iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 13h

Pubs have been closing steadily for years under many administrations. The inescapable conclusion is that its the brewers that are creating this situation. The logic: reduce the number of outlets, make beer a luxury product, charge far more.

The erosion of UK pub culture. 69000 pubs in 1980 down to 46350 in 2021

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Perhaps she had Liz Truss in mind - from the Suffolk Gazette:

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA – Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss was recently photographed strolling through the U.S. capital in a blue coat, bright red MAGA hat, and lugging her suitcase, sparking immediate comparisons to Britain’s beloved marmalade-loving bear, Paddington.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Note the urban setting for the bomb. Bit of a sociopath?

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

From the Guardian on H & SP: "Of the 139 people who speak Urdu as their main language, 114 can speak English well or very well, according to the census. There are many more Bengali speakers who say they cannot speak English well (1,391)"

Graph: Main languages in Holborn & St Pancras

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I posted this image of Piddington some days ago. This morning BBC Breakfast used an image showing the extreme right fifth of this. They want to manufacture an impression of a small rural village, not a village on the edge of a large developments (including a prison). Its now an enclave of idiots.

Piddington aerial view showing other large developments in the vicinity

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

While the UK approach has its good points, I suspect it is found wanting when compared with the German approach.

51. Apprenticeship places in Germany and Switzerland are highly sought after by young people. Employers in both countries provide three-year apprenticeships for more than half the cohort, but recently the supply of young people seeking apprenticeship has exceeded demand from employers. At least 75% of German apprentices complete their three-year training successfully, compared to around half in the UK, where apprenticeship lasts only one year on average. In both Germany and Switzerland, employer demand for apprentices is highly sensitive to the costs of employing them. As in the UK, the quality of young people applying for apprenticeship is improved by good progression prospects within the firm or sector, but in Switzerland and, to a lesser extent, in Germany, apprentices can and do continue on to higher education.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Apols for the source of the screenshot, John Sweeney has the detail:

To be fair, the new donor on the block Ben Delo did not do porridge. Back in 2022, he pleaded guilty in a US federal court to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls.

At BitMex, crypto money flowed. Delo and his partners had not put anti-money laundering measures in place.

He copped 30 months of probation and ordered to pay a $10 million criminal fine.

Trump pardoned him, his partners and BitMEX.

So he is an ex-con but one with a presidential pardon.

Not as clean as driven snow.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

funding tax cuts and scams during the 14 years, the govt borrowing also rose...

UK total national debt as a percentage of GDP over the tory years

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Why does tRump remind me of Ralph Wiggum?

"Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me!"

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Protest votes, a perennial cause of support for corrupt RW parties. In a similar vein, brexit voting East England:

EU referendum: The result in a map showing high support in east anglia

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Saxony-Anhalt was part of the GDR. Its no excuse but in my experience, it doesn't represent how the population of what was West Germany feel. Also from the Guardian:

It would be wise not to read too much into one election result in one quite particular German state. Saxony-Anhalt, analysts note, is home to barely 1.8 million voters and has long been a far-right stronghold: in federal and state elections over the past decade, support for the AfD there has consistently been double the national average.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Why would the DT lie about a Labour Council? BBC:

3 February 2026
Birmingham City Council has declared itself no longer effectively bankrupt after steadying its finances two-and-a-half years after hitting a budget crisis that the government stepped in to solve.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

There's a lot to agree with what Chris Grey had to say in his latest blog:

Hostility to immigration supersedes everything and anything else. And whilst Labour can be blamed for its cowardice and lack of leadership in this respect, that is, itself, a manifestation of the deeper and more widespread way that the UK – and especially England – are gripped by anti-immigration fervour which persists even now that a collapse in net migration levels is underway. It is this, more than anything else, which means that post-Brexit relations with the EU are stuck in their present form.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Not quite the quaint english village. In addition to the old military base, Piddington also has a large MOD complex and a Prison close by:

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

In this case the only mention of "Legitimate concerns" seems to have been made at the very end of a statement by Terry Jermy MP:

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Of course Matt Bracken is based in the US, I wonder if he gets his news from Elon?

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

According to the Graun it continued afterwards:

MPs say Bridget Phillipson and Liz Kendall confronted Kemi Badenoch about her language at PMQs today where she called Phillipson “spiteful” which Kendall said was outrageous. Badenoch reported to have said “I’m never going to stop talking about how spiteful you are”
Phillipson then hit back at Badenoch: “The public are going to find out who you really are.”

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

The morning after, happy little souls

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

There is but not in the way Fagash says:

clip from the Guardian giving statistics around Police unequal treatment of Black people

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

The actual text of the blog post att. below for info. Perhaps our ever vigilant media will challenge the suppliers on their policies or probably not

Starmer blog on a VAT reduction across a range of products

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

RefUK's performance bigged up without regard to the fact that their vote share reduced and their actual no of seats is a fraction of other parties.

UK total council seats by party, May 2026

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

this came through my door yesterday...

extract from Conform local election leaflet on cutting Council spending

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Looked into this because of the timescales. NPR is built on a phased approach:

diagram of phased approach to NPR from the Treasury

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

screenshot if you, understandably, don't want to go there:

Shaban Mahmood post on twitter about immigration changes

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Something smells and its not clear where it comes from. The text includes a section on a MoU versus an appendix to the TAC. I'm not an expert but MoUs are not regarded that lightly. The UK's largest military support deal (by value) is underpinned by a MoU.

FT article excerpt re: MoU or appendix to the TAC as an appropriate means of agreement

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Turnout over the same timescale (courtesy of UK Political data):

UK election turnout data from 1945 to 2024

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

This is a screenshot of the detailed section. In Norway it raises 0.4% of GDP as tax, equivalent to £10B in the UK, not £32B.

Dan Neidle's detailed paragraph describing the Norwegian wealth tax approach

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

This was the reply I got after I complained about platforming Flagrage. What they fail to take into account is how much of the poll lead is down to platforming in the first place.

long text of standard response email from the BBC to a complaint of them platforming Fagash.

Traditional voting patterns across Britain have been shifting, providing a challenge to established political parties, especially Labour and the Conservatives. At the 2017 general election, those two parties combined won more than 80% of the vote – at last year’s general election, that figure was well below 60%. Current opinion polls put their combined support at nearer 40% across Great Britain.

During the last year or so, Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) appear to have been the main beneficiary of this shift.

In the 2025 English local elections in May, Reform UK won a majority of ten councils plus two Mayoral contests...

<snipped to fit, sorry>

With regards to Nigel Farage, he is an elected MP and leader of a Many political analysts across the media, with different political perspectives, report that Reform UK are “making the political weather” – in other words, the reactions and policies of the other political parties can only be properly understood in the context of knowing what is happening with Reform UK and its increased level of support.

We give careful consideration to ensuring any story concerning Mr Farage and Reform UK are given proportionate and appropriate coverage on our networks and online. We thank you for taking the time to get in touch, and your comments have been passed along to senior news editors.

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Stephen Knowles @stephenknowles.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

I complained to the BBC about their continual platforming of RefUK Ltd/Flagrage. Their response amounts to, if he leads the polls, he has more right to set the agenda than the Govt of the day actually in power. Extract follows:

BBC weasel words justifying their platforming of rabid right-wing populist

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