Newsquest Crime & Investigations (Essex) — 4x Weekly Reporter of the Year — 2x Crime & Investigative Reporter of the Year
England
Joined June 2010
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Charles Thomson retweeted
🚨 This is getting seriously dangerous.
The @BBC is withdrawing educational material on climate change and migration following accusations of political bias.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT A POLITICAL OPINION.
It's established science.
MIGRATION IS A FACT OF HUMAN HISTORY.
Its economic, social and cultural contributions are documented, as are the challenges it can create. Immigration policy is open to debate, but children deserve to understand the evidence, not have political uncomfortable facts filtered out.
Political impartiality must never mean treating established evidence as ideology.
Education should teach children to examine reality critically, not sanitise it to avoid political controversy.
#ClimateChange #Immigration
Charles Thomson retweeted
In 2010 the BBC Trust threatened to resign if Osborne ended funding for free over-75s licences. It worked - until new Trustees buckled 5 years later
Now the Board is stacked with patsies & seat-warmers, who put padding their CVs above licence fee payers’ interests
Charles Thomson retweeted
“You’re a horrible little reporter, aren’t you?”
If any previous president had said that to a reporter at the White House, a female reporter in particular, it would have been a multi-day scandal.
But we as a country and media have normalized this boorish, abusive misogynist.
YIKES 😳 Trump snaps at a reporter asking him about why he's dismissing sexual abuse allegations 👇
WOMAN REPORTER: Do the sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir?
TRUMP: Wait. Wait! Wait wait wait. Slow down. Who are you with?
REPORTER: NBC, sir. But they are very serious sexual abuse allegations
TRUMP: Quiet! Isn't she a fresh person? You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?
Charles Thomson retweeted
This is utterly bonkers. How can one person (and presumably one producer) cover such an enormous brief. Education and social affairs are the things that affect millions of normal people. I am not a BBC basher, but how on earth does the corporation think this is public service?
NEW: BBC will no longer have a dedicated education editor as part of proposal that will see 100 jobs go across BBC News.
School leaders call the plan “deeply regrettable” and ask for a rethink.
Education/Social affairs editor jobs being combined.
theguardian.com/media/2026/o…
Charles Thomson retweeted
Striking how fast Reform went from free-press defenders to calling for the arrest of journalists who investigate it.
Its move to the populist-authoritarian model is unlikely to do much for its poll rating.
STATEMENT:
Reform UK has reported ITV, its board, and its undercover reporters to the police.
Some of the crimes carry up to 10 years in prison.
They forged a passport.
They directly interfered in elections and almost certainly altered the results. Being paid to “canvass” for Reform in crucial wards we lost by a few dozen votes.
They lied to a veteran about their service and left him “violated”.
This is unprecedented.
The police are now involved.
Scrutiny of political parties is one thing.
But anyone breaking the law to try and ruin the lives of Reform’s staff, members or volunteers will be reported to the police and pursued relentlessly in the courts.
Here’s what happened 👇
Charles Thomson retweeted
I am sitting waiting to log on for a CVP video hearing in a major case, which has been delayed purely because of this serious technical failure by HM Court Service.
This is why the system is in a mess.
Not because of juries, which this government is still set on attacking in some of the most serious cases to come before the court.
If we solved even the basic flaws in the system, like this, the backlog would shrink overnight.
Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is down across large parts of England and Wales since 10am. Many of us today, both as prosecution and defence counsel, can not proceed with trials and other hearings. Our work to clear backlogs is hampered. Please urgently let the CBA know which court has been impacted. On this thread. (DM for which case please to contain sensitive material). With thanks
@HMCTSgovuk notice:
Charles Thomson retweeted
Excl: New undercover footage shared with the Guardian raises fresh questions about Reform leader’s statement that £5m gift was for security
Farage's claim that the money was a reward for Brexit was "not the line to take from the press office".
The conversation also shows former close aide Dan Jukes say that it is "a bit priced in" by the public that Farage should profit from politics.
Footage via @Verbatim_Media
theguardian.com/politics/202…
Charles Thomson retweeted
I would genuinely love to hear a member of the Newsnight production team, offer a justification of how it made a lick of sense editorially to have the podcasting former banjo player from Mumford and Sons argue tax and economic policy with an actual economist from the Green Party.
"If you want to lift up the poor, you have to create wealth."
"How's that going?"
Podcaster and former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall discusses taxes with economist and Green Party supporter Faiza Shaheen.
#Newsnight
Charles Thomson retweeted
Maajid Nawaz is joining GB News. Last year he appeared on Neil Oliver's GBN Originals online show, where he claimed doctors murdered the elderly en masse during the pandemic, and the January 6th Capitol riot was a false flag.
Just the man to "revamp GB News' online presence". 🙄
Charles Thomson retweeted
The Criminal Bar Association estimates that stripping defendants of their right to elect, combined with the doubling of magistrates’ sentencing powers, will shift 25,000 cases a year away from the Crown court.
Those 25,000 cases are not minor, CBA chair Andrew Thomas said. ‘It includes serious and sensitive cases such as assaults, sexual assaults, child abuse and GBH. Our volunteer magistrates do an excellent job but they are completely unequipped to try complex, multi-day trials.’
Plans to remove a defendant’s right to elect a jury trial, while increasing magistrates’ sentencing powers, have sparked alarm. Volunteers are ‘unequipped to try complex, multi-day trials’.
Monidipa Fouzder reports:
lawgazette.co.uk/news-focus/…
Charles Thomson retweeted
I don’t believe that cases involving death and serious sexual assault should routinely be heard by lay magistrates, or that you should be locked up for 2 years after anything other than a guilty verdict by a jury. This isn’t a right wing or left wing thing. It’s a British thing.
Charles Thomson retweeted
How is this not a bigger story?
NEW: President Trump’s incoming White House press secretary echoed the debunked pizzagate conspiracy theory, accused Hollywood elites of being pedophilic cannibals, and said Michelle Obama had a penis in posts, reposts, and deleted tweets. (And more)
cnn.com/2026/10/12/politics/…
Charles Thomson retweeted
When the Guardian went on strike to protest the Observer sale, I became a de facto spokesperson. Later a Tortoise employee I’d never met wrote to me to cancel my 20-year contract. No goodbye & no pay-off. This is how they now take credit for my work..but write me out of the story
Charles Thomson retweeted
We DO NOT in fact have to 'accept severe cyberattacks' as the price of 'freedom'
Sam Altman says society will have to accept severe cyberattacks from open-source AI as the price of preserving freedom
"I support open source models. There is a coming tidal wave of cybersecurity problems that are going to come from these open source models"
"There are people in the industry who say we should ban open source, because otherwise a bunch of systems are going to be hacked"
"We're going to, as a society, I think, have to just accept some fairly severe cyber incidents from open models, in exchange for the liberty that comes with that"
Charles Thomson retweeted
Quelle surprise a super-rich exodus recent story is shown to be complete bollocks
This billionaire said to have quit Britain over fears of a potential Labour wealth tax actually moved to Monaco in 2014 when the Conservatives were in power.
Next.
theguardian.com/news/2026/oc…
Charles Thomson retweeted
Kind words John, and much appreciated 🙏You are right that I did not write the headline, but my concerns about the Beeb’s current leadership are real; particularly when it comes to fostering an environment in which courageous investigative journalism can thrive…
Thoughtful, insightful interview with the excellent Stephen Sackur, given a dog-whistle headline by the Telegraph. Of all the BBC’s cuts so far, Hardtalk has been the most painful, and Sackur himself is badly missed. telegraph.co.uk/books/author…
