iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 3h

I wonder if he has the imagination to conceptualise or propose a sort of union that would satisfy most people who want one, and most Scots who want self-determination.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 3h

I wonder if he has the imagination to conceptualise or propose a sort of union that would satisfy most people who want one, and most Scots who want self-determination.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 3h

I wonder if he has the imagination to conceptualise or propose a sort of union that would satisfy most people who want one, and most Scots who want self-determination.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 3h

Who knows? It is a mildly amusing thing for him to have done though. I wonder if he has the imagination to conceptualise or propose a sort of union that would satisfy most people who want one, and most Scots who want self-determination.

011

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

But he seems staunchly disinterested in what the devolved governments want.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Yep! With so many parties now, the days of legitimate FPTP government in the UK are probably over.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

As far as I can recall, the vote to leave the EU does not preclude that. It would be a huge step in the right direction.

110

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Trying to associate John Swinney and independence with his dads death seemed like a very flawed thing to do. The speech was positive till then, it left me very uncomfortable about the whole performance.

1113

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hmm, the speech was good till that point: seemed like a needlessly shameful, spiteful and manipulative attack on John Swinney.

011

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Doesn't seem to know the difference between England and Britain.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It strikes me as odd that so many commentators spout the idea of reducing our low state pensions for poor pensioners to fund inheritance relief for wealthy ones. Ideas in the media are often the product of funded marketing campaigns, we should ask who is paying for this one.

13519

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Possibly, but most I've spoken to are distinctly incurious about why independence should be such a popular option nowadays. (It's not the Russians 😉)

110

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My wife suspects there may be a small group of unlucky and extremely surprised red diesel repurposers at the root of it....if so the farmer must be feeling pretty amused. 😁

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Maybe it's time for imaginative unionists to propose a "precious" union that is less anglocentric then.

111

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes, but taking the benefits away before you've put the jobs in place is likely to cause severe social and health problems.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Erupting is her USP of course, no validity is implied or associated with the co tent of her eruption.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The "gotcha's" were certainly harder to come by. I found the whole show irritatingly anglo-centric though, there's no sense that he gets Scotland at all.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Transferring all its responsibilities to the SG? That could be a step in the right direction.

020

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Best score of 2 from 3 attempts. Quite happy with that. 😁

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

No sense there that we aren't subject to a colonial administration.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

He must know that isn't going to fly in Scotland. It looks very odd from up here, to have a prime minister with his power-base in England, telling Scotland what it can and can't have.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think he's just making a point out of paying attention, but it is slightly funny.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I guess Labour could back independence and still be Labour...

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

2/2 Linking an MSP (or group of MSPs?) to a discrete geographical area with an ongoing democratic feedback mechanism such as a local council could be quite enlivening for local democracy. Reviewing constituencies regularly to optimise democracy rather than control may well be worth the effort.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

1/2 Would that be so bad? In some ways fixed electoral constituencies perhaps lead parties to think of certain geographical areas as safe fiefdoms where they can rely on votes no matter what they do. Could regular reviews focus their minds on outcomes? I see your point about the FPTP issue though.

100

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It might be neat to align the community level "councils" with the geographic Holyrood constituencies.

100

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Great that Polankski tried Urdu, very witty response from Khan too. Politics needs more actual humour.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hahaha, you can't blame Polanski for trying, but that's a very witty response. 😁

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I favour independence, but it amazes me that unionist parties haven't tried negotiating a serious federal agreement. Perhaps the idea of "agreeing" isn't something that occurs to them.

110

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I guess at some point,someone is going to need the courage to back away from the tradional unionist "Scotland is too poor" narrative. It's still tricky to explain why Scotland has had massive oil wealth and is allegedly poor while Norway isn't....unless a bigger boy pinched all the Scots sweeties.

100

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It must be quite hard work to make a pharmacy go bust.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

That guy must be getting close to being lifted for wasting police time.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Has he the imagination and courage to outline an ambitious and new sort of united kingdom that would satisfy aspirations in all the constituent nations?

100

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Not too many people in Scotland trusting he'll keep his word tonight I fear. Crystal chandeliers not looking quite so new....

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

But he said it, and we all heard him. Genie oot the bottle. 😁

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is worth a read, Scottish rather than Welsh,but suggests the sampling in England does not provide a representative sample so may not be valid for comparison with the Scottish sample. How does it compare with Welsh sampling? weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/b...

weegingerdug.wordpress.com

BBC Scotland’s educational F grade

BBC Scotland’s latest ‘Scotland is shite’ story is to tell us that Scottish educational performance has fallen behind that of England. This finding is based on Pisa rankings. Howe…

001

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Is it not all just a managed soap-opera? Who really cares if a few rich people are throwing each others toys out the pram?

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

To be fair, there are no mayors in Scotland at all, so importing the concept is culturally mismatched. I think people are weary of low quality and ineffective political discourse, and another layer of elected official is unlikely to change that.

100

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Perhaps it's not local democracy as a concept people are hostile to, but weariness with petty, disingenuous or stupid behaviour from politicians and their commentariat. Even local politics aimed at generating adrenaline for their effect will eventually extinguish the interest they hope to generate.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I often listen to Times Radio when I'm driving. Getting out of the habit though, so much of the out-put is just chattering class nonsense. It's a shame though, because one or two of their commentators are quite good.

000

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I think we should reclassify "don't knows" as "don't minds". Sounds so much more positive. 😄

040

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Many of us would like our European citizenship back, especially in Scotland where it was taken without consent.

010

Derek Petrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @drpetrie48.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

2/2 Constitutional issues seem to be one area where they want to defeat the electorate. Their urge to beat the SNP blinds them to what that electorate wants, that has an electoral price. Have they no idea of a genuinely popular policy on the constitution? Without it irrelevance may be their future.

000