William Cullerne Bown

good read

The Cabinet reshuffle has clarified Britain’s ambiguous relationship with American Big Tech, I argue here in Renewal.

Insightful and nuanced piece here from @williamcb.bsky.social analysing Big Tech's relationship to UK (and specifically Labour) politics, and citing Anneliese Dodds's recent Rita Hinden Memorial Lecture as the first sign of a political fightback

Wake up Britain.

In the US, the Ellisons have put “anti-woke” Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News. The goal is to turn it into a mouthpiece for Trump. No wonder Trump is backing Larry’s AI plans.

In the UK, the Ellisons own Channel 5. And ITN’s contract for 5 News ends in 2028. The shit is coming.

Already there with much of BBC management poisoned by conservative-appointed goons; its partisan reporters slathering over far right scum; and the media generally sees UK politics and the inevitable decline of the nation as a sort of soap opera, with grotesque ‘characters’ instead of real people /1

Wake up Britain.

In the US, the Ellisons have put “anti-woke” Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News. The goal is to turn it into a mouthpiece for Trump. No wonder Trump is backing Larry’s AI plans.

In the UK, the Ellisons own Channel 5. And ITN’s contract for 5 News ends in 2028. The shit is coming.

Today's speech was easily the best Starmer has given.

For the first time since the election, he told a compelling - & optimistic - story about what the government is trying to do; charged that story with moral purpose; & drew clear battle lines with the Right.

A few quick thoughts & a challenge...

How weird that this should have disappeared from the Telegraph archive...

Paxton’s take that Hitler’s laziness (vs Mussolini’s micromanagement) contributed to German Nazism radicalizing *more* than Italian Fascism is partly why I don’t find it convincing that Trump’s incompetence is limiting America’s slide towards authoritarianism.

The truth: Russia’s fingerprints are all over Brexit and Reform UK.

Farage’s spin machine keeps selling “sovereignty”… while his top lieutenants were literally on Moscow’s payroll.

But only the NYT is telling the full story.

Why is 🇬🇧 press so quiet on this?

archive.ph/2025.09.26-1...

National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

Are you saying your lawyers were wrong or right?

AI Coding Is Massively Overhyped, Report Finds The AI industry's claims about AI coding assistants boosting productivity significantly appear to be massively overblown, per a new report.

“In a new report, management consultants Bain & Company found that despite being ‘one of the first areas to deploy generative AI,’ the ‘savings have been unremarkable’ in programming.”

Just a head’s up that I’ve continued making updates to this guide: most recently, to remove the caveat on Here WeGo for not having CarPlay, adding Citymapper, and a suggestion to try the DVD/Blu-ray section at your local library as a streaming alternative. More to come!

The question is, how does that impact on the playing side? What is the investment framework for that? Over what timescale? VV seems like a safe pair of hands rather than the guy who is going to double the value of your company - which suggests tentativeness.

A bit of both I think. The direction of travel - Lewis children being more assertive - was clear. But there were still dynamics to play out that could have turned out otherwise. For example, wasn’t Levy looking for a sale that left him in place?

Like I said, £49 at Argos.

It doesn’t have to “work” in the normal sense. It just has to do the ID card thing. Like a passport, it can sit in a drawer and be picked up when needed.

A passport can get messed up as well. Or lost. The battery issue - it can be managed.

Isn’t a cheap smartphone a physical option? You can currently get a TCL 501 from Argos for £49. Which is half the price of a passport application.

I assume he’s referring here to migration within the EU under New Labour when countries had the option of limiting numbers but the UK chose not to.

Those seeking to replace Your Party with Our Party have not gone far enough. They call themselves radicals but in reality are just another brand of possessivists. Those seeking the true path should join me in taking the next and truly radical step: Ur Party.

Reform's contempt for the rule of law is very obvious

Royal Society to reconsider expelling Elon Musk - Research Professional News Violent rhetoric in address to anti-immigration rally pushes science academy to reassess billionaire’s fellowship

Royal Society's governing council will meet on 1 October to consider expelling Elon Musk.

Adrian Smith, its president, taking a new stance in light of Musk address to far-right rally in London last week.

@francesjones.bsky.social with the latest.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

On Merck, the UK introduced the Patent Box tax relief a few years ago. As expected, this led to competitive tax relief globally. It is worth billions and billions to Merck shareholders - permanently. Now this. They are just showing us they are shit partners with zero memory.

They gambled and lost. If any specialist journalist wants to dig, an interesting question is when were internal concerns first shared with the boards. Because certainly a lot of the problems were openly discussed in my professional network.

Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe Has Earned £40k For Posting On X Independent MP Rupert Lowe has earned nearly £40,000 from posting on Elon Musk’s social media platform X since his election last year, far surpassi...

We need to talk about the threat X poses to our shared values as a country.

This is bigger than just one platform: it’s about the way our democracy is being reshaped by an engagement model that rewards outrage above all else. 1/7

www.politicshome.com/news/article...

That’s right, I think. Chancers are having a tilt.

In the Gold report the bit that bugs me is the assertion that the Lewis children want to back the management not run the club. It just doesn’t measure up to the moment. We need to hear from the kids. For example, is it their goal to win PL & CL?

A reminder that Anneliese Dodds, who resigned from Starmer's government, is giving the Rita Hinden memorial lecture for @renewaljournal.bsky.social on Tuesday. With the government in obvious distress and a deputy leadership contest imminent, I am intrigued about what she will say.