SOCIAL media, to paraphrase Dickens – a verbose man who’d have hated memes – it is the best of times and the worst of times; the age of wisdom, the age of foolery.
Today, in the wake of the utterly tragic, senseless death of Liam Payne, One Direction fans have pooled together.
GettyLiam Payne died last week at the age of 31[/caption]
PAOne Direction fans have been helping each other online since the tragedy[/caption]They are offering an online space to grieve and providing solace and shared stories of fandom and love for their hero.
Thanks to them, the hashtag #liamslaw is trending, a call for new legislation to be introduced, safeguarding artists’ mental health and providing further scrutiny on the entertainment industry.
And the tributes pouring out from family, friends, fans and the great and good of music show just how wonderful this young man was.
And what a huge loss he will be.
This, perhaps, is the best of social media, in which it restores an iota of humanity and faith, and offers hope and community to those in need.
But, and there’s a very big but, some of these same 1Ders — the ones so angrily lashing out at those they seek to blame for Liam’s death — are the very ones once upon a time rushing to his Instagram and Snapchat to issue their disdain, their judgment, their mockery.
Those watching the breakdown of a fragile but brilliant, brave and kind man in real time and commentating on it ghoulishly.
Where was that sympathy and kindness and need to bolster Liam’s mental health then?
Where was the outpouring of love and support and #bekind?
According to a report over the weekend, his record label Universal dropped the star, in part, because of “all the memes and jokes people made about him online”.
Universal released their own Instagram tribute to this talented musician, wisely deciding to disable the comments beneath it.
Because you can be sure many of them wouldn’t have been kind.
In an age where we are forever looking for someone to blame, right now music industry execs are providing an easy target.
But in situations like these, everyone needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.
Liam, being human, would have read much of this commentary on him.
These people doing the finger pointing, making the memes, didn’t know him.
If they’d met him, at all, it was for a two-second selfie — something the endlessly generous 31-year-old never, ever turned down.
(A man who had also secretly been donating to GoFundMe pages for people in need.)
Right to the end, Liam was plastering on a smile and meeting and greeting his fans.
Watching it back today, knowing what we know, is hard.
As his beloved sister, Nicola, posted on Instagram yesterday: “Unfortunately this cruel world is always quick to judge someone for a few five-second clips, they then think it entitles them to be able to speak like they know you.
“We knew you and we loved you.”
Now, the people who truly knew him are the only people who matter.
Rest well, Liam.
PAM’S KOOKY COOKS
PAMELA ANDERSON is having a renaissance – and I’m here for it.
The 57-year-old has come a long, long way since her pneumatic Baywatch, sex tape days and brilliantly reinvented herself as a make-up-free feminist icon, with a vegan twist.
Ditte IsagerPamela Anderson has launched cookbook, I Love You: Recipes From The Heart[/caption]Her new cookbook, I Love You: Recipes From The Heart, is suitably kooky.
“Sourdough has my heart; I like to think of baking bread as like giving birth,” she writes.
“I love every olive”, she declares later on, sweetly praising their sweet, little “wrinkled skins” before going on to wax lyrical on the “beauty and intelligence” of mushrooms.
She reveals giving her pet mastiffs fruit balls laced with CBD oil, handily including the recipe in the tome for anyone wishing to give their pet the munchies.
As kooky and free-spirited as Pammy Mk II may be, alas she still has lawyers.
“Check with your vet and read the bottle carefully,” she states, with the publisher’s legal eagles evidently convulsing at the prospect of 78 stoned Dobermans claiming compo.
In another chapter, the star details a recipe for a dish she once dreamt up: “A single rose served simply as a salad, dressed with olive oil and sumac.”
Which sounds nothing short of a nightmare.
instagramKeir Starmer and his wife Victoria in their box at the Taylor Swift concert[/caption]CERTAIN photographs sometimes go on to haunt politicians for ever.
Case in point: Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich, Theresa May dancing, Boris Johnson on a zip wire, Jeremy Corbyn high-fiving Emily Thornberry’s boob.
Now that photo of Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria in their box at the Taylor Swift concert looks set to follow the PM around forever – long after freebie-gate finally settles down.
BIT TOO CIVIL…
CIVIL servants have been advised against using phrases like “millennials” and “Gen Z”, or “it’s raining cats and dogs”, so as not to offend, well, millennials and Gen Z, or confuse the neurodiverse.
The recommendations were given as part of an inclusive language guide which stresses the need to avoid words that can “offend, exclude or harm people”.
If members of the civil service genuinely think that pigs are flying, or there’s a dead horse being flogged outside the office, I suggest they probably shouldn’t be in the civil service.
Although, frankly, the chance of seeing the blob in an office seems less likely than a soaring boar.
ReutersWes Streeting needs to take action[/caption]WES STREETING is a genuine innovator – a man with ideas and the willingness to implement them (if the unions allow him).
And his idea for a public consultation about the NHS – fielding the views of staff and patients about the future of the health service – aren’t without merit.
But after 14 years waiting in the wings, now is the time for action, not chat.
LEARN THE LESSONS FROM BRAVE CHRIS’S CANCER TRAGEDY
CHRIS HOY’S bravery and honesty in discussing his terminal prostate cancer battle is a lesson to us all.
Cancer is an evil which discriminates against no one – prince, pauper or, in this case, Olympic god.
GettyChris Hoys bravery and honesty in discussing his terminal prostate cancer battle is a lesson to us all[/caption]But one of the most startling and heartbreaking revelations is that both his dad and grandfather had prostate cancer but Chris, 48, never had a PSA test for it because the NHS doesn’t test asymptomatic men before the age of 50.
Perhaps, then, a simple test and earlier screening could have saved his life.
Chris is an incredible man.
Now, hopefully lessons will be learned by the NHS, and current testing procedures get overhauled.
NOT saying “hello” to a colleague could break employment laws, according to a judge.
It comes after a tribunal found a recruitment manager could successfully claim unfair dismissal when her new boss deliberately ignored her.
What piffle!
As someone who regularly dons giant over-the-ear black headphones in the office and pretends I’m transcribing an interview so as not to engage in utterly needless chitter-chatter when I simply CBA, I’m all for a bit of silence.
UTD WE STAND!
DO footballers ever re-watch themselves on Match Of The Day and think, “God, I’m pathetic”?
The embarrassing handbags-at-dawn scuffle between West Ham and Spurs which saw the Hammers’ Mohammed Kudus sent off is one such example.
One Tottenham player – Micky van de Ven – took a grazing blow to the face and went down as if he’d been shot in the face by an Uzi.
Man up, chaps.
MEME OF THE WEEK
The Snoop Dog DogSupplied