Ian Digby

@andrewmeyerson Surely you don't expect any thinking person to believe you are striking for all these long-winded altruistic reasons? You want more money. Fine, good luck, it will add to the superb pensions that you already get. Paid for by the taxpayer, your long-suffering patients.

Dear 🇬🇧, We junior doctors are set to launch the longest period of industrial action in NHS history as we go on strike for 5 consecutive days from 13 July. Striking is always a last resort but it's an absolute necessity right now. Here's why. Your NHS is collapsing because we don't have enough funds, staff, beds, and social care. We are in this position because we have a government that for the last 13 years intentionally engineered this crisis to push more people into private healthcare — never to improve your care, we all know that hasn't happened — but to profit from the breakup and privatisation of the NHS. 13 years ago, this government inherited the #1 ranked healthcare system in the world and look what damage they've done. You are now suffering on the longest waiting lists in NHS history at 7.4m people long. You are waiting longer than ever before to see a GP, to be seen in A&E, to get cancer care, or to get a hip replacement. All of these delays means that you and your family are not safe RIGHT NOW, even when not a single NHS worker is on strike. To illustrate just how bad the situation has become, an estimated 500 patients are dying every single week from preventable delays accessing NHS emergency care — that's now 12,500 dead patients so far in 2023 alone — and a huge contributor to those deaths is a lack of staff in every single part of the system. People are dying at home, on the backs of delayed ambulances, or in overcrowded A&E departments here in the 6th wealthiest country in the world. This is nothing short of criminal grade negligence from those in power for the last 13 years and you and your family, and all of my NHS colleagues, are paying the price. This is what it comes down to: This government does not give a damn about NHS patients or staff, and is content to allow your family and our colleagues to suffer while they bleed the NHS dry to support a growing private healthcare system for the wealthy, while working people suffer in a crumbling NHS. Rapid care for the rich. Delayed and denied care for the rest of us. So I ask you this: If our colleagues are leaving the profession in record numbers because our pay has been cut by nearly 32% in the last 15 years, if we're leaving in record numbers because it's become far too difficult to work in the NHS that is collapsing around us, if we're leaving in record numbers because far too many of our colleagues are killing themselves because it's too painful to watch our patients suffer from a government that has completely abandoned us all, then what should we do? In this situation, do we stay silent and watch people die? Do we stay silent as this government destroys your access to high quality healthcare? Do we stay silent as our colleagues take their own lives? Do we stay silent as they destroy our professions and force us all to leave the country? We NHS staff have a moral obligation to protect our patients, protect our professions, protect our colleagues, protect our communities, protect our NHS, and fight back in any way possible. If that means going on strike to highlight these problems and fight for the future of the NHS, then so be it. Indeed it's the most patriotic thing we can do. #SOSNHS

Twitter is a space populated largely by bullies and sheep repeating/bleating out their drivel. Just know this if you come here for companionship. Thankfully there are a few real gems too.

Abuse of experts must stop, says Whitty bbc.in/3XkSiTm

@BBCNews Thought I'd review the comments expecting much deluded, indignant bile from folk towards a man whose achievements far outweigh theirs. Was not disappointed.

@historyinmemes We're all living in a sealed terrarium! I KNEW it! Is that like the Matrix, only we're all gardeners?

In 1960, David Latimer planted a spiderwort sprout inside of a large glass bottle, added a quarter pint of water, and then sealed it shut. He opened the bottle 12 years later in 1972 to add some water and then sealed it for good. The self-contained ecosystem has flourished for more than 60 years. The garden is a perfectly balanced and self-sufficient ecosystem. The bacteria in the compost eat the dead plants and break down the oxygen that is released by the plants, turning it into carbon dioxide, which is needed for photosynthesis. The bottle is essentially a microcosm of Earth.

@atarijedi @SwipeWright But are they all accompanied by a threat to lose your job if you refuse?

UK doctor FIRED for not using patients' wrong sex pronouns. "It is believed to be the first time in the history of English law where a judge ruled that free citizens must engage in 'compelled speech' pertaining to transgender ideology." theepochtimes.com/christian-doct…

@thewittjones @CrossEyedPiano Don't worry. No machine however sophisticated can ever match the human creative soul. Perhaps it will instead free real musicians to create real music and help phase out the spurious 'music culture' beloved of powerful corporations and hapless wannabe celebrities.

This will end appreciation of good music among large amounts of society. It will also be the death knell of music education, which should be free for all anyway. And of course in the longterm it will displace musicians, if not replace them. Overall: its a terrible shame. 👇

@MichaelTakeMP These comments made me laugh so much it turned Twitter from its usual slag-off fest into an arena of brilliant comedy. Let's have more oldies reminiscing about 'ard times.

In my day we had mortgages with 16% interest rates, yes 16%!😱 Did we moan? No We got on with it. We went without luxuries like Netflix, Costa coffees, skunk, shellac, hot tubs & leggings. We grew our own concrete & our kids didn’t identify as cats. And we were happier for it!😡

@CompusMentis @MichaelTakeMP

@MichaelTakeMP Couldn’t agree more. One thing about growing concrete though - you have to be real careful. I used to have an allotment in Buckinghamshire Planted a good few rows and went on holiday. Was away for longer than expected and came back to find I had created Milton Keynes.

@ianhalstead @MichaelTakeMP 😂

@Dplanet @thedonmicky @chaysbrain @patcondell Interesting points. However, firstly I am not happy that reps were paid to slave owners nor that the loans have only just been paid off. Secondly you make my point for me: latter generations should not be paying for the evils of former ones.

@iansdigby @thedonmicky @chaysbrain @patcondell Yet you were happy for Britain to pay reparations to slave owners - a bill that we only finished paying in 2015? Is it ok to pay reparations as long as it’s not to the victims?

Millions of white people who never wanted to think about race have been given no choice but to think about it quite a lot, from a defensive standpoint. We hear ourselves constantly defined by our race, always negatively, as if we ought to be ashamed of it, and as if we deserve some sort of retribution for it. We can see that mass immigration from the non-white third world, coupled with compulsory anti-white racism in education, will lead to a very bad place for the next generation of white people, our children and grandchildren. And we’re wondering why we’re still being polite about it.

@Dplanet @thedonmicky @chaysbrain @patcondell 2/ of Africa and Europe? Modern Mexicans to the enslaved MesoAmericans of the 16th century? Should reparations be backdated to the 14th century? 18th? 19th? How is it fair to burden today's youth financially with the sins of their great, great........... grandparents?

@Dplanet @thedonmicky @chaysbrain @patcondell The question is: how far back do you go in history? Any reparations today would have to be paid for by people who had nothing to do with slavery. Should Italy pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people in the Roman Empire? The Muslim states of today to the peoples 1/

@Dplanet @chaysbrain @patcondell I read somewhere that according to the UN, there are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history.

@chaysbrain @patcondell There's a very material and well-documented difference between the industrial scale and brutality of the Transatlantic slave trade compared to the other forms of slavery that have existed in history.

@RichardDawkins Surely it is not right to be sharing on social media the events in a children's classroom.

Scroll down to the audio & marvel as the teacher from hell “scolds pupil for questioning . . .” The girl stands up bravely & intelligently to obnoxious bullying by the scientifically illiterate teacher (who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near children). dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

@rainnwilson Dino-tome

@andreajenkyns Everyone who thinks the UK political system is democratic, in any but the tiniest sense, should read How Westminster Works, by @IanDunt. Warning: you may be disturbed.

In memory of Mona Mahmoudnejad, 17, executed on 18 June 1983 for her belief in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality—absent and criminalized in Iran—as well as unity, justice and truthfulness. #OurStoryIsOne #داستان_ما_یکیست

Today marks 40 years since 10 Bahá'í women were hanged for refusing to renounce their beliefs in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality. Join the two-hour event starting at 5:30 GMT tonight by posting using #OurStoryIsOne

True story. To commemorate 40th anniversary of the horrific injustice done to the 10 Bahá’í women of Shiraz 18th of June 1983 @TinySpeck_ & I made this. Pippa Walton mirrors the last days of the life of Mona Mahmoudnizhad who was hanged aged 17. #OurStoryIsOne #GenderEquality