Dusk Foster

[idunnosomename]

this is very sad, but good friend of the shitpost left, and rare principled British journalist Dawn Foster has died at age 33.

https://mobile.twitter.com/piercepenniless/status/1415702759253450755

You may remember she immediately lost her Guardian gig after saying Tom "massive cunt" Watson should leave labour in a column in July 2019. She had epilepsy and a rare genetic neural disorder, but this is still quite a shock.

thought this deserved more than a mention in the Labour thread.

[Fambo Number Mive]

That's dreadful. Such a young age.

Loved her writing in Jacobian: https://jacobinmag.com/author/dawn-foster

We need all the principled journalists we can get.

[Thursday]

God this is just shit isn't it. Truly one of the few good ones.

Hitting particularly hard that she's the same age as me and also had epilepsy. 

[idunnosomename]

I wonder if the guardian will run an obit.
The way she left was very odd indeed. She had a few months left on a fixed-term contract (which presumably she thought would be renewed), but after the Watson hit piece they just paid all her future column fees with a single lump sum and immediately got rid of her from the paper. Incredible. I mean at least she got the money, but that's not what matters to these newspapers is it

[Sebastian Cobb]

That's terrible, she was great.

[Pink Gregory]

Oh god that's awful.

I still find it so bizarre that life can have such a quick turnaround; especially when they post, literally here one day and gone the next with no slowing down.

[king_tubby]

This is so very sad. She was a proper campaigning journalist who stuck to her principles even when that meant not getting work from the mainstream press.

I only 'knew' her via following her on Twitter, but she was piss funny and seemed like a top person to know.

RIP.

[Blue Jam]

I knew her back in my Skeptics In The Pub Days. I knew about her medical condition and I know she had a seizure recently but she had been discharged from hospital and seemed to be doing better. She was still doing good work too, this is such a shock. Rest in peace Dawn.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I knew her back in my Skeptics In The Pub Days. I knew about her medical condition and I know she had a seizure recently but she had been discharged from hospital and seemed to be doing better. She was still doing good work too, this is such a shock. Rest in peace Dawn.

She was recently in where they put her under observation/ecg's for days and let seizures happen to see if they could figure out what was going on, but she also mentioned a tumor in her spine was much bigger than expected recently as well.

[Josef K]

This is so awful, feel genuinely upset by this in a way I've never felt from a public figure.
She was so incredibly talented and principled. Such a loss

[canadagoose]

I saw this on Twitter and was really shocked. Bloody shame. May she rest in peace.

[JaDanketies]

that's shit.

[Blue Jam]

I lost touch with her a few years back, I think she stepped back from social media a bit because of all the abuse she got from MRA types, and she was less involved in Skeptic stuff, possibly because of the whole New Atheism thing (which put me off too tbf). She also got back into Catholicism in a major way and I was surprised by that but I think I understand why now, I hope her faith brought her some comfort.

Fuck, it's horrible to see the Wikipedia page of someone I knew personally with "was" on it. The last time I saw her was when she was doing a little tour to promote her book Lean Out, she did a great Q&A and we had a nice chat in the pub afterwards, properly upset over this.

[king_tubby]

I'm so sorry, BlueJam.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yes, sorry to hear that.

[TrenterPercenter]

Ffs! I had no idea she was ill this is rubbish she was really great and had a brilliant tone and commentary on things.  Bit shocked by this.

Sorry for your loss BJ.

[Blue Jam]

Thanks. We weren't close or anything but I'd see her at events pretty often and she was always outspoken and entertaining. I remember when she was doing her "101 Wankers" project exposing the harassment of female cyclists. It was always good to chat with a fellow militant feminist/militant cyclist. It was also really sad when she had to give up the cycling for health reasons, she was doing good work there too.

[Kankurette]

The good ones always die young. May her memory be a blessing.

[Small Potatoes]

Shit news. She seemed to be a genuinely good egg.

[idunnosomename]

This is so awful, feel genuinely upset by this in a way I've never felt from a public figure.

yeah me too. Jeremy Hardy maybe (funnily enough also one of those rare principled lefties) but he was 57, still no age, but still, when you don't get to make it to 34, man

[TrenterPercenter]

Thanks. We weren't close or anything but I'd see her at events pretty often and she was always outspoken and entertaining. I remember when she was doing her "101 Wankers" project exposing the harassment of female cyclists. It was always good to chat with a fellow militant feminist/militant cyclist. It was also really sad when she had to give up the cycling for health reasons, she was doing good work there too.

I really didn't know she had her conditions; I've read her so many times and must have never come across her mention anything about it.  Feel a right plum for not knowing.  One of the few people I would look out for to read of recent times.  Testament to her character that she didn't let her illnesses get in the way of life; such a shame.

[bgmnts]

Grew up unemployed in Newport and turned out to be a pretty decent person by the seem of things, that in itself is an outstanding achievement.

34 is scarily young though.

[idunnosomename]

On Twitter she was often posting about how she'd done herself a serious injury during a seizure, like smashing her head on a coffee table or something. clearly they were very violent, which I only realise now is because of her nervous system tumours (which I've only just found out about)

[EOLAN]

On Twitter she was often posting about how she'd done herself a serious injury during a seizure, like smashing her head on a coffee table or something. clearly they were very violent, which I only realise now is because of her nervous system tumours (which I've only just found out about)

It could be the sudden loss of senses and a sudden fall that can be the issue. Where and how you land could have varying consequences.
Very sad to hear. A great humane journalist and principled. Why a piece on Watson should have caused the higher ups in The Guardian get so concerned is worrying. And he basically followed her advice before but not before doing the damage he wanted.

One of her listed charities is also one my wife and I are close to in their Irish base.

Rest in Peace

[idunnosomename]

Props from the big man. Yes!

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1415729103735595011?s=19

[imitationleather]

Absolutely terrible and totally shocking news. She was always very interesting whenever she was on Novara and so on and came across as one of the few good voices who still occasionally could be seen in the MSM.

34, fuck. Same age as me.

[Petey Pate]

David Graeber, Michael Brooks, Dawn Foster...[nb]I have a feeling there's someone else I'm forgetting[/nb]

What is with the recent trend of luminaries of the left dying way too young?

[idunnosomename]

sorry 33 actually. she would've been 34 in September

[buttgammon]

Horrible news, someone so young, principled and talented.

[idunnosomename]

her last garun column

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/09/tom-watson-weaken-labour-party-centrists-jeremy-corbyn

Centrist thinking is focused on two false premises. The first is that the 2012 London Olympic ceremony represented an idyllic high-point of culture and unity in the UK, rather than occurring amid the brutal onslaught of austerity, with food bank use growing and the bedroom tax ruining lives. The second is that the UK became divided by Brexit and the 2016 vote, rather than it being a symptom of long-term problems: the decline of industry and the public sector begun by Margaret Thatcher and continued by Tony Blair and David Cameron; vast inequality of opportunity, wealth and health; and the number of people being routinely ignored in a system with a huge democratic and electoral deficit.

The 2017 manifesto helped Labour to increase its vote share because it addressed so many of the problems faced by people and communities across the country. Labour won more seats, in spite of people like Tom Watson and his ideological bedfellows. Many centrist Labour MPs desperately wanted the party to lose heavily so they could depose Jeremy Corbyn. They still do. A Labour government with Corbyn in charge is less preferable to them than an indefinite Tory government.

well. quite. the guardian got what it fucking wanted. rest in power dawn