Tom Shakespeare

@tomshakespeare.bsky.social

11K followers 12K following 2.3K posts

Talks, writes, teaches. "The Ha-ha" & "The Ends" might make you laugh. Patreon https://patreon.com/Tomtalksdisabillity?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&utm_content=join_link

Videos

Sir Thomas William Shakespeare, 3rd Baronet, is an English sociologist and bioethicist. He has achondroplasia and uses a wheelchair.

Source: Wikipedia

Education 36%

Public Health 20%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · Jun 10

Please order The Ends: "exit, pursued by a polar bear" - I've even written the headline for your review. Hope you are enjoying the book: it's a laugh, but also about the climate crisis.

Cover of 'The Ends' featuring the hero, Fred, being pursued by a voracious polar bear.

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 11h

We want to uncover wrongdoing. We can with your support. Bellingcat is a not-for-profit. Consider donating so we can continue to create impact in 2026. www.bellingcat.com/donate

Donate - bellingcat

Your donation to Bellingcat is a direct contribution to our research. With your support, we will continue to publish groundbreaking investigations on events of public interest worldwide to create impa...

www.bellingcat.com

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Tom Wilson @feedthedrummer.bsky.social · 11h

Matthew Goodwin's selection may genuinely be the biggest unforced error in Farage's political career.

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 15h

There's a predictable approach to denial that we're already seeing, which I call the Four Pillars of Disordered Doubt, which allows actors to constantly question evidence that don't fit their preferred narratives.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 16h

Poverty in UK shames us all. This is what everyone needs to know. www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2...

UK Poverty 2026: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK

This report sets out the nature of poverty in the UK, and evaluates changes under the last Conservative-led Government. It also sets out the scale of action necessary for the current Government to del...

www.jrf.org.uk

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 18h

She was so brilliant.

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 18h

For today, 27 January
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Xg...

'No monument stands over Babi Yar
[...]
Nothing in me shall ever forget.
Let the 'Internationale' thunder forth
When we have buried, finally and forever,
The final antisemite on this earth'.

Shostakovich | Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) | 4.27.2019

YouTube video by Michigan State University | College of Music

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare, Peter Schöttler

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 18h

"On Holocaust Memorial Day we need more history, not just more memory" bit.ly/4t6wPx6

Dr Andy Pearce, Director of @uclholocaust.bsky.social, writes today on the RHS blog.

#Skystorians

Front page of Royal Historical Society blog post with image of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, photograph by Rudolph Simon, 2013, Wilkimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Text reads: "On Holocaust Memorial Day we need more history, not just more memory' and abstract: In this post, Andy Pearce – Director of the Centre for Holocaust Education at UCL – considers the current levels of knowledge of the Holocaust among UK secondary school students. UCL studies, in 2016 and 2026, reveal a troubling and enduring divergence between popular understandings of the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe, in the 1930s and 1940s, and the findings of scholarly historical research. 27 January 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain. As Andy argues, prevalent and popular misperceptions risk being sustained if the Holocaust becomes a subject for remembrance and memory, rather than of history and historical scholarship. It is only though ‘more history’, shared widely and publicly, that we may seek to redress error, distortion and denial."

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Michael Daly @michaeldaly64.bsky.social · 1d

RIP Lowell Fillmore 'Sly' Dunbar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJF...

Peter Tosh - Stepping Razor

YouTube video by xraymusicdotcodotuk

www.youtube.com

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 1d

Yes! It made me think about how what you could do in a book waa much more difficult in a film. But it was close to what I imagined.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 1d

I too cried a lot!

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 1d

Loved Hamnet. Doesn't let the book down (if you hated the book, you're unlikely to like this). Great performances.

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @lshtm.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING NEWS: UK loses its #measles elimination status

@benk-d.bsky.social highlights failure to reach 95% measles #vaccine coverage target in UK

+ need for secure funding for vaccine outreach efforts & joined-up #PublicHealth response

Read more: www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

David Quantick @quantick.bsky.social · 1d

If you don't own a piece of music that Sly Dunbar played on, there's something missing in your life. RIP.

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare, McKenzie Wark

jeff @jazyjef.bsky.social · 1d

RIP Sly Dunbar (1952-2026)

Sly Dunbar, Influential Sly & Robbie Drummer, Is Dead At 73

Grammy-winning producer and drummer Sly Dunbar — one half of the Jamaican duo Sly and Robbie — has died aged 73, DancehallMag has confirmed. Rory Baker, a

www.dancehallmag.com

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Andrea Devon @andreadevon.sheshed.rocks · 2d

Read their names.
Nine people have died in ICE custody or during ICE operations in 2026.
Every one of them mattered.

Call Congress. ICE should NOT be funded.
📱 202-224-3121

#SheShed #Voices4Victory

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 3d

"We are out there in every place they are, showing them that every person in this city is one of our own, that there is no such thing as other people’s children, that collectively we are not afraid of staring them in the eye," @erikhane.bsky.social writes from Minneapolis.

There is no such thing as other people’s children

It is intolerable

www.welcometohellworld.com

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Ben H. Ansell, Brendan Nyhan , and 3 more Kim L. Scheppele, Ben H. Ansell, Brendan Nyhan, Tom Shakespeare, David R. Miller, Ariel White

Thomas Leeper @thosjleeper.bsky.social · 3d

Minneapolitans are gathering on every block tonight at 7pm to hold a vigil for someone killed by our own government, for doing nothing but helping someone up off the ground.

What would you say if you saw this in other country?

What would you expect to happen to those responsible and accountable?

Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 3d

Board of Peace - Season 1

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, I know Schubert trios. Will investigate Ravel.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 4d

I have given the same evidence to Parliament on multiple occasions: the Joffe Bill, the Meacher Bill, now the Leadbeater Bill. Governments seem unlikely to spend their legislative time on it. Meanwhile,multiple US states have exactly this, with no harms to disabled people.

Reposted by Mel Bartley, Tom Shakespeare

Kat Smith @profkatsmith.bsky.social · 4d

New @cphjournal.bsky.social special issue on decentring health systems out: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jcph featuring articles exploring how competing narratives, agency & resistance shape health policy & practice. Includes papers examining economic restructuring... 1/4

Journal of Critical Public Health

journalhosting.ucalgary.ca

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 4d

I'm sorry, this is completely incorrect.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If the assisted dying bill is killed off by the Lords, let that be the end for this unelected chamber | Polly Toynbee

With filibustering slowing the pace to a crawl, there is no chance the legislation will get through – unless the government shows some backbone, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare, Vaughan S. Roberts

Nick Reeves #FBPE #NAFO @nickreeves.bsky.social · 4d

"They stayed a little back, off the front lines"

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 5d

R3 was playing Dvorak Quartet #12, which I didn't know, but loved. Will try the Schoenberg.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you for this. I heard & loved their Shostakovich cycle at QEH.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 5d

Note to self: listen to more string quartets.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 5d

This "poorly designed" law works in many US states & is about to be passed in Jersey and perhaps Scotland. Meanwhile, hundreds or thousands of people in the rest of UK will die more difficult deaths.

Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social · 5d

This Bill has majority public opinion behind it, and passed the House of Commons vote. Filibustering in the Lords stopped it. This is no way to run a democracy.

Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 5d

A neutral source close to the process in the Lords tells me that the assisted dying bill will run out of time before a vote. At the current rate of debate, that seems likely.

Supporters say the public deserve for the bill to go to a vote, opponents say tough luck, this is due process.

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 5d

EXC - MPs and peers who backed the assisted dying bill now believe it is “near impossible” for it to pass the House of Lords in time because of procedural obstacles used by opponents.

“It is our system at its absolute most dysfunctional,” one MP said.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Patrick Dunleavy, Tom Shakespeare , and 1 more Richard S.J. Tol, Patrick Dunleavy, Tom Shakespeare, Jill Rutter

Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 5d

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 5d

Assisted dying bill backers say it is ‘near impossible’ it will pass House of Lords

Exclusive: Legislation thought unlikely even to be put to vote before timing out after delay tactics by opponents

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Tom Shakespeare, Felicity Callard

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 5d

The UK government is proposing radical and punitive changes to settlement rules. This is settlement, not citizenship. The consultation is open until 12 February; please respond to it and oppose these evil proposals. Amnesty have a good guide: www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/gu...

Guidance for responding to 'A Fairer Pathway to Settlement' consultation

We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news