Happy Budget Day one and all!

Not looking this up but I assume Gobble and Waddle are crypto bros who committed massive securities fraud before donating heavily to the new White House ballroom

“Notably, during a 90-minute long evidence session, Prescott was at no point asked to explain why his own dossier traduced a Trump quote at least as seriously as the Panorama episode to which he referred. “But this was just one missing question among many…” www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-m...

Tim Montgomerie defending Farage: calling people racist is so passé, and anyway didn't we all spend our teens saying 'Hitler was right' and 'gas 'em all'? Er, no. We didn't. But Nigel Farage did.

BREAKING 🚨 New crisis for the BBC as @rutgerbregman.com accuses them of censoring anti-Trump quote in his Reith Lectures ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Dear UK: You don’t pay enough taxes to have an NHS that doesn’t run on immigration and immigrant labour. Sorry to be brutally honest but it’s how it is

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

UPDATED STORY: Former Reform UK Welsh leader is jailed for 10.5 years for taking bribes to put out Russian propaganda as an MEP. Nigel Farage described him as: "An honest, decent, honorable man who's been loyal to me and the party at all times."

Reform's former leader in Wales (and great mate of Farage) is being sentenced today for being a Russian agent. I do hope someone asks Nigel for his thoughts...

Oh that's awful.

Jesus fucking Christ www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

“Having someone like Robbie Gibb on the board is like a wolf in a sheep-pen. In some ways, it’s not his fault. It’s in his nature. He’s doing what he believes to be right. The real problem is the absolute lack of pushback from a weak chairman [Shah] and other board members.”

🗞️ Our latest issue is on sale - Welcome to Kent: A Reform UK council Featuring @edjennings.bsky.social, @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social, Jessica Cecil, @jamesrball.com, @sonia-sodha.bsky.social and more Get 10 weeks for £10: buff.ly/hI3VUVd

BBC DOSSIER UPDATE 🚨 A whodunnit with serious implications for the future of the broadcaster is underway – with all expected to be revealed at a select committee showdown ✏️ @jamesrball.com

NEW EPISODE 💡 The Matts explore an extraordinary study into how 16 and 17-year-olds are thinking about a wide range of issues, both political and social. Tune in 🎧 buff.ly/whc6WC6

Farage at school by those who knew him best: www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...

"What sticks in the memory most is not just his odious and prejudicial opinions towards black, Asian and minority ethnic students, but [...] how brazenly and actively he identified with them, wearing them loud and proud as badges of honour.” Classmates recall Nigel Farage the schoolboy racist.

"The fact that [Gill] did not need to be paid very much might be evidence that he was fairly easily recruited. After all, he is a member of a political movement that has been loosely aligned with Moscow for years." Excellent piece by @snellarthur.bsky.social

So if AI succeeds loads of people lose their jobs as they're replaced by AI, and if AI fails, loads of people lose their jobs as the economy crashes?

www.thenewworld.co.uk/arthur-snell... Using the CIA’s analytical tools to explain Nathan Gill’s treachery.

Oh ffs. Why are they so astronomically shit at this?

#sgtpX10 TOP FIVE VILLAINS chrisbarkerprints.co.uk

EXCLUSIVE 🚨 A report alleging Panorama broadcast misleading Trump quotes contains misleading quotes itself ✏️ @jamesrball.com

This is now outside the paywall, please do read and share

SCOOP: Turns out the report into Panorama selectively misquoting Trump, er, selectively misquotes Trump to make the BBC look worse. This feels... significant.

Exclusive: Reform’s flagship Kent administration is planning to shut down multiple council committees as it struggles to fill posts after losing nine of its own councillors

These self-proclaimed patriots have a funny way of showing it, don't they?

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

Trump's White House & fawning hacks here don't really care about the 0.001% that the BBC gets wrong. They care about all the stuff it gets right.

It’s already started - the BBC allows Newsmax boss to opine about bias, suggest some of the Jan 6 mob were merely innocent tourists visiting Congress, without pushback

The BBC isn't perfect, but it belongs to Britain not Trump. Political leaders across the UK must unite in defending its independence from the White House.

No single US news source is consumed by more than 25% of Americans, whereas 60% of Brits regularly watch/read/listen to the BBC. A single shared source of truth makes it harder for partisan echo chambers to form, or for divisive narratives to dominate. It’s good for social cohesion and compromise.

Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments: One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.

The BBC is in serious trouble and desperately needs us all to defend it or it will be gone forever.

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.

Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?

Panorama made mistakes but this ‘scandal’ is the work of populists trying to control the airwaves. They won’t rest ✏️ @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

“Ask yourself – who wins from a BBC under constant attack? Whose agenda does it suit? You, the citizen? Or the Murdochs, Farages, and Paul Marshalls of this world?” app.thenewworld.co.uk/story/144899...

Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection. Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?

WATCH 🎥 @sonia-sodha.bsky.social talks about the new wave of politicians engaging in open race-baiting Full video on YouTube: bit.ly/4omiSbs

For Nigel Farage to emulate Keir Starmer of 2024 and win on 33% he also needs more of the people who don't like him much to be pretty indifferent about him winning. But he is currently 50% very unfavouable.

Nigel meets reality. Brilliant (and very funny) analysis of the Caerphilly byelection and what it means for us all, by @mattwithers.bsky.social www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-withers...

Caerphilly does it for Labour's Ming vase strategy

I've been working with Demos to turn the Verification, Deliberation, and Accountability (VDA) Framework into a report that lays out how it can be used to diagnose the state of democracy and build solutions around building the capacity for those functions in institutional and public spaces.

Happy Thursday - it’s another edition of The New World. Go out and grab a copy to brighten your week - or, better still! - subscribe. Support independent journalism! Get 10 weeks for £10: bit.ly/4ozLqhw

🗞️ Our latest issue is on sale - Age of the Charlatans Featuring @moisesnaim.bsky.social, Quico Toro, @florencehallett.bsky.social, @sonia-sodha.bsky.social , Matthew d'Ancona, John Kampfner, John Bleasdale, @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and more Get 10 weeks for £10: buff.ly/KlKdSTN

Conmen don’t win people over with arguments. Instead, they reflect their dreams back at them – and everyone’s a sucker for that ✏️ @moisesnaim.bsky.social & Quico Toro

Laure Ferrari faces a criminal fraud verdict in Brussels over alleged misuse of €730,000 in EU funds ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀