Peter Geoghegan
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petergeoghegan.bsky.social
Peter Geoghegan
@petergeoghegan.bsky.social
Irishman in London.
Donald Trump is not going to sue the BBC for $1 billion

The real story today is both Reform/Farage and the Conservatives/Badenoch talking today about radically changing the BBC

This is the real agenda
November 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then backlash came.

Legal threats. Social media trolls accused him of visiting sex workers

Journalists were told they’d lose Palace access if they spoke to him

This interview feels very more timely today www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHa...
The Prince Andrew Cover Up: How Royal Files Are Hidden From Public | Andrew Lownie
YouTube video by Democracy for Sale
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
"What I like about Barnett is his intellectual restlessness."

It's one of the many things I love about @anthonybarnett.bsky.social too. Very much recommend this interview with Anthony in @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Anthony Barnett: “The Sixties were a catastrophic failure”
The writer and campaigner on nationalism, the rise of the new right and how a fractured left can organise in response
www.newstatesman.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Incredible that Robbie Gibb - most influential person on BBC board by many accounts and from journalists I speak in BBC - was involved in setting up GB News.

GB News of course has breached Ofcom rules on *multiple* occasions - no sign of resignations though

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Enforced veganism’: Ofcom lets GB News flout accuracy rules, say climate campaigners
Exclusive: Regulator has received 1,221 complaints about UK broadcasters since 2020 but found no breaches of its code
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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
November 9, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Now listening to an *amazing* Stuart Maconie Post punk Freakshow and worrying that will happen if Trump’s press office start posting on X about hating Magazine and the Au Pairs 😬
November 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
And if we think it’s bad now, imagine what it could look like, say, two months from a U.K. general election?

Could imagine huge sums in US far right cash flooding in, much of what would only be declared after the election (our electoral rules really are a jape)
Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.
November 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
This is absolutely nuts

Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event

When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
Davie says
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Would recommend this interview Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s biographer Andrew Lownie gave to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on how power and secrecy work in modern Britain.

Particularly interesting on the censoring of history and how the Prince was championed by Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair...
Inside the Cover-up: How Prince Andrew was exposed
Behind the headlines lies a deeper story of privilege, protection and a public kept in the dark
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Great interview with Andrew Lownie about his book on the former Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson & the reaction to it by the palace. With a mention of the @fpalondon.bsky.social! We invited him for a press briefing in September when the UK media still tried to ignore the book.
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then came the backlash.

Legal threats. Journalists were told they’d lose Palace access if they spoke to him

Anonymous social media accounts accused Lownie of visiting sex workers.

This is how ‘the Firm’ works youtu.be/OJHaVsDVv-c?...
November 9, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
“Lownie believes there should be a parliamentary inquiry into Andrew’s trade representative gig — a role which Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson pushed for, and which saw Andrew cosying up to Kazakh oligarchs and the Gaddafi regime in Libya.”
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then came the backlash. Legal threats. Palace sources told journalists not to speak to him

Anonymous social media accounts accused Lownie of visiting sex workers.

New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Cover-up: How Prince Andrew was exposed
Behind the headlines lies a deeper story of privilege, protection and a public kept in the dark
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then came the backlash.

Legal threats. Journalists were told they’d lose Palace access if they spoke to him

Anonymous social media accounts accused Lownie of visiting sex workers.

This is how ‘the Firm’ works youtu.be/OJHaVsDVv-c?...
November 9, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then came the backlash. Legal threats. Palace sources told journalists not to speak to him

Anonymous social media accounts accused Lownie of visiting sex workers.

New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Cover-up: How Prince Andrew was exposed
Behind the headlines lies a deeper story of privilege, protection and a public kept in the dark
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Returned to Honey’s Dead by JAMC after what must be two decades. It’s still so incredibly fresh. The Reid Bros really had something
November 8, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Denmark also has PR, which has been crucial to the entire Social Democrats' strategy for a long time, and the current Social Democrat government is a coalition with two centre-right parties.
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
November 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Andrew Lownie wrote an explosive book about Prince Andrew

Then came the backlash. Legal threats. Palace sources told journalists not to speak to him

Anonymous social media accounts accused Lownie of visiting sex workers.

New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Cover-up: How Prince Andrew was exposed
Behind the headlines lies a deeper story of privilege, protection and a public kept in the dark
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:10 PM
*Again* the top story on BBC 6 music is about immigration

How is Shabana Mahmood wanting to introduce a ‘Danish style’ system for refugees the top story this morning?!?

The obsession of 6 Music news on immigration and asylum is frankly bizarre
November 8, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Was is Watson’s racism reported passively?

In 2007, he had said some anti-Semitism was justified

“Just like some anti-Irish feeling is justified. If you can’t be criticized, that’s very dangerous. You lose the concept of a free society.”

Nah, mate. You really wouldn’t
November 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM
While US polarisation predates social media it doesn’t really predate the end of broadcasting impartiality

Basically the US has been living with social media style partisan bias for decades, and now Europe is catching up (with similarly disastrous consequences)

Will policy makers now respond?
"Why American-style polarisation is spreading across the West"

Two words: algorithms and incentives. Mostly incentives. Until we modify or eliminate incentives, all we can do is watch as the fabric of society is pulled apart, strand by strand. www.ft.com/content/5060...
November 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Fantastic expose from my friend George Turner in the Guardian. So good to see George back in print.

The two of us also have a *very* exciting project due to hit the airwaves in late 2026... 🫣

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
Mediocre movies, millions in taxpayer cash: how scores of films from low-profile UK producer were funded mainly by public money
Creative industries are ‘crucial to the economy’ but film-making and tax have long had an uneasy relationship in Britain
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:50 AM
This would 💯 happen in the UK if the same political dispensation took power here

I feel like a sizeable chunk of British journalism is in complete denial about that
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 9:52 PM
And frying their brains in ways they don’t even realise, never mind understand
November 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
Charles Ross, @petergeoghegan.bsky.social and I had a look at what the shadow ministers in the House of Lords were working at. Turns out many of them are being paid to ‘advise’ the same industries that they’re supposed to be scrutinising. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/the-lords-...
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Peter Geoghegan
🔴 MPs are banned from been paid to give 'political advice' - but Lords can.

And guess what? Many Conservative shadow ministers in the Lords are being paid by the industries they’re meant to scrutinise.

New on Democracy for Sale

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/the-lords-...
The Lords’ Work? How Tory Shadow Ministers Are Cashing In
Many Conservative shadow ministers in the Lords are being paid to ‘advise’ the same industries they’re meant to scrutinise.
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM