Thomas Penny
@thomaswpenny.bsky.social
Writer, editor, bereaved single Dad, Quaker, allotmenteer and very amateur musician.
Lover of strangers.
Lover of strangers.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.
November 11, 2025 at 7:48 AM
The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
What if we had no electricity and everything ran on fossil fuels?
This ad keeps making me chuckle.
Enjoy if you have not seen it or rewatch as it is just gold.
This ad keeps making me chuckle.
Enjoy if you have not seen it or rewatch as it is just gold.
November 11, 2025 at 8:04 AM
What if we had no electricity and everything ran on fossil fuels?
This ad keeps making me chuckle.
Enjoy if you have not seen it or rewatch as it is just gold.
This ad keeps making me chuckle.
Enjoy if you have not seen it or rewatch as it is just gold.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
I do not understand the Labour government's reticence over defending the BBC and social media regulation. Their long-term survival basically depends on it. Their cowardice in the face of it may be the single thing they are most remembered for.
on.ft.com/3JVxC1Z via @FT
on.ft.com/3JVxC1Z via @FT
BBC faces ‘existential’ threat after exit of top executives
Broadcaster’s deepest crisis in recent history comes amid fresh questions over its future role in British society
on.ft.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I do not understand the Labour government's reticence over defending the BBC and social media regulation. Their long-term survival basically depends on it. Their cowardice in the face of it may be the single thing they are most remembered for.
on.ft.com/3JVxC1Z via @FT
on.ft.com/3JVxC1Z via @FT
Maybe Nigel Farage should refuse to appear on the BBC in protest.
November 10, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Maybe Nigel Farage should refuse to appear on the BBC in protest.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Robbie Gibb criticising the BBC for journalistic standards is a glass house so big you could hold the Great Exhibition of 1851 in it and still have room for an excellent tomato crop
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
November 10, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Robbie Gibb criticising the BBC for journalistic standards is a glass house so big you could hold the Great Exhibition of 1851 in it and still have room for an excellent tomato crop
Reposted by Thomas Penny
The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Straight from the cenotaph to Tavistock Square for the white poppy ceremony for peace. Happy to lay a poppy at the stone for conscientious objectors, so many of whom also have died as a result of war.
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Straight from the cenotaph to Tavistock Square for the white poppy ceremony for peace. Happy to lay a poppy at the stone for conscientious objectors, so many of whom also have died as a result of war.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
"Good to see your mum and dad putting their messy divorce to one side and not spoil your graduation..."
November 10, 2025 at 11:46 AM
"Good to see your mum and dad putting their messy divorce to one side and not spoil your graduation..."
Hats off to Sky News for doing this.
If the BBC had put it out, the Times and Telegraph would have been frothing at the mouth.
The endless divisive nonsense promoted by Musk is much much worse than one badly edited clip in one BBC programme.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
If the BBC had put it out, the Times and Telegraph would have been frothing at the mouth.
The endless divisive nonsense promoted by Musk is much much worse than one badly edited clip in one BBC programme.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
How the world's richest man is boosting the British right
How the world's richest man is boosting the British right
news.sky.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Hats off to Sky News for doing this.
If the BBC had put it out, the Times and Telegraph would have been frothing at the mouth.
The endless divisive nonsense promoted by Musk is much much worse than one badly edited clip in one BBC programme.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
If the BBC had put it out, the Times and Telegraph would have been frothing at the mouth.
The endless divisive nonsense promoted by Musk is much much worse than one badly edited clip in one BBC programme.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Reposted by Thomas Penny
I fear that if Johnson were asked this today, there would be lot of umming & erring, some guff about "the custard of conciliation" & "the tiramisu of time", but he would refuse to answer.
That a US President tried to overthrow an election is now unsayable on the British Right & in much of the media
That a US President tried to overthrow an election is now unsayable on the British Right & in much of the media
In 2020, Boris Johnson said that Trump "encouraged people to storm the Capitol ... I believe that that was completely wrong. ... I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the Capitol".
Does he still think that?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgCi...
Does he still think that?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgCi...
Boris Johnson condemns Trump after Capitol attack: 'Completely wrong'
YouTube video by Guardian News
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
I fear that if Johnson were asked this today, there would be lot of umming & erring, some guff about "the custard of conciliation" & "the tiramisu of time", but he would refuse to answer.
That a US President tried to overthrow an election is now unsayable on the British Right & in much of the media
That a US President tried to overthrow an election is now unsayable on the British Right & in much of the media
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Fantasising about the alternate reality in which the BBC Director General resigns for not adequately covering climate change
November 10, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Fantasising about the alternate reality in which the BBC Director General resigns for not adequately covering climate change
A great day to bury good news...
BREAKING: BBC has officially announced the second series of The Celebrity Traitors. It will air in 2026.
November 10, 2025 at 12:03 PM
A great day to bury good news...
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
"Charles Moore has got what he wanted" is a phrase that rarely heralds good for the country.
November 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM
"Charles Moore has got what he wanted" is a phrase that rarely heralds good for the country.
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Written before the BBC resignations but this by @arusbridger.bsky.social is really worth reading. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump
It is the BBC’s entire governance structure–rather than individual stories–that should cause most concern
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Written before the BBC resignations but this by @arusbridger.bsky.social is really worth reading. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
Reposted by Thomas Penny
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 Thomas Penny
Why isn’t this seen as a failure of Board supervision that should trigger a wholesale replacement?
November 10, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Why isn’t this seen as a failure of Board supervision that should trigger a wholesale replacement?
Reposted by Thomas Penny
‘Their resignations should be called out for what they are: political interference that will inhibit the work of BBC journalists and undermine the public’s trust in BBC news’
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC | The Observer
bit.ly
November 10, 2025 at 6:35 AM
‘Their resignations should be called out for what they are: political interference that will inhibit the work of BBC journalists and undermine the public’s trust in BBC news’
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Michael Prescott so-called “independent” adviser to BBC was appointed by Boris johnson as “independent” adviser to Ofcom when then PM trying to get Paul Dacre job of chair. Prescott BBC report classic example in stringing together unrelated incidents into conspiracy narrative’
November 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Michael Prescott so-called “independent” adviser to BBC was appointed by Boris johnson as “independent” adviser to Ofcom when then PM trying to get Paul Dacre job of chair. Prescott BBC report classic example in stringing together unrelated incidents into conspiracy narrative’
Reposted by Thomas Penny
Good to hear Mark Damazer, the brightest man who worked for the BBC in the last three decades stand up and fluently fairly and rationally defend its journalists. Bit of a shame he left 15 years ago.
November 10, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Good to hear Mark Damazer, the brightest man who worked for the BBC in the last three decades stand up and fluently fairly and rationally defend its journalists. Bit of a shame he left 15 years ago.
It's my daughter's birthday and my starting word came up on Wordle... a doubly auspicious day!
November 8, 2025 at 9:33 AM
It's my daughter's birthday and my starting word came up on Wordle... a doubly auspicious day!
Yes, @theguardian1.bsky.social, "even just a tiny tweak can make a world of difference..."
It's Kyiv, Not Kiev!
Please please please update your style guide.
This stuff matters.
#kyivnotkiev
It's Kyiv, Not Kiev!
Please please please update your style guide.
This stuff matters.
#kyivnotkiev
November 8, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Yes, @theguardian1.bsky.social, "even just a tiny tweak can make a world of difference..."
It's Kyiv, Not Kiev!
Please please please update your style guide.
This stuff matters.
#kyivnotkiev
It's Kyiv, Not Kiev!
Please please please update your style guide.
This stuff matters.
#kyivnotkiev