iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

My 10 year old would disagree slightly in that it is a "season" in the Bridgerton sense of the word - a fortnight of parties associated with different clubs etc plus actual guising on Halloween itself.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

BTJ catches a clean throw in the end zone. Referee team look around in dismay, realising they have nothing to chuck a flag over.........

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026

Warren: "This has been their argument every time -- they cut taxes and say, 'Ultimately it's really going to pay off for you.' What's happened every time? The academics study it very carefully and say, 'What really happened is the richest people got richer and everybody else got left behind.'"

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Simon doing the Lords work here, ripping Restore's phony stats designed to make people hate immigrants a new one. These numbers are BS and I would encourage everyone to read this to see why. simonpearson1.substack.com/p/how-a-bad-...

simonpearson1.substack.com

How a Bad Number Becomes Common Knowledge

Restore Britain’s latest crime graphic looks brutally simple. The statistics underneath it are anything but.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I have an idea. Why don't European nations (including the UK and Turkey) get together in Poland and agree a new defensive alliance, building new c&c capability absent the US? They could call it the Warsaw Pact and really troll Russia!

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Shay O’Reilly @shaygabriel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I honestly suspect that the recent QAA podcast on the state department under Trump is a better overview for European governments than whatever briefings they’ve been getting. podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/g...

podcasts.apple.com

Great Replacement Theory at the State Department feat. Josef Burton (E390)

Podcast Episode · QAA Podcast · 25 September · 1hr 26min

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

In 1975, three men in a grotty London flat started a games company. It brought D&D to the UK, then redefined wargaming. This week on Untitled History Podcast, it's the history of Games Workshop with @jordansorcery.bsky.social. On Youtube or your pod app of choice! open.spotify.com/episode/3iSn...

open.spotify.com

Episode 24: How Games Workshop changed the world with Jordan Sorcery

The Untitled History Podcast · Episode

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Mirror "UK weather map turns volcano red as heatwave comes again" *shows map of England* 🙄

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

But I dont think that is the argument the author is making (or maybe it is, but it is buried beneath so much BS as to be hidden away)

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I do think "hyperpolitics" is a fair term for a world in which Americans choose beer based on politics, where some British people won't go into a certain pub chain because of the owner's support for Leave in 2016, and where something as fundamental as the climate becomes a partisan article of faith.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It feels Derrida-esque, raising obscurantism to an art form. For me, I do think that something has changed in politics in the last 30 years and that it feels like a turbocharging of the 1960s "The personal is political" and this time both left and right are pushing it.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Life reflects art - Microsoft has published an AI development code of conduct including that AI should not imitate consciousness. The OC Bible in Dune -> Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We need to Cable Street these fuckers.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Yes, it is very funny and some of the lyrics are really clever (anyone able to rhyme 'sometimes' with 'hate crimes' is a twisted genius)

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Hell to the yes! The UKG finally taking socioeconomic inequality seriously! Time to end class squeamishness: first government unit to improve life chances for working class - GOV.UK share.google/7kg6zTsDwZhj...

share.google

Time to end class squeamishness: first government unit to improve life chances for working class

New Class Unit to focus on improving lives of low-income families, disadvantaged communities and rooting out child poverty.

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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Facebook is awash with exploitative scam adverts using AI videos to drive empathy purchases. They set up the idea that an individual is hand-making the products and has faced criticism or abuse. In reality they are just drop-shipping cheap crap from China (and probably skimming card details). Scary.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

And they were all dressed alike and happened to be in a specific location to 'spontaneously' protest. Do Kent Police know what that word means?

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Cable Street is proof that the UK has a historically confirmed way to beat Fascism, by literally beating the fascists.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Hundreds of men, all dressed in black and with face coverings - a 'spontaneous' protest? Are Kent Police incompetent or complicit? Which side of Hanlon's razor are they falling on here?

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Truss represented the hostile takeover of the Conservative party by the IEA.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Arguably May and Johnson were both in favour of public investment for growth, it wasn't all about leaving it to the market and certainly, during the post-war consensus pre-Thatcher, the Tories were as keen on public investment and public ownership of natural monopolies (and high taxes) as anyone.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

And the protection of anti-trans speech as a protected belief is now being used to undermine legal protections against racist speech. It was the thin edge of a calculating wedge.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

From the time of Truss, the Tory definition of being "pro-growth" is tax cuts.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

And they said this of the Persians, that fathers teach their sons 3 things - how to ride, how to shoot, and how to tell the truth.

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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

When I was a teenager and my dad learned that my aunt was tracking my cousins’ movements on an app I remember him saying “what’s the point? You could be doing crystal meth at home!”

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Maybe he should have said "No one who isn't Trump's bitch will call it that?"

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Its a young person's game to be sure. I remember the embassy in Kabul - apart from a handful of people (like the ambo) the majority of its inhabitants were below mid-30s. Its like being a pro athlete though - it is a "first career" you age out of (mostly - there are some exceptions)

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

My other countries later on were Ukraine and Afghanistan (all the best places). I have a nice normal job in Scotland now, my wife made it clear that after the wedding body armour was going out of fashion! 😂

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Did that work for a year and a bit working for DFID - trying to get people to use the police/court system rather than relying on local warlords (esp in B-H). I have the dubious honour of being the guy who was in London and had to convey to our SoS that Zoran Đinđić had been assassinated.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Well, a man can dream. When I was working on access to justice in the Balkans in 2002 the idea of Mladic being locked up was a pipe dream. Maybe....maybe Israel will see rea...... no sorry, I can't even type that out in seriousness!

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Way I see it, Mladic dead means there is a cell free for Netanyahu.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

New immigration stats show that the numbers of asylum seekers in hotels is down to 16k - falling 50% in a year. Small boat crossings down 23% in the year to June. Numbers waiting for initial decision down from almost 180k to 40k.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Inevitable is the right word. People brought this up at the time.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I don't consider myself that old but I remember when Newsnight was a serious current affairs programme.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“Lanyard class” simply means women who have told a man that he needs to follow the rules, right? At least in America they went for “HR lady politics” to make the misogyny clear.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

As far as I can gather, 'lanyard class' lumps together e.g a corporate solicitor, a Russell Group professor, a Whitehall SPAD, a council economic development officer in Durham, and an NHS manager. Not sure it has all that much explanatory power.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Starmer's historic reputation, I think, will end up being a fascinating answer to 'how would Churchill be assessed if he had *only* been prime minister from 1951 to 1955, when he mostly couldn't really do the job anymore'

ft.com

Working in Starmer’s Number 10 was ‘unbearable’, says Sue Gray

Former chief of staff to previous PM describes onslaught of negative briefings and says Starmer ‘lacked vision’

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Beware those in whom the urge to punish is strong. Nietzsche had his issues but he was spot on more often than not when describing human drives underneath the thin patina of civilisation we paper over it.

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Lots of news reports go on about how Khamenei hasn't been seen in public since March. Gee, I wonder why that is? Remind me, what happened to the last Supreme Leader, his dad?

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Well said Duncan. The whole situation reminds me of this from the West Wing (except Scottish Labour has chosen the 'please dont hurt me' approach) - youtu.be/aL8aKMaOewE?...

youtu.be

Ron Silver as Bruno Gianelli in The West Wing

YouTube video by Ignacio Oliveros

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Brian Mcleish @bmcleish.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Americans have a weird relationship with alcohol.

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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

This reply just fully encapsulates the gender critical journalist mindset. The perceived monopoly on victimhood, the unbridled rage that they might be seen for what they truly are, and the mountainous, gravity defying hypocrisy. How very dare you, don't you know who I am?

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Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Literally yes

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