Rants and Reflections
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When Government Decides What We Should Hear
The UK government is currently consulting on plans, set out in the Watch This Space green paper, media literacy strategy and a linked evidence review, that would give “trusted” and public service sources greater prominence on platforms and search results. Backers call it protecting people from misinformation. Critics call it a quiet way to shape which voices…
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Political Commentary Is Now a Subscription Business
Political commentary increasingly runs on the same mechanics as a content farm: a provocative social post drives clicks to a paid platform, and the strength of the argument matters less than whether it converts. Matt Goodwin’s Facebook post about the murders of Jo Cox and Ann Widdecombe raises a fair question about double standards on…
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That Facebook Post Doing the Rounds. It’s Still Bollocks!
Every few months, your feed fills up with it again. Some variation of “big day tomorrow” or “just in case you missed it on TV” – followed by a wall of semi-legal gibberish, a declaration that Facebook / Meta no longer has permission to use your photos, a bit about AI, and a helpful instruction…
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English Identity and Why the Debate Keeps Coming Back
Language is a funny thing in politics. The words are simple, but the meaning behind them can shift depending on who is speaking and what they’re trying to achieve. Recently, comments from Shabana Mahmood sparked debate about what it actually means to be English. When Politicians Start Redefining Identity, People Naturally Push Back Some listeners…
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YouTube’s Triple Paywall Problem Explained
What we’re seeing isn’t a gentle drift towards monetisation, it’s stacked monetisation, and it’s reached the point where it feels naked. Once upon a time the deal was simple. You gave your time. They made something worth watching. YouTube ran ads around it. Everyone understood the trade. Then creators quite reasonably said adverts alone aren’t…
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Another YouTube Trust Problem – Fake LIVE Badges
Slapping LIVE on a channel avatar when nothing is live is pure theatre. It exploits the same reflex as red notification dots and fake urgency banners. Your brain sees “live”, assumes scarcity or relevance, and your thumb pauses. That’s the entire game. What makes it worse is that it trains people to distrust the signal…
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AI Isn’t the Problem. Letting It Sexualise Children Is.
Let’s stop pretending this is complicated. If a tool allows people to strip clothes off photos of real people without consent, that tool is broken. If it allows the same thing to happen to children, it shouldn’t exist in public at all. That’s not a debate about creativity, free speech, or technological progress. It’s a…
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Some People Don’t Care. They Perform Caring.
It took me far too long to realise the difference, mostly because I assumed that if someone talked about compassion enough, there must be something solid underneath it. There often isn’t. This is something I’ve struggled with for a long time. I’d say lately, but honestly it’s been years. I’ve never been able to wrap…
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YouTubers Beg for Subscribers, What Are They Asking For?
I watch quite a bit of YouTube. Probably too much, if I’m honest. It’s useful, occasionally entertaining, quite informative, and every now and then you stumble across someone genuinely brilliant. Someone who clearly knows their subject and shares something worthwhile. But let’s not pretend the whole place isn’t also full of absolute muppetry. Because it…
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Why I Legally Stopped Paying The TV Licence Fee
Is there a tax in the UK more universally grumbled about than the TV Licence? It feels like a relic from a different era, yet the pressure to pay it remains as aggressive as ever. Recently, the conversation’s heated up again. With the government proposing to give free licences to those on benefits – subsidised…