Lesley McDowell
@lesleymcdowell.bsky.social
Author of LOVE AND OTHER POISONS 'enthralling, a beautifully structured tale' The Scotsman; CLAIRMONT 'Riveting...clever portrait of a fascinating woman' The Times @wildfirebooks.bsky.social Repd by @sheilland.bsky.social ExJoycean Still Glaswegian she/her
NOT NOW, SUPER SPREADER SHIPS www.rawstory.com/strait-of-ho...
'Worst case scenario' likely as ships trapped by Trump's war could spur 'super spreader'
Stalled ships near the Strait of Hormuz amid President Donald Trump's Iran war threaten more than just oil markets as scientists warn idling vessels could trigger an invasive species "super-spreader e...
rawstory.com
This highlights a profound impact of Trump — the further normalization of violence against women. Trump got elected in spite of his long history of violence against women. He is not held accountable when he continues to abuse women. 1/2
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 9h agoMax Miller on why he's staying in the race: "When we go back to 2015 and 2016, & people in the media looked at President Trump, & everyone came out with allegations. Dozens of women, dozens of crazy allegations, dozens of nasty criminal misconduct. And you know what he did? He stayed in the fight."
Once again, I come back to the fact these guys have created a situation where one of the UK's leading, cis female athletes is scared to go to the loo alone, and the fact that they are celebrating this as a step forward for women's rights.
Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 15h agoOur code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx
I hope someone does accuse me of using AI because I could BORE for Scotland on every aspect of my creative process. Notes? Here, meet my collection of notebooks, let me guide you page by page...
The novel 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier was published on this day (05 August) in 1938. Our collections include several items relating to 'Rebecca', such as this notebook, which contains chapter outlines for the novel. 📷 EUL MS 144/1/1/4 #OnThisDay #OTD #Archives #LiteraryArchives #DuMaurier
New in PN: Jeanine Pirro crashes into the limit of Trump's lies "Did Pirro genuinely believe the scales would fall from Trump’s eyes if she showed him some pictures from the Park Service proving his contractor was at fault for the wrecked pool? This is Donald Trump we’re talking about!"
Jeanine Pirro crashes into the limit of Trump's lies
It's one thing to bullshit on Fox. It's another to lie in court.
publicnotice.co
A 'tattie-bogle' is traditionally a figure dressed in old clothes, used to discourage birds, mostly crows, from damaging ripening crops, a scarecrow. In folklore, it's a type of goblin, menacing any human entering such fields #wyrdwednesday #Scotland
What can screenwriters learn from Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY? In the latest edition of 5AM StoryTalk, I break down the storytelling decisions that transformed a 2,700-year-old myth into a devastating study of our own civilization's collapse. ✍️ Read more at the link in the first comment...
Trans men can have a penis @mrjamesob.bsky.social They can also use urinals. And, while we are here, trans men are banned from the men's AND The women's under this update.
Let's talk about JK Rowling's 'bearded men'... I want to vent something that's been on my mind: The way transphobic groups and individuals are also actively homophobic. I've experienced it first hand, and know many others have too. 1/
"Last came Anarchy: he rode On a white horse, splashed with blood; He was pale to the lips, Like Death in the Apocalypse. And he wore a kingly crown; And in his grasp a sceptre shone; On his brow this mark I saw— 'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'" Happy birthday, Percy.
Today the most markedly hostile anti-trans regulation ever conceived in the UK goes into force - creating legal chaos and an environment of suspicion and hostility targeted at anti-trans segregation with a blast radius that will hit everyone else as well. It is unworkable, unenforceable, and cruel.
Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 15h agoOur code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
Rod Liddle nearly got the Spectator prosecuted for contempt of court for saying the trial of two of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers would not be fair. They were convicted. The Spectator was fined £3000 a fraction of their annual garden party drinks bill I bet.
Mic Wright@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 2d agoNEW | A corrective to the gushing tributes… LIDDLE TO BE CELEBRATED An honest obituary for Rod Liddle, dead at 66, dead inside for many years before that. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/liddle-to-...
‘Right now, the trans and nonbinary community is fighting many of the same tabloid lies and legal obstacles thrown at lesbians, gay men and bisexuals since for ever. We are unnatural, we are a danger to children, we spy on you in toilets.‘ On solidarity, Pride and visibility.
Damian Barr@damianbarr.bsky.social · 4d agoI wrote about Berlin and Pride and solidarity, especially within our community. I hope it helps. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
What? I've read 40% of a book in the past ... morning. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
New poll finds 40% of Britons have not read a book in the past year
The median British adult has read or listened to three books in the past 12 months with reading habits also split along gender, class and political divides
theguardian.com
This is the point that should be made over and over again in the prison overcrowding row. The focus is on releasing violent male prisoners but the majority of female prisoners are not a threat to the public - and should always have been given community orders.
‘The world is burning. Fascism is rising. Countries are falling. And we’re on the brink of incredible technological change, which will either be the end of everything or a new beginning. So, who needs artists?’ We do 🧡 www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
‘They had everything, then nothing’: the prodigies the art world forgot
Robert Colquhoun and Bobby MacBryde were once the golden boys of London’s art scene – photographed in Vogue, filmed by Ken Russell and lauded by Francis Bacon. So why did they vanish into obscurity?
theguardian.com
French forces held a fierce defensive perimeter around Dunkirk and lost 18,000 souls. 40,000 became POWs. Without their resolve we wouldn’t have our nation’s story. It’s estimated 20-60k French resistance fighters died during the war. These fuckers really are vile bastards 😡😡
#TravelTuesday & we’re looking back on the travels of John Garstang. This glass plate negative was taken at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, and shows a woman standing in front of the famous caryatids of the Erechtheion. We’re not sure of the woman’s identity or when the picture was taken.
🔴 NEW 🔴 Campaigners are now demanding a parliamentary investigation into Reform MP Sarah Pochin following a donation to her office by food industry millionaires. 📝 @desmog.com & @goodlawproject.org report 👇🏻
Investigate Reform MP Over Donation, Campaigners Demand
Sarah Pochin, Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, is facing pressure over a £5,000 donation from food industry millionaires that stand to benefit from her campaigning. According to an investigation ...
desmog.com
Could it be that Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe are all swimming in the same cesspit looking for candidates?
once again, my favorite piece of wait, what? movie trivia: The cultured speaking voice that Debbie Reynolds provides for Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain is actually Jean Hagen's own speaking voice. (And the cultured singing voice is Betty Noyes's.)
was it always misogyny? always has been dot GIF
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d agoAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
A royal Tudor link? 😀 The amazing array of ornate woodwork in the Church of St. Leonard, Old Warden, Bedfordshire, which was installed here in the 1840’s, includes some that may have come from a private chapel of Anne of Cleves. If you zoom in you’ll see the AC monogram 🤩
I follow craig around social media websites letting people know that revenge porn laws exist because of him and it makes him really mad
Roger (6’5”)@iamtherog.com · 2w agoDoes everyone here know that @craigbrittain.com, who is currently masquerading as an anti-MAGA warrior, was fined in 2016 for operating a revenge porn website? A *lot* of y’all follow him. ⚠️ Marked as unsafe. ⚠️ www.ftc.gov/news-events/...
Claudia Severa (born 11 September in the first century) was a literate Roman woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda fort in northern England. #CelebratingWomen
