Tom Mills
@tommills.bsky.social
Public sociologist & socialist. Interested in elites, knowledge & communication. Author of 'The BBC: Myth of a Public Service'.
Pinned
Tom Mills
@tommills.bsky.social
· Feb 28
Elite Status‐Seeking and Class Reproduction in Civil Society: An Analysis of Corporate Elite Appointments to Charity Boards
This article examines the relationship between economic elites and civil society by analysing the appointments of corporate elites to the boards of charitable companies in the UK. Whilst previous res...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
New article with Narzanin Massoumi in the @bjsociology.bsky.social: ‘Elite Status-Seeking and Class Reproduction in Civil Society.’ Thread.👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Tom Mills
I've just signed a contract with @orbooks.bsky.social to write a book about the future of the BBC with @tommills.bsky.social and Thomas Chivers of @mediareformuk.bsky.social. The book, which will be published in the second half of 2026 will coincide with charter renewal.
November 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I've just signed a contract with @orbooks.bsky.social to write a book about the future of the BBC with @tommills.bsky.social and Thomas Chivers of @mediareformuk.bsky.social. The book, which will be published in the second half of 2026 will coincide with charter renewal.
Interviewed in this week's 'The Listening Post' show on the crisis at the BBC. You can watch the full episode here ▶️ youtu.be/BNAPd_ur4-s
Inside the infighting: BBC in crisis over edited Trump speech | The Listening Post
YouTube video by Al Jazeera English
youtu.be
November 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Interviewed in this week's 'The Listening Post' show on the crisis at the BBC. You can watch the full episode here ▶️ youtu.be/BNAPd_ur4-s
Reposted by Tom Mills
Very good commentary from Tom eschewing reduction to the palace coup framing without dodging the issues of who has the power to determine accountability.
With the BBC discourse still raging, here's my take. www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-direct...
The Director General is Going. Who Will Now Run the BBC?
Tom Mills asks how the BBC can demonstrate its independence and impartiality in a political environment where trust and consensus has collapsed
www.bylinesupplement.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Very good commentary from Tom eschewing reduction to the palace coup framing without dodging the issues of who has the power to determine accountability.
Spoke to France 24 English about, you guessed it, the crisis at the BBC.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgkP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgkP...
BBC accused of bias after airing misleading edit of Trump speech • FRANCE 24 English
YouTube video by FRANCE 24 English
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Spoke to France 24 English about, you guessed it, the crisis at the BBC.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgkP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgkP...
With the BBC discourse still raging, here's my take. www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-direct...
The Director General is Going. Who Will Now Run the BBC?
Tom Mills asks how the BBC can demonstrate its independence and impartiality in a political environment where trust and consensus has collapsed
www.bylinesupplement.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
With the BBC discourse still raging, here's my take. www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-direct...
Reposted by Tom Mills
6/ Michael Prescott is an old friend of Robbie Gibb & was on the panel to choose the head of Ofcom when Boris Johnson was PM.
Gibb tried to swing it for a Tory apparatchik but was overruled by (of all people) Nadine Dorries, who preferred another.
bylinetimes.com/2023/11/21/d...
Gibb tried to swing it for a Tory apparatchik but was overruled by (of all people) Nadine Dorries, who preferred another.
bylinetimes.com/2023/11/21/d...
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
6/ Michael Prescott is an old friend of Robbie Gibb & was on the panel to choose the head of Ofcom when Boris Johnson was PM.
Gibb tried to swing it for a Tory apparatchik but was overruled by (of all people) Nadine Dorries, who preferred another.
bylinetimes.com/2023/11/21/d...
Gibb tried to swing it for a Tory apparatchik but was overruled by (of all people) Nadine Dorries, who preferred another.
bylinetimes.com/2023/11/21/d...
Delighted you all enjoyed Celebrity Traitors, & especially that the debate on the future of public media will focus on that fact.
November 7, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Delighted you all enjoyed Celebrity Traitors, & especially that the debate on the future of public media will focus on that fact.
Network of Reform donors who have donated to another 'regulated entity'. Basically the same methods as previous network I posted on Labour Together. £36,750,057 donated in this network.
November 4, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Network of Reform donors who have donated to another 'regulated entity'. Basically the same methods as previous network I posted on Labour Together. £36,750,057 donated in this network.
Reposted by Tom Mills
Would the BBC stand up to a Farage government?
Peter York's Culture Wars House Party podcast talks with @tommills.bsky.social Dr Tom Mills about the state of British media — press ownership, BBC independence, and what happens when funding cuts “smash morale.”
🎧 podfollow.com/peter-yorks-...
Peter York's Culture Wars House Party podcast talks with @tommills.bsky.social Dr Tom Mills about the state of British media — press ownership, BBC independence, and what happens when funding cuts “smash morale.”
🎧 podfollow.com/peter-yorks-...
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Would the BBC stand up to a Farage government?
Peter York's Culture Wars House Party podcast talks with @tommills.bsky.social Dr Tom Mills about the state of British media — press ownership, BBC independence, and what happens when funding cuts “smash morale.”
🎧 podfollow.com/peter-yorks-...
Peter York's Culture Wars House Party podcast talks with @tommills.bsky.social Dr Tom Mills about the state of British media — press ownership, BBC independence, and what happens when funding cuts “smash morale.”
🎧 podfollow.com/peter-yorks-...
Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza
On July 31, 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (PMH) in Gaza released a list
of named people directly killed in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023.1 The list had 60 199 decedents
with their reported age, se...
www.thelancet.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Thanks to Paul Holden’s ‘The Fraud’, the Labour Right’s vehicle Labour Together is in the spotlight again. Here’s the core of its funding network constructed from Electoral Commission data. Donors blue, ‘donees’ red.
October 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Thanks to Paul Holden’s ‘The Fraud’, the Labour Right’s vehicle Labour Together is in the spotlight again. Here’s the core of its funding network constructed from Electoral Commission data. Donors blue, ‘donees’ red.
‘Grudging acts are those activities in which we really would rather not participate but which we perform nonetheless’.
Feel seen. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Feel seen. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
October 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
‘Grudging acts are those activities in which we really would rather not participate but which we perform nonetheless’.
Feel seen. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Feel seen. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Tom Mills
None of us are safe in a world where basic norms in respect of the sanctity of human life are blithely disregarded. Those norms must be enforced, and enforced visibly. There must be political and legal consequences for every politician who made the genocide possible. The alternative is unthinkable.
The foreign secretary says the UK has been contributing to the peace process.
No. What the UK govt has been contributing to is the extermination of the Palestinian people.
No. What the UK govt has been contributing to is the extermination of the Palestinian people.
October 10, 2025 at 7:01 AM
None of us are safe in a world where basic norms in respect of the sanctity of human life are blithely disregarded. Those norms must be enforced, and enforced visibly. There must be political and legal consequences for every politician who made the genocide possible. The alternative is unthinkable.
This sweeping discussion is focused on the US, but there's so much that's directly relevant to the UK's dysfunctional political economy. Covers so much ill have to listen twice I think.
New @thedigradio.bsky.social: first of two w @melindacooper.bsky.social on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. How neoliberalism remade US capitalism into an engine for endless asset appreciation, and the attendant reactionary politics www.thedigradio.com/podcast/coun...
Counterrevolution w/ Melinda Cooper
Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Neoliberalism remade the American economy into an engine for the appreciation of assets stretching from the...
www.thedigradio.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
This sweeping discussion is focused on the US, but there's so much that's directly relevant to the UK's dysfunctional political economy. Covers so much ill have to listen twice I think.
It was so clear to so many of us - ignored or ridiculed - the disastrous path we were on since 2008 (at the earliest). And here we are. We've arrived at our destination.
October 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
It was so clear to so many of us - ignored or ridiculed - the disastrous path we were on since 2008 (at the earliest). And here we are. We've arrived at our destination.
Still funny to me that academics have to organise 'retreats' to find time to write anything.
September 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Still funny to me that academics have to organise 'retreats' to find time to write anything.
Interesting read on the roots of MAGA in early 90s conservatism. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
William Davies · Repeal the 20th Century: Pre-MAGA
To understand the intellectual coordinates of Trumpism requires us to look in less conventional places and to pay more...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 20, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Interesting read on the roots of MAGA in early 90s conservatism. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Tom Mills
Nigel Farage is the biggest charlatan in British political history.
And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:
And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:
September 7, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Nigel Farage is the biggest charlatan in British political history.
And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:
And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:
We now go live to our Westminster correspondent who will explain with inordinate enthusiasm why keeping all the same people but changing their roles is in fact extremely interesting & important.
September 5, 2025 at 5:38 PM
We now go live to our Westminster correspondent who will explain with inordinate enthusiasm why keeping all the same people but changing their roles is in fact extremely interesting & important.
One of the things I enjoy the most in life is producing a highly detailed Gantt chart for a project that will never be funded.
September 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM
One of the things I enjoy the most in life is producing a highly detailed Gantt chart for a project that will never be funded.
Great initiative. Transformative politics needs its own media. Mad Corbyn never did this.
Leading a political party means leading the political conversation - being available and being heard on the platforms people actually use.
Join me every Wednesday on my new podcast: Bold Politics.
The only podcast led by a current party leader in the UK. Link in bio.
Join me every Wednesday on my new podcast: Bold Politics.
The only podcast led by a current party leader in the UK. Link in bio.
September 3, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Great initiative. Transformative politics needs its own media. Mad Corbyn never did this.
Missed this. Very clever and interesting paper.
Our paper on clusters of schools across the UK is out.
We find five clusters: multi-racial & super-diverse middle & working-class schools of towns & cities, suburban white middle class schools, established elite schools & (post-)industrial white working class schools.
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
We find five clusters: multi-racial & super-diverse middle & working-class schools of towns & cities, suburban white middle class schools, established elite schools & (post-)industrial white working class schools.
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
September 3, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Missed this. Very clever and interesting paper.
'...the International Association of Genocide Scholars: Declares that Israel’s policies & actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'
t.co/HigtT0Ldrl
t.co/HigtT0Ldrl
https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IAGS-Resolution-on-Gaza-FINAL.pdf
t.co
September 1, 2025 at 4:40 PM
'...the International Association of Genocide Scholars: Declares that Israel’s policies & actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'
t.co/HigtT0Ldrl
t.co/HigtT0Ldrl
Israel Accuses Al Jazeera Of Being Mouthpiece For Journalism theonion.com/israel-accus...
Israel Accuses Al Jazeera Of Being Mouthpiece For Journalism
JERUSALEM—Following its ban of the Qatar-based news outlet’s operations in the country, Israel accused Al Jazeera Monday of being a mouthpiece for journalism. “It is clear from its continuous, 24-hour...
theonion.com
August 19, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Israel Accuses Al Jazeera Of Being Mouthpiece For Journalism theonion.com/israel-accus...
Quite. But if you understand terrorism as political actions - violent or peaceful - that threaten or disrupt the geopolitical interests of states, then it makes more sense.
It is inherently absurd to proscribe a group as terrorists based on acts the public doesn't know about. Terrorism *by definition* involves violence intended to intimidate a civilian population. How can the target population be terrorised by acts they know nothing about?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Yvette Cooper: Some 'don't know the full nature' of Palestine Action
Defending the group's proscription under terror law, she said the organisation was "not a non-violent organisation".
www.bbc.com
August 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Quite. But if you understand terrorism as political actions - violent or peaceful - that threaten or disrupt the geopolitical interests of states, then it makes more sense.