Dot Kronda

Impossible to overstate the importance of Jenni Murray to the movement of women that changed our politics, economy & our society; that changed our lives. She was the broadcasting wing of the women’s movement. We all owe her. RIP. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@InterfloraUK - just received a planter gift for Mother’s Day. Not one plant was still in the planter - 75% of the soil was in the bottom of the box - it certainly hadn’t been handled with care by DPD - so disappointing!

@CaptBlackSK4 @MichaelRosenYes He wasn’t popular in Wales either because of how he treated the miners.

@MichaelRosenYes We've been taught Churchill was great, but I doubt the Indians or Irish would agree. If he were around now, I'd seriously dislike him, as does my 88 year-old mother.

On Question Time last night, various people wanted to point out that Churchill was (is?) the greatest Briton of all time (and versions thereof), but nobody pointed out that at the height of his alleged greatness, the British people voted him out. Why?

Meet Mackenzie Bly (not his real name; see back cover). I wanted to write something purely funny, but I fell in love with my lead character along the way. It's out in August, but the lovely proofs have just arrived. Retweet before tomorrow (Sun) evening, and I'll pick 2 winners.

@TheAttagirls I can highly recommend Elsie & Mairi go to war by Diane Atkinson

Woman of the Day WW1 nurse and ambulance driver Mairi Chisholm, born OTD in 1896 in Nairn, Scotland, whose courage in tending to injured soldiers a mere 100 yards from the front line of Ypres made her one of the most decorated women of the war. It is impossible to talk of Mairi without also talking about nurse Elsie Knocker born in 1884 in Exeter. The two were known as The Angels of Pervyse and they treated British, Belgian and German soldiers alike. Mairi’s family moved to Dorset when she was a girl. Her older brother was a motorcycle enthusiast and she persuaded her father to buy her a Douglas motorcycle too. She learnt how to strip down the machines and repair them. Aged 18, she encountered 30-year-old Elsie who shared her passion for motorcycling, and they competed in motorcycle and sidecar trials together. When war was declared in 1914, Elsie felt the call of duty and persuaded Mairi to go with her to London to become despatch riders for the Women's Emergency Corps. Mairi rode her motorcycle from Dorset to London and was spotted making hairpin corners by Dr Hector Munro who had set up the Flying Ambulance Corps to help Belgians after the German Army invaded Belgium. “He was deeply impressed with my ability to ride through the traffic. He traced me to the Women's Emergency Corps and...said, 'Would you like to go out to Flanders' and I said 'Yes, I'd love to'." In late September 1914, Mairi and Elsie left for Belgium and spent the first few weeks on the Yser front where they collected bodies and transported them back to base hospitals but by October they had moved nearer Dunkirk, bringing wounded soldiers by ambulance from the battlefield to military hospitals. When the beds ran out, the dead piled up - "No one can understand…unless one has seen the rows of dead men laid out. One sees men with their jaws blown off, arms and legs mutilated” - and Mairi and Elsie realised that many men were dying of shock on the journey to hospital because they were not receiving vital first aid. It was not considered fitting for women to be exposed to the dangers of the frontline but in November, they left the FAC and set up a first aid post in a cellar in a badly damaged house north of Ypres, only 100 yards from the trenches. The Poste de Secours Anglais (British First Aid Post) was their home for the next three and a half years. The local water was contaminated so they had to import barrels of water from England and could eat only canned food. They worked long hours under bombardment, shot at by snipers, for months at a time while they treated and saved hundreds of wounded men, often carrying them over their shoulders to their first aid post, including wounded Germans. The people of Sutton Coldfield donated a Wolseley ambulance and Mairi risked her life on a nightly basis, driving the wounded soldiers from the front line at Pervijze to the base hospital. Between 1915 and 1917, she transported 1,500 casualties. Mairi and Elsie were totally free agents who had to raise their own funds. Luckily they had a camera and began photographing the Front, securing them space in British newspapers, and as their fame grew, so did the funds for their first aid post. They returned to London on fundraising tours, riding a sidecar outfit and collecting money, socks and hats for the soldiers as well as tobacco and cigarettes. The press loved them. Proximity to a nearby Belgian garrison gained them an official attachment to the Belgian military. In March 1918, Pervyse was bombarded with gas shells. The women’s dog woke them in time for them to put on their gas masks, but he died and they were invalided home. Mairi was able to return briefly to Pervijze before being gassed again. She was by then only 22 years old. When she returned to Britain, she saw out the rest of the war with Elsie as members of the newly formed Women’s Royal Air Force. Mairi took up car racing after the war, but her injuries from the gas attack had weakened her heart and she was advised to take life easy. She died in 1981, aged 85.

@TheAttagirls Such a shame the arboretum at Batheaston no longer exists.

Woman of the Day suffragette and paid organiser of the Women’s Political and Social Union, Katherine Douglas Smith, born in 1878 in London, planted a Douglas fir OTD in 1910 at Eagle House, Batheaston. She was noted for her imaginative protests in the cause of women’s suffrage. Katherine was a key speaker at the WPSU’s Hyde Park rally on 21 June 1908, an event organised by its treasurer Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence of Bristol, and the first one in which the suffragette colours featured. In the two days leading up to the rally, over 10,000 green, white and purple scarves were sold at two shillings and elevenpence each (£14.90 in today’s money) and male supporters wore ties to match. In October 1908, Katherine was involved in the attempt to "rush" the House of Commons. It was unsuccessful. The next attempt was planned more carefully. On 24 January 1909, she took a taxi with two other women to Downing Street which wss cordoned off by police officers following an earlier demonstration, but somehow she managed to persuade the police officers to let her through and the taxi drove right up to the door of No 10. Katherine was arrested and later imprisoned for a month at HMP Holloway with Mary Jane Clarke, younger sister of Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline was so concerned about their treatment at Holloway that she alerted the editor of The Manchester Guardian. He visited them. Katherine asked "to be allowed the use of pencil or pen or note book in order that those studies which I am able to make here – being allowed French, German and History books – may be furthered." I’m not surprised. There was no “meaningful activity” for prisoners then other than “associated labour” which meant making nightgowns or knitting men’s socks in silence, a bath once a week, and if they were lucky, a visit to the poorly stocked prison library with its religious tracts. Supper at 5pm consisted of a pint of cocoa with thick grease on top, plus a small brown loaf. Did it put her off? It did not. In October 1908, Katherine and her partner-in-crime Maud Joachim held up traffic on The Strand by riding two black horses up and down with banners advertising a suffragette meeting at the Royal Albert Hall. In August 1909, learning that the Prime Minister HH Asquith would address an audience at an event at Bletchley Park, four suffragettes climbed into the grounds and hid in trees near the marquee where he was due to speak. On his arrival, they rushed forward with megaphones shouting, "When are you going to give justice to women?" while one of them chained herself to a tree. Katherine was outside the wall but climbed over and ran towards the marquee, chased by twelve men. She was ejected. She died sometime after 1947, but in the photo below, you can see Katherine addressing a large crowd of dock workers in Portsmouth in 1909 or 1910. She’s holding their attention and you just know what her message to them was. Votes For Women.

@HotpointSupport we have tried to ring you without success to ask about our recently purchased fridge freezer which is icing up on the freezer door, around the seal and the drawer fronts. Do we need to request an engineer?

#ocado - just had a delivery - struggling to understand why everything was so wet in the bags. I’ve had to remove all the packaged veg - dry the veg and repackage them. The packaging of the steak pie I ordered was so wet I had to remove the pie - what’s going on!

@Ocado - every single apple in the bag is bruised - would you want to eat these?

@jennyurquhart @FeistyLibLady He did - the arrogance of the man is staggering!

@FeistyLibLady Did he just say that without USA "right now you would all be speaking German"... whilst doing a speech in Davos, Switzerland

In Davos Trump is showing the entire world how insane he really is. "After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But how ungrateful are they now?" America has lost all respect across the world, except for the countries lead by strongmen. #DemsUnited

Quote: 'Did you know when I was 16, the government made an agreement with me, that if I paid National Insurance every week, they would give me a pension when I was 60 I kept my end of the deal and am still paying in!! On the 5th and 6th of June, the UK Government may be made to give back the right to retire at 60 to all those women who worked and paid their National Insurance. Currently their pension payout is delayed until 66 or 67 depending on date of birth. We all know that the pension age for women born in the sixties has been raised. Did you know a campaign called ‘Back to 60 Movement’ has won the right to a Judicial Review and is taking the DWP to the High Court? On the 5th and 6th June they will attempt to get women justice over non consultation in raising the pensionable age to 66 and above. Michael Mansfield QC will lead the case and the argument for the movement. However, there does not appear to be any media coverage regarding this significant event. That is why we’re raising the awareness now. Let's hope for justice rightly deserved. There appears to be a media blackout on this issue, which suggests that the government have put a block on the media reporting it. So let’s use social media for what it’s good at - share the hell out of this. Come on ladies - this is worth a great deal to you!' PLEASE, PLEASE COPY AND PASTE

@jimscottphoto @LissaKEvans Thanks for posting such a beautiful photo of a special part of the country - I just love Northumberland

Alnwick, looking like a ‘dreamscape’.

@ShobnaGulati So sad to hear this news - I loved her as Joan in Early Doors

Devastating news . What a beautiful spirit and friend and funny, funny woman with the rare ability to make you laugh and to cry , effortlessly brilliant . Heartbreaking 💔

This is 💯 true 👇

@bettyredondo I’m with you Betty - I just don’t get it!

There really is an inevitability about a George victory in this year’s #Strictly - I don’t even know how this happened or why. But I feel totally alienated from the show for the first time since it started. Cos I simply do NOT get his appeal or why people are voting for him.

@bettyredondo @TessDaly @ClaudiaWinkle We were in the audience the 1st show Claudia did after her daughters accident. She was clearly (& understandably so) feeling fragile. Tess was so kind to her and off camera was so gentle & caring with her. They clearly have a very special bond.

What a FANTASTIC tribute to @TessDaly @ClaudiaWinkle on #ItTakesTwo this evening. Loved the old clips & recollections. We love a “journey” on #Strictly & these two women have dominated Saturday night TV for years. They’ll be an incredibly hard act to follow. Marvellous show👏👏

Situated in the picturesque rural north-east of Wiltshire, and surrounded by the stunning North Wessex Downs National Landscape, Marlborough offers a unique blend of modern attractions and rich heritage. bit.ly/3WNhqEc

@Lucy_Worsley Loving the footwear!

'Good purchase,' said my friend back in England, 'you'll get a lot of wear out of that.'

Someone asked me what the Italian equivalent would be of my BAVARIAN HAT. The answer is my new VENETIAN DOMINO, an all-enveloping disguise cloak.

Mariella Frostrup, "I just don't know when we started dehumanising people to the extent that we do now" >Huge clap< *In response to Nadine Dorries's long rant on leaving the ECHR and using the Royal Navy to address Farage's Brexit Small Boats Arrivals* "I find it really shocking" "Imagine if nobody wanted to come here then we'd really be depressed by Britain as a nation" "Of course it is an issue. But we've decreased our budget for international development" "We have a completely shambolic asylum system" "You talk about people coming here illegally, but what are the legal routes?" "We still don't have proper legal routes" Nadine Dorries, "We do" Mariella Frostrup, "Explain. I'm a woman in Congo. I'm one of the 80,000 women who has been raped as a result of the conflict going on there. I need to escape. My family has been wiped out. What's my legal way of applying to join my sister who is in the UK?" *Nadine Dorries goes silent* "It is impossible, our system is broken" "The way we talk about people trying to come here, and the way we completely ignore the dilemmas that they face. And the fact that we have been instrumental in a lot of those conflicts" "What happened to Afghanistan? When we were determined that people from Afghanistan could come here because of the way they supported us during that war" "And now we're talking about them as if they're rubbish on the street" "I think it's a shame we're allowing Reform UK to set the tone and the agenda and the way we talk about illegal immigrants" *Nadine Dorries is now biting her lips* >Another huge clap<