Chaminda Jayanetti
@cjayanetti.bsky.social
Freelance journalist covering British politics and public services - NHS, education, care, housing, disability, benefits. Not a tribalist.
I like good things and I don't like bad things.
I like good things and I don't like bad things.
Pinned
Why Council Tax Reform Is Fraught With Difficulty
New analysis shows why council tax reform is such a hard task for the government as it faces widespread calls for the system to be updated.
www.politicshome.com
NEW: Reported plans to double tax rates on the top two council tax bands would cause huge distortions and unequal treatment between owners of expensive homes across England
One area where homes cost £500k would barely be touched
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
One area where homes cost £500k would barely be touched
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced the idea as “madness” and “extortion”
North Northamptonshire is expected to approve the measure on Tuesday, in plans seen by PolHome
@cjayanetti.bsky.social reports
North Northamptonshire is expected to approve the measure on Tuesday, in plans seen by PolHome
@cjayanetti.bsky.social reports
Reform Council To Double Tax On Second Homes Despite Nigel Farage Calling The Idea 'Madness'
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced such policies as “madne...
www.politicshome.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:27 PM
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced the idea as “madness” and “extortion”
North Northamptonshire is expected to approve the measure on Tuesday, in plans seen by PolHome
@cjayanetti.bsky.social reports
North Northamptonshire is expected to approve the measure on Tuesday, in plans seen by PolHome
@cjayanetti.bsky.social reports
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Some of the most powerful and well-paid people in the world don't understand a lesson that every schoolchild knows: if you surrender to bullies, they will only bully you more
November 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Some of the most powerful and well-paid people in the world don't understand a lesson that every schoolchild knows: if you surrender to bullies, they will only bully you more
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
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.
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.
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
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.
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.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Firstly, if you have to break it, go hard or go home
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Firstly, if you have to break it, go hard or go home
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
If the BBC caves to Trump and hands over licence fee payers' cash to him, it will lose far more from non-renewals by licence fee payers than it would ever risk having to pay to Trump in court
November 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
If the BBC caves to Trump and hands over licence fee payers' cash to him, it will lose far more from non-renewals by licence fee payers than it would ever risk having to pay to Trump in court
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
When I was first elected, evidence showed it would take 193 years to bring London's air pollution within legal limits.
Due to our policies, we've done it in 9.
In Brazil this week, we showed that cities are giving the world reason to hope when it comes to tackling the climate emergency.
Due to our policies, we've done it in 9.
In Brazil this week, we showed that cities are giving the world reason to hope when it comes to tackling the climate emergency.
November 8, 2025 at 9:09 AM
When I was first elected, evidence showed it would take 193 years to bring London's air pollution within legal limits.
Due to our policies, we've done it in 9.
In Brazil this week, we showed that cities are giving the world reason to hope when it comes to tackling the climate emergency.
Due to our policies, we've done it in 9.
In Brazil this week, we showed that cities are giving the world reason to hope when it comes to tackling the climate emergency.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I'm worried about both equally TBH: Facebook is radicalising older, normal people en masse.
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Fell down a facebook rabbit hole thanks to something a family member shared. Labour should be really concerned, the tone and circulation of posts now has a simialr feel to Conservatives in 2023 but with an added side of far right memes. Facebook worries me far more than X
November 10, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I'm worried about both equally TBH: Facebook is radicalising older, normal people en masse.
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Scrapping the cap entirely is both good policy *and* good politics.
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Food vouchers, free milk and two-child cap: Reeves weighs up help for families
Ministers' long-awaited child poverty strategy is due this month - and it's closely tied to the Chancellor's Budget
inews.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Scrapping the cap entirely is both good policy *and* good politics.
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I do like how, in the bit of Prescott's memo where he criticises the BBC for editing together different parts of Trump's speech, his own quote of "what Trump actually said" is... edited together from different parts of his speech.
November 10, 2025 at 9:45 AM
I do like how, in the bit of Prescott's memo where he criticises the BBC for editing together different parts of Trump's speech, his own quote of "what Trump actually said" is... edited together from different parts of his speech.
lmfao more than 40 years after it was released, Michael Jackson's Thriller - the song - has just reached its *highest ever* UK chart position at #9...
...because, I'm pretty sure, of Halloween www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl...
...because, I'm pretty sure, of Halloween www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl...
Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts
The Official Singles Chart Top 100 reflects the UK’s biggest songs of the week, based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, compiled by the Official Charts Company. The UK Top 40 is br...
www.officialcharts.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:30 AM
lmfao more than 40 years after it was released, Michael Jackson's Thriller - the song - has just reached its *highest ever* UK chart position at #9...
...because, I'm pretty sure, of Halloween www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl...
...because, I'm pretty sure, of Halloween www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl...
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
November 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
ICYMI: How reported council tax proposals would leave the hundredth most expensive home in Walthamstow paying less than a third of the tax of the 7,000th most expensive home in Mid Buckinghamshire - despite the Walthamstow home being worth more
NEW: Reported plans to double tax rates on the top two council tax bands would cause huge distortions and unequal treatment between owners of expensive homes across England
One area where homes cost £500k would barely be touched
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
One area where homes cost £500k would barely be touched
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Why Council Tax Reform Is Fraught With Difficulty
New analysis shows why council tax reform is such a hard task for the government as it faces widespread calls for the system to be updated.
www.politicshome.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
ICYMI: How reported council tax proposals would leave the hundredth most expensive home in Walthamstow paying less than a third of the tax of the 7,000th most expensive home in Mid Buckinghamshire - despite the Walthamstow home being worth more
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The Today Programme.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 AM
The Today Programme.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
oh, and finally, so much of the criticism of the BBC is not in good faith: the Prescott bullshit is clearly in bad faith. But the BBC is now so cowed it doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between hostile bollocks and good-faith scrutiny.
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 AM
oh, and finally, so much of the criticism of the BBC is not in good faith: the Prescott bullshit is clearly in bad faith. But the BBC is now so cowed it doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between hostile bollocks and good-faith scrutiny.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
"Change will only come if both the BBC board and the politicians that ultimately appoint that board realise that the corporation’s problems in News are fundamentally about money and competence" - think that's bang on from @stephenkb.bsky.social
To fix the BBC, focus on competence and cash
Corporation fails to learn from criticism, while politicians have consciously reduced its scope for quality journalism
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:17 AM
"Change will only come if both the BBC board and the politicians that ultimately appoint that board realise that the corporation’s problems in News are fundamentally about money and competence" - think that's bang on from @stephenkb.bsky.social
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City
- my comment in today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
- my comment in today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City | Richard Partington
Keeping the markets on side is the chancellor’s priority but it’s not an easy task given their simplistic, misplaced views on welfare cuts
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City
- my comment in today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
- my comment in today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
In recent years I've listened to a lot of music from the 1950s/early 60s and *so much* of it relates to early death - either the lyrics, or the lives of the singers. Plane crashes, car crashes, plus alcohol and drug deaths. There was a whole genre of song called the "death ditty"
Even a simple factoid like this gets overlooked, but it was not long ago that *everyone* directly knew multiple examples of people taken away by this at something preposterous like age 22
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
In recent years I've listened to a lot of music from the 1950s/early 60s and *so much* of it relates to early death - either the lyrics, or the lives of the singers. Plane crashes, car crashes, plus alcohol and drug deaths. There was a whole genre of song called the "death ditty"
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 AM
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Michael Prescott was ‘“shocked” that after an hour-long Panorama documentary dealing with Trump and the January 6 insurgency, there was no “similar, balancing” programme about Kamala Harris.’
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
The departure of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness means the BBC is leaderless when it needs leadership more than ever. Where are the people at the head of the BBC standing up for it?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 9, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
A national newspaper journalist went on a British TV channel to claim police stats showed asylum-seekers committed 44% of sex crimes in Dorset.
This shocking claim was treated as fact by the channel which promoted the clip on social media where it was amplified by AI.
Except... it's bollocks.
This shocking claim was treated as fact by the channel which promoted the clip on social media where it was amplified by AI.
Except... it's bollocks.
November 8, 2025 at 8:39 AM
A national newspaper journalist went on a British TV channel to claim police stats showed asylum-seekers committed 44% of sex crimes in Dorset.
This shocking claim was treated as fact by the channel which promoted the clip on social media where it was amplified by AI.
Except... it's bollocks.
This shocking claim was treated as fact by the channel which promoted the clip on social media where it was amplified by AI.
Except... it's bollocks.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
There are essentially 2 kinds of people who like the bbc, people who want painting of horses type stuff and dumb left liberals like me. What the bbc does is chase a guy who basically hates both of these type of people and completely undermines the case for itself
November 9, 2025 at 8:44 PM
There are essentially 2 kinds of people who like the bbc, people who want painting of horses type stuff and dumb left liberals like me. What the bbc does is chase a guy who basically hates both of these type of people and completely undermines the case for itself
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Appoint Gary Lineker to DG?
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
November 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Appoint Gary Lineker to DG?