iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Alasdair Smith

CITP @thecitp.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

What could help Scottish environmental businesses export more? We’re researching export opportunities, barriers and practical actions that government could take. If you have relevant experience, please submit your evidence by 19 November 2026: citp.ac.uk/export-oppor... @climatexchange.bsky.social

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Reminds me of this squib from the time immediately post-referendum that he was advocating leaving the EU without any withdrawal agreement.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Radio 3’s relentless trails are a pain for regular listeners and not always well-considered. The wonderful Key Changes was plugged hard the week it wasn’t on!

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Burnham abandons his northern promises, already.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“the shelter of the single market and customs union”: dissing the defining features of the EU you wish to rejoin.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Isn’t it just so he can get the cost from the taxpayer?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Likeliest is a civilian aircraft approaching London with transponder off. RAF typhoon summoned from Coningsby to identify possible terrorist threat.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The cost argument is pretty thin, especially in-School. So what was the real motive?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

In my experience department heads dislike joint programmes, because some of the income from “our” students flows out to other departments.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Since you started with an account of an incident in Farringdon Road which has excellent cycling infrastructure, it’s interesting to see the “bad infrastructure” point deployed against you.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

And here’s a picture of the bizarrely lawless Westminster bridge in London: segregated cycle lane, maybe uncomfortably close to heavy tourist pedestrian traffic; bus/taxi lane blocked by unlicensed pedal taxis; cyclist in main road!

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I agree that cyclists cannot use blocked lanes! But the best London cycle lanes are rigidly segregated.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s slightly different, I agree, but the cyclist at the junction having arrived in a cycle lane decided to use the junction as if they were a motor vehicle which had arrived in that lane.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

If the taxi had been a truck with limited visibility to its left, the cyclist might well have been added to the distressingly large number of cyclists killed by trucks, and it would not have been the truck driver’s fault.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I saw an incident a few weeks ago in London where a cyclist ignored the red light on the cycle lane to take tactical advantage of the green light on the traffic lane and was nearly knocked over by a taxi turning left legally across the cycle lane.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I have lots of experience of bike lanes in London, including being blocked by cars, but that does not excuse bad behaviour by cyclists including tactical switching between cycle lanes and main roadway.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“The report did not take into account the effect on house prices”

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Just answering with reference to the ones I know best: the lanes on Farringdon Road and the Embankment will have cost ££m [and imposed costs on motor traffic]. It’s reasonable to require cyclists not to choose whichever lanes and traffic lights suit them. (I am a cyclist.)

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Basic rule no 1 that should be established and enforced: if a cycle lane is provided [at great public expense] it is illegal for cyclists to use other lanes or the pavement.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Also, not unusual for tax changes announced in budget to be applied retrospectively in Finance Act.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Fair argument, but Blair deserves some of the credit for academies and the London challenge.

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Reposted by Alasdair Smith

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Woke up and realised that even before the final sacking next week that my university now employs more people with English Literature PhDs in administration than in the English department. Tells you something about the state of HE.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Nottingham is the Naples of the north.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

One problem for architects is that priority 1 for academics is individual offices which are unoccupied most of the time?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Especially if the audience already have them in writing!

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Mathematically equivalent to each voter having n-1 positive votes (which need not all be cast) and candidate with most votes wins.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It’s the same problem as the use of mule accounts for payments scams - should not be difficult for the receiving institutions to establish fast-responding detection techniques if they had the incentive to do do.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The “institutions” in the story are the Russell Group. Other institutions might benefit from higher numbers at lower fees.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The current Key Changes series has a bit of welcome didacticism; and sometimes also Composer of the Week

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Maybe get advice from someone who knows how to win a trade war? Transferable skill, innit?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Same for airport departure/arrival info; now enshittified.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

And it’s on the flight path out of LHR!

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Once the mouse is brought in, who cares where he goes, that’s not my department says Wernher von Oz

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Trade policy for “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal”.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The most competitive institutions gain from getting very high fees from EU students. Many, including maybe the two in Lincoln, would gain if the UK attracted more EU students by reducing fees to the UK-student level (“high” instead of “very high”).

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... I’d guess the two universities in Lincoln would benefit from increased EU student numbers at UK fees.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

As I understand it, he’s modifying his claim to remove financial loss (a big retreat) so BBC doesn’t get discovery of his finances; and the claim is now about reputational damage.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Do we have evidence that the “Secret Barrister” is not actually Johnson?

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Reposted by Alasdair Smith

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 03/08/2026

Opinion: On the surface, the dispute was simply about the governance of the world’s most popular sport. But the geopolitical subtext is unmissable. ft.trib.al/LagpUf5

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Is this any different from normal management of expected tax liability, where a continuing liability is reflected in your PAYE code or in self-assessment payments on account?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Is “builging” a typo or an appropriate neologism. From: www.standard.co.uk/business/pro...

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

How can the exec team have honest discussions with non-execs if they might become candidates for their jobs?

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

No comment on the individual appointment but as a matter of good governance there’s something unsatisfactory about a NED being appointed as, effectively, CEO, just as in the Johnson government when NEDs became ministers.

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Alasdair Smith @alasdairmsmith.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Could be worse. I’ve been told often I look like Jeremy Clarkson.

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