Rob Caiger ✝️🇬🇧🇮🇱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿✊🏻

Privileged to know Dan Popplewell when he wrote this as part of @themagictheatre 'London Town' album. Featuring the gorgeous vocals of Sophia Churney, this is a classic. 10 years on, I'm living every word of 'Summer Sun' and finally happy... youtu.be/HD5xGQOVTI4 via @YouTube

𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗟𝗜𝗣𝗠𝗔𝗡: "𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗥 𝗞𝗘𝗜𝗥. 𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗡'𝗧 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗝𝗘𝗪𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗟𝗜𝗠 𝗩𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦." Dame Maureen Lipman — one of Britain's most beloved actresses, a Dame of the British Empire, and a Jewish woman who has watched antisemitism consume her country in real time — just said what the political class refuses to say. In a new Telegraph interview, Lipman delivered the most honest political diagnosis of Keir Starmer's paralysis on Jewish issues: he can't back Jews because he's terrified of losing Muslim votes. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗶𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. Not a principled policy disagreement. Not a nuanced foreign policy position. Pure electoral arithmetic: Jewish voters in Britain number around 300,000. Muslim voters number around 4 million. The Labour coalition has made its choice, and Jews are on the wrong side of the ledger. Lipman is also unequivocal about the BBC: "The BBC is biased. Over 36,000 Iranians protesting for freedom were massacred by the regime in January. That seems to be forgotten — but if one Palestinian child dies, then Lyse Doucet is flown in to report on it." This is a woman who resigned from the actors' union Equity after fifty years because of its vocal support for pro-Palestine marches. Who has watched a certain coldness enter her professional relationships because she refuses to pretend that Jewish lives matter less than the political convenience of her peers. Who has spent years being called extreme for saying things that are obviously true. She called the left's selective compassion exactly what it is. And she noticed — as anyone paying attention has noticed — that the institutional bias isn't subtle anymore. It's systematic. Thirty-six thousand Iranians massacred in a two-day government crackdown. Buried. One child in Gaza. Lyse Doucet on the first plane. Lipman is not a political figure. She is an actress and a writer and a Jewish woman living in a country that is making her feel increasingly unwelcome. The fact that she has to say these things at all — that saying them costs her professionally, socially, institutionally — is itself the story. 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴. telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-t…

This really is a fantastic account The Communists hate Britain Fight them by learning our history and loving who we are ❤️❤️❤️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

@kate_uden @BooketyS76048 @YesterdaysBrit1 Exactly, Kate. We knew just about everyone in the street - and the milk was delivered, nice & early, the next day 😊

@BooketyS76048 @YesterdaysBrit1 @CaigerRob But we had neighbours where we could get a half pint of milk or a cup of sugar to pay back next morning.

I was a kid when playing on the estate where I lived was the norm. Summer was for riding my bike and playing in the garden. A trip to the seaside was like a big lottery win. I'd drink coke and eat crisps in the pub garden whilst my parents sometimes had a drink in a pub. Sunday lunchtime was when we all sat around the dining table. Saturdays meant a trip into town to do some shopping. Television was worth watching. There were very few cars parked in my street. Doctors would make house calls. No-one had a cheeseburger 🍔 delivered to their homes. Music 🎶 was great. I played football ⚽️ in the park with my brother. We didn't carry knives with us when we went to school. Fish and chips were affordable. Newspapers were worth reading. Cadbury's chocolate was delicious. Easter didn't offend people. Mail was delivered twice a day. We said please and thank you. CHAVS and hoodies didn't exist. Money went further. When it was hot outside it was because the sun was shining, and not global warming. We put all of our rubbish in one metal dustbin. Britain was British. I could go on, but I think you get what I'm trying to say...

Just the greatest… ever. Unclassifiable, except as “genius”. Viv lived just up the road in Muswell Hill. Loved a mask..

The great Vivian Stanshall, born on this day in 1943. Canyons Of Your Mind was absolute peak Bonzos. Frying pan, frying pan.

It’s that time again - the first day of trains past the house

Well done, ladies !

They say we are not being shadow banned but 1700 views on a 30k account? Something is not right with X 😢 Donations have slowed down, people say that they just don’t see us anymore and we are not getting views like we used to. 😩😩

Sewriously... What is going on in their minds It's perverse

@Baroness_Nichol 51

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Al Quds march has been happening in London since 1981. Over forty years, a march organised in the name of a terrorist-sponsoring theocracy has been allowed to parade through the heart of our capital city. That is the indictment of every Mayor and Home Secretary who allowed this to happen. Why did it keep happening? Politicians were terrified of being called Islamophobic. They confused the Muslim community, the vast majority of whom want nothing to do with this, with a fringe of ideological extremists engaged in propaganda for the Iranian regime  What doest that signal to the world? You are telling Tehran; your propaganda works here. London is open for business as a platform for your regime. When I’m Mayor, there will be a simple principle: if a march undermines British security, I will use every lever available as Mayor to ensure it does not go ahead. London will not be a platform for foreign extremist ideology. London is a British city and it will be governed like one. Allowing this march didn’t make London more tolerant. It made London more dangerous. I won’t make that mistake. Freedom of speech is not freedom to glorify terrorisms.

Remembering Jenni Murray. She interviewed me and ‘Girl A’ who I helped in light of the Rochdale Grooming Scandal. Incredibly strong interviewer, on top of her brief, on a par with Andrew Neil, better than John Humphries. God bless her. Why’s the BBC has taken the clip down?

The PM @Keir_Starmer demand sacking of Tory @NJ_Timothy for criticising mass muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square. What’s appalling is a PM who thinks critics of religion have to be silenced & banned from public life. It’s Islamophobia hysteria

Tomorrow at 10am. Britain is committing suicide. Watch my interview with @GoodwinMJ on @NewCultureForum’s YouTube channel. Don’t miss it!

@Andreia_O_Nobre Great achievement and so well deserved! Have bought your excellent book for my daughter. Hope you celebrated wel!👏👏👏

Awarded a literary prize last night for my book "Girls Matter - And What Matters To Girls"

My world, growing up in Dagenham, in the sixties & seventies. The things I particularly remember are being out all day in the hot sun until teatime, adults keeping an eye but no helicopter parenting, no bottled water but drinking fountains in parks with cool water. And space. Much less cars, much less people. Lots more laughter.

Absolutely lovely. It’s never too late to come back to a passion. And it’s obvious your passion burns bright. So reminds me of Mum, awarded a place at Slade School of Art at 14 & told by her mother she couldn’t accept because “girls have to work for a living”. Took up art & English as a mature student, got her degrees & went onto exhibit in galleries in London, including the Royal Festival Hall. Painted & sketched until she passed but it kept her happy & fulfilled. Well done, Sal - keep going! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My first painting in 42 years. 💪 🎨 I wanted to take art at school but I grew up at a time when they were pushing girls into STEM subjects and I couldn’t take art subjects AND science, only one or the other. I was persuaded to take the sciences and haven’t picked up a paint brush since, until now. It’s never too late.

Unhinged. Unacceptable. Unwelcome.

On the morning of 7 October 2023 in the southern Israeli town of Ofakim, Tali Hadad, a 48-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of 6, transformed into one of the most remarkable heroes of that terrible day. Sirens blared just after 6.30am, quickly followed by the crack of gunfire & the ominous sounds of a motorised paraglider. Hadad and her family hurried into their safe room. Her son Itamar, a combat soldier in the who had just finished officer training & was home on a short break, instantly understood the horror unfolding outside. He seized his rifle and headed for the door. “Go out and save as many people as possible,” Hadad urged him, her voice steady with the fierce support she had always shown her children, five of whom serve or have served in the IDF. Still wearing her pyjamas, she pulled on her running shoes and raced after him. Her daughter Meitav briefly joined her. They spotted heavily armed terrorists firing wildly in a nearby playground & ducked behind a wall for cover. Tali sent Meitav back home to safety and pressed forward alone. From windows and streets, people shouted at her to turn back, calling her crazy and urging her to go inside. She refused. Later she described her state of mind with blunt force: “I was mad, like a thug.” With ambulances nowhere in sight and wounded civilians crying out, Hadad sprinted home under fire, grabbed the family car and turned it into an improvised ambulance. She drove straight into the heart of the fighting, risking everything. The first casualty she reached was Itamar himself. He had been shot four times, in the stomach, leg and thigh, while battling alongside comrades, 2 of whom now lay dead beside him. Bleeding heavily, he looked up in disbelief. “Mum, what are you doing here?” “You’re hurt,” she answered calmly. “I am going to take you to hospital.” She loaded her son and other wounded into the car and sped towards the Magen David Adom first-aid station at the edge of town, racing at 120 kms per hour so the terrorists could not target them easily. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, she saw Itamar slipping away & shouted to keep him conscious: “You are a hero! Wake up! We are almost there!” At the station paramedics took charge. Hadad leaned close and told her son, “Mum is not coming with you. You will go in the ambulance. I have to go back and help the others.” True to her word, she returned three more times, driving back into the gunfire again and again. She even picked up Itamar’s rifle for protection. Across those runs she evacuated a total of 13 wounded people. Neighbours and rescuers begged her to stop, but she continued until police, special forces & armed civilians finally regained control of Ofakim after hours of fierce combat. Only then did Tali head to the hospital. Itamar underwent emergency surgery. His liver had been cut in two, his gallbladder was torn and a bullet remained lodged in his leg. He endured a long hospital stay and demanding rehabilitation, both physical and emotional. In the book One Day in October: Forty Heroes, Forty Stories, she stands out as the only active female hero whose courage unfolded in real time: following her son into battle in her pyjamas, saving his life, then refusing to leave the fight until more lives were secured. A quiet teacher who once guided five-year-olds through songs and stories became, on the worst day in Israel’s modern history, a one-woman rescue force powered by raw maternal instinct and unyielding resolve. “I had no choice but to act,” she has said simply. In the darkness of that October morning, Tali Hadad showed extraordinary courage, driven by love and refusal to abandon others. 1/2⬇️