This is one of my best mates Simon de Winter. COVID killed him at 9.24am on the 30th December. His parents wanted you to see this picture of him. Not just a number. Please observe the rules.
My mum had her Astra Zeneca vaccine over a month ago and on Sunday Spurs lost to Arsenal. I am not of course saying that the two things are related but you have to ask the question.
Dear white people. Respectfully, please have a word with those other white people who are beginning to make me feel unwanted in the country of my birth. Don't be silent.
Dear white people, some of you really hate people like me. These people insult us, try to undermine our achievements and make us feel like we don't belong here. Would you mind being our allies and not ignoring it when you hear it.
Many thanks.
We lost Luna a month ago after 14 years and we will never stop loving that dog but our house was not a home without a staffy in it. So say hello to Lyra.
Please don't attack:
Italian cars.
Italian fashion labels.
Italian restaurants.
Italian foodsfuffs.
And most importantly - Italian people.
Lose gracefully and move on.
50 years ago 27,000 Ugandan Asians were allowed to resettle in the UK after fleeing persecution. 50 years later 50 Ukrainians have so far been granted visas. The Home Secretary's parents are Ugandan Asians.
Just wanted to tell you that
@bbc5live
have asked me to extend my contract for another two years. Thank you for listening! Off to bathe in the haters tears.
When you see the number of COVID related deaths over the last 24hrs on the news know that one of them was one of my best mates, a son, a husband, a brother and an uncle. Life is precious. Please stay safe and value life in 2021 and beyond.
A pensioner tells
@MartinSLewis
on my
@bbc5live
show that his energy bill next year will be over £7,000 and his state pension is £8,000 per year. He sounded very very concerned.
So my understanding of the BBC ruling is that if a public figure called me a "Paki" I could tell you that what they had said was racist but I couldn't say that aforementioned public figure was a racist. I'm glad we cleared that up.
I asked my son what he thought about same sex marriages. He replied "I think it's morally wrong to separate people who love each other because of their sexuality". How comes an 11yr old can figure it out but some adults can't?!
Almost twenty years to the minute that my dad Tilak Arthanayake died. He was such an amazing man. If you've lost a parent you'll know that you never really get over it. Perhaps you never really should.
I once had Calvin Robinson on my show, he made little sense, it was like playing tennis with someone who only served at you, except he was holding a cricket bat and was using mouldy plums instead of tennis balls. It was bizarre.
I spoke to a fella at the pub who volunteers for the RNLI and he was telling me about the amount of abuse they get. Yes, a man who volunteers to pluck panicked people out of the sea gets abuse. The state of us.
Be safe my fellow immigrants and sons and daughters of immigrants. The UK is our country too and no amount of cocaine, cheap sportwear and Yaxley Lennon tiktoks are going to change that fact.
Oh well. Bye then to HRH. Hello to Harry and Meghan. Two people in love with a baby. Now should we start looking at food banks, schools and NHS funding, child poverty, the Care System, police and prisoner numbers, post EU trade, what have I missed?
A very brave thing for
@alexberesfordTV
to do considering where he is in the food chain compared to Piers. Taking on indispensable talent built around a cult of personality can be a very dangerous thing to do career wise. Let's see if
@ITV
protect Alex.
The teachers at the school where my wife works are making up food hampers to give to some of the parents of the kids there. This is beautiful but also desperately sad. Teachers are amazing.
How many non Jewish people in the music industry, artists, DJs, managers have publicly expressed their disgust at Wiley's anti semitism? Silence is complicity we were told in relation to anti racism. No double standards I hope when it comes to anti semitism?
For some weird reason it effected me when I looked around the entire floor at the BBC where I work and I was the only non white person. It is like this pretty much every day, but today it kind of upset me.
“My biggest concern was history repeating itself.” Who the hell can argue with a husband not wishing to see his wife go through what his mother went through?!
@bbc5live
@TherealNihal
Totally irrelevant, but I'd like to say what a great broadcaster Nihal is. Well on his way to becoming a national treasure. Informed, open-minded, fair, astute, caring and funny. A dying breed.
My parents' generation must have had to endure so many comments and "jokes" and smiled and got on with it while feeling humiliated. Now that my generation and younger are having none of it suddenly we are being hyper sensitive?! Nah bruv.
1st August 1922 to 17th June 2020. My wife's grandmother and my kids' great grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep this morning. She was an amazing woman. Elegant, eloquent and full of love. Rest in peace Aachi.
Heart breaking to wake up and see that churches and hotels in Sri Lanka have been attacked and many killed. We have been calling friends and family. Spare a thought for the people caught up in this terrible violence.
I have been to a Gurdwara on a Sunday morning and seen the homeless and indeed anyone who needs a meal being fed. This is not a new thing for the Sikh communities to do. They do it all the time.
Two hours ago a lorry hit a car which hit me on the M60. I clung onto that steering wheel for dear life to try and keep the car steady and not hit the central reservation. Wife next to me and son in the back. Terrifying.
More white people have to stand up and challenge this bigotry, when you hear your mates and your family members say racist things, challenge them. We can't do this alone. Don't make excuses for it.
My wife is an immigrant. She works at a Pupil Referral Unit full of kids let down by their own families, by poverty, by addiction. Not one of them are in the situation they are in because of those seeking asylum here.
For every numpty that tweets me some racist bollocks I know that there are 100s if not 1000s more people of all backgrounds who listen and support the show. Thank you.
It would cost (Sir?!) Phillip Green £108,750,000 to pay his 14,500 staff £2500 per month for three months. His yacht reportedly cost £100,000,000. It's not this simple but you get the point.
Angry that I have to reassure my kids that they will be safe in the UK, whilst also telling them they can't go to the shops alone. The UK has 100% gone backwards.
Hello everyone, some professional news from me. I am leaving daytimes on
@bbc5live
to concentrate on the aspect of broadcasting I love most, which is in depth long form interviews, which I will continue to do on
@bbc5live
on Sunday evenings and the Headliners Podcast.
The candour of Sri Lankans is incredible. I have been coming to the same hotel for over 20 years. One of the waiters recognised me and said "hello sir, so nice to see you, you are fat now." Brilliant.
We all put our hands on her heart as the injection went into her front left leg. She was gone in seconds. And our hearts broke all at the same time
#Luna
When the footy starts, the days grow shorter and cocaine gets more expensive these men will stop rioting. But spare a thought for their partners and their kids. Their ordeal will continue.
I hope the BBCs £100million creative diversity commitment also looks at class. Plenty of talented people should benefit from this and socio economic background should be taken into account.
When a boy called me a paki at school I punched him. He didn't do it again. For all those "sticks and stones..." nonsense quoting people. Words do hurt, and a punch in the face does too.
Dear white people. Thank you for coming out against racism. And all you GBeebies/Reform anti immigrant preachers. You are not the majority. Looking fwd to coming bk to the UK.
Father’s Day tomorrow. Want to tell you a little about my father. He came to this country in the 1960s. Worked hard and bought a house. He taught us about tolerance and the power of education. He died of a heart attack in 2000. I miss him every day. Part of me is him.
I know this makes me sound old but I felt joy hearing
@TomDaley1994
say "my husband" after winning Gold. I am glad that my kids will see that as a perfectly normal thing to say.
I bet I contribute more to the UK than you do David, I can assure you my mum who worked in the NHS did. I was born here. I have two cultures. British and Sri Lankan. I love them both. You hate yourself. Get some therapy.
One of my best mates who died in Dec of COVID is being cremated tomorrow. Can't say goodbye in person. Rest in peace Simon de Winter. In a World full of pebbles, you rock.
I went into a supermarket at 11pm last night and there were plenty of packets of wagon wheels and chicken hot dogs. Not sure what people are hoarding if they're not buying the basics.
After the Dominic Cummings story and the terrible events in America with the death of George Floyd and the video in Central Park I am utterly exhausted by the World we are currently living in.
A week ago an opposition player called the ref a "motherf**ker!" My son went upto him and said "no matter how you feel you can't say that" and then one of the sweary kids own team mates thanked my boy for telling this kid about himself. I was very proud of my son.
I saw a lack of diversity in my work place over a long period of time, it effected me and it was isolating and lonely. Yet all these gbeebies loving types made me to be an "anti-white racist" If a single one of them think I am going to be quiet they are even more stupid.....
If you dont like me as a broadcaster/person and hate my show just dont listen. Calling me names isn't going to make me change who I am or what I do. Trust me. I know my worth.
My mate Simon's mum told me today on the phone that she brought him into the World and she got to hold his hand after he passed away. She was also in hospital with COVID. She is back home now. They lost a son and I lost a brother from another mother.