iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Joe Brown @joebrownlondon.bsky.social · 22h

#OnThisDay 150 years ago Portsmouth Harbour was opened by the Portsmouth & Ryde Joint Railway (LSWR & LBSCR), built entirely over water like Ryde Pier Head across The Solent. Here's me with the pup on his first train journey last year (start 'em young)... he's a lot bigger now!

Joe stood with his puppy Zach on platform 5 at Portsmouth Harbour next to SWR unit 450072 they have just arrived on

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 19h

Amazing to get 30 min time saving without even building a new line! How many transport projects could prove that?

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Justin on eurostar @eurostarjustin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Happy Birthday to St Pancras station! Opened on this day in 1868. #architecture

Black and white nighttime image of the platforms and roof

Midland Mainline train under the clock before the station closed for rebuilding.

A class 45 diesel on a special to mark the end of domestic services from what are now the international platforms.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 19h

Yet another reason to give back control to cities.

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Joe Brown @joebrownlondon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#OnThisDay 55 years ago at 18:04 the last 4DD double-decker train departed Charing Cross for Dartford. An ingenious way to increase capacity with restricted loading gauge, the two 1949-built units had 'interleaved' compartments. Michael Taylor / more info: buff.ly/DpLe2D3

Cut-away diagram showing the seating layout in a 4DD carriage

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The great grey greasy Limpopo, seen on Day 5 of #A272Walk

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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

OTD in 1962, Silent Spring was published. “Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but man has displayed a passion for simplifying it. Thus he undoes the built-in checks and balances by which nature holds the species within bounds.” ― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lower accountability reads as higher risk. When a town's newspaper closes those local governments end up paying higher interest rates to borrow. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/…

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

When yimbies celebrate the 30s as a housebuilding paradise, they often don't mention that building only followed massive public investment.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This us so important! And you can add another graph which shows the astonishing focus of the value of capital gains tax relief again in London and South East AND the value of inheritance tax relief- the same regions. Time for justice!

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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 24/09/2026

The Government has made a nerve-janglingly-specific pledge to deliver living standards growth in every postcode. So we thought we'd plot how the last Parliament performed on that metric - safe to say 100 per cent growth would be a considerable step up ⤵️ buff.ly/s8wGf6Z

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For all the fuss about planning reform, the system we had in 2007 still worked better than nearly anything since

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It would astonish people in the past and in most other countries that remote but attractive areas command a premium price. Scotland is becoming England.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"If only there was a proper property tax system in UK.."

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Matthew Taylor @mat8iou.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The UK's single largest law firm (Linklaters) has approximately the same revenue as the country's entire fishing industry. You wouldn't believe it from media coverage disparity though.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The early 1990s recession was a household balance sheet recession as opposed to the manufacturing recession of the 1980s, hence hit the south harder. As one who was living in the north in the 80s and the south in the 90s the contrast between the two on both occasions was striking.

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Gail and Jasper @miladylilburn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

How many people know it was 1976, only half of it used and fully repaid by 1979?

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Kees van der Leun @sustainable2050.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Glaciologist @matthias-huss.bsky.social shows that the centre of the Great Aletsch glacier in Switzerland (the biggest in the Alps) lost 6 meters(!) of thickness just this summer. "No words...", he adds on LinkedIn.

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Liverpool to Manchester railway, world's first inter-city passenger service, opened on this day 1830. Tragedy struck when politician William Huskisson stepped on to the parallel track and was hit by a locomotive. Taken to nearest place on the line, Eccles, died later that day.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Bit different from trying to board a number 16 Kilburn High Road...

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crecyrail.bsky.social @crecyrail.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

On the approach to Cheltenham in August 1964 a ‘Peak’ class diesel, No D15, with a Newcastle to Bristol service (1V39). These cross country services were the domain of this class for many years. You would be lucky to get a five car Voyageur these days. crecy.co.uk/product/rail...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

More of Scotland in the days before squat little trains. I recall you could get afternoon tea on these.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Taken just days after my first visit to Kyle! A great place then with no ugly through trunk road, and a direct ferry to Lewes. We should go back to quality trains on these tourist routes.

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 14/09/2026

‘Anyone would call Luwam Misgina’s place overcrowded, but according to the rules, it isn’t. She lives in a tiny one-bedroom flat in Camberwell, South London, with her three daughters, aged five, eight and eleven.’ @jamesmeek.bsky.social on the housing crisis. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

James Meek · ‘What kind of people do they think we are?’: On Social Housing

Now that Southwark has become desirable, the patches of neglect are placeholders for the chains and high-end outlets the...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

When we actually had decent cross country trains. Hardly anyone remembers now.

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 12/09/2026

UK rail infrastructure is expensive because we barely build any of it, not the other way around.

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"New town centers are often rather lifeless, particularly at night, because few of them have any places in them where people live. They have also tended to have far fewer cinemas... and even relatively few pubs, which are, of course, among the most important public social institutions."

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Pete M 🌳 @pete-m.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

You often hear that the Welsh uplands are naturally treeless — too high, too wet, too exposed — and that the evidence for it is upland tree cover declining from the late Mesolithic, before farming even arrived. In Eryri, the pollen record shows the opposite. 1/🧵

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Good to see the YIMBY movement recognising the role of tax in house prices. Time for their English counterparts to jump in.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sound familiar? Low or no property taxes impoverish local authorities and raise house prices. Sorting this out should be the first port of call in any housing policy.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This was the point I emphasised about Palantir when I wrote about tech soverignty - their model is to make bits of the state dependent on them and them jack up the price. samf.substack.com/p/sovereignt...

samf.substack.com

Sovereignty for sale

Tech monopolies and the future of the nation state

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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Consider for a moment just how much of our emergency services are tied up in managing the fallout from the violent overabundance of car culture. Police, firefighters, medics, and hospitals, all constantly under the strain of injury and death brought on by motorists.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Decided to track my latest long distance walk here on Blue-sky. This is the A272 walk from Stockbridge to Brightling.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Absurdly chuffed that I got my computer to write a sentence in Korean! So much easier than handwriting I have to say.

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Emmet Ó Briain @emmet.quiddity.ie · 04/09/2026

not developers' commitments - the state's!!

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A sad, but I suspect not uncommon story about how developers commitments on transport are not honoured. Imagine building an estate and saying "oh actually we can't afford to connect it to the road network now so tough".

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Andrew Cutting @andrewcutting.coe.int · 03/09/2026

The European Convention on Human Rights entered into force on this day in 1953. Since then, the ECHR has helped countless people across Europe seek justice, at home and in Strasbourg. Here are more than 200 examples👇 🔗 www.coe.int/ECHR There are thousands more.

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Rev Peter W Nimmo @peternimmo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

In case you were wondering how the far right in power in Europe would treat religion...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This was a great birthday present, which I am now working through. Recommend!

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I’ve noticed a disturbing credulity amongst some anti-development activists, who seem to think that Reform UK would want to protect the environment (yes, really). The party’s proposals today to rip up environmental duties on developers ought to slay that idea: www.reformparty.uk/policies/pla...

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Dan Grey @dangrey.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I missed this article from the Guardian in June: a third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that, individually, emit less than 2% each. We all need to act www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

And yet nearly all the political class - officials, MPs of all parties, think tankers, all have unshakeable faith in 'supply'. This the result of 40 years soaking.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Worth a look. An interesting three legged stool view of premiers.

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