1./ Here's a way to celebrate New Year and honour the legacy of a Scotsman whose words are resounding across the globe. For many people the words of Auld Lang Syne by Burns are as unclear as they were, hilariously, to Harry and Sally. (at 1.46 in).👇
2./ Harry: "Does that mean we should forgot all acquaintances?" Sally: "Maybe it means we should remember we have forgotten them?" In fact the song implores us to keep old friendships in mind and asks whether old times should be forgotten? How very 2020.👇
scotsman.com/heritage-and-r…
3./ Among the many passionate fans of Robert Burns was Maya Angelou who spoke movingly of how "He was the first white man I read who seemed to understand that a human being was a human being, and we are more alike than unalike.” 👇thetimes.co.uk/article/wigtow…
4./ I met Dr Angelou many years ago when I looked after her during a celebration of the work of James Baldwin in Brixton. When I mentioned I was from Scotland she waxed lyrical about the Bard. She often talked about him.👇theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…
5./ One of her favourite Burns songs was the enigmatically simple but hugely powerful 'A Slave's Lament'. Here it is performed in a video art installation in the Victoria Gallery in Bath. "It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral, For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O."
6./ Now you can help save the place where both Auld Lang Syne and A Slave's Lament were penned, Ellisland Farm in Dumfries and Galloway. Become a member supporter for just £15. Then belt out the words of Auld Lang Syne.
7./ When the guns fell silent during the Christmas Truce in WW1 both Germans and Brits sang Auld Lang Syne spontaneously across the trenches. Billions of other people across the world will do the same tonight, singing of remembering. Happy Hogmanay! bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…

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More from @TwisterFilm

1 Jan
1./ Your reminder totalitarian dictatorship doesn't do wonders for originality. Xi Jinping's 2021 New Year's address included these insightful thoughts: 'Greatness is forged in the ordinary' and 'Every person is remarkable!' Those were the high points. chinadaily.com.cn/a/202012/31/WS…
2./ @ChinaDailyUSA had this handy guide to its other err.. inspirational quotes such as 'We see a successful conclusion of the 12th 5 Year Plan', 'Happiness is achieved through hard work' and 'We are all dream chasers'. Yeah, chase that dream baby. chinadaily.com.cn/a/202012/31/WS…
3./ Strangely...none of these 'inspirational quotes' include thanks to the whistleblowers who brought the Wuhan epidemic to the attention of the central authorities including Zhang Zhan. 5 days ago she was jailed.👇 hongkongfp.com/2020/12/28/chi…
Read 4 tweets
23 Dec 20
1./ Great piece by @jameskirkup about the unbelievably shoddy BBC article on puberty blockers by @BenInLDN. I never saw the pressing need for an LGBT correspondent. But if we’re going to pay for one let them understand basic editorial standards.
2./ Why would you fail to interview a single medical or psychiatric expert on adolescence or puberty blockers while interviewing a controversial GP who in his own cringe-making recent YouTube video admits he is no expert. At least ..DOCTOR Harrop wasn’t lying about that. 👇👇
3./ How could any journalist watch this plonker and not spot he’s trying to sound knowledgeable about blockers while reading a script (badly). Do his darting eyes suggest to you he has any more grasp of the subject than the average pompous blowhard? 👇👇
Read 7 tweets
21 Dec 20
1./ Why does the Latter Day Church of Gender Identity Activism seem to attract so many narcissists? Here's @DJFLevesley (some bloke from GQ) saying a BBC journalist's award for prose writing in honour of Bertrand Russell made him think of giving up journalism. Feel free mate.
2./ @amolrajan bent over acrobatically to distance himself from the 'sentiments' of third placed @jk_rowling's essay on Sex and Gender Issues. But his crime was unforgiveable. He had dared to read and he did not denounce. He also called it brave. Whoops. bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
3./ David Levesley (some bloke from GQ) with remarkably little bravery says the essay was "misinformed and factually inaccurate" without giving an instance. He can't because it isn't. Instead he jumps on an opportunity to tell us his boo hoo about how offended he was. Who cares.
Read 7 tweets
20 Dec 20
1./ Is the UK somehow uniquely bad at tackling the pandemic? No and here's why not. I ask because various Boris haters have gone into overdrive. Here's an arch-Remainer claiming the new strain was used to disguise a U-turn. Get a grip mate.
2./ First the good news. Yesterday, just before the Boris bombshell I passed a GP surgery and under big awnings older ladies and gents (all socially distanced) were waiting to be vaccinated. It was, I have to say, very affecting. Can't wait to see more of these signs go up. 🙏👇
3./ There was a little group of passers by who'd stopped to cheer them on as each was led in by a nurse or a relative. Britain has purchased enough vaccines to jab us all 5 times over. The EU by contrast way may see a serious shortfall. 👇spiegel.de/international/…
Read 26 tweets
16 Dec 20
1./ Who regulates our broadcasters, @Ofcom or @stonewalluk? It's an obvious question after the car-crash yesterday at the @CommonsDCMS hearing when Ofcom's head said she agreed with this tendentious nonsense from @MrJohnNicolson 👇
2./ Pink News who are to free speech what Bennie Hill was to subtle humour celebrated, arguing @Ofcom had set out rules preventing anyone being interviewed whom Pink News decides is an "anti-trans activist"; ie anyone who's not a wide-eyed enthusiast for the latest trans demand.
3./ What is "extremely inappropriate" is a regulator deciding who should speak on issues such as women's sport, puberty blockers or single sex spaces and being guided by the opinion of a lobby group called @stonewalluk who take positions counter to the public on all these issues.
Read 12 tweets
15 Dec 20
1./ On Jolyon Maugham and his underhand tactics. Here's Jolyon complaining that an expert cited by the prosecution in the Tavistock trial is a.... veterinary scientist who did work on sheep. To self-styled genius Jolyon this appears to be an outrage. It isn't. And here's why.
2./ How would YOU test puberty blockers? Now that they're in widespread use Jolyon's side argue it would be unethical to run a trial where a control group of gender dysphoric kids are NOT given PBs. So why not run an animal trial? That's exactly what Professor Neil Evans did.
3./ His team at Glasgow University worked with researchers from Norway's leading Gender Identity clinic. Jolyon didn't mention them. But anyway how CAN animals help us work out the impact of puberty blockers? Simple: all mammals go through adolescence. Yep even sheep.
Read 15 tweets

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