iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's not the most important effect of climate change, but the rapid disappearance of alpine landmarks is one of the most obvious to me - I did the traverse of the Meije a few years after the first picture. Just wild to see the changes.

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Unclear what this actually means, but sounds lunatic. 'Natural party of government' just giving up on the things governments are supposed to do.

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Journalists need to start asking Reform why they are soft on crime and terrorism.

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is a good question ('the UK' is ofc not homogenous). However, if we ever get that far, it will be interesting to see if the EU would actually *want* the UK to join the Euro...

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A reasonable summary, but I was intrigued by the description of the UK as "a country with Atlanticist, free-trading, low-regulation instincts" and I wonder how true that still is (particularly the last point) www.ft.com/content/3d43...

ft.com

Does the EU want Britain back?

Burnham has reopened the Brexit debate. That doesn’t mean the UK will be welcomed back on its own terms

100

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm obv very late to triple lock discourse. But what is the case for retaining double lock (inflation or 2.5%). Why not just match inflation?

001

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Decades ago the French learned the lesson the Americans are still coming to terms with. Democracy isn't about getting what you want. It's mostly about trying not to f*** up too badly. Can they pull it off again?

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Advert for a private hospital in Dar es Salaam . Not sure if it's a slogan or a threat...

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My (Welsh) grandpa used to use "English" to refer to what Suella means by "British", seemingly because British still had some connotation of "Welsh", having been used, even quasi officially, to refer to the Welsh language well past 1707 (Not sure what this proves mind, but hey it's fun...)

100

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Good thread. But worth noting that one reason this field got so much attention was the idea that 'one little trick' (nudges) could have outsize impacts - very attractive to cash-strapped decision makers. It's healthy if we are settling into a more realistic view of behaviour change interventions.

123

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Interesting review of tourist taxes (tho much could be summed up as 'elasticities innit'). One thing it doesn't mention is that driving down take-home rates may be a feature not a bug, if these taxes are aimed at reduce demand for housing as they often seem to be www.ft.com/content/e685...

ft.com

Tourist taxes on the march

Governments see a revenue raiser that doesn’t annoy voters and a way to manage the tourist hordes. The leisure industry isn’t so keen

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Once again, AI is (partly) just an incentives problem, and we don't seem very interested in giving people the right incentives.

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Chatting only yesterday with colleagues about how AI is partly just an old fashioned story of incentives. AI is, partly, a paywall breaking, copyright evading machine. If there's no incentive to produce intellectual property, it won't be produced.

234

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Without necessarily disagreeing with this, I would say that IF the govt wants to reduce immigration, charging high fees is one of the least bad ways to do it. Far better than capriciously refusing entry to visa holders, vilifying immigrants, arbitrary rules on spousal income etc...

200

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I'm not anti data centre, but I've been enjoying the techno optimists who reply to concerns about power demands by saying "I would simply produce massively more low carbon energy at very low cost".

static.klipy.com

Donald Kimball: Why Didn't I Think Of That

ALT: Donald Kimball: Why Didn't I Think Of That

100

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Good post that applies to governance well beyond banking (and incidentally promoted me to check the etymology of "gainsay").

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Every time I've transited Addis Ababa someone has tried a wee swindle - diff business each time. This time, trying to charge $4 for a $2 cup of tea because of tax (15%) and service charge (10%). They always back down after polite push back. Never had this elsewhere (nor in Addis outside airport)

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

2 years driving ban. Ordered to pay the victim £187. WTF? Why aren't both of those numbers way way higher. I'll never understand why fining the heck out of criminals isn;t a bigger thing. Surely it's a political win win?

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Have we just given up on governing? This guy was convicted of driving dangerously AND without insurance or licence AND at 150mph and he's banned for just 2.5 years. Why would you not ban him for life? (it's unclear if he gets to keep his car, I guess so) news.lancashire.police.uk/news/2026/se...

news.lancashire.police.uk

Lancashire Police News Homepage

162

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Conservatives -> Reform -> Plaid Cymru in 2 years is certainly a journey. But as someone who would like to see the party system weakened, I can only applaud this sort of peripatetic politics. Maybe she could become a libdem next year.

131

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Clearly he should be campaigning in "African".

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Oh lordy. Compulsory licensing of barbers is literally the textbook example of rent seeking. There are real issues out there requiring actual government. (Rest assured I have no conflict of interest here, having not paid for a hair cut in 20 years).

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Good to see Bangor colleagues important work on the recent wildfires getting coverage. Burning 4000 years of carbon deposition is not good! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Summer wildfires caused 'catastrophic' hidden damage, scientists warn

Bangor University researchers say the scale of damage is far greater than what is immediately visible.

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Nice illustration of the difficulty of picking apart policy impacts!

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Obviously this is 'feature not bug' news, but also 'did not find a buyer' is economically illiterate hogwash for "they choose not to sell and decided they were happy to just pay the tax after all"

1477

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

They could of course remove the archaic anomaly that PMs have anything to do with these appointments by disestablishing the English church and throwing the bishops out of the lords, as they should have done when the aristos finally slung their hooks.

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Be careful, allowing Welsh councils to charge tourists 75p-£1.30/night is going to lead to the complete implosion of the Welsh tourism sector apparently.

100

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Problem is, most students are trapped into doing low wage zero-hours contract work to fit around often irregular timetables, term/holidays etc. A bit of that is fine (we all did it) but the marginal returns to human capital formation tail off quickly. They'd be better studying proper FT for 2 yrs

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Good ex of how uni leadership is often to blame, by promising things universities are not best placed to deliver, in an effort to occupy more policy space. (unpopular opinion, universities should do what we're good at & prob have less public money as a consequence, the savings going to <18 & FE)

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The focus on rigid timescales seems particularly damaging. I think we should require e.g. a more demanding English level (B1 is too low), but that is a productive thing ppl can work on that directly aids integration. But simply stringing out the process over long and uncertain timescales is nuts

164

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Good news, but the timings in this story continue to puzzle. "tonnes of rubbish appeared in a field in November last year" and "The EA shut down the site in October... after reports in July 25" Surely this could have been stopped much earlier, saving £millions? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Two more people arrested over ‘mountain of illegal waste’ dumped in Oxfordshire

A total of six people apprehended as clean-up of rubbish stacked 10 metres high cost about £6m

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We now have a new government in the Bay. If they don't regard clearing up this mess as one of their top 3 priorities, they might as well go home now. It's a disgrace and we've run out of excuses. (Worst, IIRC the gap is largest among the most deprived groups).

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Teams auto-transcription of interviews is really pretty good except for a) occasionally just missing out entire sentences for no reason and b) when it doesn't understand a word (e.g. a Welsh place name) just substituting the name of a colleague that sounds vaguely similar, who is in no way involved

100

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Interesting that Restore is described here as Far Right, but Reform is not. The FT routinely describes their RN and AFD soul mates as "far right", so it is not that they reject the term per se, or regard it as an unnecessary descriptor for familiar parties www.ft.com/content/f244...

ft.com

Police face questions over Dover disruption caused by masked protesters

Up to 500 activists dressed in black brought part of UK port town to a standstill on Saturday

001

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Ah yes, the von Papen gambit [But it might work for us.gif]

020

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A strange story: the EU already has a 'oil and gas tax' (the emissions trading scheme). You can argue it should be broader (it should, incl offshored emissions) & the price should be higher (quite likely). But profits don't cause fires, emissions do. www.ft.com/content/86da...

ft.com

Spain pushes for EU oil and gas tax to pay for climate change response

Rising extreme weather costs fuel campaign ahead of new resilience strategy

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I never understood the "National Trust has gone woke" complaints, the NT is nowhere near woke enough. I couldn't give a shit about soft furnishings tell me where the sodding money came from.

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

There's been lots of discourse about air con this summer. Not saying it's not needed, but I struggle to think of anywhere in southern Europe where buildings don't have have shutters, which seems a good place to start www.ft.com/content/575b... (ironically, I think the ones in that picture are fake?)

ft.com

For sweltering Britons, rising energy prices could spark a shutter boom

Shares in window specialists have outperformed the broader market in the past month

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

This issue encapsulates a lot of left wing politics, which tries to address power imbalances through regulatory fiddling instead of changing the fundamentals. Dramatically increasing housing supply would also increase workers' power in the labour market.

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I get this is partly a result of tech making it easy, and practices carrying over from childhood by default... but this also seems symptomatic of a wider phenomenon of society infantilising young people which is deeply unhealthy.

120

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The limits to growth... turn out to be rather prosaic. It would be interesting to know more about the relative importance of grid infrastructure vs (economically efficient) dynamic pricing in solving this www.ft.com/content/0a5e...

ft.com

The Dutch city where Europe’s electricity grid crunch hits home

Households and businesses in Utrecht face strict limits on power use to avoid outages

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

One thing I've found AI search to be good for: I'm terrible at names, and searching for "who's the guy who writes about x and y" is really quite effective.

000

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Lots of good points in here from @ryan1648.bsky.social. I would add 2 things: 1) fiscal devolution shouldn't just be about borrowing and spending more. It's also about reforming taxation - not simply raising rates, but *changing* the balance of what we tax (land instead of labour).

241

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This is good, but I'd add that our leaders (UK & European) have been far too slow to tackle border adjustment, providing ammunition to those who claim (with some truth) that our climate actions do nothing and simply shift emissions (and industries). CBAM is even more powerful than "leadership"

141

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Diana's death was my first lesson in how little I understood my fellow humans. I was on the coach to Chamonix to go climbing, heard it on French radio & thought "ah, I bet that'll make the headlines back home". Returned home 2 weeks later to find the entire nation had completely lost its shit

010

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

One could make a principled case for restricting UK voting rights to citizens of countries that offer reciprocal rights to UK citizens. But IIRC that would essentially limit the vote to expats from the Caribbean and Mauritius, which might not be the racial bias Jenrick's looking for.

110

Neal Hockley @nealhockley.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Weirdly, when I searched Google maps for "Lake Ontario" this morning it gave me this 🤷. I guess it had just got fed up.

020