A very quick non-political & non PC (*gasp*) #THREAD on nicknames.
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, commonly used to express affection or endearment, sometimes amusement, & occasionally to bully.
Almost all lads had one when I was young.
As my surname is Jackson, my usual nickname was 'Jacko'.
As a 17 year old, doing a bricklaying apprenticeship, I went on day release to Chesterfield Tech (College of Technology, before it became Chesterfield College) to do a City & Guilds in Bricklaying & then 'Advanced Craft'.
It was quite brutal - usually in a good way - & all of us on the course were given new nicknames by my mate 'Trent'.
Trent got his own nickname following a haircut, after which someone said his ears looked like bus wheels - the local bus company was called 'Trent Buses'. 🚍
A thinnish lad was called Jim. His nickname became 'Jim The Pin'. Then later, 'Skinny Jim The Pin'. 📌
There was a VERY big lad, who wasn't the sharpest, & Trent gave him the nickname 'Termy'.
Why?
Because according to Trent, he looked like a massive lumbering termite.🐛
Another lad was given the nickname 'Mips', then 'Chuffin Mips', because his surname was 'Marples' & he used to say 'Chuffin 'ell' A LOT. 🤬
Another lad came in from a place called Ashover. He was a bit gangly, with a sharp, pointy face, so his nickname was 'Asher Dog'. 🐶
Another lad used to say 'ballacks' A LOT - he became known as called 'Ballos'.🤬
A punk from Chesterfield who we often struggled to understand was given the nickname 'Emmo'.
I think I got away lightly, as I was called 'Jack the lad', but they said 'Jack the Laaaaaad'.
A couple of the teachers were given nicknames by Trent too.
Mr Brightmore became 'Mr Darkless', & a teacher who had a small mouth, & very thin lips, became known as 'Chicken Lips'.🐔
Did any of us care? Did we fuck. It was all funny as fuck. Times have changed.
What was yours?
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A 2016 petition calling on the Govt to have a threshold on the EU referendum got more than FOUR MILLION signatures. A 2019 petition calling on the Govt to revoke Article 50 & remain in the EU got more than SIX MILLION signatories.
Both were ignored.
The Express says the petition, pushed by some of the UK's worst people, “is now being branded Britain’s fastest-ever growing petition!”
WHO BY?
Started on 20/11, by 11am 4 DAYS later, it had 509,095. The 2019 Revoke Article 50 petition got FOUR MILLION signatures in 48 hours!
The relatively new, highly suspicious, divisive anonymous right-wing #disinformation @X account, @InevitableWest, amplified by Musk & which falsely claims Tommy Robinson was jailed "for journalism", is pushing the petition, & making false claims about it.
There was outrage when in 2020, the Tory Govt conceded a new bill to amend the UK's Brexit deal would "break international law" in a "specific & limited way".
But what is international law? What is the ICC?
And what were Margaret Thatcher's views on international law?
First, what is 'international law'?
Broadly (it's complicated!) it refers to the body of legal rules, norms, and standards that apply between sovereign states and other entities that are legally recognized as international actors.
The term was coined by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). According to Bentham’s classic definition, international law is a collection of rules governing relations between states. This original definition omits individuals and international organizations.
"Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government."
John Prescott has died.
In September 2000, John - then Deputy Prime Minister - gave a speech at the @UKLabour Party Conference, introducing Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela died in December 2013. Writing a tribute in the Daily Mirror, John reflected on his death, writing: “In my office at home I have a picture that is my most treasured possession. It’s of me shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand on stage at the @UKLabour conference in 2000."
At the Rivonia Trial, between 1963 & 1964, Mandela gave a dramatic speech from the dock.
John wrote in 2013 “When I read that, I knew that I wanted to enter politics. He was my inspiration. So when he walked free in 1990, we felt as if one of our own comrades had been freed.”
🧵
Allison Pearson posted then deleted disinformation, falsely accused three people of being "Jew haters", lied about where the photo was taken & what they were doing, then lied about what the Police said to her - and then moaned about being a victim! FFS
The Telegraph's divisive shit-stirrer Pearson falsely claimed she was told by the police who came to her home it was over a “non-crime hate incident”. Her lie was then dutifully amplified by every Reform UK MP & billionaire-owned right-wing "news" media, painting her as a victim.
Essex Police said “At no stage... was she informed that the report being investigated was being treated as a non-crime hate incident. To suggest otherwise is wholly inaccurate and misleading.”
Pearson, Farage, Musk, Young, Habib, & many other shit-stirrers who shamelessly try to normalize hateful, divisive, provocative & inflammatory rhetoric, often refer to George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is much closer to the dystopia we inhabit...
Harassment, malicious communications, incitement, & threatening violence are all crimes in the UK, & have been for a long time.
Print & broadcast media, & online social media are simply platforms on which we behave or misbehave: it's not about the medium, it's about the offence.
The UK is signed up to Article 10 of the #ECHR: everyone has the right to free speech, which may only be qualified in limited circumstances, including: national security; public safety; the protection of morals & of the reputation or rights of others.
"Enoch Powell was a hero of the young Nigel, but at this point he could do without any association with the politician who made the notorious Rivers of Blood speech... the accusation of racism follows Farage & his party around like a bad smell." - Allison Pearson
"Farage has tried for years to shrug off the charge that his parties are more than “the BNP in blazers”... although I don’t think Farage is a racist, it’s a problem that racists attach themselves to Reform." - Allison Pearson
“We’re investigating a report which was passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.” - Essex police spokesman