Book edits DONE

You wait months for a new blog post and then three come along at once!
I’ve been neglecting the dear old YRTK blog while I thundered through all the research and writing necessary to complete the manuscript of The Silent State. It was stressful but intensely exciting and I turned in the book on deadline. [...]

Bad-mouthing FOI

I notice the naysayers are peeping their heads over the parapet again. I’m serving notice that any public servants moaning about having to account to the public under the Freedom of Information had better be prepared to undergo some intense investigation on their spending. I’ll be keeping my eye out for any FOI bad-mouthers in [...]

When Brooke met Brooker

I’m on the most recent episode of Charlie Brooker’s wonderfully acerbic Newswipe. Readers of my twitterfeed (@newsbrooke) may know that I’m a big fan of Brooker’s style of caustic and insightful humour so it was a real pleasure to be interviewed for the second series of his show about the news.
You can watch the [...]

Bureaucrats and Blackmailers

Over Christmas I happened to catch the Orson Welles Sketchbook broadcast December 26th on BBC4. Welles may have been speaking decades ago, but his message couldn’t be more pertitent to today. He disccuses state surveillance, police powers and blackmailing bureaucrats.
You can watch it here: http://bbc.co.uk/i/plbtd/
Welles relates stories from his travels around the globe dealing [...]