iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seriously?!? After the Labour conference in which Burnham put forward more new ideas than all PMs in the last decade combined, the BBC focuses on a front-page gotcha splash by Chris Mason on football. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Chris Mason: Why Andy Burnham's about-turn on Manchester City matters

The prime minister's comments on Man City were revealing on several levels - and leapt on by many in football, the BBC's political editor writes.

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Those three little words "in order to" seem to have been missing from political debates about costs and benefits. Good to see them back

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.

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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My other main thought: that prospectus means that it's now overall possible to be progressive and feel ok about supporting Labour again. That hasn't been the case for some time. Those in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s have a chance to put things right when we've drifted badly off course.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 29/09/2026

It is an extremely good book

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The BBC news summary this morning went seamlessly from "critics warn PM scrapping triple lock would be electoral suicide" to "critics ask if PM has nerve to make tough decisions" and I don't think it's a particularly pro Burnham stance to suggest he might not be the entire problem here.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026

Google finally updated some of its satellite images of Gaza and my god, it's horrific. The entirety of Rafah has been demolished. The majority of Khan Younis is in ruins. Entire towns completely leveled and erased of the map.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026

The before and after it's even more haunting.

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

📌 ICYMI — Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000 — @josiahmortimer.bsky.social The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August

bylinetimes.com

Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000

The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Liar. Small boat crossings peaked under Johnson in 2022 reaching 46,000 in 2022. In current year they are 18,565 and falling. Also prior to Boris Johnson's Brexit there were none.

It's a disaster, and it can all be traced to
Labour ideology. Burnham has no mandate
from the people. He has no real ideas, and
no plan,

Johnson on X

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 26/09/2026

I once saw an incredibly self-congratulatory presentation by Nando‘s on how they had dealt with a supplier crisis when they ran out of chicken. As far as I could tell, the response was to close all the restaurants until more chicken turned up.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 26/09/2026

Ah! Thanks! Why does he support a North London football team?

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

But what has that got to do with Mandami?

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

I now publish a History of Europe in 75 Train Journeys as a podcast as well as a blog. Here’s the latest, somewhat grim, episode. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

Journey 9: Berlin to Kraków

Podcast Episode · A History of Europe in 75 Train Journeys Podcast · 25 September · 11min

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

That’s why it’s so funny that it always happens

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

Thanks! It’s actually precisely monthly - 25th of each month so that the 75th will be published on 25th March 2032, 75th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome

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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Definitely worth subscribing to this free c. monthly blog …

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

Has a very credible website…

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

Do you feel like the designer had something else on their mind when they created this?…

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

It this was a BBC news report, there’d be a warning that people may find the contents distressing. And they probably would, for this month's chapter is about the holocaust. But it's also crucial we never forget what we - as humans - are capable of - and the railway's ghastly complicity.

historyofeuropein75trainjourneys.substack.com

Journey 9: Berlin to Kraków

Chapter 43: The Holocaust

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 25/09/2026

I love the fact that no one has yet noted that he is listed as “David Milliband”. After two decades, still no-one can tell one Milibrother from the other

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Have the BBC forgotten how to do proper reporting? The arrest isn't "over video", it's over the dinghy slashing.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 23/09/2026

This is beyond nuts. Being English is not an ethnicity. It’s being… English. Like both Suella and I am. Or was Winston Churchill not English?

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Every time I return to Paris, I notice they've done more to reclaim streets from drivers and cars, including removing on-street parking, protecting cyclists from drivers, and prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists in shared spaces. Other cities can learn a lot from Paris.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 22/09/2026

Trust me, it’s even worse when you actually are middle aged. Especially if your teenage years were the 90s.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 22/09/2026

Add transport as a crucial enabler of growth. Cities outside London consistently underperform equivalent cities elsewhere because of inadequate transport.

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Caroline Russell @carolinerussell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Summer of terrifying drought and wildfire, bus drivers sweltering in shocking temperatures, everyone losing sleep unable to get cool at night and *this* is the policy they come up with? Just makes things worse and does nothing to address inequality or enable people to walk, cycle or catch a bus. 🤷‍♀️

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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Lib Dem pledge to cut fuel duty by 10p is depressingly bad policy: poorly targeted, expensive (£5bn), and it weakens incentives to switch to EVs and reduce usage.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 19/09/2026

Tomorrow, I’m assuming we’ll have an interview with a prominent figure who has not lost faith in the UK. Because surely this won’t be the ONLY topic on which the BBC doesn’t do “balance”

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Why does the BBC have as one of its lead news stories this morning another Britain-hating interview with Jim 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants' Ratcliffe? What public interest is this serving?

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 16/09/2026

London Transport closed it down in 1935, but for two years a jogging-speed steam train version of the tube reached to within 5 miles of Piddington.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 16/09/2026

Fun fact: it was, briefly, possible to reach within a few miles of Piddington by tube. When London Transport was set up in 1933, it ended up acquiring a rural branch line to the village of Brill in Oxfordshire. Average train speed 4 mph.

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The BBC is terrified by data showing its lost the trust of low-trust, Reform voters and is desprately trying to win them back through this bullshit... ...without realising that low-trust is their nature and all their efforts do is lose the faith of people who actually do trust the beeb

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Dom White @domw.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

BBC News currently acting as the propaganda arm of the Reform party.

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Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

In the movie version of this, after Piddington runs out of food water and money as a result of leaving the UK, the residents apply for asylum and end up housed in a military base, with HILARIOUS consequences. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans

Piddington residents voted over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 15/09/2026

The East Coast Mainline really is the most unfair route. Sights by side of train, if travelling south: Calton Hill LEFT Berwick LEFT Berwickshire / Northumberland coast LEFT Newcastle bridges LEFT Durham Cathedral and Castle LEFT York Minster LEFT Peterborough Cathedral LEFT Emirates Stadium LEFT

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 15/09/2026

Trainline seems to think Scottish Independence has already happened. Got this notification a few minutes after crossing the border into England

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Nick Cohen @nickcohen.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Trump now attacking Zelensky for defending his country from Russian attack by taking out Russian oil supplies. Once again, there is no criticism of Putin. As always, the question is: If Trump were a Russian agent, how would he behave differently? www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/09/13/t...

themoscowtimes.com

Trump Tells Ukraine's Zelensky to Stop Hitting Russian Diesel - The Moscow Times

U.S.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 14/09/2026

But I do think we’d get better tech if tech bros tried to behave like civil servants and get better government if civil servants tried to behave like tech bros. Both would fail but it would move them both towards being a better version of themselves.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 14/09/2026

I spend a lot of my time training public bodies in approaches to decision-making drawn from the tech sector, including Bias for Action as a heuristic. But I don’t think civil servants should behave like tech bros.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 12/09/2026

If you put one at every window, that is true. But you don’t have to. The problem is that the lengths of windows and the sizes of table bays are planned by different teams. That is a choice. On Chiltern class 168s, they are the same length deliberately and by design.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 12/09/2026

Not on Chiltern Railways. I remember asking Neil Bates, our vehicle designer at Creactive, why this is so common. As a professional in the field, he says there is absolutely no reason other than lack of effort.

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Thomas Ableman @freewheeling.info · 11/09/2026

Add to the bad things: designed with seats not lining up with windows.

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's nonsense to suggest that people who support Brexit and Reform are motivated by racism. And if you don't believe me, check out this perfectly reasonable tweet by prominent Reform member and former mayoral candidate, Arron Banks.

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