William French
@wtfrench76.bsky.social
Head of Communications at @theelders.bsky.social. Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before. 🇬🇧🇩🇪🇪🇺
Will Trump turn his sights on MI6 and the Royal Navy after the BBC?
November 11, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Will Trump turn his sights on MI6 and the Royal Navy after the BBC?
Reposted by William French
News Chronicle, December 1936. Those were the days...
November 11, 2025 at 2:23 PM
News Chronicle, December 1936. Those were the days...
Reposted by William French
This Veterans Day, Americans may like to know a wide coalition of Dutch political parties in Limburg are fighting back against the removal of 2 panels commemorating black veterans at Margraten US WOII cemetery ↘️ www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/call...
Calls for permanent memorial in Limburg to black US liberators - DutchNews.nl
Provincial councillors in Limburg have called for a permanent memorial to black American servicemen to be erected next to the US war cemetery in Margraten after it emerged that panels commemorating th...
www.dutchnews.nl
November 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM
This Veterans Day, Americans may like to know a wide coalition of Dutch political parties in Limburg are fighting back against the removal of 2 panels commemorating black veterans at Margraten US WOII cemetery ↘️ www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/call...
This feels... inadequate.
No 10 signals PM will not intervene in dispute between Trump and BBC, and says it's for corporation to decide on apology - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Tim Davie tells BBC staff ‘we have to fight for our journalism’ but does not address Trump’s $1bn lawsuit threat – live
Outgoing director general says freedom of press under pressure and that he sees ‘weaponisation’
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 PM
This feels... inadequate.
I've read it before, but once again got something in my eye at the last line.
November 11, 2025 at 11:44 AM
I've read it before, but once again got something in my eye at the last line.
Reposted by William French
Reposted by William French
So the Mail would love the BBC to grovel but who else apart from the fake patriots (faketriots?) on the hard right? Labour should take this chance to ‘speak for England’ - or about 75% of us.
November 11, 2025 at 9:30 AM
So the Mail would love the BBC to grovel but who else apart from the fake patriots (faketriots?) on the hard right? Labour should take this chance to ‘speak for England’ - or about 75% of us.
Reposted by William French
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
November 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
"It was never my intention that collapses in standards at an underfunded and demoralised Sketch would lead to inaccuracies about people I agreed with." Getting to the heart of the matter with the deadly accuracy of a hurled bowler hat...
Crisis at the Critic Sketchcasting Corporation!
Crisis at the CSC | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine
From the desk of Lord Kronsteen, founder and proprietor of the Critic Sketchcasting Corporation. To all staff, It is with a heavy heart that I take pen in hand to inform you of the resignation of both…
thecritic.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:13 PM
"It was never my intention that collapses in standards at an underfunded and demoralised Sketch would lead to inaccuracies about people I agreed with." Getting to the heart of the matter with the deadly accuracy of a hurled bowler hat...
Reposted by William French
Mail Online reports Nigel Farage says that the BBC may have no future.
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
November 10, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Mail Online reports Nigel Farage says that the BBC may have no future.
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
Bad news for the yoghurt makers of France (cc @agnescpoirier.bsky.social).
France’s Sarkozy freed from prison after 3 weeks as he awaits appeal on.ft.com/3X7zlo9
France’s Sarkozy freed from prison after 3 weeks as he awaits appeal
Former president granted conditional release while contesting Libyan financing conviction
on.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Bad news for the yoghurt makers of France (cc @agnescpoirier.bsky.social).
Reposted by William French
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
I can remember right-wingers' affected outrage when Joe Biden jokingly told a BBC reporter "I'm Irish!" rather than answer his question.
NEW: Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC amid claims the broadcaster edited speech by the US president.
November 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I can remember right-wingers' affected outrage when Joe Biden jokingly told a BBC reporter "I'm Irish!" rather than answer his question.
Nico hors du nick.
🇫🇷⚖️Procès libyen: la justice ordonne la remise en liberté de Nicolas Sarkozy.
November 10, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Nico hors du nick.
Presumably the Reform lead in the "historical fiction" category is due to Sven Hassel?
📕 With the Booker Prize winner set to be announced tonight, how does voting intention vary by favourite book genre. Reform’s highest score is with fans of horror, while Labour enjoys a landslide lead among fans of self-help books. *Read* into that what you will.
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Presumably the Reform lead in the "historical fiction" category is due to Sven Hassel?
Pity the poor BBC correspondent charged with reporting this story "with balance". www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Trump Pardons Giuliani and Others Involved in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Pity the poor BBC correspondent charged with reporting this story "with balance". www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Is he still paying Boris Johnson's rent too?
Tory donor Anthony Bamford’s company donates £200,000 to Reform UK on.ft.com/3WNoNKx
Tory donor Anthony Bamford’s company donates £200,000 to Reform UK
JCB to contribute equal amount to Conservative party
on.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Is he still paying Boris Johnson's rent too?
Carter USM, because a kid at school I really didn't like always wore their T-shirts.
What is your biggest musical blindspot for someone precisely your age?
For me - an elder millennial - it is that I have never knowingly listened to INCUBUS, nor could I name even one of their songs if you put a gun to my head.
For me - an elder millennial - it is that I have never knowingly listened to INCUBUS, nor could I name even one of their songs if you put a gun to my head.
November 10, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Carter USM, because a kid at school I really didn't like always wore their T-shirts.
Chance would be a fine thing.
The BBC will fuck things up from time to time. Lots of major news organisations do; just look at The Times having to memoryhole several fake news stories in a matter of weeks.
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
UK newspaper editor calls Bill de Blasio fake interview blunder ‘humiliating’
A Times associate editor reportedly addressed situation in an email to staff, saying: ‘We should have been on our guard’
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Chance would be a fine thing.
In an ideal world, the next BBC DG would be a job-share between @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and @aiannucci.bsky.social.
November 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM
In an ideal world, the next BBC DG would be a job-share between @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and @aiannucci.bsky.social.
What a cheap, dreary and stunted life you must live if you never watch or listen to the BBC.
November 9, 2025 at 8:59 PM
What a cheap, dreary and stunted life you must live if you never watch or listen to the BBC.
Reposted by William French
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 William French
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?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
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?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, a-ha?
November 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, a-ha?
Reposted by William French
We should defend the values and effort at accuracy of the BBC in a Trumpian world of wilful inaccuracy and hypocrisy, but this seems on the face of it to be an excessive response to a politically motivated attack
November 9, 2025 at 6:19 PM
We should defend the values and effort at accuracy of the BBC in a Trumpian world of wilful inaccuracy and hypocrisy, but this seems on the face of it to be an excessive response to a politically motivated attack