Friends with differing views

downunder · January 9

I want to school with the now Economist Liam Halligan, and we keep in touch, and we really get on when we see each other (obviously not very often now). I enjoy his TV shows (dispatches?) but disagree totally with some of his views, he was for Brexit and worked for GBNews etc. I just saw he posted the below on X.

Without getting on to liking/disliking him - its actually a sad read. Do any of you have propel you really like, even if you totally disagree with their views?

Thanks for the kind words Barry. The reality is I’ve got to make a living - so can’t spend hours on Twitter/X. If I had a decent broadcasting job that gave me the time and space to do endless social media, it would be different. But

@GBNews told me the channel “doesn’t need an Economics and Business Editor” - I’ve got the letter to prove it. Despite the huge effort I put into launching the channel, and my high reputation with viewers and production staff, I was made redundant. Yet inflation is back and the UK’s cost-of-living crisis is ongoing - as I predicted. And now we have a game-changing market meltdown - as I also predicted. Even now, no-one else in the UK’s broadcasting boss class wants to give me a proper job either - despite my reputation as someone who can present, report, write and front headline-making documentaries - and who can explain complex ideas clearly and concisely to a broad audience, with a shelf-full of TV and press awards to prove it. I try not to take it personally - but have come to sad conclusion that the UK’s broadcasting gate-keepers think the public is thick and that they only want mindless controversy and often moronic politically-tribal debate. In my experience, much of the British public is actually incredibly smart - way ahead of the mainstream media. They want entertainment and diversion, of course they do. But they also want detail and nuance - above all when it comes to economics, money and business coverage, particularly when times are tough … Yet proper economics and business coverage ALWAYS struggles to get air time. The cultural push-back from often economically illiterate yet financially comfortable “broadcast executives” is huge - and I should know. I write my Telegraph column and do Planet Normal each week with my brilliant friend @AllisonPearson. But that ain’t a full-time job - so I have to do lots of other things that aren’t public-facing to make a decent living. Am wondering what to do. Will probably end up doing something on “my own platform” - like lots of other talented journalists who have been marginalised or otherwise refuse to serve up the same woefully out-of-touch “plain vanilla” slop that dominates our airwaves. I know from my email in-box, the social media I do do and being endlessly stopped in the street that the general public is DEEPLY interested in grown-up economics and financial coverage - not least from those with genuine knowledge and expertise.

Ant · January 10

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