As I push through the doors, the smell of chlorine hits me. Instantly, I feel sick, and I remember why I don't go swimming. I'm getting ready for my first swimming lesson in over 10 years, trying to convince myself it won't be so bad.
Before I know it, I'm in the water.
I glance around the pool; I'm surrounded by other black women learning to swim, all at different levels. Some are confidently swimming lengths; others, like me, are learning how to feel at home in the water.
I'm learning to breathe properly, dunk my head under and let the water carry me, rather than fight against it. There are so many things to remember.
At the age of 27, I'm still unable to swim - and I'm far from alone.
As a black woman, it's the figures for the black community that always jump out to me. Swim England's figures suggest that 67% of black women and 44% of black men in England cannot swim 25 metres unaided - far higher than the national average, and far higher than the numbers for white people (17% of white women and 12% of white men cannot swim 25 metres). Behind those figures, published in 2022, are very different stories.
All children in the UK are supposed to leave primary school able to swim. But just why are there so many black people, like me, who can't?
I don’t know, but I’m sure the answer will be something outside of black physiology or black culture (as if there were anything like all-encompassing ‘black culture’ and not mny different cultures) and something pointing to ‘racism’ most likely!
But racial exclusion from pools in some countries, like the United States, helped to create the idea that black people were poor swimmers.
BINGO! But why would the experiences of people in another country have an influence on people born here?
The UK did not have the same system of formal segregation as the US in the 20th Century. But Alice Dearing, a former Olympic swimmer and co-founder of the BSA, thinks that the US's history might have reverberated in parts of British culture too.
Maybe instead of researching swimming prowess, someone should research the need for disadvantage-by-proxy!
For most British children, swimming starts with their family. If parents swim, children grow up seeing the water as something familiar.
For those who never learnt as children, Cole says starting later can feel particularly exposing. "To be a beginner swimmer, you are humbled by the water," he says. "You have to be very vulnerable."
And that’s surely something that is experience by children of all other races equally?
For Kevin Hylton, emeritus professor of equality and diversity in sport at Leeds Beckett University, that started with his childhood. "I grew up in a working-class Caribbean family where swimming wasn't a thing that was done," he says. "We had almost zero leisure as a family together. It was done through school."
If we're going to blame the parents for this, can we blame them for all the kids' other failures too?
And there are other thorny cultural factors too. In a 2023 survey by the BSA of more than 1,400 people, 33% of black British respondents named issues around their hair as a barrier to getting in the pool. The BSA wrote that "traditional aquatic headwear", like swimming caps, "doesn't cater to children with longer, thicker afro hair, nor does it cater to traditionally Black hairstyles including braids, dreadlocks and twists with extensions".
Aha! Finally an excuse they can use, as long as they don't mind being sneered at as idiots whose priorities are so skewed that minor discomfort is preferable to learning a vital skill that may save their lives.
Seeing people like yourself in the water can make a difference. But at the highest levels of swimming, black representation remains low.
Piddington and NIMBYism … thank goodness for the Christine E’s, Maureen D’s and Katie H’s who restore men’s faith in women, along with other fine ladies. NIMBYism will not save Britain … being honest and direct will.
Were you to look at this:
… you could be forgiven for thinking, “Well done, ladies,” a bit like the Pink Ladies who seem to detest all men. But:
There’s an issue or two with this. This is the “state approved, marshalled, corralled version, enabling face recognition filing”, where pokice control all aspects. Any thinking of going need to bear this in mind.
However
Our new regular at HQ, Bill, who is actually a very longtime blogging chap, dropped this about the whole show:
“Danny Tommo. Tommy Robinson. Not Daniel Thompson nor Thomas Robinson…note. Just cheeky chappies “one of the lads” men…note Little things.
“Official statement”…note “Member, representative, organiser or affiliate”…note “is not authorised”…note The language of officialdom.
“My mother requires my full attention at this time.” Mirroring Tommy Robinsons ‘career’.
Protesting is merely begging the tyrant to change. Never achieves anything. Stopping engaging is deemed to be too difficult at worst and tooinconvienient at best thus the tyrant stays safe.
Ricky Gervais is bang on.
The gobby twat shouting at police and polies is fake as they come aka the Pied Piper. Some of the cops know it, the pollies all know it, the pollies security teams know it, some of the balaclave clad MIB’s know it, the men in tights running the production know it.
Why black balaclavas?
Every chav, street thug teenager, e bike rider, foreign born fast food delivery rider, etc wear them therefore to the simple the protestors and the thugs and the above are the same…be afraid, be very afraid.
Why all black?
A certain religions disciples decrees people of a certain gender to keep their bodies completely covered most often in black.
All security wear head to toe black under their hi viz. All cops wear head to toe black under their hi viz. Debt collectors, bailiffs, enforcement etc wear head to toe black. Be afraid be very afraid…”
You’ll find the Gervaise video at NOWP, accessible via UHC.
Poland had failed to fully realise that Ukrainians were not just helpless victims of Vladimir Putin, but actual people with agency. As soon as they could, many Ukrainian refugees moved out of their hosts’ living rooms and rented or bought apartments. They set up businesses, many of which are now flourishing, and created a robust community, often engaging in direct competition with local people. They refused to behave as grateful or passive recipients of Polish charity. This is an understandable, indeed desirable progression, but as a result, compassion ceased to be the currency of the relationship between Poles and Ukrainians.
Funny that, when you realise you've been taken for a ride all along....
Accustomed to direct talks with US and western European leaders, Ukranians do not need an “advocate”, certainly not in Warsaw. Zelenskyy can run his own show.
Memory politics has unhelpfully reared its head after Volodymyr Zelenskyy named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a branch of which massacred about 100,000 Poles in 1943. The Polish right responded in kind, and the president, Karol Nawrocki, revoked Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle, the highest state honour available to non-Poles. Both sides refused to back down, returning further honours and pretty much freezing mutual relations.
Just one more example of why you shouldn't elect a failed tv comedian with no geopolitic nous as head of state...
Such an outcome could and should have been avoided, especially by Donald Tusk’s liberal governing coalition.
The EU screwing up again? You don't say...
Poland’s shortsightedness is a cautionary tale.
Realising you've been taken for mugs always comes later in the day - it's what you do about it for the future that count!
Ukrainian leaders will come to Brussels, Paris and Berlin, asking not for free bullets and money, but for an equal voice, arguing that their defence of the continent against Russianbarbarism has earned them a seat at the table.
Others have written for years about these topics … this is just a recent take on it all.
Onto the main topic ...
The data keeps appearing, piecemeal … there are complete articles but who has either the time or capacity to understand all those? Many nurses speak of the pressure on them to sell these things, cajole the patient into having them … while the NHS in this country keeps messaging us.
Just as with the RNLI story … it only takes the country waking up through reputable socmed and the Fab-State starts to lose its narrative. This sort of thing helps …
The government is considering a crackdown on pheasant shooting in England as part of a consultation on strict new animal welfare laws that would affect shoot organisers.
Animal welfare. I could think of 100 better things to choose before I got to pheasant shooting if animal welfare really was the aim, and I bet you could too, Reader.
Every year, thousands of people descend on the countryside to shoot pheasants and partridges. Millions of the game birds are released in advance of the shoots. Many are brought over from France as chicks and eggs, and reared by gamekeepers until they are ready to be released for shooting in the autumn. Grouse are wild rather than reared or farmed animals.
I love game, but I’ve never been partial to grouse, no matter where I’ve had it.
While chickens and other farmed birds have to be looked after to minimum animal welfare standards, these do not apply to game birds. Poultry birds, for example, have minimum space standards for their cages and have to be provided with enrichment, such as perches and items to scratch and peck.
Chicken and other poultry farms are subject to regular animal welfare inspections, which are not in place for sites rearing pheasants and partridges.
This is not being driven by concern for the welfare of the birds, but by loathing of the people involved in the sport of course. Because they are, to a man and a woman, The Enemy of English Country Persuits..
Claire Bass, the director of campaigns at Humane World for Animals UK, said: “The shooting industry breeds millions of birds on an industrial scale, and these animals have fallen through the cracks of animal welfare law. Confined in barren wire cages for most of their lives, birds suffer stress-related injuries and feather loss and are exposed to blazing summer heat and other weather extremes.”
Dr Ruth Tingay, a co-director of Wild Justice, said: “Putting an end to the rearing and annual release in to the countryside of an estimated 60 million non-native game birds for shooting should be the government’s focus. If they stop that, then the associated welfare issues would also be sorted. Defra needs to stop tinkering around the edges and deal with this head on.”
When any of these people start to address halal and kosher slaughter with the same zeal, I might - might- just start to listen to them on the subject of game ird shooting. But I never will…
grok - please calculate how much folic acid someone in the UK will consume if they eat the following foods in a day. Breakfast: a bowl of cereal containing folic acid, with milk, two slices of white toast containing folic acid, and a cup of tea with milk. Mid-morning snack: biscuit made with flour containing folic acid, fresh apple, and a cup of tea with milk. Lunch: Supermarket meal deal consisting of a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich made with bread containing folic acid, a packet of crisps and a small bottle of orange juice. Mid-afternoon snack: slice of sponge cake made with flour containing folic acid and a cup of tea with milk. Dinner: chicken steak containing flour with folic acid, mashed potato, peas and carrots. Pudding: slice of apple pie (pastry contains folic acid) with custard. Cup of tea with milk.
Rough estimate: about 350–500 µg of added folic acid in a day, depending on exact brands, portion sizes and how much flour is in each product. Most of that comes from fortified non-wholemeal wheat flour plus voluntary cereal fortification. Natural folate from apple, juice, vegetables, milk and tea is separate and is not folic acid.
Mandatory UK fortification of non-wholemeal wheat flour is 250 µg folic acid per 100 g flour (2.5 µg per gram of flour). The legal deadline is 13 December 2026, but mills have already been adding it in 2025–2026, so many products on sale now contain it.
Fortified cereal (typical bowl 30–45 g): many UK cereals list 100–250+ µg folic acid per 100 g. A 40 g serving of something like Corn Flakes is often ~50–70 µg. Use the pack label for the exact figure.
Two medium slices of white toast (~40 g each, ~80 g bread): finished white bread is typically ~50–55% flour, so roughly 40–45 g flour → ~100–110 µg.
Mid-morning
One biscuit made with fortified flour (typical digestive-style ~14–18 g): often 50–60% flour → ~15–25 µg.
Lunch (meal deal)
BLT sandwich on fortified white bread (another two slices): similar to breakfast toast → ~100–110 µg.
Crisps: usually potato-based; negligible added folic acid unless the flavouring uses wheat flour.
Small bottle of orange juice: contains natural folate (~15–25 µg per 100 ml), not added folic acid.
Mid-afternoon
Slice of sponge cake (~50–70 g): a standard Victoria sponge uses flour as about a quarter of the batter by weight. One slice often contains ~18–25 g flour → ~45–60 µg.
Dinner
Breaded chicken steak: chicken is typically 55–65% of the product; the coating is a mix of breadcrumbs/flour. One steak often contributes ~12–20 g flour → ~30–50 µg.
Mash, peas and carrots: no added folic acid.
Pudding
Slice of apple pie: pastry is high in flour (often ~50% of the pastry weight). A typical slice’s pastry portion can contain ~18–25 g flour → ~45–60 µg.
Custard: no added folic acid.
Tea with milk throughout the day adds essentially none.Approximate daily totalFlour-containing items together often supply ~300–400 µg. Add the cereal and you reach ~350–500 µg of added folic acid for a fairly typical set of portions.This is a ballpark figure, not a lab analysis. Actual intake varies with:
Exact cereal (check the nutrition panel; some are much higher than others)
Slice thickness and loaf size
How much coating is on the chicken
How large the cake/pie slices are
Whether any products used wholemeal, imported, or exempt small-mill flour (those are not required to be fortified)
The adult UK reference nutrient intake for folate is 200 µg/day (400 µg if planning pregnancy or in the first 12 weeks). This day’s menu, plus natural folate from the fruit, juice and vegetables, would put most people well above the basic adult figure from food alone. Women who could become pregnant are still advised to take a 400 µg folic acid supplement as well, because fortification was set at a relatively modest level.
