iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Paul Evans

Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 11h

The actually refreshing bit about the Burnham speech is that he seems up for an argument, making a case and trying to convince people of something. Even acknowledged that trade-offs are a thing.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 11h

I don't suppose any of you care about how irritating I'm going to find it, listening to about three years of everyone wanking on about fucking PR, do you?

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 13h

Quite clever that, when the Tories (obviously) say that he's not found enough £££ to pay for the National Care Service, Burnham can say "Oh? Do you want to cut pensions by more than this then?"

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Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 13h

and your quick reminder to multiply all NI numbers by c25 to get the England share equivalent... then it becomes BIG money - a cool £ 37bn might help with quite a lot of stuff.... (even bigger to get UK equivalent)

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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 14h

The Burnham speech: firstly, it was a vision. We've not had a national vision for two decades at least. If he can persuade the country on fixing the EU relationship, political reform, establishing a new care system and his theory of growth holds then he will be a transformational Prime Minister.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 13h

Before anyone gets too excited about electoral reform--including, by the way, those parties who convince themselves that they can engineer a new system so it works best for them. It never quite works out the way people want or assume. Not an argument not to do it, though! (doi.org/10.1080/1357...)

This article analyses the process of constitutional reforms in eastern Europe and draws lessons for similar reforms in British politics. It looks, first, at electoral engineering and shows how political actors, pursuing their particular interests, try to turn proportionality back into majoritarianism, and how and why such moves do not necessarily result in their projected outcomes. In a similar vein, it then goes on to analyse parliamentary formal rules, such as standing orders, and demonstrates how attempts to manipulate them can be offset, not just by counter‐manipulation, but by underlying informal rules and cultural norms. Overall, we argue that, because constitutional change is an ongoing and crucially political process, its results are neither wholly predictable nor always welcomed. On the basis of the eastern European experience, we also suggest that constitutional change does not necessarily lead to increased legitimacy of the system, thus undermining one of the major hopes of reformers in Britain.

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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 13h

Honestly it’s like a parody by this point isn’t it

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 15h

Quite a Kinnock-y speech this. Probably the first leader since him to know exactly where the conference’s g-spot is.

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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 20h

New substack: nobody wants free markets any more: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/who-wants-...

chrisdillow.substack.com

Who wants free markets?

Support for free markets has died, partly for bad reasons.

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Reposted by Paul Evans

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 19h

It is - of course - also absolutely worth pointing out that, going by voting patterns and age and elections, the demographics currently receiving state pension have overwhelmingly been the ones who voted for lower taxation over the past five decades. That’s just psephological fact.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For some reason I’d never listened to this LP properly before. It’s quite revolutionary isn’t it?

Kraftwerk’s Radio Activity original album cover.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

From Albert Speer’s final speech at the Nuremberg trials.

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Tom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I need to do the washing up but I'm really tired so maybe if I just leave it till tomorrow then a rogue AI might destroy the world overnight and I won't have to

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Northern Ireland needs a specific budget line called ‘policing sectarian twattery’ budget and all of the spending caused by sectarian twattery should be met out of other budgets. If an MLA is spending 25% of their time on sectarian twattery then 25% of their budget should be drawn from that budget.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm re-publishing a few of my old posts on Substack as part of a train of thought. This (very old, with a few updates) post stands the test of time I think? pauliewaulie.substack.com/p/how-the-tr...

pauliewaulie.substack.com

How the transparency lobby weakened parliamentary democracy

Democratic instincts have not always been an asset to liberal democracy

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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What took you so long?

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Superb and fascinating chart.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Since Healey is in a Labour government that will not slash spending, this means higher taxes. The UK is not in truth a high-tax country, at least by the standards of its European peers. Labour must now dare to recognise that reality." Martin Wolf telling it like it is www.ft.com/content/aa0a....

Graph showing that the UK's overall tax burden falls in the middle of the large high-income economies.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just re-reading this (quite upbeat piece on Burnham) because I’ve spent the weekend thinking “what was that one line in the article that really intrigued me?” It certainly needs fleshing out! www.ft.com/content/684d...

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I see (and share) all of the anguish on here about Labour’s failure to challenge the growing a far right threat. I’ve also spent most of my life despairing at successive governments failure to take on the worst aspects of Ulster loyalism. Do the two things have a similar cause I wonder?

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

In a black-and-white world, a splash of colour lifts the heart, doesn’t it?

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Watching BBC News channel coverage of the RAF Fairford incident. Astonishing that the detailed aerial footage is being allowed. Surely it’s got D-Notice* written all over it? *or whatever they’re called now

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I posted this thread yesterday. I’m reposting it to add that it was written from a parallel universe that I occupy where it’s absolutely obvious that electoral politics is no longer the best practical version of democracy.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is good. My cope/hope for a while now has been that a v heavy defeat, + perception Trump finished could cause a bigger fracture Republican than Sam is predicting. (No reason to question his judgement tho)

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Something very depressing about hearing ‘Drumcree’ at the top of morning news Reminds me of my teenage years when it seemed to be a constant. Now feels like unionism banging the drum - geddit? - while the whole world has changed around them

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Dr Adrian McMenamin @adrianmcmenamin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

All the necessary conditions for disaster are now in place in Drumcree. This is going to be a dark week and lives will likely be lost.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

New post: Midterms polling is getting dramatically worse for Trump. So what happens if he loses the House and Senate? What could the Democrats do with the powers they'd gain? What impact would it have on global politics? (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/what-happe...

samf.substack.com

What happens if the Democrats sweep the midterms?

Back in March, when I first looked at the midterms, the Democrats were already favourites to win the House.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Tl;dr: Maybe the frustration expressed in this post tells us to stop putting all our chips on the 'make expressive politics work better' square. We need to stop passing the parcel on the obvious need to rebuild the institutions that give people representation, agency and collective power.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

There are a few threads already on @modernlockey.bsky.social's insider obituary for Starmerism. I think it formulates some things well but it also reads like a post-hoc rationalisation - didn't you know about this stuff already guys? And - secondly.... futureoftheleft.substack.com/p/what-is-po...

futureoftheleft.substack.com

What is politics for?

Do we still live in a material world?

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Reposted by Paul Evans

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Others will have their say about this, but I think it’s worth pointing out that this - or laundered versions of it - are accepted wisdom amongst a big chunk of our political and media classes and it is simply bad for society when the elites have little or no understanding of *the systems they run*

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Corbyn's 'magic grandpa' persona masked largely the same worldview.

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

- Honestly my dear grandchildren, you’ll never believe how low rates were in the 2010s. - at least you built a load of infrastructure when borrowing costs were so low grandad? Right? Right?

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'd be surprised is *anyone* hasn't asked themselves if we can no longer have any 'sensible government' options available to us? And that this won't change unless something big changes first.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Criticisms of this: 1) Surely he has more pressing concerns (because 100% of politics/policy energy must be focused only on The Current Emergency) 2) It's a licence to drunken thugs (because pre-match / half-time binge drinking is preferable to fans having a leisurely drink while watching the game)

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This post on here came at the end of a lot of thought by myself and @chrisdillow.bsky.social What we *really* didn't expect was that - as an idea - it unlocks some v valuable opportunities to think loads of other policy challenges.

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Reposted by Paul Evans

General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'll bet you do

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Sometimes a new fact changes how you look at the world and this is one of them.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just popping in to remind everyone that ‘I heard it through the grapevine’ may be the only song it’s impossible to tire of.

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Paul Evans @pauliewaulie.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I think you should read this. I have. All the way to the end. It’s *really* good. Oddly,if I have one mild criticism, it is that I think it’s slightly pessimistic about the positive potential of AI. The words aren’t, but the takeaway tone is, if you know what I mean?

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