Author | Lightnews

Ian Shuttleworth

@ianshutters.bsky.social

670 followers 200 following 3.4K posts

Belfast-raised; 30 yrs in London as FT theatre critic; now Brexit refugee in Berlin and the Rhein valley. Fat. Smart. Wears tights. At 60 I recognised myself first as genderqueer, then as neurodivergent. He/him, but theyish. Monopolar depressive.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Apr 18

"Protest is when I say I don't like such-and-such. Resistance is when I make an effort that what I don't like doesn't happen any more. Protest is when I say I'm not going along with this. Resistance is when I make an effort that nobody else goes along with it either."

The time for protest is past.

2 4

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 12d

As a child, I used to read the labels on my grown-up cousins' booze bottles, and I was convinced that Mr Bacardi's first name was Ron.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 15d

Protest is when I say such-and-such isn't OK with me. Resistance is when I make an effort that what isn't OK with me doesn't happen any more.

Protes is when I say I'm not going along with this. Resistance is when I make an effort that nobody else goes along with it either.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 26d

The transactional carping about taxation is the same: "What do I GET for my taxes?" - You get a fucking SOCIETY. Go look it up. Oh, first learn to read so you _can_ look it up. But pay for that remedial education yourself.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 26d

It's not that they don't understand different principles - they don't understand _principles_, as opposed to crass self-interest.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 26d

They find it literally inconceivable - _literally_ literally, it just won't fit in their heads - that any mature, rational person might be driven by different attitudes. Therefore, to them, their opponents are _by definition_ either mentally deficient or liars posing in bad faith.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · 26d

"Anyone who's not a conservative at 40 has no head"
and
"But what if [any prominent Democrat] is in the Epstein files?"
are both manifestions of a mindset all too prevalent on the American (and elsewhere) right:

1 1

Reposted by Ian Shuttleworth

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · Sep 20

Per Reuters, Pentagon has informed European diplomats that the United States will partially halt military assistance to the Baltic nations and NATO member states bordering Russia.

The department stated that the decision is linked to the United States’ new priority — “homeland defense.”

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · Sep 20

As part of the “America First” program, Pentagon has classified certain weapons types, including Patriot, as “in short supply” and is beginning to block requests for these systems from European partners.

110 360 500

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 19

Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?...

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 19

1 1 1

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 19

I'm happy to be corrected, but as I understand it, this hasn't yet actually happened as a matter of legality. Rather, it's been adopted as a motion, and would happen if/when _that_ was passed.

I mean, not that this isn't horrifying enough. More than enough.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 19

3 3

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 17

1 2

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 16

And what I find interesting here is that these observations about snowballing media oligarchism carry sources which are all from the same Murdoch outlet.

Reposted by Ian Shuttleworth

Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · Sep 16

Russia designated the 'LGBT Movement' as a terrorist organisation. They know there is no such group; that's the point. It means they can choose to arrest ANYONE with any association with LGBT issues and treat them as a terrorist.

The fact that 'antifa' is not a group should not be a comfort here.

150 1.3K 3.8K

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 16

I can't think why I'm remembering this incident from 2012, and my column in Theatre Record magazine:

(For non-Brits, Quentin Letts is a bilious right-wing political commentator for the Daily Mail, with a sideline as a bilious right-wing theatre reviewer for the Daily Mail.)

Quentin Letts on [Peter Brook's production] The Suit: “A song by Mr McNeill, delivered in a steady contralto, combines terrible descriptions of violence with a gentle, pretty melody of lament.” It certainly does. It’s called “Strange Fruit”, and was first performed by Billie Holiday in 1939; it went on to become her regular closing number and her biggest-selling record (over a million copies even at the time), and her version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. Other recordings of it have been made by artists as diverse as Nina Simone, UB40, Tori Amos, The Cocteau Twins, John Martyn, Robert Wyatt, Jeff Buckley, Diana Ross, The Gun Club, Lou Rawls, Sting and Gil Evans, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. In 1999, Time magazine called it the song of the century. And now Quentin has heard it at last, its history begins.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 16

Just seen the news about Robert Redford, and my first thought was, "Well, he's out of this shit."

Do you remember when we used to be unable to understand how people could accept theologies that said that this world is an agonising trial we must endure to enter the next?

1 1

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 11

Nigel Farage grieves for his "friend" Charlie Kirk.

Nigel Farage advocates the kind of relaxation of gun control that Charlie Kirk supported so enthusiastically, waving away thousands of victims as a small price to pay. Before he was shot dead.

Nigel Farage is not very good at joined-up thinking.

6 24 81

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 8

WTAF?!

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 6

Oh, you count Labour in 2025 Britain as left of centre? How quaint.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 6

Gap-toothed? Tchah, you don't know you're born. Try being fat and crossing Quentin. He once planted a diary story that tried to get me fired for wearing a T-shirt - "baring too much": what, my forearms?

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 5

Crikey. I've just discovered that, one of the flats I looked at back when I was first shopping for a place in Berlin, if it had had windows at the back of the building instead of into the courtyard, would have given me a view onto the transplanted and rebuilt house of Rosa Parks. Yeah, in Berlin.

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Sep 1

I'm hearing this to the tune of "Lions After Slumber" by Scritti Politti - www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ie...

Scritti Politti - Lions After Slumber (12", lyrics listed)

YouTube video by Mehefinheulog1

www.youtube.com

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Aug 15

Time for a revival?

www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/n...

Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America, Orange Tree, London

Orange Tree, London

www.theguardian.com

1 1 1

Ian Shuttleworth @ianshutters.bsky.social · Aug 14

"I'm sick of rejecting potential candidates for not being perfect, everything to everyone, no flaws or errors in their past. I'm strongly considering a Quisling ticket."

Reposted by Ian Shuttleworth

Hannah Who @notablyuncool.bsky.social · Aug 14

If you’re still on the fence about whether trans rights are really under attack, congratulations, you have the privilege of not being targeted.

But that privilege won’t protect you forever.

And when it’s your rights next, you’ll wish more people had spoken out when they came for us.

1 24 87