One of those ‘consultants’. Writer @con_soc. Formerly MP, Cabinet PPS, BBC, politics & media in 🇬🇧 & 🇦🇺. “One of the Parliament’s worst jokes”: Private Eye.
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Joined February 2013
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Peter Heaton-Jones retweeted
Best anecdote in Carol Thatcher's book about her father is when Sir Denis boarded a train at Paddington in which the only empty compartment was reserved for Rosewood Psychiatric Hospital.
Denis travelled alone and in comfort as far as Reading when "all these chaps piled in", accompanied by a male nurse, who counted them before the train moved off.
'One, two, three, four ... who are you?"
"I'm the Prime Minister's husband."
"Six, seven, eight, nine..."
This is top stuff. Sums up every way the BBC has failed Local Radio.
As BBC local radio proposes yet more change despite ample budget in decent hands - is the game all over? How has it come to this? Who's responsible? I've tried to pull it together
davidlloydradio.com/post/why…
Today would have been my Dad’s 100th birthday.
He was born on 24 October 1926. His parents were both born in the 1890s. He died in 2004. So in just two generations, our family spanned the Victorians to the new millennium.
Time’s a weird thing. ❤️
#FBPEs salivating at news that 4m Leave voters have died & 7m kids grown up since 2016, so re-run the Brexit referendum!!
That’s not how democracy works.
It’s who votes at the time that matters.
What else shall we re-run? The 1975 EEC referendum? The Corn Laws election of 1841?
And yet these channels are relatively cheap to provide. Cutting them doesn’t save that much money. It’s almost like the BBC is deliberately making high profile cuts in order to make a point….
CONFIRMED: BBC Three’s TV channel is being shut for a second time, as first reported by Deadline last month. BBC Scotland and Radio 4 Extra are also closing as linear services. The switch-off happens in spring 2027. BBC staff were told this morning. deadline.com/2026/10/bbc-tv-…
Peter Heaton-Jones retweeted
Did the @RoyalParksHalf on Sunday and made it round in 2:22 which was a PB. A gorgeous day and some great sights of the capital as I plodded around to raise funds in memory of my late mum for Macmillan Cancer Support - link is here: justgiving.com/fundraising/r…
And the lesson here - as I was taught the first day I walked into a radio station in prehistoric times - is NEVER swear in a studio, even if it’s not live.
Problems piling up for the PM:
* Russian Brexit interference: desperately back-tracking after scolding from security chief;
* More ? about his relationship with Man City (that one’s not going away);
* Potentially prejudicing a murder trial at PMQs.
And that’s before the Budget…
Strictly changed presenters yet still felt stale; Bake Off changed presenters and refreshed itself. That’s the difference.
The travel reporter’s there to give the presenter someone to bounce off. Otherwise they’re just talking to themselves for three hours.
Great clip. The song - apparently written by Bruce himself - includes the lyric, ‘It’s the channel you get for free’ even though you still need a TV licence to watch ITV.
‘Big Night’ was a flop. On BBC1, Larry Grayson took over The Generation Game & got higher ratings than Bruce.
Peter Heaton-Jones retweeted
"Local radio will be made more regional"
No wonder morale is low in a service already ravaged by earlier rounds of cuts 😔
Thinking of all those affected by these senseless cutbacks
theguardian.com/uk-news/2026… – at Tinwell, England
BBC staff are correct.
NEW: BBC staff told Matt Brittin today that junior staff were being laid off over “very bloated” senior ranks.
It was raised so often on a staff call that meeting chair @annaefoster said it was a theme.
Brittin/his deputy said managers will be affected.
theguardian.com/media/2026/o…
Peter Heaton-Jones retweeted
One of the many highlights from the very silly but very enjoyable "Birmingham Tapestry" the Tories have produced this week.
Interviewer on @BBCr4today told @KemiBadenoch ‘your challenge is to unite the right’.
Wrong.
@Conservatives win elections by appealing to voters across politics. Eg:
2015: LibDem voters in the South.
2019: Labour voters in the red wall.
‘Broad church’ and all that…
#CPC26