iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Stasi internal investigation finds Stasi never intended to invade anyone’s privacy.

Reposted by Ben Fenton

Stuart Dunn @stuartdunn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

We are just out of a summer with five record breaking heatwaves which literally killed thousands and bought climate change up close and personal for millions for the first time. This should be the Greens' big moment in history. But instead they're doing this. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

I won't accept exclusion within Green Party, says Polanski after criticism of Zionism motion

Labour MPs and the European Greens have demanded clarity from the Green Party over a "Zionism is racism" motion.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It ought to be reassuring to know that these greedy deceitful awful people dodge taxes in their own land too, but it isn’t. How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/t...

nytimes.com

How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes

Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

So nearly a David and Goliath moment. 3 mins after this pic taken Richmond (salary bill £0) dropped the ball with Ealing (salary bill reportedly£4m) line at their mercy. Would have drawn level. Heartbreaker. Ealing went down the other end and scored twice. Final score 36-19. What could have been!

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

So it seems Spurs actually finished 16th in the past two seasons.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thatcher would have killed any cabinet minister who suggested this. The nanniest of nanny-state conduct. It is amazing how those who supposedly value liberty are the ones who come up with the most extreme ideas for restricting liberty in people they don't approve of. Applies to left and right.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Salt as much as you like: people would still play rugby on that ground. You can’t interfere with the human desire to cause and receive pain in a police-free arena.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Good grief, if there was ever a sport where the supporters took a professional approach to drinking it was rugby. That’s why there is o little coke - too pissed to cut a line. @alanbeattie.bsky.social is just trying to muddy the waters.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Anyone who has been to Twickenham to watch rugby recently would beg Burnham to ban sale of alcohol (and make piss bottles compulsory).

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Spotted by my brother in Brighton: the nihilism of fly-tipping.

A fly-tipped mattress propped against a wall in Brighton, bearing graffiti in large red letters: "Nothing really mattress..."

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Well, if you use the judgment of contemporaries as a guide, both Montesquieu and Voltaire regarded Britain as the highest form of liberty in Europe because its freedoms were "protected by Parliament". The Dutch hold on liberty, in their view, was more tenuous, partly because of external threats.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Personalise an epic film... e.g. Harriets of Fire Ty Tanic

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

By Trump and his family, in person, in chains.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Danny Fearns @dannyfearns.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I don't follow Formula One, but good on them for using subtitles for the hard of hearing…

F1 track with numerous Zoom signs on the advertising billboards

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Subs query: Should we change opening word to “Most…?”

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

What could possibly go right?

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

We have about 2 years to stop Britain turning into feeble, broke, absurd, malfunctioning and risible version of the worst of the United States.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Gabriel Pogrund, Sunday Times say that Reform gave the story to the Telegraph + other outlets, after Sunday Times inquiries about it

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It was, Arthur. It broke America. So much so that still today they don't really believe in or even know what they are doing in the world.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

25 years ago tonight I went to bed in my Washington DC home not believing what I'd seen that day: the Pentagon burning; F-16s screaming over the Potomac at 150 feet; a city gridlocked in its roads and its mind; a society unable to answer 'Why Us?'; war in American; a worldview brought tumbling down.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I was a contributor to this and wrote a lot of the inside-page coverage. The “splash” was Neil Darbyshire using my, Toby Harnden, Phil Delves Broughton, Caroline Davies’ copy.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Turns out the Daily Mail are enemies of the people too.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Daniel Thomas / Danny Tommo has today marched his private army of blackshorts to Daily Mail HQ to demand a new house for his mum within 48 hrs, after they doorstepped her for a feature on him. Apparently he plans to blockade them + cry at them until they do Bet those lads are glad of the balaclavas

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If all you have to offer is money, everything looks like a deal.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 09/09/2026

The race for London's scammiest address is on! We found one building is responsible for a quarter of all trading standards complaints in Islington. Another in Camden is close behind — but weirdly is where Andy Burnham registered his new company. Read: www.londoncentric.media/i/214696641/...

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A suggested statement for Andy Burnham.

‘The British public decided in the 1930s that they would not tolerate black-shirted militias marching through their streets. They would cherish robust political argument; they would not accept thuggery and intimidation. When Oswald Mosley led his Blackshirts to Cable Street, local people turned them back. A new law – introduced by a Liberal, backed by Labour and carried by a Conservative majority – banned private militias, political uniforms and ‘the use or display of physical force in promoting any political object’. The British people are as determined today as in the 1930s that they will not accept the methods of Mussolini and the Munich Beer Hall. This government will uphold the law and defend the traditions of British democracy’.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Interesting choice of photo by the FT.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Netflix has put its prices up by more than 10 per cent for UK viewers. Maybe now people will start to question what it gives them that the free services of ITVX, Channel 4 and BBC iPlayer don't. The answer is, in my opinion, not much for up to £21 a month.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’ve so missed Nadine Dorries’ unique and dynamic approach to live television interviews. Channel 4 News.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

There really, really, ought to be a hyphen after the word "illicit" in this headline. Most unlike the FT. Best subs in the business in my experience.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

On X too. Transcending the culture wars.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton, all the good things about America. Kind, generous, selfless, sincere, moral, talented, imaginative, a distributor not a hoarder, a teacher not a taker. The antithesis of the man who normally hogs America's headlines and global attention. Bathe in the memory of a lovely American.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I took this photograph in County Kerry this afternoon and everyone will think it is a postcard. But things like this do happen here. Free the Portmagee Two!

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

From BBC’s former Director of News. An indictment in my opinion.

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Reposted by Ben Fenton

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 16/08/2026

A former director of BBC News speaks:

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A former director of BBC News who is full of wisdom and understanding (and patience). When he gets post-y about something, you know it's serious.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A former director of BBC News who is full of wisdom and understanding (and patience). When he gets post-y about something, you know it's serious.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I'm a semi-Reithian. Power and responsibility. But no overwhelming duty to any particular authority, just a duty to ethics and fairness.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

In theory, it should be straightforward. Those posts are incitement. They make Lucy Connolly look mild. Police go to Twitter's London office, demand the identity of that person, arrest them, perp walk them even, and the message is sent. If X doesn't co-operate, arrest them as co-conspirators.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Yes. It's often framed in terms of "we pay for it so it should be X or Y", but it's much deeper than that. The BBC should be a yardstick for impartiality and accuracy. That's why Matt Brittin's cuts are, in my view, misplaced. Also, the BBC has done insufficient work to make Brits proud of it again.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I think the fact that the heading was changed at least twice and context added since it was originally posted shows it had attracted internal attention. But a Saturday in August and Christmas are the most likely times for something like this to happen. My sources suggest 90% cock-up probability.

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Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Other media can take their chances if they erode trust in their reporting, whether it's by sloppiness, deliberate agenda-ism or purposeful provocation. The BBC cannot. Nor should it ignore erosion of trust, partly for its own sake, but more because it builds and holds that trust on all our behalf.

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