iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We question MPs second jobs. But how is a sitting peer engaged in lawmaking decisions allowed to be a paid lobbyist for a controversial company hungry for government contracts, whose shady ties in with a disgraced peer have already been implicated in the fall of one PM? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Ex-Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir

Lord Watson praises his new employers but says there are "legitimate questions" about big tech firms that "require answers".

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

As former Labour minister Tom Watson joins Palantir, please read this devastating exposé by @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @lucasamin.bsky.social of how the company, with Peter Mandelson's help, wormed its way into the UK government to sell its dire & dangerous products. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS

A decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...

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💙 Happysnarkygal 💙 @happysnarkygal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Only in a sick world like Trump’s would law be shaped to say, it’s ok to chop down a tree, pollute water, accidentally catch a whale, knock out a feeder species…if you didn’t “know” you were killing/harming an endangered species. abcnews.com/Business/wir...

abcnews.com

Trump administration allows inadvertent killing of endangered species

Inadvertently killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would no longer be considered illegal under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act

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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I’m on Opinion newsletter duty this morning and I wanted to start with a few words on The Telegraph’s toxic “How having a disability became cool” article.

Back in 2024, I wrote about “sickfluencers” – a rightwing moniker for disabled people who use social media to help others apply for benefits. Recently, I’ve noticed the term has expanded to include women who commit the crime of … using a mobility aid in public. This week, the Telegraph ran a piece claiming young women are “turning chronic illness into a lifestyle trend”, including by not working. The headline? “How having a disability became cool.”

It’s hard to think of a nastier narrative. You can say that the writers and editors publishing this stuff are just ignorant of disability, but I struggle to believe it. It feels like wilful ignorance: repeating tropes that fuel an agenda casting doubt on disabled people and the state’s duty to support us if we need it.

Readers who use mobility aids often tell me about the impact of seeing these stories spread online; a growing sense of shame that eats at the stomach until one day, they put their cane back in the cupboard and walk to Tesco in pain. Or they don’t go out at all. Someone should be ashamed in all of this, sure, but it’s not disabled readers.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Disabled women have the right to be visible, in any way they please. To live, to have fun, to be colourful, to share, to influence, to be whatever they want. Whether anyone likes it or not (including the Telegraph's editors and clickbait writers). Disabled women don't owe you invisibility. Cope.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Powerful speech by Natasha Hirst of the National Union of Journalists to the TUC about the threat to disabled people's lives from media reporting driven by misleading rage bait and from the politics of welfare cuts. #disability #journalism #welfare #TUC youtu.be/UArUHu2ymbU

youtu.be

Tash Hirst | Why trade unions need to support disabled people into work

YouTube video by Ben Claimant

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's worth watching BBC Parliament without the news punditry, paying attention to what is going on. I do it when I need to really understand what is happening. It's been a long time since doing that made me feel hopeful. This week it did. I hope this week can end that way — and that this lasts.

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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Prime Minister Andy Burnham suggests he won't cut benefits to pay for defence spending "National security cannot come at the expense of social security" 👏 #PMQs

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Days of far-right nastiness didn't come up in PMQs. Having watched it, making far-right theatrics irrelevant is a strategy too. But on the ground, it needs to be made crystal clear what's right. On the upside, much of what was said today made clear what is right. Allowing myself some long-lost hope.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"Police on the ground report the masked men had lawyers’ phone numbers and cited public order case law and were well briefed on how far they could go: “They toed the line perfectly to avoid arrest.” theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/s… US-funded (organisers claim) co-ordinated blackshirt rally in the UK.

theguardian.com

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Don't hand your critical infrastructure to a foreign operator. Don't hand your critical infrastructure to a foreign operator with a dictatorship manifesto. Don't hand your critical infrastructure to a foreign operator with a dictatorship manifesto from a country that funds attacks on your democracy.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

If the Reform mob are allowed to hit, choke, kick and stamp on women because they were hecklers, or "she shouldn't have put herself out there" (we've heard that before), it won't end with hecklers. It never does. Speak up and act against #VAWG, or you are not serious about it, @labouruk.bsky.social

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Plus if you publicly sent the Portsmouth "patriots" to prove their patriotism by picking litter, @andyburnham.bsky.social, it would be that Love Actually moment where the nation applauds. Seriously.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We need to hear, now, from our PM @andyburnham.bsky.social 👀📡 We need to hear things like: 📍Attacks on RNLI are unacceptable. 📍Men in paramilitary gear blocking ports and intimidating the public will be dealt with. 📍The mob who beat women will face the law, because there is no excuse for violence.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Painful to hear but fair to say: silence is not an option in the face of fascism. Where is Andy Burnham? 🔎👀📡

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Please donate to RNLI 🛟🚤 rnli.org/support-us/g... They save lives without checking ID first — like fire crews, ambulances and, you know, there's a whole book on that 📖

rnli.org

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

So after months and years of disability benefits bashing in most papers, and weekly on Jeremy Vine On 5 and LBC, it turns out that the general public is as fed up with it as disabled people are, and no one really wants it. www.ft.com/content/1a0d...

ft.com

British voters oppose welfare cuts for disabled people, survey finds

Only 7% favour lower government spending on those who cannot work

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Cambridge University examines conduct of academic suspended by Reform UK theguardian.com/politics/202... The academic, James Orr, was not a "contractor" as Farage attempted to claim today. Until his suspension after being caught arranging dodgy donations, Orr was Reform's head of policy.

theguardian.com

Cambridge University examines conduct of academic suspended by Reform UK

James Orr, an associate professor, was shown in Channel 4 News footage apparently trying to sidestep electoral law

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I had created a bunch of Long Covid etc. Starter Packs to help people find each other on Bluesky. At the time, there was no way to invite people. If you don't want to be in a Starter Pack there's now an easy way to remove yourself. Here's how 👇🏻 Likewise, if you'd like to be added to one, please say.

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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Re-upping this...

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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

there are now no fewer than five separate financial scandals engulfing Reform UK www.ft.com/content/0426...

ft.com

The five financing scandals facing Reform

Nigel Farage and his party are facing growing scrutiny over transparency and the source of donations

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Meanwhile, Reform has taken another £4m from the crypto billionaire pardoned by Trump for fraud.

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Of many striking features, especially striking is Orr's description (from 14.46) of the Electoral Commission as "completely useless" and "dumb and ineffective" which really ought to prompt some serious reflection within the EC.

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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

James Orr: Reform’s head of policy, Cambridge theologian, architect of the new British right. Our profile for @ftweekend.com looks at his links to the Maga movement, Silicon Valley & European populists, and his life as a Cambridge lecturer with @ramshodgson.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c2d0...

ft.com

James Orr and the gospel of the new British right

Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It is very worth watching Verbatim's investigation into #Reform in full, with comments from a KC, directly from Verbatim, here: www.verbatiminvestigations.com?watch=yt%3AR...

verbatiminvestigations.com

VERBATIM

Investigative journalism in the public interest

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Hardeep Matharu @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Now James Orr has stepped down as Reform UK's Head of Policy after C4's report, questions remain for Cambridge – where he is Associate Professor. Byline Times revealed serious concerns about his activities there months ago. We all know there won't now be 200+ articles on him and his life don't we?

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

That Reform can run a dodgy poll, and the Telegraph is guaranteed to publish it as "a poll by the Telegraph" to give it credibility, on its front page, is national news in its own right. It speaks volumes about how captured a prominent secion of UK media is and how manipulated its "statistics" are.

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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Just a reminder, Professor James Orr, Reform UK head of policy, teaches 'ethics' to undergraduates at Cambridge University youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A professor of #divinity sorely lacking in ethics is a bit of a problem, isn't it? @universitypress.cambridge.org

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

What chance of any decent, credible social research making UK headlines, when Reform can just commission a dodgy poll, and it's on the front page of the Telegraph the next day, branded as the Telegraph's, no questions asked, and all over SM and "today's front pages" TV news? youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI?...

youtu.be

Going undercover to expose Reform's secret donations plot

YouTube video by Channel 4 News

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Only 3% of employers surveyed employed any young people with mental health related disabilities and only 4% employed any young people with physical disability. Here lies your problem: disabled young people aren't "workshy" — access to work and support to do it is often denied them. #Disability #NEET

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

By Shakespearean standards I am old, and it's a matter of attitude not age, but friends, if I ever get the urge to harp on younger women for using emotional support or walking aids, or anything, or want a dashing daytime presenter to interrogate my benefits, please tell me not to be a silly sausage.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Why are data centres and golf courses allowed to use drinking water, when water companies are struggling to provide enough clean water for households and farms? #Water recycling, water efficiency need to become legal conditions for operating these businesses, surely? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

The race to stop England running out of water

Who is to blame for the summer drought, and can England future-proof its water supplies?

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

A man whose life has been "devastated" by #LlongCovid has urged the prime minister to do more to help people living with the condition. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Bradford man with long Covid asks PM to do more for sufferers

Darren Parkinson says the after-effects of the virus have "devastated" his life.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

9,000+ is quite a protest vote, in a low turnout. And now the parliamentary standards investigation can resume. Good.

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Disability News Service @johnpring.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Disabled people’s organisations across the UK have suggested a range of ways in which they and their allies could fight back against the “deeply concerning” rise in hostile media coverage that is targeting disabled people. www.disabilitynewsservice.com/how-to-fight...

disabilitynewsservice.com

How to fight back against rising tide of hostile media coverage targeting disabled people

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Disability News Service @johnpring.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

New figures have sparked “serious concern” about the failure of coroners across England and Wales to seek evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions following deaths of benefit claimants. #DWP #BenefitDeaths www.disabilitynewsservice.com/concerning-n...

disabilitynewsservice.com

Concerning new figures expose how few coroners ask DWP to provide evidence to inquests

New figures have sparked “serious concern” about the failure of coroners across England and Wales to seek evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) following deaths of benefit claima…

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This 👇🏻 is a scary choice of ignorance and neglect in a climate crisis. Hopefully that, rather than corruption by fossil fuel firms. Politicians can pretend not to understand climate and claim industrial development matters more — but it shows they don't understand development sustainability either.

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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Walking canes have a glorious history, from the staff of Egyptian hieroglyphics to aiding a Victorian gent with a bout of gout. My favourite might be the Renaissance sword cane, perhaps we ought to revive it, so it could be planted in the toe of any bigot who thinks to hassle a person using a cane.

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