iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 2h

The Times and The Sunday Times both editorialise in their news sections more than they used to. It’s just that The Sunday Times is far less subtle about it.

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Conservative party Shadow Culture Secretary to speak at conference tomorrow about how to "defend press freedom", whilst her own party bans journalists whose coverage they don't like

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The age old “problem of evil” is solved! Hurrah! Evil is actually good and a God who is both omnipotent and wholly good can allow, encourage even, evil to exist. Well done Peter.

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Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#OnThisDay 1066 Harold Godwineson surprised his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge and won a famous victory. Here's my account: www.marcmorris.org.uk/2013/09/the-...

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Roger Kline @rogerkline.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

An NHS CEO gets it spot on “This behaviour will not be tolerated at Frimley Health… If you cannot treat your colleagues with basic dignity and respect, then the NHS and Frimley Health specifically, is not the right place for you to hold a public salary.” www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/an...

hsj.co.uk

‘Angry’ trust CEO warns staff about racist abuse of director

The chief people officer of a leading hospital trust has been subjected to "racist" abuse by colleagues, HSJ has learned.

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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

England is a made up thing. It has no basis in the ineluctable laws of nature. Its extent is defined by Edward II getting his arse handed to him. Athelstan conquering York. The Welsh of Cumbria were incorporated, the Welsh of Gwynedd were not. It is a political idea, an aspiration - not taxonomy.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Oh Somerset! Will it ever happen! 😢🏏

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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...

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Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK

Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Presumably Reform will now change tack and start supporting the government on more prisoner early release!

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One of my South African friends is frequently travelling from the west country to Piddington Station. I hope she’s still allowed to go.

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026

Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr's wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children. He praises Stalin on social media www.propublica.org/article/dona...

propublica.org

Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch

The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026

Some details: Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr's wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children www.propublica.org/article/dona...

propublica.org

Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026

Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Opinion: My donation to Reform is a philanthropic gift to our country - The Telegraph A bizarre piece. Doesn’t mention the ethnonationalistic policies nor the platforming of people who want to burn refugees alive. He does mention a number of important issue on which Reform have zero credibility.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Obviously politicians who believe in democracy, supported by media who also value democracy need to stop the buying of our politics by wealthy individuals with specific business interests. But…. Money can’t buy a party decent values, credible policies or worthy leaders. Reform loses on each count.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The Americanisation of UK politics. We have an opportunity to stop this buying of UK politics by rich people who want to buy influence. Is it too late?

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Harborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

telegraph.co.uk

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The Burnham feel good honeymoon continues!

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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This Neo-Nazi is attempting to target RNLI volunteers. The police have to act, and the Prime Minister should be making a public statement.

Neo Nazi attempts to target RNLI volunteers

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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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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Making the country safer for women and girls - latest!

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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 05/09/2026

How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...

Ah yes, James Orr. A lot of us had been hazy about what it is exactly that associate professors in a divinity department do all day. It doesn’t seem to involve a lot of work: Orr is often to be seen at Reform events in London, which take up the whole morning even for those of us with offices down the road. Now we know he was also sipping cocktails while discussing ways in which wealthy foreigners might be able to get round the laws that ban them donating to the party.

The associate professor of divinity was filmed explaining to an undercover reporter that so long as everyone kept their mouths shut, there was no way that the authorities would ever find out. Orr spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow in theology, ethics and public life at Oxford, and it would be fascinating to know at what point he developed this theory of What the Electoral Commission Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them. Perhaps he was off sick the day they opened the gospel of Luke: “What you have said in the dark will be h

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It took a lot: the threat of an IPSO investigation, insults and rank hypocrisy from Michael Gove, refusal to publish a right to reply & a last minute excision without consultation, but at last I got The Spectator to publish a counter to its propaganda war against Project Spire.

Letter published in The Spectator correcting some of its misinformation about Project Spire’s historical basis.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Where is the organised intellectual beating heart of liberal Christianity to counter this deeply disturbing alliance between the European & American far right and conservative Christianity? In a democracy Orr has the right to do (most of) this but there must be equally well organised alternatives.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Exclusive: President Trump signs executive order to alter 1 Samuel so that the Bible will now declare that Goliath won and that David was a loser.

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Emma Vardy @emmavardy2.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Went to see my favourite band The Cure on Friday. 'End song' was captivating. About loss of a personal/historical era, confronting mortality and acceptance of ageing. I do much work around healthy ageing. This song has a raw honesty about the losses that come with age. m.youtube.com/watch?v=gA5p...

m.youtube.com

Endsong

YouTube video by The Cure - Topic

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Richard Sambrook @sambrook.eurosky.social · 16/08/2026

BBC’s coverage of Reform’s welfare plans is frankly bizarre. Headlines in Ten, leading on some radio networks. Reform are not even the official opposition and the plans have less credibility than Count Binface. Will BBC News do the same for Lib Dem and Greens policy two years out from an election?

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In the 1920s the Italian Fascists gave us the “Camicie Nere” imported to the UK by Oswald Moseley. Now, in the 2020s British fascists led by Danny Tommo, are giving us the comedy version, the “Pantaloncini Neri”!

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

1/9 The Spectator seems to have it in for me, which makes me very proud, given that even its own former political editor has described it as “one of the most influential media apologists for bigotry, hatred and racism”. spectator.com/article/why-...

spectator.com

Project Spire is the Church of England’s Chagos deal

The Church of England can always be relied upon to walk into a room just as everybody else is leaving. The question of whether we have reached ‘peak woke’ – the high watermark of Americanised racial p...

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

This is mostly a decent piece but nobody should use the word “establishment” without defining it. It has become a playground insult, just as “woke” a few years ago. Here is defined as “not me”! Establishment outrage at diversity hires is a masterclass in hypocrisy www.thetimes.com/article/4e35...

thetimes.com

Establishment outrage at diversity hires is a masterclass in hypocrisy

The elites frothing at the mouth over the plagiarism row professor owe everything to class, not merit

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Periodically, I look up the meaning of 'Woke Right', but the explanations never stick in my head, probably because insofar as it makes any sense at all, it applies (in my opinion) to all of the 'modern' Right: Playing the victim ✔️ Purity spirals ✔️ Not trad Conservatives ✔️ Identity politics ✔️

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Roberts’s first law of Newspaper Commentary. In August, the year of our Lord 2026, thou shalt find a way to slip in a reference to Jason Arday!

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Extraordinary that Amol Rajan didn’t ask Zia Yusuf about the apparently illegal fincancing scandal consuming Farage and Reform. We’ve not heard anyone from Reform on The BBCR4 Today Programme for weeks and when we do he is completely let off the hook.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Good to see Farage/Reform changing their view on “inciteful” social media having made Lucy Connolly into a hero and inviting her to their conference. Her urging of rioters to burn hotels with people in them was serious, this t-shirt photo is tasteless and very silly! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Reform UK reporting Green leader Zack Polanski to police over Instagram post

The post included a photo of a man wearing a top featuring the name "Nigel" alongside an image of a guillotine.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This story wasn’t only wrong it was utterly wrong. As someone who worked with the care sector I was shocked when I read it and thought “it can’t be correct, but it’s official statistics….”. The Tories and Reform made much of this disinformation and now need to correct their misleading commentary!

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Assume Cooper must have had some assurances about No.10 and 11 support for social care reform before accepting what feels like an incredibly tricky job.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Healey is Chancellor and 40 years of neoliberalism abolished. Back to the future.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The King of the North and the King!

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

'Patriot News' reporter Chris Atkins (scatatkins.bsky.social) was just kicked out of Liz Truss' CPAC conference for asking the wrong questions. So much for free speech.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

England beat Argentina - 24-31! Not quite revenge, but it felt good as the Argentina rugby team were as badly behaved as their football team. Almost drawn due to a refereeing mistake at the end!

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

“Head teacher Mr Wackford Squeers expressed amazement at this unprecedented development… “

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

A bit like sexual intercourse being invented in 1963, which, unlike Philip Larkin, was just in time for my existence, being born in 1965.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Presumably The Times should list everything that Burnham does not rule out.

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Paul Roberts @paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Assume she got over excited because it’s General Galtieri’s 100th birthday today.

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