iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I’m very aware. But it is still the case (unless what I’ve read recently is wrong) that under the GFA, the decision as to when a referendum is appropriate is still down to the Sec of State for NI ‘when he feels a majority may vote to become part of RoI’. Better than Scotland, but still up to UKgov.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Good point, well made. Although the Israeli settlers did go there in order to establish a claim to the land. Or at least that’s always been my impression. I could be dead wrong.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The fact is that it’s obviously ridiculous for the UK to own islands 6000 miles from the UK. No arguments there. But we are where we are, and for whatever reason, the people seem determined to stay British.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Well done Sabah. Well deserved.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I will doubtless read this, and I don’t even particularly like dogs.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Starmer was actually even worse than that. He claimed that yes, there was a legal route, but he wouldn’t say what it was, and it was ‘up to the nationalists to find it’. Shades of Rumpelstiltskin. An utterly ludicrous position to adopt, but of course the media let him get away with it.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It’s your last sentence that is the problem. In Scotland, as in NI, the person with the authority to decide is the (pointless) Secretary of State, who by definition will always represent an English-based party and has a massive conflict of interest.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I thought that looked familiar! 🤣

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Given that they had left the terms completely unspecified, the slender majority they achieved was probably a mandate for a ‘Brexit in name only’ and nothing more. Instead we got the hardest possible Brexit, and everyone who voted Remain has been completely ignored ever since.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

On that we very much agree. Mainly because no attempt was made by anyone on the Leave side to describe what it would actually look like. What was actually delivered bore absolutely no resemblance to any of the nonsense they spouted (‘nobody is talking about leaving the Single Market’, for example).

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

3 happened in 2014. I can’t agree with 4. Mainly because it didn’t happen in 2014, enabling the UK government to break every one of its promises with impunity. This would be moving the goalposts (again) simply to make independence harder to achieve. A simple majority was enough last time.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I would also mention that 60-odd countries have gained their independence from the UK over the years. That includes some of the poorest nations on earth. Not one has asked to come back, and every one celebrates its independence every year.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

All of the Unionist politicians like to talk about referendums being ‘divisive’, which is vastly disingenuous. The divisions are already there. They just want to deny the opposing side a voice.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

You are correct. And, for the record, I accept that’s the way it has to be.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

All we’re talking about is the ability to ask the question. A pro-independence majority should be able to do this, because that’s how democracy works. Polling is not a good indicator. Especially since until very recently most were ‘weighted’ (basically fiddled) by the 2014 referendum result.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Yep, aware of that. Though they would really prefer you didn’t mention it.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I find I’m having to separate the art from the artist a truly distressing amount of the time these days. I’m not going to stop jumping around like a loon whilst singing 500 Miles, but it won’t be quite the same.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Absolutely loving that response!

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

OK, fair enough. But how, precisely, do the people indicate that they want a vote on independence? By electing a majority of pro-independence MSPs. Which they have done, repeatedly. The UK government chooses to focus solely on the SNP, but that isn’t a valid position.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

More importantly, the SNP are not the only party in Scotland who support independence. The Greens also do, and between them they have had a majority of seats at Holyrood for many years. Westminster pretends it’s only the SNP that counts.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I thought that most of them had finally stopped? YouGov still does, definitely, which is doubtless why they are the only company that regularly shows a No majority

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It’s a start, certainly. His assertion that it’s down to the whim of the Governor General (sorry, Secretary of State) to decide whether it is warranted or not is still nowhere near good enough. But this is certainly something.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

As you say, sort of. It still depends on the whim of the Governor General (sorry, Secretary of State) and whether they personally feel there is a public demand. Given that they pretend there is no such demand despite multiple elections saying otherwise, I somehow doubt they will ever think there is.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I doubt anyone will care… given I had no idea they were less valuable? Somehow I doubt a cache of DDR5 RAM sticks would have the same ring to it!

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For all that it was a bold appointment, it wasn’t the right job for an inexperienced coach at that stage of his career. Although he was highly rated. I’m glad it worked out for him in the end.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A friend of mine was recently talking about how one of his med school mates was on the Time list of medical people of the year. Showed me a pic. I said ‘he looks familiar, what’s his name?’ thinking I must have seen him at a conference or something. ‘Manicka Balasegaram’.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

We did find a window that gave us access into the main classroom block. Which was fun. We came up with a mad scheme to remove all the chairs from the building and put them on the roof. It’s probably for the best we never tried it.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I did hear that someone had actually managed it once (via the scaffolding that was up at the time), found a doorway in, and set off an alarm… probably apocryphal, but it did make me think twice…

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I definitely never did that. Wish I had!

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Yeah, I also did that. Mad wankers that we were.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I’m quite jealous of this route I knew nothing about! Our route was to run straight out of the entrance of College and scramble up the wall opposite. Then we could use ladders and routes over the roof to get to the Phoenix on top of School. Never got to the actual Abbey though!

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

You need no qualifications to be an MP and yet it already pays very well. OTOH, I would support a pay rise for MPs (nowhere near 300% though) if they were banned from holding other jobs, and from working in a related sector for a period after leaving Parliament.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Did you explain to them what an amazingly cool frood you were?

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

This is a level below people who organise their books by colour.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

See also: Alister Jack, former Secretary of State for Scotland, whose party are soundly rejected by the Scottish electorate at every election, telling the UK government it should reduce the Scottish Parliament’s powers from his unelected seat in the same chamber.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Agree with every word of that. Have said similar things recently myself. TBH, there is a gap in the Scottish political market for a centre-right to right party that supports independence, to give a political home to those who want Indy but were put off by the Green-inspired polices after the BHA.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I don’t know what’s more disturbing - that they are happy to state openly they want to roll back human rights, or that people will actually vote for this.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Either that, or they are bots. Or paid to post this content.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

John Robertson 16 caps. Waited forever for his first one. Scored in his first two games. Barely got a look in again.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

It’s an interesting truth that two of the very best episodes of Dr Who since the 2005 reboot - ‘Blink’ and ‘73 Yards’ are distinguished by the Doctor barely being in them at all - in both cases because the actor had other commitments at the time.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Is it your birthday? Mine too!

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

It’s fairly obvious that corruption led to the selection of the venue for the last three world cups. We can only hope the next one will be different.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Absolutely agree. The media and the Unionists are raging that they didn’t get a big, splashy show trial immediately before the election, with saturation coverage and lots and lots of opportunities to smear the SNP. So they’re trying desperately to keep the story alive, via any means possible.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

If Farage’s bubble gets burst by a party even more screamingly right-wing than he is, it will be a kind of poetic justice.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

They are trying to resuscitate a dead story. They didn’t get Nicola Sturgeon. They didn’t even get a show trial right before the election with maximum potential for smearing the SNP, because Murrell pled guilty. Only a public enquiry will keep the headlines coming. Just Say No.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Not sure it’s an appropriate word for Wordle. Though I also got it in 4.

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Rob Perry @docrobperry.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

As a Hearts fan, you have no idea how much I agree with you.

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