iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Marianne Heaslip

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Scrapping the Future Homes Standard will deliver cost reductions for developers, but it’s hugely unlikely they’d be passed on to buyers and those buyers would be left with homes that cost thousands of pounds a year more to run.

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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The pitch here seems to be, ‘we’ll build the houses and infrastructure we failed to build during the 14 years we were in government, but we’ll do it in the most damaging and lowest quality way possible’. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England

Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth

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Irish in Britain @irishinbritain.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Liverpool Irish Festival, Britain's largest Irish arts & culture festival, opens on 15 October This year's theme 'I Am Here' is rooted in stories of the 1.8 million Irish Famine poor who entered Liverpool through Clarence Dock & those who followed Full programme 👇 ow.ly/nS7A50ZT9tG

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Jed Brown @jedbrown.org · 04/10/2026

This (very short) paper is a good primer on the problems with Narayan's reliance on synthetic focus groups. He is spending public money to create a counterfeit of public engagement and then making decisions in that basis.

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Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

He hasn't used AI-generated synthetic focus groups to test public opinion, though, has he. For the same reason that I couldn't use Grand Theft Auto to drive a car.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My colleagues are running this session about our home retrofit assessment and advice service - if you're in the north west of England especially it might be useful to you - but other community energy orgs we work with have similar services: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/people-pow...

eventbrite.co.uk

People Powered Retrofit's Home Retrofit Survey: What's it all about?

For the retrofit-curious, learn more about what our home retrofit survey is all about, and whether it is the right option for you.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My 'retired' mam volunteers on the board of an animal shelter. She also does shopping for various older/infirm neighbours. My 'retired' dad is a town councillor, volunteers on the board of a research charity, is secretary of a rugby club, was CLP secretary and now is 'just' branch secretary.

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Leo Murray @crisortunity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Everyone is at it: subsidizing demand for fossil fuels instead of funding demand destruction. It doesn’t even take any energy expertise to be able puzzle through why this is a bad idea

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Co-operatives UK @cooperativesuk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Co‑operatives deliver good growth – and we can prove it. Our Co‑operative and Mutual Economy 2026 report is out. Co‑ops are: 📈 more than 2x as likely to survive five years 💷 4x more likely to pay the real Living Wage 📍 more likely to be based outside London and the South East 👉 www.uk.coop/economy

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 29/09/2026

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has hosted panels featuring, and sponsored by, big tech companies that are driving a dramatic expansion of fossil fuel production in order to power their energy intensive data centres. www.desmog.com/2026/09/29/t...

desmog.com

Tony Blair Institute Brings Gas-Guzzling Tech Giants to Labour Conference

LIVERPOOL – The think tank led by former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair has hosted a number of events sponsored by Trump-donating tech firms at this year’s party conference. The Tony Blair…

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Urban Truth Collective @urbantruth.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The WAR ON WALKING has taken many forms around the world. It’s often as simple as how we signal who space is and isn’t for. Once our eyes are opened to all the ways we’ve prioritized cars over people, we can’t unsee it. Frustrating photo contributed by @stadsplanering.bsky.social. #WarOnWalking

Background photo from North Macedonia, where “sidewalks are mostly used to park cars” as explained by photo contributor Carl-Henrik Barnekow. Text says “Don’t buy the lie that there’s a war on cars. They’ve been waging a war on walking for a century.” Via the Urban Truth Collective. #WarOnCars #UrbanTruth

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Those who think AI is going to largely automate white collar jobs in the next couple of years don’t understand the nature of work - @sarahoconnorft.ft.com nails it www.ft.com/content/4aad...

It is not obvious that AI agents could eliminate the need for this type of work, since it involves persuasion, contestation and the exchange of tacit knowledge and experience that is spread across different departments, and often exists inside people's heads rather than in a neatly codified handbook on the intranet.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ex-minister Mike Tapp on "need to exempt care workers from retrospective settlememy extensions" There is broad support for this. But why not exempt engineers, vets & chefs & architects from "retrospective extensions" that could force 250k non-care workers to leave?

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28/09/2026

It really gives the game away when the anti trans orgs are calling the election of the neo nazi party in Germany a "glimmer of hope."

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Not In Our Name (NION) Women @nionwomen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Still gathering signatures, still reaching new people, still receiving largely positive feedback and messages of support. Lots more to do of course but some meaningful activities planned. Compassionate cis women in the UK please keep signing, everyone self, please keep sharing notinourname.org.uk

Spoiler alert:
Trans women were never the issue

NION
notinourname.org.uk

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Is this not the premise for a RTD era episode of Dr Who?

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Abby Innes @abbyinnes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It’s staggering that you can sit in soft left policy debates and no-one mentions the ecological crisis. This year‘s floods and fires are set to cost Europe 180 billion euro = total projected EU growth for 2026. Now add the inflationary effects on borrowing costs. Now think about ‘fiscal headroom’ 🌬️

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

8 years after Repeal, those seeking abortion in Ireland are still subject to an unnecessary 3 day waiting period, an unworkable 12 week cut off, and a lack of providers throughout the country. If that doesn't sound very much like Repeal to you, join the march in Dublin this Saturday!

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

this isn't conjecture. This is the EXACT reason why one of the quickest ways to shut down a fash with a camera is to start shouting: "this video is brought to you by SquareSpace!" INSTANT demonitization. Because the streaming/social platforms already protect their advertisers more than the state.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The little mime acting/ performance bits in J K Galbraith's 'Age of Uncertainty' are deeply strange. (Whole series is available on BBC iPlayer - some bits have definitely not aged well, and he's very pleased with himself, but it's interesting and expects more of its audience than most current TV).

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Reposted by Marianne Heaslip

Prof Dave O'Brien @drdaveobrien.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"A genuinely meritocratic society cannot simply teach more people the cultural codes and unwritten rules of the workplace; it must also ask why knowing such codes pays in the first place." commentcentral.co.uk/britains-cla...

commentcentral.co.uk

Britain’s ‘class ceiling’ won’t be broken by education alone

What does going to the opera have to do with how much you earn? At first glance, not very much. Yet new research suggests our cultural engagements may be mor...

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Reposted by Marianne Heaslip

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I cannot comprehend anyone targeting RNLI volunteers with hate and threats. I cannot understand how anyone can have anything but respect and awe for people willing to set to sea in hurricanes, with waves as high as houses, to try to save lives.

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Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I was asked by a colleague from my oil & gas days (who has remained in the industry) why UK producing its own gas is less acceptable to the Greens (& others) than importing it from America and West Africa.' The full question & my reply is now online at: climateuncensored.com/there-is-no-...

climateuncensored.com

There Is No Atmospheric Exemption for British Oil and Gas - Climate Uncensored

I was recently contacted by a colleague from my days in the 1980s and 90s when I worked as an engineer in the offshore oil and gas sector. He remains in the

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Running a workshop at the AECB conference next Friday. Should be fun assuming I've recovered from this horrid cold by then: aecb.net/wp-content/u... Though I'm sad that our workshop clashes with @ecominimalnick.bsky.social 's session and I'll miss that.

A workshop description:

People First Retrofit,
Marianne Heaslip and Helen Grimshaw

Arguments about whether retrofit should be 'fabric first' or 'heat pump and energy systems first' are getting tiresome. PPR take a different approach - focusing on people, context and understanding first. We'll explore through case studies and discussion what this means in a range of homes - and the implications for policy makers and practitioners.

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Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

-What did you do after you quit the party of the centre left? - I worked for a company run by fascists and helped them gain leverage over the state's vital functions.

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Pete Apps @peteapps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

More detail about the building in Poplar where a man died in a fire at the weekend: - Building was fitted with combustible Hemsec insulated panels, which were non-compliant at the time of build (oddly described as 'inflammable' by the manufacturer) peteapps.substack.com/p/a-fire-in-...

peteapps.substack.com

A fire in Poplar

A fire at a building awaiting cladding remediation claimed the life of a man at the weekend. What do we know about this blaze, and what do we still need to know? PLUS - thoughts on the new PAS 9980

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Jonathan Atkinson @lowwintersun.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It's been 4 years since the 2022 energy crisis. The UK spent £44bn supporting energy bills over that winter. We've had 4 years to prepare for the next one, to invest in a robust energy advice network, to build our capacity to retrofit homes. But we are woefully unprepared for the 2026 energy crisis.

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Leo Murray @crisortunity.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One flaw with this idea is that airlines are only profitable due to their highly prejudicial tax treatment: aviation fuel is untaxed, and flights would be wildly more expensive if it were taxed like other liquid hydrocarbon fuels. There are many plausible futures in which airlines end up broke

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026

Fair play to the wife of a Caribbean man and mother of mixed race children being informed by the BBC reporter that she’s in the minority in her community regarding immigration and responding with, “Yes, I’m surrounded by bigots.”

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 16/09/2026

‘We construct borders, literally and figuratively, to fortify our sense of who we are; and we cross them in search of who we might become.’ Frances Stonor Saunders, 2016 www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The gravitational waves research was just on 'The Sky at Night'. Worth catching on iPlayer as a reminder of how boss physics is.

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Adrian Hiel @adrianhiel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

When people ask 'how are homeowners supposed to pay for insulation, heat pump and solar panels' sometimes the answer is 'bike lanes'. Average annual car ownership in Belgium is €6k-€8k or €12k-€16k in gross salary. Average monthly gross salary in Belgium is €4k.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Any Bluesky energy geeks listening to Radio 4 right now? Just flicked it on but it appears to be a documentary using Dieter Helm as a climate expert.....

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A September Sunday swim in Liverpool Bay.

A sandy beach, small waves in the sea, abd a bright blue sky above.

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If we look for a moment at Elon Musk, for instance, you can see the harm he's inflicting is not because he has developed super-advanced technologies beyond everyone's wildest dreams, but because he uses the power he has carelessly and believes he can act above the law. That is the danger.

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I think, in any other field, people who claim to be helpless about the danger they are inflicting would either be laughed at or arrested. I'm not a doomer, but I can spot an overconfident man when I see one hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/wz35dvpo...

hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu

AI Safety Is a Narrative Problem

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Unusual remark for an orange man

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If walking costs you $1, we all pay $0.01. If biking costs you $1, we all pay $0.08. If bussing costs you $1, we all pay $1.50. If driving costs you $1, we all pay $9.20. Via study that still underestimates climate cost. This isn’t about choice. It’s about who pays for your choice. #citymakingmath

Detailed math as shared in the post. “How much does your commute cost (or save) society? Source is Discourse Media.

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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Unalloyed good news as order placed for UK's first fleet of battery electric trains. Zero emission services are on their way for the TransPennine lines (in a decade or so's time). www.businessgreen.com/news/4535608...

businessgreen.com

UK's first major battery-electric train fleet to run across Pennines in 'landmark' £1bn deal

Plans unveiled for £1bn investment to build new fleet of 29 battery-electric trains at Alstom's Derby facility, enabling smoother, quieter, faster, and greener travel across the Pennines

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

and I think the main issue with the behaviour of frontier AI labs and assertive billionaires is they believe they can choose for everyone. But the wonder and brilliance of humanity is we are all different: some people are good at some things, some are good at others, that's what makes us amazing

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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

here's a definitive refutation of this Telegraph piece, written by a much better writer than Page who you might have heard of, 50 years ago libcom.org/article/star...

libcom.org

Starship Stormtroopers: Michael Moorcock

An essay by Michael Moorcock on the saturation of Fascistic and authoritarian themes and messages in Science Fiction literature.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Having just submitted our response to the government consultation on consumer protection in home upgrades - saying many of the same things we have said for years, informed by direct experience of working with people on their homes over a couple od decades - I feel this in my bones.

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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

As both an academic and a writer, I am repelled by the "this looks like a long document. Would you like me to summarize it for you?" that seems to appear at the top of every pdf viewer now. NO. The *entire point* of good writing (either books or journal papers) is that every sentence has a purpose.

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Climate Outreach @climateoutreach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

❗Chancellor Healey has given the Government’s green light on a third runway at Heathrow. This is not in the public’s interest. Research shows the number of people who view a third runway as the wrong investment priority far outweighs support. 👉 Read on: climateoutreach.org/climate-avia...

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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Southeast doesn't want more air and noise pollution. Anyone who cares about having a habitable planet doesn't want the emissions. The rest of the country doesn't want yet more money spent on a London white elephant. Yet somehow expanding LHR is framed as The Sensible Thing To Do.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

They started talking shite about carbon emissions and I had to challenge them when they were 'what about China-ing'. It was like listening to a human version of a Telegraph editorial. They were not happy with that, and I probably didn't do it right, but they are now at least a lot quieter.

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Marianne Heaslip @marianneh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Further evidence cricket fans are worse than football and rugby supporters combined. Group on my train this morning playing videos of themselves playing the spoons, on loudspeaker on their phones, before 9am. All in their 50s in blue blazers, gold buttons, cravats - of course.

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