Chris Wilkins
@mrchriswilkins.bsky.social
Communications and strategy advisor. Media commentator. Former Downing Street Director of Strategy and serial Tory SPAD. Politics, International Relations & National Security.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
An essential precondition for authoritarianism is the neutering of sources of real news.
November 10, 2025 at 8:41 AM
An essential precondition for authoritarianism is the neutering of sources of real news.
Won’t lament Tim Davie’s departure. He’s been pretty awful as DG. But it’s quite evident there’s a right-wing agenda against the BBC - being led partly from within - and that’s a dangerous thing we need to fight. It would probably be good if the BBC didn’t make it quite so easy for them though.
November 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Won’t lament Tim Davie’s departure. He’s been pretty awful as DG. But it’s quite evident there’s a right-wing agenda against the BBC - being led partly from within - and that’s a dangerous thing we need to fight. It would probably be good if the BBC didn’t make it quite so easy for them though.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.
November 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
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 6:38 PM
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
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Latest Army general to be jammed up over alleged wokeness is Pat Work, who led the Ranger company that fast-roped into the Korengal to recover the bodies during Operation Red Wings and was the 82nd brigade commander who dug ISIS out of Mosul
November 7, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Latest Army general to be jammed up over alleged wokeness is Pat Work, who led the Ranger company that fast-roped into the Korengal to recover the bodies during Operation Red Wings and was the 82nd brigade commander who dug ISIS out of Mosul
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
'there is simply no sign of a fiscal catastrophe from the “Boriswave"...this would seem to suggest that the recent collapse in immigration will harm Britain’s finances..' @lgilbert.co for @ukandeu.bsky.social on the economics of immigration ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
Lower migration is bad news for the UK economy - UK in a changing Europe
Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, and that the recent collapse in immigration will harm the UK's economic p...
ukandeu.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 6:39 PM
'there is simply no sign of a fiscal catastrophe from the “Boriswave"...this would seem to suggest that the recent collapse in immigration will harm Britain’s finances..' @lgilbert.co for @ukandeu.bsky.social on the economics of immigration ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
True
John Major says many traditional Tory supporters now 'politically homeless' because of party's lurch to right - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
October 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
True
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
It's increasingly obvious that Labour's strategy - call it Starmerism, Blue Labour, whatever - has got it badly wrong. It has alienated the party's core vote while failing to win over those leaning to Reform. There was no shortage of people warning them they were getting it wrong either.
October 28, 2025 at 12:02 PM
It's increasingly obvious that Labour's strategy - call it Starmerism, Blue Labour, whatever - has got it badly wrong. It has alienated the party's core vote while failing to win over those leaning to Reform. There was no shortage of people warning them they were getting it wrong either.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
The moderate left needs to challenge this kind of nonsense. NATO is a diminished alliance that is finding its feet at a critical moment – pushing back against an actual imperialist power.
October 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM
The moderate left needs to challenge this kind of nonsense. NATO is a diminished alliance that is finding its feet at a critical moment – pushing back against an actual imperialist power.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Hero journalism from @rhyswilliamsnews.bsky.social whose investigations are holding the Welsh government's feet to the fire for its support of discredited reading strategies.
Strongly recommend everyone involved looks as the success of Mississippi.
Strongly recommend everyone involved looks as the success of Mississippi.
Exclusive: A member of the Welsh Government’s expert literacy panel has resigned, warning the new £8.2m national programme to improve reading is “flawed” and “not fit for purpose”.
Full story below
🧵 1/
Full story below
🧵 1/
October 27, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Hero journalism from @rhyswilliamsnews.bsky.social whose investigations are holding the Welsh government's feet to the fire for its support of discredited reading strategies.
Strongly recommend everyone involved looks as the success of Mississippi.
Strongly recommend everyone involved looks as the success of Mississippi.
Totally mad
Voters in New York should study the lesson of London’s slow-motion car crash, Matthew Lynn writes.
"What happened to one half of NyLon can happen to the other as well — and a lot more quickly than New Yorkers might imagine."
"What happened to one half of NyLon can happen to the other as well — and a lot more quickly than New Yorkers might imagine."
Opinion | London’s sad decline is a warning to New Yorkers
In three terms as mayor, Sadiq Khan has crushed the economic life out of Britain’s capital.
wapo.st
October 28, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Totally mad
This is a good question but relevant to so many talking heads who pop up on the BBC and elsewhere these days. People with no experience or relevance other than a URL and a strong opinion.
How on earth has Spiked ended up on the BBC regulars contact list? They are an opaquely funded, amateur far-right apologia factory.
Spiked editor says Pochin's racist comments are just a "clumsy" way to "take umbrage" at advertising trends designed "to make minorities feel better" and comes "at the expense of REAL issues" like antismitism or grooming gangs, which apparently nobody ever discusses.
Tracy Brabin pulls him up. ~AA
Tracy Brabin pulls him up. ~AA
October 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
This is a good question but relevant to so many talking heads who pop up on the BBC and elsewhere these days. People with no experience or relevance other than a URL and a strong opinion.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
That's racism. Plain and simple.
No other word for it.
It's shocking beyond belief that this sort of thing is somehow acceptable.
No other word for it.
It's shocking beyond belief that this sort of thing is somehow acceptable.
Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin, “It drives me mad seeing adverts full of black people, full of Asian people, full of anything other than white"
Followed by that time Sarah Pochin said, "My kids say: mum, you're such a moron" 👀
Followed by that time Sarah Pochin said, "My kids say: mum, you're such a moron" 👀
October 25, 2025 at 12:41 PM
That's racism. Plain and simple.
No other word for it.
It's shocking beyond belief that this sort of thing is somehow acceptable.
No other word for it.
It's shocking beyond belief that this sort of thing is somehow acceptable.
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:16 PM
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
Agree, it is far too long
More Indefinite Leave to Remain shenanigans. This time from Labour. 10 years is just too long - especially for those already here, who were working toward 5 years
You may have heard about UK ministers' plan to double to 10 years the time needed to reached settled status in the UK. But did you realise that it threatened access to pensions for the 180,000 people who came from Hong Kong on the UK government's visa scheme? My dispatch: www.ft.com/content/8b91...
October 23, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Agree, it is far too long
Good and important piece this…
How Maga is interfering in the UK and why Britain is much less well equipped to deal with this kind of ‘foreign interference’ than other countries in Europe.
My latest analysis for
@blaetter
(#German, but there always is Deepl)
My latest analysis for
@blaetter
(#German, but there always is Deepl)
Regimechange leicht gemacht
Zur Zeit des „Empire“ veranstaltete die britische Kolonialregierung in Indien regelmäßig prachtvolle Zeremonien, bei denen die Thronbesteigung eines britischen Monarchen mit großem Prunk und aufwändig...
www.blaetter.de
October 23, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Good and important piece this…
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
This is the usual sulky-baby nonsense but what a delicious treat it would be if the mad authoritarian racists just… left
October 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This is the usual sulky-baby nonsense but what a delicious treat it would be if the mad authoritarian racists just… left
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Not enough of you believe me right now, but "Rebuild The White House" is going to become one of the most popular slogans in American political history
October 22, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Not enough of you believe me right now, but "Rebuild The White House" is going to become one of the most popular slogans in American political history
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
The Conservative immigration proposals cannot be allowed to stand without a profound and widespread statement of moral condemnation inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
October 22, 2025 at 4:05 PM
The Conservative immigration proposals cannot be allowed to stand without a profound and widespread statement of moral condemnation inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Curtis Yarvin, David Starkey, and Toby Young all speaking at Oxford this week. Orr now advising Farage invited the author of the Bell Curve to Cambridge. Endorsing race science still isn’t a barrier to entry into the British establishment, continuing a 200 year old tradition.
October 21, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Curtis Yarvin, David Starkey, and Toby Young all speaking at Oxford this week. Orr now advising Farage invited the author of the Bell Curve to Cambridge. Endorsing race science still isn’t a barrier to entry into the British establishment, continuing a 200 year old tradition.
I used to work with Chris Wormald. He’s a good man and a diligent public servant. But this does make you wonder if they even bothered to speak to him before making the appointment. He’s about as conventional a civil servant as it’s possible to be. Did they somehow not notice this?
Starmer going to be livid when he finds out who keeps putting the wrong people in the wrong jobs. Livid!
No 10 ‘has lost faith in Britain’s most senior civil servant’
www.thetimes.com/article/fa96...
No 10 ‘has lost faith in Britain’s most senior civil servant’
www.thetimes.com/article/fa96...
No 10 ‘has lost faith in Britain’s most senior civil servant’
Keir Starmer’s top team are said to be concerned about Chris Wormald’s performance as cabinet secretary and Downing Street ‘intends to replace him imminently’
www.thetimes.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I used to work with Chris Wormald. He’s a good man and a diligent public servant. But this does make you wonder if they even bothered to speak to him before making the appointment. He’s about as conventional a civil servant as it’s possible to be. Did they somehow not notice this?
Reposted by Chris Wilkins
Good thread on how a big part of the problem of British politics is big media figures with no real interest in being across the details.
Peston tells Lam that she said something that he "genuinely didn't understand". "But who are these people who came legally who should leave?"
This does not look like faux naivety.
He should know the answer!
She misleads in her answer to him.
So he gives a misleading summary of her policy on air.
This does not look like faux naivety.
He should know the answer!
She misleads in her answer to him.
So he gives a misleading summary of her policy on air.
October 21, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Good thread on how a big part of the problem of British politics is big media figures with no real interest in being across the details.