Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Shakespeare's Iago is all very well but Verdi gives him a proper villain song where he gets to explain why he's bad: God made us in His image, and God is a Bastard 000
Reposted by Fred MaynardGabby HC @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan! 23967355
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Just Because We've Spent The Last Hundred Years Saying It Is A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism Doesn't Mean This Time It Might Not Actually Be A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Bin Laden was not an evil mastermind nor Inevitable Blowback from the War on the Global South, he was just another guy with too much money who doesn't understand how anything works 13710
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026When I worked at the Coliseum there were was some questionable behaviour from critics but no one as far as I know encouraged their plus one to assault the paying customers 130
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Not an original thought but loads of great works have plots that are absolute bobbins, the Ring Cycle is an incomprehensible mess but it will never detract from Wotan saying farewell to his daughter hitting like a ton of bricks 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Usual response from BBC / MPs to liberals about why they adopt "legitimate concerns" language is that unlike most liberals they actually have to engage the public at large, which is true. It must be intimidating being berated by constituents / licence fee payers for not being anti immigrant enough. 210
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/09/2026My underlying belief about US presidential elections is you can't win unless you have a solid theory of why unengaged idiots would vote for you, (eg idiots voted for Obama because he was like an inspiring character from the movies) and I don't think Harris had that theory 040
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 01/09/2026In most adaptations the priest and the Levite are presented as bad and then the Samaritan is this kind of good person. It was our goal to make sure there's much more of a grey area so you can see the logic of passing by on the other side. 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Has anyone just *enjoyed* performing as much as Tim Curry did? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzq...youtube.comTim Curry as The Pirate King - 'The Pirates of Penzance -1982 - Royal Variety PerformanceYouTube video by Tim Curry 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The great thing about Jolene is that it might well be the only country song you had ever heard, but it beckoned to a genre beyond full of sadness and longing and despair and hope. Truly one of the all time great ambassadorial songs. 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 19/08/2026If engaging online with people who disagree made for a better, more enlightened public sphere the last 20 years should have led to the bestest most enlightened public sphere we've ever had 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Universities should regain sight of their original purpose: training up priests for the Church of England 150
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026That the moon and sun are the same size from our perspective is so mind-bogglingly unlikely as to make a good case for the existence of God. Except why would a monotheistic God actively encourage worship of the sun and moon? 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026A weapons system with one confirmed kill in 800 years? With a record like that it's a wonder MoD procurement haven't come knocking 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Fascinating that the usual rule of the free market, which is that unprofessionalism and indiscipline are weeded out in the long term, just does not apply to big budget Hollywood 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Swap out the uncharismatic leader after only two years for the north-western regional chief who's better on camera you say www.politico.eu/article/frie...politico.euGermany’s hot topic this summer: A chancellor swapGermany was once seen as Europe’s anchor of stability. Now Friedrich Merz’s own party is discussing whether the chancellor should go after little more than a year in office. 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026This is a very funny example to use given that just objectively Beyonce is from a higher social class than Jay-Z 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026My take is that James Bond is in fact a machine for churning out clickbait whose relentless effectiveness is mysteriously out of proportion with the actual popularity of James Bond 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Distressing how much of using Microsoft Office these days involves googling "how to disable feature x" first 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 05/08/2026The thing I hate about the argument that "things were better in the old days" is... sure ok. What do you want me to do with that information. What policies do you favour that would change Things. 120
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Of all the prominent socialists of the time (Gramsci, Kautsky, Jaures etc) it was extremely bad luck for the left that they wound up with the most personally unlikeable one to try and build a cult of personality around 1101
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 03/08/2026The trickster archetype doesn't work in the modern era because its modern equivalent is the grifter and it would just be depressing 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Right wing parties could face the nightmare squeeze where just enough Tories lend their votes to a "stop Reform" candidate while just enough Reform voters get the ick at the last minute, leading to extremely inefficient voting 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Something I found very annoying in the social media of the Corbyn years was when criticism was met with with "👉👈 🥺 he just wants orphans not to starve" 181
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 29/07/2026"My lord, the throne itself is within your grasp if you would but heed my strategem" 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Reviewing Hollywood movies when you don't like Hollywood 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 24/07/2026This boils down to "It's the institutions, stupid" which is fine, but you hardly need to be Marxist to make that point. Liberals have been saying this for decades. 120
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 22/07/2026I have just discovered that Cosmo Jarvis was meant to be in The Odyssey but due to scheduling conflicts his role went to Logan Marshall-Green, showing the lengths Christopher Nolan will go to tell Tom Hardy he misses him 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 22/07/2026OK but the four-note leitmotif from the Odyssey where the bow is finally strung has been bouncing round my head and I think it might be one of the most satisfying uses of music on screen I have ever seen? 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 22/07/2026The Odyssey is very good but I do find it funny how many episodes are basically Odysseus and crew turning up on an island and immediately going "run away" in the tone of Monty Python and the Holy Grail 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/07/2026If this is a way of signalling that government-by-anonymous-briefing is over then fair play, that's a very funny way of doing it 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/07/2026The most devastating line about Starmer was the one about driving the DLR, and it is the one that will last because it is a. memorable and b. had the grain of truth. No doubt Burnham will have his own faults but hard to see the DLR line sticking to him. 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Surprised that Burnham's first act as PM is immediate submission to Rome and the repeal of the Book of Common Prayer 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 19/07/2026A victory of keep-the-show-on-theroad social democracy over just-be-horrible libertarianism 081
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Stephen is getting dangerously close to live-tweeting the full text of A Journey 0313
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Andy Burnham is named Labour leader at a special conference, 2026 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 13/07/2026I know I'm supposed to be open-minded and not be reflexively anti-AI but I think my limit is greeting the idea that people would use AI to write a eulogy with anything other than an anguished howl of the soul 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Perhaps what annoys people most about Gary Stephenson is that even on the left it seems impossible now to get anyone to pay attention to you without the hook that you, a young person, made a lot of money very quickly and have some secrets to share 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Thing is, we have a perfectly good example of how to reduce inequality through taxes, it is called "Sweden" and it involves putting up income taxes on everyone to eye-watering levels, and the fact that no one wants to bite the bullet and just do that tells you how serious the left actually is 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 08/07/2026It does feel like a lot of people are underestimating just how hard it is to beat the party leading in the polls in their safest possible seat 142
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Take me down to the Paratext City, where the grass is green.* * It is interesting to note here that the author does not additionally mention the girls are pretty, especially given the convenience of the rhyme it would offer - ed. 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/07/2026The bit that really gets me is Farage saying that it is good when politicians make money. You're meant to say that about, I dunno, having run a moderately successful IT firm or something, not just being given 5 million quid. 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Alas the proposed alternatives to patriotism given by leftists is usually either "I would simply rally the people on an issue-to-issue basis" or "I would simply create a new mass identity acceptable to me, a quite depressed person online" and surprisingly neither of these seem to gain much traction 060
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 05/07/2026My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. He/him. 030
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 24/06/2026At least Starmer's failure has given the civil service an excellent recruiting slogan. "Do you want to make a difference to the world but don't like appearing in the public eye? Then don't try to be PM. Maybe try becoming a perm sec or something" 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Controversial take: if there is another world war, it should NOT be titled World War Three. Linking WWI to WWII works because they have such great continuities, adding an unrelated third war to the trilogy would be confusing and even misleading. 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/06/2026I can't remember who it was pointed out that a working class job for these people has to mean a man hitting a bit of metal with another bit of metal 000
