Thrilled to be speaking at @goldsmithsuol.bsky.social again next month on why local journalism matters. Come for the PowerPoint, stay for the drinks reception!

Delightful to see the party currently leading in the polls front and centre across the news today, with plans to remove the right to live and work here indefinitely from hundreds of thousands of people, including my own partner. Really lovely way to start the week.

Utterly grim.

The Medway school at the centre of an argument over awarding a Nigel Farage t-shirts to a student winning an essay contest has u-turned and will no longer offer the prize. They told this to the Daily Mail, which does at least reference our original reporting. What an odd couple of days.

Arrived at Kent County Council’s full meeting today to find climate change protestors clashing with climate change denials outside of the building.

Thrilled to see my story about the Reform shirt being given away at a Medway school featured in Playbook today!

Pretty hard to do that when the covid one has been withdrawn from those of us with chronic respiratory conditions, though.

It's time to tell the racists to fuck off (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/this-is-en...

This is a pretty remarkable story that seemed to get weirder with every person I spoke to.

We were mentioned in the House of Lords with other brilliant indie news people by Lord Lucas. The Eastbourne peer is helping the public interest news sector push for reform of how public notice ads are placed. Legacy media corporates get nearly all the £50 million a year spent on these ads.

Niche local content, but this morning, I am mostly trying to figure out who submitted this utterly deranged proposal for local government reorganisations for Kent.

It's all getting a bit much in Kent. The politics stories we're chasing this week: A (Labour!) MP celebrating flags on lampposts. A Reform councillor defecting to UKIP. A school running an essay contest on Reform 'smashing the system' to win Reform merch. KCC leader pushing anti-vaccine misinfo.

Another one falls in Kent. Cllr Amelia Randall, elected as a Reform councillor for Birchington in May, has defected to... UKIP. Cllr Randall was posting in support of Reform on X on Thursday. It is unclear what happened between then and now to send her to 2015.

If everyone in Kent could stop doing newsworthy things, I'd very much appreciate it. I have enough content to fill out about eight newsletters this week.

Feel like it’s gone under the radar how few people are eligible for a covid vaccine anymore. I’m no longer eligible, whereas I’m still eligible for flu jab. Can anyone smarter than me make it make sense?

If free speech in this country is under threat, it is from thugs like this.

Really hard to imagine why when it costs me £52.50 to take a 34 minute train journey from here to London.

KentOnline: 'Protestors descend on hotel housing asylum seekers.' That descent in full:

We've somehow ended up in quite a remarkable position where Reform-led KCC are telling people that hanging flags on highways is unlawful but Kent Police say it's fine.

It's a Kent bonanza in James' links roundup this week, with features from both @kentcurrent.news and @localauthority.news featured, alongside an excellent long read on wtf happened with those spiders in Ebbsfleet.

So grateful for the uptick in new paid subscribers on the @kentcurrent.news this week. We literally couldn't do this without them.

Most reporters on local papers are basically making minimum wage. This would be funny if it wasn't so depressing...

@edjennings.bsky.social excellent Local Authority via @jamesomalley.co.uk. The publication interviewed one of the Reform party’s local councillors in Medway, John Vye: “What book have you read recently you would recommend? I don’t read books.” open.substack.com/pub/jamesoma...

Suspect most local media outlets have got so used to the traditional way of doing things that they won't know how to handle this at all, in the same way US outlets seem utterly unprepared for Trump, even the second time around.

All of these names are terrible.

Also notable is that aside from the Byline Times, no other outlet has picked this up. Nothing from KentOnline, nothing from KentLive, nothing from the BBC, nothing from any national paper. Quite remarkable, really.

Never seen the comments section of an interview light up in the way this has.

Pretty chilling story from @nnjournal.bsky.social about one of their journalists being threatened with arrest for reporting on a public figure and daring to offer them the right of reply.

I spoke to @journalismnews.bsky.social about recent changes to Substack and how they will affect both us and our readers.

Delighted to see my work make it to the front page of r/KentUK between someone looking for a tortoise boarder and advice on where to find the best sunsets.

🔴 The Reform and Conservative Politicians Mingling With Neo-Nazis and Fascists at Asylum Hotel Protests The recent wave of anti-migrant protests are providing a bridge between right-wing elected politicians and extremist groups bylinetimes.com/2025/08/21/t...

Great scoop from Kent Current www.kentcurrent.news/p/kent-refor...

24 hours since we published this, and still no response from anyone at Reform at County Hall, or from the national party.

Once more for the evening crowd. Still no response from anyone in the photo or Reform leadership at County Hall.

No one at County Hall seems particularly eager to explain how five Kent Reform councillors came to be smiling for photographs next to a neo-Nazi activist.

This is a remarkable piece. @rhysdgriffiths.bsky.social is doing some mightily impressive work on the @folkestonedispatch.substack.com.

This country slides into authoritarianism far too easily, but sometimes, it's totally justified.

Absolutely extraordinary story from @edjennings.bsky.social on who Kent's new Reform councillors are hanging out with:

No one at County Hall seems particularly eager to explain how five Kent Reform councillors came to be smiling for photographs next to a neo-Nazi activist.

People face prospect of having homes to live in.

I don't like to trail things early, but oh boy do we have a hell of a story coming up on @kentcurrent.news later this week.

When this happened, I cancelled my direct debit and went back to just paying a bill every six months. The first six monthly bill has arrived for £250, not quite the £78 per month they refused to budge on.

I sat down with @pressgazette.co.uk to talk about what we're doing with @localauthority.news and how we've managed to make a somewhat sustainable local news publication for Medway.

James is absolutely right on this, but if you disagree, you should yell at him and not me.

I suspect my audience here might be wrong for this, but I'm looking for car advice. What is the right car to purchase if I want to virtue signal that I care about the environment, but also want something the size of an SUV rather than a two-seater that runs on pedal power or some bullshit?

What new towns can learn from Ebbsfleet takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/what-new-t...

Truly it is a mystery why sales are slumping as prices soar.

Proud of @stevenkeevil.bsky.social for getting the biggest interview with Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran since she took office, and the areas he managed to get her to talk about. No two-line soundbites here, just a full hour long conversation with the person now shaping our county.

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night to celebrate the fourth birthday of Local Authority. Forever grateful for the generous, kind, and engaged community that we’ve managed to build around this new way of doing local news.

I love working from home, and have done it most of my working life. That love is being severely tested by a dog with an upset stomach that is dropping what can only be described as biological weapons under my desk.