iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I reckon she just likes Jerusalem but didnt check the words to realise there is no shield mentioned.

Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Reminds me of the old interview joke Interviewer: “What’s your biggest weakness?” Interviewee: “Honesty.” Interviewer: “I don’t think honesty is a weakness.” Interviewee: “I don’t give a shit what you think.”

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

As kids we mocked restaurants advertising home cooked food as it would obviously be terrible 😜

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Seal reading ceefax overtakes pissing up a tap as my favourite @mjrobbins.com quote

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ah yes. As in all walks of life, difficult choices famously get easier the longer you put them off.

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Reposted by Alan chaplin

The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

NEW The diabolical defending of Manchester City Understanding an aggressive litigation strategy By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk (Prospect paywall is down currently.) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th... #MCFC

What can explain such an aggressive and counterproductive approach? To an extent the answer may be in the facts and the evidence. Perhaps the view was that the only chance of getting out of this was to be unhelpful as well as robust. In respect of an earlier dispute with Uefa, an internal communication at the club apparently said “Uefa doesn't respond to anything other than aggression”. Maybe the view was taken that this would work here too. Maybe the club still thinks it will work in the end, with the league being pushed into settlement on appeal or at the doors of the High Court.

But this does not offer a total explanation. What may work with Uefa may not work with other adversaries. The structure of the league’s investigation and the disciplinary approach meant that aggression would not only be unhelpful, but would count heavily against the club. An appeal on the law or procedure at the High Court in this sort of case only has a remote chance of success. It can be assumed the club was warned of all this.

There is a phrase in football punditry that “the defending is diabolical”. Here diabolical is, of course, a synonym for dreadful. But in its more literal sense, diabolical means bedevilled with wrongful purpose. And the strategy adopted by Manchester City in contesting this matter is also in this sense diabolical. The club will have known that it was unlikely to work, and that it would make things harder, but the club decided to do it anyway.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When 50% of people had db pensions, the other 50% typically had nothing. Sure, the dc replacement for the db private sector people is less than the db was. now approx 80% of population has some pension. I reckon pension poverty mainly in the group that had no db and now has some dc.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The law says state pensions rise at least in line with earnings. Triple lock is not law.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

4 of 16 increases. Last time 2021

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Well, pm announced it going which I didn’t think would happen as thought the electoral suicide advisers would win the argument. It’s still triple lock lite rather than big cut and even move to a single increase would be way off paying for care but more than we’ve seen for a long time.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

That’s my view. Gov should be setting out what state pension should be though. Triple lock discussion is secondary at best. From another thread earlier … bsky.app/profile/alan...

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We had this the other way round in 2022 and 2023. Earnings way ahead of CPI post covid and … gov ignored earnings that year and used CPI. Triple lock would have meant 8.6 + 10.1 but was actually 3.1 + 10.1. Earnings only would have been 8.6 + 5.5. Covid (2021) last time the triple part applied too.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I do but think the solution is to set out what the state pension *should* be. The increase mechanism will probably be obvious then. In the meantime, triple lock moves it in the direction I think it should go so ok with that.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I tend to focus on "generous enough to live". That leads to the question of who/how to define that... My current thinking is low pay commission or similar body does that. Min living standard by PLSA could be a start www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

Home - Retirement Living Standards

Home - The Retirement Living Standards have been developed to help us to picture what kind of lifestyle we could have in retirement.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

agree as I think the state pension should be higher than it is and triple lock moves it in the direction I think it should go. Politicians should set out what the state pension *should* be. If they did that, then the increase mechanism to maintain that would likely be fairly obvious.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Did you tell him that’s the quality of joke you should be telling him …

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

As someone who took advantage of similar offer 2 books ago, it will improve your day and many more too.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Pure speculation on my part but reckon removing the £100k stupidities would raise money. So many people who work less, put into pension would just pay the tax … about the only case where people who quote the laffer curve I go, yeah we probably are on right hand side

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Don’t we already have a register of sorts anyway? Hairdressing is a business classification when you register with companies house.

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Reposted by Alan chaplin

Spooky Old Mark Monro | He/Him 🌈 @thatidiotmonro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Need to harness the power of Bluesky, so reposts are appreciated. If anyone here, or anyone you know attends Bangor University (the Welsh one) and needs a room for the upcoming year, get in touch. One of my son's housemates has dropped out at the last minute, so their house is one short.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

İzmir airport most expensive pint I’ve ever bought - £12 last time we came back.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ask how many commissions it gets and are there some common ones. I see a partnership opportunity here… $25 for an ai border walk or $50 for the walk verified by the amazing @jonnelledge.bsky.social

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Reposted by Alan chaplin

Tom Clarke @deworde.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The story I heard was of a lecturer talking about this who at the start introduced the class to his favourite pencil, "Penny", a gift from his daughter. Throughout the lecture, he'd every so often note something down and say "thanks, Penny". At the end, he snapped the pencil in half.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Surely we really want to know if it was better or worse than the Roman occupation?

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If you ever visit Reigate, something similar there en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reigate... My offices are one end and pub the other. One direction is a much more enjoyable walk than the other 🍻

en.wikipedia.org

Reigate Tunnel - Wikipedia

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Yep. 12 yo reading secret 7 series at moment.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Well, I do still remember tomba la bomba 😝

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Similar with money. The likes of Henry cards let you see exactly where they are spending money. We have phone tracking for 12 but he has own bank account we can’t see.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Could try approaching volleyball England to see if there is anything they can do to help.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Did a good diy cocktail party once. Had a station for each of main ingredients - gin, vodka, tequila with 2/3 laminated recipes at each. Worked quite well I’m told - made the mistake of checking recipes worked on the day instead of a week or so beforehand 😝

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I wonder who and how to decide what options are upgrades. Facilities fairly simple eg we paid for a private room when son was born. For actual treatments, seems harder as if required, should be available to all and if not, selection bias makes insurance inefficient.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Tweet of the day was lovely on radio 4 when they did it. It went to once a week and might have gone completely now

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

No idea if it falls in either category but signedul for this next week when in Brittany www.lesormes.com/vacances/act...

lesormes.com

Le spectacle équestre de Bretagne | Les Ormes

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Going on holiday to Brittany next week and, yeah, heatwave breaking at the end of that instead of now would have been good 😌 when on holiday by a pool, unbearable quickly becomes very bearable 😂

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Doesn’t even have the excuse of being drunk!

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I can imagine ai adding rather than reducing time in corporate comms. Writers asking ai to write their emails and readers asking theirs to summarise. When respective AIs have battled to a stalemate, pick up the phone to ask what they really meant at beginning.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Im generally libertarian but this is an area where tech is already good enough to intervene. Tracker in every vehicle. All data sent to police. Speed by a bit, polite warning. Say 5mph over, auto penalty. Something ridiculous like this, off to jail.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I do pensions data transfers between providers which I suspect is similar 😜no standards and data going back decades that has been passed between multiple systems and organisations

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Barricades going up here in Surrey!

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Pretty sure he has written about inquiries more than this but @davidallengreen.bsky.social makes the point here that the outputs are largely shaped by whoever controls the inputs and that is often the party the public wants investigating. theemptycity.com/blog/2023/05...

theemptycity.com

Why who controls the flow of evidence is crucial in any public inquiry

30th May 2023 Techies have a phrase for the principle: GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. In essence, outputs tend to depend on inputs. With legal(istic) processes – trials or inquiries &#…

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Agree. I feel guilty for reading pieces and commentary on the story as maybe that contributes to some of the awful writing but this is very much worth reading.

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If nothing else, I’m not sure these consultants are actually good at training. If you want to train your staff, maybe hire teachers… UK government to pay KPMG and EY up to £456mn to train civil servants

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Spent 3 hours wondering when the story was going to *start* and then the lights came on and realised they expected us to come back a year or so later. We did not go back 😂

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Alan chaplin @alanchaplin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

You can always turn it into a time/cost/quality LinkedIn post so there’s that ….

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