Latest Express poll needs more input. You know what to do. (Link takes you directly to the poll. It bypasses the Express website, so you won't boost their ad impressions. Ignore the request to enter an email address - it's optional.) xd.wayin.com/display/contain…

The Imam of Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool has invited far right agitators planning a protest there tomorrow into the mosque for free food and a chat

They came after me with the cat lady shit too. So please just sit down & listen. Misogyny is one of the deadliest weapons on earth. Misogyny is electoral interference. Misogyny is a national security threat so lethal we can’t even see it. theguardian.com/commentisfre…

Head of Marketing for a funeral directors? Not the sort of job you see advertised very often. This blog explores what the role involves & why it really matters. If it's the right challenge for you, check out the application details in the pinned post. eu1.hubs.ly/H09nYdh0

If you are struggling to pay for a funeral, support is out there. @endfuneralpov has a new online tool to help you check if you are eligible for government support, in addition to their excellent helpline on 020 8983 5055. Do share with those who need it. eu1.hubs.ly/H08_19D0

Absolutely LOVE this. Suella Braverman gets the silent treatment she deserves 😂 Not even worthy of a response. Bloody brilliant.

Today ⁦@nationaltrust⁩ announced that new trees are growing from seeds rescued at Sycamore Gap. The BBC’s made some lovely telly at our plant conservation centre but this little film by one of our team made me cry. Would love to credit them if I had their name.

We've often discussed the need for schools to be grief aware. grief-informed and grief-capable. Here's a welcome initiative from @artofdyingwell Pass it on.

Had a really busy week…finished off listening to this…well worth checking out if any #DMAW2024 events have moved you. player.captivate.fm/episode/… #TalkingAboutDyingMattzrs

More great reviews for our latest #DeadGoodFilmClub pick coming in…this one in @IrishTimes is a belter… Catch a screening @totnescinema tonight…then all over Ireland from tomorrow…muchadoaboutdying.com/screen…

#DyingMattersAwarenessWeek Great episode @livelymindspod. @stillillok & @wsadlertweets talk to @ajscreenstation about his life & work as a funeral celebrant. I esp loved 'Is your ability to deal so easily with death a desensitisation, or a normalisation?' anyamedia.net/livelymindspod…

Don't wish you'd talked. Don't wish you'd planned. Today is #AdvanceCarePlanDay advancecareplanday.org ✔️Future you will benefit. ✔️Your supporters won't have to guess. ✔️Your care is more likely to match your wishes. The way we talk about dying matters. #DyingMattersWeek

Just under 24h to go before our next DeadGoodFilmClub @tynesidecinema with @drkathrynmannix hosting Q&A with @MuchAdoDying director Simon Chambers - still a few tickets remaining…tynesidecinema.co.uk/event/d…

The Broken Hill Man, a fossil whose age is still a dubject of debate was discovered on June 17th 1921 in Kabwe by Swiss miner Tom Zwigelaar. The skull continues to reside in the Natural History Museum in London despite efforts to repatriate it back to Zambia.

Loads of people have asked for a graphic to show they’ve voted. 🗳️ My super talented team have obliged - so here it is! Share it far and wide. Remind your friends - 7 hours left to vote. Let’s bring it home, for a brighter North East! #DontForgetToVote #MayoralElection2024 #NorthEast #JD4IndyMayor #LocalElection #LocalElections2024

you wait ages to be invited on a podcast, then two come along at once! really enjoyed them both - first up is this one from @livelymindspod hosted by the wonderful @wsadlertweets and @stillillok - talking funerals and mental health (including mine!) anyamedia.net/livelymindspod…

What the present moment reveals, once again, is that Western aggression during the "Cold War" was never about destroying socialism, as such. It was about destroying movements and governments in the periphery that sought economic sovereignty. Why? Because economic sovereignty in the periphery threatens capital accumulation in the core. This remains the primary objective of Western aggression today. And it is the single greatest source of violence, war and instability in the world system. The reason Western powers went after socialist movements across the global South during the "Cold War" (Cuba, China, the incineration of Vietnam and North Korea, etc) was because they knew socialism would enable the South to regain control over their own productive capacities - their labour and resources and factories - and organize them around local needs and national development. When this happens - when people in the global South start producing and consuming for themselves - it means that those resources are no longer cheaply available to service consumption and accumulation in the core, thus disrupting the imperial arrangement on which Western capitalism has always relied (cheap labour, cheap resources, control over productive capacities, markets on tap). Remember, roughly 50% of all material consumption in the core is net-appropriated from the global South. This is what they are trying to defend. But it wasn't only socialist governments that pursued economic sovereignty. After political decolonization, a wide range of movements and states across the South also sought economic liberation and sovereign industrial development. And Western powers attacked them with equal brutality (Indonesia, Brazil, Guatemala, the DRC...). This is the key reason that Western powers supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, and it is why they support the Israeli regime today... as Western settler-colonial outposts that can be used to attack and destabilize regional movements seeking socialism or any form of real economic sovereignty, whether in Angola or Mozambique or Zimbabwe or any of the Arab nationalist or socialist movements in North Africa and the Middle East. Iran has always been central to this story. Western states orchestrated a coup against the extremely popular prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. He was a left-leaning nationalist, not a socialist. But he wanted Iran to have control over its own resources (notably, oil), and for the US and Britain this was unacceptable. Mossadegh was replaced by a brutal Western-backed dictatorship. The revolution that finally overthrew the dictatorship in 1979 - and constituted the current government - wasn't even left-leaning, much less socialist. But they want national economic self-determination and that is sin enough. They are a target for the exact same reasons that Iraq and Libya were targets. The same goes for China. China's path toward sovereign industrialization - whether socialist or not - means that it is no longer an easy source of cheap labour for Western capital. And as the supply price increases so too does the sabre-rattling from Western states and media. So this is the situation we are in. The Western ruling classes are backing obscene violence and plausible genocide in Gaza, against overwhelming international condemnation, because they must shore up their regional outpost at virtually any cost. The vast majority of the world supports Palestinian liberation, but Palestinian liberation would constrain Israeli power and open the way to regional liberation movements, and this is strongly antithetical to the interests of Western capital. And now they are provoking war with Iran, risking regional conflagration, while at the same time encircling China with military bases, ramping up sanctions on Cuba, trying to contain progressive governments in Latin America, threatening invasion of the Sahel states... It is intolerable and it cannot continue. The violence they perpetrate, the instability, the constant wars against a long historical procession of peoples and movements in the global South who yearn for freedom and self-determination... the whole world is dragged into this horrifying nightmare. They are willing to inflict enormous suffering and misery on hundreds of millions of people in order to preserve existing dynamics of capital accumulation. We will not have peace until this arrangement is overcome and post-capitalist transformations are achieved.

OK, everyone - this happens today, 3-4pm. What do you want to know about dying, palliative care, talking about our mortality? Tweet your questions to @bbc5live or reply below. I'll do my best to answer what I can. #HotSeat #OrdinaryDying

I feel conflicted too, but one thing is crystal clear - it’s a travesty of so-called cradle-to-grave NHS care that only 25-33% of palliative care is tax-payer funded. Imagine maternity services or ICU care being forced to rely on charity cake sales. We owe dying people better.

One for South London folk…screening and social of “In His Slipstream” Wednesday Feb 7th. #SuicidePrevention #mentalhealth #grief #film eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-his-sl…