William Norris
@william-norris.bsky.social
Chair of Nonclassical. Formerly of Scottish Ensemble, Southbank Sinfonia, Tafelmusik & the oae but this account is my own.
Reposted by William Norris
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 William Norris
For as many years as anyone been counting two or more inmates been mistakenly released from British prisons most weeks. Record does not make it acceptable. System needs to be fixed. It does leave me asking why BBC now gripped by end-of-civilisation hysteria heard on Radio 4 Today programme.
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 AM
For as many years as anyone been counting two or more inmates been mistakenly released from British prisons most weeks. Record does not make it acceptable. System needs to be fixed. It does leave me asking why BBC now gripped by end-of-civilisation hysteria heard on Radio 4 Today programme.
This is from a piece about Shein opening a shop in Paris. What blows my mind is that someone has €200 a month to spend on clothes. I probably spend that every 6 months at most. For all the talk, people don’t really give a crap about disposable fashion and its ethics, they just like buying stuff.
November 6, 2025 at 5:28 PM
This is from a piece about Shein opening a shop in Paris. What blows my mind is that someone has €200 a month to spend on clothes. I probably spend that every 6 months at most. For all the talk, people don’t really give a crap about disposable fashion and its ethics, they just like buying stuff.
Reposted by William Norris
We need more reporting of local government. This is quite a thread...
Cllr Daniel Taylor, currently on bail pending trial over allegations that he threatened to kill his wife, has attended today. Given he missed every other meeting since his arrest, he would have been disqualified as a councillor had he not arrived today.
November 6, 2025 at 11:42 AM
We need more reporting of local government. This is quite a thread...
Reposted by William Norris
Labour has a long,long way to go to catch up with this Tory corruption - !!!
October 31, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Labour has a long,long way to go to catch up with this Tory corruption - !!!
Reposted by William Norris
Reposted by William Norris
Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.
October 10, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.
Reposted by William Norris
Twelve Jobs Nigel has earned over £1 million in additional income since the general election.
To understand the scale of it, since the July 2024 election he's earned roughly £100k more as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion than Starmer gets as PM.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
To understand the scale of it, since the July 2024 election he's earned roughly £100k more as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion than Starmer gets as PM.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
Nigel Farage earns over £1m from 12 'second jobs' - check how much your MP earns
The Reform UK leader's most lucrative second jobs include hosting on GB News, serving as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion and recording videos for Cameo
www.mirror.co.uk
October 9, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Twelve Jobs Nigel has earned over £1 million in additional income since the general election.
To understand the scale of it, since the July 2024 election he's earned roughly £100k more as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion than Starmer gets as PM.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
To understand the scale of it, since the July 2024 election he's earned roughly £100k more as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion than Starmer gets as PM.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
Reposted by William Norris
The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
October 7, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
Reposted by William Norris
Should the UK leave the European Convention on Human Rights?
Interesting comments from Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General for England and Wales👇
#ECHR
Interesting comments from Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General for England and Wales👇
#ECHR
October 7, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Should the UK leave the European Convention on Human Rights?
Interesting comments from Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General for England and Wales👇
#ECHR
Interesting comments from Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General for England and Wales👇
#ECHR
Tomorrow night! —->
✨ ormside projects // nonclassical presents nneka cummins with beatrice ferriera & nwakke
📍 penarth Centre, 32 ormside st, london SE15 ⚡ experimental electronics, bluegrass-inspired opera & immersive soundscapes!
tickets £8–£18 via ra.co/events/2209421
📍 penarth Centre, 32 ormside st, london SE15 ⚡ experimental electronics, bluegrass-inspired opera & immersive soundscapes!
tickets £8–£18 via ra.co/events/2209421
September 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Tomorrow night! —->
Find it utterly bizarre that politicians on the left continue to use X, lining the post of Elon Musk a little bit more with every tweet and every spat.
September 18, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Find it utterly bizarre that politicians on the left continue to use X, lining the post of Elon Musk a little bit more with every tweet and every spat.
Eating one of the many bags of crisps that LNER off loaded onto me on my last trip while being studiously ignored by all the catering crew on this (late) Deutsche Bahn train.
September 9, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Eating one of the many bags of crisps that LNER off loaded onto me on my last trip while being studiously ignored by all the catering crew on this (late) Deutsche Bahn train.
Reposted by William Norris
Good column this. Ultimately the UK's problems are 'need to spend a bit more money' - big and important questions on what the right mix of public and private that should be, but no, we don't need a 'Meiji Restoration' level of upheaval!
Britain is not a broken society
The country has serious problems but the right’s vision of it has become hysterical
www.ft.com
July 31, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Good column this. Ultimately the UK's problems are 'need to spend a bit more money' - big and important questions on what the right mix of public and private that should be, but no, we don't need a 'Meiji Restoration' level of upheaval!
Last chance! Our extended deadline of 28 July is fast approaching - feel free to message me to find out more.
join our board as a trustee ✨
we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical! we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical this year!
deadline: 9am, friday 4 july
apply now: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical! we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical this year!
deadline: 9am, friday 4 july
apply now: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
July 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Last chance! Our extended deadline of 28 July is fast approaching - feel free to message me to find out more.
Reposted by William Norris
If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise. The woods are gone. There’s a road called ‘The Woods’ there instead, containing a load of fucking ghastly overpriced executive houses with identical shiny light grey interiors and pointless giant clocks in their living rooms.
June 30, 2025 at 5:25 PM
If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise. The woods are gone. There’s a road called ‘The Woods’ there instead, containing a load of fucking ghastly overpriced executive houses with identical shiny light grey interiors and pointless giant clocks in their living rooms.
Reposted by William Norris
If only there were half the outrage over Israeli soldiers shooting starving people queuing for food as there has been towards some rappers mouthing off at Glastonbury, we'd be in a very different place
June 30, 2025 at 7:27 AM
If only there were half the outrage over Israeli soldiers shooting starving people queuing for food as there has been towards some rappers mouthing off at Glastonbury, we'd be in a very different place
Reposted by William Norris
british fan chat
![cartoon for the guardian by Stephen Collins - script as follows:
[Scene is a darkened LOFT. Amongst the boxes and junk are FOUR KNACKERED OLD FANS - three tower fans and one circular, with cracked grey plastic and buttons missing. One fan, TOWER FAN 1, is a bit taller than the others, and is addressing them]
1
TOWER FAN 1:
Right lads, get ready.
2
TOWER FAN 1:
This is our time.
3
TOWER FAN 1:
The time when we remember who we are, and why we’re here.
4
TOWER FAN 1:
We are the four crap fans in a British person’s loft,
and we are here to make absolutely no difference whatsoever.
5
TOWER FAN 1:
I know what you’re
thinking, lads:
6
TOWER FAN 1:
Surely this will be the year they finally replace us?
7
TOWER FAN 1:
Our plastic’s gone all brown... I haven’t oscillated since 2018...
8
TOWER FAN 1:
Dave here sounds like a spitfire and blows like a sad cat’s sigh…
TOWER FAN 2:
Cheers mate
9
TOWER FAN 1:
But no. These people are British, and every year, they forget the sun exists.
By the time they remember,
new fans will cost *four million pounds* on Amazon.
10
TOWER FAN 1:
So we’ll be back down there... shovelling thick air across the moaning faces of a species that cannot comprehend the concept of air conditioning, or even just closing the curtains when it’s hot out...
11
TOWER FAN 1:
...while they incessantly bang on about normally hot countries which this country is now temporarily a bit hotter than.
12
[The loft hatch opens and a person comes up the ladder]
PERSON:
APPARENTLY IT’S HOTTER THAN GREECE, LISA](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreidbpfu2ioghspjcg4xitzv655jzjwp5lgxk5hi3ag7sechgh222ze@jpeg)
May 14, 2025 at 12:20 PM
british fan chat
Reposted by William Norris
All governments are imperfect but they are NOT "all the same".
The lazy trope that "it doesn't matter who you vote for" isn't just false; it feeds the nihilism on which the radical right prey.
It's like a burning tyre, coating everything in acrid smoke, choking off any meaningful democratic choice
The lazy trope that "it doesn't matter who you vote for" isn't just false; it feeds the nihilism on which the radical right prey.
It's like a burning tyre, coating everything in acrid smoke, choking off any meaningful democratic choice
Compare and contrast the plutocratic US government's grotesque help for the richest... with social democratic Britain. Like night and day.
June 14, 2025 at 8:43 AM
All governments are imperfect but they are NOT "all the same".
The lazy trope that "it doesn't matter who you vote for" isn't just false; it feeds the nihilism on which the radical right prey.
It's like a burning tyre, coating everything in acrid smoke, choking off any meaningful democratic choice
The lazy trope that "it doesn't matter who you vote for" isn't just false; it feeds the nihilism on which the radical right prey.
It's like a burning tyre, coating everything in acrid smoke, choking off any meaningful democratic choice
I’ve discovered incredible new music and artists during my short time as Chair of @nonclsscl.bsky.social - being on the board is massively fulfilling, and we’re currently recruiting a number of trustees - details below.
join our board as a trustee ✨
we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical! we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical this year!
deadline: 9am, friday 4 july
apply now: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical! we’re looking for new trustees to join the board of nonclassical this year!
deadline: 9am, friday 4 july
apply now: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
June 10, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I’ve discovered incredible new music and artists during my short time as Chair of @nonclsscl.bsky.social - being on the board is massively fulfilling, and we’re currently recruiting a number of trustees - details below.
Reposted by William Norris
A reminder that more people are employed in the yoga industry than there are registered fishers working in the UK.
May 19, 2025 at 9:22 AM
A reminder that more people are employed in the yoga industry than there are registered fishers working in the UK.
Achievement unlocked, rode the @lner.co.uk Eleanor train today 😍
May 15, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Achievement unlocked, rode the @lner.co.uk Eleanor train today 😍
Reposted by William Norris
Just the official account for the US government portraying a convicted fraudster, rapist and sex predator as God's representative on Earth. Americans must be so proud.
May 3, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Just the official account for the US government portraying a convicted fraudster, rapist and sex predator as God's representative on Earth. Americans must be so proud.
Now there’s a policy I can get behind…
Lib Dems back ban on playing music and videos on public transport in England
Lib Dems back ban on playing music and videos on public transport in England
Under the plan, those who flout the prohibition could face a maximum fine of £1,000
A party of party poopers? Or defenders of the “quiet majority”? Either way, the Liberal Democrats are redefining “political battlebus” by proposing a ban on people playing music and videos out loud on their phones on public transport.
Under the plan, those who blast out songs and TV shows from their phone on public transport, or while at stations or bus stops, could face a maximum fine of £1,000. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
April 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Now there’s a policy I can get behind…
It’s literally impossible to get wine served in an actual glass @southbankcentre.bsky.social - why would I want to over spend on a glass of wine only to have it in plastic? Upstairs to Skylon it is…
April 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM
It’s literally impossible to get wine served in an actual glass @southbankcentre.bsky.social - why would I want to over spend on a glass of wine only to have it in plastic? Upstairs to Skylon it is…