iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 19h

I might have said the Rat Race alehouse at Hartlepool station, but the bloke has retired and closed it down – it was one tiny room with table service.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 19h

Centurian is a lovely building but my north east England choice would have been the Left Luggage Room at Monkseaton Metro Station although, admittedly, non-local Guardian readers aren’t as likely to be passing through Whitley Bay. www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

theguardian.com

‘Delays are always welcome’: 10 of the best railway station pubs in England

Converted from Victorian buffet bars, ticket offices and waiting rooms, these station pubs offer beautifully restored interiors, real ales and a slice of railway history

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 20h

I've never been. In fact, to my shame I've just learned it's in East Riding

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 20h

do I need to say wink emoji?

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 20h

Bloody London. Should have displayed it in Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. At least we won there.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 22h

I get that oppostions have to oppose and pensioners vote, but the widespread 'attack on the triple lock' response to a proposed change is depressing. I suppose Labour did something similar in opposition, constantly carping about the tax burden while knowing they'd have to increase taxes.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I assumed everyone knew 'growth in every postcode' was a catchier way of saying something like 'opportunity everywhere'. Opportunity everywhere sounds like a tired, technocratic platitude. Like something Labour might have said over the past couple of years TBH.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

But this is an idea that's been lampooned by - I dunno - a Paul Krugman book that you can probably buy at the airport. A serious person has to at least engage with that level of criticism, unless like @adamlbrown.bsky.social says, it's just red meat for the X crowd.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Maybe I've given him too much benefit of the doubt on the basis that he's from Newcastle.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

But you can make a case for lower taxes and lower spending without resorting to an argument that I assume struggles to explain why the UK is mid-table for tax as a % of GDP.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Ok, make the case for lower taxes and lower spending - it’s an honourable conservative position - but howay lads, not the Laffer curve.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How is it that intelligent people still circulate this stuff as common sense? How do they explain all the other countries who pay more tax than we do but haven't experienced total economic collapse?

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

If we want a bit of professional northernness, I honestly do have an early childhood memory of the flame from the coke works on Team Valley, although it probably didn't shut until the mid 80s but we've moved to the posher street by then.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't remember it clearly TBH - I've flashes of dangerous bonfires on the nearby field, moving into a house with central heating, and my parents being thrilled to be able to lavish us with plastic toys at Christmas. Call it qualitative evidence.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Backing for the theory that some people will say anything in opinion polls. More than one in ten people think the police and armed forces should be privatised?

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Also, from Tom Forth over on X...

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Probably stupidly posting before I've read either this or your earlier bit... but it's maybe becoming a little bit clearer why PIF have been keen to toe the line.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't have rose tinted glasses for the 1970s, although my dad's conservative mate at the cricket club did nickname him Red Robbo. Maybe if we push it, we can get something like ostalgia going among UK youth.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

But if the attack line is 'Burnham will take you back to the seventies', isn't it likely that younger people will consider it irrelevant ancient history and older people will think at least everyone had a decent job and the high street was clean and nice?

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The problems of the era are well documented, along with the arguments why it was unsustainable but - as it was lived and experienced - not everything about the seventies was bad for ordinary people. I don't think this is an unusual story BTW.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A repeated dad anecdote: My family started the seventies in crap private rented, later bought the small house I was born in, got a regeneration grant to put a bathroom in, then by the end of the decade had moved into a nicer house on a nicer street along the road. All on one wage from the same job.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Although spending the last 24 hours trying to stoke a riot out of what looks increasingly like a bunch of hapless thieves... that's grim.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Tbh, if Reform want to publicly align themselves with the balaclava gang then let them.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s like if you’re middle class with a bit of a “working class” accent (whether that’s Newcastle, Dagenham or wherever) then you must be putting it on. The fact that there are distinct middle class regional accents seems to evade some people too.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

C1 is quite complicated too - someone could be a teacher or an admin assistant.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And an aside on Rentoul tweet about Labour becoming more middle class... I expect the direction of travel is broadly right but that many people in occupations classified as C1 will be surprised to learn they are comfortably off.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“Chips and gravy”. Some people are struggling with the idea of becoming middle class through education, the combination of middle class cultural traits with regional accents, or the idea that someone might authentically retain elements of a working class upbringing.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Wor lass (as she doesn't particularly like being called) worked just off Hoxton Square at hackney college in the early 00s - her observations suggest quite a lot of truth in it.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

So - as I understand it - a conservative government would find savings in the 'welfare' bill to fund defence and now also adult social care. Anything else? I'm sure there's still plenty.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I didn't know it existed until now but the internet tells me it's been well received.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I've watched eleven of them but not necessarily full series. If I kept watching then they must have been ok or served a purpose - e.g I watched Stranger Things with my teenage kids. I watched GOT because I have a weakness for that kind of hokum but by the end it was a chore & I should have quit

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Also a crossover with Sean of the Dead and Friday nights in The Winchester. That was me in the Archway Tavern or Faltering Fullback.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"It must be great living in London, all those gigs and clubs" "Yes, you'd think" (Me on another Friday night in the faltering fullback off Stroud green road) More did happen TBF...just not all the time

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I like Spaced, which isn't on the list But mostly because I'm that age, lived in London N4 at that time, and it's almost like a documentary.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A minor point... About 80% of the price of a packet of (legitimatly purchased) cigarettes goes back to 'the taxpayer' in duty and VAT. For tabs bought from a bloke in the Dog and Duck public house, approximatly zero tax is paid. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Tories would prevent long-term jobless spending benefits on alcohol and cigarettes

The proposals would also see benefits cut for people who are able to work but have failed to hold down a job.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yes, we've digressed slightly from public policy but there's often a "how difficult can it be?" view of running a hospitality business when the churn of openings/closures suggests "quite difficult to get right".

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

On pubs, I think there are cases where an independent could make a go of a place that a big pubco doesn't particularly care about. The challenge is, if there's a risk of that - and therefore competition - then the pubco will do all it can to stop it happening.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Almost guaranteed that Facebook comments on this will be heavy with references to money spent on cycle lanes

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I expect in e.g. France they'd have got what they wanted.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It doesn't help the people in South Tyneside who are losing their jobs or using these services but maybe cumulative stories like this will eventually prompt some thinking among voters - some reflection that maybe local government austerity did actually happen? Maybe not though.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think this was likely to happen under any political leadership but Reform entered town halls around the country on a wave of disillusionment (or even rage) with local government and a big offer to root out supposed endemic waste and corruption. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

South Tyneside Council nursery closures decision 'devastating'

Councillors confirm that all 10 Stanley's nurseries in South Tyneside will close by July 2027.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Has someone written on the political economy of perpetual welfare reform?

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The Tories are floating a new way to be mean today I'm sure this time it will work.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Someone floats a vaguely populist idea about allowing alcohol at football matches and X responds despairingly as if this is Burnham's primary focus in government.

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This - like road pricing - is obvious to policy people, but most normal people think we are nuts. I say this as the "no free parking on public land, and yes that includes outside your own home." guy

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

For all the bowling brilliance, I was at Headingley on the Sunday in 2023 and it's Wood's swashbuckling six at the death that sticks in my mind (and some blokes near us in Newcastle shirts singing 'Howay the lads' in response). www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...

bbc.co.uk

Mark Wood: England fast bowler announces international retirement

England fast bowler Mark Wood announces his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.

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