Alex Taylor

One year today since my kidney transplant. It’s not always been smooth sailing but very grateful for feeling better than I did and to live free of dialysis. Thinking of my donor and their family.

I do not agree. The blame lies with my profession: politicians. Politicians are meant to lead: deliver home truths, force confrontations, think beyond the immediate, describe a future we can only just see. One reason we're in this mess is it's fashionable to reduce politics to bun-fights over 24 hr media cycles. The gold standard is to "take the politics out", "above politics", "independent". In life, if you eat crisps, smoke cigarettes, scroll on tik Tok, you get weaker. If you run, read books, love your family, you get stronger. The same is true for a country. When a country does what makes it weaker, because it's easier in the short-term, its problem is not bureaucrats - it's political leadership. Politics is meant to bind us around common purpose. To motivate and organise collective action. When it doesn't, it's a sign a political system isn't working: parties, Parliament, the connection between votes, taxes, and power. Much is wrong with our civil service. But we will only fix it when politicians - and parties - step up. Because it's their job to lead.

@ThreeUKSupport Hi there, experiencing very slow network in CB1 making it very difficult to WFH.

@queenofdialysis Highly recommend Bluesky! Has a lot more UK users after recent events and is essentially old Twitter without the spam and hatred.

I do not see any #kidney content on here anymore nor any of my #dialysis friends’ posts - just rubbish and ads 😢 are people still using X or where is #nephtwitter these days? I miss how much I used to learn and find out on here (photo for the algorithm my swim yesterday ❤️)

I've decided to set up on alextaylor585.bsky.social and step away from here, at least for now. When the owner here can freely spread hatred of Muslims, e.g. linking a whole group to a rise in rape cases in the UK, and say that 'civil war is inevitable' it's time to take stock.

Gustave Flaubert, this is it

I’ve been thinking a lot about My Lai since the news broke yesterday that U.S. Army Lt. William Calley, the only soldier convicted of the massacre in Vietnam, died. This @60Minutes interview comes to mind. The late Mike Wallace asks: “How do you shoot babies?”

@TheCinesthetic The original BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

in your opinion, which tv series is an absolute 10/10?

@araujohistorian I don’t know, my first response to someone’s death probably wouldn’t be to publicly dunk on their work when they can no longer respond. It’s basic politeness, either state your disagreement in a respectful way or don’t say anything at all.

@araujohistorian Your statement probably should have ended at 'human being', the rest is classless.

So I can write long ramblings on X. Let's do it: Historian Trevor Burnard passed away. I never met or exchanged with him. I read his work on Caribbean slavery and his book on the horrendous Thistlewood is important, and in my forthcoming book I cite his work. I hear that he was a good friend, mentor, and human being. This said Trevor Burnard was not a historian of global slavery or world slavery. He worked exclusively in English. His latest short book Writing the History of Global Slavery is a pity because he doesn't write history of global slavery so he should not be writing such a book. The bibliography of that book lists only the work of MALE scholars. Also, it's a pity that it was his last book, because in addition to not be a scholar of global slavery he used several pages of that book to trash the work of three esteemed scholars Marisa Fuentes, Saidiya Hartman and Jennifer Morgan. None of them write histories of global slaveries as well. Ironically, for some reason in Burnard's Google Scholar his most cited work (more than 1,000 citations) is the book of Stephanie Smallwood. Apparently he wrote a review of that book and Google Scholar listed it as his book. So his most cited work is indeed the work of a Black woman scholar, one that many of these white males trashed back in the time the book was published. #slaveryarchive

lmao

@EHChalus @colinrtalbot Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, Buttigieg would all be interesting picks. She can't pick Newsom as both from California.

@colinrtalbot I would love to see Gretchen Whittmer as VP, but suspect that having a two-woman team might be more than some voters could stomach (unfortunately). In that case Newsom? Buttegeig?

KAMALA HARRIS is the obvious choice now, but what about a VP running mate? Just think about this - how about a US “Popular Front” to Stop Trump? A liberal Republican or Independent? Nation over Party? Democracy over Autocracy? Decency over Disaster? Won’t happen but …

Chris: "This is huge history happening, isn’t it?" Spartacus Mills: "It’s bigger than that, Chris, it’s large. If you’ve got a history book at home, take it out, throw it in the bin – it’s worthless. The history books will now have to be rewritten."

Tonight reminiscent of this historic moment, of the most powerful person in the world voluntarily relinquishing that power: youtube.com/watch?v=CJeLoM…

An honour to welcome you to Downing Street, President @ZelenskyyUa 🇬🇧🇺🇦

A perfect song for a stormy night: youtube.com/watch?v=FI8d36…

Côte d'Ivoire 🇨🇮 has just introduced the malaria vaccine into its routine immunization schedule, becoming the first country in the African Region to administer the R21 malaria vaccine to children from the age of 6 months. The vaccine is safe, effective, and recommended by @WHO.

🗣️ "We're all really proud, the whole country is behind them." 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Neville speaks with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. #ESPENG | #Euro2024 | @GNev2

The wonderful Make Your Mark team out and about spreading awareness of living kidney donations 💜 @DonateaKidneyUK

@mpwarwick @WeHaveWaysPod Poor battleship technique!

An enjoyable romp through the Battle of North Cape via @WeHaveWaysPod this morning (albeit a few jarring moments with their unfamiliarity with naval warfare!) But an excellent excuse to post this photo, which is an excellent look at the difference between cruiser and battleship.