Happy Friday!
I’m really beginning to worry about the lack of thinking capacity and callousness of voters. Who are the people who think that Nigel Farage would make a good MP? Actually, I know some of them and it would be easy to classify them as ‘hard of thinking’, the truth is more that they don’t want to think too hard. They want certainty about the world and their place in it. They want it to be easy. That’s why it’s easier to blame immigrants and people who don’t want to work or spend all their money on avocado toast, than the system for why things are harder than maybe they were for their parents. It’s about a lack of rigour and honesty from the ‘mainstream’ politicians about what it would actually take to sort out the mess. Finally, it’s about the Press and the people that own it, promoting easy solutions rather than decency. However, the Farage is the worse sort of charlatan who can dish it and lie about it and can’t take it. It’s obvious by now. I really hope the voters of Clacton are bright enough and care enough to see it and not vote for him.
Don’t underestimate Faragism this election. He’s a virus infecting UK politics
‘Solidarity over hatred’: the small band of Israelis stopping settlers obstructing aid trucks. I know it’s a drop in the ocean but I think it’s really important to highlight this. The sides are so polarised and I keep hearing that I can’t ‘both sides’ this conflict. I absolutely can and I will. So I blame both Hamas AND the Israeli government and the Western governments (including my own) that allow this to continue. However, it’s important to remember not all Palestinians are Hamas and not all Israelis support their government’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
Bowel disease breakthrough as researchers make ‘holy grail’ discovery
England’s Euro 2024 squad: Grealish and Maguire miss out on final 26. I don’t have a TV so I don’t get to watch England games as often as I’d like (that’s changing for this tournament, I’ve got a TV license so I can watch the games on my laptop!), I remember actually seeing Maguire in an England game and I could not fathom why he got picked. So that injury kept him out is probably no bad thing. I do feel for Grealish but as he said, he wasn’t in good form. Do I think we’ll win the Euros. Probably not, England play a lot better than they did but they just aren’t convincing. The best teams, generally but not exclusively, have a flow that I’m not convinced England have managed for a good long time. However, I also have to concede that I’m English, I never think the team is good enough. I am considering
Revealed: repairing Israel’s destruction of Gaza will come at huge climate cost.
The big story of the 21st century’: is this the most shocking documentary of the year? This stuff keeps me up at night…
The period that almost killed me: ‘My mam was told, if you take her home, she won’t last the night’. This is horrendous, my bleeding is continuous but not heavy and I’m completely done with it. But what I notice is that until she said she wanted to have a baby, no-one wanted to help and I do wonder if this is why women going through peri-menopause and menopause have such a hard time accessing treatment because they aren’t having babies and therefore are viewed as surplus to requirements and somehow not deserving of treatment. It’s something I notice as I enter my ‘crone’ era…
‘Playing Russian roulette with your health’: my encounter with LA’s raw-milk, powdered-meat smoothie. I would not eat/drink a £18 smoothie, let alone one with powdered liver in it but I am currently drinking raw milk. Why? Because I’ve noticed that unhomogenized milk is kinder to my stomach and a friend suggested that raw milk might help too, so I thought I’d try. So far so good!
Nic Dempsey 