iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A pdf might be useful on the iPad, but the advantage of ePub is flexibility as regards typography, spacing, margins etc. I'll certainly email, thanks!

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Is there any chance you could make epubs available for subscribers? The app isn't bad but I'd rather the articles were paginated instead of scrolling. I can send each article to Instapaper as a workaround but it'd be great if there was an epub I could use on my phone/ereader.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I didn't know you were from Cork! 🏰🚢🏰

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Anurag Deb @anuragdeb.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

6 years, 100s of sources and at least a dozen stupefying dead-ends later:

Thesis title page: The Birth of Laws: Legislative Drafting as Ethical Translation

Meme of Frodo at Mount Doom: "It's done. Until the viva"

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I'm sorry, but if you think Nathan Cofnas being suspended for being a racist is an 'academic freedom' issue you are the dumbest fucking mark alive.

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Maitiú Ó Coimín @maitiuocoimin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yes, yes, tá sé go dona go bhfuil buíonta ógánach ag goid carranna agus ag déanamh rudaí contúirteacha ar na bóithre. Maraíonn daoine meánaosta atá ag breathnú ar a bhfón/tiomáint faoi thionchar an óil/tiomáint faoi luas aisteach i bhfad Éireann níos mó daoine ar na bóithre chuile mhí, áfach.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I've spent 16 years in my day jobs working to get press coverage for other people and organisations. I am the behind the scenes woman. So yeah. This is f**king nuts, I'm sorry?!? 🫪 What am I doing on a HOMEPAGE. Solar eclipse! Strictly Come Dancing! Sarah Elizabeth Cox! Ridiculous 😂🤷🏻‍♀️ #VoteBinface

Screenshot of the Guardian homepage around 9pm showing headline story about the eclipse and two headline stories at the top - one is about dani dyer on strictly and one is Sarah and her silly 80s charity shop blouse with a column about Clacton

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Edward Elgar Publishing @elgarpublishing.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Research Handbook on the Law and Politics of Sovereignty Edited by Marinos Diamantides, Michel Rosenfeld and Giuseppe Martinico Free - read the Introduction: doi.org/10.4337/9781... Available in print through our website: www.e-elgar.com/shop/isbn/97...

This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of sovereignty as one of the most contested concepts in law and politics. Bringing together leading scholars from a wide range of traditions, it examines sovereignty not only as a legal doctrine and political claim, but also as a symbolic form.

Chapters trace the epigenesis of sovereignty from Ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium to the modern state, revealing how religious, metaphysical, and philosophical ideas shaped its development. A unique comparative section explores Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Confucian, Indigenous, and settler-colonial traditions, showing how different worlds imagine authority, legitimacy, and collective self-rule. The volume also investigates the functional, normative, and symbolic dimensions of sovereignty in contemporary constitutionalism, including debates on democratic authority, European integration, secession, illiberalism, and populism. Further contributions analyze sovereignty’s entanglement with exceptionalism, labor, biopolitics, and transconstitutionalism. The concluding chapters examine why sovereignty persists as a powerful political imaginary, assessing its critiques and rearticulations—from political theology and relational ethics to feminist, anarchist, and decolonial perspectives.

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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

UK–EU relations ten years after the referendum Join @katyhayward.bsky.social, @anandmenon.bsky.social and Lord (Jock) Stirrup to discuss current UK–EU relations, and possible future changes, at our free, online conference next Wednesday. Sign up 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo....

The Constitution Unit Conference 2026. UK–EU relations ten years after the referendum. 24 June 2026, 9:30am–10:30am. Prof Katy Hayward (Professor of Political Sociology at Queen's University Belfast). Prof Anand Menon (Director of the UK in a Changing Europe). Lord (Jock) Stirrup (chair of the House of Lords European Affairs Committee and Crossbench peer). Chair: Lisa James (Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit).

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

We can't look away from the images of families fleeing burning houses without calling this out as a pogrom, whipped up by influential actors who care nothing for the people of Belfast: www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

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Hugh Jones @hbsj.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @ucc.ie - University College, Cork - founded in 1845 as part of the Queen's University of Ireland, with sister colleges in Galway and Belfast If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

An old colour picture postcard showing medieval-style college buildings around a quadrangle. The image has a border of very slightly Celtic knotting in white/gold, with a gold harp bottom right. Printed within the image is University College, Cork

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

It also makes no sense that their tails are scaly like fish but the flukes are horizontal like cetaceans because it just wouldn't work if they were vertical. Dolphmaids all the way.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Fully automated luxury Milibandism.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I cannot stand these prissy little public letters British politicians send each other. Dear Prime Minister I cannot in good conscience continue to serve in your useless cabinet, because I am also useless. I will of course continue to represent the people of Nutcombe Hogwash despite being useless.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession is a bit earlier (2019) but is beautiful. Two nice quiet kind men are friends. That's basically it and it's so good.

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Karen Carpenter’s Halloween @kellylink.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying

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Zselyke Csaky @zecsaky.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Here is a longer analysis from me on what Magyar's victory means for Hungary and Europe and what to expect going forward👇

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Real heads know that it's Canley you want, not Coventry.

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Douglas Guilfoyle @djag2.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

This law is a straightforward case of apartheid. Apartheid is an international crime. Every legislator who voted for it, every military police office who prosecutes a crime under it, every judicial officer who applies it, is committing an international crime. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

theguardian.com

Israel passes law to give death penalty to Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks

Knesset approves measure that has been criticised by European countries and rights groups

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I remember reading it and saying 'this doesn't seem very likely'. It was my dad's copy. I was about to turn 12.

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UCU Commons @ucucommons.org · 26/02/2026

Disgusting (though not surprising) to see Biggar and the Spectator publishing these completely unjustified smears of colleagues at the Uni of Sussex. Sending solidarity @alanlester.bsky.social

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

In my series “German things you didn’t know survived the war and are still in use by Poles” I want to give you a glimpse of an amazing research day I had some time ago. Let me take you on the most unexpected journey through artefacts that survived the 1945 border change. 🧵

An old shelf filled with animal specimens from pre-1945.

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Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Nigel Biggar attacking Alan Lester and colleagues through a proxy student ‘whistle blower’ in the national media, with no right of reply. Disgraceful MAGA tactics.

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The Spectator published this attack on me & colleagues just as the High Court is considering Sussex’s request for review of the Office for Students fine. It accuses us of ‘repressing’ our students. The magazine ignored my request for to reply. Please disseminate. alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...

alanlester.co.uk

Smearing Sussex (and Me): Responding to Nigel Biggar’s Latest Attack in The Spectator

The University of Sussex, Feb 2026, taken by the author. Alan Lester The Spectator has published an article by Nigel Biggar smearing the University of Sussex as repressing students who ‘don&#…

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This week’s Gist is about how the U.K. Labour Party unknowingly has been blowing itself up by following Morgan McSweeney’s FG electoral instincts. They don’t know the patterns, but we do. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-uk-...

thegist.ie

The Gist: UK Labour's FG mastermind

The UK Labour Party is being run into the ground, thanks to adopting FG's election tactics. This is the Gist.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I loved his little tiny wings

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

straightjacket in which the US finds itself. If anything, the US example shows the danger of not writing down enough! The US constitution says barely anything about the judiciary!

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I don't think I can. But that doesn't mean that the US 'writes things down' more than other states, it just means that the SoP in the US is unusually lopsided. This, combined with the openly partisan nature of the USSCt and the unworkability of the Art V procedure, leads to the constitutional

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

You're entirely right that the pre-existing political culture can have just as much to do with the analysis, but bear in mind that constitutions are both influenced by and influential on the political cultures of the states they purport to constitute.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

In short, the correct British answer shouldn't be 'the US constitution is oppressive, so we shouldn't codify'. It should be 'the US constitution is oppressive, so if we ever were to codify, which is a separate question, the US is an example of what not to do'.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I would also say that any constitution without prohibitions on/protections against gerrymandering, and without a proportionate electoral system, would also be a warning.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

and the entirely deranged way in which it is regarded by many within the country as being sacrosanct/God-given. The impossibility of amendment removes the internal 'set aside/remaking' safety valve (leaving the external imposition of a new constitution to one side).

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

This is v interesting. I think it's only legitimate to look to the US as a warning if you acknowledge the US constitution's idiosyncracies, most notably the difficulty/impossibility of the Art V amendment procedure;

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Excuse me, I see you said 'unamendable by the legislature' not just 'unamendable'. Well, I would make it amendable by the ordinary amendment procedure, whatever that is (legislative supermajority and/or popular vote and/or state/regional vote, whatever). But not amendable by ordinary procedure

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Well this is just a very thin, procedural conception of what a constitution is, and it's a conception entirely at odds with how constitutions work in most democracies. I also wouldn't make anything unamendable, for both theoretical and practical reasons.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

here all day talking about the various ways, large and small, in which the 1937 constitution sucks and needs to be changed! The whole point is that the automatic turn to the US as being symbolic of documentary constitutionalism as a whole is misguided.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I think we're getting bogged down a little here, in that I don't think the Irish constitution is 'particularly good' in the sense you indicate. The whole point is that it's just right there, immediately accessible, a better exemplar of how things *generally* work these days than the US. We could be

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Also happy to provide a PDF if you don't have institutional access to the above.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Besides, there's a lot more to the saga of the 8th amendment then just the citizens' assembly. I've a whole chapter on it in my book if you'd like to have a read! www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph-de...

bloomsburycollections.com

Triangular Constitution

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

The use of citizens assemblies was in that case just the govt covering its arse, and in subsequent cases it was arse-covering and just their general modishness. They're not inherent to the system, entirely politically contingent.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

concerns about them in general and in the Irish context in particular, but 'disgraceful' seems a bit strong to me. The point is a simple one: the electorate chose (wrongly) to insert the 8th amendment in the 80s, and chose (correctly) to repeal it in the 2010s.

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

2. Repealing the 8th amendment *didn't* 'require' a citizens' assembly. Nothing does. The government of the time simply lacked the courage to proceed without first holding one in order to generate consent/consensus. Now, I'm not an expert on cit assemblies, and I have some pretty serious procedural

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Tom Flynn @tomjsflynn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

1. Hard disagree. The right to control what does and does not happen to one's own body absolutely should be a constitutional matter, and every constitution should have a specific and enforceable right to abortion (which the Irish constitution still doesn't).

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