iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I see the AI slop is having trouble keeping up with who the party leaders are. Doesn't stop loads of comments just accepting it (though many of course will be bots themselves, I suppose). Anyway, I look forward to the important party TUV being part of the coalition.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The window 2 Sustainable Farming Incentive 'first come first serve' approach, weighted to big farms with full time office staff, is a total cock up by the govt. They've had 2 years to make it more equitable. Nobody on Bluesky seems to have noticed, oddly.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The opening then 'full up' closing of the Sustainable Farming Incentive funding application 'window' within 6 hours of each other, when most small farmers were out, erm, farming, does seem bizarrely Whitehallish. Presumably this loaded the dice in favour of large farms with full-time admin staff.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The red bit's the good bit for left political coordination.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Once the website has caught up, Nigel willshow as a Labour councillor. Not a bad bloke, actually. Just made a mistake. Cue the #nigeltolabour headlines. #defection

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

After 750 odd parkrun volunteerages, I hung up my parkrun hi viz today, at least for now. The old pic from 2015/6ish they chose for my very nice card has me wearing the same bike top I wore today, and which I've had since around 1997.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Looks like the sting made him grimace enough. Can't wait to see the pics when he gets the university probe launched up him.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"Namaste", a bloke stuck under ground for 10 days does not omit to say www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Indeed. My first thought was "this is Moise Postone"'s critique (my parsing here) but done as DIY manual for Nazis".

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The para that stands out in this article is the one saying "officials" have been working out for the first time how much student debt will actually be repaid. It's eight years since ONS adopted a "new approach recognis[ing] that a significant proportion of student loan debt will never be repaid".

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The AI bot slop incitement to racial hatred now also normalizes pavement parking, I see.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

1/ If I was a good Bluesky-using, sociologically aware sports journo like @jonathanliew.bsky.social or one of those people, I'd be picking up on this strange story of non-league football in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. Here's how it sort of goes.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

My Facebook feed reminds me that ten years ago today I became a published poet. Or maybe that was when I got a copy of the book.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I see Reform are proposing to remove the vote from up to a quarter of a million blind/partially sighted people in its drive to pretend that 'family voting' is a problem (a Presiding Officer can currently allow another person to assist a blind/ disabled person to vote under sch 1 rule 39 of RPA 1983)

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

These animals really should be paying road tax. Worse than bikes, some of them.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This Reform branch Facebook page, officially HQ authorized by the looks of the imprint and weblinks, offers a very 'tankie' view of the Ukraine-Russia war. Would be interesting to know what Tice/Farage etc have to say on it.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

1/ Been doing some 'death cleaning', and uncovered in a tatty 1970w exercise book a 1952 certificate related to my grandma's birth in 1890 (yeah, I know, our family has always married old for some reason).

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Matt Goodwin not condoning the violence in Thetford in a way which condones the violence in Thetford. And the "building believed to house" people is something we would generally refer to as their home.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Reminder, FWIW, that health is an #area of competence' for most mayors, and they have a right under s 53 of the English Devolution Act 2026 to seek new powers in this area, which could include a power to interpret the law differently from Yvette Cooper for their area.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This threat of punitive enforcement is why mayors & councillors need to activate their right under sec. 53 and the SCA Act 2007 respectively to make formal demand of the Sec of State that she remove this function from the EHRC's remit, as she can do by order under 15 (6) of the Equality Act 2006.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Bluesky users are far too refined to go on this bloke's AI-generated website 'Crewkerne Gazette', and look at e.g. the AI-generated 'rap' video from February called 'Mass Deportations' ft. a AI-generated Kemi Badenoch.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

6/ This order would be made in such a way as to exempt Greater Manchester (and any other mayoralty seeking the new power) from the role held by the EHRC under 14 (4) of the 2006 Act to "ensure or facilitate compliance with the Equality Act 2010", thus freeing up the area from the discriminatory....

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

3/ Any new power demanded by a mayor must be within one or more existing area of competence, so while the new power to demand more power doesn't include e.g. the power to invade France, it is pretty extensive.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

2/ That change is the largely unnoticed section 53 of English Devolution & Community Empowerment Act 2026, passed before Burnham became PM, which gives "established" mayors under the strategic authority tiering system the new power to demand more power.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Meanwhile, on Facebook, this is being posted as a genuine MiC poll with thousands of likes - comments split rougly half-half between "yes, this is the real poll, those leftards suck" and the (IMO unhelpful) "was this done at 9am in Wetherespoons?" stuff

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

my quick email to my MP about the Big Conversation on Care and the need for it not to be AI-'read' as per the EHRC tactics, in case anyone wants to do similar

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

That's before I had an LRB subscription but will read now. Is this your edition btw?

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Pretty sure this should be 'blow' not 'blue'. What does it have in your edition? (It's just 'manger' in original.)

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I'd feel their pain, as would have Charles had any well-meaning roofer shown him a concrete roofing tile with its origins and development in the Netherlands.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Reading 1980s Penguin Classics edition of Zola's La Terre in translation. You'd have thought that in its 6th reprint in decade they'd have sorted this typo (it's 'le premier' in French edition - checked because Delhomme is actually a farmer), but no.. Might nip into Waterstones and check latest

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

In advance of Aug 5th, anti-trans extremists are ramping up the attack on parkrun for being inclusive. Added bit now is the 'Sophie Cunningham point' (I had to look it up tbh), which feels adapted/adopted as a deliberate "we will single you out and target you for hate and humiliation" message.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

What's the informed Blueksy opinion on this kind of sign? FWIW, I instinctively thing it doesn't work 'cos of the negative messaging. Nudge theory and all that. I'm working on grassroots stuff re horror litter problem in my own town, and campaign starts September.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

As a proud South Lancastrian I look forward, come 2028, going to just East of Samlesbury, South Lancashire, and shouting "bloody southerners" to the people due south of me in North Lancashire.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

It'll be great to see a descent into Hades where O goes down stone steps and not by the elevator.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Labour doing some pointless nostalgia on Instagram, I see. But if they're going to do pointless nostalgia about coalfields, they should maybe remember the one in Durham & Northumberland.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This letter from Farage to all Clacton voters has very strong "I am the party, I am the nation" I/we conflation vibes.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

11% feels about right for where we are now. 500 brown people/genocide survivors drowned the other day, a very long way away, and most comments on Reach plc celebrated that fact, while wishing there had been more. This undiluted racism would not have been the case 10 year ago. We have to get that.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

My morning (before/after) in case you are worried about a) my concussion; b) lack of my very wise commentary on contemporary political events.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The new unitaries for the Lancashire area have been decided, and West Lancashire will comprisr Fylde, Wyre and Blackpool, but not West Lancashire.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

This is doubtful. If Dan Burn comes on for the last ten minutes to a shore up the defence, he will surely be worthy of 10% immortality, but I just don't really see how that works mathematically. The BBC really needs to rethink its language.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

There's a counterfactual to consider here around what would have happened riot-wise in the 24 hours between arrest and release if the tradesman had happened to be brown, and therefore described as an 'Asian man, aged 26'.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

In line with @shappikhorsandi.bsky.social's original 1981 satire on the best way to close the Strait of Hormuz, maybe he should do a sequel on paying the new 20% US toll, but only in 1 cent coins so that the Us frigate doing the collection sinks and blocks the Strait.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Deep state/hit job conspiracy theories peddled as 'just asking questions' about Ann Widdecombe's death are spreading v fast on Facebook. e.g. this is from a Darren Grimes post 'questioning' location of arrest vs location of murder. There are 2,900 comments on his post, many like this.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Later, I get to have my first ever go on an e-bike (pictured). Just borrowed from a neighbour while they're away, to see how soon I should make the transition myself. My sense is that 'how soon' may turn out to be 'as soon as I can afford it and most likely quite a lot before'.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Easy to forget that the December 2019 Tory manifesto had a commitment to net zero by 2050. She'd already accepted a junior ministerial appointment by then.

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Paul Cotterill @bickerrecord.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Tbf, the etymology of Cottrell is a mixed bag but generally refers to being a serf in a humble cottage, so in that sense they're both an exceedingly successful aristocratic family and radically anti-establishment, and I'm pretty sure this is what Tice was trying to get across.

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