iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ben Whitham

@nasarmeer.bsky.social @nasarmeer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

1/ Britain’s party leaders made good use of the thesaurus this season to avoid the word racism. I counted division, hatred, extremism, toxicity, fear, prejudice, grievance, questioning identity or the far right. Anything, apparently, except *that*!

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Future supervillain energy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

Screenshot from BBC News interview with a school child about the Bayeux tapestry. The subtitle reads: What's your favourite part of the tapestry?

The child responds, with a deadpan expression: The violence.

The child continues: Yeah, it's funny...

...because I love all the violence in it.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

French riot police are using stun grenades and rubber bullets against children. A 15-year-old has lost a hand, and a 16-year-old has lost an eye as, as a consequence. These children are protesting for better conditions in their schools. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

theguardian.com

Schoolboy, 15, loses hand after picking up police stun grenade during French school protests

PM orders ministers to tackle students’ five major demands, including organising replacement teachers and school repairs

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Women for Refugee Women @4refugeewomen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Home Secretary rightly points out that nearly all women who make dangerous journeys to the UK are survivors of rape. So why does the Govt. detain women on arrival, let women languish in the asylum system for months and years on end, & close safe routes that support women and children? 1/2

theguardian.com

Nearly all women arriving on small boats have been raped, says Shabana Mahmood

Home secretary warns people traffickers will exploit asylum seekers because they decide who comes to the UK

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Using your big BBC interview to appeal solely to the 4% of voters on salaries over £100k while telling the other 96% they are lazy and make bad choices is... one way of doing electoral politics.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The BBC's live reporting from outside prisons today started with the usual reactionary, scaremongering framing around early release, but ended up platforming people so marginalised and stigmatised we never normally see their views in news media. Worth reading for that. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

bbc.co.uk

'It's very overcrowded': Freed prisoners speak to BBC as new early release scheme begins

Victims question how they will be protected and a probation officer warns of an unmanageable influx of offenders as hundreds of prisoners are expected to be released today.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“If you’re evil you’re not bad, so you’re actually kind of good.” Do not leave very rich men alone with the little spirits in their pocket that constantly tell them they’re so right.

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"We're here today to say... war criminals are not welcome in this city &.. this is bigger than just Netanyahu. This is about the fact that our govt has been funding and enabling genocide & apartheid & it has to stop" Beth Miller from Jewish Voice for Peace in New York yesterday.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Ooh the BBC has a new tool to show you which circle of hell you're in! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Screenshot from BBC News page: ☀️ Temperature. In your area, the average daily high during June, July and August was 26.7C, according to provisional Met Office data. This is 4C above the long-term summer average between 1991 and 2020. Your area had about 34 days above 28C, the local temperature threshold for a heatwave.

William Blake illustration depicting Dante and Virgil at the gates of hell.

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Okay, it’s time to come clean: we are currently on strike. Every day is another day on the picket. If you want to know what I’ve been up to this past week, here’s all the info. Support our strike fund! Please tell everyone you know! Solidarity, forever! www.unitedigitaltech.org/2026/09/lega...

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Intriguing option on Ghent University's expenses system. And one that most people working in higher education could make a lot of use of, I think.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Refugee fleeing war, persecution, torture, attempting to pilot a boat to safety = "endangering the life of another at sea" under Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, but racist stabbing dinghy with person aboard = legitimate concerns?

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

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Jana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"anti-migrant" is a euphemism. migrants are not vaccines, mosquitoes, wars, or racism (all nouns for which the prefix anti- is commonly used to denote opposition to, or action designed to kill/harm/obstruct). migrants are human beings. "anti-migrant protesters" are "pro-crimes-against-humanity".

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There are so many crimes in this thread you have to wonder what the police and Home Secretary think they are doing at this point.

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

6. As far as we can see, the rescuer was okay - though this is bordering on attempted murder. RNLI then headed towards the Solent, AIS off and chased by the far-right. Authorities in Portsmouth likely were warned that people would be offloaded and processed at Gosport, so Thomas rallied activists.

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

5. After around 30 hours at sea, the dinghy was intercepted by the RNLI and those on board transferred to two lifeboats. Two lifeboat personnel tried to secure the empty dinghy. Thomas yelled abuse and knifed the dinghy to deflate it - with a rescuer still on board.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is the direct result of narratives and policies deliberately propagated by successive governments - including the current one - and their media mates, because they consider murderous racist violence preferable to acknowledging and reversing the economic, social, and climate crises they created.

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Reposted by Ben Whitham

Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 22/09/2026

'New analysis on UK media: British media is not delivering the news to its readers. They are delivering an agenda. The seven days after Channel 4 filmed James Orr are a damning indictment of the British press. Orr is a Cambridge associate professor.' via @newscord.org

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

lol this lad was naming me and my colleagues in his "traitorbase" posts just the other day, then HNH named him and he immediately deleted his account

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Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Looks like he’s not so big time after all. Minutes after HNH published their expose, he deleted his X account

Tweet on X by Hope Not Hate saying that Big Time Charlie deleted his X account

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Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“Big Time Charlie”, the man behind a recent campaign of online harassment against progressive charities, campaigners & others he considers “traitors” has been exposed as Tom Watson, a Worcester man who is also a Restore Britain activist - by @hopenothate.org.uk hopenothate.org.uk/2026/09/22/m...

hopenothate.org.uk

Meet Big Time Charlie: The Restore Britain activist harassing the progressive sector – HOPE not hate

HOPE not hate exposes “Big Time Charlie”, the man behind a recent campaign of online harassment against progressive charities, campaigners and others he considers “traitors”....

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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I think of Sophie and how the men who killed her would be seen as the sort of people Kier Starmer and similar Labour types would now defend as having “legitimate concerns” and Farage would see as the backbone of England

A 20-year-old goth, Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend were walking in a park in Васир (2007) when a gang attacked them.
One attacker later said they kicked her head like a football. This case became one of Britain's most horrifying hate crime stories.
U

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Reposted by Ben Whitham

Max Granger @maxgranger.info · 18/09/2026

Honduran riot cops are evicting an afro-indigenous Garifuna community so that a foreign billionaire can use their ancestral islands to film the reality TV show "Survivor."

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

How is this anything but refoulement and an egregious breach of the Refugee Convention?! I guess it is, but also just another in the litany of crimes committed by the Trump administration, including genocide...

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

And they are rewarded for their parasitical exploitation of our natural resources and thievery of our public money not only with titles and honours like "Sir" and euphemistic labels like billionaire, but also the priestly, mystical status of oracles of a "market" they collectively confect.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There are few things more enraging about British politics in the twenty-first century than the extent to which Westminster and the national news media are in thrall to bloated leeches like this. They are invariably tax evading, climate change denying, racist ghouls. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK

Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So now I guess it's down to BAE, Meta, or TBI for Keir. Would be awkward to have two professional genocide apologist / reputation launderer roles at the same company.

Guardian headline: Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Shabana Mahmood says she wants to distinguish between far-right extremism and legitimate local concerns over asylum sites". Because making this distinction and prioritising the "legitimate concerns" of more polite, middle-class racists, has nothing to do with the rise of Faragism? Just so, so dumb.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Because criminalising "outright" racism while advancing implicit and systemic racisms has worked out great for the UK so far!

Guardian headline: 'Outright racist’ Daniel Thomas will face full force of law over any crimes, says home secretary.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"middle class brats who live in suburbia"? um... this is "Tommy's" actual house, circa 2019

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Reposted by Ben Whitham

Refugee Action @refugeeaction.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The government is wrong to house people seeking asylum in former military sites. But the answer isn’t to demonise people seeking safety. It’s to create more decent housing for all. Listen to our Policy Manager Ben Whitham talk about this on LBC from 16:25:07: www.globalplayer.com/live/lbcnews...

globalplayer.com

LBC News - Listen Live | Global Player

Where The News Never Stops. Access your favourite LBC News shows now!

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Reposted by Ben Whitham

Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

While Piddington dominates the news, at Leicester Crown Court this man was sentenced today Ivan Jennings, a former Conservative councillor, called for terror attacks on small boat migrants and Muslims and shared target ideas, telling fellow white supremacists to kill as many “subhumans” as possible

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This was the book I was reading - a lot about his love for Wales and the Welsh language in the early chapters! And just a generally brilliant book. www.plutobooks.com/product/paul...

plutobooks.com

Paul Robeson - Pluto Press

A biography of one of the most important political activists of a generation

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Reposted by Ben Whitham

Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

How many times in the struggles for human freedom have rich, white celebrities, when asked to stand up, responded "although I have to decline that request because of structural pressures outside of my control, I sleep soundly knowing I still have a good, pure soul, and all my real friends know this"

Guardian screenshot featuring quote from Ed Sheeran: “I have spent this week trying to build bridges, to find a solution and unfortunately, was unable to do so,” Sheeran concluded his post. “I know who I am, both as a person and as an artist, and those who know my heart know my values too.”

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

As Robeson put it, "my views, my work, my life are all of one piece". Or, as bell hooks wrote: "integrity" means "congruency between what one thinks, says, and does". People like Ed, with their pristine "hearts", safely concealed "values", and cowardly actions are conformist, complicit, clichés.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Especially gross to read this right after finishing a biography of Paul Robeson - a vastly more successful singer who not only saw his tours cancelled but his passport snatched, relentless persecution by a racist state, and attempts on his life, because he insisted on taking a stand for justice.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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IWGB Game Workers Union @gameworkers.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Today marks the beginning of our trial against Rockstar to hold them accountable for firing workers who were trying to unionise. In order for us to see this through to the end, we need your support. Please donate to and share our fundraiser for the Rockstar 31: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/wWq5Omj...

crowdfunder.co.uk

Defend union rights: Support the Rockstar 31

Justice for 31 Rockstar employees who formed a union and were fired en masse

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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

As a brown migrant living in the UK legally, this is precisely why there can be *no* compromise on the fundamental right of seeking asylum. Pretty quickly it’s anyone who ‘looks’ like an asylum seeker - ie brown or black - who is targeted. No one is safe from this.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

That the government's response to a large-scale fascist mobilisation is to say stuff like "the right to protest is fundamental" and "we already *are* stopping the boats" is in itself the story of how we got here.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Every inch of ground they ceded - whether in the press, in parliament, or on the streets - while thinking they were being Very Clever People, strategically throwing a few undesirable minorities under the bus to placate manufactured "public opinion", was power willingly handed to fascists by idiots.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"Mainstream" politicians indulging racist sentiment and enacting racist policy are the handmaidens of fascism in the UK. The attacks on refugees, asylum hotels, mosques, and the increasingly open, violently racist political beliefs, have been made possible by these lily-livered losers.

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

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Channel 4 News @channel4news.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:

channel4news.substack.com

Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations

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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 02/09/2026

Told you

I am a persecuted human rights icon

MILO YIANNOPOULOS

SPECTATOR

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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

No: it isn’t “genuinely bad news for the far right” that the framing & salience of its pet subject has been adopted by the entire political-media system. That assumption mistakes the far right‘s demands as genuine & limited, & thus manageable, rather than being a proxy or wedge issue for much worse.

Post from “Otto English” QPing one from Sunder Katwala: Sunder posts ‘“Small boat arrivals fall to six year low" - Telegraph. June, July, August were lowest for six years’ and screenshots a headline from the Telegraph; Otto comments in the QP: ‘Genuinely bad news for the far right’

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