iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 13h

Good piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social Some of the coverage has presented UAE money in Manchester as some modern form of Edwardian philanthropy. It is largely an investment - perhaps thinking as such will help clarify matters. www.ft.com/content/ffc5...

ft.com

Andy Burnham’s Manchester City problem

The prime minister’s economic vision looks dangerously like a game of two halves

100

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I avoid drawing more attention than necessary to Braverman and her hateful ramblings, but she can rest assured that even if she doesn't want to be considered English, no Mauritian will consider her Mauritian either. Nonsensical telling of Mauritian and British Imperial history here.

100

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Burnham wants the labour but not the people. I don't necessarily see this as a more compassionate approach to migration. The implicit comparison between EU migration and non-EU migration also doesn't really stand up when looking more broadly over post-war British history inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Burnham insisted voters may now accept free movement, as EU citizens’ presence in the UK was more transient than the so-called “Boriswave” of post-Brexit mass immigration, which has led to people settling more permanently.
He told GB News: “One thing that I want to convey here is Brexit has changed the nature of immigration to this country, because in the past, when we were in the European Union, people can have their view about it, about whether it was good or bad.
“But what we had was a more revolving-door form of migration, where people would come here in their younger years. Many people did from Eastern Europe.
“They’d maybe spend a few years here in their mid to late 20s, and then go home and start a family, and that was a very common form of immigration.
“Now, immigration is more likely to be a permanent settlement, where people are coming on a visa to work here.”
The Prime Minister also suggested it would be easier to tackle the Channel crisis as an EU member, as Brexit meant the UK “lost access to the crucial immigration database held across Europe which tells you where people arrived and what countries they’ve been through”, so they could in theory be returned there after arriving on a small boat.

210

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The best league winning moment is back to being the 1989 'it's up for grabs now' Arsenal side. Bye bye 2012 'Agüeroooo'.

100

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lots of issues raised by the news of the Man City verdict. But an important one is the place of Foreign Direct Investment in Burnham's 'Manchesterism'. Lots of the chat around devolution and his overall vibes can hide this element of 'growth in every postcode'. www.ft.com/content/36fd...

ft.com

Manchester City verdict poses latest test to UK-UAE relations

Successive British governments have sought to shore up diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in a bid to lure investment

000

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The entire post by Shipman is a datapoint for how large swathes of UK news media are now dependent on getting clicks from Americans

626352

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The same argument that Thatcher made in her interview on 'World in Action' in 1978: '[...]people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture'

100

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

As someone with heritage and family from the Mascarene Islands, it will never not be funny what parts of *some* families' history do get mentioned. And what parts don't. Maybe those ancestors shouldn't have changed the island into a mono-crop plantation. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“You have to channel the air, play with the elements … That’s exactly what our ancestors did on La Réunion,” he said. “They built houses according to the direction of the wind, with a central corridor, and they opened the windows or closed the doors depending on the amount of air that they wanted to let in. If they were cold, they closed them; if they were hot, they opened them.”

000

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Neil Kinnock in 1987: 'Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is my wife, Glenys, the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?' www.speech.almeida.co.uk/neil-kinnock

speech.almeida.co.uk

Neil Kinnock — Figures of Speech

001

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hortense Pretentious (played by Llewella Gideon in the Real McCoy) had a more coherent concept of Englishness than Suella Braverman does. youtu.be/oVBWzNYVN0A?...

youtu.be

Conservertive Party Conference with Hortense Pretentious (The Real Mccoy)

YouTube video by RICHARD TAIWO (TICE123)

000

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

One thing Burnham has managed to devolve: his border and asylum enforcement to Daniel Thomas and his balaclava men.

111

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A really brilliant portrait of the sort of everyday, easy, multiculture that London (including Harrow) can do really well: woodencity.substack.com/p/nobody-has...

woodencity.substack.com

“Nobody has ever repped Harrow like this”

A few pints with Kibo, the acclaimed HA3 rapper finding the myth in the mundanity of London’s outer suburbs. By Niamh McIntyre

000

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

a powerful case for appointing a secretary of state specialising in media and culture

1332461

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There’s a strong argument that, between 2016 and 2024, the only pro-Brexit voting bloc to see something resembling what was implicitly promised (to them) was Black and Asian Brexit voters. Migration from the New Commonwealth increased.

130

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Very confused about the government's education policy. Even weirder as loads of Starmer's and now Burnham's cabinet choose to narrate their lives in a recognisably Labour way: education leading to social mobility. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

But Powell, without appearing or sounding like a firebrand, says she wants to go “further and deeper” and claims there will be a revolution in England’s schools, and that children from the age of 14 will take vocational qualifications tailored to the local economy.

7222

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

People have long been invited to think of 'decline' and 'crisis' through the prism of race and what it means for Britain. If falling immigration exacerbates some of the symptoms of crisis/decline, I am unconvinced that the racist genie will be put back in the bottle.

000

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I’ve stopped giving a shit about critical thinking skills or any type of “employability” vector, I now pretty strongly believe the purpose of a degree is to learn about the subject you study in that degree, if my graduates leave their degree knowing about history then my job is done.

825325

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The politics of race with a nudge and a wink. This time with a slightly different dynamic than usual. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

“The truth is, because of regeneration in London, the demographic is changing a bit,” he reportedly said.

“There are hipsters, particularly, that are voting for other parties.

“That’s how I’m going to put it.”

000

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

When asked in the Q&A about arts and humanities he says he personally values them (seems very genuine) but that he is the Science Minister, and it’s for the DCMS Minister to make the case for those. He’s perhaps not yet clocked he is responsible for all R&D. Would Wissenschaft Minister work better?

89140

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Colin Burrow, defining literary criticism, brilliantly, in the LRB: @lrb.co.uk

In the LRB, Colin Burrow writes:

But to return to the point of it all. Literary criticism is primarily about learning to read very complex creations and situations carefully. That requires a willingness to think and rethink, to take a thought and run with it until it either ceases to be viable or (ideally) generates its own internal impetus. It requires accepting that sometimes you get it wrong and that sometimes other people get it wrong. It makes you pull together a whole range of messy human bits and pieces, from autobiography to philology to counting lines and underlining letters and seeing almost invisible patterns, through histories of individuals and of peoples. All of this can go towards understanding the way a poem might cohere or interestingly not cohere. You’ve got to be bold sometimes in pushing a point and sometimes you’ve got to be humble about things you can’t see or haven’t seen. There’s a dash of politics, or more than a dash if you want that, and there could be a dash of religion too, if that’s your thing. But there has to be a great measure of self-awareness, about where you stand or sit or the corners into which you have been pushed by where you come from. Literary criticism is a supremely occasional skill, where you have to be bold enough to operate where there aren’t any clear rules and make up your own, and decide for yourself what you think, and maybe set that beside what other cleverer people have thought. Someone else might come along and see it differently, but if you’ve made them argue with you then you’ve done something worthwhile. If that doesn’t have a point to it, just in itself, then probably living doesn’t have a point to it either, because making ad hoc judgments on the basis of a mosaic of information and misinformation about people and about what you should say on a particular occasion, even a difficult one, is what we all need to do every day. Literary criticism is like the mess of life, an exercise in tact and understanding.

23120

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It took him under 6 hours to make 'content' apologising to DEFRA PPSs last Wednesday.

000

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

There is a reason it is a timeless cover.

The cover of 'The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain' by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. (Stuart Hall amongst others)

121

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Makes the attacks on Sunak doing a runner to California if he lost in 2024 seem worse in hindsight. At least we won't have to hear Starmer use the word 'duty' again. Right?

000

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

One of the tragic ironies of the Arday case is that, arguably, Britain's most eminent scholar in the humanities and social sciences is the sociologist (among many other things) Paul Gilroy, who is also black. His comments, from prior to Arday's death, are worth bearing in mind.

For the eminent sociologist Paul Gilroy, responsibility for the row lies with the “culture warriors” who appointed Arday, as well as “racist critics” – and comes at a critical time for the sector.

“Reckoning with Jason Arday and his impact-chasing enablers should not be allowed to obscure the vicious, irrational cuts to humanities that are wrecking UK universities,” Gilroy added.

“The unthinking culture warriors who have supported [Arday] unconditionally share responsibility with his racist critics for making life harder for Black academics and dragging UK higher education deeper into the mire.”

031

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Indeed. Too often 'systemic/institutional racism' is just used as a synonym for 'very bad racism'. Instead of a specific description and conceptualisation of how racism functions and how disparities can occur.

030

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Article from @stephenkb.bsky.social about the tragic case of Jason Arday. 'His story was never discussed without a miasma of race.' It is difficult to have such visible reminders of how much race matters in Britain. www.ft.com/content/5f92...

ft.com

The difficult truth about Jason Arday

From the beginning, investigations were accompanied by a cloud of excessive references to his race

100

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Blaise Baquiche @blaisebaquiche.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Some personal advice for Nigel Farage: There’s no humiliation in standing next to @countbinface.bsky.social. In fact, you haven’t made in British politics until you do. #byelections #Uxbridge

054

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

It’s just depressing. Further education has been cut to ribbons. Higher education is in crisis. Labour turns its eyes to the bit of the education system which is turning out the highest literacy rates in the western world and goes “that’s the bit that needs to change”

30710198

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

As the locus of British blackness shifts from the Caribbean to Africa, the formations and politics of racialisation, racism and anti-racism are changing. Football at the forefront of this.

011

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I mean, 'the bin fire of the vanities' is right there for the taking.

162

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Strange to see this Guardian article describe Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1973 as benefitting from a 'loophole'. For much of the 20th century, citizens and subjects of the Empire and Commonwealth had the right to live in Britain. That wasn't a loophole - it was the law

The Immigration Act exempts people, such as Ahmed, from deportation if they came to Britain before 1973 and have lived in the UK for at least five years.

Mahmood is expected to say on Monday that officials have found a way to close the loophole without jeopardising the right to remain of other Commonwealth citizens, including the Windrush generation from the Caribbean.

Mahmood’s announcement will coincide with the second reading of the immigration and asylum bill.

111

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The IMF derby is not disappointing.

000

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

One of the saddest things about the Infantino-Trump red card controversy is what it does to Folarin Balogun's story. He chose to represent the USA over England and Nigeria. A choice that seemed to embody football at its best: expanding our sense of belonging rather than narrowing it.

111

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Starmer's conviction that he is a winner because of the result of the 2024 election reminds me of Eric Hobsbawm's suggestion that winners rarely ask interesting questions about the nature of their victories, as they can seem inevitable or inherently right. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Labour should win next election under Burnham after work already done, Starmer says

Prime minister holds no ‘personal animosity’ toward likely successor and stresses he has a platform to build on

111

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Crazy, but unsurprising, how quickly so much coverage has jumped to calling Paraguay a 'disgrace' for their match against France last night. The refereeing is what let down the players. As it did, incidentally, in the preceding match when Michael Oliver was too quick in giving yellow cards out.

France survive Paraguay's 'disgraceful' and 'embarrassing' dark arts

100

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Painfully familiar to a Mauritian used to telling people from the neighbouring French island, Reunion, that yes, I understand what 'overseas department' means and no, it doesn't change the actual existing history.

020

Reposted by Satya Gunput

Satya Gunput @hisnameissatya.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

'Whiteness ain't what it used to be' is the refrain of certain British politicians. And the out-going government's line has fundamentally been 'Farage etc are dangerous, but they have a point'.

061