Bluesky Thinking: Will the promise of the Xodus last?

Like a rat off a schooner with a hole in its hull, I scurried over to Bluesky as part of the Xodus of social media users now apparently abandoning Elon Musk’s personal fiefdom.

I say apparently – I cannot be alone in having retained my X account while establishing the Bluesky one. But many Bluesky users seem to take as much delight in having left Twitter as they do in having joined this new, albeit very similar, world.

Bluesky does not, so far, appear to be, as Twitter has become, riddled with porn, filled with invective and tainted by racism. Not once so far – and it has been days – have I seen the sort of candid accident, disaster or war images that reveal the myriad dreadful ways in which the human body can be defouled and destroyed. For this, I am grateful. And, certainly, the engagement I’ve had so far is stronger and downright nicer than that on Twitter of late. 

But it is a platform filled with people, and people are nothing if not fallible. And so, while so many users revel in what is being held up as a kinder, more social culture – one in which reading books and having a library card are regarded as tokens of enlightenment – I wonder how deep that change is and how long it can last.  

Promises rarely last, do they? Life is too inconvenient for many pledges to be kept and positions to be maintained. Which can create circles which are very difficult to square. 

Scottish Labour’s position on the Winter Fuel Payment may be one such circle. Anas Sarwar has announced that, if the party forms the next Scottish Government, he’ll “take the power back from the DWP” and restore the Winter Fuel Payment. 

Sarwar says changing the threshold for pension credit eligibility – now the golden ticket to the WFP – would create a fairer system, as would ‘tapering’ the support offered to wealthier pensioners. 

Is this a move towards a frank conversation about universality? That would be healthy at a time of straitened public finances.

But trying to pass off the unpopular change to the Winter Fuel Payment as something done by “the DWP” is disingenuous. The DWP is government machinery, but it is not government itself – and UK Labour is pulling the levers of that machine. As an attempt to create distance between Scottish Labour and the controversial decision, the framing provides precious little cover.

While the Scottish Parliament has voted to call for a U-turn on the matter, Sarwar has not backed that call, instead offering his pledge as a “Scottish solution”. Indeed, with colder, damper weather north of the border and in the absence of a UK-wide change, a Scottish solution would be welcome, and that kind of possibility is intrinsic to the promise of devolution. 

But should the issue wait until 2026? Jam tomorrow will do nothing for pensioners facing hardship today. Prior to the general election, voters were promised that Scottish Labour MPs would influence the government. On this matter, that influence seems weak indeed. 

Scottish Labour has determined that it cannot support the Winter Fuel Payment cut, but nor can it oppose it. Will this third way convince the many or the few? Sarwar will hope for the former. 

In its own way, Bluesky offers the promise of better days ahead for its users. But already fake MP accounts have been uncovered and insults volleyed, and so I am sceptical that this truly is the dawn of a brave new digital era.