iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I love the name "Grantler", which I think translates approximately as "Miserable Git".

130

Reposted by Carl Gardner

It's the successful fight against Labour anti-Semitism that will be Keir Starmer's lasting legacy. He drove the racists out of Labour and the Greens welcomed them with open arms. Some of the politics of that played out in yesterday's by-election.

3353

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Dr Duncan Robertson @duncanrobertson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

That's nice. (Genuinely.)

39918

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Pete Brown @petebrownbeer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The gall of these people. The biggest brewer of cask ale in the world have done absolutely NOTHING to support cask ale in recent years, and then they say they need to close the brewery because volumes are down so much. Vandalism, pure and simple. www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2026...

foodmanufacture.co.uk

Marston’s brewery to close as cask volumes nosedive

Carlsberg Britvic has announced it is proposing to close the Marston’s Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent amid dwindling cask ale volumes.

64317

I think it's right to get advice. Important if this ever happens for the King to be seen (both in the moment and on the historical record) to have a serious body of expert constitutional opinion behind him, not just to be acting on personal whim.

100

Good! What I'm most interested in is communication between No 10 and the Palace over that prorogation. I think the Queen should have put a stop to that, and I wonder what her staff did about it.

I do agree with you that it's important for the King to fulfil his constitutional role. I think this is like nuclear weapons. If everyone knows you would (or at least, thinks you might well), you're actually a lot less likely ever to have to.

100

I disagree. That was tried, sort of, in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which in my view was a disaster and helped cause repeated quick elections. It's a mistake to tinker with this stuff. The traditional system works well, if we'll only let it.

100

If you did have laws about it, that would simply create opportunities for politicians to game those rules, which could never be clever enough to foresee every possible political situation. I'm against a written constitution.

That's right—there's no law about any of this. The mistake (in my view) is to think this is a problem. It's not. You don't need any law on it, because the King has the power to sack the PM.

210

That episode included a literal "tug of law", a hero trainee solicitor literally pulling papers out of the hands of regulators who were unkeen on returning them.

I wish these retention provisions had been in force back when I was part of a team that had to hand everything back after we had a search warrant quashed, many years ago.

I think maybe the biggest misconception about this is that the King appoints someone on the advice of the outgoing PM. I think this is flatly wrong—and just must be wrong if you think about it. The applicable convention is actually the one about the MP best place to command the Commons.

Not what you meant of course, but I can't help being annoying enough to say there's no legal reason why he couldn't be appointed PM here. Might be handy, you never know.

220

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

That's right. My constitutional law students were always amazed when I told them. By convention when there's a vacancy the King appoints the MP best placed to have the confidence of the Commons—e.g. Andy Burnham when this arose recently. But it is only convention. There's no legal rule about it.

230

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Am Yisrael Chai

041

Don't I think she should allow a range of view on this among her MPs and candidates? No, I don't. If she won't tolerate any variety of opinion on complex policies like the ECHR or Net Zero, then she absolutely should not permit the slightest deviation on this.

020

I think Kemi Badenoch gets a lot wrong, but she deserves credit for getting one big thing right: saying she won't unite with Reform. That's the right strategy for her party, and good news for the country. This must now be an unqualified, unbreakable commitment, not resiled from by any Conservative.

140

Another thought: it's a bit like a lot of people's instinctive preference for an NHS type system (i.e. not even the very rich pay for treatment) or universal benefits. There's a strong feeling of security in the knowledge that you'll be covered, because everyone is covered—with no small print.

000

All sorts of intellectual reasons can be made against this feeling, and there is the problem of houses now worth huge amounts. But I doubt there's any way of talking a very large number of people out of this strong intuition that IHT applying at all to their homes breaches simple fairness.

100

Jack Mendel @mendeljack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I think I get why this is popular. People don't want to have to bother thinking about thresholds. They just think that on principle they should be able to leave the house the live in to their partner, kids or grandkids without a big tax bill. A lot of people feel this is very simple fairness.

320

Reposted by Carl Gardner

What I don’t get about The Greens, is they could be THE moral voice on THE issue of our time: the climate. It’s an existential question. and instead the Greens have decided to become a narrow and single issue cult.

3195

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Jason Sinclair @jsinclair.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is very good from Rob Rinder. The comments are a complete binfire, not sure why there are so many horseshoe Greens on a Nazi's site, but there we are.

79129

Okay. So if you're right and I'm right, we won't be rejoining in the foreseeable future. Fortuntately you think I'm wrong, and I think you're wrong!

I don’t think they would insist on it.

Move on to wherever you like, Nick! I’m free to have my own opinions.

Because in the language of the Brexit debate, it would mean "open borders". I just don't think any UK government could sell this to a clear majority of voters (which is what you'd need) in the foreseeable future.

100

Notice that I only say this as regards the Euro and Schengen. I don't think regaining other opt-outs or anything like the budget rebate is either realistic, or politically necessary in domestic terms.

If you're right, then I don't think we'll be rejoining. I don't think "Rejoin plus Euro" is politically viable in the UK in the foreseeable future. I think a "status quo ante" Rejoin as regards the Euro and Schengen is viable.

And no passport checks for Eurostar of course.

I think it would mean no passport checks at UK airports or sea ports on arrivals from other Schengen countries.

410

I think we can only realistically rejoin in the foreseeable future (a) on our previous terms re the Euro and Schengen, and (b) if no likely governing party would reBrexit. It can't be done domestically without (a), and it can't be agreed by EU states without (b).

310

I expect to vote Labour next time, but will want Burnham to rule out in advance any deal with Polanski’s lot. The old Corbyn never got my vote, and I won’t take any risk of it helping the new Corbyn.

Jan Philipp Albrecht @janalbrecht.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Reposted by Carl Gardner

It is important that the German Greens directly reject the UK Green Party’s resolution titled "Zionism is Racism" and welcome the suspension of its voting rights within the European Green Party. It‘s urgently necessary for the @europeangreens.eu to distance itself from the UK Green Party’s position.

1720161

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Adam Creme @adamcreme.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Days after the attempt at mass murder of passengers & presumably large numbers on the ground, immediately derided as a false flag by the hard of thinking, today we have this policy from a party vying for govt which will stir up hatred and a statement saying don’t worry we will not tolerate racism.

0134

This is not meant as snark, but I think the LibDems had a problem with some of this stuff a few years ago. Has all that nonsense been stopped now? That would be good news.

100

They are 100% anti-racist using the Diane Abbott definition of racism. I have to say I've now become sceptical of radical activists trumpeting themselves as "super anti-racist" which (unlike just being opposed to racism as any normal person is) seems so often now to be a cloak for antisemitism.

070

This country isn't lost, unless a lot of the people who don't want it lost get so frustrated by our less than brilliant but decent government that they stop caring if we lose the country or not.

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Afraid there has always in my lifetime been a fair number in the further-left that are antisemitic, who tend to move around parties because of how completely toxic they are.

0575

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Jay Rayner @jayrayner1.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Probably better to know what the Greens really are, than not, eh.

1625217

Reposted by Carl Gardner

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It's hard to see how the Green party's motion today will avoid an investigation by the EHRC, given Labour was previously found in breach.

1524355

Reposted by Carl Gardner

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I suspect the sane Green members are learning why Labour is the way it is.

5895

Carl Gardner @carlgardner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I don't think I've fallen into the fallacy you mention.

100

Carl Gardner @carlgardner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I definitely think it's worth trying to persuade the public to rejoin! But I also think a bad way of trying to do that would be to argue for the Euro and Schengen as well. I think the realistic goal is something like the status quo ante on those two points.

210

Carl Gardner @carlgardner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

An aspect of the game that's not obvious is that for a faithful, being open and banishing traitors ASAP is not a good strategy. We're tempted to think being a traitor is more fun, but not necessarily. A successful faithful gains more trust then they deserve—just like a successful traitor.

001

Carl Gardner @carlgardner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm regularly not far from there, maybe 250 yards towards Fleet Street. At a set of lights up there, I regularly see cyclists just ignoring red lights. I'm not anti-cyclist at all, but having been knocked down by a bike once, I'd really like to see this bad behaviour stop.

131

Carl Gardner @carlgardner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

No UK (or EU) government could ever agree to anything like that.