iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Luxury retailers want taxpayers to fund a 20% tax break for foreign tourists. They paid consultancy Cebr to claim this will raise £2.6bn for the UK. That convinced Sadiq Khan and Kemi Badenoch. But it's false: a free lunch. Four basic errors mask a £600m loss. Thread:

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Times - which has v much joined in the rightwing clamour to reduce immigration - now reporting that Mahmood’s “success” has cost the economy £4- to £7Bn. Would they like to now honestly confirm that fewer people = less spending power for all. There’s a high price to pay for this nasty obsession.

Patrick Maguire
Chief Political Commentator Oliver Wright Policy Editor

Falling migration numbers could cost the chancellor as much as £7bn in fiscal headroom as he writes his first budget, The Times has been told.
Government insiders believe that John Healey, who already faced an uphill battle to balance the books next month, is likely to have an even bigger challenge after immigration undershot projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated last month that the success of Shabana
Mahmood's
reforms, which have cut net migration to the low hundreds of thousands, could cost Healey some £4bn.

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LukeBMTB @lukebmtb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I did wonder if there was an ancient UK maritime law that allowed the fascists to be keel hauled (less of a threat in these post barnacle encrusted hull days if you can hold your breath for a decent amount of time, I'd imagine) but it turns out that simply enforcing the law is all that's required.

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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

After finding the secret herbal garden of Prester John, picking mint sprinkled with dew in the deserts of Inner Mongolia and soaking the tomatoes for three full moons in the lapis lazuli from the slopes of Tien-Shan I have cooked the Ottolenghi pearl-barley stew.

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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 13/09/2026

"You're an old king from some vanished country." !

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ebisback.bsky.social @ebisback.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Love the Irish🇮🇪

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John O'Connell @jdpoc.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Our Sunday at Far Right Watch begins with a list, collected during the week, of 32 cowardly anonymous trolls. All guilty of death threats or threats of violence against those who are not as racist or homophobic as they. Which they for some reason, dislike intensely.

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Pickwick The Dodo @lesleyhustler.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Here’s an idea, it will cost them money but also piss them off so a double whammy. #RNLI #Reform

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Tony Dexter @timbleman.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Dead Patriot Sketch

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Victor Luftig @vl1959.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The fine Irish poet and editor Pat Boran just posted this on FB (shared here with his permission): DOONBEG Thoughts and prayers for Trump on his golf course. The record for fascist dictators emerging unscathed from bunkers isn’t always the best.

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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A dire warning, billionaire criminal Musk has set up a scheme in the form of a website votesafe.org in order to steal voter information. Never click on the link and please share this everywhere so others won’t fall prey to it like so many others.

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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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midshipnews.org @midshipnews.org · 07/09/2026

Perfect Dylan Thomas’ quote.

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 06/09/2026

Lorna Moon, she liked the ring of it, transformed from Nora Helen Wilson Low. Names need to have a resonance, a fit and this could take her where she yearned to go… —Kay Clive, “Lorna Moon” published in NORTHWORDS NOW 40 (Autumn-Winter 2020) #poem #poetry www.northwordsnow.co.uk/issue40/Lorn...

LORNA MOON
BORN STRICHEN 1886, DIED NEW MEXICO 1930
BY KAY CLIVE

Lorna Moon, she liked the ring of it,
transformed from Nora Helen Wilson Low.
Names need to have a resonance, a fit
and this could take her where she yearned to go.
“Shameless”, they called her in the staid wee town,
between the Buchan farmland and the sea,
writing about the folk she’d always known
probing pretence, revealing oddity.
The library refused to stock her book -
the quine whose scripts had dazzled Hollywood
was shunned in Strichen. They could not overlook
that searing light that showed more than it should.
She planned a journey home when gravely ill,
her ashes in a “trochie”, back to Mormond Hill.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Highway Code update.

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Reece Dinsdale @reecedinsdale.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

This is brilliant! ‘A man o tha street Wi polished clay feet’ Perfect. 👌 #MyManUsman 🙌

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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 04/09/2026

With all respect to the BBC, the reason this story "matters" is not about whether it distracts from Reform's conference. It "matters" because it is important our leaders are not conspiring to break the law.

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Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Today’s poem is called ‘Fall’.

Fall

she loved to catch
the falling leaves in autumn

she would sit

and
wait
beneath

the
trees

until

she’d

cautumn

Brian Bilston

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 02/09/2026

Trade xkcd.com/3290/

Comic. [Person standing holding hammer above raised knee.] PERSON: Listen up, leg. I’ve been sending you rich, oxygenated blood for years, while you send me worthless used-up blood with no oxygen. Time to teach you a lesson about not ripping me off! [caption] Tariffs

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Some people are pointing out that 28 and 34 have a DME Rep, but that was ***before*** the redistricting gerrymander, the whole point of which was to turn them red. And here we are, even with that cheat, MAGAs are 10+ points behind.

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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Octavia E. Butler’s novel “Parable of the Talents” depicts a dystopian United States run by Christian Nationalists. Their slogan is “Make America Great Again.” Published in 1998, many years before Trump’s political career, but this poem in the book prophesied Trump. (Poem from @zymplex.bsky.social)

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Jo Kibble (Political Animal) @politicanimal.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Five years+a few days ago, I set off on a 24-hour bus odyssey that would turn out to be the first of many occasional public transport challenges. (Origin story here for newbies www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...) Well, I couldn’t let that milestone pass without a new bus jolly. From 4pm, it’s #BusCity24

bbc.co.uk

London council worker's bus odyssey sparks Twitter storm

Jo Kibble got from London to Morecambe in a day on public buses - "a great way to see the country".

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Danny Fearns @dannyfearns.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ This is one of the last coal powered sheep. The vast majority of UK sheep are now all electric ⚡️

Sheep grazing in fields, the one in the foreground with white smoke apparently coming out of its bottom

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Capital gains tax revenues make the case for the Taxing Wealth Report www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/08... New data shows that increased capital gains tax rates raised more by themselves than some estimates for a wealth tax might deliver, as I predicted.

taxresearch.org.uk

Capital gains tax revenues make the case for the Taxing Wealth Report

The naysayers about my Taxing Wealth Report have always said that some of my suggestions, such as equalising the tax rates on income and capital gains, would not deliver the level of income that I sug...

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John Milbank @johnmilbank.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Frustrating that comments are turned off on this post from @london.gov.uk, as I wanted to add that Powered Two Wheeler thefts are also down (across the UK) since the high of 2022. Crime is of course still a major problem (as it always has and always will be)...

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels is down by 50%. And the backlog of people who have claimed asylum is down from 175,000 to 40,000, the lowest since 2019. But we mustn’t let facts get in the way of spreading fear and hatred and coming up with crackpot policies.

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midshipnews.org @midshipnews.org · 27/08/2026

This is perfect. We will call this toilet paper war! I foresee a never ending source of jokes

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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

America needs more Dollys and fewer Donalds.

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Stephanie Carvin @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Everyday I wonder how things can get stupider and everyday I am informed how, against my will.

Truth social post where Trump threatens to call Lake Ontario, Lake America

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 22/08/2026

They’ve turned the Waynes against us

Batman’s aff his nut
Robert Florence

Batman’s aff his nut
Have you seen the way he cuts aboot
Dressed up as a mad fuckin bat
Batterin guys
I was lit at:
“Mate, I’m worried aboot ye
I know your ma and da died
But everybody’s ma and da dies
And we’re no aw runnin aboot
Hookin muggers and
Kickin psychopaths in the baws.”
And that was when Batman went
“Aye, but do ye ever feel like it?
Do you ever look at the world and feel like it?
Like having a big mad base under your hoose?
Do you ever feel like drivin a big mad motor
that turns intae a tank?
And leatherin fuck oot of guys aw night?
Scarin the fuckin shite oot of them?”
And that’s when I was lit at:
“Aye. Fuck it. Ah dae.”
And that’s the Secret Origin of Robin
And everyone else.

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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

You can't claim long-term benefits if you're able to work. And you HAVE to be looking for work. You can't look for work if you're cleaning high streets all day. And making people clean for benefits undercuts wages of people who currently get paid do it. Idiocy www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

theguardian.com

Jenrick says Reform would make long-term benefits claimants clean up high streets – UK politics live

Party’s ‘welfare to work’ policy would force long-term claimants to do community work or face losing benefits

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Prue Paimon @pruepaimon.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Used Up The candle burns until there is nothing left but a suggestion of a blackened wick and a pool of regret. My pencil grows shorter with every word it gives away until it is rendered speechless. #poetry #poem

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Codfather #FBPE 🇫🇷🇪🇺 @codfather.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

😂 Speaking of which, better give my masters their mid-day snack - lol

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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Who doesn't love a snappy comeback? #November3rdWe8647

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Anand @calmerfuture.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

that's no moon… it's a kitchen implement

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Mandeville was cavendish_maid 📎 🇺🇦 @mandeville24.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Son had a similar idea Bear it’s beautiful isn’t it.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Superb stuff from @rafaelbehr.bsky.social (www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...)

‘….the idea that, where immigration is concerned, British politics is not yet maxed-out at the furthest limits of rightward expansion.
The shift is stark enough already. Parliament has passed a new act tightening border control or limiting migrants’ rights every year since 2022. Such assiduous attention to the issue has done nothing to satisfy demands for harsher measures. Nor has it refuted the absurd suggestion that mainstream politics and media, constrained by timorous liberalism, refuse to address a question that has, in reality, dominated the agenda for a generation.
The legislative ratchet is also a rhetorical dial, turning public debate more shrill. The language of invasion, once the metaphorical preserve of extremists, has been normalised. Gangs of masked marauders who go on racist rampages through UK towns are cast as protesters manifesting legitimate concerns. The articulation of their grievance in terms that make foreignness synonymous with parasitic consumption of benefits, criminality and sexual predation goes unchallenged.’

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

For thousands of years, a solar eclipse has been a prophetic harbinger of a spectacular, epoch-making event. Just saying. #VoteBinface #Clacton

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Political Satirical @politicalsatirical.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"I want my 99 pence ice cream!" I'm voting for Count Binface "Now the Clacton kids by the slot machines keep singing about bins & cheap ice creams." #Binface #Clacton #Farage #99pIceCream www.youtube.com/watch?v=2We_...

youtube.com

I want my 99 pence ice cream I'm voting for Count Binface #Binface #Clacton #Farage #99pIceCream

YouTube video by Political Satirical

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Mainstream @mainstreamlabour.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Congratulations to @dawnbutlerbrent.bsky.social, whose tireless campaigning for an end to 'Aim to Permit' will now help to transform high streets across the country 💗✊🌹

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 11/08/2026

One of the most infuriating things about the data center gold rush is how the companies are trying to get them built by lying to local communities about their job/commercial implications. Why? (I know why) Offer to rebuild every school in the district, and put in 30,000 solar panels.

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Bob Hawkins @bobhawkins.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

In 1976 Dennis Howell was appointed minister of drought,his appointment coincided or triggered weeks of rain… worth a try. #r4today

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David Moore @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Who's funding the dark money Third Way — we dug into most recent tax filings: - Republican-run insurance industry front group - Health insurance giant - Big Pharma - More insurance lobbyists ...as the centrist group fights the Democratic left and Medicare for All:

readsludge.com

Health Insurers Are Paying Third Way as It Targets the Left

A health insurance industry group run by Republican consultants made its only disclosed 2024 donation to the centrist Third Way, according to a tax filing by the group.

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