As always, the story is how and why the media – particularly prominent broadcasters such as the BBC – are making certain choices as to which individuals, ideas, and views are platformed and how these are framed to the public. The path ahead will be shaped by such decisions. The water we swim in...

"Needless to say, copies of the Byline Times special issue have been circulating widely this week among the ranks of anti-Reform parties in the corridors of Westminster. The Gill case was also the main thrust of Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey's PMQs questions" Having an impact – outside of the system 👇

Independent investigative journalism that truly sits outside of the established system allows the media-political class itself to be scrutinised. How can we understand the world we live in if we won't ask difficult questions of those framing it? Support Byline Times: subscribe.bylinetimes.com

Superb piece by @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social in this month's @bylinetimes.bsky.social mag: "Britain's Media Has Let Nigel Farage Reshape Political Journalism - Why?" This article alone was worth my annual sub to one of the very few news outlets still doing proper journalism

Worth a read Bottom line we all need a sense of community Doesn’t necessarily has to be rooted in hate of others “Immigrants are the scapegoats they need. Everyone else just needs some humanity and help. Otherwise, we will remain strangers in a strange land -foreign to ourselves and to each other.”

Congratulations to the hugely talented @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social - shortlisted for the Editors’ Editor 2025 Award by the British Society of Magazine Editors - and prized guest @bylinepodcast.bsky.social Subscribe here to @bylinetimes.bsky.social subscribe.bylinetimes.com

“Journalism: far from being a neutral arbiter of information, it has the … power to craft the ideas we think with, not just the ideas we think about” @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social in this months @bylinetimes.bsky.social @peterjukes.bsky.social @adambienkov.bsky.social @josiah.writes.news

Show us you’re listening @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social by responding to this from @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social in this months @bylinetimes.bsky.social Guessing you won’t … @adambienkov.bsky.social @mrjamesob.bsky.social @hopenothate.org.uk @zackpolanski.bsky.social

I edited my first newspaper when I was 26 in 2014. 11 years on, a lovely surprise to be nominated for the 2025 Editors' Editor Award by The British Society of Magazine Editors for my work at Byline Times. A testament to the entire brilliant team @bylinetimes.bsky.social www.bsme.com/editors-edit...

The press continues to elevate Farage & not properly scrutinise Reform. Meanwhile, the temperature of the water we swim gets hotter... Small boats, asylum, protests – what about those, for the first time, thinking of themselves & others in terms of race? I discuss this with @peterjukes.bsky.social👇

Given how much the China spy case has dominated headlines, it really does beg the question: why is our political-media class so uninterested in Nathan Gill, his Russian bribes, his once close associate Nigel Farage, and Reform UK? Our new Byline Times edition investigates what the media won't 👇

Given how much the China spy case has dominated headlines, it really does beg the question: why is our political-media class so uninterested in Nathan Gill, his Russian bribes, his once close associate Nigel Farage, and Reform UK? Our new Byline Times edition investigates what the media won't 👇

"By vowing to tackle our “island of strangers” through tougher immigration, Keir Starmer is keeping us all trapped on it – by not offering any solutions to the real reasons that explain our estrangement." An excellent article on the futility of blaming immigration, by @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social

There's an excellent discussion of exactly this problem in the UK by @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social in @bylinetimes.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/byli...

"What goes in the basket is constantly changing and can reflect different parts of your life, experience, aspiration, your choice. Identity is not just about ethnicity" I spoke to Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti about flags and fixed identity, and why she thinks comparisons to the 1930s are valid 👇

'What If?' Brighton Summit - What's In A name? - What if journalism is not about truth? - What if there were no journalists? 3 of the speakers... Sheela Banerjee, @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social and Clive Myrie BBC @sussexbylines.co.uk www.brightonsummit.com

🔴 Shami Chakrabarti: 'We Need a Popular Front Broad Enough to Go From the Left of the Left to Liberal Conservatives' The Labour peer, lawyer and human rights activist speaks to @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social about the 'differing politics but shared values' approach to her new podcast Shami's Speakeasy

Starmer tells the Labour Conference that Nigel Farage's politics is based on "grievance" and the "competition of victims". But *why* some people identify with this seems to be the key question. We have had the reasons for years - especially since the Brexit vote. A vision and action is necessary.

1. 🧵On Global Insights this week, @bylinetimes.bsky.social’s @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social and @josbetts.bsky.social join Kwangu Liwewe to discuss the British right’s evolving relationship with identity and race. newlinesmag.com/podcast/brit...

Interested in Keir Starmer's comments criticising the BBC's Reform coverage & heading to Labour Party Conference in Liverpool? Come and join me and a range of speakers at the Fabian Society's fringe event: 'Restoring Trust and Standards in the UK's Media' 👇 12.30pm on Monday at Bluecoat Liverpool:

Join me and @nafeez.bsky.social at London's Gower St Waterstones on 23 September to explore the rise of the far-right in the political mainstream – the history and connections of which are explored in his revealing book, 'Alt Reich: The Network War to Destroy the West From Within' Tickets here 🔽

Interesting in depth conversation of the complexities, nuances and sometimes problematic issues of identity and belonging really worth listening to.

FROM MAGGIE TO MAGA The new Byline Times print edition has gone to press – exploring how the radical-right are the true heirs to Thatcher. When politicians can no longer offer tangible solutions to people's lives, a constant carousel of scapegoats is required 👇 In shops / subscribe.bylinetimes.com

The far-right's network war – exposed in @nafeez.bsky.social's Alt Reich – is rapidly accelerating. On 23 Sept, Ahmed joins Byline Times editor-in-chief @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social at Waterstones Gower St to unpack his explosive exposé. Tickets: www.waterstones.com/events/alt-r...

"The only time the issues of belonging or community or identity are discussed is around immigration..." @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social says it's time for a different conversation about identity. With @goldbergradio.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social podfollow.com/byline-podca...

"I can be British, English, a Londoner. I can be Indian...even my father's East African heritage." @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social tells @goldbergradio.bsky.social why identity in the UK today isn't black and white. podfollow.com/byline-podca...

LAWLESS BRITAIN? New Byline Times has gone to press on the authoritarian forces – here & abroad – driving this narrative 👇 "Anti-Britain propaganda is clearly working... Where is Starmer's vision of this green, pleasant & multicultural land?" (Sonia Purnell) In shops / subscribe.bylinetimes.com

Powerful words by London Mayor Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk in Byline Times on claims of 'lawless London' 👇 "These people can't stand what London represents... They believe a city as diverse & progressive as ours cannot be allowed to thrive. If it does, it makes a mockery of their entire worldview"

Excellent read and goes a long way to explain much of what we’re seeing and experiencing across many issues.

"David Dinsmore is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong with the relationship between power and the press" Starmer has appointed a former Editor of The Sun – who has a criminal conviction under the Sexual Offences Act – as a communications advisor. Again, as always, the water we swim in.

How far the Tories have moved. Impossible to imagine Badenoch or Jenrick saying that.

Interesting to speak to former Conservative Deputy PM Lord Heseltine for this latest edition... "Oswald Mosley marched against the Jews in the 1930s. Enoch Powell made the 'rivers of blood' speech in the 1960s. And Nigel Farage represents a new incarnation of that degree of prejudice & bitterness"

We need more writing about our humanness, what it lies in, how it challenges us, what it requires of us. We don't think about this enough, in my view. Stephen's book on his journey with his son Joey, who has severe learning disabilities, is for everyone - exploring 'the last taboo among liberals' 👇

We were quite fortunate to have Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham for the closing session of this summer’s #BylineFestival. We were even more fortunate that Byline Times editor-in-chief Hardeep Matharu also sat him down for an exclusive interview on the state of our politics today.

If we want to defend democracy and reduce harm, media literacy must be taken seriously, at school, at home, and across society. The Lords report backs that fully. The time for action is now, while we still have a government who don't call fact checks fake news.

The House of Lords just released a major report on media literacy. Its core message is that the UK is falling behind, and it’s putting democracy at risk. committees.parliament.uk/work/9030/me...

“[Beliefs] serve as signifiers of the group that people belong to, and those beliefs – with this social signaling function – can cause people to believe things which may not be grounded in evidence, simply because that is an indicator of the group of which they’re a part.”

@bylinetimes.bsky.social September edition. Critical & incisive. Not gloomy. Suggests where actions can help make our world better. @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social @peterjukes.bsky.social

"How are our more human needs for recognition, to be heard, to belong, to feel secure, being met in our 21st Century world?" This just might be the most important political problem we need to crack, without which we face a bleak, down-spiralling future driven by the millions unmoored by alienation.

"A former editor of The Sun will take up a senior communications role at the heart of government"

Proud of this pamphlet - our dysfunctional media is at the heart of so many UK policy failures from austerity to Palestine. As @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social puts it: "all too often, journalism in Britain operates as an extension of power rather than a check on it"

Back in April, Byline Times raised the issue that no lessons seem to have been learned after last summer's riots. The Government did not say an inquiry was underway. As agitation & discussion begins again, why didn't Westminster's media-political class keep this on the agenda? The water we swim in.

Loneliness isn’t just an affliction to be cured but an experience that can shape us for the better, Paul Bloom writes. If A.I. companions eliminate the feeling, we might lose something essential about being human.

Will a focus on "social cohesion" in itself be enough? All the deeper issues that led to the Brexit vote in 2016 have still not been addressed in 2025. If anything, things have gotten worse. This is really the (simple) underlying story, with another potentially anti-establishment trajectory.

Some very interesting points in here from Andy Burnham - including this on the Westminster bubble:

“The reason why concern for truth doesn’t dominate in the reasoning process is because that’s not what is actually relevant for the person trying to make sense of the reality in which they find themselves”. Professor J McKenzie Alexander @lsephilosophy.bsky.social

Why do so many people feel completely alienated from politics? And when did politics on the left stop being about helping them with the fundamentals in their lives? I sat down with Labour's Greater Manchester Mayor @andyburnham.bsky.social to find out how he thinks the hard-right can be defeated 👇

Also includes, amongst many other things, my latest column on the disingenuous populist claim that 'we're not allowed to talk about immigration', what lies behind it and how to counter it. Do consider buying or subscribing to @bylinetimes.bsky.social, every issue is packed with interesting stuff.

"Right-wing populists can mobilise sections of the white working-class because it does exist as a social reality. Rather than deny this, the challenge is to create a story of the nation they feel they have a voice in – but alongside, not in competition with, other communities" @jydenham.bsky.social

Delighted to have contributed to this really excellent edition of @bylinetimes.bsky.social