iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I am loathe to give credit to David Cameron, but it is also wild that in 2016, Cameron's response to the UK falling to third in the ILGA rankings behind Malta was “I want this top spot back again.” Now we slip to 22nd and the government don't even mention it...

Last year, I’d have been able to say how proud I was to be Prime Minister of what was officially the best country in Europe to be gay, bisexual or transgender – but that’s no longer the case.

Malta has overtaken us! I don’t know quite what happened – I’ve got to get out to Malta and find out because I want this top spot back again.

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20260328033542/https://www.thepinknews.com/2016/05/17/david-cameron-i-want-to-change-the-world-on-global-lgbt-rights/

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

And just look at this list of endorsements - a cavalry of international right wing demagogues endorsed him to try and shore up support, only for their guy to lose in a landslide! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Hu...

Endorsements for Viktor Orbán (Fidesz–KDNP):

Heads of state and government

Donald Trump, president of the United States
Javier Milei, president of Argentina
José Antonio Kast, president of Chile
Aleksandar Vučić, president of Serbia
Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel
Andrej Babiš, prime minister of the Czech Republic
Irakli Kobakhidze, prime minister of Georgia
Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia
Karol Nawrocki, president of Poland
Hristijan Mickoski, prime minister of North Macedonia
Pál Schmitt, former president of Hungary
János Áder, former president of Hungary

Executive branch officials

Matthew Salvini, deputy prime minister of Italy
JD Vance, vice president of the United States

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

A couple of snaps from the Together Alliance earlier today! The big union balloons were fun. (I'm not a teacher myself, I was just in the NASUWT section with my partner)

A picture of people at the Together Alliance march with a big NASUWT - The Teachers' Union balloon.

People at the Together Alliance march with various flags, including prominently a Welsh/Cymru The Teachers' Union flag

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Just constantly accusing various sections of the public of "gaming the system" seems to be the overriding comms and policy strategy of this wretched Labour government.

Criminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, the courts minister has said, promising to enact radical changes to limit jury trials by the next election.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

The government being pissed off with the EHRC feels cathartic, and I hope it might augur good news for trans rights

A Whitehall source said: “Unfortunately this looks like the EHRC deflecting – they still haven’t sent ministers the information they’ve requested in order to assess the draft code. The EHRC should be cracking on with their job, not giving lectures on timing while government still awaits their material.”

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Tony Blair acting like a colonial viceroy for a Trump led American empire is a particularly ghoulish prospect

Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

yeah polling like this would suggest otherwise - the difference in Trump sympathies between Reform and all other parties is very stark!

Chart from YouGov titled "Two thirds of Reform UK voters say it would be a good thing if Britain's government was more like Donald Trump's US government." It shows survey results with percentages for six groups: All Britons, Green, Labour, Lib Dem, Con, and Reform UK.

Responses range from "A very good thing" to "A very bad thing."

Majority of All Britons, Green, Labour, and Lib Dem see it as a "very bad thing," while two-thirds of Reform UK voters view it favourably.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Odd framing in this analysis in The Guardian. He just won ~85% of the vote, the party is already with him!

OK, now they’ve got your attention. In electing Zack Polanski, a media-friendly former actor with an eye-catching vision for a mass movement of “eco-populism”, the Greens have taken a step into the unknown. And the first task for Polanski is to bring the party with him.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Some tried to force an entryist narrative with Corbyn in 2015 with regards to £3 registered supporters, but Corbyn won convincingly with full existing members too. Not to get complacent, but I wouldn't be surprised if a similar outcome emerges here too.

Quote from The Guardian article:
“It feels a bit like a hostile takeover of the party,” they said. “No one knew he was planning this, and suddenly there are all these new members who tend to feel very much from the left.”

This is by no means a consensus view. One Green councillor said they had been cheered by the seeming injection of energy and new activists inspired by Polanski in their local branch. “He’s clearly a fantastic communicator and knows how to pitch his vision,” they said. “I think Zack is doing really well.”

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

It took a major news organisation outside of the UK (NBC in the US) to correctly translate "dignity" and "clarity".

Landmark ruling on trans women by U.K.'s top court sparks heartbreak and confusion

The judgment has implications for a wide range of life in the U.K., be it admission to changing rooms or decisions on hospital beds, equal pay claims and domestic violence shelters.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

This was Starmer's stated position on the SC ruling just last month, completely doubling down. Unless your conversations with him shifted him from that, I don't see how your attendance improves things for trans people, and instead just looks like pink washing for the government.

When asked at the NATO summit in The Hague if hospitals, universities and government departments should reflect the Supreme Court’s ruling into internal policies, the prime minister said: “We’ve accepted the ruling, welcomed the ruling, and everything else flows from that, as far as I’m concerned.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

The once Blairite dream of OMOV delivering party leaders from their faction has never been more over. Even after a mass exodus from Labour and Starmer shutting out the left, those that remain in the party still favour those positioned at least on the soft left of the party overwhelmingly.

Bar chart showing "Alternative Leader Preferences" for the Labour UK party leadership from Survation as of June 2025.

Andy Burnham is first, followed closely by Angela Rayner at second, with Wes Streeting a distant third place.

The full order is:
Andy Burnham
Angela Rayner
Wes Streeting
Yvette Cooper
Clive Lewis
Ed Miliband
"Someone else"
Lisa Nandy
Sadiq Khan
Darren Jones
David Miliband
Bridget Phillipson
Louise Haigh
David Lammy
Emily Thornberry
Jess Phillips

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Oh c'mon, it's clearly untenable for their actions to be appalling and intolerable and yet for us to continue to provide them with weapons to commit those very same actions!

Keir Starmer has called Israel’s recent actions in Gaza “appalling, counterproductive and intolerable”, as the UK government comes under mounting pressure to take stronger action after the killings of dozens of civilians at food points in recent days.

The prime minister told MPs on Wednesday the UK was considering imposing sanctions on members of the Israeli government, but is so far resisting growing calls for a complete ban on arms sales and immediate recognition of Palestine.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I don't agree with this part, as that would presumably still needlessly put us in a worse place than prior to the SC judgment. But still, good to see someone of her stature call out how people are misinterpreting it.

The “proper answer to all of this”, she believed, was “somewhere in the middle. So that’s what I very much hope we will come out with when people have calmed down and start being sensible about things.”

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

This recent snippet from The Guardian makes me doubt Rayner I had been inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt compared to most on the Labour front-bench, but if this is true and she is "worried doing anything woke", I can't see her making good decisions. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“The hypocrisy is just staggering,” said Bourne-Taylor. “I’ve heard that No 10 and Angela Rayner are worried of doing anything that’s deemed woke, and nature is in that bracket. They’re terrified about Reform and Trump. And so they don’t want to do swift bricks because it sounds a bit lefty. But nature has absolutely no business being woke or anti-woke. That’s a big problem.”

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

This part sounds quite promising! There's a bit further down too where it suggests there's significant pushback from within staff at the EHRC itself about the interim guidance.

EHRC insiders say the commission will agree to a six-week consultation, and that the eventual code of practice could row back from the interpretation set out in the interim guidance and in media comments made by Falkner.

Sources said there was particular worry about how well Falkner and her team of commissioners – all but one of whom were appointed by Conservative governments – will be able to justify their stance when they are questioned by the WEC next month.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

"Read the tea leaves" that we're a nasty, right-wing government and anyone expecting anything resembling social justice from us can fuck off

Government sources said charities and Labour MPs who were concerned that wider benefit cuts would push more families into poverty should “read the tea leaves” over Labour’s plans.

“If they still think we’re going to scrap the cap then they’re listening to the wrong people. We’re simply not going to find a way to do that. The cap is popular with key voters, who see it as a matter of fairness,” one source said.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Such a weaselly answer from Starmer - a supreme court ruling does not prevent you from having your own opinion on this, and the court was not ruling on the general question of whether trans women are women, but on how it pertains to the Equality Act.

From the Guardian:

"Asked if a trans woman was a woman, Starmer replied: I think the supreme court has answered that question."

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Yay this has arrived, very excited to read!

¡No Pasarán! - Matt Christman's Spanish Civil War

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

First book of the year! It was quite good, like a YA Ministry of the Future, but from the perspective of a kind of annoying young guy rather than the head of an international agency. Focuses more (as the cover suggests) on the right wing backlash against GND measures too.

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

This article does suggest there's some truth to it www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

“What happened,” a senior Israeli government official told Channel 14, regarded as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, “is that Witkoff delivered a stern message from the incoming president of the United States, who unequivocally demanded the deal’s conclusion.”

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

If we are being haunted by the ghosts of 1976, perhaps we can resurrect the Alternative Economic Strategy in response 👀

Screenshot from The Guardian: "Weale has told Bloomberg that this week’s rise in borrowing costs and fall in the value of sterling echo the 1976 debt crisis “nightmare”."

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Kristen @ansibledialectics.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Met this cute cat at the tills yesterday!

Black and white cat sat on top of a till in a shop

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