'Someone Should Have Saved Me From The Consequences Of My Own Actions!'

Emma Dyer remembers the moment she clicked "buy now" on a set of weight‑loss jabs she found online. She had no medical consultation, no ID checks, and no questions about her history of anorexia and bulimia. "It was just so easy - too easy," she says. "They never asked for my medical history or what medication I was taking. It was like buying groceries."

Except you weren't ordering cornflakes and crackers, and you knew that.

Within days of taking the injections, Emma collapsed on her bathroom floor and thought she was going to die.

She didn't, Reader. She survived to deman ACTION! on her behalf.

Emma had a history of eating disorders. She says she had reached a healthy weight, felt stable, and was working in a job she enjoyed. But a single comment from a customer who she said told her "you looked a lot better when you were skinnier", sent her spiralling.

Oh, well.  

The 40-year-old, from Carlton in Nottinghamshire, said the website she used offered no safeguards. She says it only asked for her body mass index (BMI), which she was able to lie about. "If they'd checked my medical history with my GP, I don't think I would've been eligible," she says. "My BMI was normal. I just wasn't in the right headspace to make a logical decision."

And a website is supposed to know that?  

When the injections arrived back in March 2024, the instructions were "poorly printed", Emma says. Not realising she needed to start on a low dose, she injected a medium one.

So she can't read either. 

She has now decided to share her story in the hope others will think twice before ordering weight-loss jabs online.

I've no intention of thinking even once about ordering medication (after self-diagnosing) from the Internet, thanks. Because I'm not a moron. 

It Shouldn't Be A Competitive Sport!

Every January, thousands of readers log on to Goodreads, Instagram or TikTok and make the same declaration: this is the year I read 50 books. Or 75. Or 100. Screenshots of spreadsheets circulate, templates for tracking pages and percentages are downloaded, friends publicly pledge to “do better” than they did last year.

Why? They aren't, can't be, reading for pleasure. Not if this is what's driving them.  

The appeal is obvious: in a distracted age, reading can easily become crowded out by work, screens and fatigue. Literacy rates in the UK are stagnating: in 2024, around 50% of UK adults read regularly for pleasure, down from 58% in 2015.

What they are describing doesn't seem too pleasurable to me. I love Goodreads for its options to recommend books, and see what others are reading, not for any competitive reducing of reading to a numbers game!

As the UK launches its National Year of Reading, a steady drumbeat of commentary has framed the decline of book culture as a civilisational crisis. Columnists have painted lurid pictures of a post-literate society, in which the shrinking cultural centrality of books represents a slow unravelling of the habits that once underpinned modern public life. In this context, reading targets promise discipline and a sense of progress.

The death of great authors like the sadly missed Dan Simmons at the weekend isn’t helping! 

But do yearly reading goals actually help us read better, or do they risk hollowing out the very activity they claim to protect?

The latter, I fear. What say you, Reader? 

I Don't Care That A Career Hammer-User Saw A Nail...

The BBC later apologised, attributing the outburst to involuntary verbal tics associated with TS and adding that the language was “not intentional”. This is now another very difficult moment for the BBC: what was its judgment, should the epithet have remained audible in a pre-recorded broadcast. Clearly, it should not. One hopes someone will apologise soon to Jordan and Lindo.

Yes, it's the BAFTA Tourettes thing again, an incident which has galvanised every race hustler and activist  out there... 

But what unsettled me most unsettles me still. I was disturbed by the word, of course. It remains abhorrent and I don’t use it. It carries, in this context, a history drenched in violence and dehumanisation.

And it was used by someone with a disability, a fact you yourself can't explain away: 

The medical facts are clear. Coprolalia, a symptom experienced by a minority of people with TS, can involve the involuntary utterance of socially taboo language. Neurologists are clear that such tics are not expressions of belief or intent. They are not intentional - and not deliberate. Disability advocates rightly warn against stigmatising those who live with the condition.

But you can't let an opportunity go to waste just because of a few inconvenient facts, can you? 

But two truths can exist at once. A neurological condition can be real and worthy of understanding, and yet the harm or hurt caused by a racial epithet such as this – at a time like this – can be real. I have reported on race throughout my 14-year career, from discriminatory policing and hostile environment policies to the creeping mainstreaming of xenophobic rhetoric as we heard, for example, in Keir Starmer’s island of strangers speech.

And you've spotted another nail to swing your hammer at. *yawns* 

Oh, Trump, He Isn't Even Neville Chamberlain...

 

Sir Keir was also under fire closer to home as Britain yesterday scrambled to protect its RAF base on Cyprus, which was hit by a suicide drone thought to have been fired by Tehran's proxies late on Sunday night.The UK was left embarrassed as military minnow Greece will have warships in position to protect RAF Akrotiri days before the Royal Navy will be anywhere near the danger zone.And Sir Keir announced that Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon, along with helicopters with counter-drone capabilities, would head to the Mediterranean only after Emmanuel Macron ordered a French frigate to the region.

Sir Francis Drake will join Nelson in his graveyard revolutions, no doubt.

Former Royal Navy Falklands conflict commander Rear Admiral Chris Parry decried Labour's 'strategically illiterate' approach to the crisis.

Thank god this spineless weasel wasn't in power - or rather, in a seat at No10, when the Argentinians got out of hand.

He told the Daily Mail: 'The Government has been shamed into this token, paltry effort by the actions of other countries such as France and Greece. 'As a proud maritime country, our politicians should not have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a conflict in which British lives and interests were clearly going to be at stake.'

How could anyone argue that removing Iran's leadership and military capability was somehow not in Britain's interest? 

Chief Secretary to the PM Darren Jones admitted: 'I think the President's frustration, from the way he's articulated it, has been that we were not involved in the initial American and Israeli strikes in Iran.' But he added: 'As the Prime Minister said... we will only engage British Armed Forces when it's in British interests, with a clear plan and on a legal basis.'

Spoken like a true human rights lawyer, Kwier.. 

So You Want To Be 'Included In Society'...

...but when you are, you're still not satisfied!

Instagram's parent company, Meta, is investigating AI-generated social media accounts that sexualise disabled people appearing on its platform. It comes after the BBC flagged dozens of profiles showing AI-generated images of women with disabilities, including Down's syndrome or vitiligo. Some profiles post fake images and videos of women with missing limbs, visible scarring or in wheelchairs. Many are in sexualised positions, wearing revealing clothing.

*shrugs*  Differenet strokes for different folks, right? What's the problem, if they are AI-generated, and not real? 

Kamran Mallick, chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said the emergence of "accounts that fetishise, mock, or monetise the identities of disabled people is nothing short of horrific".He added: "What we have here is technology weaponised to strip disabled people of their agency and dignity, turning our lived experiences into digital caricatures for the profit and titillation of others."

How I loathe that modern expression, so seized on by activiats and narcissist, 'our lived experience'! It's nonsense, always employed to help wrap oneself in the comforting blanket of victimhood. 

Well, congratulations, you've arrived - you're now part of society, no different from any other part,  isn't that what you always said you wanted? 

Medical charities have also voiced concern. A spokesperson for Gemini Untwined, which funds specialist surgery for rare newborns joined by the head, said portraying conjoined twins as entertainment was "morally reprehensible".

Good, we'll see you taking action against all those tv shows featuring dwarfs and Tourette's sufferers that infest the lower channels on Sky and streaming services then, will we? I mean, make up your minds - do you want more publicity for disability or don't you? 

The Online Safety Act requires platforms like Instagram to apply terms of service consistently, including where content mocks people based on protected characteristics, like their disability. The Equality and Human Rights Commission said the accounts flagged by the BBC were "deeply disturbing", adding: "It's vital there are robust regulatory powers in the digital space to protect people from harm."

What 'harm' is being done here? And to whom?   

Well, She Sure Can Cook Up A Story!

Great British Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain has quit her job as a teaching assistant, which she took after the BBC axed her cookery show last year.

Ah, yes, still chasing her 5 minutes of fame - thanks a lot, social media!  

After the BBC’s decision to drop her – something she still ‘doesn’t know why’ happened – Nadiya said she’d been courted with other offers from the likes of ITV and Channel 4. However, she chose to pursue a career in teaching at a primary school instead, a job she has now given up because it ‘played havoc with her health’, she has revealed.

What health issues does she have, then, that would prevent her being a classroom assistant (NOT the same thing as a teacher).?  

‘I loved every second of waking up in the morning with a spring in my step for these beautiful children. I just loved every second of doing that job. 

‘But unfortunately doing a job like that as somebody with a weakened immune system it just played havoc with my health.’

First she's mentioned it, then? 

Nadiya has been open about her battle with Fibromyalgia in the past.

Ah. The new 'ooh, me back'?  

Nadiya finished by saying: ‘So back to drawing board and figuring stuff out.’

Figuring out which Card will be the best one to play? The Muslim Card or the Disability Card.  

Maybe Because 'Children' Aren't Who They Are Working For?

An internet safety campaign backed by US tech companies has been accused of censoring two teenagers they invited to speak out about the biggest issues facing children online.

Gosh, I wonder why? 

Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by companies including Snap, Roblox and Meta, edited out warnings from Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai that social media addiction was an “imminent threat to our future” and obsessive scrolling was making people “sick”, according to a record of edits seen by the Guardian.

Did they not realise that he who pays the piper calls the tune then? 

Swire, then 17, from Edinburgh, and Ghai, then 14, from Buckinghamshire, had been asked to speak at an event to mark Safer Internet Day in 2024 in London in front of representatives from government, charities and tech companies.The tech-backed charity also edited out references to children feeling unable to stop using TikTok and Snap, social media exacerbating a “devastating epidemic” of isolation, and a passage questioning why people would want to spend years of their lives “scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix”, the edits show.

Childnet denied making edits to keep tech funders happy and insisted it would not stop young people making their points.

Of course they did… 

“I was pretty surprised because at this stage I didn’t know there was a conflict of interest with where their funding was coming from,” said Swire, who was at the time a member of Childnet’s youth advisory board.

How do you get elected (if it was an elected role, of course) to a youth advisory board without having the slightest idea about how things work? 

Ghai, now 16, said: “It was quite shocking because the stuff that they deleted was bringing to light a lot of things that were happening in the industry. It felt hypocritical because they were asking us to speak up against this and then at the same time they watered down what we wanted to say so much.”

Well, one hopes you’ve learned a valuable lesson from this, at least… 

Will Gardner, the Childnet chief executive, denied making edits to keep tech funders happy. “If young people want to make a point we allow them to make a point but there are constraints – not due to who gives us money, there are constraints in the nature of the event that we’re running, and the time constraints,” he said. “We would certainly advise and edit around tone and language but we wouldn’t stop young people making a point.”

Tell me another one!  

Just Like She Had 'No Idea' What Bill Was Doing With White House Interns, I Suppose...

Hillary Clinton told a congressional panel she "had no idea" about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, as she called for lawmakers to question President Donald Trump under oath about his past association with the late sex offender.

And who wouldn't believe a woman who lied about coming under sniper fire while the world's media were filming her every movement?

"I want to see the truth come out," the ex-US secretary of state said after testifying behind closed doors for hours to a congressional committee investigating Epstein.

 As if a politician like her has even a nodding acquantence with the truth!

During a mid-deposition update, Democrats on the committee strongly defended the former secretary of state to media gathered outside.

Of course they did... 

That Tune's Familiar: Parody Songs

 As an inveterate Pokemon addict (in a bumper year for it, too!)), this one perhaps speaks to me more than any other: 

I Fear The Constituents Are Going To Need It!

 

Matt poking fun at the Gorton and Denton result in his own inimitable fashion!