Media Madness
The Angry Mob Descends Once Again
Over the last two years, I have written extensively about our media landscape and how it has become far from a level playing field. The startling tip in weighted bias toward Reform UK is no longer a theory, I have the facts and data to back it up. But perhaps there’s a simpler, more reasoned debate to had about the reason behind this recent lurch toward the far-right and Farage domination.
Maybe, just maybe, the weight hasn’t shifted because of their political leanings or the money being fed into the system by the Paul Marshalls of the media ecosystem. Perhaps it boils down to just one word.
Drama
I remember the heady moments of our TV news broadcasters camped outside No. 10 Downing Street waiting for David Cameron to resign, for Theresa May to resign and Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
Today we find ourselves transported back to those halcyon days — Beth Rigby in Downing Street, Sky News plastering their screen with graphics of resigned and resigning MPs. It’s all so familiar and, in some way, so quintessentially British. Spring has sprung, despite the freezing temperatures as I write this, mid-May, and the sun is shining — what better time than now for a media feeding frenzy destined to topple another Prime Minister.
Since the glory days of the 1990s, only three Prime Ministers have lasted a full term in office; we’ve had nine PMs in that time.
I guess if we manipulate the statistics of it, we could write this up as nine Prime Ministers serving a perfect average of four years each — 36 years dived by nine. That would put a lovely, neat gloss over our tumultuous last decade, in which we’ve seen our public policies reset no less than six times. Of course, the pinnacle of the news media hysteria, pre-Covid, was the Brexit Sagas.
Those torrid and, frankly, insane times when the public were glued to the TV to watch Parliamentary voting take place in real time, and ultimately led to the demise of Theresa May after three years and twelve days in power, which now feels like a lifetime to us in the UK in 2026.
The Brexit Sagas tell the tale of the beginning of the end of ‘normality’ within UK politics, for that’s where this story begins. Another Prime Minister taking to the podium in front of that glossy black door in Downing Street, SW1A — the muffled jeers from the baying mob at the gate, the dazzle of the flashbulbs. It’s all been downhill since that point, almost exactly ten years ago.
We’re not here to rehash Brexit or the desperate ramifications on the country, not really. Suffice to say that, without it, we would not have Reform UK or Nigel Farage in 2026, and that feels like one of the most important opportunities wasted.
I’m writing this today because the news cycle has, once again, returned to fever pitch with, mostly, manufactured speculation over the demise of yet another Prime Minister — Keir Starmer is firmly in the crosshairs of the angry media mob. As is always the case when I write a piece like this, I will be accused of being a Labour stooge or a paid shill etc. And, as always, I will preemptively caveat with my non-partisan convictions — I truly do not favour any one party at the moment. Not right-wing, that’s my only political leaning.
So with that being said, I’m going to defend Keir Starmer again, to a point.
But let’s begin with a negative: there are so many quick wins that Labour could roll out easily, that would alter the public mood, but I don’t quite understand the reticence. When they moved to regulate overseas donors and crypto donations, it happened swiftly and had a net positive effect — a big W in the win column.
Why not, in the short term, roll out some fast regulations that would directly benefit the public, to buy them some time and keep the wolves from the door? Announcing that they were going to renationalise British Steel and bringing Gordon Brown back, are not in that quick win bracket. Both probably in the long term are good moves and will work out as a net positives down the line, but Starmer has to have some short-termist views to compete with the populism of Farage and Polanski.
As an aside, I have one massive suggestion that would benefit the nation as a whole. Not a quick win by any means, but a huge positive — regulate the media, bring Leveson 2 into existence, but with a far wider remit. Our entire press ecosystem is, for want of a better phrase, up the Swanee, and needs a top-down [or bottom up if they want to start with GB News] overhaul. Ofcom is no longer fit for purpose and, as I wrote previously, has been handed an unmanageable brief.
There is one possible quick win on this theme, though — regulate the term ‘Breaking News’. Please.
There has never been so much need to dial back on what is considered to be ‘breaking news’. We do not need to be pinged on our phone or see a bright yellow chyron on our screens when Rachel Reeves has a haircut. Or if Keir Starmer is spotted having a cup of tea. This is fully unnecessary and feeds the news broadcaster’s desperate clamouring for attention.
The creation of supply and demand is a core tenet of business and, unfortunately, we are now active consumers of news rather than perusers. The online nature of everything means that everything is driven by views and clicks; no longer by integrity or journalistic standards. Broadcast news outlets are tied by the very same thing that YouTubers or TikTokers are — the power struggle over our ears and eyeballs. Sky News operates in the very same fashion that Mr Beast does. BBC News runs its output like Kylie Jenner.
Our media has irreparably changed. Something the Labour Party are lagging well behind on.
Where we find ourselves today is as a result of some of the issues laid out above, but they are not the only reasons. Another, more recent addition to the perpetuality of chaos within the news — Nigel Farage and his cabal.
Reform UK are ahead of the game in the online space. They have disrupted the nation by going in hard on TikTok, Facebook, 𝕏 — every other party in the UK is so far behind their output, it’s embarrassing.
Granted, Farage et al. have unlimited cash behind them, flowing from the USA, Thailand and, quite possibly, still Russia. Despite the cash influx, though, they have deployed it far better than Labour, the Tories and the Greens. They push content hard and regularly across all social platforms — flooding the zones.
But I digress — the reason for this article is what’s happening to Keir Starmer today, has happened too many times in the past few years. Does Starmer need to resign? That’s a matter for another piece, but it seems inevitable now given the insanity that’s been manifested by our news broadcasters, commentators and social media.
They will hound another politician from post, and there remains the distinct possibility that Starmer could be replaced by Angela Rayner, a woman who was already hounded from her post in the Cabinet by the very same media camped outside the glossy black door. No one ever seems to learn any lessons in our recent political history.
The question we need to be asking is not if Starmer should go, but how long will the angry mob give his replacement and, most pressingly, will it lead to a General Election and a Reform led coalition of the right?
That is a distinct possibility, and one that those uppity Labour members don’t appear to be considering. Would they really be enacting this circus performance if they thought it could lead to Prime Minister Farage? You’d hope not, but then the question has to be asked … are any of them fit to lead our country?
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If you have made it to this point, well done — this has been a long old slog. Thank you for reading, I sincerely appreciate it.
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The media love to bring down politicians, they always have. It helps them validate their existence by demonstrating that they have more power than the machinery of governance. And with most of the media owned by morbidly rich oligarchs, their preferred targets are any politicians who might have the temerity to tax said riches.
Nothing will change without full scale reform of the media, but given their entrenched power that's not going to be particularly likely.