iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I’m at a fringe event for the Tory centrist/let’s-not-be-too-mad campaign Prosper UK. Introducing it, Ruth Davidson says its mission is, essentially, to get the party to talk more about the economy and less about culture wars.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm increasingly of the view that the entire Telegraph comments section should probably be referred to Prevent.

Police diverted from 999 calls to deal with anti-migrant protests

Commissioner says around 200 officers from seven forces were pulled off crime-fighting duties to police Gosport demonstrations

Why are we stopping the British from protesting about being invaded? Surely we should be stopping the invaders?

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

These are Moylan’s full comments on floating bus stop bike lanes. This is the sort of transport policy almost every other European nation would find deeply weird.

“People who haven't seen a floating bus stop might think it's got nothing to do with them and they're safe. But I can promise you, the zealots behind these bike schemes are coming for you.
“So you will get a floating bus stop if you don't have a Conservative government, because we are going to put an end to them.
“These are bus stops, basically where the cycle lane sits between the pavement and the boarding area for the bus. So to get to the bus stop when the bus comes, you have to cross over the cycle lane.
“Of course, the cyclists are all meant beautifully to stop for pedestrians across, especially for blind pedestrians who are crossing. They never do. There are horrendous videos of cyclists racing through them.

“Now we've announced that we are going to put an end to these. It'll take little time. We'll get rid of the most egregious ones immediately.
“We'll prevent any new ones coming along, and we'll design out the others as they go on, because they are hated by people, especially by the blind, by pedestrians, by elderly, by anyone who just does not want to have to think about a crazed bicycle coming at them at high speed, when all they want to do is get on the bus.”

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

On the main stage at Conservative conference, the shadow transport team is discussing how to “counter” things like 20mph zones and bus lanes. The war on the motorist lives.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Adam Wagner KC, barrister who led the case which concluded Corbyn’s Labour broke equalities law, said there is "a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010... as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally."

Adam Wagner KC, the barrister who led a case which concluded that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour broke equalities laws over antisemitism, said that such a case would have a good chance of success.

“I think there is a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010, which applies to political parties, as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally.,” he said.

“Zionism, defined in the broad sense of supporting the establishment, development, and protection of a Jewish nation state in its ancestral homeland, the land of Israel, is likely to be a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010.”

He said there was a strong risk that the policy, especially if it resulted in disciplinary action, “will create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for both Zionists and Jewish people, therefore harassing them”.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Tory Bayeaux tapestry is currently the busiest part of their conference. It’s quite ingenious if a bit weird at times - is that meant to be Jenrick on the first pic. But credit for portraying the full horror of Andy Burnham’s infamous running shorts.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm a few days late to this, but it's worth noting as amid all the years of deeply weird discourse about low-traffic neighbourhoods this is perhaps the most unhinged thing I've ever seen. [Plus: they're not "Sadiq Khan's LTNs". They're done by councils.]

Sadiq Khan’s LTNs made me flee Britain, says millionaire philanthropist

Sir Peter Lampl claims mayor’s traffic policies make London unsuitable for ‘wealth-creating entrepreneurs’

“To do all that, I needed to be able to get about,” he wrote. “I needed to be able to meet people, make deals, go campaigning, chivvy politicians into action. I needed black cabs and roads they could get down. And I needed to be able to get home at the end of the day without spending an hour stuck in a single lane of traffic on Park Lane.

Sir Peter said the expansion of bike lanes in London and introduction of traffic calming measures, such as 20mph speed limits and low-traffic neighbourhoods, had created “a capital city in which we literally can’t get around by taxi”.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I do sometimes wonder if the political history of this period, when written, will mainly conclude: “Many people lost their way simply by spending too long on X.”

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

*Sighs very deeply in public health-ese*

Camilla Tominey

There’s no excuse for being fat

Given the availability of new weight loss treatments, we shouldn’t feel afraid of telling it how it is

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The tactical voting attack ads for other parties basically write themselves.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Are Reform UK *sure* they want to yoke themselves to people like Daniel “Danny Tommo” Thomas? Nigel Farage was adamant for years that most voters instantly recognise and intensely dislike football thug types like him and Tommy Robinson.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Insisting a government guarantees not a single boat carrying asylum seekers gets through is about as realistic as expecting a medieval king to guarantee a complete stop on all smuggling vessels. Borders are porous. Yes, you can greatly limit unofficial crossings, but this is absurd.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Conservative response to Lucy Powell admitting the Government cannot stop small boats landing on British beaches

Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“Labour have admitted they will never stop the boats.

“Keir Starmer’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ was always a farce, and open-borders Burnham has learnt absolutely nothing from his predecessor.

“The only way to stop the crossings is to deport all illegal immigrants on arrival, and only the Conservatives have a plan to do that.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Lucy Powell said that the Government cannot stop small boats landing on British beaches. STUDIO: ‘Is it [small boats not being intercepted in the Channel] embarrassing?’ POWELL: ‘Well, look, can’t stop everything all of the time’ (BBC Radio 4, 24 September 2026, archived).

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ed Davey has just begun his speech to the Lib Dem conference, but it was released under embargo so here is what is is saying/will say, by me & @lexytopping.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

And there he goes. Perfectly normal party*. All political parties are weird, just in different ways.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A load of Lib Dem MPs and activists are baking in the autumn sun outside the Grand Hotel to cheer Ed Davey as he heads to the conference centre to make his speech later.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Most Liberal Democrat exchange ever.

Matt Chorley Roz Savage, Lib Dem MP, has written an essay.

Ed Davey I love essays.

Matt Chorley Saying...

Ed Davey How long was it?

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Speaking at the Lib Dem conference, home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson calls Reform UK “plonkers with dangerous ideas”, which is quite catchy.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I’m at the Lib Dem conference and, as ever, that’s Christmas sorted.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I'd not really paid much attention to the Piddington campaign till today, but looking at the official X material, with the far right-echoing AI slop visuals, and the group pic alongside Rupert Lowe, it's illustrative of how widely this sort of online-based anti-migrant sentiment has embedded.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Like an Ealing comedy, but without any charm whatsoever.

Delivering the result, Susannah Parden, vice chair of the parish council, said: "We are Piddington the village that roars.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This, from Nadhim Zahawi on Times Radio, is an example of something increasingly prevalent and unchallenged on the UK media: the direct conflation of asylum seekers and sex offenders. There have been some awful cases, but it's an idea is based, as far as I can see, on precisely zero proper evidence.

Women feel they have to beg in Piddington to be made safe because of the high levels of crime and, you know, rape that takes place with these migrants.”

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I see we are back into one of the intermittent periods of media moral panics about cycling. It is presumably a matter of days before someone calls for mandatory registration and insurance. Please do wake me up if anyone writes something we haven't already read 10,000 times before.

Celia Walden

Failure to act on e-bikes is now wilful negligence

Reckless pests are becoming more brazen and the injuries – and deaths – they cause will only rise if the Government does nothing

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

One more time: Inheritance tax *is not unique or even uncommon* in being "double taxation". The coffee I just bought was paid for with wages on which income tax and NI had been levied, but was also subject to VAT. Just stop it.

elen Whately: “One of the problems with inheritance tax is that it's a form of double taxation.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Reform sound like they're pre-emptively preparing the ground for their £72m windfall to be declared invalid. But this is a bit misleading: • "Lawful at the time they were received" ignores a bill in parliament which changes the facts. • Retrospective legislation is rate, but it does happen.

Make no mistake.

There is no precedent in modern British political history for a government to pass legislation that retroactively confiscates donations from political rivals that were lawful at the time they were received.

The fact the media are trying to normalise this only shows they share the government's goal of damaging Reform.

Burnham and his far left MPs are a threat to Britain as we know it.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The other thing I wonder about with Reform as they currently operate is the increasing levels of Trump-ism, especially over the media. Even Richard Tice - traditionally viewed as relatively restrained - perpetually wangs on about “war” with various parts of the media.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If you have a big story about Reform and approach them for comment it seems they go quiet and then quickly give the news to a friendly outlet (ie the Telegraph). Lesson seems to be: don’t approach Reform.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If you were ever in doubt about the fundamentally grift-based approach of far right "patriotic" streamers, having failed to persuade the Daily Mail to buy his mum a new house after they revealed what town she lives in, 'Danny Tommo' has raised *£60,000* from followers to give her a "fresh start".

Help Danny Tommo’s Mum Relocate

Help relocate this woman. Who can never go back to her home

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

According to a column in the Times, gangs of masked vigilantes blocking roads have demands which "represent a consensus view across the country". This is very patently utter bollocks. Daniel Thomas, the organiser, is a far-right racist thug. His views are not in any way mainstream.

Should anyone wonder that groups of angry white men in balaclavas have now started occupying Dover and blockading coaches sent to ship more and more men into this utterly negligent system? It’s astonishing it hasn’t happened sooner. I don’t mean I want to see gangs of masked bricklayers marauding around ports. I don’t. But I do think that if you have spent three years allowing masked Gaza activists to take over the streets because police are too scared to stop them, and five years blocking policies such as Rwanda that would actually stop the boats, you cannot start hyperventilating the moment working-class British men take to the streets non-violently, as in Dover if not Portsmouth, to make their feelings known.

The non-violence is obviously critical. This was not a riot, as we saw in 2024. It was not a campaign of harassment. It did not target random people. And unlike the Gaza marches or “stop oil” stunts, its demands represent a consensus view across the country and relate to something under the government’s direct control. They amount to: “Can the government please do what it promised and stop ferry-loads of undocumented foreign men arriving on our beaches to fill up regional hotels and roam around town centres?” They might reasonably also ask for the Home Office to stop handing out asylum to the thousands who falsely claim it while visiting on student or work visas.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Brendan O’Neill’s endless pursuit of the wrong end of any argument has, perhaps inevitably, now got him defending fascist-adjacent street gangs.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Maybe read the story before arriving on my timeline all sweary and self-righteous. An apology would be traditional, but I won't hold my breath.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We’re now on to Sarah Pochin. On immigration and asylum she says: “Labour are welcoming in a clear and present danger to our women and girls.”

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We are now onto Matt Goodwin who says there is “one general election left to save this county”. Goodwin’s talk of taking his country “back” is usually among the more explicitly nativist elements of Reform’s offering.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

On the very large and flashy main stage at Reform the afternoon session should have started at 3pm but… has not. We should already have heard from Matt Goodwin and Sarah Pochin.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Next up, Sarah Pochin, who describes the C4 footage as “a sting” and “entrapment”.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

First guest, Nadine Dorries, says the Channel 4 story was “a sting”, and starts talking about how “the establishment” want Farage and Reform to fail. She seems to be hinting there a conspiracy to bring him down.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The Reform conference is ploughing on, and full of “the first 100 days” branding. This side event is about restructuring the British state, led by their man on this, Danny Kruger.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I’m in the magnificent if slightly bonkers Scotland House London to hear Kemi Badenoch set out how she would pay for more defence spending - with a lot of the money coming from cuts to housing benefit. You’d think that might bring some knock-on cost repercussions, but let’s see what she says.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

On another tangential Holborn and St Pancras note, whoever in Reform has been tasked with telling Zia Yusuf to tone down his tweets clearly hasn't yet plucked up the courage. This is more Restore Britain than anything else.

The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia.

Do you understand what’s happening?

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Yes, London mayor is a big job, but with the return of supplementary vote, winning as a Tory is even harder, so this doesn’t exactly scream confidence in Kemi Badenoch’s chances of winning the next election.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

How to let people know you never went to Reading in your youth without etc etc. I have no idea what it's like now, but back in the day it was reliably the most feral of festivals.

Like any parent of a child currently at the Reading Festival, I’m sick with worry.

Festivals used to be places where young people enjoyed live music while downing a few beers and possibly smoking the odd spliff.

Today, it’s a different story. Gone is the peace, love and harmony of Glastonbury, replaced by a sort of microcosm of broken Britain, where festival goers steal other people’s possessions, spike their drinks and set fire to their tents.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I mean it's a slight over-simplification, but yes, that's more or less what transport policy *should* be like and sometimes is, certainly in urban areas.

It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the people in charge of transport policy in this country think that private car use is intrinsically harmful, morally suspect, and should be progressively made harder everywhere until it is a marginal mode reserved for specific essential trips.

David Frost

The anti-car blob is out of control. It’s trying to make driving impossible

Motorists are crying out for a political party brave enough to fight back against the transport bureaucracy and its charity offshoots

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

One day, perhaps, a UK national newspaper will write a story about everyday cycling that is *not* based on the personal perspective of reporters and editors in central London.

The zebra crossing where hundreds of cyclists fail to stop
The Times counted 357 bike riders who did not brake for pedestrians at the ‘floating bus stop’ near Blackfriars Bridge in central London

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Fantastic if brief verbal slip by Victoria Atkins on Times Radio in seeking to dodge the awkward issue of the Conservatives' fairly sudden shift towards opposing net zero policies.

Victoria Atkins: “Claire Coutinho, our Shadow Energy Secretary, set out and indeed has been speaking for many, for the last couple of years about the need for the government to put ideology to one side and look at the realities of the energy market.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

"Anti-motorist policy" or something proved in Wales (and elsewhere) to actually save lives. I mean, it's a tough choice, isn't it?

Birmingham moves to become England’s first 20mph city

Opponents accuse council of pursuing ‘anti-motorist policy’ in Britain’s former motoring heartland

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