Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
@simonshep.bsky.social
Cruciverbalist, veggie, passionate European, enjoy words, language, cooking, wine, music: part-time genius & amateur human being (possibly vice versa)
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Yet the tone of her announcements today will move forward his agenda.
Shabana Mahmood asks MPs to stop mentioning Tommy Robinson's name (in relation to his support for her policies) as "he doesn't even think I am English. I find that offensive."
November 17, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Yet the tone of her announcements today will move forward his agenda.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Green MP Carla Denyer accuses Shabana Mahmood of trying to "out Reform Reform" and says "toxic racist narratives and the scapegoating of migrants" are to blame for "tearing our country apart" not migrants.
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
November 17, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Green MP Carla Denyer accuses Shabana Mahmood of trying to "out Reform Reform" and says "toxic racist narratives and the scapegoating of migrants" are to blame for "tearing our country apart" not migrants.
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
This document is the product of a broken administration, motivated by cynicism, immune to human decency, with a weak-to-non-existent understanding of the policy area they wish to legislate in.
And that's it. Overall impressions are
- there's still a surprising lack of detail
- lots of new work for officials but unlikely to lead to much change on the ground
- refugees will still live here rest of their lives but will struggle even more than before to integrate
- there's still a surprising lack of detail
- lots of new work for officials but unlikely to lead to much change on the ground
- refugees will still live here rest of their lives but will struggle even more than before to integrate
November 17, 2025 at 6:54 PM
This document is the product of a broken administration, motivated by cynicism, immune to human decency, with a weak-to-non-existent understanding of the policy area they wish to legislate in.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
November 17, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
When they’re treating multi-billion dollar sports teams like collectibles, it’s time to tax the rich.
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/c...
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/c...
November 14, 2025 at 4:09 PM
When they’re treating multi-billion dollar sports teams like collectibles, it’s time to tax the rich.
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/c...
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/c...
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
"An honest, decent, honourable man who's been loyal to me and the party at all times."
🇷🇺 Nathan Gill is to be sentenced on Friday for accepting Russian bribes...
Loyal to you perhaps, but not the country...
Not the best judge of character are we Nige?
🇷🇺 Nathan Gill is to be sentenced on Friday for accepting Russian bribes...
Loyal to you perhaps, but not the country...
Not the best judge of character are we Nige?
November 17, 2025 at 4:04 PM
"An honest, decent, honourable man who's been loyal to me and the party at all times."
🇷🇺 Nathan Gill is to be sentenced on Friday for accepting Russian bribes...
Loyal to you perhaps, but not the country...
Not the best judge of character are we Nige?
🇷🇺 Nathan Gill is to be sentenced on Friday for accepting Russian bribes...
Loyal to you perhaps, but not the country...
Not the best judge of character are we Nige?
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.
November 17, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Six weeks since the PM said Britain faced a choice between decency or division and our bad, obviously, for not understanding that he was in fact Team Division
November 17, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Six weeks since the PM said Britain faced a choice between decency or division and our bad, obviously, for not understanding that he was in fact Team Division
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
"The bloc is in danger of squandering a period of better relations between the US president and Europe" - ha. This US administration is an extorting bully that can't do better relations with anyone, but whose President will take bribes. Survival against that is the best plan.
Trump trade negotiator hits out at EU delays in cutting tariffs and rules on.ft.com/4oUiQrq
Trump trade negotiator hits out at EU delays in cutting tariffs and rules
Jamieson Greer warns bloc that trade remains a ‘flashpoint’ in advance of talks next week
on.ft.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:05 PM
"The bloc is in danger of squandering a period of better relations between the US president and Europe" - ha. This US administration is an extorting bully that can't do better relations with anyone, but whose President will take bribes. Survival against that is the best plan.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
People coming here now have nothing resembling a ‘golden ticket’. They have overt hostility and - if they get to work - brazen exploitation by employers who seem to think the normal employment rights don’t need to apply to them. It’s crushingly hard. Made harder every day by rhetoric like Mahmood’s.
November 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
People coming here now have nothing resembling a ‘golden ticket’. They have overt hostility and - if they get to work - brazen exploitation by employers who seem to think the normal employment rights don’t need to apply to them. It’s crushingly hard. Made harder every day by rhetoric like Mahmood’s.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
November 16, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
November 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Major beneficiaries of the new Labour policy? Reform.
Secondary beneficiaries? Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru
Major losers? Labour, the U.K., humanity.
Secondary beneficiaries? Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru
Major losers? Labour, the U.K., humanity.
November 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Major beneficiaries of the new Labour policy? Reform.
Secondary beneficiaries? Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru
Major losers? Labour, the U.K., humanity.
Secondary beneficiaries? Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru
Major losers? Labour, the U.K., humanity.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧
THIS!
THIS!
November 15, 2025 at 10:27 AM
🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧🙄🇬🇧
THIS!
THIS!
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Shabana Mahmood on the BBC this morning talking about desperate people fleeing war and persecution as being given a "golden ticket" and "handouts" and saying she's got a "moral mission" to take them away from them
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Shabana Mahmood and the Politics of Extortion
Labour's strategy of telling its supporters to back Reform-style policies, or get a Reform Government, is the politics of the protection racket and it is not going to work
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Shabana Mahmood on the BBC this morning talking about desperate people fleeing war and persecution as being given a "golden ticket" and "handouts" and saying she's got a "moral mission" to take them away from them
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
It is so notable how the language of asylum has changed in the post-Farage/small boats world. “Illegal migrants” was once reserved for right wing papers, Now government spokespeople call basic sustenance and shelter for refugees banned from working “handouts”.
November 15, 2025 at 11:28 PM
It is so notable how the language of asylum has changed in the post-Farage/small boats world. “Illegal migrants” was once reserved for right wing papers, Now government spokespeople call basic sustenance and shelter for refugees banned from working “handouts”.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
No, I'd say it's racists and those pandering to them.
November 15, 2025 at 9:58 PM
No, I'd say it's racists and those pandering to them.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Tommy Robinson is claiming credit for the language/policy being used by the Labour government (about deporting people found to be refugees once their home country is deemed safe)
November 15, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Tommy Robinson is claiming credit for the language/policy being used by the Labour government (about deporting people found to be refugees once their home country is deemed safe)
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
What will happen to children of asylum seekers born here ? Will they be forcibly removed to a country they don’t know now deemed to be safe ? What will happen to older children who came with parents and doing well in education ? Will refugee parents be removed from British partners and children?
November 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM
What will happen to children of asylum seekers born here ? Will they be forcibly removed to a country they don’t know now deemed to be safe ? What will happen to older children who came with parents and doing well in education ? Will refugee parents be removed from British partners and children?
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
"The cat scratched my groin when he saw that woman from Strictly"
"Claudia Winkleman?"
"No, man, but it was close"
"Claudia Winkleman?"
"No, man, but it was close"
November 15, 2025 at 6:57 PM
"The cat scratched my groin when he saw that woman from Strictly"
"Claudia Winkleman?"
"No, man, but it was close"
"Claudia Winkleman?"
"No, man, but it was close"
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:43 AM
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
Latest Graun toon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Martin Rowson on trouble at No 10 – cartoon
After a week of briefing wars in the government, Rachel Reeves is reportedly planning an income tax U-turn in this month’s budget
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Latest Graun toon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
November 14, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Simon Shepherd 🇪🇺
On Trump, the BBC, asymmetric warfare - and Jeffrey Epstein. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump can get away with saying what he likes about the BBC. But Epstein? That’s his one vulnerability | Jonathan Freedland
In attacking a vital broadcaster, the US president is once again holding others to standards he flouts. But the Maga faithful might not let his links to the disgraced financier go, says Guardian colum...
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
On Trump, the BBC, asymmetric warfare - and Jeffrey Epstein. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...