iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 46m

This is the first by-election I’ve seen which is ‘Labour pick up a seat which is a considerable stretch’ (even if assisted by a divided right wing vote) rather than recovering normally good territory lost because the party has been at a low ebb.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 53m

Shepshed used to be a Lab/ Con marginal that tended Lab but it swung miles to the right in the 2005-2020 period I think.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 54m

I’ve got an uncle and aunt in Belton, which is for people who find Shepshed a bit ‘urban.’ Although they are arty liberal types themselves.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12h

I wouldn’t worry. Hancock isn’t even a contender any more.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13h

That’s the one with the long, deep ā on the second ‘a’ and sometimes if you’re trying for extra credit a swallow on the ‘g’? Oh, the 80s, my misspent youth.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 17h

I think it might be an attempt at replicating the pronunciation some Arabic speakers have: Isra’ eeli - which for all I know makes sense with the Arabic transliteration but is entirely pretentious in an English speaker. Particularly in one like Galloway with some gifts at using the language.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 21h

Being on BlueSky is one of my ways of mooching. It can sort of be regarded as research as I do pick up news and analysis, ideas and odd facts, but there’s a lot of chatting nonsense with clever people and a lot of negative-productivity doomscrolling.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 21h

That is VERY close to my writing technique.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 22h

Yeah, sorry. It’s my latest procrastination techniquel.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 22h

Fellow people who write for a ‘living’ - how much is it reasonable to expect of oneself in a normal day? How many hours of a) actual writing and b) other useful work like reading and personal admin is it possible to do? I worry that I do too little.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 23h

Pleased to read the article and note that European countries were clear on where the US could stick its untrustworthy and corrupt proposal.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I’ve never attempted to get the train - Ferihegy station is not very usefully sited and it has the bleak look of a station where one might have to wait for ages without much shelter. I always get the bus to the end of the Metro line M3 because I’m a cheapskate and the town bus costs more I think.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Northampton seems to get holes in its landscape (rather like the Bradford hole in the 2010s) like the strip of dereliction and car parks you’ve written about here in the north of the historic centre. But I read also the castle site was basically derelict for 200 years.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Ouch. That is worthy of a fine civic square. Gone.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I haven’t quite worked out how the New Town aspect works in Northampton. I think there are a lot of Dev Corp estates in the east of the town. But I don’t think there’s a sort of Northampton-2 town centre there. I shall learn more.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

There’s some grandeur there but when I visited - a long time ago - it was painfully skin-deep and there was a lot of fairly recent damage to the fabric. Likewise King’s Lynn. Imagine if a town with its history and built heritage were in Germany or Poland, and weep.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I’ll go back for 78 Derngate, as a fellow CRM enthusiast. There’s something amiss about Northampton’s civic life I think.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

A man who talks - with a certain amount of pride, it seems - of ‘Alan’s racist canvassing’ hasn’t left himself many avenues of appeal.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Northampton’s Market Square reminded me a bit of the sort of main square one sees in Polish and Czech towns. I’ve rather artfully taken the picture of its best corner (SW).

Market Square with fountains and a slightly threatening sky.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I love the warm, almost orange Northamptonshire stone. For religious balance here’s All Saints’ Church, a magnificent and very Protestant-looking late C17 building.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I was in town to see this chap, Charles Bradlaugh, whom the people of Northampton insisted they wanted as their MP. He was elected four times to sit in the 1880-85 Parliament but as an atheist not allowed to sit. It is to this great Englishman we owe MPs’ freedom to choose what text to swear upon.

Statue in Northampton stone. The plinth is high and atop it there is a man in Victorian clothes, gesturing like a speaker. The sky is blue with intriguing clouds.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Next time - seriously. Would appreciate.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

OUTLIER · Day 147 · 760 · 🦅 EAGLE EYES 🟦🟩🟩🟦🟦🟪🟦🟩🟩🟦 🎯 5 words nobody else has found yet Can you find rarer? playoutlier.com/s/T5DZH2 quite fun

playoutlier.com

OUTLIER · Day 147

player-8471 scored 760 on Day 147. Can you beat them?

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

This statue suggests but doesn’t completely prove ‘Brad-Law’.

Bradlaugh statue in Northampton, a side view. The statue is in yellow-orange local stone and the plinth is high. The words of a Victorian song are on the side. The chorus ends with ‘cause/ applause/ laws/ Bradlaugh!’

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

www.maptap.gg October 14 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 96🔥 99🔥 Final score: 985 this won’t get get much sympathy but it’s a day I feel I missed a shot on 1,000.

maptap.gg

🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game

Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

That’s amazing. Are they regular guests? I’m sure the river wouldn’t have been clean enough and fishy enough to sustain them back in my day.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Now you’ve got me worried. I default to Brad Law but am I right? In a similar vein I’ve never said’ Ranelagh’ out loud but it’s a - mild - source of anxiety about what I would do if I had to.

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Reposted by Lewis Baston

Dinah Rose KC @dinahrose.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Remembering Gwyneth Bebb today. She passed Oxford law finals with first class marks in 1913, but was refused a degree. The CA rejected her claim to become a solicitor, saying only men were "persons" within the legislation. In 1920 she finally became a Bar student. But died in childbirth in 1921.

Screenshot of a Facebook post recording the fact that on this day in 1920, women were awarded Oxford degrees for the first time. Image of graduating women.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Proud of my MP, my constituency and my country thanks Matt.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Slightly belated, here’s my take on Labour’s other by-election hold last week, in a tough contest with the Greens in Lambeth www.onlondon.co.uk/lewis-baston...

onlondon.co.uk

Labour wins in Lambeth by-election, but Greens haven't gone away

The Myatt’s Fields ward result confirmed that the London pendulum has swung a little towards Andy Burnham's party

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Reposted by Lewis Baston

Dave Hill @davehillonlondon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

On the same day as Holborn & St Pancras, Labour also won well in a by-election in Lambeth. Top coverage for OnLondon by @lewisbaston.bsky.social www.onlondon.co.uk/lewis-baston...

onlondon.co.uk

Labour wins in Lambeth by-election, but Greens haven't gone away

The Myatt’s Fields ward result confirmed that the London pendulum has swung a little towards Andy Burnham's party

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Reposted by Lewis Baston

Steven Seggie @stevenhseggie.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Up until a few days ago I was of the opinion that what mattered was that they weren’t effective. However, I think I was wrong, it’s actually the interference that matters, effective if not. Cc @lewisbaston.bsky.social

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Our family idiolect is sometimes about a particular intonation - ‘Dòn’ līke it’ as a way of expressing the mental state eg of a cat having its temperature taken.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

That one percolated via politics - I may have remembered this slightly wrong, but I think it was Harold Wilson who teased someone with the linke (but erroneously attributed it to Mrs Mopp rather than Mona Lott)

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

That’s such a good feeling (if one that’s rare for me at the moment). Btw you have a double who is currently walking around in Camden. I thought the chances of her being you were high enough to venture saying ‘Marie’ in case she turned round. But you are somewhere else, writing.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Also, I’ve no idea why in Foyle’s War the driver/ assistant is called Samantha. She must have been the only Samantha in England in 1940. I like the series a lot but interjected extra dialogue sometimes as I watched: ‘Samantha? What a curious name, my dear. Very exotic.’

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Make a war film rubbish The Guns of Toblerone.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It seems indisputable that this is fact, and that Burnham has read intelligence service documents that have details. The public question shouldn’t be ‘what effect did it have?’ Because that cant be proved or litigated. It should be ‘why did Putin think Russia’s interests would be served by this?’

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

How the hell have we ended up here?

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I remember R&W did London polling (they actually did most of the Mayoral polling in 2021). They were toppish on Labour but that's pretty much all London polling, and the other firms' results were close enough to theirs for me to think there was legit work going on. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Lo...

en.wikipedia.org

2021 London mayoral election - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Lewis Baston

Henry Dyer @direthoughts.com · 12/10/2026

Exclusive: Do you remember the polling company Redfield and Wilton, which appeared from nowhere in early 2020, whose polls quickly appeared in lots of publications? The company’s director is a registered solicitor, prompting questions over where the polling expertise came from. Here’s the answer…

theguardian.com

Nigel Farage adviser had unpublicised role at polling firm

Exclusive: Chris Bruni-Lowe used Redfield & Wilton Strategies role to develop potential campaign tactics, sources say

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I feel some of the Kazakhstan and Pacific ones have been pretty unreasonable! And, not to moan too much, the amount of Bolivia detail. I tend to get similar results to Che Guevara's when it comes to Bolivia.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

New options available on the Ordnance Survey Election Maps site.

A list of options of administrative boundaries within Great Britain (particularly England). 'English Regions' are different from 'Regional Authorities Boundaries' because of course they are. Also available are two categorised as 'East and West Surrey Pre-Operative'.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles is such a heartbreaking story of good intentions and ruthless capitalism that - as agitprop or Samuel Smiles-esque advocacy - it can only be deliberate. Which makes me think that there must be a lot of subtext and feasible readings of other Beatrix Potter books.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Indeed. Two today, one of which I missed from stupidity. At least there’s no Bolivia 🇧🇴 - I pondered a map of that country yesterday and now realise the rationale for the two capitals thing.

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