Katrina McLellan

Murder at the BBC With his little hatchet...

open.substack.com/pub/davidaar...

...in which I pull together all the most noteworthy aspects of Sir Robbie Gibb's tangled life at the intersection of politics and journalism.

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

What he said: 💯 🎯

I have a very bad feeling about this...

We don’t want Andrew in Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"the freedom to speak becomes meaningless when disconnected from the possibility of being heard".
This is a heartbreaking piece from @alondra.bsky.social on the regression of scientific progress and why she's resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress.
time.com/7285045/resi...

Robert Redford on the phone, plus Dustin Hoffman. From All the President’s Men

When journalism was cool. And risked everything to challenge power.

UPEND THE ESTABLISHMENT, by voting for a party composed entirely of rejects from the oldest party in the country that was in power for 14 years. 😂

Reform UK increasingly look like the Tories just ran off stage, then ran back on wearing a comedy glasses-nose-moustache disguise.

As a governor who cares about the well-being of my people, I can’t live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power.

Enough Platitudes: Starmer Must Confront Racism With Courage, Not Flags The Far-Right is. Emboldened, Lies Go Unchallenged and Labour Looks Like Deer in Headlights. It's Past Time For Real Leadership

I want Keir Starmer to lead - to call out racism, not mutter about bunting.

To offer real refugee policy, not parrot Farage.

To show Britain is better than this.

Instead we’re cowering. We must do better. They must do better.

Libraries and post offices should merge, and there should be a coffee shop.

Pick up your pension, get a book, have a coffee with friends. Cut overheads for everyone, reduce loneliness, and save libraries and post offices.

GOOD TWEET. GOOD MOOD. FIGHT.

That feeling when you spend hours doing what you think of as a proper, fairly strenuous walk, and then get the train back, and the train takes 4 minutes

Yet another poor and mean decision by the BBC. A programme full of joy, insight and encouragement to explore the world of books 😢

Trees 🌳

I am FoI'ing the BBC on some issues to do with Israel-Gaza. DG Tim Davie told MPs on Mar 4: “Part of what I have tried to do for the BBC is to be a guardian of true impartiality through thick and thin, and that requires being completely transparent.“ But the BBC has so far withheld this information

Brido on Substack I wrote a wee thing about how my comedy characters came to be…

substack.com/profile/3369...

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

bsky.app/profile/alan...

My brother was telling me that if you hire a car on the Amalfi coast you can only drive on specific days according to the last letter of your number plate (odd or even) plus there’s restricted access for camper vans. Perhaps that’s what we need on the North Coast 500.

Gummed shapes, Fuzzy Felts and Treasure 🤩 Happy days!

Reform may find that running their councils is a lot harder than they think Editorial: Now that Nigel Farage’s party has a foothold, the country will be able to judge them on what they do, not just on what they say

Here's how Labour should do it.

"Take on Farage, expose the contradictions in his thin policy offer and deploy the ammunition provided by the long overdue scrutiny his party will receive now it has responsibility as well as power."

Still waiting for Farage-mesmerised BBC to devote more than passing sentence to fact that Greens have more councillors than Reform and that Ed Davey's Lib Dems have all bit wiped out the Tories in their traditional shire heartlands....

This is a very fair criticism of the prime minister from @samfr.bsky.social and therefore really quite devastating open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

On the same day, The Observer reported that ministers had decided they didn’t want to face the accusation from Farage that the “establishment” was trying to rig things against him. All of these arguments are classic examples of Labour bedwetting. Do we think for a moment, that if an equivalent foreign backer, say Bill Gates, was proposing a game-changing donation to Labour, that the Conservatives or Reform would not change the rules at pace? This is how populists win. They don’t observe norms and rules, while established players do, indeed they fret about them. Moreover, Farage will always claim that the establishment is trying to rig things against him – he’s made a career out of it.

This, from Lewis Goodall, is bang on the mark.

"You boy! What tariff is it today?"

bsky.app/profile/arch...