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
An AI firm is floating on Wall Street today and the prospectus explicitly states that its product poses an existential risk to the future of humanity. But it wants people to invest in it anyway.
8
29
77
1,458
ruth allum retweeted
Here, seeing your GP is practically impossible. You need to be available at 8.30 every morning, and be free for 30 minutes as you ring your GP surgery dozens of times, usually to be told "try again tomorrow". Have to be at work? Tough. School run? Tough. Joke. @JonBurrowsMLA
Replying to @uuponline
2/5 👩‍⚕️ Here, seeing your GP is free. In the Republic, over a third of private patients pay €51 to €75 a visit.
10
9
47
1,431
ruth allum retweeted
Today's @irish_news (Tuesday) @ConnlaYoung 'NO POPE OF ROME TUNE PLAYED AT DRUMCREE RALLY'. @carlalockhart @JamieBrysonLLB @DianeForsytheNI @JimAllister @duponline @TUVonline #portadown
9
55
4
144
5,972
ruth allum retweeted
Give a man a reputation as an intellectual, and he can make the weakest arguments imaginable with a straight face.
NYT's Bret Stephens whines that Democrats know "Smotrich and Ben-Gvir" but not "the interior minister of Japan." Their "obsession" with Israel drives him "crazy." (Being politically informed on Israel is now anti-Semitic.)
17
44
343
7,121
ruth allum retweeted
Exactly why there was such a desire to wrap arms around the community of Garvaghy Road against the pressure from the DUP/TUV and Bryson to force that march. 21 people lost their lives over this march in the 1990s. A community terrorised. Lockhart is a simply a ghoul.
I don't know where to begin with this level of ignorance. This is Carla, having purchased a painting from an exhibition. Delighted to find a 'special place in my office' for a scene of riot police at Drumcree, forcing a march down the road. This is why people are fleeing unionism
3
11
104
1,848
I don't know where to begin with this level of ignorance. This is Carla, having purchased a painting from an exhibition. Delighted to find a 'special place in my office' for a scene of riot police at Drumcree, forcing a march down the road. This is why people are fleeing unionism
329
242
39
1,378
94,225
ruth allum retweeted
I suggest that people who are obviously uneducated about LGBT+ history watch this and perhaps they might learn something. People like @jk_rowling, @glinner, and the overwhelmingly straight @AllianceLGB.
2
29
2
85
1,323
ruth allum retweeted
Pleased to have lead letter in today's NewsLetter The Drumcree crisis could have significant political consequences Perhaps its lasting impact will be whether it encourages some of our political leaders to place reconciliation at the heart of their 'constitutional' strategies.
2
1
7
1,965
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.
62
27
5
286
5,842
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.
13
26
1
345
9,918
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
101
2,394
66
5,456
109,321
ruth allum retweeted
The start of a new day at the People’s park Ballymena
2
21
544
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.
2
32
1
285
3,078
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…
614
77
111
413
389,226
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.
18
17
1
78
2,582
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.”
478
2,636
291
17,810
1,864,210
#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
138
1,617
137
2,545
65,494
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
7
29
4
62
34,727
ruth allum retweeted
A woman dying during pregnancy in a state with an abortion ban does not mean the abortion ban caused her death.
1
5
1
46
818