Tom Shakespeare's avatar

Tom Shakespeare

@tomshakespeare.bsky.social

1083 followers 1541 following 253 posts

Mainly talks & writes, but more than an academic. Pleasures include art, music & books. And food and drink. "The Ha-ha" is published in March 2024.

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Politics badly needs an injection of hope & faith.

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Jo Wolff's avatar Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social
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The goodish news - Reform has only 4 seats, the same as the Greens, so the exit polls were badly wrong. The really bad news - Reform has more than 4 million votes, more than Lib Dem on 3.5 and not far behind Tories on 6.7 million and Labour on 9.6.

18 replies 24 reposts 77 likes

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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I like the smell of a Tory bloodbsth in the morning.

1 replies 2 reposts 14 likes

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POLITICO Europe's avatar POLITICO Europe @politico.eu
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🚹 BREAKING: The chances of an outright victory for the far right in the French election fell today, as at least 200 candidates from both the left-wing alliance and the centrist coalition pulled out of the contest.

6 replies 19 reposts 43 likes

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George Monbiot's avatar George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
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In this talk for the Hay Festival, now free to view, I seek to define capitalism and neoliberalism, show how they have trashed our lives and propose some radical alternatives.
Do watch if you have a chance. Thanks.
www.hayfestival.com/p-21301-geor...

1 replies 16 reposts 53 likes

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Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Prof Christina Pagel's avatar Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social
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Calling families of children with complex health needs!

Can you spare 10 mins to share your thoughts to help UCL SPROCKET further improve our approach on partnering with families?

survey: shorturl.at/uu6ST
find out more at: sprocket.kids.

Please share!

0 replies 13 reposts 7 likes

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Adam Serwer's avatar Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social
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The Supreme Court’s ruling putting presidents above the law must be understood not simply as a grant of immunity for past crimes, but an enthusiastic endorsement of those he will commit if given the chance. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

25 replies 523 reposts 1424 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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The Supremely Stupid Court of the United States, which fought a war to get rid of one King only to see its President made into another one.

1 replies 2 reposts 3 likes

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Robert S's avatar Robert S @ro8ert.bsky.social
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I learnt a new word today - "tyromancy", which means 'divination by means of cheese'.

11 replies 29 reposts 83 likes

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Philippe Auclair's avatar Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social
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As Led By Donkeys haven't opened an account (yet) here, here is their last offering on "the other place". Beautiful.

5 replies 37 reposts 120 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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It is North Lambeth Parish FĂȘte on Saturday afternoon at Lambeth Palace. Think of the cakes, books, bottles, teas and above all, the dogs at the NLP Dog Show, 3pm, with a special guest to award the Best in Show rosette.

0 replies 2 reposts 4 likes

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Margot Finn's avatar Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social
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Given that the FT has devoted rather a lot of column space today to James Cracknell, here for balance is an introduction to the Labour candidate battling him for Colchester, ace historian and sociology professor Pam Cox:

1 replies 6 reposts 9 likes

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Marisa Grizenko's avatar Marisa Grizenko @marisagrizenko.bsky.social
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From Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water and, uh, don’t I know it

0 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

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Marisa Grizenko's avatar Marisa Grizenko @marisagrizenko.bsky.social
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“There was something demoniacal and insuperable about typographical errors, as if they were part of the natural evil that permeated man’s existence, as if they had a life of their own and were determined to manifest themselves no matter what, as surely as weeds in the best-tended gardens.”

1 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

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Brian Bilston 's avatar Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social
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Here’s a short poem about the inadvisability of spoiling ballot papers.

2 replies 37 reposts 119 likes

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☀ Jon Schwarz ☀'s avatar ☀ Jon Schwarz ☀ @schwarz.bsky.social
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Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978. Carter describes what happened next in "The Blood of Abraham": The US notified Israeli Prime Minister Begin we were going to cut off all military aid to Israel & present a resolution condemning it at the UN. Begin immediately said: "It's over."

9 replies 111 reposts 321 likes

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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I co-wrote a book called "The Sexual Politics of Disability: untold desires". I wanted to reverse title & sub-title but publisher preferred.

1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Are you sure P.G.Wodehouse wrote a book called Spring Rain? He wrote one called Spring Fever (1948).

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

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David Higham's avatar David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social
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Seems it’s not just me that finds Cameron’s rehabilitation hard to take. This is David Allen Green in the latest edition of Prospect magazine

1 replies 9 reposts 19 likes

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Neil Gaiman 's avatar Neil Gaiman @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com
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Dead is the only age that's too late to start being an author.

78 replies 758 reposts 2847 likes

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Kingfisher & Wombat's avatar Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com
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Now this is interesting if true, though I’m not sure what the article means about names in dolphins and parrots, since we’ve known for years that dolphins effectively have call-signs. Huh.

9 replies 12 reposts 116 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez; The Haunts of the Black Masseur, Charles Sprawson; Weatherland, Alexandra Harris.

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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My professor during my Masters was asked how many books we should be reading. How many are you reading?, he asked. Three, came the response. A day?, he enquired. No, a week!, was the shocked reply.

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

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After Dinner Conversation's avatar After Dinner Conversation @afterdinner.bsky.social
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"You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it." - Octavia E. Butler

0 replies 6 reposts 16 likes

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Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Mark Chadbourn's avatar Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social
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European election results: Germany still divided in the old way.

19 replies 81 reposts 249 likes

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Phil Dore 's avatar Phil Dore @philjdore.bsky.social
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So, why is Labour's election slogan Change and not Steer Calmer with Keir Starmer?

10 replies 19 reposts 52 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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That writer must like rain & staying inside. European cities like Geneva and Vienna much better weather.

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Excellent. A highlight of the Early Modern History syllabus.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

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Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

R.L. Stollar's avatar R.L. Stollar @rlstollar.bsky.social
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"Beyond his goal of eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, Trump has also stated that he will attempt to slash education funding, mandate prayer in public schools, and ban ideas that challenge right-wing dogma."

16 replies 247 reposts 453 likes

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Sandra Newman's avatar Sandra Newman @sannewman.bsky.social
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I'm always baffled at how almost everyone I meet tries hard to be good and wants the best for other people, and yet we're killing everything in the most cynical imaginable way, and so rapidly that it's very possible that a person now living will be the last person.

4 replies 7 reposts 48 likes

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John Bull's avatar John Bull @garius.bsky.social
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Other members of the colliery choirs said that they didn't know who the Pet Shop Boys were when they performed, but after they had relatives and friends (and remember these guys were from small-town Wales and England) come out to them, and say seeing them on that stage meant the trusted them.

2 replies 58 reposts 465 likes

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John Bull's avatar John Bull @garius.bsky.social
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In 1994 the Pet Shop Boys were invited to perform 'Go West' at the Brit Awards.

They agreed and brought with them 3 separate choirs of miners. Some of those miners had marched with the gay and lesbian members of LGSM in the 1980s. It is one of the great, near-lost music moments

vimeo.com/293437684

78 replies 1021 reposts 2284 likes

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Bret Devereaux's avatar Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social
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I don't know if he's on here but in case he isn't, Nathan Goldwag wrote a blog essay on "The Moral Economy of the Shire" looking at how a society can function based on custom & clientalism rather than the state and you should read it, it's fantastic.

nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/t...

14 replies 139 reposts 383 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." Abraham Luncoln

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes