Journalist (Social commentator of 2018). FT (mainly education, politics). #bbctw sofa veteran. Recovering from breast cancer treatment: check your boobs!
London
- Tweets 40,788
- Following 2,914
- Followers 23,094
- Likes 47,584
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Ok I have caved in and migrated you can find me at greenmirandahere.bsky.social ... checking in here for a while too for the sake of all the great friends and sparring partners I've made down these crazy years. Sniff.
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As I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with several wives and an undisclosed number of children
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My 90 year old mum was turned away at the polling station. She had the right photo ID but no polling card. YOU DO NOT NEED A POLLING CARD TO VOTE. Have reported it and an inspector is on their way but am absolutely beside myself. Confusion reigns.
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Hello. Delighted to say I am happily recovering from a mastectomy earlier in the week after an anxious few months (a tumour was found in one boob in March). Please remember to get any breast changes checked. It's no bloody joke. Catch it early. Love to all who have been so kind X
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Coming up to a year since I went to the GP with a weird thick bit making my right breast uncomfortable. 12 months on, I have less hair but no tumour, and a lot of clever drugs in my system looking for stragglers to zap. Get checked people, the science is ace #WorldCancerDay
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I think when I die Barry Gardiner will still be on the telly talking about Labour's perfectly clear Brexit position.
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Got jabbed this morning by a lovely dentist on her day off wearing hot pink scrubs and matching specs. She said she probably wld get the AZ into 60 of us today in her booth alone (community hall divided up). I blubbed like a fool as the sun streamed in. Up the vaxxers!
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Bugger off Boris we print what we find out. Our job at the @FT is to report not to wave a bloody flag
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Just about enough hair for a post-chemo trim this morning. Red letter day. I look a bit unconvinced ...
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Well, the day after the last March budget I was diagnosed. And tomorrow is my final blast of daily radiotherapy. Quite a year (for everyone). Still waiting for the calm, wisdom and insight to arrive. Very grateful for all the support. Twitter has been good company 🙏
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Well, she had the guts to turn up, for a start. And to apologise, which is more than you can say for some *pursed lips*
Good on both @afneil and @joswinson
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It's not Khan it's the government needlessly introducing new Voter ID rules so everyone is confused. Nothing to do with the incumbent mayor.
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My mum not too well today. NHS and ambulance service being amazing. To cheer myself up I need to post this picture of her having breakfast with the Beatles.
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Dear BBC, if you axe @Jo_Coburn and @afneil on Politics Live, putting the politicians under scrutiny daily, in an era when news and politics has speeded up and the country faces multiple crises, you are really going to make a lot of people wonder whether you have lost your minds.
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Saying John Major should pipe down when he was making a point about the importance of dissent in a democracy kinda makes his point for him.
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celebrated feeling a bit better today after my first chemo by watching @Jo_Coburn analyse PMQs and having some Heinz tomato soup - yum. Check your breasts ladies, call the GP, go for a scan, don't put it off if you feel something weird #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth @BreastCancerNow
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Sunday is too late for a clear line from the PM. This is now a mess.
There are too many mixed messages.
Now the PM's spokesman is playing down the headlines millions have seen today about the lockdown being eased.
Discipline is breaking down - we need to see the PM, not Raab, at the briefing today and he needs to be straight with the public.
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As Momentum lays into an excellent Labour MP, her Conservative challenger tells them where to get off ... Loud applause ...
I was the @Conservatives candidate for Leeds West, I spent five weeks knocking on doors and was repeated told how much @RachelReevesMP did for the area.
Your views are inaccurate and ignorant and your abuse and vile anti-semitism has no place in politics or society as a whole.
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My first chemo has been postponed from tomorrow to next week because I have had the not-Covid back-to-school bug all week. Feels like having a note to get let off a PE lesson.
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Could the Labour party possibly not just shut up about itself for a bit? I know it's my own fault for looking at twitter at the end of a loooooong weekend but really.
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2 years ago in the morning I had a radical life-saving operation. Now I'm on the Eurostar drinking pink wine from a can after a lovely holiday with friends and family. Tomorrow brings a day at work with its ordinary pains and pleasures. Life eh? A dream between two myateries.
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So many things have gone wrong recently but I have never for a moment regretted buying this insane coat. It wards off gremlins of all sorts. Here endeth the lesson.
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Brilliant Leicester GP on WATO today on how they phoned up all the people in priority groups who had not taken up jab offer. Persuaded the vast majority. Not conspiracy theories, individual worries eg about pre existing conditions, that cld be discussed and laid to rest. Bravo!
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Just heard that not only was my Dad (dementia, stroke, housebound) vaccinated today by district nurse, the amazing chemo nurses have also been jabbed this week *dances around with IV drip as partner*💃🍾👍💉
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Quite pleased with this from Hats 4 Heads of Warrington. Thinking of those Wendy Cope Strugnell haikus: The leaves have fallen/ ... Soon my hair also. #supportlocal #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth
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1 year ago today I had a 9 hour operation to 66 one boob and replace it with tummy fat. Still here to get on everyone's nerves including my own. Should feel good but am panicky again remembering. Got in between the 2 Covid waves. Was lucky. But the anxiety follows me everywhere.
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Charming and truthful
#Marr: Is Sir Keir Starmer going to be a better Labour leader than you?
Ed Miliband: "Definitely. We've seen that already"
bbc.in/3g3dAhx
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... 2/2 just to extend the public health messaging. I didn't have an obvious lump, just an area that felt thicker, which was a diffuse lobular cancer. So do bear in mind that it's not only "look for lumps".
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😱I can tell you from doing 8 years of Andrew Neil's programmes, his political coverage is a genuine Heineken product, reaching parts of the electorate that other shows don't, and the Tory party thinks writing off those people is a good idea/respectable? @afneil @RobBurl ?
Johnson confirms he is rejecting Neil interview
Senior Con source: “The public are fed up with interviews that are all about the interviewer and endless interruptions. The format is tired and broken and needs to change if it is to start engaging and informing the public again.”
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Short hair takes a lot of getting used to and demands make up. Also: sunburnt neck and shoulders just walking about yesterday. (As always lipstick = morale boost. Nice to have some eyelashes again.) Don't forget your sunscreen peeps.
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So proud of my Mum who tells me she went to bed last night to watch a movie with the mini bottle of champagne we gave her for Christmas and some smoked salmon on toast - if I make it to 88 I'm doing that too. On second thoughts if I make it to 60 I'm doing it.
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At hospital. Everyone has a mask on except inevitably a few young men. Big signs everywhere saying 'thank you for wearing a mask' . Free fresh masks available at reception and at every kiosk. You came to a hospital with vulnerable people here and didn't think about this?
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Bizarre that the same PM speaks in hushed tones of of Holocaust Memorial Day then 15 mins later dismisses 'a bunch of migrants'.
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people complaining about bias against their party - just look how tough this audience are on everyone and give a bloody great cheer for democracy and for the BBC - you want your leader to just speak in a sympathetic bubble? find another line of work
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Irrepressible Paddy. Un homme serieux with a highly developed sense of the ridiculous. Never a dull moment. I somehow thought we would be arguing happily about politics over a cup of tea or a glass of wine till the end of time.
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Hi there Jolyon. Maybe for just a few mins you cld reflect on what women are telling you of our memories of a difficult, vulnerable stage/aspect of being a young girl, our concern for girls now, and really try to take in what we are saying.
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The malevolent animating spirit of 2020 is strong this morning as half my hair comes out in my hands while I sit here and listening to the pandemic latest.
Shuffle out into the sunshine if you can folks. That's my plan.
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Thank you very much to the schools for keeping the show on the road this half term. It's been incredible the level of normality and positivity this has given families. Special prize for those who have managed to give them hot lunches.
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Sturgeon is extraordinarily good at this. May and co have really taken their eye off the ball. Historic, avoidable mess up.
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Even I might need a haircut soon ... would prefer it outside however, ventilation seems like a big problem in salons. Hair stalls in the park? Cutting chairs on the kerb like a cafe? "Hair in the Air"?
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It's actually too awful thinking about the helpless terror of May 2020, my cancer diagnosis was March but no surgery (not even any scans until well into June). No idea if/when hospitals were going to be able to operate again. Will spend my day avoiding this topic as will many.
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Press officers who answer the phone and discuss your request then tell you to PUT IT ALL IN AN EMAIL.
It is enraging and makes everyone's job take twice as long can we get up a petition I have just lost my cool
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The phrase 'protest votes' is revealingly patronising. Implies that eg Labour owns their voters and, like a pet that poos in the sitting room, their actions are all about the relationship with the owner. If electorate are choosing someone else, get better. They owe you nothing.
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I actually looked for this to watch all over again because I needed a bit of a lift. Totally delivered. Hi! Hi! GOOD MORNING!
My 3-year-old nephew is the friendliest toddler you'd ever wish to meet, and always says hello to all the people he walks past.
On his daily walk today, though, he had to pretend... 🤣
Hope this brightens up your day!
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Cancer, Covid and me: a tale of blind terror, overrun hospitals, steroid highs and frozen lasagna - I'm getting over it but how with the UK health system recover? And how will it improve our survival rates? ft.com/content/1fafc4f0-2145…
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LOOK AWAY NOW. Niche tweet alert for others undergoing #chemo. Am ELATED to find that although quite bald and still with 5 weeks of treatments to go I have a bit of hair growing back!!! So the cold cap is truly horrible and didn't work against AC but hang in there Taxol chums
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Both sets of grandparents now contacted by NHS offering Covid jabs. Hooray! To me it just seems madness for any of us to even consider mixing with the elderly or ill over Christmas before they get the vaccine and are protected. With luck it's a matter of days.🤞🎄
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Just realised today is 3 years on from my terrifying, life saving operation. Tearful but also a bit high on it. "Fuck cancer" as people so rightly say. Science is coming for you, you stupid bastard. Not everyone has made it to celebrate with me hence the slightly volatile tweet.
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I could watch this all the livelong day and I might just do that ...
#OTD 1985. In Bournemouth, Neil Kinnock attacks the Militant Tendency after 31,000 redundancy notices are issued to public sector workers in Liverpool.
"I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises"
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Grim. As she says plse don't just talk to your daughters about this, talk to your SONS 👇
Spoke to 2 teenage girls today about sending nude pics to boys.
The boys have pressured them by telling them ‘everyone else does it’ and that if they didn’t they ‘would tell everyone they’re frigid’
Photos sent - boys have shown them to all their mates.
Girls devastated.
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Extremely poor to tell cabinet ministers they must not take part in public debate over assisted dying. And while signalling the PM is in favour. Not a govt "neutral position" at all. It adds up to a fair wind for a proposition that should have extreme high bar to pass
Quite a moment
Assisted dying gets a step closer
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater announces private members bill that will give terminally ill a choice to end their life
Sir Keir Starmer has agreed to set aside collective responsibility for the bill, meaning that ministers and MPs can vote in any way they wish
Simon Case, the cabinet minister, has written to ministers to confirm that they can vote 'however they wish'
But says that they cannot Tweet about it or take part in public debate because the government's official position is neutral
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I would like to suggest a New Year's resolution for others (cheeky maybe) - come on here for a chat using your name and face and not hiding behind weird online identities - then it really is a conversation and we cld all be more polite to each other.
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Just took some flowers to Ladbroke Grove fire station to show our appreciation for their bravery and service to the local community. Delighted to hear we weren't the first.
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Don't Look Up is almost as good as Vice and the performances are sensational.
Mark Rylance as the tech loon particularly great. And Cate Blanchett and her gleaming teeth. His teeth too.
Fucking depressing obvs and barely satire in places.
Here endeth the review.
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IMHO being rude about people who get their home furnishings at John Lewis* is as politically dangerous as the £ funding sleaze. Bloody insulting but in the same Tory tradition as slagging off Hezza as an arriviste who "had to buy his own furniture".
*we should all be so lucky
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Genuine good joke just now the wireless.
If Musk was involved in a scandal it would have to be called Elongate
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20 years is a long time in politics - I found this photo of me with my then boss and good friend Paddy in 99 (pic by John Voos of the Indy). My memories of the irrepressible Paddy for the FT: ft.com/content/e4fbbbec-062b…
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So this evening I was trying to get my newly-6-year-old to finish her fish fingers, she wasn't listening, I said "I give up" and she said: "Mummy you've got to be resilient" then went back to ignoring me. #Sundaynight #winning
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My dad used to work with this photographer and they were longterm friends. An incredible shot.
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Discussing my wig choices with the 2 daughters and we all agreed I am a fool not to have gone for a Marge Simpson. What a wasted opportunity.
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I like to set my alarm for 5am just to get a jump on eating enough biscuits to hit my targets for the day
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Golly, some of the Lab reactions to Jess Phillips dropping out are pretty unedifying. How small a circle exactly do you want for your wagons?
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Blisteringly hard few days dealing with my elderly mum's difficulties. Trying to fix health/financial/housing/care problems of someone you love who isn't coping ... its overwhelming. Dealing with my own cancer was actually less awful than my parents' successive health/age crises
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Ep 1 of Blair-Brown doc so good I hardly slept that night. Just watched ep 2, feel totally back in 1998 (a great year of my life, working in politics): might be better to binge the rest than return to our current benighted era. So hard to recreate an atmosphere but this prog did
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Happy anniversary to my Mum and Dad who are 61 years married today. The church was knocked down but they are still here taking care of each other. X
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Totally agree - it is callous and also daft considering the characteristics of this disease to shrug off the danger to the elderly, lung patients, diabetics, those with compromised immune systems - that's a lot of people who we care about
I understand why it is happening but I hate the way everyone keeps stressing the underlying conditions in coronavirus deaths as if somehow that means they don’t mater
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Amazing letter by former classmate of Theresa May. In Gdn in July. Posted to me by my mum. Thanks mum.
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One might say it was shocking but it corresponds to a pattern of behaviour in which Johnson’s government acts to curb the powers of any independent body which troubles it, be it the Electoral Commission, the Supreme Court or the BBC. By @robertshrimsley ft.com/content/859a0859-5635…
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The veg box was half inched from outside the front door this morning and I feel like I've been given a week's holiday
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OK Mum has had jab one and is now back home having a cup of tea. "They were all very nice". Next one in 3 weeks. Bit of a wait for housebound/bedbound Dad: end of Jan? Oxford vaccine for people at home possibly, or so they said. Easier logistics. Good luck everyone 💉👍🙏
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Had another trim. Trying to peer at the back where we might get a very short bob in a few months says the excellent Justin at 53am on Golborne Road. So happy to see his business emerging from the Covid shadow. #chemo #recovery and also #slowprocess in so many ways
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I turned 54 yesterday and am bloody lucky to be here. Having a ball, very fortunate in every other way. But the fear is always there lurking and the scans are fallible. Hope this proves as good as it sounds. And as always GO SCIENCE!
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Breast cancer referrals down 43 %. No reply from govt to letter from Cancer Research UK. I am lucky because I eventually got my surgery (and drugs in the interim that proved effective😬). But what is going on? Ministerial no show on @BBCr4today yesterday with @MaggiesCentres
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8 year old, a propos of absolutely nothing:
It's a really bad time to be a serial killer because you'd have to think of loads of ways of killing people from two metres away
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It's a political choice not to deal with Britain's homelessness crisis, writes Louise Casey for the @ft - here's her message to the new govt. Hope it gets through. Shames us all. ft.com/content/9a48a04e-2315…
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Update: we were offered the chance by the council electiral srrvices dept to drive her back there and try again as she should not have been turned away but by the time I got there tonight it was a bridge too far. No more arsehole replies plse this has been a bad day.
My 90 year old mum was turned away at the polling station. She had the right photo ID but no polling card. YOU DO NOT NEED A POLLING CARD TO VOTE. Have reported it and an inspector is on their way but am absolutely beside myself. Confusion reigns.
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In the attempt to find movies that two 50 year olds, an 11 year old and an 8 year old will all enjoy, we have just successfully done A Fish Called Wanda and Crocodile Dundee, both of which turned out to still be great. Other suggestions welcome.
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Well, my Dad's dementia has got a lot worse recently. Just took my mum's hairdresser (retired) to give her (88 this year) a cut and style, and it cheered her up no end. But my God, the mental strength you need to look after a partner with this awful disease.
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My God the news is so bleak. But feeling glum and scared this perked me up. Keep fighting, he says. Hang in there. OK!
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My proposal is simple. Everyone saying a 5 at GCSE maths should be a requirement now has to sit the exam and secure the grade or forfeit their subsequent career/£/assets and be stripped of their degree.
Full disclosure: I managed to get a C in my O level. Would not get a GCSE 5.
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Should have known that "feta crumb" meant a pathetic amount of cheese in this supermarket salad. But I realised too late ... it was a FETACCOMPLI
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