Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera

I do think the biggest way in which Donald Trump has broken journalism is his lack of shame. It used to be that exposing a public figure's secret appalling sins would cause them shame, humiliation and a loss of job. This made journalism consequential. But Trump just shrugs and nothing happens

Luxurious duck-shaped vessel carved from a single piece of rock crystal around 3,500 years ago! From Bronze Age Mycenae, it is said to be an exquisite example of imported Minoan stoneworking. Probably used to hold oils or cosmetics. National Archaeological Museum Athens Greece 📷 me #Archaeology

X is in clear + systemic breach of its legal duties in the UK to remove unlawful content from its platform. Proof: when X users abuse + harass others with the racial slur "paki", X reporting system defends the racist abuse in more than 90% of cases reported. A new thread documenting this.

WHY, indeed

This isn’t even the stuff they’re trying to actually stop from getting out.

I can't tell you how many times I've signed an NDA.

Good piece by David Aaronovitch on the Prescott dossier: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Every time someone’s like “put that in the louvre,” my head now goes “and then steal it from the louvre, the security password is louvre”

I'm not sure if others have noticed this, but interesting that one of the Prescott criticisms of the BBC is based on those of the 'History Reclaimed' group, which is also associated with the 'Restore Trust' group's attacks on & so far unsuccessful attempts to take control of the National Trust. 1/3

Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms. He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.

Just saying but I picked David Szalay's Spring for Good Reads on R4 a few years ago... it's just as good as Flesh, maybe better, so perceptive on relationships

John Le Carre was right about the British establishment and how the alumni of the best schools will sell out their own country for status and money and in particular a desperate desire for American attention

A brilliant example of what Lewis Goodall talks about when he argues why right-wing radicals keep winning. They don't play by the rules and simply don't care. Whereas the institutions they want to destroy do even when said rules are contorted to absurdity and are blatantly being used against them.

Or in 2025 when that person who didn’t believe in the US Department of Education was put in charge of the US Department of Education.

The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.

I do not understand the Labour government's reticence over defending the BBC and social media regulation. Their long-term survival basically depends on it. Their cowardice in the face of it may be the single thing they are most remembered for. on.ft.com/3JVxC1Z via @FT

I'll be giving a talk online about my 15 year pilgrimage painting industrial locations across the UK, Wednesday 12th November 6pm. @scottishgallery To register; scottish-gallery.co.uk/events/15-ye...

A radio programme like the Shipping Forecast but it’s called Bin Day and it just reads out every single council in the country’s bin schedule

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten. "I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.

The CURRENT sitting MP for Clacton earns £511,000 as a presenter for GB News and took £281,000 as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion. So maybe sit this one out, you rancid herring.

Watched an ai tiktok of a person cutting a cake that looks like a cat and a pet cat who’s watching freaks out and someone in the comments said ‘this is disgusting’ and someone else underneath wrote ‘its ai’ and the first one replied ‘it doesnt make it right he’ll be traumatised’

One nice detail that can easily be lost in this graph - even right wingers trust the BBC more than the right wing tabloids

Plaques commemorating Black WWII soldiers fighting against Nazi Germany have been removed from a U.S. military cemetery in the Netherlands —Newsweek

all my core arguments in one case: 1. the modern far right has international ambitions 2. concessions don't pacify the far right, they embolden it 3. you can't be neutral (as the bbc tried to be) 4. they attack where resistance is weakest 5. right now, that's the uk

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

I mean, what kind of legal action would this be exactly? Defamation? I would truly love to see it. 'They made it look like I instigated a coup during my very well recorded coup attempt.'

‘Gibb’s supporters say he is trying to save the BBC from itself; he was also heard last year to say that if he didn’t get his way, he would “blow the place up”.’

ICYMI the Telegraph's reporting on the BBC bias 'crisis' included the fantastical claim that the right-wing and unabashedly anti-woke History Reclaimed website is a legitimate arbiter either of historical fact or political balance

An essential precondition for authoritarianism is the neutering of sources of real news.

It’s that binary choice of “good” or “bad” that is so tiresome. Dialectic Behavioural Therapy encourages the use of the word “and” rather than “or”. So “Churchill was the leader the world needed in 1940 AND he was an appalling racist”