Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23) header
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23) profile picture

News Director, Opinion, @ Stuff. Own views. Poet. He, him. Trans rights. #beforeallelsebekind “Certainty is the enemy of curiosity” - Grant Shimmin

Christchurch City, New Zealand
Joined April 2010
Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)Photo by Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ (@shimmo23)
People's humanity is so much more important than their political affiliation, and no, they don't necessarily go hand in hand
10
10
2
161
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Do you believe Usman Khawaja? 🤔 #cricket #TheManShake
6
15
1
66
13,358
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Today is Remembrance Day, when we pause to remember the horrific sacrifices of war made on our behalf by the generations that came before. Donald the draft dodger has demanded that we do not use that name. As with so much else, he should be ignored.
455
1,333
69
9,547
397,971
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
BREAKING NEWS:
155
936
122
4,791
388,028
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
It is a sad reflection of modern football that the man who cares most about Manchester United, who will loyally, diligently again go into Carrington today to try and tackle the mess, is the one being eased out by those gathering in Monaco and via a link to Florida who don’t truly have United in their heart. Those who are primarily responsible for the mess. Michael Carrick will leave the club sooner or later but the club will never leave him. United mean too much to him. He gave everything for the team in 464 games. His son plays for their academy. Being United head coach is not simply a job for Carrick, it's an honour he feels deeply proud of. The manager who last season masterminded home wins over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool and away triumphs at Arsenal, Chelsea and Brighton has undoubtedly made mistakes this season. Diogo Dalot at left-back, not bringing Shea Lacey on earlier, etc. The poor run, and tumble into the relegation positions, inevitably means his job is on the line. It is possible to understand why Carrick should lose his job but also why others should be held accountable, too. The decision on Carrick would be more palatable if it weren’t being formulated and then executed by Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the loathed Glazers. What good have they done to this great club? Debts and decline, holes in the roof and in the squad. Carrick’s contribution to the history of Manchester United is substantial and his legacy secure – winning five titles and taking responsibility for a penalty in the 2008 shootout that helped win the Champions League. At the very least, Carrick deserves to be treated with far more respect than is currently being shown to a dignified, hard-working individual as the clock ticks down on his departure. His exit is being handled appallingly by the club. Red man walking. At least United fans are showing all the class their board lacks. The Stretford End sings Carrick’s name because they know he is not the real problem. It will be no surprise in weeks to come to spot Carrick standing, hood up, with United fans at an away game. They will welcome him warmly. He’s done it before, being a fan again. Carrick loves the club. He has ever since he was an apprentice at West Ham United, charged with keeping the away dressing-room tidy, and admiring how Alex Ferguson and his smartly-dressed collection of winners strode into the Boleyn Ground. They had an aura, and Carrick wanted to be part of that. Carrick will leave the club physically, dismissed as much for the failings of underperforming players, those incompetents in charge of recruitment and the unpopular owners, as for his own undoubted mistakes. But Carrick will never leave United emotionally. It's sad that someone who cares so much will go, and those who don't care as much remain. #MUFC
1,010
1,844
273
11,495
810,712
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
The genie is out of the bottle. Unless we’re comfortable with future elections descending into duelling manipulation strategies, we need to change the law to preserve proportionality.
12
1
1
42
2,988
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
*NEWS* :
18
143
1
788
64,897
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
A security agent for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just warned the reporters here — for Hegseth’s first press conference in 6 months — that we will be physically removed from the briefing room if we are not professional and maintain decorum. We asked if that meant no shouted questions and got no clarity. It’s the first time any of us could ever remember being threatened like this. Shouted questions are normal. “This is crazy town” one journalist said, noting the White House has never threatened reporters like that. We’re in the room, back row:
4,809
3,838
479
13,936
1,828,320
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Very good stuff from Simon Wilson this morning
9
13
148
8,384
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
🚨 EXCL: Manchester United expected to appoint Gareth Southgate as new head coach following decision to sack Michael Carrick. Former England boss in line to take charge at Old Trafford. #MUFC
256
537
704
5,022
1,002,711
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
"Whatever women wear, wherever they go, whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and demand justice in the criminal courts when sexual predators act without their consent" Mr Justice Bennathan, while sentencing Russell Brand to a decade in prison for rape and sexual assault. Amen.
139
2,048
79
12,540
152,607
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
"So, in order to believe the notion that there was nothing more to see here than this – you have to believe the following." @MarkDuffield1 with his Monday editorial on Usman Khawaja's new book and the claims made around Sandpaper-gate. #Cricket
12
4
84
14,988
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Shit. RIP Dai Henwood
3
1
87
2,365
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
As always, no evidence just grievance.
1,804
836
118
7,889
233,137
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Watch the moment Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for rape and sexual assault offences.
397
1,601
178
23,288
1,839,042
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
Pope Leo XIV today: "When forgiving seems like a defeat, forgive."
“I do hate some of my enemies, and I always will,” says President Trump. cbsn.ws/4epCFnt
73
367
16
3,423
66,834
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
If a prominent leftist pundit had spent five days straight weirdly attacking, and obsessing over, the victory of America's first ever Jewish senator, literally every day, multiple tweets, trying to undermine and downplay that historic victory against the odds, we all know what that pundit would be called. But when it's a Muslim senator and the pundit is a prominent centrist...
186
761
33
5,742
280,604
Grant Shimmin 🏳️‍⚧️ retweeted
While it’s only fair that Usman Khawaja’s revelations about Sandpapergate have incited a range of differing opinions the “Uzzy should be grateful he got to play for Australia” narrative is uncalled for & has racial undertones. Like everyone else he played for his country on merit
270
200
21
2,710
197,835
I love this for them.
The word is out about the Election Night Watch Party at the White House on Tuesday. For weeks, Trump had been assured by Susie Wiles and his staff that all the polls were wrong, and that, once again, the Blue Wave would only be a ripple, if one even showed up at all. And the DOJ was ready to pounce on it if it did. Trump, after all, was on the ballot. "Vote like I'm on the ballot,' he said, "Because I am." He told every rally that. He said it on FOX. He had a 90% approval rate, he said. And $5000 checks for everybody. What could possibly go wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . So the East Room was decked out with the finest crystal and china. Staffers thought it would be a fun "cheeky rebuke" to order in platters of finger food from Cheesecake Factory. Just to give a finger to Barack Obama, for his viral joke about Trump’s gaudy renovations to the White House. EVERYONE showed up in their party clothes. His Staff. His Cabinet. Top GOP politicians. Donors. But there was no Host or Hostess to greet them. Which was a little odd. The guests mingled among themselves, and waited to be formally welcomed and invited to sample the refreshments. Where were Trump and Melania? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trump waited upstairs in his residence, in order to make a grand entrance to a standing ovation with cheers, once the happy results started pouring in. And was Melania also waiting upstairs, to march in at his side? Nope. Melania was not at the White House at all. On election night, the most anticipated night in politics, with the rest of her husband's term on the line, Melania was somewhere else. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finally at 8:00 the first election results came in. But during that entire first hour, not ONE Republican was named. It was only Democrat after Democrat, starting with Jon Ossoff. Trump never came downstairs. At all. Marco Rubio was the first to go missing, according to the Daily Mail. Then, one by one, the rest of the party goers slipped out the door. Only two hours later, an enormous decision was called. Democrats had flipped the House of Representatives to their control. And in most cases, the Democrats won, not by slim majorities, but by double digits. It was 10:00, and the East Room was empty. The party goers had gone to a nearby Washington bar to drown their sorrows. The Cheesecake Factory food lay untouched on the East Room tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And Trump? He was upstairs watching the results on FOX News, and posting angrily on Truth Social. He wasn't alone. No, Melania wasn't with him. But Natalie Harp was. The Daily Mail reports that Susie Wiles, his Chief of Staff was upstairs as well. The one who had assured him day after day that Republicans would win. By 11 pm, Trump stopped posting. “He’s watching Fox News barely uttering a word and paralyzed into silence,” a source close to the president told the Daily Mail. “It’s very, very dark in the residence,” one senior official said of Trump’s mood. “It’s a dark scene.” Another source said, “They were delusional right until the very end.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Commentary by Glee Violette
14
431
6
16,486
1,082,627