Tom Shanks

😂

@vonderleyen You can't even spell independence.

Today in Paris we reaffirmed that Ukraine deserves peace through strength. Peace respectful of its independance, sovereignty, territorial integrity, with strong security guarantees. Europe carries its full share of the military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time we need a surge in defence in Europe.

@IntEngineering Is Europe dead already?

31,068 miles: Meta plans world’s longest subsea cable to connect 5 continents interestingengineering.com/innovation/met…

@spectator @katyballs @JAHeale Contravercial!

Attorney General Richard Hermer, who has represented Shamima Begum and Gerry Adams, today admitted that he has had to recuse himself ‘from certain matters’ due to potential conflicts of interest. Is the government hamstrung by him? @katyballs | @JAHeale spectator.co.uk/podcast/labour…

@allencarr @mrlozmoore To my mind it's not as complicated as that, which is why it works. It's an appeal to reason, logic & clear thinking. Getting you to effectively admit that you've been strung along. Believing your own (and everyone else's) bullshit. Realising what's actually good and bad for you.

@mrlozmoore Noooo. NLP wasn’t around when the method was devised and there’s no element of self-hypnosis. It’s essentially a form of cognitive restructuring. Allen was a genius.

A great start to 2025, Mel Gibson talking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, “I smoked for 45 years and I couldn't stop…The book was called The Easy Way to Stop Smoking…So, I read it and I stopped. It worked like crazy”. #JoeRoganExperience #JRE #MelGibson

@doris_from So many humourless, perpetually offended halfwits commenting negatively about this. You're just taking the piss, that's all. He spent his life taking the piss. He'd have loved the devil may care irreverence and "no fucks given" approach. He was a fucking comedian after all.

RIP Tony Slattery. A key part of the U.K. comedy scene in his time. And quite the looker before life took its toll.

@KathleenWinche3 It's a bit easier when you live this side of the pond!

@Tom_Shanks Wow 😮

I’m not well traveled at all. I have never been out of this country. How about you?

@RandomTheGuy_ @TheFigen_ We remember the Brownlee brothers. No one remembers the guy who "won."

The orange shirt girl is very strategist, keeping the pace controlled and without overloading herself…

@BenMacintyre1 @Waterstones A vivid and brilliantly written account. Factual, insightful, human and even humorous in all the right places. So good in fact, I had to diplomatically expel friends and family from the house between Christmas and New Year so that I could get on with the next chapter! Great stuff

My new book THE SIEGE will be published in September. This is the remarkable story of six days that gripped a nation and changed the way we thought about the SAS. Pre-order your signed copy from @Waterstones bit.ly/TheSiegeWTS

@RupertLowe10 Amen to that! (As they say).

For many who run a small business or the self-employed, this upcoming period is pretty much the only time of the year when you can properly relax. Trying to describe the ongoing stress and pressure of going alone is not easy, I know - I've been there and done that. It is very bloody difficult. No sick days, no paid holiday, no 9-5. It is a constant weight on your mind. But this is what business is about. You took the risk, I really hope it's paying off. I think politicians who have never done that, simply cannot understand it. Take Reeves - comfortable job, zero risk, no gamble. She just doesn't get what it takes to run a business. Jokes aside about her professional career, and there are questions to answer, she's never done it. Never tried. Will never understand. So when she slaps this employment tax on hardworking risk-takers, trust me when I say this - she has no idea of the real world consequences. They are driving the economy off a cliff. Will that affect Labour MPs? Actually affect them? No, of course not. Food will be on the table, their children won't go hungry. MP salaries will remain the same. Can that be said for thousands and thousands of business owners/sole traders across the country? Sadly, the answer is it's going to be a very challenging time. I really do feel for people trying to make a business work in the current climate. Incentives are getting less and less. Regulation is getting increasingly complicated. More and more will look at it and simply think - what's the point? Why take the risk? MPs argue about this and that in Westminster, with no real thought to how these abstract concepts of tax and regulation actually affect people. If you're out there, giving it a go - for what it's worth, you've got my utmost respect. I hope you can enjoy some time off over the next week or so. If you're still at it, I sincerely wish you a productive festive season. Going into 2025, please stick with it. Reeves won't be there forever. We are doing our best to bring some common sense back to Westminster.

@babybirdrip Saw this and thought of you. Great gig in Brum in the autumn by the way. Actually, forget "great," it was fucking brilliant X

@mrmarkdolan The Liberal Party died. Parties die. Nothing is forever. No reason why The Conservative Party could not, will not and should not die. If it doesn't do that which it is supposed to do it will die. It must do, and deservedly so.

Robert Jenrick will defect to Reform UK Bookmark this post 😇

@LD_Sceptics He's not perfect, but I love him.

David Starkey is right that Tony Blair and New Labour destroyed the British Constitution and did lasting harm to the country, says Prof James Alexander. But here are some things he gets wrong. dailysceptic.org/2024/12/02/dav…

@Edwina_Currie Both of my parents (who were smokers) are dead too. But they, like your husband, had free will and exercised it. Encouraging over zealous governments which attempt to protect people from themselves are considerably more dangerous than any dir/indirectly self inflicted harm.

I’m a firmer Health Minister, and my husband died of lung cancer after years of cigarette smoking. He used to talk like you, till it was too late.

If this was a football match, what teams would they be? 🤔 ⚽️

@babybirdrip Aluminum Beach. Compelled to listen to it. It popped into my head while I was doing something ordinary. It's extraordinary. Otherworldly. Sorry to sound like a wanker. But it is. I've said it before and I'll say it again. SJ is like VvG. Only after death will the wor

@RealCandaceO The philosophy of America and the original vision laid out by the founding fathers is / was more than admirable. It was magnificent. But, and sadly there's always a but, people corrupt ideals because temptation is apparently irresistible. We're only human. Greed and vanity...

Now that everyone is paying attention to the CIA, I’ll ask the question: Why are they considered “American” when they so clearly do not serve the American people? It seems to me to be a transnational intelligence agency that protects the financial interests of a few via neverending wars, and controls politicians and media throughout America and Europe. Everyone should research the declassified documents of “operation Northwoods”— when the CIA was going to stage a fake terrorist attack against the American people and blame it on Cuba so they could go to war. This is utterly psychopathic but a true, historical fact. Fortunately, then-President JFK stood up the to CIA and refused to sign off on the fake terrorist attack. JFK was then mysteriously assassinated by a veteran named Lee Harvey Oswald, who claimed he did not kill JFK, but before Lee could stand trial, he was shot and killed at Dallas police headquarters by a man named Jack Rubenstein. The CIA also established another operation at this time, known as, “Operation Mockingbird” to implant propagandist journalists throughout the American media. In the 70’s it was exposed that some journalists were paid up to $500,000 for their services. The more you know.

@KonstantinKisin Poachers become gamekeepers but can't admit it to themselves as the truth is just too uncomfortable to acknowledge.

First Hislop, now Iannucci. People who used to satirise the powerful are now rich, famous and old enough that they're their mouthpieces instead. Harvey Dent was right: you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

@amasad The excellent "Evolution of Everything" by @mattwridley explains a good proportion of the answer with great perspective, wisdom and clarity.

The question is *not* why we took off but instead what took so long to take off