Send us Fan Mail

Suella Lagerman and Operation Raging Bull 

Suella Lagerman popped into the war room to encourage her crack military officers in their efforts. General Dunking-Smith threw his commanding officer a smart salute and returned his attention to the large map of the battleground laid out over the trestle table which had been donated by Lord Witherspoon of Coney Hatch. Operation Raging Bull had begun.

On the table, realistic little farm animals donated by a well-known Regent Street toy shop were assembled around the China model of Cenotaph. The map indicated the planned deployment of the Anti-Hate troopers in Operation Raging Bull. 

Across the room, members of the Common Sense Conservatives group were putting the finishing touches to Suella’s Xmas card which read. ‘Spending Christmas in a stable is a life-style choice’.

Standing alongside Dunking-Smith was her Chief Comms  officer,  Miriam Catswhisker, handling the flow of information from active service units around the country. 
‘The Karate Kids are mobilised’ she reported pointing to the little black and white cows on the map. ‘They plan to hijack football coaches at Motorway service stations before proceeding to the Cenotaph. The little brown chickens are the Saxon ultras who are trained cage fighters'.

Dunking-Smith was prodding his phone with a podgy index finger. 
:A message received from code name Jam Jar. He says his crack troops are on their way and are already approaching London’, 
On their way?
A puzzled look appeared on his Commander in Chief’s noble features.  ‘On their way? They should still be avoiding drawing attention to themselves. What’s Jam 
Jar playing at? He’s drawing attention to himself again by arriving early.’
Dunking-Smith flinched at the glare known to addle the brain of anyone coming into direct contact with it. 
Suella had always had suspicions about the loyalty of Jam Jar, leader of the Anglo-Saxon Purity League. His stint in prison had failed as a recruitment plan to his outfit.  But it had given him publicity that in the past had drawn attention away from herself as the President for Life in waiting of the New United Kingdom of Brexonia. Not that she was sure yet about the provisional name suggested by Dunking-Smith. She hadn’t given up completely on Suellaland, but that was a battle for the future. 
He was babbling now, trying to avoid eye contact. Idiot...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

@johnestephens
Just when you thought you'd heard it all....
Boris Johnson asked scientists if you could kill Covid by blowing hairdryer up nose
@Tudortweet
If I’d been asked which politician came up with the question, I’d have said 100% Donald Trump!
@PippaLeuven
Trump: drink disinfectant.
Johnson: blow hairdryer up nose.
Honestly, even a 5 year-old would know better...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

How to Rescue a Hedgehog

My hedgehog sensitivity has deepened since I had a series of evening visits from one during the summer. It made a purposeful trek across the garden always from the same direction, returning equally purposefully a few minutes later. 

I learned how much love there is for hedgehogs, from an extended message on X formerly known as Twitter by @Hedgehog Cabin, a small hospital charity for sick, injured and orphaned wild hedgehogs.

When I called HC to learn more, It became clear I was in danger of holding up other more serious calls so I decided to report in full the advice I had gleaned from Twitter, and the helpline.

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

An article captured my attention recently: ‘Rat race: rodents use imagination to navigate their environment’.

The article in the Guardian, Friday third November, 2023, reported findings from a research study from the Howard Hughes medical Institute, Maryland, USA.

The researchers claimed that the study is the first to show animals can flexibly activate the brain’s  representations of places distant from its current location. The technicalities of the research follows classic rat- based studies in which the rodents were monitored for learning skills.

In this case the skills required accessing information of previous experiences stored in the hippocampus. One of the researchers stated “what is clear is that the rats can control neuronal activity of the hippocampus neurons to earn a reward”.

For better or for worse, I accessed my own hippocampus neurons and began thinking about the memory skills of chess players. There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence reporting the skills of top chess players in assimilating data and accessing it in rather the way the rats were described as recalling information previously stored in a brain location associated with memory ...

Reference details

The article can be found in the current edition of the Science journal under the title ‘Volitional activation of remote, place representations with a hippocampal brain – machine interface’ , Nov, 2023, Vol382, pp566-573, lead author Changxi Lai

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh5206

TR

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

In a recent podcast I talked about Chess Tantrums. The subject cropped up again this week, with examples from my two favourite games, chess and tennis. I’m concentrating on the tennis  outbursts of Andy Murray and the chess rants of Magnus Carlsen ...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

Wit and Wisdom October 24-31, 2023

@Kangeroos991
Well done Scotland. Protester holding a placard saying ‘Scotland hated Trump before it became fashionable’.

@SayeedaWarsi
To Hamas I say End the violence and Let them Go 
To Israel I say End the Occupation and Let them Live 
#CeasefireNow 
@TonySpeight1
This lady is one of the few relatively recent appointments to the HoL. She deserves her seat and the country is better for her common sense interventions.

@JudithArnott
'Arnopp's #Tudor books have kept me enthralled through lock down. I would recommend them to anyone interested in Tudor history.'  
@Tudor tweet
Your books look interesting. I must confess I found out about them while looking for a different set of Tudor books 

@waynemeadows
The @PBS show “Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” was terrible. It was a very one sided liberal cry session that wasn’t really about his takeover at all.  It was two hours I’ll never get back ...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

Defender or Enemy of Free Speech? Review of ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover’ on PBS

The PBS programme screened in the U.K. on 29 October 2023 revealed Elon Musk as both a defender and an enemy of free speech.

Some of us Twitter users are in a state  of denial over the brutal cutting down of our favourite Social Media platform by its ruthless new owner Elon Musk. His act of Twittercide shows a disregard for the affections of users both for the now defunct little blue bird and for the compatibility of brand name and symbol. 

Clearly, Mr Musk has  total self-confidence in his business decisions. After all, haven’t they made him compete so successfully in the Croesus competition recently, outperforming other super billionaires such as Bill Gates, King Charles the third, and the assorted highnesses of the Gulf States?

In October 2020 in the run-up to the presidential election, Twitter made an unprecedented move temporarily to block tweets on the New York Post’s news story about Hunter Biden‘s laptop. The tweets were judged both unreliable and potentially damaging the the election success of President Biden,

President Trump lost the election, and used the censorship by Twitter as evidence of the big steal. 

The Twitter content team warned against the Twitter site being used to encourage an insurrection. Trump was temporarily blocked by Twitter.  Musk called the block a great mistake which had undermined his belief in Twitter, calling it an example of ‘the woke mind virus’.  His anti woke attacks made him a popular free speech advocate. In 2022, Twitter blocked a Musk platform, the Babylon Bee, an outlet for the free speech views. Musk began his move to take over Twitter. At first it was a friendly business relationship.  He was about to join the board when further dispute led him announce a hostile takeover.
Within a month he announced his arrival in a a typical off-beat way. ‘Let that sink in’. 
He couched his intentions accompanying this quirky tweet with a video of himself carrying a kitchen sink ...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

Who are your friends, and should your boss know.

I interrupt the planned agenda of the Didsbury Lit & Phil Society to gather views on a news item from ITV about disclosing workplace friends to their HR department.

The meeting is reported unedited. Extraneous noises are due to late-arriving members and supplies of coffee. There was some confusion about the recording of the meeting as some members had been engaged in their own conversations as I set the scene.

Listeners may find some of the discussion disturbingly frank about workplace practices. 

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

The Great Fruit Fly battle. A New Weapon in the Fight.

A public service broadcast on dealing with a fruit fly invasion. Views expressed are personal and should not be acted on as if backed by expert authority.

After nearly three months of intensive battle, the invading army of fruit flies are being driven out of the stronghold established in my  kitchen area.

It has been a savage fight to the death. Some months ago the advance troops arrived. Many were kamakazi flies arriving in squadrons seeking death by appearing and plunging to destruction shortly after I had poured a glass of Budgeon’s red. 

I estimate the average number arriving on a mission and getting through to their target were around six. I refuse to grant them success in ruining my drinks, so I estimate I have swallowed approximately 200 flies since early summer.

The neighbourhood fly watch reported similar attacks on fresh fruit left exposed to the invading forces in nearby kitchens. 

An action group was assembled drawn from members of the Lapwing Literary and Philosophical Society, who also drew on the scientific expertise of my neighbour Dr Glycol ...

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com

Send us Fan Mail

Wit and wisdom of the Website formerly known as Twitter.  October 20, 2023

An excessive number of tweets recently have been about the Israel/Gaza situation. I will deal with that topic elsewhere. Here are a few more humorous posts. Some are in longer ‘threads’ than usual: 

@simonharris_mbd
Let me be very clear regarding my baby formula fundraiser, as I keep seeing people moaning about what parents spend their money on. 
I don’t care if it’s other household essentials. 
I don’t care if it’s alcohol. 
I don’t care if it’s cigarettes. 
I don’t care if it’s drugs. 
I don’t care if it’s Sky. 
I don’t care if it’s Costa. 
I don’t care if it’s depleted uranium. 
I don’t care if it’s not-yet-depleted uranium. 
I don’t care if it’s some sort of ‘halfway’ uranium where you get a small discount if it’s only depleted a little bit. 
NO INNOCENT BABY DESERVES TO GO HUNGRY 
@ostarali 
Sorry, I don’t understand. Real baby milk comes for free!  My two children never had a drop of formula and never went hungry. Both now fit, strong, healthy young adults.
@mike_paxman
My formula has gone off because I stored it next to my uranium. Will I be eligible for more?

• Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! 
• Email [email protected] to sign up!

• Follow Tudor on Twitter @Tudortweet
• Follow Tudor's blogs:
• everydaycreativity.uk
• leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com