iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Declan @blench.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Watching the Swedish exit poll come in is agonising, they go through the parties one by one and give you their projected results while cutting away to the party's election evening event very much à la Eurovision points with similar pacing.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Malcolm Offord crosses his arms like Michael Gove drinks water

Malcolm Offord in a blue suit crossing his arms in a really odd way, with one hand splayed over his bicep rather than tucked under.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Product placement like you’ve never seen it before (Excellent)

Two tickets for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma held up against a cinema screen

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Post a perfect album from the 00s

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Have not taken very many pictures in Ljubljana

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Seen less Slovene about Trieste than I’d expected

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What on earth possessed me to wear jeans on a day like this what is WRONG with me

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I don’t even really like yellow

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Emo Christmas last night. What a show. My throat is so sore

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

"I was 'slam dunk' for SNP leadership until revealing gay marriage views - Forbes" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Just letting the baseless Islamophobia slide while at your right-wing away day, righty-oh.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

My sister has just told me it's 14 years today since I graduated from my undergrad which makes me feel a bit 💀

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

On that last repost, there was also a motion against the EHRC Code of Practice at Glasgow's full council yesterday, proposed by me and seconded by Cllr McGill (ward 21). Unfortunately it was too far down the order paper for us to get to it but I will try to bring it back.

Council notes with deep concern the laying before Parliament on 21 May 2026 of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's updated Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations. While gender reassignment remains a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, meaning trans people are legally protected from discrimination and harassment in all settings, leading trans rights organisations have condemned the updated Code as leaving "trans people in the UK today with fewer rights than they had prior to last year's Supreme Court ruling," and as having "weakened protections for the LGBTQ+ community as a whole." Council further notes that the Good Law Project has argued the Code treats trans people as a third sex, suggesting they be directed to separate spaces while entirely ignoring the harm this causes and the requirements of human rights law.
Council applauds opposition to the Code of Practice from trade unions such as Unison and the Fire Brigade Union, and their calls for the Equality Act itself to be amended. It notes Early Day Motion 240, in the name of Nadia Whittome, which calls for the Code of Practice to be disapproved, and applauds the MPs who have put their name to it.
Council expresses concern that implementation of the Code of Practice as drafted risks undermining the UK's obligations arising under the European Convention on Human Rights as part of our membership of the Council of Europe, established in Goodwin v United Kingdom in 2002.
Council notes that the UK has dropped from 1st place in 2015 to to 22nd place in ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map, countries which have enacted explicit anti-LGBTI+ legislation. The UK is now the second-worst performer for LGBTI+ rights in all of Western Europe and Scandinavia, having held first place just a decade ago. For laws relating specifically to the recognition of trans people's gender identity, the UK now ranks among the worst in the whole of Europe.

Council notes that the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers interpreted the Equality Act 2010 as currently written, and does not remove the legal protections against discrimination for those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment: trans people remain protected from direct discrimination and harassment under the Act. Council further notes that, since the ruling is one of statutory interpretation rather than constitutional settlement, the UK Government retains the power to amend the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that trans people can fully access the rights and recognitions they enjoyed between the Act's passage and the Supreme Court's judgment and calls upon it to do so.

Council is equally alarmed by the warning from UN human rights experts that the ruling risks entrenching legal uncertainty and undermining the rights of transgender persons across all aspects of life.

Council therefore resolves:
1. To ask the Leader of the Council to write urgently to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities calling for an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 to fully restore and entrench the rights of transgender people; to take into further account the concerns of trans people and LGBTQI+ organisations before laying a commencement regulation; and to call on the Government to develop a cross-departmental Trans Inclusion Strategy that affirms the dignity, privacy, and legal recognition of trans people across all public services.

2. To ask the City Convener for Equalities and Communities to write to all bodies within the Council family reaffirming Glasgow City Council's unequivocal commitment to the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender people; making clear that where the Code permits discretion, that discretion should be exercised in the most inclusive manner possible; that no trans person should be left without access to safe, appropriate facilities; that trans people must not routinely be subject to intrusive questioning, surveillance, or exclusion on the basis of appearance; and that any policy changes must be developed in partnership with trans people and the organisations that represent them.
3. To instruct the Chief Executive to undertake a review of all Council policies and services to identify where trans-inclusive practice can be strengthened within the law in recognition of the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, with a report back to the Wellbeing, Equalities, Communities, Culture and Engagement City Policy Committee within six months.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Only took @mhairilove.bsky.social and I about 7 hours but I finally have a new desk

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

New Jennifer Rostock single after eight years 😭😭 album next vielleicht?

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Also gave rise to this underrated insult that I'm yet to find cause to use in the real world

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Very tickled that Mrs Pritchard gets a mention, I thought my husband and I were the only people who remembered that show

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Your right wing archetype: not very.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

What a beautiful morning

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

SNP groupchat called groupNat when?

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Post a photo from 2019 Oh to have that jawline back

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

RIP Arthur Miller you’d have loved the McCrucible

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Did the medium-length one and the long one just to see

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Slightly confusing that the text says "lean left on economics" and the bar chart says 33% to the right.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Just a few from the last couple of weeks, for the sake of it.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Rashid Hussain omitting his transphobia line from his campaign letter in Pollokshields because he knows it’ll go down like a cup of cold sick here.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Representing the @snp.org at last night’s hustings in the beautiful Queen’s Park Baptist Church

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Nat shoes on for the last 2-and-a-bit weeks

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

So Galloway decided not to stand in Glasgow Southside after all. Small mercies.

Screenshot of Statement of Persons Nominated for Glasgow Southside constituency: ABDULLAH Arzoo Waqqar (Independent), BRUCE Holly (Scottish Green Party), BUTT Kamran (Scottish Common Party), HUSSAIN Rashid (Scottish Labour Party), HUTTON Ross (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party), MILLAR Gordon (Reform UK), PARK Rachel Mary Byrne (Scottish Liberal Democrats), STEWART Kaukab (Scottish National Party (SNP))

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

This plus the weather today is getting us like 18% of the way there tbf

Holding up a copy of Halowe’en Party by Agatha Christie, the cover is black and orange. Out of focus in the background is part of my living room - terracotta walls, white ceiling and cornice, standing lamp and green plant in the corner.

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Declan @blench.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Exit poll has the incumbents about 2.5% ahead of the main opposition and it's tricky to see what the seat distribution will be at first glance but if this holds it looks like the incumbent coalition (Gibanje svoboda, the Social Democrats and the Left) will continue in office. A relief.

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