you have with the Tories is that they are callous & lack empathy, now probably isn't the time to exhibit those exact qualities.
2
13
103
I've had family die, dear friends completely debilitated for months or permenantly disabled, & I have seriously ill loved ones unable to access proper care who have become significantly more unwell as a result, so yeah good for you Allison, glad it's passed you by.
I’ve asked so many people if they know anyone who has had Covid.
Hardly anyone.
Two people knew someone (not close) who’d died.
Without daily news would we even know there was an epidemic?
8
10
98
*So* many articles about Olivia Newton-John's death describe her "battle" with cancer. One of the defining characteristics of her approach to her illness was her rejection of the "battle" narrative — which she was extremely public about. The RIP article churn is so impersonal.
2
18
88
Keep having more thoughts about Halftime, the latest being: I want to see Shakira's documentary
1
9
93
