iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 23h

Not even worship our gods. More like we'll start worshipping your God and remove the main reason why you differentiate yourself, to your cost, as a distinct ethnicity from the ruling group.

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

What's not to like about international crisps? Eat foreign crisps or Rupert Lowe has already won.

010

Reposted by Bob Melling

Leftback @leftback.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"For the love of god don't give the man responsible for the budget a hooked nose." "Make him look like one of the goblins from That Film Franchise, we hear you."

1193

Reposted by Bob Melling

Olthwaite @olthwaite.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Crisp hipsters in Huddersfield (flat caps, Northern Soul keks). No wonder - it's the International Crisp Festival at the Sportsman and County pubs.

The Huddersfield International Crisp Festival (October 2-11). Over 200 varieties of crisps plus events - including Fleetwood Snack.

031

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Well, Howard Bernstein was looking around an antique shop in Levenshulme when he found an old tarnished lamp, he bought it, took it home and started to polish it when.....

260

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Why it's a bad idea to live any place where much of the building fabric is older than Victorian.

030

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Here's hoping for a short-chambered, Boxer-Henry .45 calibre miracle.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I once had to explain to a CPRE chugger in Hebden Bridge making his pitch that "without the green belt the whole Calder Valley would be a continuous housing estate" (I paraphrase) that Todmorden wasn't in the green belt and seemed to be OK.

110

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nice how he skips from 1812 to Korea to avoid offending anyone.

130

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Seem to recall Tom Watkins being on it years ago. Not sure he could be described as the most heterosexual thing on television.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I mean, if you're taking these ideas as anything but risible you're probably suffering some drippage from the ear anyway.

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yeah this isn't really about self identification though. If people make up rules (that are mental) that state Britishness is a civic identity and Englishness is an ethnic identity what happens, within the context of those mad rules, if Englishness becomes, by necessity, a civic identity.

110

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's a really weird place to be a "green belt nimby".

110

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Reading through a few posts to see where this amenity free, road free frontier is. Wiltshire apparently, which like the rest of the M4 corridor has experienced no beneficial economic growth. Should probably stop reading WH Hudson. Go outside, get some fresh air. Experience tarmac etc.

210

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I do find the idea that English national identity is inherently ethno-regressive but other UK identities are "civic" fascinating, especially when you consider things like the Kirk's 1923 race hate deportation manifesto etc. It's amazing how quickly reality can be memory-holed.

100

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

If the UK broke up would all the people who are currently British but not English (in Braverman's concept) suddenly become English as it replaced Britishness as a state identity category rather than an ethnic category?

3196

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I thought you were from Lincolnshire?

110

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Every time I read about other property markets I'm relieved to live in a place where property was never going to make enough money to be worth considering as an investment rather than a home.

030

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've got a (possibly false) recollection from reading some new historicist criticism decades ago, that it was used by some native americans to describe the smallpox that accompanied the militarised westward expansion of the USA. Even worse metaphor.

020

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Got the band wrong. Actually Atomic Kitten. Own your errors etc.

040

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Fucking hell. That doesn't help my brain though.

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I pay my fucking subs and you give me an All Saints earworm. Bastards.

100

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Mind you I can't imagine ministers announcing that their new policy is "a bit like chemotherapy" though.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Considering the magic bullet metaphor was first used for a targeted treatment of syphylis that didn't target healthy tissue, I think it should also be avoided by politicians who find the concept of the trade-off hard to grasp.

330

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by a fucking idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.

1102

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If only the HCA had demolished the YMCA building it inherited when Yorkshire Forward was rolled up, making a surface car park 150m from the Keys in addition to all the on-street parking.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Urbed proposed breaking/downgrading the ring road between Wakefield road and Chapel hill to become normal streets to achieve a better transition. The traffic levels through Huddersfield since the M62 opened gave never really justified urban motorways.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It will be interesting to see which groups adopt the space. The library seemed to be full of Greenhead students and pensioners. It would be nice if the square became a space where the university broke free of the campus and merged a bit more with the town.

210

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I always think the old library's stripped classical has Mussolini's Milan vibes, though I doubt that comparison would be as popular as the Piece Hall/Venice cliche. Need good coffee/bar provision and outside tables to bring the mooching/staring levels up another couple of notches.

120

Reposted by Bob Melling

Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 24/09/2026

Please excuse me while I scream into a cushion at the thought of ALL the articles I had to write on the "UK productivity puzzle" in the 2010s www.ft.com/content/c819...

39618137

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hoping people dress up nice and take the opportunity to pretend to be Nicholas Cage and/or Cher in Moonstruck.

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Actually had time to pop in to the new library today. Still think it's all really well put together.

Side elevation of Huddersfield town hall taken from the balcony of the new Huddersfield library.

020

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

But just think of the glorious "are pensions a benefit?" debates if Kemi accidentally bans state pensioners from Wetherspoons.

0100

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My unacceptable opinion on this is that MPs should be banned from their constituencies by something like the five mile act until a period of pre-election purdah. All the local interest/casework stuff should be handled by councillors. Central London MPs have to join sittings and vote on teams.

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I lost interest in my own family tree when the branches revealed most of them had just been hanging around a few patches of the south pennines for hundreds of years (surnames heatmap shown). Even with this parochialism I presumably wouldn't qualify due to some irishness.

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

You should add The County (next to the town hall) to your list (same owners as the Sportsman) then you can have little nap in the square like a sturdy Mediterranean gent.

200

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Obviously it's easier to say this on a lovely autumn day but this is a really pleasant well designed space. Plenty of people hanging around generally mooching already.

150

Reposted by Bob Melling

Balderdash @balderdash.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

69 today. Happy birthday Nick Cave.

Black and white photo of Max Wall about to sit down at the piano

627155

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

They should get an actual lion (not a tame lion you know) to do the voice over for Aslan and then just have subtitles.

011

Reposted by Bob Melling

Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

🚨 Brand new post: high ideals, regretted compromises, harsh realities - a study of Huddersfield's housing and civic history from 1951 to the present ... municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/09/22/a...

Buxton House, an 11-storey block, designed by Bernard Engle & Partners with Bernard Kramer’s mural Systematic Sequence in Line and Shade

0267

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yeah, I suppose any sharp and sweet fruit would cut the fattiness of the meat well. I quite like a sharp apple sauce and blue cheese baked in with the pork.

020

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I thought the pork had to be uncured, and chopped rather than minced? That's the bit I'm not so keen on, not really a fan of roast/steamed pork. Still, here's to regionally distinct food cultures. Hope you have fun putting your new skills to good use.

020

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Have they all got a shiny turquoise accessory on? Like a particularly gruesome community choir? Anyway, they've worked hard. Look at what they have achieved!

000

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yes but stacking shelves in ASDA until 1AM and falling asleep at college really helped me develop resilience so I didn't mind dropping a grade or so at A levels.

020

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I wonder how long it will take before most photos of this space don't feature at least one person also taking photos of this space?

100

Reposted by Bob Melling

Tim Chapman @othersfield.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Had an early look round Queensgate Square and the new library. Pretty nice.

152

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In my early teens my uncle gave us a gazetteer/road atlas which I used to plan longish (60 miles) circular bike rides up to the dales from West Yorkshire. It was far too heavy to carry around so I had to memorise the route before setting off. Does this count as knowledge rich curriculum?

010

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Hot water pastry is actually really easy to make, it just takes a bit of getting used to judging the point where it's cooled enough to handle without tearing out but still easy to mould.

220