https://m.facebook.com/groups/1958583951263979/permalink/2473332119789157/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In 1970, a 23-year-old physics student at Imperial College London was deep into his doctoral research on cosmic dust when he faced an impossible choice.

Brian May, a budding astrophysicist, had been studying the zodiacal dust cloud—tiny particles scattered throughout the solar system that reflect sunlight. His research was progressing, and he was on track to complete his PhD. But he also had another passion: music.



May was the guitarist for Queen, a band that was beginning to gain serious attention. They had just signed a record deal, and tours were on the horizon. The opportunity was immediate and couldn't be ignored. Standing at a crossroads, May made a life-changing decision: he chose the guitar over the telescope.



Queen's rise to fame was swift. By the mid-1970s, the band was a global sensation. Songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You" became anthems, and May's distinctive guitar tone—created with his homemade instrument, the Red Special—became iconic. Albums sold millions, and stadiums filled with fans. But May's academic work was left unfinished. His thesis remained incomplete, and his research was put on hold.



However, Brian May never lost his love for science. Even as Queen dominated the rock world, May kept up with developments in astrophysics. He continued reading journals, attending lectures when he could, and staying connected to the academic community. His thesis advisor, Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson, had told him, "You can always come back and finish."



In 2006, more than three decades later, May decided it was time to return. He contacted Rowan-Robinson, and they discussed the possibility of completing the research. The field had advanced, and May’s data was outdated, but his original observations remained valuable. With Rowan-Robinson's guidance, May worked to update his research.



May continued his music career while revisiting his old data, incorporating modern research, and refining his analysis. In 2007, Imperial College awarded him a PhD in astrophysics, not as an honorary degree, but through genuine research and peer review.



At age 60, May became Dr. Brian May. His PhD was a testament to his dedication to both music and science. He didn't need the degree for career advancement—he had already achieved rock stardom. But his pursuit of knowledge, both for its own sake and to finish what he had started, made his accomplishment remarkable.



May’s story proved that it’s never too late to finish what you start, even if it takes 36 years. Passion, whether in music or science, doesn't have an expiration date.

Totally or conveniently forgets this occurred whilst the Tories were In government

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRx9gw7m/

Nice catch

https://www.facebook.com/share/18ZhDvuoKb/?

I am not one for watching tv shows that go one for years BUT I have been catching up on 22 kids and counting .

Was surprised to find out both of the parents were adopted as children

“Yes, both Noel and Sue Radford, parents of Britain's largest family (featured in "22 Kids & Counting"), were adopted as babies”.

Noel Radford was adopted at 10 days old.
Sue Radford was also adopted as a baby.
They first met as children and both have stated they had wonderful childhoods with their adoptive parents.
While Noel later sought to find his birth mother, appearing in a 2025 episode to do so, Sue has expressed that she has no desire to locate her own birth parents.

https://youtube.com/shorts/qQgh0yBUv8g?si=xQyCRtsJBYn6kf6M

Do you know the meaning ? Or what it is being used for now ?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRxmw6tq/

But many may just be naive enough to fall for it

https://fatlesrlbl.com/?pixel=1446261756847087&utm_campaign=UK244&ad_id=120243615771600104&placement=Others&adset_name=adset+1&ad_name=4&campaign_name=UK+244+30%2B&fbclid=Iwc3NjcAQt6t5leHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqzEANvmfiHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6kFC1oABv2qz9axyHNNwXH0_bvAgymWPsuap3H2CrKm2du9FWIYXZ0GFTTWg_aem_Iw3O3l9B09eLvZX0aEQGvg&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=120243615771260104&utm_content=120243615771600104&utm_term=120243615771280104

For World Poetry Day on March 21, 2026, the focus is on celebrating linguistic diversity, supporting endangered languages, and fostering peace and dialogue through verse. Key themes often highlight poetry's power to connect generations, preserve cultural heritage, and promote empathy and mutual understanding across cultures.

Key Themes & Focus Areas for 2026:
Dialogue & Peace Building: Poetry is highlighted as a tool for creating dialogue and bridging cultural divides, aligned with UNESCO’s goals of intellectual and moral solidarity.
Preserving Oral Traditions: A strong focus is placed on returning to the oral tradition of recitals, which helps keep languages alive and strengthens connections with ancestors.
Empowering Voices: The day emphasizes amplifying underrepresented voices, supporting equality, and showcasing poetry as a form of cultural identity.
Educational Creativity: In schools and educational settings, the focus is on using poetry to support literacy and creative expression, encouraging students to explore, analyse , and write their own poems

Shame they forgot that today isn’t a school day 😂

We know he only means in mosques and temples etc, but we should call his bluff and insist it also applies to churches and remembrance day gatherings around war memorials.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage-ban-islamic-prayer-trafalgar-square-iftar-b1275687.html

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/caroline-lucas-fact-checks-reforms-head-of-policy-on-clean-energy-lies-404179/#

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRxkHLQr/

Essentially homeless

Let me find my miniature violin

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/othersport/2184029/judd-trump-home-relocate-snooker/amp

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crl470p82jpo

There are suggestions it’s happened again today

Edit

https://youtube.com/shorts/jHVW1JavwyU?si=jcLSsXVl0Ypy5uER

King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNR9TuVPE/

I was dubious about watching this tv show on channel 4 which handcuffed people together that were opposites.

But, I succumbed and whilst most argued, had temper tantrums and gave in fairly easy one couple amazed me and the former White Reform candidate joined to a black youth worker, having posted something racist in the past, finally went online (after the show was over) to apologise for his ignorance and racism

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/sacked-reform-candidate-finally-apologises-36862523.amp

Authenticity? Farage’s Cameo scandal reveals him for what he really is: a performer dancing in the gutter

Taking money from just about anyone is just the latest example of Reform’s leader following the Trump school of self-enrichment.

Nigel Farage will say pretty much anything for money. Write him a script, stuff a coin in the slot and off he goes: the man who would be prime minister could be your personal mouthpiece for less than £100.

Or at least, that’s the obvious explanation for why – until he was exposed by the Guardian – the Reform UK leader has been churning out written-to-order video messages on request for (among others) Canadian white supremacists, a man jailed for throwing a bottle during the 2024 summer riots, and someone apparently keen to hear him talk about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “big naturals”, pornified slang describing the breasts of a woman who could be running for US president before long.

Either he wanted the cash (and the exposure) enough not to ask too many questions, or he actually meant the stuff he was saying, and since he swears he’s not a racist or misogynist – well, draw your own conclusions. For what it’s worth, a representative of the Canadian group now insists they picked Farage “for a laugh” and to teach him the consequences of “being lazy and stupid enough to say anything for a dollar”.


That lesson has apparently been learned. Farage withdrew his services from the platform on Thursday, with sources citing “security concerns”, suggesting that for once he does feel rattled. His side hustle on Cameo – a platform where B-list celebrities and reality TV contestants rent themselves out to record personalised messages for your loved one’s birthday or stag do – almost certainly wasn’t a dealbreaker for diehard Reform voters. (What’s revealing about the platform isn’t just what performers will say for money, but what their fans typically want to hear from them. The actor Miriam Margolyes, for example, gets hired to tell mothers how much their daughters love them; comedians invariably get asked to repeat their best-known catchphrase ad nauseam. Farage meanwhile got commissioned to discuss how secret societies are running the world, and obliged by rattling off a list of antisemitic conspiracy theories before hastily adding that he doesn’t believe them and thinks the rot set in with Marxism.)

But Reform’s recent tailing off in the polls suggests some of its newer supporters are capable of getting cold feet. The careless trampling of political norms that used to play so well for Farage has real potential to do him harm, now that we can all see what the Trumpification of British politics might mean in practice.

When the first soldiers’ coffins began returning home from his war on Iran, President Trump greeted the fallen wearing a tacky branded baseball cap from his own range of merchandise, which he did not bother removing for the salute. It’s hard to describe how jolting that is for veterans, but product placement is a hallmark of what has become more a brand than a presidency. The American business bible Forbes estimated last autumn that Trump had swelled his personal fortune by more than $3bn in his first year in office, essentially by leveraging the Oval Office for profit. The president has built a monetised cult of personality capable of flogging everything from memecoins – a growing area of interest for Farage, who recorded several Cameos hyping various cryptocurrencies that characteristically later collapsed in value – to T-shirts, while seemingly treating foreign policy as an extension of the family real estate business. (Having failed so far to turn Gaza into a beach resort, Trump now dreams aloud about “taking Cuba” and doing whatever he likes with it.)

By comparison, Brand Farage is barely getting started. But the Reform leader made more than £1m in a year, reportedly, by juicing the attention economy for all it’s worth, operating more like an influencer than a conventional politician. Besides the Cameos, the GB News shows and the paid speaking gigs in Washington at rates more often commanded by ex-prime ministers, there’s the £400,000-odd earned promoting gold bullion as a “tax-efficient” alternative to retirement savings – let’s hope no pensioner comes to bitterly regret investing in that one – while his monetised blue-tick account on X earns him a cut of the revenue his viral content makes for Elon Musk’s outrage factory.

Yet to take the reputational risks he did on Cameo for (at his most recent rate) £79 a pop remains puzzling. Since he himself says he didn’t check out his commissions first, Farage was potentially laying himself wide open to manipulation by rivals: he couldn’t have known who might potentially have been hiring him under an assumed name, getting him to create material that could later be used to do him damage. Either he has come to believe he walks on water, or else he really wanted that money.

Farage pitches himself as a man of the people who did well in the City and can now afford to do politics for the love of it, insisting over a recent two-bottle lunch with the Financial Times that he’s not the sort to crave a Ferrari. But he was cranking out those Cameos at an industrial rate, slotting them in even on election day. Did witnessing the in-your-face opulence of the Mar-a-Lago set, or even the influence enjoyed by the multi-millionaires he has had to persuade to bankroll his own assorted parties down the years, feed a certain envy? Back in 2023, he defended the £1.5m he trousered for doing ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on the grounds that his old mates in commodities trading are now filthy rich, whereas in the name of Brexit “I gave all that up”. Perhaps he thinks he’s owed something for the lean post-referendum years, when he’d successfully abolished his own job as an MEP and was in the throes of a second divorce, complaining of being “separated and skint”. Shades of Boris Johnson, who started out dismissing his £250,000 Daily Telegraph salary as “chicken feed”, and ended up engulfed in a scandal over the funding of his third wife’s fancy home renovations.

But perhaps the most damaging thing about those videos in the end isn’t the money, so much as the sense of seeing how the sausage gets made. Nigel Farage’s genius has always been his ability to sound as if he’s just saying what he authentically thinks, whether you like it or not. But what we see here are performances, where he who pays the piper literally calls the tune: a politician essentially prostituting himself, with disturbing ease and fluency, sailing closer and closer to the wind as time goes on. Ironically, it’s how many disillusioned Reform voters have probably always thought politics worked. It’s just that until now, they were nearly always wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/19/famed-authenticity-farages-cameo-scandal-reveals-him-performer

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17H3vfxpE7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Rotten low life

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18dbbcSECN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Iran posed no nuclear threat, Trump’s intelligence chief admits
Tulsi Gabbard’s testimony to senators contradicts US president’s central justification for war

Tulsi Gabbard said Iran posed no active nuclear threat when the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran.

Iran posed no active nuclear threat at the time of US strikes, according to Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.

Undermining the US president’s central justification for war, Tulsi Gabbard concluded that Iran was not rebuilding nuclear enrichment capacities destroyed in US-Israeli attacks last June.

The Trump ally disclosed the finding in written testimony for the annual threat assessment but stopped short of repeating it in her public remarks to senators.

“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme was obliterated. There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” Ms Gabbard said in the testimony to the Senate intelligence committee.

Pressed by a Democratic senator on why she had omitted the finding during the hearing, Ms Gabbard said she had not had time to present her full written testimony but did not dispute the assessment.

Mr Trump has repeatedly justified US actions against Iran by saying that it posed an “imminent threat”.

He said after the June 2025 strikes that US forces had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, but has since claimed that Tehran was only weeks away from building a bomb. It is an assessment not shared by many experts, and at odds with ongoing diplomatic efforts to revive a nuclear deal.

In her remarks to senators, Ms Gabbard said Iran had been dealt heavy blows in recent weeks, including the killing of the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei,but stressed the Islamic Republic remained operational.

As a congresswoman, she had led opposition to war with Iran. On Tuesday, Joe Kent, one of her senior aides, resigned, saying there was no “imminent threat”.

Mr Kent, a former counter-terrorism director, claimed on Wednesday he and other senior officials with doubts about the air strikes “were not allowed” to share them with Mr Trump.

The US president has rejected Mr Kent’s criticism of the war. He said he always thought Mr Kent was “weak on security” and if someone in his administration did not believe Iran was a threat, “we don’t want those people”.

It was revealed on Thursday that the FBI was investigating Mr Kent for allegedly sharing classified information.

As head of the National Counter-terrorism Centre, Mr Kent led the agency responsible for analysing and detecting terrorist threats, reporting to Ms Gabbard.

On Wednesday, he told the Tucker Carlson show that Mr Trump relied on a small circle of advisers in making his decision to strike Iran, claiming that Israel had forced his hand.

“A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” he told Mr Carlson, a prominent conservative commentator. “There wasn’t a robust debate.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/19/iran-posed-no-nuclear-threat-trumps-intel-chief-admits/

https://refugeesathome.org/about-us/

On forums like Facebook you will repeatedly see members saying ‘why don’t you take one in’ and then another saying ‘why don’t you take in a British homeless person or veteran’

There are dozens of charities that offer assistance for the latter two but no one ever mentions the one that is there for refugees

Does anyone know of any others that do this?

Nigel Farage has profited by producing Cameo videos that endorsed or provided support to cryptocurrencies which later collapsed in value.

The videos were discovered by the Guardian within a collection of more than 4,000 clips he has created on the Cameo platform, which allows public figures and celebrities to sell personalised recorded messages to members of the public.

Farage’s use of Cameo has already come under intense scrutiny after it was revealed he had recorded videos supporting a rioter, repeated extremist slogans, and endorsed a neo-Nazi event.

The Reform UK leader has produced videos that appear to have been used to drum up interest in memecoins, with names such as “Stonks Finance”, “NIG Finance”, “Trump Mania” and “Farage coin”.

Memecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is driven largely by social media hype and celebrity backing. If and when the hype runs out, investments can be rendered worthless. Farage has repeatedly endorsed such cryptocurrencies in exchange for as little as £72 from Cameo users who pay him to back their product.

Farage’s embrace of cryptocurrencies is partly ideological. He has said his experience of being “debanked” – when the private bank Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group, closed his account – turned him into a crypto advocate because he saw it as “free from authoritarian government”. He has called the cryptocurrency bitcoin “the ultimate freedom, the ultimate liberty”.

But the cryptocurrencies Farage has backed on Cameo are for the most part far more obscure than bitcoin. Their backers appear to have been swift to use Farage’s Cameo videos as effective advertisements for their tokens.

On X, the account behind the Stonks Finance coin posted Farage’s video endorsement, which cost £73, alongside a message that said: “$STONKS Finance airdrop. Tomorrow, 2,000 of you will get 150 STONKS each. Are you ready to 🚀🚀🚀with Solana x Mirror? We think @Nigel_Farage knows what’s up 👀.”

The X account behind the Trump Mania token superimposed Farage’s Cameo clip, which cost £97, in front of an American flag and a cartoon depiction of the US president. The caption said: “#TrumpMania continues with a special vote of confidence from @Nigel_Farage.”

Farage charged £133 for a supportive message in which he told the makers of Celsius Network’s CEL token to “fight” for the product, telling them that “if the technology is good enough, it will survive”.

Celsius Network has since gone bankrupt; its founder and former chief executive, Alex Mashinsky, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for securities fraud and commodities fraud. Prosecutors said he had artificially inflated the value of the CEL token.

Farage’s spokesperson said he used the platform “in good faith and without knowledge of the individuals involved beyond what is written for him in the prompt. If individuals or groups subsequently choose to misuse or repurpose a Cameo recording, that is clearly outside Mr Farage’s knowledge or control.”

Farage’s cryptocurrency-related videos, which he has sold for a combined £1,087, do mention some more mainstream currencies. In one video uploaded in May 2021 he said: “Keep the faith. Hold the line. XRP to the moon.” XRP was one of the assets Donald Trump announced in March he would be including in a new US digital asset stockpile. Farage also produced a video saying “I am told you must invest in Dogecoin” – a memecoin favoured by Elon Musk.

A month later, Farage urged viewers to sell Dogecoin and instead invest in Gabecoin, which like Dogecoin is based on an image of a dog.

The Guardian analysed historical price data for the six cryptocurrencies referenced by Farage for which data is available. All of them have lost value since he made a Cameo clip about them.

In a £78 pep talk recorded for the “Farage Crypto Community” in June 2024, Farage seemed philosophical about fluctuations in value. “I know so many of you out there are interested in memecoins. Look, you know, some of these coins do well, some don’t,” he said. “But here’s the point. This is something that matters. You know, Brexit means Brexit, but crypto means freedom from government control. Take it from somebody who was debanked. Crypto’s got a huge future.”

Farage’s backing of cryptocurrencies on Cameo reflects his close ties with the sector. His party, Reform UK, was the first to accept donations in cryptocurrency. Its biggest donor, the tech investor Christopher Harborne, is a major shareholder in the cryptocurrency Tether.

Farage has also said that if he gets into power he will permit taxes to be paid in crypto, create a sovereign wealth fund holding digital assets and slash capital gains tax on crypto investments. Earlier this month, he invested £215,000 in Stack BTC, a crypto business chaired by the former Conservative chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Farage’s crypto endorsements on Cameo echo his willingness to promote other financial products, including the gold trader Direct Bullion, which he has been paid £415,500 to advertise since December 2024.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/mar/19/nigel-farage-cameo-videos-backed-cryptocurrencies-that-collapsed-in-value
Asked recently by the Financial Times whether such commercial ventures were appropriate for a would-be prime minister, Farage replied: “Bollocks. Everybody [says]: ‘You can’t have a TV show,’ ‘You can’t do Direct Bullion,’ ‘You can’t do Cameo.’ I can do what I want … I skipped university to work in the commodity markets.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sean-hughes-shelter-will-london-b2940770.html#

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/25940317.man-jailed-punched-spat-strangled-woman/

She got a nice long prison sentence let’s see how she manages not being waited on hand and foot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgkj148p7no

This dogs face is a picture and the comments are amusing

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNR9U9Qup/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgldr4mm8eo

I found this article interesting

Hope you will too

There is something profoundly depressing about the case of Lucy Connolly, the childminder sentenced to 31 months in prison for an inflammatory post on social media after the Southport attack last year and the riots that followed.
Yet it does not really concern the issues of free speech claimed by her supporters, let alone the ridiculous claim that this person – who sought to stoke murderous arson attacks against asylum seekers – was a political prisoner thrown behind bars by the prime minister, as she claimed in a newspaper interview after her release.
Instead, her lionisation shows how much the hatred promulgated by the far-right infects public debate while exposing the corrosive and toxic tribalism that pollutes our country.

This foolish woman, wife of a former Tory councillor, should not be hailed as any kind of heroine. At a tense time – when a shocked country reeled over a lethal knife attack on girls attending a dance workshop and as wild rumours circulated over the assailant’s identity – Connolly fired off an expletive-filled tweet urging people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.
“If that makes me racist, so be it,” her post concluded. These incendiary words were viewed 310,000 times and reposted 940 times before being deleted three and a half hours later. She was arrested several days later and charged with an offence carrying a maximum seven-year sentence.
Connolly pleaded guilty at her trial, admitting to incitement of serious violence that could have led to deaths of human beings. The court of appeal did not believe her claim of failing to understand the consequences of this plea.
At her trial, it emerged she had made previous racist statements, told a friend her “raging tweet” had “bit me on the arse lol”, and said she would “play the mental health card” if arrested.
There are also claims she was triggered by the death of her child 12 years earlier. Having lost my own daughter last year, I can sympathise with the enduring agony of parental grief, but find it puzzling to suggest this might make anyone wish to inflict such pain on others.
With grim inevitability, her case was jumped on by the far right. “If you support Lucy Connolly, you’re on the right side of history,” claims hate-monger Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
His stance was echoed by all the usual hard-right suspects in Reform UK and the Tories, who look more diminished by the day as they follow the footsteps of Nigel Farage. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp even pitifully claimed a jury’s decision to clear a Labour councillor who pleaded not guilty over offensive comments was “alarming” evidence of two-tier justice compared with Connolly.
There is valid argument that Connolly should not have been sent to prison – like almost all other women behind bars in a creaking judicial system.
Most committed non-violent offences far less serious than her provocative agitation, posing no threat to society, yet if handed custodial sentences are more likely to re-offend than if given good community punishments. A majority have mental health or addiction issues; many have experienced trauma such as domestic violence. They are more likely than men to self-harm while cooped up in cells – and like Connolly, often have dependent children who suffer when their mother disappears.
Yet many similar arguments apply to male inmates – as proven by far more effective systems abroad, such as in Norway with its humane prisons, focus on rehabilitation and low recidivism rates.
Our prisons are costly, overcrowded and often ineffective, stuffed with damaged citizens failed by care, health and school systems alongside the gangsters, killers and rapists who deserve severe punishment. We have the highest per capita jail rates in Western Europe.
And as former Tory justice minister David Gauke said in his recent government review, this is partly due to “prison populism” as politicians push for tougher sentences.
So guess who are the worst culprits today? Yes, the same right-wing headbangers who are complaining about Connolly’s sentence while demanding longer jail terms and more prison places, with Farage making puerile threats to be “the toughest party on law and order… this country has ever seen”.
Similar hypocrisy lies behind the free speech furore as warriors of the hard right fulminate over Connolly’s supposed martyrdom. Yet most stay silent when people are branded antisemites for protesting atrocities in Gaza or demonstrating against the Palestine Action terror ban.
Take former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman: she described protests for a ceasefire in Gaza as “hate marches” and said waving a Palestinian flag could be a criminal offence, calling on police to take “zero tolerance approach to Antisemitism.’’ Now she says Connolly’s case shows free speech is “on life support under Labour”.
We see the White House also stepping into this swamp even as it prostrates itself before Vladimir Putin’s repressive dictatorship and ruthlessly abuses federal power to target domestic critics.
The serpentine Vice-president JD Vance claimed with breathtaking hypocrisy earlier this year that free speech “is in retreat” in Britain. Now Connolly says she is meeting with US administration officials while Farage plans to use her case when testifying next month to a Congressional committee on threats to free expression in Britain. The Reform UK leader keeps running down our country while claiming to be a true patriot.
Human rights should be immutable. Although it is sadly easy to identify similar examples of hypocrisy on the extreme left, mainstream politicians and commentators should be wary of turning this foolish person into a political pin-up at a time when protests are exploding over asylum hotels and our own flags being weaponised on streets.
And indeed when Islam, one of the world’s great religions – practised by millions of Britons – gets branded “medieval” and antithetical to the British way of life following grooming scandals, despite the string of abuse cases, paedophilia horrors, and institutional cover-ups that plague Christian churches.
Ultimately, it is playing with fire to flirt with the far-right in such an angry, broken, and tribalised nation.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNR9Ly3oq/

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1aEq9ijQGb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The right wing narrative

https://youtube.com/shorts/2nKx_1l9U5Q?si=wWO9F_mTSbTNu59m

Farage starts a week of tourism in Clacton

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/farage-mocked-as-he-starts-english-tourism-week-in-clacton_uk_69b8126ae4b0fa6e8980900f/

Britain’s biggest car park operator goes bust
NCP blames downturn in town centre shopping after struggling with rent rises and energy costs

Britain’s biggest car park operator has collapsed into administration, blaming a downturn in commuting and inner city shopping since the pandemic.

National Car Parks (NCP), which runs 340 car parks across the UK, said 682 jobs were at risk after PwC was called in to try and save the business.

It will keep sites open while the administrators assess its options for the future, including a potential sale or site closures.

NCP collapsed after struggling with rent rises linked to inflation and “elevated” energy costs, according to its Japanese owner.

The 95-year-old business also blamed Covid-19 for a downturn in demand for parking in city centres and commuter hotspots.

PwC said the business had “deteriorated over a number of years post Covid-19 as demand for parking has not recovered to historic levels, particularly across city-centre and commuter locations”.

Its collapse follows criticism of private parking companies like NCP for issuing parking tickets. Private parking operators that issued a record 15.9 million tickets last year, according to an analysis of government data.

The industry has been accused of using confusing signs to catch drivers out and aggressive debt-collection to collect fines from customers.

More information at:
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/16/britains-biggest-car-park-operator-goes-bust

Following a commercial break, the Host Conan O'Brien quipped:

"Welcome back, we're coming to you live from the 'Has a Small Penis Theatre.'

"Let's see him put his name in front of that!"

This from an American President who, some months ago, claimed to have destroyed Iran's nuclear capability, and who announces daily the death of Iran!

It's his war, he just wants to spread the defeat so that the US feels a worthy winner.

Well P!$$ off POTUS we will only engage in wars we feel we should be in.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/14/iran-war-latest-news-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kharg-island/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRHWK7Cp/

If she had a brain she’d be dangerous

In 1977, a 15-year-old boy asked his father a question that would change both of their lives—and eventually inspire millions around the world.

The boy was Rick Hoyt.

Rick had been born with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affected his ability to control his muscles and speak clearly. Doctors initially told his parents that their son would never communicate, never live independently, and might never understand the world around him.

Many families in the 1960s were advised to place children with severe disabilities into institutions.

But Rick’s parents refused.

His father, Dick Hoyt, and his mother Judy believed their son deserved the same chance at life as anyone else. They fought to include him in school, pushing against systems that often excluded children with disabilities.

Eventually engineers at Tufts University developed a computer interface that allowed Rick to type by moving his head against a switch. For the first time, he could communicate his thoughts.

And one day, in 1977, he typed something simple.

He wanted to participate in a charity race for a classmate who had been paralyzed in an accident.

Rick asked his father:

“Dad, can we run in that race?”

Dick Hoyt had never run competitively. At 36 years old, he considered himself out of shape and had no training in endurance sports.

But when his son asked, he didn’t hesitate.

“Yes,” he said.

The Race That Started Everything

The race was about five miles long. Rick sat in a wheelchair while Dick pushed him from behind.

They finished near the back of the pack.

There were no cameras waiting for them. No headlines. No celebration.

But that night something remarkable happened.

Rick typed a message to his father.

“Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”

For Dick, those words changed everything.

He realized that when they ran together, Rick experienced a freedom that everyday life rarely gave him.

So Dick decided they would keep running.

The Birth of Team Hoyt

Over the next four decades, the father and son became known around the world as Team Hoyt.

They didn’t just participate in races.

They conquered some of the most demanding endurance challenges on earth.

Together they completed more than 1,100 races, including:

• 32 Boston Marathons in Boston Marathon
• Multiple triathlons
• 6 Ironman competitions in Ironman World Championship

An Ironman is one of the most grueling athletic events in the world.

It requires athletes to complete:

• a 2.4-mile swim
• a 112-mile bike ride
• a 26.2-mile marathon

Team Hoyt completed these races together.

Dick would swim while pulling Rick in a specially designed raft.

He cycled with Rick seated on a custom-built bicycle attached to the front.

Then he pushed Rick’s wheelchair for the marathon.

For hours.

For miles.

For years.

What made their story powerful wasn’t just the physical effort.

It was the message behind it.

At a time when many people still believed individuals with severe disabilities could not participate in sports or public life, Team Hoyt proved otherwise.

Crowds began recognizing them.

Spectators would cheer as the father pushed his son toward the finish line. Runners who had once competed only for time or medals found themselves inspired by something deeper.

The Hoyts weren’t racing against other athletes.

They were racing against assumptions.

Against the belief that disability meant limitation.

Against the idea that inclusion was impossible.

And mile after mile, they proved it wrong.

The Heart Behind the Strength

People often asked Dick how he managed to do something so physically demanding.

He always gave the same answer.

“I’m just lending Rick my arms and legs. He’s the one with the heart.”

Rick saw it differently.

“He was my motor,” he once said.
“I was his heart.”

Together they became something greater than either of them alone.

A team.

Over the years, their story inspired countless people with disabilities and their families to pursue sports, education, and independence.

They became symbols of what inclusion could look like when barriers were removed.

Their journey lasted decades.

Dick Hoyt passed away in 2021 at the age of 80.

Rick followed in 2023 at the age of 61.

Today they rest side by side.

But their message continues to move forward through every athlete who refuses to be limited by someone else’s expectations.

The Lesson That Still Runs

The story of Team Hoyt was never really about winning races.

It was about what happens when one person believes in another so deeply that they refuse to accept limits.

A father who became his son’s strength.

A son who became his father’s purpose.

And a simple promise that echoes long after their final finish line:

Yes, you can.

Not because the road is easy.

Not because the world is fair.

But because sometimes love is strong enough to carry both of you forward.