David Shepherd

@TomPain25834081 @TheMoneyApe Send in the Marines…’cos that worked out so well in Afghanistan and Sudan. Not.

@TheMoneyApe I wish the President would just send in the Marines and show Iran who's the boss once and for all. We need the Straits open for all US ships. This mollycoddling Iran is costing ME money.

🚨 BIG UPDATE FROM IRAN 🚨 A U.S. B-52 BOMBER LAUNCHED A NIGHT MISSION AS STRIKES CONTINUE WHILE THE U.S. WORKS WITH ALLIES TO SECURE THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ. TRUMP SAYS IRAN MAY WANT A CEASEFIRE & CLAIMS RUMORS SUPREME MOJTABA KHAMENEI MAY BE DEAD. IF DEAD, IRAN MAY… Show more

@johnhunt2002 @TheJFreakinC 4. Let them violate the constitution?

@TheJFreakinC Let them do their jobs. If you check off list below. You have nothing to worry about...

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents illegally entered the private hallways of an apartment building in Eden Prairie, refused to show a warrant, and threatened a resident for doing nothing. In the video, a woman sees ICE agents in the private hallways of her building and begins filming. One agent walks up and asks if she has questions. She asks if they have a warrant and requests to see it. He refuses, saying she’s “not related” so they don’t have to show it. That’s illegal. She’s in a private area of her own building… she has the right to see a warrant. She then tells him she’s just observing. The agent says that’s fine but warns her not to “impede the investigation.” When she says she didn’t understand what he said, and starts questioning him more, he accuses her of whistling, making noise, and impeding… and threatens to arrest her if she does it again. Except she never blew a whistle, and she didn’t impede. She only asked to see a warrant, while filming them… fully within her legal rights. And their response to a U.S. citizen exercising her constitutional rights? Intimidation, harassment, and a Fourth Amendment violation… all on video. Which is exactly why you always record ICE whenever they show up. Rights are not optional, and videos don’t lie.

@PhilipGCharles @Marko_Zdr @NadimJBaba @RupertLowe10 That analogy is how racists think. That’s why they can gas to death millions of men, women and children who are different from them and not bat an eyelid.

@Marko_Zdr @NadimJBaba @RupertLowe10 Careful there; your analogy would suggest you view white humans as a different species of Homo Sapiens to brown humans. Cats and horses are not the same animal. Black and white cats and ginger cats are though.

I am sick of hearing that Britain was built by immigrants. No. No it was not. It was built by British men and women. We should be proud of that.

@benonwine Has nothing to do with immigration. Jaywick is 95% British-born and it looks like a bomb hit it. Doubtless, the unsurprising response will be: “well, the only reason that Jaywick is so dilapidated is that all the local government funding goes to high-immigration areas!”

Sadly most cities in the UK are like this especially in highly populated immigration areas.

This is London it looks like an absolute third world wasteland. Escape From London Should Be A New Film! Is it too late to SAVE London?

@NiohBerg @Psephizo Another atrocity (circa 1566). If you were Calvin’s contemporary, I’d wonder out loud what you’d have proposed.

Atrocities like this is why the British Museum is necessary, and you will never convince me otherwise. Some regimes and countries aren't willing or equipped to care for their ancient heritage at all. If it takes Europeans to keep it safe, so be it.

@NiohBerg @Psephizo The ‘European saviour’ approach is never justified. It’s not as though Karlstadt, Zwingli and Calvin did any different.

@GilesUdy @giles_fraser AI simply produces the sum of all that it finds online”. It’s ironic that while you emphasise nuance for history, your summary of AI is so sorely lacking in nuance. My point is that the nuances are merely mitigatory, but not exculpatory. Nothing you’ve written changes that.

I’d prefer to trust my own months of research into the CofE’s ownership of slaves on Codrington estate in Barbados rather than an AI ‘fact check’. AI should be the first step in research not the last. AI simply reproduces the sum of all that it finds online. As they used to say in the early computer days ‘GIGO’ - garbage in, garbage out. That’s a bit extreme for AI but it makes my point. You will also see from my post that I don’t defend the church for its slave holding. I simply say that it’s far more nuanced than it first appears. If they hadn’t taken the plantation left to them in Codrington’s will the slaves would have been far worse off, taken by a far less benign owner. They would never have been allowed to go free. It was another term of the will that they kept the number of slaves up to, if a remember, 300. Codringtons relatives were furious that the estate had been left to the SPG and tried to challenge the will. They were unsuccessful. But if the SPG had freed any slaves, or reduced their number, they’d have had grounds to over turn the will. It’s just not black or white. Codrington’s will was a poisoned chalice for the SPG - damned if they refused it, damned if they didn’t. The key issue right now in relation to the CofE’s current action is that reparations were PAID over ten years in the 1830s-40s. I’d add… Much of the cruelty was due to the fact that the church had to employ local managers who, of course, shared none of the church’s hopes to create a more benign model of a slave plantation to persuade other owners that it could be done. Yes, the slaves were branded. But what most critics ignore was that it was discovered by the Anglican chaplain assigned to minister to the slaves who IMMEDIATELY put a stop to it and wrote to the bishops in London to inform them and express his absolute horror at his discovery. Once again, not a black or white issue. We can’t look at decisions made 300 years ago with modern eyes only. Yes, it’s right to condemn the church in part, but in other aspects it isn’t. Codrington himself condemned other slaveowners for their cruelty to their slaves. And wrote compassionately about his hopes for their future after his death. How do we square that? @NigelBiggar

CofE proposed £100 million as reparations for historic involvement with slavery. Today, the group responsible say they want £1 billion +. I don’t understand what the going rate is for past suffering or how it is supposed to be calculated. Can someone talk me through the maths?

@GilesUdy @giles_fraser AI Fact check: SPG’s involvement was marked by contradictions—religious mission entangled with slavery. Some within the Church tried to mitigate cruelty, but system was exploitative, and the Church materially benefited from slavery. The legacy remains one of deep moral failure.

Not the full story. While far from commendable the Codrington story is more nuanced than you make out. The only reason why we know some slaves were branded is because the Anglican chaplain discovered it and was so appalled he put an immediate stop to it. That was ONE moment in its history not a permanent state of affairs. It was done by local managers who were employed at a distance and, according to the chaplain, frequently disregarded the spirit of instructions given it by the Codrington committee in London. The estate was left to the SPG by a man who hoped it could be a model plantation to encourage other planters to be more humane and because he wanted the profits to be used to finance a group of medical priests to minister to the needs of slaves and others across the island. In fact it hardly made much money during its whole existence which was at the end subject to much criticism from other Anglicans. If the SPG had refused the bequest (which it did not seek) the slaves would not have been freed. The terms of Codrington’s will were such that if at any point they shut down the estate or freed the slaves they would have broken the terms of their bequest and other family members who had already contested the bequest would have taken over the estate. The slaves would have been far worse off. The past is a different place. I’m not defending them but what other option did they have? That’s the question. It’s not morally black and white. It’s nuanced.

@theweeflea @Psephizo @EAUKnews Why do some evangelicals have no issue with uncritically participation in the Unite the Kingdom march, while criticising affirming evangelicals who uncritically participate in the Pride march?

Why are Evangelical leaders signing a letter against the Unite the Kingdom march - but not against pro-Palestinian anti-Israel marches? @EAUKnews theweeflea.com/2025/09/23/dis…

@ColonelShotover @GilesUdy @giles_fraser More nuanced still doesn’t amount to conclusive. The opinions of a certain group of black Barbadian Christians (however well intended) doesn’t amount to conclusive evidence.

@GilesUdy @sheppied1961 @giles_fraser Definitely more nuanced. I've met black Barbadian Christians who think Codrington was a good fellow and continue to enjoy the facilities he bequeathed to the nation.

@albieamankona @miriam_cates @flowerpotweller King David overtly rejoiced over retrieving the Ark (2 Ki 6:14). Jesus overtly rejoiced in the spirit (Luke 10:20). Neither was performative. Overt and performative are not synonymous.

I think a lot of British Christians struggle with the more performative style of American Christianity. I do. I struggle with African Christianity for the same reason. Which has a lot more commonality with American Christianity in my opinion. We are a lot more subtle. Sometimes I go to church with my aunt and think, THIS IS NUTS. Feels more like a rave than church 🤣

So many British Christians express disapproval of Charlie Kirk because he was ‘divisive’. But Jesus was divisive. Jesus actually said he came to bring division (Luke 12:51). The whole point of Christianity is that it compels us to make a choice.

@elonmusk Says a white South African. Oh, the irony!

Remigration is the only way

@miriam_cates @Psephizo So, for adverse outcomes for black children (having higher free school meals eligibility), right-wing blame is usually fixed on delinquent fathers. No correlation with poverty. Here, for white children with adverse outcomes, fatherlessness is largely correlated with poverty. Hmm.

Why does it matter that just 2 in 10 poor white children have married parents? Because 75% of married parents stay together compared to just 30% of unmarried parents. As a result, among parents of teens who are still together as a couple, nine out of ten are married.

@myswearyaccount @daveatherton For the same reason that tons of British people decided to colonise Somalia (when it was Somaliland…as you say, a significant chunk of the planet away from Britain.

@daveatherton Last time I checked, Somalia was a significant fucking chunk of planet away from Britain Why the actual living fuck are there tons of them in fucking Dorset? 😖😡

Three coachloads of Somalis, numbering 200 broke the silence at the Splashdown Water Park in Torquay Devon today. It looks like they picked a good day.

@zoverions @jk_rowling …And self-identify as black, despite having a white ethnic ancestry…Dream on.

We’re entering an era of human customization — biology will still be real, but it will no longer be the sole limit on who we can be. Gender is just the first frontier; in the next decade, people will reshape their bodies, abilities, and appearances in ways history’s never seen. I understand why that can feel like a threat to women’s hard-won rights — especially in spaces where safety and privacy matter. But the goal isn’t to erase “woman” or undermine protections; it’s to expand safety and dignity to everyone, while refining systems like sports and public spaces to be fair, functional, and inclusive. This isn’t about downgrading reality — it’s about upgrading society so it can handle the full spectrum of humanity.

'What a woman means has changed over time' makes as little sense as 'what the sky means has changed over time.' No amount of fashionable jargon, pseudo-science or religious belief will alter the nature of women or the sky. You are not God. Reality exists independently of you.

@CottrellStephen Not unexpected, but it’s worth remembering that his failed attempt to reconcile the 39 Articles with “old Catholic truth” was roundly rejected by the CofE and led to his departure for Rome. Unsurprisingly, this rejection is now being framed as (spiritual) martyrdom.

Wonderful to hear that Pope Leo XIV will declare St John Henry Newman the 38th Doctor of the Church! A profound teacher both to Anglicans & Catholics, spiritual guide, and model of holiness—his voice continues to echo: "Heart speaks to heart."

@coldfell1 @ricwe123 @jk_rowling “Sometimes it damn well does” but you’d need to prove that…which is at odds with the simplistic rabble-rousing in the OP.

@sheppied1961 @ricwe123 @jk_rowling FFS I knew somebody would pull that one. The correct term would be correlation does not always equal causation, because sometimes it damn well does.

You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts. You appointed men to women's posts.

@ricwe123 @jk_rowling Correlation ≠ causation. Logic 101

@jk_rowling HIV in Europe has been exploding in direct proportion to the influx of African migrants and the interracial rape statistics, many from places that have a 20% HIV positive rate. "Cultural enrichment" 😂😂😂😂

@FemCondition @jk_rowling You’re conflating a liberty right (“freedom to live as they choose”) with a claim right (“obligation to accommodate that by curtailing another freedom”). They’re not synonymous: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claim_rig…

There is no such thing as a female centric experience. We are all different. We all have different experiences, some in common. None of us have the right to deny another person their freedoms to live as they choose within the law, and their doing so is not an attack on anyone else.

When you tell a woman she must pretend a man is a woman, you’re asserting the right to control her speech and perception of reality, while also trivialising and devaluing her female-specific experience. You’re asking her to agree that ‘woman’ is a concept men can embody at will.

@Digitalgladiato @jk_rowling Yes. It was just as bad when Laurence Olivier did it for Othello…but (unsurprisingly), not a single complaint of racism. ‘Black and white minstrel show’…not a single complaint of racism. Reverse the situation and, suddenly, it’s racist. Now, that double-standard is racist.

People might mock this, but he’s genuinely thinking of others. It would be a nightmare for the sound engineers, trying to get a clear recording over the sound of him wetting himself.