Hey British media, It’s no surprise that if you give Farage the run of the place, he’ll start winning. Time to do your actual jobs and start interrogating him on his Brexit shitshow, his funding, his Trumpiness, his idiotic manifesto, his real plans for the NHS… instead of drumrolling him into No.10
I assume Farage is also in full support of the ongoing genocide?
Yes but the media love to create the drama that gives them the story... Whatever the consequence. It's all about the headline. 2 take away points. Labour & tories trying to win over the reform voters just empowers reform.. And there are over 16000 Council seats in England, Reform have 677.
And interrogate him about his work for Russia Today, support of Russian election meddling (through his voting), Putin's invasions of Ukraine & his European army fake news...there might just be some British public interest in it... Here's a racist paper (Express) debate: youtu.be/aYsE88hmIbY?...
Get to it, British “Journalists” or you’ll be living the “American Nightmare.”
“To be believable, We must be credible, To be credible, We must be truthful. A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” —-Edward R. Murrow, U.S. Journalist (1908–1965)
They want another Trump, Sarah 😥
while we should also encourage Labour to stop aping Reform and do what Labour governments are supposed to do: make things better for those who are struggling or less well-off, and not keep bowing to their donors
Exactly, Starmer giving Reform the keys to 10 Downing Street with his welfare cruel cuts, he isn't listening, instead he is saying go further and harder than before, clueless idiot
And Reform will make even more Benefit cuts
Labour under Starmer shouldn't be doing welfare cuts to the sick and disabled, that is one main reason he lost to Reform at Runcorn and elsewhere,
🔥🔥
Problem is the British media are Right wing Media paid to push this Crap Starmer needs to crack down on Lobbyists, Tax (top 1%) tax them! Support sick, disabled elderly Stop dark money into Political accounts. Move Faster!! Drop 🍊💩 across the pond, we don't need him!
💯 farage and his far right party are sponsored by musk/trump. The uk media like sky and the bbc are keeping this from the public.
Genuine question.. Reform is a Ltd company w shareholders (Farage & Tice) who are self appointed directors of the company..? How would that work if a Ltd company was elected as government to run the country ?! 😟😵💫🤦🏻♀️
And hey, British media, have you learned nothing from Trump? If Fagash gets in, YOU will be amongst the first casualties. Time to stop giving him publicity - you're digging your own graves.
Although true in terms of raw numbers, pretending there’s no problem or it’s not that bad is the worst response.
Nobody said to. It's perspective we need. The wins of Labour, Tories, LibDems etc might not be sexy for Beth Rigby & co., but they're also part of the news.
But they're not being reported. That's the point of this thread. In my view Sir Keir needs to move left and fast to fight Reform instead of trying to compete.
Oh, there's a problem, all right, and the problem is this: despite being a fringe extremist group with a handful of MPs and fewer councillors than other parties, Reform is allowed to dominate our media and is constantly platformed by the BBC. Reform should be getting less airtime than the Greens.
I agree, if only we had a Labour government in a position to regulate the media…
They're trying to soften up the electorate so they'll accept a fascist as a potential PM.
And if you think I'm being melodramatic by calling Farage a fascist...
Indeed. Had all local councillors been up for election then the political landscape of the UK would have been totally transformed locally.
It’s a pretty big sample size & gives us a snapshot of what’s actually happening. Labour apparently doubling down on chasing Reform UK Ltd votes fills me with existential dread…
People hanging on to the fact that the Tories and Labour still have far more councillors than reform are not thinking this through. After all you can’t lose a seat that is not up for election.
Thanks for an ALTed version. Saved for whenever #DerFührage emerges from his Tufton Street bunker to deliver coded hate speech on the BBC. So that's daily then...
LBC bulletins have for the last day been assiduously regaling listeners with the thoughts of Andrea Jenkyns on her new role as mayor. Would they do the dame for a representative from the Green Party?
A resounding "no".
I emailed my Labour MP about the press bias. He replied with a laissez faire argument you'd expect from a victorian Tory. Busy people esp may only catch the main news if any & it's packed with bullshit and suppresses bad news i.e. TRUTH about the far right. No Anti-Farage gets a similar platform
THIS ⬆️ Complete failure by the British media !! How did Farage & Reform get away & distance themselves with the total failure of Brexit. We have seen Germany Canada and now Australia defeat far right in the elections since Trump. Time for the Media to turn the screw on these clowns 🤡
And pointing out how many votes he missed while,as an MEP,he took the salary & all the perks of being in the EU Parliament,but rarely bothered to show up! He’s a grifter & a conman of the worst type,pretends he’s a “working man”,with a history of working with metal.BOLLOX!Stockbroker chav & scammer
Isn’t just watching Trump demolish his own country leading to the end of political hopes for miniature Trumps like Farage? that’s insane
One of the most annoying politicians on.themplanet. Without a doubt. So pleased with himself.
The media has turned Farage into a character rather than holding him to account. He's not some bloke down the pub — he’s a dangerous ideologue with a track record of lies, division, and chaos. Stop platforming him like a novelty act. Start exposing him like the threat he is.
Won't happen. Should, but won't.
On the other hand we've got a chance to see what he does in those seats he's won, before the next General Election. I doubt if Reform will remain popular for long. They look like a lot of asset strippers to me.
Unfortunately, like Trump with his MAGA groupies, Farage has a fan base who don't seem to care he has made their lives worse financially and narrower in outlook and will believe every word he spouts, every dream he sells.
Platforming and legitimising RW Extremists like Farage, makes news organisation complicit in all the hate and divisiveness he creates.
THIS. I am now stuck with a mayor whose prior role in life was getting repeatedly hit in the head. Just so some tv exec gets some clickbait on his news show. FFS
If the two main parties are styled 'Old school Tory' and 'Bonkers mad Tory', I guess in the present world climate it's no surprise that the 'Extreme Fascist Tory' candidate gets elected. 'Manofthepeople' Farage earned £1m from other 'jobs' in the last 10 months. #RejectReformParty
Man of the People - My Arse.
They worship the ground that rancid prick walks on. The BBC's very own little golem.
The same thing happened with Brexit, the media gave the Brexiteers free run, but no one was questioning the downside of it.
Trouble is the brush media are mostly far right wing Even @bbclaurak.bsky.social !! So they’ll all want fartage as PM!! And sink the uk ship for good
The US made the same mistake with Trump
Well said. Those elections were for a very small proportion of the local councils, and a large number of them were in conservative areas. To omit the context is bad journalism. My heart sinks that we are now doomed to more TV appearances by the uncouth yahoo, Andrea Jenkyns.
The only good thing about that is she is throughly dislikable and can’t hide her distain for “ordinary people” (gave 2 fingers outside parliament). Previous leaders kept her under wraps for that reason. She will be front and centre but even reform voters will hate her when see her true self.
She’s just been interviewed by Lewis Goodall on LbC. Apeing MAGA rhetoric.
How was the usually reliable Mr Goodall?
Pretty good… only caught the tail end of it. I have to turn off as soon as Ali Miraj makes an appearance.
She’s as bad as Trump. A genuinely unintelligent person.
Our own Marjorie Taylor Greene🙁
And how proud of ourselves we should be to have caught up in America's race to Toxic Ignorance.
newrepublic.com/post/194871/...
!
Clearly insane.
archive.is/83U0h
archive.is/83U0h
I live in Lincolnshire. ☹️
It could be worse. You could live in You could live... (consults notes) (googles frantically) You could (feverishly smooths a huge map on table)... ...live... it's OK, hang on...I've got this... ...you could.... (Gives up. Lays sympathetic arm on shoulder) Oh mate.
Stoke?
Never been to Stoke. (Thinks) Didn't Gordon Banks play for them? And Stanley Matthews?
He did indeed. I stood on his toe once in the directors box.
Them wuz the days. Two of the greatest-ever players in their positions, and they weren't at one of the so-called "elite" clubs.
Football was the working man’s sport. Now largely ruined by big business.
😁
You mean that it would be worse if I lived in Lincoln itself? Oh dear. ☹️
(unfurls map again. Stands back. Puts head on one side, then the other. Squints. Sucks teeth.) (As if the thought has just occurred) There's an actual Lincoln?
....as opposed to just a -shire?
There is indeed. The town typifies the county.
Blimey….
I once met a couple from Boston (the Lincs one) at an EU rally outside parliament. They said they needed to come to get a little dose of camaraderie and hope, because they felt so isolated locally 😟
Boston is... well, one hesitates to categorise a whole town, but... well, let's just say that the Daily Fail sells well there. ☹️
My condolences.
I really wonder if she'll last long. She appears to be very volatile and really hasn't a clue about working with a team.
Tell that to the TV current affairs departments - and not just the BBC - who will be working themselves into a frenzy to put him on every panel they have.
She’ll just ponce around attempting to be controversial and achieving nothing. She’s the worst kind of politician. There should be a suitability test for all those wanting to enter politics.
🖕-her most famous response seems so appropriate at this point…
Turn out was less then 50%. Wake the fuck up Britain!!!
Voting should be compulsory.
That’s still concerning though imo. Having the right move further right is a bad sign. It’s exactly how we got stuck with MAGA here. As bad as the Reagan republicans might’ve been, at least they defended the basic values of democracy and liberty, which have allowed us to fight for progress
True. To modernise Burke, "for evil to triumph, it is only necessary for media to normalise it."
I think the press is totally slanting this, following a script that promotes Farage and Reform. Why honestly reflect on these elections when you can make stuff up as you go along, apathy and inconsistent voting in council elections doesn't make for sensational journalism.
If that's the case, then progressive groups need to organize phone/text/email campaigns to said media outlets. Tell the press you'll boycott news programmes' advertisers. If there's one thing to learn from the U.S. shitshow, it's that pressure campaigns work.
I agree with you and while I do protest to media outlets as well as press the government, I admit it is a failing as I'm aware of many of us doing it individually, it would have more impact as a larger group. Tristan Snell, a lawyer in the US did something similar there but after the election
I agree. It's easy to ignore individuals but impossible to ignore large, well-organized groups.
☝️💯 Tesla is a case in Point
Perfect example that people protests work
Join us this Sunday for our new morning show 'Live with Nigel and Laura' on BBC1,2,3,&4 12 hours of family fun covering lifestyle, the holiday, Lee Anderson out and about, the newspaper, celebrity chef cooking brunch for 30p, JRM msg for the day from God and neo fascist propaganda.
I laughed at your post but also felt horror this could actually happen as across the pond!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWkm...
After shilling for Brexit he ran like a cockroach when given the opportunity to direct that horror show. Weasels are braver.
The threat that giving them an easy ride means they'll be open to future interviews is a weak one. They should grill them, confront them and do their job rather pander and give a platform to say what they want with no countering obvious lies. Farage thrives on bluster and false media discreditation.
If only we could get Western media to do journalism instead of pro capitalist propaganda
Agree - Putin admirer - Trump acolyte - Brexit birther - Climate change denier - Fishing betrayer - Xenophobia stirrer - Division causer - Cosplay man of the people The Breaker in Chief What has Farage ever been right about? What has he ever done to improve lives? Easy to hold to account 🤷♂️
That is the intention. Our media is predominantly right wing. Some of it is so far right it goose steps and turns otherwise good working class people into fascists.
The only way that whack job wins is if your current pm is some kind of feckless, clueless, misguided dolt who….oops…never mind.
In the interests of impartiality the Bozo Broadcasting Company will always promote the far right over all others. Better people than I have said this.
✅
Start by asking why he is still around, as he promised to leave if Brexit was not a success.
Agree that the media are complicit with their kid gloves approach, but Labour could & should be leading the charge by creating a counter narrative instead of legitimising it all by conceding ground on *everything*
This and implementing Leveson 2 would settle a lot of the bullshit down. But… 🤷🏽♀️
The alternative "narrative" is futile, for as long as the 'English' media can ignore, twist, lie, promote and destroy anything the establishment demands.
Spot on!
Agreed. Fucking wankers like Kuennsberg going 'o wow I said he'd could be PM and looks like I might be right' - like it's nothing to do with her or all the other media cunts.
It's too late, they've already handed him the next general election win.
While you’re at it, you might want to ask about why their education plans sound a lot like Stephen Miller’s Also did they miss the memo from Canada and Australia?
They'll be sorry if they don't.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so Labour need to do some proper socialism. Like decoupling the price of electricity from that of gas, which would make everybody £s better off overnight, decoupling the MSM (including the BBC) from its right wing ‘funding’ would have a similar effect. *doesn’t hold breath*
Don’t be stupid Britain!!!! Don’t end up like us !!!! Completely SCREWED
Would it be rude to leave this here for the people that have not seen it? I think it encapsulates the UK media that thinks it is still non biased. 10 mins in. Best 45 mins or so I have watched on this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dR...
"Right wing mainstream media is a prescriptive force designed to create a cultural environment in which anti-woke values become dominant. They aren't beholden to progressive or left voter preference – their aim is to stamp it out". Read article & share - westenglandbylines.co.uk/politics/six...
Thank you.
And did you see Reform have one particularly alarming “policy” of re-education to instil patriotic values. Simply Orwellian ideas 😱
Absolutely spot on Sarah! As a journalist myself I grieve our once great media. It’s now run for the sake of a minority and by billionaires with one agenda - to make them richer and the public poorer.
Kinda strange that the press shout about their duty of impartiality when it comes to reporting genocide but when it's politics that goes put the window and they promote one party above all others.
While I agree with the sentiment, here's what I fear we are missing. Farage is saying the things that, in a normal world, would cost him votes. We no longer live in that world. Ask him difficult questions, corner him, and he will give answers that should spell the end for him. It won't.
Farage has nothing in common with working class people and it's time that they stopped being fooled by him. It is also time that Labour stopped pandering to this mythical Red Wall and did what is best for the nation by rejoining the EU. #Rejoin #EU
The trouble is 80% of the British media - and certainly its billionaire owners - wants Farage in No 10.
Actually what they want is for goverments to dance to their tune and they will promote the Fromage wrecking ball for as long as necessary. Brexit has shown that Fromage & Co and their rebellious ideas will ruin Britain if they ever got to Number 10.
But look at how much the wealth of the top 1% has grown since Brexit.
Sure, they didn't lie about 'taking back control'. 😕
🙂🙂 They didn't need to -- just let someone else tell the lies & get the votes & enjoy the £££ flooding in.
They funded the coup.
What’s the BBC’s excuse? It’s the main source of news for the majority of people and they’ve been platforming him for decades🤷🏻♂️
Senior management are Tories. And they’re scared of him.
That’s a fair point, but they haven’t all been in post as long as they’ve been platforming frog face. Most were appointed under Johnson, weren’t they? He’s been on QT more than any other individual (citation needed!) over the last twenty years.
Clicks. Same for the main TV channels in the US with Trump.
Fair point.
Who don’t even live here. Other countries ban foreign ownership - Starmer needs to grow a pair and do this and stop sucking up to Murdoch/Rothermere etc.
It is about clicks, shares, and engagement because we've allowed those to become the only measure of worth and value for money. He's easy to write and talk about. He is divisive. He feeds ents and current affairs differently so delivers a 'balance' tick. A new plan is needed to tackle neopopulism.
also the media (including the BBC) like him and want him to be prime minister.
I'm not so sure about that. Current affairs media, maybe. But that's a small part of the broadcast media, really. And of them, faced with the reality, I don't think many really want pseudo-fascism in no.10
Parts of the media are pushing Farage unwittingly. They don’t seem to realise how populism works.
Oh they know. But they put their self-interest first.
No, I’m going deeper. The BBC for example think that impartiality can accommodate it. It can’t, but their board is happy to let it pass. Maybe they’ll wake up when they realise that Farage might be the death nail for the Tory party.
By now though, surely the only people left there who think that are genuinely stupid? That would have been a naïve view 15 years ago. Now, it feels deliberate. Only alternative being idiocy.
Tory, can equate to stupid.
True
Amen to this, it's detestable that Reform get so much damned coverage, this politainment rubbish is like a disease of the media. They're addicted to controversy and never have anything critical about Farage, it's blatantly Pro-Reform bias. Billionaires gonna Billionaire...whole system is rotten.
‘Politainment’! Spot on a perfect word to explain what they do
"It's detestable that Reform get so much damned coverage, this politainment rubbish is like a disease of the media." They love selling Farage's narrative framing of plucky underdog outsiders. It's past time they got proper, consistent scrutiny. (Unmasking a villain is great entertainment, too.)
Way past time, these pretenders aren't for anyone but the very "elites" they claim to be fighting against, Can't rely on the media to set the record straight though, they're mostly billionaire owned propaganda factories for the greed machine and they want Reform in badly.
The BBC has given Farage a ridiculous amount of airtime. Starmer needs to toughen up and sort this out.
Definitely, they've got to wake up and smell the coffee on this one or be swept aside in the next GE.
If you think of how the BBC has blackmailed the population into paying unnecessary licences for decades, while protecting the child abusers in its ranks, they're no better than the criminals.
Well said. He seems to be a BBC hero as well.
Is the British media terrified of Farage ?? Just like mainstream media is terrified of Trump in the US? Just like the mainstream media was terrified of the conservatives in Canada? Definitely looks like it. Does the mainstream media lose their ability to ask tough questions when confronting FARAGE?
Yes, I agree. How about a simple question like, Name one Brexit benefit?
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
You love the reply guys. Get over yourselves
Absolutely you think he was a serious contender! But then you see the real figures! It’s wrong very wrong it’s manipulation from within the BBC to make you think Farage is relevant! Again their playing us for fools
@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @thetimes.com @dailymail.co.uk @telegraphnews.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social @channel4news.bsky.social
He's just another wanna be and mini-me version of dump #trump, speaking blatant lies, spreading falsehoods & fear in people without suffering any consequences for his criminal actions for decades. He should have been imprisoned, along with #boris for f* up the country with #Brexit lies. 🤬
You were absolutely right there Sarah.
Exactly! He didn’t even want or think Brexit would happen. He just used it as a way to divide people! Just like the right wingers in Australia ambushed the Voice referendum!
When he starts restricting them, it won't even occur to them that they did it to themselves 🙄
Sadly when it comes to the UK the media is overwhelmingly right wing so it will just be another day for them.🙄 It's a bit like trying to get a bunch of white guys to worry about the rise of fascism.
The same is true nearly everywhere in the world because the ultra wealthy can afford to take losses on the media to use it as a gaslighting arm. And, as they have zero scruples and there is no real oversight, they are free to publish deception and outright lies over and over again.
Agree, I see so much independent media springing up as a response, Meidas Touch, Bulwick, Bryan Cohen etc in the USA and in the UK, Turn Left, A different Bias, Politics Social, Navara etc. I think more and more people drifting away from the old media because we can't trust it 🧐
1/2 Of the list, when we get to Meidas Touch, most definitely Bulwark and even to some extent BTC, we start pushing the boundaries of truly independent media. BTC was an actor before and always seemed to be auditioning for MSNBC. Now that he is accepted there
2/2 and the winds have blown towards Bernie and AOC, his blue business suit trademark has disappeared. Bulwark are just Reagan Republicans looking to regain power and financed as such. Tim Miller is not a friend, and is partly responsible for releasing the monster, imo. A friendemy at best.
Yeah, they had a UK transphobe on Mona's show, Mona is a massive transphobe too. I guess I used the Bulwick as the enemy of my enemy. I watch Meidas more.
Meidas Touch goes back and forth for me. They'll praise Bernie and AOC in one breath and then give Rahm Emanuel free reign to lie about them in their next one.
😔
Yep that pretty much sums up my mood of this country right now. 🫂
Sending support!! I will be vocal until they take all of us 👊
👍❤️
Well said. Those that aren’t in thrall to Farage (Mail, Express, Telegraph etc) give him free-reign because he doesn’t speak like a politician. But that’s what he is, so stop pussyfooting!
When other countries have elections which are essentially anti-Trump, Canada and Australia, how come the UK allows the Fartage mob to win so many locals? What us wrong with people? Don't they watch the news? IQ tests should be obligatory to vote, minimum 75 as clearly many are stupid
They should play his James O'Brien interview. The last time anyone interrogated him. He will never do interviews that ask him basic questions about his desire to remove health care from 1/4 poor population so he can make a profit, or drowning people in the Channel because they're foreign
It's an easy protest vote. I'm hoping Labour can get it's act together and the Liberals cut through... At a GE, Reform fachists only get 20 odd per cent of the vote.
It appears that not a large percentage of people voted in the locals so, as usual, Reform get in partly because of voter complacency. They are now controlling several councils so maybe voters can see what they are really like instead of just listening to them say what they want to hear.
Living in Staffordshire it was horrendous waking up to the news we now have a Reform county council. I share your frustration. But it doesn't help to vilify voters. I think Labour are responsible for the shift to Reform. Many of their policy decisions are a disaster. No change for the working class
BBC let's him speak in soundbites and rarely challenges him?
Never seen him challenged in a BBC interview. A bit like Johnson's easy ride and look where that got us. There's obviously a lot of money being given out in return for something and it's not the people in the street but Health Insurers, Private Pensions, Property Owners that have lost office staff
Because Labour don't dare attack Trump the way the governments of Australia and Canada have. They've invested too much political capital in a mythical trade deal.
Perhaps they're hoping he'll kick off another dose of Farage Riots and give them some rolling news.
The traditional British media (print and the largest corporates) know, deep down, that it's in its death throws. So that means they'll do anything to be relevant. M
At best, our media are just incompetent. At worst, they're complicit
I'm afraid this is a naive/out-of-date view of the British media, who are now a political tool and not independent political journalists. We need to be calling for either a fully politically independent press, or at the very least the removal of political influence via financial backing of press.
How do you start calling for reform of the press and media? By showing how it doesn’t work, how it’s not doing its job and how the country is in a bad way partly because of that.
👏👏👏
Seriously. Be like #Canada and #Australia. Don't be like us - #America.
See the Question Time appearances bs Libdem and Green...😡
Some really ignorant comments about the media generally (and the BBC in particular) on this thread.
Fascist Arsehole Russian Asset Grifts Endlessly
And his alignment with misogynists like Tate and Trump
That would only work if the owners of many of these newspapers didn't support the little shit! As for the BBC....🤦🏽♀️
Platforming wannabe celebs is what our MSM they do
@teamlabouruk.bsky.social Labour have utterly failed to communicate successfully since Blair. The right have run the agenda, & even the good things Starmer has initiated are completely missing in action when it comes to the Public. Get your 💩 together Labour. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Exactly. After 14 years of being gaslighted by the Conservatives the general public need transparency. Just saying 'we knew the decisions we made wouldn't be popular' doesn't explain what the issues/plans are. Enough of keeping people in the dark. Otherwise you look like Tory light!!
They want him to win
If they interrogated and attacked him the way they did Corbyn he'd be gone! Plenty of evidence of schoolboy support of Nazis, racism, anti workers rights .Privileged private school boy pretending to be man of the people. Really unpleasant behind the gurning grin. He'd soon show his true colours
They won't hold him to account because the media are largely owned by exactly the same sort of people as Farage.
They're all subservient to The Establishment, the [literally] power behind the throne, it's that 'institution' that needs Ahem...reform
British media… media in general are are useless as tits on a bull when it comes to asking real questions and following up. Trump would NEVER have come to power if media had done their jobs. All they fucking did was to allow Trump to USE them. They treat Farage in the EXACT SAME WAY.
And it’s also up to people in general in UK (or England rather) to finally put their critical thinking caps on like the rest of the world is Australia figured it out, Canada figured it out - do people in England really believe Farage who is corrupt, a Trump lover, a known liar is the answer??
Regrettably many do and we are more like the US than Canada or Australia.
That scares the hell out of me I know the next general election is still a few yrs away & I almost hope that those councils that voted for Reform will experience such mismanagement & corruption until then that it’ll wake them up. (Which I realise isn’t v nice of me)
I have thought the same. In reality they will blame the system, the establishment, the govt, immigrants etc for any failure and their supporters will believe them much as Trump supporters do.
I know It’s beyond infuriating
We? you mean Englandshire..
No I mean supporters wherever they might be incl the 17% of Scots as well as the slightly higher % in England.
That's the thing, it's not that England loves Farage, I truly believe most people here see him for the fraud he is, but they also see that Labour and the Tories are offering nothing either, so they'll probably vote for nobody. If Farage wins, he will win by getting a majority of a rump turnout.
Many do.. but the moment Farage goes out to poor area and start blaming immigrants.. they'll keep voting for him over and over again.
Before we know it, a low life like Tommy Robinson will be celebrated here like the released Jan 6 rioters…
Exactly. It's terrifying. We have learn nothing from US.
I am hoping we still will I need to remind myself that the next general election isn’t until at least 3 yrs from now We all know the media here is useless So I guess it really is all up to us!
Yes it's up to the next generation to keep the fight and protect our democracy.
At the rate we're going and the backing the UK media is giving to Farage .. 3 years is plenty of time for Farage to get his own crypto coin, make his own 'HRH portrait' and create his own DOGE department ready for implementation.
They r going to follow the T / Musk playbook I think this here will be just like in the US People need to experience it on themselves I hope the ones who voted for reform Uk will really loose their shirt & then some / not v nice, I know but nothing else works w these idiots
Unfortunately yes. I guess that is the inevitable result of a school system that is focused on compliance rather than critical thinking.
Do you know though - I was brought up in Europe Compliance during my early school days was the norm You did what you were told But that in and of itself doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t or can’t turn on their brain cells and realise / decide for themselves that Farage and Reform are inherently bad
Russia behind it all no doubt.
British media has been corrupt for decades. More people ought to use alternative sources. When you can stand in a queue and look at the papers they pay for, you instantly know a lot about them. I agree about Farage...I'm still waiting for his evisceration. He can't handle pressure.
Sure they gave Johnson the softball opportunity and look what happened when he got into power.
💯… and THEN wondering how he got there Question: does he live in the UK or in Brussels?
His admiration for Putin, his admiration for the Truss budget which bankrupted the UK, bloody Brexit and more
I think, like many of my Scottish compatriots, I find this outcry of media bias & "it's a national crisis" kind of ironic. Given that while the Indy ref took place 2012-2014, all the news outlets were extremely biased. Spouting Westminster lies. Now that this bias affects middle England...
... suddenly, it's a national crisis. You can't have it both ways. Either accept the bias is there or speak out against it at all times. It's not like we Scots weren't screaming about how biased the newspapers & news channels were, pushing what Westminster wanted.
Clearly 'foreigners interference' in the Scottish referendum.
🤣 so the English then.
The right-wing populist bias is massive. If Labour had the balls/gumption to sanitise the BBC, that would be a start. Lisa Nandy, where are you? #BiasedBroadcastingCompany
"To fight a Trumpesque future we should abandon the useless straight jacket of ‘Left vs Right’ and replace it with the more powerful, crystal-clear moral axis of right vs wrong." leftfootforward.org/2025/05/its-...
What exactly is stopping them? Been wondering this for ages.
Indeed, so do I. If the Tories can parachute their stooges in key posts, why doesn't labour.
I don't understand what's stopping Starmer from doing a lot of things, tbh. Why didn't they reverse Johnson's decision to make Mayoral elections FPTP?? Why doesn't he tax the rich, the corporations etc? Why doesn't he just nationalise the water companies? I could go on...
Couldn't agree more, the lack of dynamism is worrisome and disappointing.
He's gifting more support to the far right.
And no-one ever asks him these questions directly, either. Unless I just haven't noticed 🫤
Certainly not in public.
All good questions. Wish I had some kind of answer.
It just makes no sense. I begin to wonder whether there's some truth to the theory he's been bought. But by whom?
Absolutely nothing. Starmer needs to have a complete clear out at the BBC. The airtime given to Farage is sickening.
Sitting on her arse doing nothing it seems
The British media are not on the side of ordinary people, because they have an agenda.
Especially his funding... Follow the money and you'll see whom you are dealing with. "Follow the money". Giovanni Falcone
We have a right wing media that never appropriately challenges any right wing politician. When does any journalist insist on a policy answer from Farage? He doesn’t have any. No coverage of anything positive Labour does. I’m not saying they’re getting everything right, by any means.
Seems just like media in USA and Canada, but fortunately the avg. Cdn. is more educated than other voters hence the kick to the curb for Poilievre when push came to shove.
We also have huge numbers of racists who vote. I know I can’t call them that, it’s not nice, but ask anyone that voted reform what policy really appealed to them. You’ll get hit with silence, because they’re racist.
Quite right.
Completely this. It’s extraordinary how much of a free pass NF is given. No Freedom No Fun No Future
I agree. He has no real policies.
Maybe we need to grow a backbone like France & prosecute Farage for misuse of funds a la Le Pen
Or have him offed. But in an accidental way. Spike his lean cuisine microwave meal for one.
Our American media want him as PM, so he will be.
If someone believes that the country which voted for Brexit won't do it again (and to an even worse destiny), just look at the USA and think again. No time for pleasantries, you better mobilize like the Canadians and Aussies.
Hey British media, I second wholeheartedly what Sarah has said!
Our media has been letting us down for at least the last 2 decades. Their ardent dedication to ‘both side-ism’ is ridiculous & truth twisting.
And don’t forget the kowtowing to the Palace too!
Oh that’s a given!
British media? Would that be the BBC...led by the privately educated ex-Tory chairman, Tim Davie? Or the conglomeration of private wealth that owns and dominates journalism?
Can we also remember that the Green Party has 4 seats (does anyone know their names? The Liberal Democrat’s have 72 seats. I’m fed up with being saturated with the nonsense Farage spews.
yep, their coverage validates and condones Farage, his policies, his behaviour, his bigotry. they’re endorsing it by platforming it. they know this. but in a capitalist society all that matters is profit, which means clicks and ratings. not the effects or harm they’re doing with their “journalism”
Unfortunately, I think you’ve misunderstood why most of the British media exist. It isn’t that billionaires have a love of reporting. The press is the vehicle that takes them to the political outcomes they want.
The question we have to answer here is what to do about the situation? IPSO are useless, the govt appears to be in thrall to the media, so who can change the status quo and how?
UKs media is controlled by Rupert Murdoch & his broligarch buddies. The UK need a media and election reform to fix this.
Reform voters see the media as being part of the problem too.
They’ve been giving him the run of the place for a good few decades now. Surely now they can see he’s no good? Nothing good has come from it, the evidence has been patently bleeding obvious since 2021!
His deeply ingrained Putinism is what most alarms me, and it hardly ever gets a mention.
Allowing him to go in the jungle was unforgivable too.
Allowing him out was far worse
Agreed the more he's aired the more it legitimises what he's saying. The same goes for Starmer chasing reform votes. bsky.app/profile/sara...
Exactly so
But the Brexit Broadcasting Company has always supported Farage, and their Board still do.
Reform has its own TV news channel. Ofcom don’t do a thing about it. They’re laughing at us. Do something about it Lisa Nandy.
One reason why the bbc isn't getting rid of daily contributions from far right think tanks from tuffton street is lisa nandy and blue labour
The media has done that job for years
British main stream media is as frightened as USA mainstream media to take a stance and report reality, unfortunately
The owners of the papers want Farage like they wanted Trump, and still do despite Trump being an unmitigated disaster.
Good post and yes why are our media letting farage run the show? And politicians (in any party) need to up the ante and start fighting back against the poisonous reform.
This is end game capitalism. The billionaire media owners and their tame politicos have picked Farage as their boy for 2029 just as they did with Johnson in 2019. They will get him into power unless we stop them and their disinformation machine
The media and farage are the same people
his head won't fit through the door of No.10
100%
bsky.app/profile/slap...
Exactly. Well said Sarah. The media love Farage. He gives them headlines and traffic and they laugh and go along with the show. Reform is a registered company, they have no policies and have a court case pending by one of their lunatic MPs against Farage. And still no questions.
Fourth Estate = Farage Estate !
They’ve had 20years to do that and still haven’t. They’ve been fluffing him since 2002 that I can remember.
Honourable exception for @mrjamesob.bsky.social ...
Their recent gains in the local elections should give people an indication of what to expect on a national level.
It’s Trump all over again. “Look at this outrageous buffoon. He’s a ratings bonanza!”
Well said
Trump is so toxic he is even losing elections for other people in other countries.
Yep, Farage obviously being set up for the "Johnson" treatment where he appears daily in the media & gets talked up as much as possible. Come a year from the next election & it'll be wall to wall Farage being anointed as the next leader by media proxy
True. A vast amount of the UK’s political coverage is either supine or execrable. Or actively complicit in the promotion of the Right.
Bravo. I was listening to Amol Rajan "interviewing" him on Fri morning on BBC R4, and he said a load of shit that was completely unchallenged.
I know it's frustrating, but the time will come. When REF start (as they have now) winning genuine responsibility, their feet will be held to the fire more. No longer can they whinge from the touchline.
I could be wrong but I don’t believe that those who vote for Reform are big consumers of traditional news outlets. They mostly get their news from Social Media and Dave down the pub. They probably distrust the BBC. We saw this in 2016 and I think it’s every bit as true today.
But the mainstream media can set the mood music and feed into social media, countering some of the utter horseshit that gets thrown around there. Trashing the brand has to happen in full view. Media doesn’t even bother to ask Farage the difficult questions.
Farage’s power revolves around his undoubted charisma his articulate speech, apparent intelligence and his ability to steer every question away from the subject asked and towards ‘immigration’ and now ‘public spending waste’. He’s a propaganda master.
He’s been allowed to be, encouraged to be a propagandist. He’s not been called out for his lies. The racist, ruinous dishonesty of Brexit is given a free pass. His dodgy funding. His fanboying of Trump. His failure to be an MP. It’s all there to scrutinise. And no one dares or wants to. Pathetic.
Again I agree, all these observations about his views and performance are true. But if I as a significant consumer of traditional news outlets know these things to be untruths and am under no illusion that he doesn’t support his views with rational argument, is it because I’m hyper intelligent?
You’re intelligent and you’ve informed yourself. Too many don’t bother. It only takes listening to vox pops and soundbite political ‘interviews’ to realise we have a profound political dishonesty/public ignorance problem. Until that is dealt with head on, we will continue to fail.
I don’t really claim superior intelligence but you hit the nail on the head. People are not willing to inform themselves and will listen to the simplistic answers to fabricated problems rather than do their own analysis. I think the problem rests more with the electorate than with the media.
Both have a responsibility. And both are failing. As are the politicians who know better but prefer power to principles.
I have to say this isn’t my experience. I’ve never watched or listened to him being interviewed and come away without thinking he was both challenged and incapable of answering the questions put. But if his voters are not even sharing these experiences their SM reinforcement will always win out. /1
Exactly. Nor do they look beyond the headlines or know that there are no simple, quick fixes for our problems.
Absolutely true. Though to be fair they’re not the only ones who fail to look past the headlines.
Indeed! They bear responsibility for this, yet when tackled about it, become inordinately defensive. The media have failed to hold NF to account, joke along with him like a mate at the pub and never point the siren lure of his xenophobic policies, their economic illiteracy & his faux patriotism.
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Corporate media & Fux Noise is why we have Trump 2.0 They love a clown show more than literally, ANYTHING else. "If it bleeds it leads," applies to their own country & everyone in it.
Funny, I've been thinking the same for a while 🤣
Ridiculous amount of coverage for a tin pot ‘party’ but the non-dom owned MSM can’t bear a Labour government.
Very well said, Sarah. I’ve just reposted. ‘Some’ of the British public are being hoodwinked. It’s an orchestrated takeover…
If we let that slimy charlatan get any power in this country we would be as stupid as the US! He’s created enough damage with the Brexit farce, let’s not fall for the rest of the posh tw*t venom he peddles in his ‘saviour of the people’ garbage.
I worry that the types of British voter farage is after are as stupid as trumps maga mob, and even spelling it out for them won't make them realise that he's selling snake oil! Just completed a survey by/on the BBC and made exactly your point about them being more interested in clicks than votes!
The last thing either the media or Farage wants is Farage in No10. They wank on about immigration but even they aren't stupid enough to do anything about it.
Sadly Farage and the media are both owned by the same oligarchs so don’t hold your breath.
And also please give equal space to people like the Greens, who are actually quite popular!
Don't forget his incitement to riot.
The vast majority of the British media is owned by billionaires who have registered their companies in crown dependency tax havens and are quite happy with this debacle
💯 Media choose to put a ribbon on the turd, but it’s still 💩 A corrupt, convicted sexual assault criminal is now President of US, FFS, again!Farage has support from the same rich right wing men who put Trump back in office; ignored by lickspittle media who normalise bad behaviour of fascists racists
I see it as more a massive f*** up by Starmer to not use his media coverage to condemn the Trump regime for the far right doctrine that it is, and to not spell out the threat of Reform canvassing the unskilled and unemployable - easy to canvas people who do nothing
I turned R4 Today on Friday morning off after 15 minutes of uninterrupted Farage fluffing. Releived to hear LBC were speaking to the Greens. Their first question... "It was a great night for Nigel Farage, wasn't it?" 😞 The same media who said Brexit and Truss were good ideas are salivating now.
It was also a great night for the Greens and they didn't have to lie to win votes. LBC🤬
To be fair, I'm hearing more mention of Greens, LibDems, etc. from certain LBC presenters. Maybe in response to complaints? But yes... the policy-free Reform platforming is in full swing. There was a really good @lewisgoodall.com interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on LBC yesterday though.
NF does the rivers of blood speech on a loop. Talks Brexit bollocks. Does mini-Trump. Is platformed and never questioned by client journalists.
The problem is that so much of the media is in the hands of right-wing press barons who don't care
Surely the people of UK can see what trump is doing to America, Farage will want to do the same to the UK , trump has given him to many bad ideas
Same as Trump. Treating the least popular president in living memory as some sort of a landslide winning miracle. The word "charlatan" should ALWAYS be used in the same sentence that contains the name Farage.
British?
BBC are currently holding a questionnaire on what people want from the BBC…..we need to tell them!!!!
It’s ‘ our BBC Our future” Online questionnaires are going out to online account holders. Please try to get one!
If he got half the interrogation that Jeremy Corbyn got he would be run out of town
I couldn't believe the wraparound cover of The Observer today - it feels like being force fed.
Pre Brexit net migration was less than half current levels, and was predominantly Europeans with similar cultural and religious values. Small boat crossings were virtually unheard of. Who persuaded the British that remaining in the EU would result in a massive increase in migration?
Give people the facts & they will do what is correct (or you think is correct) is not a maths equation. See Trump + deficiency of Farage character + ideas hardly a secret.
The Observer has a double front page and a beaming Farage is front and centre, our media are absolutely awful.
Why the hell would they platform this spiv? Keerrrist - I used to buy that paper. How far they have fallen. OMG. For shame!
bsky.app/profile/tom-...
It's one thing to report Reform wins, but the almost hysterical glorification is simply 🤢🤮
They have a new editor
New owners as well.
They are, and now even The Observer will only *observe* right wing views. Ffs. The UK already has too many right wing media outlets. Carole Cadwalladr is right about the Tortoise buy out, just as she’s right about Banks, Farage and all the others who *admire* Putin but pretend otherwise.
I used to like Tortoise and subscribed to their podcast until they decided to do a pointless retrospective series on Corbyn which did nothing more than rehash the headlines of the gutter press. I wrote, complained, got no reply, unsubscribed, and haven't bothered with them since.
Half of ‘em don’t even pretend otherwise anymore 🤷🏻♂️ how many times has fromage publicly admitted he looks up to Putin?
bsky.app/profile/tom-...
Only way to stop Farage is to give an alternative to him, Starmer not doing that
The economic black hole of Farage’s manifesto would be like Liz Truss’s budget x 10. Yet the UK media is more interested in pondering whether Farage could act as an intermediary with Trump’s US. #doyourbloodyjob
Damn straight!! Sadly, most British MSM is heavily influenced by exactly the sort of crooks farage will pander to if elected.
DeformPLC are on Kuenies prog AGAIN! Where are the Libdems, Greens, Independents etc? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...
She's another ex-South African with an agenda.
Plus his love of and support from Putin via the gold-mines that Arron Banks has been "investing in" in Russia. Farrago was getting his own slot on Russia Today. If Russia invests in him as a Useful Idiot why is our own 'national broadcaster' helping our enemy?
You seem to be assuming that the British media isn't also a bunch of fascists
To be fair, Farage voters spend most of their time on social media. It’s time we combatted that.
You misunderstand - they want to drumroll him into number 10.
I wish that sort of exhortation would work on them. Those that want to already are. The rest are either pathetically mesmerised or actively campaigning for him, both with their direct soft-touch coverage and their open and rampant stoking of societal divisions. Billionaire press at work.
👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼
Spot on Sarah. They always manage to find faragists who say he's a man of the people and never push back on this. Private school educated, hedge fund manager, along with cronies doing ok on the back of Brexit, shilling for Trump, taking the people of Clacton for a ride. Spell it out for people FFS.
I wonder, if British celebrities, actors, musicians and sports people started boycotting British media - saying "We won't share a platform with fascists" - whether that would make a difference.
Um, Sarah - who OWNS British media? Is it still Murdoch? Then it’s not going to happen.
Start highlighting the link between their destruction of any renewable energies and their funding from oil and gas industries.
As an American, I can't tell you how pleased I am to see the word "trumpiness" emerges a synonym for shittiness.
I was at a market today and there was a guy wandering from stall to stall loudly canvassing the public on how great Reform is 🤮. Between them organising this sort of thing and biased mainstream media coverage, the UK could be sleepwalking into losing its democracy sooner than we think.
The political vacuum that has let UKIP Mark II take a grip of British politics is due the lack of an alternative. None of the main parties offer anything tangible to ordinary people, just more of the same. Yes Labour have tinkered around the edges but we need a bold socialist agenda.
Labour has an astonishing number of seats and what is the party actually doing for anyone? I’m a lifelong Labour voter but have decided they’ll never get my vote again. I may just give up voting as a disabled middle aged woman I feel disenfranchised. Who voted for austerity again?
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Spot on ! More of these posts, please UK !!!! Follow the US and get yourselves tuned into what Trumps doing ......you know Fararge's mate ! Same playbook . The UK will regret it again !
Spot on, Sarah. Reform are con-artists, and should be exposed as no friend of the "working man".
He needs to questioned more and held accountable, then people will see he has nothing.
Hey British media, take a look at our suffering across the pond -- a Trump-like disaster can and will happen to you.
The British lemmings watch the US ones spiralling to certain death off a cliff and think "gonna have me some that". Make it make sense pleeeeease 😭
