Heather Kavanagh

Humanist, atheist, UK republican, lefty tea drinker, trans femme since 1985, legally female since 2020. I used to build models of railway things for people. I build models of winged things for me. My personal opinions live here.

Work stuff: https://heatherkay.co.uk/
Other stuff: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snaptophobic/collections
More stuff: https://snaptophobic.co.uk

Last Notes

2026-05-22 10:50:59 UTC

The bees have stopped swarming…
At the last UK census, around a quarter of a million people ticked the transgender box. That's around 0.5% of the UK population. In reality, there is still less than 1% of the population that identifies as trans, fewer than a million at a guess.
Somehow, a loud well-funded minority has managed to hijack the narrative with bullshit scare stories. There is a concerted attempt to make the lives of transgender people even more of a misery than it already can be.
🧵

2026-05-08 10:26:39 UTC

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I may only skim read. I just want to understand what a refugee has to go through when they arrive here.

2026-05-08 10:15:46 UTC

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That's brilliant. Thank you. Some light reading at bedtime, I think!

2026-05-08 09:44:09 UTC

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I want to be able to point to facts to try and educate, forlorn hope that it may be.
5/5

2026-05-08 09:44:00 UTC

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What I’d like, if you can help, is to find out exactly what a refugee arriving in this country receives from the UK government. How are they treated when they first wade to the beach, what they get if they’re processed and deported, and what they get if they’re processed and allowed to remain.
4/5

2026-05-08 09:43:48 UTC

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I’ve heard complaints about how people arriving here have "new smartphones" or get brand new trainers. Never mind smartphones are ubiquitous, especially in the Third World, and why shouldn’t someone get new sneakers if the ones they had were wrecked by seawater? I could go on, but you get the picture.
3/5

2026-05-08 09:43:42 UTC

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So many people I encounter tend to believe most of what they read in the right-wing papers. They believed that a refugee arrives in this country, and immediately gets a new car, council housing, free food and so on.
2/5

2026-05-08 09:43:20 UTC

I'm going to break my cardinal rule about not posting on current affairs.
Dear fedizens of the UK.
I seek information, so I can argue with people vehemently opposed to brown people rocking up on our shores seeking sanctuary. I want to be armed with actual facts.
1/5

2026-03-18 08:00:41 UTC

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That horizontal reflection at the top of the staircase is fab.

2026-02-20 09:59:31 UTC

A favour, if you please Fedifolk…
Years ago, I was given this pendant. It supposedly is my first name, Heather, phonetically represented in Arabic script.
I have never been able to confirm this, and I could also never quite work out which way round it should be.
So, which is the correct orientation, please? A or B?
Thank you.
(Yes, I know it needs a really good clean, but these are cruel enlargements.)
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/102/348/580/911/763/original/8ba19b1aabf7da06.jpeg
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/102/348/591/580/151/original/042301992d84cdb4.jpeg

2025-09-23 08:33:27 UTC

This still makes me laugh. Paul thought it one of the best jokes ever, and he delighted in telling it to everyone.
Giraffes are majestic animals of the African veldt with long necks which can grow up to fourteen feet, though most only have four.

2025-08-23 13:07:54 UTC

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Does this help? I’m sure Wedale ship to Germany.
https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/welcome-to-dorley-hall-alyson-greaves/7649015?ean=9781915584632

2025-05-09 08:08:39 UTC

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It’s age, poor posture, and ongoing medical things that mean I’m unable to sit properly at the moment. I think I know what triggered it. I hope it will pass soon.

2025-05-09 07:42:24 UTC

I’m afraid I’ve gone back to bed in the hopes that being supine will help my back.
This was not the plan.

2025-05-09 06:59:19 UTC

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That’ll be a she. Most bumble bees you see about are female, like honey bees. She's probably seeking a nesting site.

2024-08-27 15:36:22 UTC

"We are sad to report that Faye Mussperson, star of stage, screen and their sofa, has passed peacefully at home last night."
Passed? Passed what? A kidney stone? Wind? Go, and collected £200? Their driving test? Out? The sound barrier?
What you’re skipping around to avoid saying is the person died. They died. That’s what they did. They died; they’re now dead. They did not pass anything, have not passed anything, are not passing anything. They died. Just say it.
Alexa, end rant.