Allum (nee Colville) I'm a 68yr old wife to himself. Mother of 2, granny of one. I play golf. Poorly 😬 Demonic clown. Proud to be an old fool.

Belfast, Northern Ireland
Joined March 2009
ruth allum retweeted
When we’re talking about healthcare for young trans people, and protecting young LGBTQ+ people from abuse, I don’t want to hear from mathematicians or children’s authors. I want to hear from experts in the field. It’s not a difficult concept.
If “expertise” means competence in applying the scientific method, Joyce is more an expert in sex & gender than, apparently, many MDs and biologists with PhDs in their field. If expertise merely means having formal credentials in a field, the term has lost its meaning.
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ruth allum retweeted
How John can articulate what most here are thinking, dismantle shabbily constructed arguments in a heartbeat and hand people their backside daily is quite something to behold
Replying to @JamieBrysonLLB
Jamie, you show an immaturity and an extraordinary ignorance of the word “supremacy.” you might want to invest in a dictionary. Chris Donnelly makes a perfectly reasonable and historically accurate point. The Orange Order is an exclusively Protestant institution with a long history of sectarian exclusion, political privilege and contentious marches. Yet Orange parades are accommodated across nationalist communities throughout NI, often without controversy. And your response? “Nationalist supremacy.” Jesus wept, Have you even a notion what supremacy means? Let me give you a wee leg up , my legal eagle chum. Supremacy: the condition of having superior power, authority or status over others. Now, let’s apply that definition to NI’s history, shall we? Who presided over a state in which Catholics experienced systematic discrimination in housing, employment and political representation? Who defended a political system built around permanent unionist control? Who enjoyed privileged access to political power while nationalist communities struggled for equal treatment? And which exclusively Protestant institution became so closely intertwined with that political establishment? So do you want to phone a friend? Unionist political dominance and the Orange Order’s historical relationship with it are textbook examples of institutional privilege and a supremacist political structure. You can Google that also And let’s not forget that the Orange Order’s membership has included individuals associated with loyalist paramilitary organisations, the police and the defence forces. Yet you would have us believe this historically powerful institution is somehow being oppressed because residents object to its members marching through their neighbourhoods. Then there’s your ridiculous comparison with the Catholic Church. Seriously? The Catholic Church exists primarily as a religious institution. The Orange Order is a religious, cultural and political fraternity with a long history of involvement in unionist politics. Religious exclusivity alone does not make an institution sectarian. Its conduct, rules and treatment of others matter. Nobody is denying Orangemen their religion, their British identity, their traditions or their right to assemble peacefully. What they are being denied is the supposed entitlement to exercise those rights wherever they please, regardless of the rights, wishes and historical experiences of the people living there. Not sure you get the distinction you continually and conveniently refuse to acknowledge. And here’s the part you really need to understand, Jamie. NI operated under a political system in which unionism held institutional power and nationalism was treated as subordinate. The civil rights movement challenged precisely that inequality. The GFA established principles of equality, parity of esteem and respect for both traditions. It did not replace unionist supremacy with nationalist supremacy. It rejected the principle that either community should dominate the other. Equality isn’t nationalist supremacy, Jamie. It’s the rejection of supremacy altogether. And perhaps that’s what troubles you and people of your ilk most. When you’ve grown accustomed to one tradition enjoying all that privilege, having to respect the equal rights of another can apparently feel like oppression. Chris Donnelly understands that distinction perfectly well. You, on the other hand, appear to be confusing the loss of historical privilege with the loss of human rights. And that, Jamie, says considerably more about your understanding of equality than it does about Chris Donnelly.
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ruth allum retweeted
Another story impossible to imagine in any other administration: the president's son goes hunting with a Russian criminal who is part of Putin's security entourage
The trip highlights the remarkable relationship between a son of the US president and a tycoon with a criminal record who has close ties to Vladimir Putin’s personal security service. Intelligence experts say such connections are ripe for manipulation. ft.trib.al/p0LBRYI
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70 people in the bar and not one felt able to come forward to give evidence.
Murder in Belfast: Sisters Seeking Justice - a new series about the killing of Robert McCartney starting tonight at 22.30 on BBC One NI.
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This. Replies to my comment on the case became more lurid in detail that didn’t exist in any news report, but bots and those willing to attack trans women for just being, posted the worst of libel.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday has reported “ANOTHER gender storm” involving Dr Beth Upton at an Australian hospital. The Times has now repeated the story, explicitly citing the Mail. But what actually happened? An unidentified patient apparently noticed Dr Upton and expressed concern. Other staff became involved. Her husband reportedly stayed at her bedside because he feared she might be bullied into accepting treatment. And that’s about all we know. No date for the alleged incident. No firsthand account from the patient or husband. No evidence that Dr Upton even approached the patient, offered treatment, or was refused. No reported coercion, misconduct or adverse outcome. We have anonymous hospital staff offering opinions, two Australian campaigners expressing outrage, and now For Women Scotland adding its commentary. Yet none supplies evidence of what actually occurred. Notably, The Times adds further reported comments from hospital staff supporting Dr Upton, including a nurse describing her as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and saying she should be judged on the quality of her work. It also acknowledges that Dr Upton was not criticised in the Peggie tribunal judgment. But it contributes no independent evidence of the supposed Australian incident. Meanwhile, there’s little sign of Australian news coverage, despite transgender healthcare professionals having worked in Australian hospitals for years. So how did this supposed incident reach a Scottish journalist already associated with reporting the Peggie dispute? Why is there no identifiable Australian account? And why are two British newspapers presenting such a poorly substantiated allegation as a major controversy? Are we witnessing an actual controversy at an Australian hospital, or the manufacture of one around a doctor whose name is already familiar to a particular British audience? What is especially troubling is how repetition turns an allegation into something resembling an established fact, without adding a shred of evidence.
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ruth allum retweeted
The start of a new day at the People’s park Ballymena
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ruth allum retweeted
Leor, if you were on trial for a murder you didn't commit, and the prosecution produced Helen Joyce - an economist - to say your DNA was present at the scene, I think you'd quite quickly argue that expertise should begin with having formal qualifications in biology, don't you?
If “expertise” means competence in applying the scientific method, Joyce is more an expert in sex & gender than, apparently, many MDs and biologists with PhDs in their field. If expertise merely means having formal credentials in a field, the term has lost its meaning.
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ruth allum retweeted
'Do you think it's racist' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was questioned on #BBCBreakfast after his former senior aide Raheem Kassam called Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch as a 'Nigerian scammer' bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cp07jz…
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Dear goodness, what a coughing attack @rickedwards1 ! Hope you’re ok.
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ruth allum retweeted
On one side, two of the UK's most long standing and prominent gay rights organisations, and a coalition formed specifically to get bills like this through. On the other side, three small organisations - sharing many figures - founded in the last few years to attack trans people.
We’re pleased to be invited to give oral evidence to the joint committee scrutinising the draft Conversion Practices bill. It’s vital that they hear from the many LGB people opposed to this bill and understand the harms it could cause to LGB teens.
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“obscene” sounds about right.
Stormont’s Department of Health has spent £7.5million over the last five years on a Leadership Centre largely made up of ex health service executives working on daily consultant rates. One MLA on the Assembly Health committee has questioned the value of the spend, which he has described as “obscene”. Read more: tinyurl.com/mr3jks5u
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ruth allum retweeted
Musk’s interview went great: Reporter: What is your thought on the ban of foreign students, you were one of those kids, right? Musk: “I think we want to stick to talking about spaceships.” Reporter: I was told that any topic is good. Musk: “Well no.”
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#Israel has committed war crimes & crimes against humanity in the Occupied #Palestinian Territory amid continuing #genocide in Gaza, the @UN Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel said in a new report to #UNGA81 today. More ➡️ bit.ly/4zR1h0S
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ruth allum retweeted
Israeli forces have closed checkpoints in Hizma, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, northeast of Jerusalem, and deployed soldiers at the gates, according to the Jerusalem governorate. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/eagzzb
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ruth allum retweeted
A woman dying during pregnancy in a state with an abortion ban does not mean the abortion ban caused her death.
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ruth allum retweeted
One of the men who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year was a Palestinian-American, Omar Yaghi. Racist POS.
RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Novel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."
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ruth allum retweeted
Children smoking, Liverpool, 1986, photo by Ian Berry.
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Bkaming the staff. What a charmer.
🚨 WATCH: Nigel Farage blames "staff incompetence" for a half empty hall at Reform UK's event in London
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