iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.eurosky.social · 05/09/2026

This is very cool!

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

In June 1934 the British Union of Fascists - the Blackshirts - staged a rally at the Olympia in London. One protestor after another was singled out and beaten up by the crowd. Here's how Ronald Blythe described it.

Description of the BUF Olympia rally, at which a series of hecklers were violently attacked by Blackshirts. The sadism, Blythe writes, reached "an erotic intensity".

Stanley Baldwin's private secretary expressed shock and dismay: "It was a deeply shocking scene for an Englishman to see in London."

17348203

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Ten years ago, ‘You Took the Last Bus Home’ was published. It was my first collection of poetry and incredibly, it’s still going strong. To celebrate the anniversary, I thought I’d share a poem from it every day this month, starting with the title poem.

You Took the Last Bus Home

you took the last bus home don’t know how  you got it through the door

you’re always doing amazing stuff

like the time
you caught that train

Brian Bilston

A pic of the cover of ‘You Took the Last Bus Home’ featuring a red bus with the backdrop of a beautiful moonlit night.

2034679

Reposted by Kate Birrell

glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Looking out of the window now I almost can't believe I caught this colour at sunrise. It is and was torrential rain here in Glastonbury. It was brief but intense.

462543266

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Blackpool, 1962, photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

729852

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Jason O. Gilbert @gilbertjasono.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Someone tell the New York Post they are free to use the headline "Natalie Imbroglio"

351676242

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Simon Harries @simonharries.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

More urgency is a polite way of putting it. Why is this not subject to an investigation by the National Crime Agency right now? Someone will die in the near future as a result of these actions. Why is nobody intervening here and now?

27630

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Timeless humour! A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to: “I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂 Dated circa 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was recovered in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA #Archaeology

The photo by Juan Jose Fuldain for MOLA shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus (pen) one below the other, with knib to the left. The stylus is octagonal in shape, with a dot-punched inscription along its length on four alternate sides. The stylus is 132 mm long and 5 mm thick, and the letters are circa 2 mm high. The four images of the pen show the four lines of inscribed text (highlighted) which read:

'ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf (e)ro acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna darlelt quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus'

Translated as

I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.'

This inscription is generally interpreted by scholars as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment by the giver of the cheapness of the gift.

181013324

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

For thousands of years, a solar eclipse has been a prophetic harbinger of a spectacular, epoch-making event. Just saying. #VoteBinface #Clacton

19972941572

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Okay Clacton. Let’s go.

16569441262

Kate Birrell @kamabi.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

A perceptive and challenging article - thanks, Paul heartlandstribune.com/trans-rights...

EHRC Code: Why the Toilet Debate Is a Distraction
The campaign to reduce the Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC Code to a debate about lavatories is not confusion. It is strategy. Behind the toilet door lies the systematic dismantling of women's rights, funded, organised and prosecuted against women who should have been defended years ago.
A conjuring trick requires misdirection. The audience must watch one hand while the other does the work. Keep that principle in mind as you scroll through the endless, repetitive, deliberately narrowed argument about public lavatories, and the entire campaign snaps suddenly into focus.
The toilet is not the argument. The toilet is the frame.
It has been chosen with great care, because it achieves three things at once. It makes women's objections appear mean, petty, almost obsessive. It reduces a broad legal settlement about women's fundamental rights to a single, intimate, emotionally charged doorway. And it places women permanently on the defensive, forever justifying the existence of the boundary rather than those demanding its removal. The question is always
"why are you so obsessed with where people go to the toilet?", never "why is your campaign not about building new facilities for transgender use, but specifically about access to women's existing ones?"

The Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC draft Code do not persecute anyone. They restore legal coherence to a framework that was always intended to protect both trans people and women, and that was hollowed out, institution by institution, policy by policy, tribunal by tribunal, during a decade in which ideological performance counted for more than working class women's actual safety.
The campaign to reduce all of this to a toilet argument is intelligent. It is not honest.
The honest version of the argument would require its advocates to say plainly: we want the legal category "woman" to be defined by identity rather than sex, and we want that definition to take precedence over the sex-based protections women currently hold in law.
Made plainly, that argument would lose. It would lose because most people, without requiring a Supreme Court judgment to guide them, understand that bodies are not merely opinions about bodies, that the reality of male violence against women is not dissolved by a change of identity, and that half the population did not spend a century fighting for legal protections only to be told those protections were a form of prejudice.

075

Kate Birrell @kamabi.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

From amnesty’s website, today

AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL (plus candle wrapped in barbed wire)

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
ISSUES • GET INVOLVED - KNOWLEDGE HUB •
LATEST ABOUT
SHOP v
*O›
DONATE
Home / Latest
An Apology for A Growing Threat briefing, published on 8 July 2026
Posted
31 July 2026
We apologise for the publication of the briefing "A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK." This document should never have been published, and full responsibility for this error rests with Amnesty International UK.
The briefing was taken down within 48 hours of publication, as soon as management were notified of its existence, was not actively promoted, and will not be republished. We have an ongoing internal investigation into how this briefing came to be published.
Whilst we do not share the views of all these organisations, we recognise the concerns raised by those labelled as "anti-rights" in the document. To be clear: this labelling does not represent our institutional position, and we apologise for its inclusion. In particular, we apologise to Beira's Place and other groups, which we categorised as gender critical organisations, which we should not have collectively labelled as anti-rights. We have also taken down an earlier more discursive briefing (entitled Like A Snowball) which also referenced a wide range of organisations.
AlUK holds itself to the highest standards of research, evidence and editorial oversight in all its publications. We have concluded that this briefing fell significantly short of those standards. We will commission an independent external review to learn from this moment. |
AIUK remains fully committed to defending the human rights, dignity, and equality of all marginalised groups, including women, girls, and members of the trans community.
31 July 2026

193

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

The earliest known depiction of the #Trojan #horse, showing the #Greek warriors hidden inside, ca. 670 BCE, 📷 National Geographic. #History #art #mythology #artwork

9528120

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Musk calls for the assassination of a reporter who embarrassed him with basic questions

14049781589

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Roses are red Peonies are clustered

BBC News headline: WW2 veteran, 106, puts long life down to custard.

1126754

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

For those of you that ever wondered what scares the shit out of him: #FabFord

831313809030

Reposted by Kate Birrell

D. Earl Stephens @dearlstephens.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

📌If Biden had played golf, thrown a party for himself, watched a soccer game and then celebrated himself again after the game, while THREE MORE troops were killed in a war he can't stop ... the GOP would be apoplectic, our media would be on high alert, and there would be calls for him to step down.

27422126

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Stephanie Pratt, a Specialist Biomedical Scientist with 20 years' NHS experience, is suing the union UNITE! This could be an important case. Trade unions must protect all their members. www.crowdjustice.com/case/why-i-a...

crowdjustice.com

Why I am suing my trade union, UNITE

As a lifelong trade union member I want to stop the climate of fear experienced by UNITE members who hold gender critical beliefs. I hope this action helps all union members across the movement.

12311

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Is this translated from the original German? www.whitehouse.gov/releases/202...

Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller made clear there must be no retreat: “One of the hallmarks of left-wing violence and terrorism is its completely pre-textual and disingenuous appeal to civil liberties in an effort to shield its own violence… When the leftist — who does not believe in freedom, who does not believe in civil rights, who does not believe in any ordinary notion of justice — protests that we are violating his rights, understand the he is lying to try to persuade people who are not closely following the political scene that some injustice has perpetrated against him. We must stay the course and be completely unflinching in the pursuit of justice against these enemies of civilization.”

982085643

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Cathy Devine @womensportfeminism.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The feminist project is to deconstruct gender because it underpins the hierarchy of value & power between the sexes. But not to deny sex. Because full recognition of female people necessitates a recognition of sex when sex matters.

2183

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Cathy Devine @womensportfeminism.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The human rights of female people are protected throughout all UN human rights treaties on the basis of sex. That does not mean disappearing sex & reverting to a male default. It means that women & girls are human persons with female bodies. Feminists demand equality for that half of humanity.

2176

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

'Volunteers are being recruited, with the first doses expected to be given to healthy adults in the UK "within weeks".' Early days, but seriously amazing.

bbc.co.uk

UK starts first vaccine trial, eight weeks into Ebola emergency

The UK medicines regulator has given approval for an experimental vaccine to be tested on healthy adults.

613650

Kate Birrell @kamabi.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

@bellingcat.com, I hope you’re keeping track of Amnesty’s withdrawal of their recent (libellous?) report about anti-rights groups, which the author spoke about at length on your podcast in Feb? Many unhappy orgs, (+ their letters of complaint) are documented in a @newsandpics thread on Twitter

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Home
Briefing review
We have temporarily removed this briefing while it undergoes an internal review.
Amnesty International UK remains committed to researching and campaigning on human rights issues, incorporating our long standing and explicit commitment to gender justice, including the rights of women, LGBTQI and trans people.

Gethin Chamberlain @newsandpics
For Women Scotland posted at length about the Amnesty report and also issued a press statement.

‘For Women Scotland is only ‘anti-rights’ if you don’t consider women to be entitled to any rights in law or public life.

It’s a sad state of affairs that Amnesty has sunk so low as to defame prominent women’s organisations, including a rape crisis centre and support networks for abused wives and children.

We won a landmark case on women’s rights at the Supreme Court where Amnesty intervened with their best legal arguments against us. That the judges were unpersuaded should have given Amnesty pause for thought. Instead they have chosen to launch an ill-advised attack, and one that surely risks attracting the attention of the Charity Commission.

For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot

Bellingcat, which claims to specialise in investigation and fact-checking, allowed this woman to spread her vicious libel about feminist groups and lie about history and the law on their podcast.

Her position at @AmnestyUK provides the cover for this.

For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot

Bellingcat and Amnesty: if you are going to accuse women of being part of a global conspiracy awash with evil money, you had better back it up.

Snide innuendoes about Trump or only being ‘fronted’ by feminists or LGB activists to disguise our ‘evangelical’ intent doesn’t cut it.

071

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Prince of Humanists: Erasmus, influential Dutch Renaissance scholar, known for Greek-Latin parallel text edition of New Testament, & ‘Praise of Folly’ composed at his friend Sir Thomas More’s London house; painted by Holbein 1523; died #OTD 1536. National Gallery London | @euerasmusplus.bsky.social

14110

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I don't think I've ever seen a group of people take a joke quite as badly to heart as this lot have this week

3343575660

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

CNN montage of Trump claiming for months that Iran wants to make a deal

15625461027

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Leeds for Europe @leedseurope.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Our Chair tells @metro.co.uk readers the #Farage by-election stunt is hypocritical after the #ReformUK leader bleated about 'parliamentary sovereignty'. Tell #Clacton residents the truth before voting, says @leedsblue67.bsky.social: "Just as should have happened - but didn't - in #Brexit campaign."

Letter published in the Metro newspaper on 9 July 2026, from Peter Packham, Chair of Leeds for Europe. Mr Packham says it is hypocritical for Nigel Farage to call a by-election to avoid parliamentary scrutiny, after talking so much about parliamentary sovereignty in the past.

16024

Reposted by Kate Birrell

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I wish just one NATO leader (or all of them) would say, "This is unacceptable. The US president has lost his mind. America come get your boy. He's broken and needs to be under a doctor's care back home." I wish someone would tell the damn truth about what's happening.

966193384642

Reposted by Kate Birrell

David KC @davidmuttering.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

He was born in France to French parents then grew up in Wimbledon. Very much a cross-channel Fery.

1838044

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

All this is almost worth it for making Nick Robinson say ‘and we’ll hear from Count Binface in a few minutes time.’ #R4Today

221830

Reposted by Kate Birrell

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Once again I want to say that all chess is, depending on how you conceptualise a chessboard, 4D chess. Chess pieces have 3 dimensions. A knight jumps pieces. Time is a crucial component. 4D chess is just.... chess

2922331

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

It really is amazing how Trump soils everything he touches, like some scrofulous medieval monarch spreading the King's Evil. He turned a pretty likeable US team into global pariahs. By contrast, Balogun handled himself pretty well (and made a point of shaking the referee's hand after his red card)

715528

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Paul Chandler @paulchandler.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I assumed this book was made up at first!

1428

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Rachel Rees @rachel-rees.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In his book 'How to Launder Money', Posh George, the Farage aide at the heart of Reform's latest controversy, has a chapter on 'The Art of the Bribe' He and his co-author recommend small gifts (explainable as “a mistake of overexuberance in friendship”) and "Paying some of the target’s expenses”

13320126

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Eddie Mair @eddiemair.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

‘Headline writers face backlash over backlash backlash’

3468

Reposted by Kate Birrell

chimpman.bsky.social @chimpman.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

HE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!

021

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Rare glass king piece from a ‘tafl’ gaming set, a strategy board game played in the Northern British Isles some 1,200 years ago. From Lindisfarne, Northumberland. 📷 Digventures #Archaeology

The Digventures image shows a dark blue glass gaming piece with white trail decoration, against a black background. It is roughly dome-shaped, with a rounded top, and a flat base. It is made of translucent dark blue glass, which allows the display lighting to pass through it. Across the top is a ring of five white glass bosses; one in the centre, the other four spaced around it, giving the appearance of a crown, indicating that it was likely manufactured to resemble a king. The blue body is decorated with swirling white trails of glass. It is thought to be a king piece for playing a uniquely northern version of 'tafl, a war game played in the British Isles before the arrival of chess in the 11th century. It was discovered during an archaeological dig on the small tidal island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, whose wealthy early medieval monastery was raided by Vikings in AD 793, heralding the start of the Viking Age in Britain. The only other example of this type of glass gaming piece was found at the Pictish hillfort at Dundurn in Scotland.

935698

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Rich @rich-bryant.uk · 01/07/2026

It's a defensive display

1172

Reposted by Kate Birrell

medieval marginalia @medievalmarginalia.com · 30/06/2026

update from this week’s heat dome bodleian library, ms douce 134

217546

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

A global chart we should be proud to be at the bottom of.

1825968

Reposted by Kate Birrell

Full Fact @fullfact.org · 27/06/2026

A video claims to show massive crowds "shutting down London" to demand halal food standards. But this supposed footage is AI-generated and entirely fake, despite hundreds of comments appearing to believe it’s genuine.

fullfact.org

Video of ‘British Muslims’ marching for ‘halal standards’ is an AI fake – Full Fact

The video, which claims to depict massive crowds that have ‘shut down London’ with a march demanding halal food standards, has hundreds of comments from people who mistakenly believe it to be real.

8233115