iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Astounded to hear Chris Mason on BBC Radio 4 Today and Peston on News at Ten yesterday say only 5% of population pay Inheritance Tax. If only BBC and ITV had learned this earlier.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Following discussion yesterday with @captainswing666.bsky.social I've amended my review of the Civil Service World podcast 'It's Personal' with #HMRC Customer Experience Directorate to make it clear I've no current experience of HMRC Bereavement, and my remarks are based on (CONT OVER)

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

The Real LEGENDS - The Betrayer by Guy Stanton with Peter Walsh. exofficerx.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Reading 'The Betrayer' by Guy Stanton and @petemilo.bsky.social - book that inspired Netflix' Legends. Fascinating detail about #HMCE Investigation Division, the varied attempts to develop undercover training, and the fiendish tests that the real Stanton was put through.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

In honour of the new Netflix #SteveCoogan series LEGENDS, a look back at THE DUTY MEN, the 1987 documentary series which followed #HMCustomsandExcise through its varied regimes including the then-new war on drugs - exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/10/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I don't do Netflix but will get LEGENDS when it comes out on DVD. Nice publicity shot of Tom Burke and Steve Coogan in oil storage tank farm so presumably about 1990's #Excise officers tackling diesel fraud. Legends indeed - #HMCE

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

How many Customs and Excise careers did Claire Nielson launch, with recruits thinking they would have an unflappable Scots secretary like "security-minded" Luke Fraser in 1967's The Revenue Men ?

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Sad reports of the recent death of Claire Nielson, who must have inspired many a Customs and Excise career, as unflappable Scots secretary Luke Fraser in the 1967 BBC series THE REVENUE MEN exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/09/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Luke Fraser, "selected for her intelligence, reliability and security mindedness" in The Revenue Men (1967)

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

"These things all happen in the ether...."

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Despite the success of 'The Duty Men', it was ITV that adapted the look of the #HMCE (HM Customs and Excise) series to drama with 'The Knock'. Malcolm Storrey was surveyor Bill Adams, "a man of conscience" who didn't have a yacht, or a sports car. exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/10/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

One year after 'The Collectors,' BBC 2 unveiled 'The Duty Men', a fly-on-the-wall documentary series about #HMCE (HM Customs & Excise) which revealed VAT and excise fraud as well as the Thatcher government's 'War on Drugs' exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/10/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

By 1986, BBC1 had a new view of #HMCE (Customs and Excise) - in The Collectors, Peter McEnery was Harry Caines, a widower with a taste for sailing, who declared that "chumminess is at an end." exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/10/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

How BBC 2 Scotland saw #HMCE (Customs and Excise) Investigation Branch in 1967. Ewen Solon as Caesar Smith, "a bachelor with a taste for sailing, who ...is happiest behind the wheel of a sports car." exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/09/cust...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Because you never know when you might get into an argument with someone about a subject you're not sure you understand as well as you think you do: WHY POLITICIANS LIE ABOUT TRADE by @explaintrade.com - exofficerx.blogspot.com/2026/02/why-...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

The report on Civil Service Pensions is on iplayer for 24 hours - starts at 7:27.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

It is on iplayer for now - the report starts at 7:27 and is with Dan Whitworth from Radio 4 Money Box (expires after 24 hours).

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

"You might wonder why they did not email the pensioners affected, but of course such contact information is held on the now non-working site..."

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

If only more mothers were like Seb's

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Mike Johnson consults with the President on policy.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

#KwasiFromKwikSave the cut-price ex-Chancellor coins it in again in today's @theipaper.com - "I have done, on a personal level, my fair share of apologies," but now the Tories need to move on. As does #KwasiFromKwikSave

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Tories need to stop apologising for my chaotic mini-Budget

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Or a spell in the wilderness at least....

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

It always worked for Tommy Cooper.....

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Farage challenges Starmer - "Release the Amy Johnson Files"

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Farage challenges Starmer: "Release the Amy Johnson Files!"

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

You folk who quit Twitter just don't know what you're missing.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

It seems like the posters of Susanna Sample were up in civil service offices for years telling us ID cards were coming. But it only took one Coalition Government in 2010 to say they were unBritish. And now we're going digital. How long will this one last?

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

I've suspected for a while that some of the hatred for Angela Rayner is rooted in jealousy from other women so was intrigued to discover from the latest @privateeyenews.bsky.social that I'm on the same page as The Sun's Anna Roberts.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

2/ Target is 12 decisions a month. Staff get £50 for first extra decision and £75 for each extra up to £350. So 5 extra decisions. Obviously concerns that 'quality of decision-making' may suffer. On the other hand maybe we should trust staff to 'work smarter' (CONT)

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

1/ Finally tracked down a hard copy of that @theipaper.com story about Home Office paying bonus to increase decision-making on asylum applications. Everyone wants backlog cut, backlog has fallen over last year, but now unhappy about incentives. Maybe Adam Forrest prefers backlogs (CONT)

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

"Nothin' to do with me, Guv..."

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

"Your name vill also go on ze list..." "Don't tell him #Bolton"

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Older worker "unfair to project her own standards of working on colleagues." Just parking this here for the next time someone wants to have a pop about the superiority of the private sector over public sector work ethic.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

The last-minute carpetbagging of the UK bioethanol industry was a cunning exploitation by US negotiators of the UK's Truss-style desperation to strike any "lone" deal - in other words another #Brexit bonus. #vivergo

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

First photo of that Jenrick/JD Vance Cotswolds huddle.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

DNA tests link BBC political correspondents with J.D. Vance family tree.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Searching for something light hearted - but with one exception! Bluesky doesn't really seem to get it though !!

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Molly Dineen's documentary The Heart of The Angel, on 24 hours in the underground station in the 1980's before refurbishment www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

"Let's make the questions a bit more interesting..."

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Tim Davie knows a girl who wants his head, He offered up John Torode's instead, She's not impressed and wants him out, A Masterchef just won't impress: Lisa Nandy, Lisa Nandy (to the tune of I Like Candy)

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

The quoted guidance says Civil Servants should not speak at events "with Q&A and/or media expected in the audience" which suggests the concern is molluscs of the Chris Mason variety taking their words in-or-out of context. My question was just whether Civil Servants would prefer to be out of that.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

This book tells the often forgotten story of the sacrifices made in the bus and coach industry during the height of Covid exofficerx.blogspot.com/2024/11/buse...

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Just been reminded in @pcsunion.bsky.social mag how successive governments over 15 years have tried to chip away at redundancy rights and make it cheaper to dump Civil Service staff. Sometimes you forget just what your union's done for you.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

From: 'Why Politicians Lie About Trade' (2024) by @explaintrade.com - entertaining insights into International Trade negotiations( "Boring Things We Do In The Shadows'). Boring things are easy to lie about because nobody takes the time to understand them.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

And of course, the solutions proposed by Ensus and ABF to preserve the 6000 jobs in the #bioethanol supply chain are another panic move, rather than the kind of change that would normally be negotiated and thought through over time.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

So what did we have to give the fat git in exchange for the steel #tariff - Alistair Osborne in The Times suggests that the UK #bioethanol trade was handed over as a last-minute concession by negotiators who didn't understand the consequences.

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

"Did you arrange the cease fire, dear?" "Even Better Than That - I did a photo op for my new #Trump Mobile Phone!" #TheFastShow

The Fast Show: "Even Better Than That" man

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Sid Dipper @siddipper.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Killer quote at the end of @financialtimes.com article on the Nat West saga...

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