iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I find it strange that some people refuse to believe this is the way our decentralised culture works now, that it's possible to be completely ignorant of hugely popular things that don't match your tastes and interests. People aren't lying about that because they think it makes them look cool.

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Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 19h

The rush to speculate that asylum seekers are responsible for every crime in the news is a sort of opportunistic informational terrorism. Until it’s disproved it stokes fear and hatred. When it is disproved there are no adverse consequences and they know that they only have to be lucky once.

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ᴄʏᴄʟᴏᴢ @cyclozparis.bsky.social · 12h

Late 19th-century English electric tandem, 1897. Used in the Bol d'Or race in Paris in 1899. Despite its innovative potential, the electric tandem did not achieve widespread popularity. Likely heavy and bulky, it nevertheless boasted a 750-watt motor that propelled it to speeds of over 64 km/h! 🚲⚡

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I love that I can get to a place like this by tram.

A lake with trees around it. The sky is full of large, fluffy white clouds behind which the sun is shining. The clouds are reflected in the lightly rippled surface of the water.

A path next to the still narrow river Mersey. A person is walking towards us in the distance. The river banks are covered in grass and plants, and we see trees to the right and to the left. The sky is blue with some white clouds, it's a sunny day.

A path in the shade in a wood, with trees on each side. The tree leaves form a vault over the path.

A lake surrounded by trees. The sky is blue with some large fluffy white clouds. The surface of the lake is slightly rippled.

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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Staircase of Hôtel Tassel, Brussels, 1893-94, first Art Nouveau building, designed by Victor Horta, influential Belgian architect (1861-1947). UNESCO World Heritage

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Celtibeŕ @celtiber.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026

Das Passagen-Werk

Galleria Giuseppe Mazzini (1874-1876), Genoa

Galleria dell’Industria Subalpina (1873-1874), Turin

Galleria San Federico (1932-1933), Turin

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 11h

Policy proposal: if you complain about immigration and how easy you imagine immigrants are having it, the same rules will apply to you. Sorry mate, now you need to pay £'000 every couple of years to live with your wife. Sorry, no benefits. No, you can't get this job, the employer won't sponsor you.

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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 12h

i just...i'd love to know which bit, which part, what chunk, she doesn't think was "earned" previously. was it the massive financial cost? the stress? the ludicrously complicated and unforgiving rules? the renewal dice roll? the tests for everything, in every direction? which bit, shabana?

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Carter 🏳️‍🌈 @riayn.bsky.social · 13h

Unless Burnham fires Mahmood, reverses her asylum reforms, tears up her ILR reforms and reverses the EHRC guidelines then bigotry is still alive and well in the Labour party. I'm sick of hearing pretty sounding words. I want to see concrete actions that is going to make life better for all of us.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 22h

This was one of the worst parts of the speech.

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Luca Tiratelli @lucatiratelli.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I await the first time a politician proposing some nuts new immigration restriction is asked what is otherwise the media’s favourite question: how are you going to pay for it??

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 22h

A prime example of the literary genre of "Labour politician talking about fairness while promoting extremely unfair reforms". They want to kick immigrants in the teeth, and they want immigrants to be thankful to the Labour party for doing so.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The 6 types: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the King, the lollipop man, the pirate of Penzance.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've seen this many times, but I always find it disgusting when politicians put immigration alongside "knife crime and serious violence" as an example of something that it is good to reduce.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Conference, conference, that is what we can do, this is who we can be, as we restore control to our borders. Bear down on small boat crossings. And unlock the inherent generosity of this country." This is a real quote from Shabana Mahmood's speech at the Labour Party Conference.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This from "Ermione" is one of the greatest scenes in the whole history of opera; and "Ermione" (1819) is an absolute masterpiece, forgotten for 160 years (first modern staging: 1987). I often think that Maria Callas would have been perfect for this opera, sadly it was still forgotten in her time.

youtube.com

Anna Caterina Antonacci - Essa corre al trionfo... - "Ermione" (London, 1992)

YouTube video by DieVogelQDU

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Every time I read or hear "al fresco" in English

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

At this point I always assume that, even when I have a green light, I have to expect some driver to run a red light. Like today: two drivers in a row who drove through the junction after the light had turned red. I honestly hate that this is where we are, they've apparently given up on enforcement.

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Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d@toot.bike @gazza-d.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Dodgy number plates are a red flag to a criminal mind. The UK really needs to do two things. Make use of them a serious criminal offence rather than the £100 now. Make prosecution easy and a priority through the existing #opsnap portals. It's currently too difficult. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Thousands of illegal ghost plates on cars revealed by new cameras

Illegal registration plates are far too easy to get hold of and are putting the public at risk, BBC is told.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The ‘harm’ from immigration is illusionary. The harm from too little immigration is all too real.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

As with Brexit, the British Right get what they want (here reduced migration), then start complaining about the entirely predictable effects of their desired policy. (see next post for a useful thread explaining why this is not due to Mahmood's reforms, which would make things even worse)

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Labour is not opening new safe routes. This latest measure is reopening a route they closed and making it more restrictive. This follows claiming they were opening new community sponsorship and work/study routes which already existed but they made harder to access. It's smoke and mirrors. #r4today

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is truly vile stuff from the migration minister and from the Labour party.

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Lloyd Lane @lloydlane.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Starlings over the Helter Skelter, Brighton. 1000s arrive here every winter from as far as Scandinavia & somehow they move as one in a murmuration. Each bird is only reacting to its 7 closest neighbours, a phenomenon known as phase transition, yet the whole group ripples like a single living thing.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

One of my favourite passages in Dante's Inferno: Saint Francis and a devil ("one of the black cherubim") fight over who should take the soul of Guido da Montefeltro. The devil argues that "you cannot repent and will at once"; he then taunts Guido "Perhaps you did not think that I was a logician!".

112 Francesco venne poi com’ io fu’ morto,
113 per me; ma un d’i neri cherubini
114 li disse: “Non portar: non mi far torto.

115 Venir se ne dee giù tra ’ miei meschini
116 perché diede ’l consiglio frodolente,
117 dal quale in qua stato li sono a’ crini;

118 ch’assolver non si può chi non si pente,
119 né pentere e volere insieme puossi
120 per la contradizion che nol consente”.

121 Oh me dolente! come mi riscossi
122 quando mi prese dicendomi: “Forse
123 tu non pensavi ch’io löico fossi!”.

TRANSLATION:

Then Francis came, as soon as I was dead,
for me; but one of the black cherubim
told him: ‘Don’t bear him off; do not cheat me.

He must come down among my menials;
the counsel that he gave was fraudulent;
since then, I’ve kept close track, to snatch his scalp;

one can’t absolve a man who’s not repented,
and no one can repent and will at once;
the law of contradiction won’t allow it.’

O miserable me, for how I started
when he took hold of me and said: ‘Perhaps
you did not think that I was a logician!’

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 27/09/2026

This is just wild.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Another thing about this: "dual nationals" are not all "immigrants". I am both of those, but if I had a child in the UK, they'd be a dual national (or triple, I guess), but not an immigrant.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If some citizens are 'less' citizens than others, then citizenship means nothing. I have no plans to commit any crimes at any point in my life, but if I ever did, I should not lose my British citizenship. Nor should anyone else.

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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Views that immigration is too low, that the current rules are too onerous, or that the biggest problem with immigration the country faces is not volume or integration but the rising tide of angry and violent opposition to it are simply absent from the national conversation, excluded even.

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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Condemnation is pure hot air if in the next breath you’re telling everyone you’re doing your best to give the fascists what they want, just without the masks

In fact, these are scenes we have not seen on British streets. Immigration needs to be deal with, I will be the first to say that and we are dealing with it. The boat crossings have been halved since six years ago, net migration is down massively.

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Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 27/09/2026

"Immigration needs to be dealt with" is the most xenophobic turn of phase I can imagine anyone using whilst trying to condemn racists.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Even now, he can't help slipping in a comment about how "immigration needs to be dealt with" when condemning the masked thugs. You don't need to always qualify your condemnation of far-right rioters by saying that you also think immigration is bad.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If Labour wants to be (as the guy who wrote speeches for Starmer says they should) the party of "carers, builders, drivers, nurses, cleaners, shop workers and more" it cannot be — as it currently is — an anti-immigrant party who will force 100'000s in those professions to leave the country.

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alj8.bsky.social @alj8.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m getting deeply pissed off at the dismissal of casting my vote on what Labour has done to the right to protest, to trans people, to asylum seekers, a Labour Party that currently has a mass deportation policy on the books, as ‘expressive politics’, as if I’m somehow not using my brain

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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Inspired painter Simone Martini envisions Virgil as inspired poet, 1336. Painted for his pal Petrarch while they were both in Avignon, and how cool is that? Today is Martini's day.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 26/09/2026

I do wonder sometimes if certain people in Labour have ever met the modern working class. I know in reality they have, but it never feels like it. Working people are overwhelmingly literate now! Most know people of other races! Many have gay friends or family! Some worry about climate change!

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Tibor M. Kalman @kalmantibs.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

King’s College Chapel, built between 1446 and 1515, Cambridge, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Photo by Gary Curtis© | Architecture & Design

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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A colourful end to the day here in Glastonbury. It was worth the walk I think. Now it is time for a glass of wine 🍷

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Andrew Locking @andrews-walks.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Tempting lakeland gates

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

When they invent time travel machines, I will use one to go back in time and attend this performance live. We have to thank the gods of music that Callas withdrew from those Rome performances, so that 26-year-old Anita Cerquetti could step in and give us this memorable performance.

Vincenzo Bellini "Norma"
Anita Cerquetti, Franco Corelli, Miriam Pirazzini, Giulio Neri
Gabriele Santini
MYTO

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Mairéad "Maisie" Ó Dorchaidhe @modorchaidhe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

At this point we need an overhaul of the powers of the home secretary. It should not be possible for her to unilaterally ruin the lives of millions with a stroke of the pen without parliamentary consent.

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James Bowes @jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Hard to understand the logic of a policy of mass deportation of people on middle incomes and only keeping the highest and lowest earners. Obviously they designed the policy explicitly to deport care workers and now are too stubborn to back down but don’t want to collapse the care sector.

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Mairéad "Maisie" Ó Dorchaidhe @modorchaidhe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

And I'm still waiting for the commentariat to notice the impacts on spouses and parents of citizens, ancestry visa holders, Hong Kong BNO visa holders, etc because it's been almost entirely ignored.

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Labour's immigration/asylum policies are profoundly racist and xenophobic. They embolden far right, undermine international law and violate basic human rights, while being even more hostile than the previous government. They can't be tweaked. They need to be scrapped. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Angela Rayner criticises worker visa plans on eve of Labour conference

The housing secretary says the government's plans to change wait times for permanent residency are unfair because they "change the goalposts".

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

She really doesn't consider us worthy of the same respect that she is willing to extend to white British racists. Their concerns are "legitimate", our concerns about our plans for our future in this country don't matter to her at all.

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Luke Piper @lukepiper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This exchange further confirms Earned Settlement is not about 'earning' the right stay but making it so hard for people that they leave.

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