Nigel Whitfield

@nigelwhitfield.uk

317 Followers 165 Following

Former journalist, used to manage @bluf.social Here is mostly politics, food; fetish stuff on the alt. TERFs not welcome.

A man with an owl sitting on his hat
A St Michael edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare
A silver Citroën DS Pallas parked on a road in a cemetery
A Volvic branded plastic water bottle with an image of Princess Leia from Star Wars on the front
A tray containing raisin flapjack
A notification from the app for one of my smart bulbs, telling me about the world cup
A thermometer on a bus seat with a reading of 33.7
A cat lying on a bench on a hot day
A list of directory names, representing mailing lists.
A selection of headlines announcing the death of Anthony Head, all referring to Buffy and/or Ted Lasso. Except the Telegraph, which reports "Gold Blend man Anthony Head dies aged 72"
A screenshot from Royal Mail, informing users of changes to customs declarations coming into effect on Monday 1st June, 3 days after the message.
A tabby cat lies of flagstones
Our language is a marvel; the lingua-franca of many, it's the platform upon which so much else is built. One of the reasons for my company formation is the publication of various titles, through which I hope - like the BBC of old - to educate, entertain and inform. English is a beautiful thing; a language through which we can interpret thoughts as ancient as those of Aristotle, and as contemporary as Benjamin Zephania and Maya Angelou; it brings us the lyrical beauty of Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas, the majesty of the King James Bible, the vast breadth of Shakespeare. It shares with us visions of beauty from Wordsworth, the struggles depicted by Steinbeck, the political insight of Orwell. It offers uplifting words through songs born of slavery and defiance, awe and inspiration from Attenborough. The right words, chosen with care, can move us to great things; to fight for the betterment of others, to strive for a greater world, to great moments of compassion and unity. To conjure from such a heritage the grisly statement that "We're dedicated to easing your burden by delivering quality, actionable insights and content in various multimedia formats" is nothing short of an assault upon its dignity.
Screenshot of a Guardian article about the LA subway that starts with "Riding the D in Los Angeles"
A sign at St Bartholomew's Hospital, indicating the way to the Kenton Wing
A living room with sunlight shining through the windows
Six strips of film hanging from a door frame
Two identical children in hideous outfits from 1972
Two identical children stand on snowy ground, wearing similar outfits, except for different coloured hats.
A young man sites behind a mixing desk, talking into a microphone
Photo of a ReVox A77 reel to reel tape recorder
A picture of ballot papers for the elections in Hackney
The bottom of a jar of polenta, showing a use by date of 30 09 02
A store front labelled Korean food and culture hub
A white van parked between two rows of three garages, blocking access to all of them
A silver Citroën DS with black roof
Front cover of a 1962 edition of Casino Royale
A small frog - or maybe a toad - in the palm of someone's hand
“We must protect the children!” Actually, it’s not just the kids. Social media can be toxic in many ways. Age-gating is like saying “There’s shit and broken glass all over the living room floor. Tells the kids to stay in their rooms!” And then crunching and squelching your way through the mess as you go to watch your favourite soap-opera.
A set of shelves laden with books, a 1920s camera, a 1930s wireless, art deco coffee set, records, and an award for Fetish Organisation of the Year 2013
A fluffy cat walks across a shelving unit
A man stands next to a Citroën DS
A photograph of a 1939 Pilot "Twin Miracle" wireless set.
A scan of an old slide showing two small boys on a beach
A fluffy cat scaling a wardrobe
From cover of the Brooke Bond book of prehistoric animals
A Youth Hostel card from 1985, with a stamp from the Luxembourg hostel
Dublin port, in a storm
A scene from Withnail and I, captioned "We've elected a cunt by mistake"
A screenshot showing an innocuous reply to me : "We" are not as far as I know, directly at least, supplying arms to Iran It shows the message was marked as "rude" by the BlueSky moderation service
One week to go until the annual crop of “Blue Monday” articles It's all bollocks Blue Monday is based on a marketing campaign over 20 years ago to sell holidays. A university professor was paid to come up with an impressive looking equation for “the most depressing time of the year”, just to encourage people to book a trip to somewhere nice and warm.
A cat sitting on top of a radiator and the tail of another cat poking out beneath the curtains
As a young person in my 20s and 30s, I had faith that the Labour party would stick up for my rights as a gay man. As I approach the last years of my 50s, I am horrified to see that the party of which I was once a member now seems determined to leave on our community a stain as bad as Section 28.
Two cats curled up on the wooden seat above a radiator
A pile of LaserDiscs
I am becoming increasingly concerned about the awful language the BBC, including Radio 4, is using the describe transgender people.. There appears very much to be an attitude prevalent across the network that trans people should be harried and abused whenever possible. In particular, recent news reports about the Sandie Peggie case - a case which the claimant actually lost on most counts, winning only on some issues relating to the way the hospital handled it - was reported as being "partly won," giving the impression to many who don't follow these things that perhaps a ruling had been made banning trans people from changing rooms. Nothing could be further from the truth. And, in much of this reporting, one of the respondents, a trans woman, was referred to as "a biological man who identifies as a woman." Please, stop this grotestue, spiteful cruelty. This is not "precision." It is nothing other that nastiness for its own sake. We all know what you mean by "trans woman" or "transgender woman." This over-wrought construction seems designed purely to hammer home that the BBC doesn't think these people are who they say they are. It's vile and dehumanising. What next? As the policies of Reform become more popular, will you start referring to people as "an ethnic Nigerian who identifies as British" ? It's all to easy to imagine in the 1930s people referring to "ethnic Jews who identify as German," and we all know what that led to. This phrasing - which is heard so frequently it can only be some officially sanctioned construction - is repellent. It gives the lie to any idea that the BBC is in thrall to "trans rights activists." Quite the opposite - it shows just how much anti-trans groupthink affects Radio 4 and the Corporation more widely. Please, please stop this vile nonsense. It's demeaning, bullying and should have no place in a news service that claims to be impartial.
A photo of a tweet from Tory mad woman Susan Hall picturing a photo of a bag of gingerbread people biscuits. Hall, naturally, is mad they aren't men
An image - presumably AI generated - of a UK three pin plug socket in a wall. A small plug is inserted into the lower left hole of the socket
An envelope showing the end of an address in Colorado, United States, and a sticker "Return to sender - suspension of postal operations" The sticker bears the logo of Swiss Post
Photo of a cat sheltering from the rain on the shelf below a gas BBQ
A cat sitting right in front of a computer monitor
A fluffy cat sits at the edge of a pool of light cask by a lamp on a desk, appearing to stare through a window at a shadow on the wall.
Extract from Jeremy Black's apology for the British Empire, referring "black and trans people recruited from ex-soldiers" instead of Black and Tans
A promo video for the BLUF calendar
A storage create containing VHS copies of Blake's 7
A paperback book titled Talk around the word - your guide to Orange international roaming
Photo of a binder full off the first draft of the Official AOL UK Handbook
An image of a wall with a shallow trench dug to reveal part of the foundation