iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 10h

A Trump deal with Putin? How truly appalling for Zelensky and Ukraine. Roll on the mid-terms.

Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It's very disappointing that Labour has kicked into the long grass £800 million worth of housing refurbishments for armed forces properties.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I find UK politics so depressing right now, and getting smaller and more parochial by the day. I felt liberated by the UK's positive and frequent engagement and shared leadership with international allies. It all seems narcissistic and inward now, hope it changes after conference season.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Looking at the Green Party motion today - well done and thank you, Keir Starmer.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Scandal or not, if Starmer was PM media outlets across the country would be demanding his resignation now if his staff had met City's chairman at No. 10 shortly before the guilty verdict; if his mayoralty benefited from vast sums of UAE funding; if his comments sounded like political interference...

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

So the day starts with 'universal free social care' and morphs through the day to exclude care home residential costs, and later we find it is to apply to adults only. Rhetoric and reality after just one day.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Where was the climate emergency in the PM's speech? Nowhere other than 'we will be pragmatic in relation to the North Sea'. That means licenses.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Interesting how the NHS itself has now fallen completely off the political radar in favour of social care. It's only been a couple of years since it was front and centre in our political media.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Whoever the Fairford Five are, I'm guessing that the area is likely to be free from country criminals like fly-tippers and diesel thieves for some time to come.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I know that the policy disagreements between factions of the Labour Party can cause unpleasant ructions, but this new Stepford Wives version of Labour is far more unsettling.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

My parents had me rather late in life by the standards of the time. But it's incredible now to think that my mother was born in 1918 - the final year of the First World War - and my father was born before it started. And yet I've only just reached retirement age. So much change in two lifetimes.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Now's the time for all political polls published by any UK pollster/media outlet in any forum to state where the funding came from and the methodology used to collect the data. Also, maybe we could stop interpreting polls as facts (e.g. '86% of people think' instead of '86% of respondents stated').

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

It's interesting that Starmer haters 'know' what his motives were in resigning today. There are other interpretations, some positive, some negative. Those who hate him are so visceral in their hate that they interpret literally everything he does as though he were the devil incarnate.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

'A big boy did it' vibes from the Sun article 'Lammy gave Burnham number of fraudster'. Feeble from the paper and its 'source'.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Sentencing Act: used Gauke's report, Lord Timpson's expertise, PM's KC knowledge, 3 readings, committee stage, report stage, Lords, consideration of amendments. Approval of 3rd reading in Commons by 321 MPs inc Green, LD, PC, and 299 Labour MPs. That's how democracy works in the UK, not by fiat.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

When it comes to UK chancellors, don't worry about what degree a person has or their experience, or even if they have ever delivered a budget in their life: 'a safe pair of hands' is code for 'man'.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Do you think at some point we'll start hearing that the 'Labour Government' is going to do X rather than that 'Andy Burnham' is? Or do we all want to live in Trumpland?

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

For some reason I suddenly remembered today the way Nadine Dorries looked at Johnson.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What a great couple of days in sport. The rugby, the third place match, and then the World Cup final all went exactly as I was hoping 🙂

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

James Murray (Health) turns out to be rather good at his new job, settling a years-long dispute with resident doctors. An example of a quiet achiever who gets good things done without a dose of snake oil. That's my kind of minister.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Is it too optimistic to hope that, if Andy Burnham does become PM, people on social media will be able to spell the first name of the PM correctly?

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Tomorrow (Friday) the UK political media will be in seventh heaven, whichever way the by-election goes. Unadulterated and endless speculation, full of comments from 'sources' too gutless to put their names to them, so we never know how many or how influential.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

'Beware Greeks bearing gifts' should be updated for the UK as 'beware easy-on-the-ear politicians offering exactly what you want'. Why is it that people fall for it every single time, from all sides of politics?

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Reposted by Kate Bond

John Johnston @bawsman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

@bbcnews.bsky.social @channel4news.bsky.social Watching news channels this evening rolling back from their made up stories about Labour forcing supermarkets to enforce food caps and relaxing oil sanctions on Russia, you’d think they want to bring an elected government down?🤔

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Recommend having a listen to today's More or Less on R4 (20/5) on surveys. Some people on here are commenting on surveys as though their validity/reliability can be taken for granted. This is far from the case. Personally I feel that we need an independent Ofpoll - like Ofcom, only effective.

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Reposted by Kate Bond

Peter Vlahos 🇬🇧🇬🇷🇪🇺🇨🇦 @mrsohalvretep.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I'm sorry @news.sky.com and @samcoatessky.bsky.social but a poll of 706 of us in the Labour Party when there are hundreds of thousands of us does not constitute validity. Absolutely pathetic reporting. You could asking thousands on Bluesky and they'd say Starmer should stay. Grow up!

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Andy Burnham has of course had nine years to achieve what he wanted to in Manchester. The Bee buses were introduced six years after he was first elected.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I give it a year before the left start briefing against PM Burnham.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Remember when Theresa May called an election in 2017, openly saying she wanted a beefed up Tory majority to help get Brexit through? Entitlement epitomised. Similarly, all the talk about 'gifting' Burnham a seat ignores us, the electorate. As May learnt, we don't always reward those who do that.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Near hysterical gabbling about 'government propaganda', 'fake news' and telling one's audience to distrust a picture being shown on their OWN PROGRAMME suggests a mind IMV that's a very long way down a rabbit hole.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

You can guarantee that the people all being ageist on social media about the Brown appointment will be railing against young people in 25 years' time. Just as so many of the ardent socialists I knew in my 20s have become enthusiastic capitalists now they've acquired wealth.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

It's very strange but none of those media people who kept reminding us in 2022 that local elections are often markedly different from general elections seem to have entirely forgotten to mention it this time.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

The best cartoon I ever saw (can't find it to show here) was of two market stalls. The first was selling 'uncomfortable truths' and the other was selling 'reassuring lies'. There was nobody at the first stall but a long, long queue at the second. I think about it every time there's an election.

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Reposted by Kate Bond

Ruth @ruthr1.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

THIS!

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Could members of the media and commentators please note that 'abstain' is not the same as 'did not vote' in parliamentary terms. Just another way language is abused by the media to twist their 'facts' to suit a particular narrative.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

All leaders make mistakes, but good leaders acknowledge, learn from and apologise for them. Still no apology from Cameron for Brexit & Greensill, May for appointing Johnson as Foreign Sec, Johnson on Covid corruption, Truss on everything, Sunak for national debt, eat out to help the virus, etc.

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Reposted by Kate Bond

Jazzaoxon @jazzaoxon.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Have you read this? Guardian's chief invedtigatot, Paul Lewis, scrutinizes Robbins' testimony. How Olly Robbins’ knightly charm glossed over burning questions on Mandelson vetting www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

How Olly Robbins’ knightly charm glossed over burning questions on Mandelson vetting

Former Foreign Office top official’s evidence raises stark issues with ‘the system’ he was seeking to defend

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Someone likely breached the Official Secrets Act to leak a document to bring down the PM and thereby influence upcoming elections. Instead, because they were hopelessly ill-informed, they actually brought down someone who was probably a colleague. I hope they feel good about themselves.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The most depressing thing about the Mandelson stuff is the revelation that so many MPs and members of the media are very dim. Some of them still don't seem able to grasp (a) that Mandelson's advanced vetting was approved and (b) UKSV was not the final arbiter of that process.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Of all the conspiracy theories currently being peddled by the media to excuse a senior mandarin for being bad at his job when it mattered, the idea that a recently-elected, inexperienced, 'weak, weak, weak' PM would be presiding over a 'culture of fear' in the civil service is the most laughable.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Emily Thornberry has stated (according to the BBC) that she felt she had been misled when the CFA committee she chairs asked questions of Sir Olly - they asked direct questions, but he missed out the important part that Mandelson had failed the vetting. So even the committee didn't get that info.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

The power of a narrative: nobody now mentions that Mandelson was at the time of appointment pretty much integrated into influential society - e.g. he was in the House of Lords, he had some famous media chums and he was one of five candidates in the final list for the Chancellor of Oxford Uni.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The PM made a bad decision on Mandelson, we all know that now. Some of us on social media said it at the time. But every single PM has made bad decisions without having their entire judgment called into question - even when the decisions were so shit (e.g. Blair and Johnson) that people died.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Both Farage and Badenoch collapse under even mild pressure from journalists. They both become more aggressive, one attacking the journalist, the other wildly gabbling attacks on the government. and they both just lie about what they had said/done to give rise to media questions in the first place.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Tory Lord Chadlington will quit the Tories and retire from the House of Lords. Why? Investigation by the Lords Standards Commissioner (yes, the role exists) into a PPE scandal (BBC report). I'll never forget what we had to put up with under the last administration.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Many in our fourth estate seem to have largely embraced the idea of becoming a fifth column.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

My favourite picture of election night.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I for one fully believe that someone with rightful access to a safe broke into it deliberately to retrieve the only file existing (the civil service famously never makes copies), on the off chance that in 4 years time a completely different PM from that of the time could appoint Romeo as Cab Sec.

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Kate Bond @littleoldlady56.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I'm quite surprised Kemi Badenoch has had nothing to say about Reform using the term 'shadow cabinet', a term used for the official opposition's cabinet. It's incredibly insulting to the Conservatives. But then Badenoch is remarkably weak when it comes to criticising Reform.

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