Rachel Mann
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revrachelmann.bsky.social
Rachel Mann
@revrachelmann.bsky.social
Priest. Poet. Writer. Broadcaster. Trans. Tired. Disabled. Autistic. (Private Passions: Military History, Austen, Golden Age Detective Fiction) T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlisted 2024
Archdeacon of Salford & Bolton
15 Books. www.rachelmann.co.uk
This is terrific
Today in 1944, at Roermond in the Netherlands, sound recordist Lt Peter Handford points his microphone at 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers, and captures their singing at an open air church service. 🔊 #history #ww2

Full recording: IWM 7697 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
November 26, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.27.
November 26, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
As someone who has had a Motability car in the past (before failing my 7th driving test), you don't get any type of car - it is a scheme to use your benefits to lease an adapted car, and to get a BMW etc you would need to pay the significant difference
Let's be absolutely clear the restrictions on Motability cars is reflective of a quiet desire to see disabled people pushed out of public life because getting them in public space is sometimes a bit inconvenient and expensive
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I have complained as well. Perhaps others might wish to complain as well, fwiw?
I strongly suspect I'm pissing in the wind, but here's my complaint to BBC News about their use of this language to describe a *teenage victim of crime*. I even said I want a response, like someone who is *determined* to suffer.

Complaints form is here: www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...
November 25, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
this is mesmerizing
November 25, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Best Christmas ad yet! Knocks John Lewis into a cocked hat.
November 25, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
You could argue that, in the interests of accuracy, editorial policy should dictate that when prominent "gender critical" people are quoted, they should be described thusly:

- "<GC name>, a middle-aged woman with no relevant qualifications or expertise and an obsession with other people's bits"
To any of my cis followers who might be wondering what's wrong with the BBC's phrasing...

- "biological male" is deliberate misgendering
- it also implies that trans people are somehow being deceptive, because "biology"
- no trans person "identifies as" *anything*. We just *are*

Hope that helps.
It looks like that BBC page has been updated in the last few minutes, so that's no longer the last sentence. I think part of it has been moved to this paragraph in the middle of the article, and the age is no longer mentioned:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
On Bregman, I was there in the audience and I can’t see what the BBC have gained by removing this line except more bad publicity. I will say that no such edits or censorship occurred when I gave the Reith Lectures and free-speech defenders might want think about whether this is the world they want.
November 25, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Ughh … that line in the BBC’s reporting of the Linehan judgment: ‘the complainant is a biological male who identifies as a woman …’
What a place the UK is and what permission that Supreme Court judgment has given to say grim things …
November 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
The first of these featured in a show at IWM in 2014. I remember it had an absolutely mesmerising sense of movement which was incredibly disconcerting.
Visited Tate Britain on Sunday to see the excellent Lee Miller exhibition and spotted some First World War paintings in another gallery by official war artists.
November 25, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
We're only able to do this work - helping people stand up to Far right bullies - because tens of thousands of you have set up direct debits to support our work. But the cost of living crisis means our income is getting squeezed - and we could really use your support. goodlawproject.org/donate/
Support us | Good Law Project
We can only keep fighting thanks to individual donations. Our people-powered model keeps us fiercely independent, so we can hold power to account.
goodlawproject.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Fergus Kerr OP passed away on Sunday. Learning about Wittgenstein from him was one of the highlights of my education
He wasn't just a fiercely brilliant philosopher and theologian, but also distinctive for his kindness. He was a real light in my academic sojourn. Rest in peace.
November 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Hold the phone new news intro of the year just dropped www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/c...
Church of England priest drunkenly crashed bishop's car
Father Sion Hughes Carew was convicted last month of drink driving
www.standard.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
More evidence for Maugham's First Law. bsky.app/profile/good...
Even Hilary Cass - who disgracefully called parents terrified that their trans kids would take their own lives if they were denied healthcare "shroud wavers" - didn't go so far as to call for a ban on puberty blockers.

Nothing Wes Streeting says turns out to be true.
November 24, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.25.
November 24, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
This took courage, and makes me feel very vulnerable, but here I share some insights into how the recent Laika situation played out for me – along with a plea for more compassionate social media engagement. We need reflection, not retribution.
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
If useful: archive.is
I was the other poet in the Len Pennie row: here’s my story
Sarah Doyle’s poem Laika won high praise but when she queried similarities to it with the poem Good Girl she was caught up in a storm of accusation, denial and online vitriol
www.thetimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
“You want your fries to be ’large’, child? My uncle died after being hit by a ‘large’ truck. The scales fell from my eyes that day! Yes, the toy is included with the meal.”
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
November 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Maybe not a classic Christmas gift but an “extraordinary” one. It could:

-change a GC mind
-bring a parent and child closer
-even reconnect them
-encourage a trans person to come out to a parent
-or seek safety abroad

These things have happened. Readers have told me.

What better gift to give?
November 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
These advent reflections are really speaking to me this year (I know, I’ve started early…). Thank you @revrachelmann.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Thank you for sharing. I’m moved by how many people have found Bleak Midwinter a helpful read. #Advent
These advent reflections are really speaking to me this year (I know, I’ve started early…). Thank you @revrachelmann.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 11:49 AM
You can now listen to my latest Pause For Thought on BBC Sounds:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Pause For Thought - Rachel Mann: "Gratitude is at the heart of my faith" - BBC Sounds
Rachel Mann joins Good Morning Sunday for today's Pause for Thought.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Rachel Mann
Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.24. Easy 1
November 23, 2025 at 5:58 AM