Péter Magyar’s election victory has stirred the hearts of left-wing liberal media in the UK. It’s quite the phenomenon…
Alistair Campbell remarked this afternoon that Magyar “matched the strategy to the needs of the time” and Emily Maitlis said: “Young people spurred on by the need to see their country change.” You can sense the slight discomfort…
Magyar summarised:
- “They are eating the ducks.” Magyar claimed Filipino guest workers at a Samsung plant were so starved they ate ducks and goldfish from the Budapest Zoo. He later corrected himself to say it was the City Park lake.
- Stricter on immigration than Orbán: Pledged to ban all non-EU guest workers from June 2026. Accused the government of importing “60,000 Asian economic migrants a year.” AFP reported his anti-immigration views are “even stricter than Orbán’s.”
- Tisza manifesto: keep the border fence, reject the EU Migration Pact, “zero tolerance” on illegal migration.
- Opposes arms to Ukraine: Opposes sending weapons to Ukraine or deploying troops. Said Ukraine joining NATO and the EU would “increase the chances of” escalation. Has publicly clashed with Zelensky…
- Silent on gay rights: Called the Pride ban a “red herring.” Has not endorsed same-sex marriage, gender recognition, or reversing any Orbán-era restrictions. Activist Geza Buzas-Habel told AFP: “The main opposition is unwilling to communicate on LGBTQ rights, so we must pressure them.“
Keir Starmer said: “This is an historic moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy. I look forward to working with you for the security and prosperity of both our countries.” Zack Polanski even chimed in: “Orban’s defeat shows that when we stand together against the politics of hate and division, hope wins and the far right friends of Farage can be defeated.” That’s a Magyar endorsement – wouldn’t be the first time Polanski had changed his colours…
It’s armageddon for the Remainer dinner party alliance, so spare a thought for them on this cold Monday morning. The resignations of both Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have them playing all the greatest hits as they attempt to blame anyone but the BBC for its failings. It’s the populists, it’s the MAGA movement, it’s the Telegraph, it’s the forces of grievance and division, it’s those who wish to upset the delicate broadcasting ecology…
Alastair Campbell has written a 700-word diatribe in ‘The New World’ (a rebrand of The New European, apparently) in which he attacks “the hard right populists and their corrupt media allies” for a “campaign” against the BBC, and claims they “hate it because they can’t control it“. He then laments the BBC’s supposedly incessant coverage of Farage and Reform. You’d think there’s a contradiction there for Bad Al, but seemingly not…
Former Sun Editor David Yelland is also struggling to cope. He spent last night tweeting about the “populists” and “cabal of toxic plotters”, declaring it a bad day “for our values [and] our country”. He said the same on Radio 4 this morning. This was a view shared by Emily Maitlis, who retweeted Yelland’s screed and announced a short delay to The News Agents’ emergency podcast because the story is “far more complicated” than anyone else understands. Maitlis, Sopel and Goodall should have it figured out by this afternoon…
Next week Emily Maitlis will be the special guest speaker at the City of St George’s event on ‘the future of journalism’. According to the invite, students, staff and alumni will be treated to Maitlis’s musing on the following topics:
“How can journalists interview politicians who declare war on the media? What does impartiality look like in the 2020s? And can we save the public’s right to know?”
In all fairness, there’s no promise she will actually answer these questions. She may well be asking them. It’s not like she had a great answer to that second question when she worked at the BBC…
Robert Jenrick was pursued by Newsnight’s Nick Watt on his way out of his speech at conference today. He was also pursued by Ex-Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis…
Jenrick answered Watt’s quickfire questions on the way to the Midland Hotel while Maitlis tried to ask her own five times only to be repeatedly ignored. At one point Jenrick paused in the scuffle and said “you two are competing with each other” before again ignoring Maitlis. He’s got his priorities…
In the space of 24 hours, The News Agents’ Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis went from reading Rachel Reeves’ last rites to suggesting she is entirely un-sackable following her teary appearance on the front bench. A volte face that did not go unnoticed by the podcast’s fan base…
After pulling the emergency podcast lever on Wednesday, during which the pair suggested the government was in “freefall” and mused over the Chancellor’s doomed fate, listeners would assume Rachel Reeves had brought down No10 with her weeping. A day later, however, Jon Sopel was asking if she had in fact become “impregnable, unsackable” following the market reactions. Listeners weren’t buying it…
Emily Maitlis has a solution to the chaos in the Middle East: turn down the ‘machismo’ and replace the ‘aggressive’ male leaders with women. Oh, and she has also compared a 30,000-pound missile to a sex toy.
Speaking on The News Agents today, Maitlis said:
“There is so much machismo to the language, to the aggression, to the speed of what is happening right now. I just cannot see any of this happening if there were more women leaders, right? I mean going back to your ‘bunker buster’, which is actually called a Massive Ordnance Penetrator – which sounds frankly more like a sex toy than ammunition…”
“I can’t see ANY of this happening if more women were leaders…
Take the Massive Ordnance Penetrator – which sounds more like a sex toy than a bomb – for example.”@maitlis criticises male-dominated leadership for stoking fears of WWIII through reckless global brinkmanship. pic.twitter.com/CauSMPp7PC
— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) June 20, 2025
Presumably the Israelis and Iranians would all hold hands and sing kumbaya under the Maitlis doctrine of foreign policy…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”
