iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I know it’s not what you want to hear but I consider myself a social democrat, have been a union and labour member for years, and pretty much agree with this. Might temper the language a bit though…

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

How many anecdotes do you have that makes you an expert? What’s the cut-off point that makes a contribution valuable enough?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

No - and I’ve not spoken to women about using male toilets. It’s so clearly not an issue it would be weird of me to ask people about it.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

No - it’d be the same as saying ‘I know what it’s like at school because I’ve been to school’. Your statement would be the equivalent of me saying I could manage a public toilet

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’ve been using male toilets for 50 years and never seen any problem whatsoever about trans men in them. Women frequently use male toilets with no issues either. We really don’t care.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

That’s obviously just people getting confused at what a trans man is. They’ll be assuming it’s a man who is trans, eg a trans woman. There has never been any concerns at all about trans men using male toilets.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I find it hard to believe that the clarification of the current law will make any difference at all to a typical trans man using male toilets. In the vast majority of situations no men would care at all.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Surely she’s saying that she doesn’t believe in the concept of actually being born in the wrong body, but does accept that people might strongly feel that they are?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

She said the concept of being born in the wrong body is quasi-religious and unfalsifiable, not dysphoria. Not much point trying to critique something you’ve just made up

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It’s made a massive difference to this particular community.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yeah good point - I’m in a semi-suburban neighbourhood and a year or so after our local pub was closed to build student flats I realised that I hadn’t seen some neighbours for over a year that I was used to bumping into every few weeks in the pub and catching up with on how things had been going

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

If there’s a demand for taxis with drivers then I’m sure there will be a supply

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

But who changed the social norm? As you say it was never really an issue if people went to toilets that seemed to be appropriate, until we were all told that any man who called themselves a woman had the right to go to sny female spaces. That’s when we had to revert to the law.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

What do you mean by ‘these guys’ though? The anecdote seems to refer to before the Supreme Court ruling and definitely before the guidance. So who are you holding responsible for the unpleasantness she’s talking about?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I think it’s fairly safe to assume that everything he has said is likely to be a lie. He’s an absolute fantasist

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

He doesn’t say that at all. He says it makes sense as a political move to provide cover for the 45% rate.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This is the key point - our own government is deliberately charging us more tax and making the country less appealing for high earners - all for no fiscal benefit! Whether it’s +£8m, £0 or -£8m is a rounding error

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Taking kids to art galleries they have no interest in is just miserable for all concerned.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Ha! Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good rant though 😉

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

On the other hand could it just be Julie Burchill being a dick again? Just like she’s been a dick consistently for the last 20 years.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I couldn’t beat Dixon was trying to convince people the penalty should have stood. What’s the point of a summariser with a worse understanding of football than the average viewer?!?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

So some detailed in-depth analysis has discovered that if they build 3 times as many data centres they will use 3 times as much energy and water??? 🤣

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It doesn’t reflect well on you at all that you took the opportunity of a cheap dig here - just no need. Whatever moral high ground you think you might have over Widdicome really doesn’t exist

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Maybe… I just feel it’s better to argue for good policies in their own right than using inequality, when it’s then really easy to counter-argue the point by stating that inequality has reduced over last 20 years.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Ok, I think English student loan repayments are a disgrace and I think inheritance should be taxed in line with income. I agree that we should fix those specific issues to improve people’s lives. I’m not sure that‘inequality’ is a particularly useful framework to talk about what needs done

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Yeah so vibes then. If people are angry about the the fact that a few dozen billionaires enjoy living in London there’s nothing sensible a government can really do about that

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Do you mean they correctly understand what people at the top are getting? Or that’s just what they feel? I don’t understand how they can know, but do accept the vibes

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

How does anyone know what inequality is like even now? How can anyone really sense distribution of income or wealth across a population and if it’s increasing or decreasing? I struggle to understand what people think they’re saying when they complain about inequality

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I think that’s right, people just seem to be complaining about inequality these days when all they mean is ‘I’m not as financially comfortable as I was hoping to be by now’

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Yes think so. I wonder how many serious economists think the low investment by Osborne when rates were c0% was the right policy… Feels like it’s left a substantial hangover

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Fully agree with your 2nd point. Was just thinking through the ‘what labour have achieved with the £100bn’ question. For all the people who don’t like Starmer’s welfare policies, they’re likely to be a lot worse with any other government

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

There’s surely a very high chance that the tories would have ended up balancing the books with severe welfare cuts?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Though surely a danger that if you follow that route you end up like the Democrats and suffer a backlash from non-progressives? And for a lot of these people it’s possible that Labour can never be progressive enough anyway

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I think you’re right. Means I’d have to leave Bluesky though - just look at the frothing responses

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Don’t disagree with that, I just feel that it’s a very low bar for the fury people have for Starmer, and if that degree of inastutness warrants a change of PM we’re never going to see any stability ever again

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Ok. I think you’ve proved our point. It’s not reasonable behaviour to consider clumsiness around free clothes and tickets by a new government as bribery. So you’re just demonstrating the irrational hatred of Starmer that is being questioned

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Heard a similar argument when discussing Starmer recently. I don’t understand how people ever thought we see all this delivered in a year or so.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Yes but it’s much easier to remain popular if you can just blame London for all the problems instead of having to make the tough decisions

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I think he’s benefiting massively from not being a Westminster politician, similar to how Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon did in Scotland. As soon as he took over as PM he’d hit the same problems as anyone else, and I’ve not seen anything from him to indicate any great ability to resolve them

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I wonder if the memory of mass bailouts for Covid and the energy price shock has left people with the expectation that the government can just come up with funds to help them out when they feel like they’re due it?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Great thread. I keep hearing how hard it is for people at the moment, but have no sense of what that actually means in practice, or why people think they have a reasonable right to more public money.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

That’s a personal bugbear of mine - so many issues with the GDP growth comparisons to ‘prove’ it was a good idea

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Ok I must be missing something. I’ll leave you all to it

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Lincolnshire isn’t in the north east of anything though - it’s closer to the English Channel than Scotland

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

You do realise she said ‘perpetuators’ of abuse, not ‘victims’?

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

If the sport was ‘short people basketball’ then yes they wouldn’t fit into that category. Just like males don’t fit into the category for female basketball

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

That’s nonsense though? Fascism is fundamentally anti-democracy, that’s literally part of its definition.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I have no idea about the relative merits of different schemes, I was just pointing out that it’s not as simple as saying the state should borrow more money. There is a big concern that we’d see higher rates if we borrow more - so the government isn’t doing it. That’s the fundamental problem.

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bobcook.bsky.social @bobcook.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

But there isn’t more scope for state borrowing, the gvt is at the limit of its fiscal rules. If the lending market thinks we’re not in control of state borrowing interest rates will go up, meaning we need to spend more public money on interest payments.

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