Mastodawn

I'm going to have a little go at doing a blog - trying to make sense of the state of politics through a gentle, relational lens. This is just an introduction post.

https://thoughtsfromasingingdinosaur.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/introduction/

Introduction

Hello :). You can call me Dina (the dinosaur) – or anything you like, really. I’m a postgraduate student in the UK. In a nutshell, I’m researching societal blind-spots when it com…

Thoughts from a singing dinosaur

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MelodicDinosaur Mar 9

@RichardJMurphy Anyway I'm very inspired. Please have a look. Please share with anyone who doesn't understand, or anyone like me who is in one of the poor minority groups and takes all the prejudiced political messaging to heart sometimes. He's on YouTube and at https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/ and the Funding the Future podcast. 2/2

Moderation data

I have continued to look into how to manage moderation on this blog. To do so, I looked at data on the number of comments over the last year. They have, in total, been 358,000 published comments on this blog over a period of 20 years, but 20% of all traffic in...

Funding the Future

MelodicDinosaur Mar 9

I've been listening to economist @RichardJMurphy a lot recently, coming from a place of barely understanding how money works at all (having never had much of it). I didn't know the government didn't work like a household in terms of spending. I didn't know that a politics of care was actually realistically possible. I didn't know how wealthy the wealthy are, or that it's just political decisions that are keeping us trapped in a huge cycle of exploitation. I just accepted the dehumanising narrative we're all told about the need for austerity. But what Richard says is making everything make so much more sense. We ordinary folks have been so badly tricked, for such a long time. I just *did not know*. People need to know this stuff. If what he says can somehow be put into practice, people won't have to be worried about surviving anymore, and won't be so easily manipulated into clinging to the political and cultural idols that say, "blame immigrants", "blame the disabled"... etc. 1/2

MelodicDinosaur Mar 9

Nömenlōony Mar 9

Yesterday we had a discussion about the Royal British Legion and why I won't donate to the poppy appeal or wear a poppy.

The Royal British Legion are actually a shit charity. During one of the worst times of my life - just after losing my dad - my ex service brother was slowly killing himself with alcohol. He ended up homeless after the bank repossessed his house and my mum ended up with him sleeping on the floor in the dining area of her small house.

We were both paying out a fortune to keep him and it was straining our finances massively.

Me and him didn't see eye to eye at that point as he had been stealing from us, and when I had to drop him at a hospital appointment and then pop in to do a quick job for a customer he stole a bottle of vodka from behind one of their bars - on CCTV - and I volunteered to reimburse the customer.

I approached the Royal British Legion for help and their first step was to send a means testing sheet for both me and my mum. I was absolutely disgusted and sent it back. He was actually a fully on target case for their assistance.

Other charities on the other hand stepped up and helped him including SSAFA and CRUISE.

Royal British Legion can do one.

He died in 2016. Ten years ago. Alcoholic hepatic cancer and cirrhosis.

MelodicDinosaur Mar 7

You know... I think compassion might actually be the adult in the room after all.

MelodicDinosaur Mar 4

Alexis Bushnell Mar 4

Cis women, take a minute of your time to go sign this from the Good Law Project to show that we stand with trans women: https://notinourname.org.uk

#IWD #IWD2026 #TransRights

Home - Not in our name

Not In our Name: Women in support of the trans+community

Not in our name

MelodicDinosaur Mar 4

Cllr Gareth Kitchen Mar 4

The Green Party’s co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, has told Middle East Eye he fears for his life and has faced death threats after Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke made a false claim about him in parliament which Keir Starmer appeared to agree with.

They will get me killed. Over the last couple of days I’ve received about 20 death threats. He can say what he wants in there and get away with it. I want to see how brave he is. Will he repeat this outside parliament?

#ukpol #GreenParty #MothinAli

MelodicDinosaur Mar 1

Simon Brooke Mar 1

Everyone in the UK, there's an official petition to parliament to 'Call a public inquiry into pro-Israel influence on politics & democracy'.

Please could I strongly urge everyone to sign it?

#Israel
#PalestineAction
#Palestine
#GazaGenocide
#UKPol

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/752646?ref=ed_direct

Curiously, there's a distinct east/west split on this petition!

MelodicDinosaur Mar 1

We have had a DID diagnosis for quite a long time. We have had lots of therapy and are relatively well-supported.

We do present as different ones of us and different ages and stages at different times, but we avoid sharing publicly about details - names, etc. - mostly for safety reasons.

This means we often come across as inconsistent, ditzy, childlike, or forgetful - that's because we're masking our multiplicity. Please be patient if you can.

We are generally fairly resilient and well-practiced at self-regulation, but we can get avoidant and tend to retreat, especially socially. I (speaking for myself) love to see other plurals exploring and being able to make sense of their own experiences freely and as part of a supportive community, even though we are a bit more guarded than some systems.

Wishing care and safety to all who read this - please be as circumspect as you need to.

MelodicDinosaur Feb 28

Um... Iran. Oh no.