Jacob Furedi

Trapped in Thatcherland 100 years of Maggie • Voices of miners, bombers, rioters • From Toxteth to Long Kesh

dispatch-media.com/trapped-in-t...

Ahead of Thatcher's centenery, I travelled across the UK to speak to those still living in her Britain.

I interviewed dozens of people — including an IRA bomber, a Toxteth rioter, and a Scottish miner who celebrated her death.

You can read the result in @dispatchmedia.bsky.social.

An IRA bomber, a Scottish miner, a Toxteth rioter, a Welsh 'lout'.

How are they faring today?

Ahead of her centenary, @jacobfuredi.bsky.social reports from the frontlines of Thatcher's Britain:

Vividly remember reading this for the first time. A deeply unsettling experience. Well worth 10 minutes of your time.

David Peace: 'The media has failed Britain' A Yorkshireman in Tokyo • On Labour and Tommy Robinson • Plus a remedy for 'broken Britain'

Read it here:

dispatch-media.com/david-peace-...

David Peace covered a lot in this interview:

— Being kicked out of Labour
— Yorkshire's grooming gangs
— His guilt about the Miners' Strike
— How the 'Broken Britain' narrative can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
— Why he won't write about it

The king

American nukes in an English village A top-secret airbase • In sleepy Suffolk • Locals go to war

With Trump touching down in the UK today, spare a thought for the Suffolk villagers forced to live next to an American airbase stuffed with nuclear weapons.

Even better, make some time for this very classy long-read from Jonathan McAloon:

dispatch-media.com/american-nuk...

"Will Dispatch ever serve up AI slop to its readers?"

Listen to @jacobfuredi.bsky.social's response on Radio 4's The Media Show this week.

Margaux Blanchard, the journalist who didn't exist Dispatch rumbles AI fraud • The power of reporting • Introducing the Blanchard offer

Who is Margaux Blanchard? Margaux Blanchard net worth? How old is Margaux Blanchard? Is Margaux Blanchard married?

Tbh, I don't know. But today I wrote about how @dispatchmedia.bsky.social exposed her — and why she matters:

dispatch-media.com/margaux-blan...

Wired and Business Insider remove 'AI-written' freelance articles Wired and Business Insider have removed freelance articles over concerns they were written by AI under a fake name.

Bravo @jacobfuredi.bsky.social and @pressgazette.co.uk @charlottetobitt.bsky.social for rumbling this. Doesn't reflect brilliantly on the magazine industry, sadly.

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

Very cool to see Dispatch publish its first Grammy winner.

Somehow, Jon Cleary writes as arrestingly as he plays piano...

With journalists barred and misinformation rife, covering the war in Gaza can feel impossible.

On Dispatch today, read Hasan Jber’s extraordinary diary of life in a refugee camp. It's as strong a tonic as any to your usual op-eds and armchair analysis.

The TikTok ghouls of Whitby Four deaths in four days • A town mourns • Conspiracies go viral

To find out what was really going on, I travelled to Whitby — and tracked down the TikTokers monetising the town's trauma.

Link here: dispatch-media.com/the-tiktok-g...

On the other, it revealed the grim extent to which true-crime TikTokers depend on churning out sensationalist content for hits.

On the one hand, it's classic case of legacy media failing on sensitivity and accuracy.

Reach recycled inaccurate headlines across its local outlets — and national outlets didn’t do much better.

Two weeks ago, four people fell to their deaths from Whitby’s cliffs in four days.

Within hours, wild serial-killer rumours went viral on TikTok — a grim example of how the “content” economy rewards ghoulish voyeurism.

My report for @dispatchmedia.bsky.social is below:

Spies, strip clubs and suspicious Grandmasters...

A cracking read, in which Euan makes a compelling pitch for Dispatch's much-coveted 'Chess Correspondent' role.

Obviously I'm biased — but this feels like important work by @petercarlyon.bsky.social on Britain's measles crisis.

Uncovering the human stories behind a very important (and unreported) datapoint:

Well this is exciting

The forgotten founder of the EDL Paul Ray lit the fuse • Then disappeared • From Luton to Ukraine

This is a fascinating essay on Paul Ray, the founder of the EDL – a strange and troubled sounding bloke ‪@dispatchmedia.bsky.social‬

dispatch-media.com/the-forgotte...

Tommy Robinson is widely considered the founder of the EDL — but he wasn’t.

That dubious honour goes to Paul Ray, a “counter-Jihad” blogger from Luton who disappeared shortly after its launch.

What happened to him?

@jacobfuredi.bsky.social found him in Ukraine: dispatch-media.com/the-forgotte...

An evening with Britain's most offensive comedian Is Roy 'Chubby' Brown still alive? • Yes • Good evening, Blackpool

Once the most divisive comedian in Britain, Roy 'Chubby' Brown is still performing at 80.

But who’s showing up to watch him?

I went to Blackpool to find out, for @dispatchmedia.bsky.social.

dispatch-media.com/an-evening-w...

Inside the Kingdom of the Sovereigns The Brits who don't pay tax • Meet the Sovereign Project • Pete has a plan

Meet the Sovereign Project — a group of a fringe eccentrics who believe Britain's laws and taxes are a form of slavery.

Earlier this month, Fred Sculthorp went to the pub with them.

Read in @dispatchmedia.bsky.social: dispatch-media.com/inside-the-k...

The men who race pigeons A King's betrayal • Athletes of the sky • Don't tell PETA

It's sports week at @dispatchmedia.bsky.social
— and who better to kick things off than @roisinlanigan.bsky.social?

On pigeon racing, the King and a retired builder called Terry.

dispatch-media.com/the-men-who-...

The trials of the Sycamore Gap A tree has fallen • The North remembers • Pint?

Next week, two men will go on trial at Newcastle Crown Court for... chopping down a tree.

Some locals have accused them of "treason"; others have called for them to serve life sentences.

Why?

Jonnie McAloon reports from the Sycamore Gap: www.dispatch-media.com/the-trials-o...

Slouching towards San Francisco Big Tech's party scene • An earthquake is coming • Champagne and McNuggets

So delighted I finally get to share this piece by Rachel Dec in @dispatchmedia.bsky.social.

One beautiful paragraph after another. On San Fracnisco's 'utopia'.

dispatch-media.com/slouching-to...

The woman who made Reform UK Catherine Blaiklock wants revenge • She's called the police • A barefoot interview

"Blaiklock goes on to describe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a 'Nazi'... But her real fury is reserved for Farage."

Read Michael Crick on the forgotten woman who created Reform UK: dispatch-media.com/the-woman-wh...

Cornwall's perfect storm Locals feel lost • Opioids arrive • The skies darken

Cornwall is a strange place: both a middle-class playground and a region scarred by rural poverty.

@natashacarthew.bsky.social knows all about the latter. Here she is on the allure of opioids — in @dispatchmedia.bsky.social today: dispatch-media.com/cornwalls-pe...

Delighted to see @dispatchmedia.bsky.social's opioid investigation featured on the cover of this week's Spectator and inside the New Statesman.