🚨 The BBC’s Road to Appeasement As the BBC comes under growing criticism for its coverage of Reform, we republish @adambienkov.bsky.social and @baghdaddi.bsky.social’s 2024 investigation into how the corporation's leadership became cowed by the right www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-bbcs-r...

I very much enjoyed taking part in this. Panorama made a stupid mistake, allowing mortal enemies - some of whom are inside the BBC - a chance to advance their agendas.

Been back to my childhood village in Essex for a funeral. High Street is littered with tatty flags attached to every lamp post and telegraph pole, and by God, it looks awful. Everyone I spoke to hates them. So intimidating. Apparently- "Epping Forest council is scared of offending the nasties."

Iraq War veteran Tom Mossey at No Kings protest today in Washington DC: “I didn’t deploy three times [to Iraq and Afghanistan] for this bullshit.”

Meet Nadia Sass. This is the wife of the man who bribed Nathan Gill. Today @thenerve.news reveals how she was a key part of the Kremlin operation that targeted not just Gill but at least 2 other MEPs and a member of the House of Lords. thenerve.news/p/nathan-gill-… 2/

#BBCQT Always bring the receipts.

Man who hates everything else about Britain hates our schools too. Hardly news.

It is demented that on the same day Kemi BadEnoch declared English degrees worthless and Nick Clegg declared the entire AI industry reliant on royalty & copyright free access to all text written ever.

The "us" in this absurd statement is conservative white people

the world upside down I agree with MTG.

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch. Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

Thorough, important, and gripping journalism. Please take time to read.

Maidin mhaith www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's The Day of German Unity today, and I for one will be heading for the #Oktoberfest a bit later. Here's a poem I wrote three years ago.

Why are this Labour government quite so poor at messaging on migration?

A new poem, Sorrow

The true sign of patriotism for prospective prime ministers at the next election will be to post an AI-generated image of themselves draped in poppies and flags, with their finger on an imaginary nuclear button and a tagline saying ‘I would. Would they?’

They should do it anyway for the environmental benefits.

I am very happy to have made a contribution to the Action on Armed Violence website, in the form of a poem I wrote almost 12 years ago, describing experiences I had in Gaza and Iraq, and the murder of Lee Rigby. aoav.org.uk/2025/nbh-a-j...

This is a music station by the way. A couple mins of news every half hour or so. A station you listen to to hide away from news. But even here, you get these vicious little snippets of hatred towards refugees, leaking out from the broader BBC output.

“Establishing the BBC's independence is critical if we want to build confidence in shared facts and respect for the truth".

Not even 9am. So far on Radio 6, the news bulletins have featured a mother saying her daughters aren't safe because of asylum seekers, a Tory politician lambasting Labour for crossing numbers & Badenoch encouraging councils to lodge legal challenges against hotels. An endless stream of hateful bile.

🔴Keir Starmer’s Government Still Hasn’t Reviewed Use of Musk’s X Despite Platform ‘Amplifying Hate Speech and Misinformation’ Downing Street refuses to explore alternative platforms, like Bluesky, despite the role of X in last summer’s violent disorder bylinetimes.com/2025/07/31/k...

I have had a long and varied journalistic career... This was a moment that gave me some satisfaction...

🔴 New research reveals the best attack lines to use against Reform 👇👇

Watch @EdDavey.LibDems.org.uk call out the BBC for their failure to hold Nigel Farage to account.

I have been looking through my old sketchbooks... I did these oil pastels of Lake Como in 2009... I am a different person with a different life now.

🔴Reform UK’s ‘Children’s Book Bans’ Could Open The Floodgates for Censorship The party that claims to champion “free speech” is now trying to crack down on books whose messages they disagree with, reports @katiedd.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/07/08/r...

Funny. I would have expected the "Free Speech Union" and the other self-proclaimed defenders of free expression to be all over this. But 🦗🦗🦗 How strange. www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-arre...

I have been saying (and writing for @bylinetimes.bsky.social ) for four years that Robbie Gibb should not be on the BBC Board... he is not impartial and has exerted a malign hard-right influence throughout his career. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/j...

“Starmer's EU deal is a big break in the suffocating Brexit consensus that has held Britain back for a decade. For the first time a UK government is doing things to actually undo the damage of Brexit, rather than increase it. For that alone it should be welcomed” 👏 bylinetimes.com/2025/05/19/k...

Your eternal reminder that Nigel Farage turned up to just one of 42 meetings when he was a member of the European Parliament fisheries committee

My latest for @bylinetimes.bsky.social was inspired by a visit to the opera in Leipzig, but it's about how Germany's cultural & political elites are taking on Putin's Russia. The context is Ukraine, and 30% support for pro-Russian parties on the far right and left. bylinetimes.com/2025/05/15/g...

🎶 Imagine 🎼 🎶🎶

🔴Germany’s Political and Cultural Establishment Prepares to Stand Up to Putin and His Allies As Germany rearms, Patrick Howse visits the eastern state of Saxony, where the country’s cultural elite are now also taking on Putin bylinetimes.com/2025/05/15/g...

Very happy to have written a new piece for @bylinetimes.bsky.social - and it's not about the BBC. I went to the opera in the fascinating city of Leipzig to see how Germany's cultural elite is taking on Putin's Russia. bylinetimes.com/2025/05/15/g...

very good on BBC confusing impartiality with ‘both-siding’.

ICYMI

My latest article for @bylinetimes.bsky.social is about how the BBC's flawed attempts at impartiality, policed by someone who isn't impartial, led to the cancellation of a podcast about a heating system. bylinetimes.com/2025/04/28/h...

🔴 How the BBC's Flawed Impartiality Scuppered a Podcast About a Heating System Former BBC producer and reporter @baghdaddi.bsky.social explores the latest worrying sign of the BBC's flawed interpretation of 'impartiality'

@BylineTimes is six years old. In that time it has done a terrific job of exposing the UK's dishonest politicians and compliant media, and highlighting the damage the closeness between those groups has caused bylinetimes.com 1/3

A simple, short video of my latest poem - inspired by the times youtu.be/1yTOZIk9Rhc

Please take a moment to look at this. Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

🚨 Economists told Big Issue that a wealth tax could generate as much as £24 billion a year – five times the £4.8bn Rachel Reeves expects to save from welfare cuts annually. Learn more. ⬇️ buff.ly/5ri8IdS

I am trying out new ways of presenting some of my poems - here's a short and simple video of my latest, written in March 2025. View from the Balcony emerged from the shadows that lie over us, even as spring comes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yTO...

"Getting the UK back in the Single Market and the Customs Union is a prerequisite for creating sustained growth that can improve opportunities for British people across the board"

“I have found out one thing about these people. If they attack you be careful to stand your ground and they will leave you, but if you run they will follow.” 19th Century abolitionist Ellen Garrison Jackson Clark on dealing with racist bullies.

One of my regular breakfast guests

It's the satirist I feel sorry for