iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I am 48 and I was today years old when I discovered that I couldn’t call myself English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Absolutely horrific what has happened today in so pleased everyone is safe. It’s also, I fear going to help Netanyahu

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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is your semi-regular reminder that pensioner poverty: a) is real b) is significantly less prevalent than working-age poverty and half the rate of child poverty, and c) is such that a pensioner is statistically more likely to live in a household worth over £1 million than to live in poverty

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Farage posted this at 12.38 today. It has been hopelessly overtaken by events and shown to be entirely wrong (British nationals involved and they've been released on bail - not very terrorist-like). And if you believe anything Trump says, you are a credulous moron.

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Another thing that goes back to Brexit in my eyes and “take back control” she want to give people a sense of agency that the government has control over the borders and that people contribute to the system. She might be right.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

These guys are protesting about 'groups of fighting age men threatening local areas'. You've got to admire the irony.

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hmmm. I wonder who led us here. Let’s not pretend the Spectator wasn’t one of the many press organisations that nudged it along.

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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 18/09/2026

What on earth is happening?

This had become the new normal. RNLI crew members had been forced to take their permits off their cars after their tyres have been repeatedly slashed. Most of them have been pilloried at the school gates or turned away from local pubs. One man who worked in search and rescue had been beaten unconscious and hospitalised, recognised for TV interviews he had done.

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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 12/09/2026

Wonder if the real impetus for changing the law is going to come from companies like this/their insurers when they start getting hit with the subsequent claims for discrimination.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The most fundamental question in politics is: whose support do you need to win and hold power? Is it warlords, aristocrats, empires or "the demos"? If the answer is "billionaires", you are not a democracy but a plutocracy. That's why democracies *must* erect barricades against capture by the rich

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

So now Christopher Harborne has given another 36 million to Reform. 72 million on 48 hours?!!! This is just corruption in plain site

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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I do think this ultimately ends up in either liberal democracy being defeated or in liberal democracy being forced to explictly ban its enemies, and dare them to violently overthrow the state. The type of informal "bans" that Western Democracies could do in the 1950s-70s just aren't available now

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

NEW Why holding a placard is a terrorist act, while causing disruption in a balaclava is not The mess caused by ministers and the police not taking terrorism law seriously By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Recent events in England now reveal the practical difference between terrorists and protesters. It would seem that terrorists peacefully hold placards and get immediately arrested, while protesters wear black uniforms and balaclavas and disrupt infrastructure and do not get arrested.

How did we get into this mess? How have we placed ourselves in the position where terrorism legislation is used to detain and prosecute peaceful protesters, while those adopting the terror tactics of private armies seem to be free to do as they wish?

The reason is that for some time British politicians have not taken terrorism legislation seriously, and that ministers have got into the habit of misusing terror laws for easy targets.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

New low of 35.7% for Trump's average approval rating. Wait. That's a *low* for an obviously deranged lunatic who is clearly causing havoc across the world and very obviously lining his own pockets.

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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

FIRST LOOK: bluesky designs for the upcoming foldable iphone have been leaked

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 09/09/2026

If Miliband's comparatively mild, caveated, and strictly targeted criticism of Israeli settler actions are enough to endanger the UK Jewish community & unleash pogroms then: a) We've passed some point of no return. b) Successive UK governments have utterly failed in addressing antisemitism.

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 08/09/2026

Sir Edward Leigh MP: “What is happening in the West Bank... is ethnic cleansing... I am proud to say, as the longest-serving member of the Conservative Friends of Israel, that I absolutely and fully support what [Ed Miliband] is doing today, because it’s about standing up for freedom and justice"

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Peter Beaumont @petersbeaumont1.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Worth recalling that the Cameron government privately warned Israel that it risked being treated as a pariah as far back as 2014 if it continued on its course re occupation and settlement. Miliband is not making Israel a pariah state, successive Netanyahu governments have done that

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I hate to tell you all but Tim Stanley is talking sense again

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Saw this on X and genuinely believe this is what is happening. As soon as Labour were elected there were riots it’s seems a hybrid attack on the UK from various governments and stoked by US tech platforms

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sorry, this is dumb/ahistorical. UK sanctions against South Africa 1985/86 were also largely "symbolic". But Thatcher had to be dragged kicking and screaming, and the apartheid regime devoted huge resources to stopping them - just as the Israeli govt is now. Symbols *really* matter here..

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I hate to tell you all but Dan Hodges is talking a lot of sense again

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Look, I want to defend the BBC as an institution but they make it very difficult. When the right comes to attack it, as they will, there will hardly be anyone there to defend it.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)

You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The latest to go down the X rabbit hole? Nick Tyrone

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Jenrick is such a slimy, nasty cunt

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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 06/09/2026

So in one week: 1) Reform get stung for dodgy finances, and the regulators play pass the parcel about enforcement 2) Farage announces plans to largely dismantle independent scrutiny of govt, and barely any press discussion of it 3) Masked thugs blockade a port, with narry a word from senior govt

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Why does Beth Rigby openly call the Bardella and Le Pen “the far right party” but won’t call Reform that?

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm old enough to remember Nigel Farage ruling out any association with Le Pen's lot "now or in the future" because he considered them "far right". But I guess that's ok now. Here is what he said in 2013 and 2015.

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Well I guess my initial view of James Johnson was correct. I always thought he was a proper dodgy pollster. And to think he’s been all over the TV saying Burnham should go for an election now. I wonder what he was seeing there

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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I remember talking to a fellow Jew who worked at the US embassy a while back, they had some involvement with pro-peace initiatives I’ll never forget them saying “if it gets to a point where nobody will even listen to each other anymore, we are beyond f*cked” Reminded of their words today

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Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Labour hold a 4pt lead over Reform in our latest voting intention, with the Tories a point behind Reform. 🌹 LAB 27% (-) ⏩ REF 23% (-2) 🌳 CON 22% (-) 🔶 LIB DEM 10% (-1) 🟢 GREEN 9% (-) ⚫ RES: 4% (New) 🟡 SNP 2% (-)   N = 3,140 | Fieldwork 21-23/8 | Changes w 17/8

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/08/2026

In a world of dreadful billionaires, be Dolly

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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Dolly Parton reads to children in the Library’s Great Hall in 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 25/08/2026

Saw Dolly Parton perform the afternoon slot at Glastonbury. Don't think I ever saw the pyramid stage arena quite so full. And it was absolutely everything you would want it to be. What an absolute *star*.

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Nicole @nicoledso.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

NOOOOOOOOO- not Dolly!!! 💔

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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The @stephenkb.bsky.social column this week is a deeply necessary, clear counter to most of the discourse on the future for tax and spend for the British state. There are three options - there's no point in pussyfooting around with myths and not opting for one of them. www.ft.com/content/9102...

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Just Trump allying America with one of the most egregious dictators on the planet against one of the USAs closest allies in Asia. When is enough enough?

Based on my very good relationship with
Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy
with the fact that the United States has, long
ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military
Exercises with South Korea. These exercises
are not only costly, with much of these costs
paid for by the United States of America (as
usual!), but send a signal that is totally
inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that,
as long as Donald J. Trump has been
President, has been unthreatening and
respectful. Therefore, and based on the fact
that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed
Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to
substantially reduce the Joint Military
Exercises! While somewhat unrelated (?), I
recently asked the President of South Korea
if they would like to join us in the

Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, and they said, "No thanks!" Thank you
for your attention to this matter. President
DONALD J. TRUMP

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Woodo @woodo.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"How did we end up in this toxic cesspit?", asks person who helped get us here.

Alex Philips tweet from 2023;

Living in London I get homesick for England

It’s not ours anymore. It’s not British.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 11/08/2026

Where did the far-right get the idea Britain was existentially imperilled and so should fortify itself as a white Christian ethnostate? Who embedded such notions in their head? Who emboldened them so? Truly, it is a mystery.

LONDONISTAN
• Explosive.' Observer
HOW BRITAIN IS CREATING ATERROR STATE WITHIN
The Times bestseller, with a new chapter
MELANIE PHILLIPS

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Weird watching the right-wing columnist cohort try to collectively pull the handbrake on ethnonationalism. Like the world's biggest hotdog man convention.

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Rachel Sylvester @rachelsylvester.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

New Scandinavian wings at Wandsworth and Pentonville jails have seen a 45% fall in assaults, 57% drop in self harm and halving of staff absence rates - fascinating results from trial into a more rehabilitative approach to prisons observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

observer.co.uk

‘Scandi wings’ offering pianos, pool and tea parties coul...

A unit in London’s Wandsworth prison has been transformed using methods from Sweden and Norway that prioritise rehabilitation over retribution

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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

My cover this week on the problem that will strike fast where politicians least expect it, and bring the cogs of government to a halt

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Final newsletter before I lie down in a darkened room Tried to explain the genesis of Burnham’s skills policy so far, including what it is and isn’t (I think) as.ft.com/r/bffeca37-3...

as.ft.com

The Manchester roots of Andy Burnham’s skills revolution

An early political dividing line on technical education risks obscuring the case for which he has long argued

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