Petunia Winegum 💙

I had a gruesome 2018, then this time last year I was selected by @youngvictheatre as part of their inaugural year-long writing programme, mentored by the fab @EuphoricInk Play submitted, & this week my monologue will be performed at The Clare. To think I almost didn't apply...

Boris Johnson’s govt wasted £10bn of public PPE during the coronavirus pandemic, official inquiry concludes. Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, also criticised then Conservative govt's controversial “VIP lane” which gave high priority for PPE contracts to firms with political links to the Tories. Full story by @david_conn theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/j…

Not actually true. Jonathan Rose’s 2001 study, based on some 2000 working-class autobiographies, library records and archives, shows that (roughly between the advent of 19th C education reforms and the mid-century arrival of television), weavers at mills were reading Milton while butlers and maids were reading Proust. If the life of the mind is for freaks, then it turns out we all have the potential to be those freaks.

Two baby beaver kits have arrived at Ealing's Paradise Fields. Reintroduced in 2023 with Ealing Wildlife Group and Citizen Zoo, beavers are already stopping Greenford station from flooding and saving us money on infrastructure. Here’s what they’ve been up to 🦫

we lost so much when Ebert died. He was really serious about film and not at all serious about Ebert

The architect of the social media ban explains how smartphones are rewiring children's brains.

Brilliant.

@AmericanPapist Silent Witness!

My wife and I have been obsessed with British crime drama, especially historical drama ever since Foyle’s War. These are our top favorited (in no particular order): Inspector George Gently Vera Endeavour (outstanding) Foyle’s War Wallander Inspector Lewis Shetland Karen Pirie Dalgliesh (watching now) Have we missed any good ones? And yes, we have seen Broadchurch. Very different style than the above.

The public are sick of rhetoric that doesn't match lived reality. What good is 0.6% economic 'growth' if you can't eat decent food, catch a bus, or afford a home. Most people don't want politicians going weak at the knees about tech giants while our high streets are boarded up.

'Ice Cream Man.' In July 1911, after an artistic epiphany on honeymoon in Concarneau, Brittany and a chance meeting with the Irish artist, Roderic O'Conor, Alfred Wolmark embarked on the pioneering 'colourist' path that he followed for the next two decades of his working life.

If they want to scrap PIP we could always go back to DLA and basing it on the medical opinions of the doctors who actually treat the claimant and not some DWP decision maker with an NVQ L3 in health & social care and 3 weeks job training

Bonnie Tyler appearing to Carmel McQueen in a dream and the two of them belting out Holding Out for a Hero is one of the greatest things ever produced by a UK soap

WOW -- Danish reporter *goes there* with Mark Rutte "You sit next to Donald Trump at moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain -- things it doesn't seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?"

This emergency water tank (1942) was situated on Upper Thames Street in London; the dome of St Pauls Cathedral can be seen in the background. Charles Ginner was an admirer of Canaletto, his paintings of Venice he said, influenced this work.

A few days ago, Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh said these words to his lawyer: “This is the last time you will see me...they brought me here to kill me. I don't see myself surviving. This is the end”. This man is a paediatrician. (1/4)

Studies now present a striking picture of what happens when private equity firms acquire hospitals and nursing homes: predictable increases in harm and deaths. One landmark study shows: patient deaths up about 11% after such acquisitions.

We are very frightened as a society to admit how many people are sick after 2020.

EXCLUSIVE Nigel Farage failed to declare that a criminal and crypto gambler paid for his staff, security, drivers, social media output in year before election Reform leader has also received free accommodation in Westminster from George Cottrell as MP thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

@AndrewRoy70 Eurgh, awful

#gmb this morning . Four incredibly wealthy women casually chatting away at how best to cut benefits for people who have next to nothing. What a country eh

To give you an idea of how British politics has degraded into deranged radical-right lunacy, just consider what the public reaction would have been had a politician in the 60s or 70s proposed the following:

This is like losing part of your soul: 'In the last 50 years, Britain has lost an astonishing 73 million wild birds from its landscape, according to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). '“People engaging in nature today are going to think the numbers they are seeing are normal, particularly children. But if you go back 50 years, they would have been able to experience a much richer environment.”' theguardian.com/environment/20…