Hugh Sykes
@HughSykes
ex BBC foreign corr: eg Iran, Ireland. Pakistan, India & Iraq Book: http://hughsykes.substack.com Life: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08pnq3d
Today is my last on the books at the #BBC. I cleared my desk & said good-bye to a few friends in an almost empty office (most are #WFH). Amicable departure, but disappointed that my 📻 job will be abolished. Early assignments from 1970 included a charity pram race for @BBCOxford.
Shout out to Abdul, a member of staff at Crystal Palace station. I was the only person on the last service - a rail replacement bus which completely failed to stop. Abdul told me to complain to @TfL - which subcontracts this service. And then he DROVE ME HOME. What a guy.
The silly and the nasty all in one tweet.
One... Just one is too many.... Send them all back.
#Israel "When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons." -Golden Meir.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy exposing the brutal truth about the mindset of the majority of Israeli society.....
If the UK foreign secretary is so revolted by the behaviour of Israel in Gaza, he could do this 👇👇👇👇
#Gaza The UK is a major importer of military equipment from #Israel. One way, @DavidLammy, to punish 'repellent' Israel would be to refuse to allow any of its arms trade salesmen to attend this year's defence & security arms fair in London in September. dsei.co.uk
#Gaza protest
NOW: We disrupted the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Iran. While Congress continues to drum up war with Iran, the same committee is part of the weapons arming Israel’s genocide and supporting the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Doctor strikes going ahead. A poor decision. I have never striked for a single minute in my fifty plus year career in medicine, and I never will.
'Concerns'. Tabloid broadcasting.
"'We are going to have a summer of riots. You can just feel it. It is a tinderbox.'" After protests outside asylum hotels, @nicholaswatt reports what he has been told by a parliamentary veteran, who warns: "'My constituents feel they are losing control'". #Newsnight
True friends of Israel say its present leaders are its enemy within, "an extremist government which is quite contrary to the country we supported in the past. We should have been tougher on the settlers frightening Palestinians off their land." @AlistairBurtUK @BBCWorldatOne
#Gaza The UK is a major importer of military equipment from #Israel. One way, @DavidLammy, to punish 'repellent' Israel would be to refuse to allow any of its arms trade salesmen to attend this year's defence & security arms fair in London in September. dsei.co.uk
#Bluey I'm going to tell you a secret. Shh! The late great Nick Clarke - and, dare I reveal it? - most of the @BBCWorldatOne team used to sit back for a few minutes and join their revered presenter as he enjoyed the calming balm of.....
Blair (jointly with Bush) was responsible for something rather more important than this - enabling al Qaeda to move into in Iraq and to morph into ISIS.
Cheapskates and spivs. The Blairs, the Starmers.. Difficult to ever imagine Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major or Brown lowering themselves and the country in this way. theguardian.com/politics/2025/…
Satire, actually. Say 'her' name out loud Charlotte!
Propaganda account. Don’t engage.
. This is nominative determinism taken too far:
BREAKING NEWS CALLING ALL ORNITHOLOGISTS!!! What is this bird that has just flown on the rail at my hotel window? 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
The complicity of the UK in what #Israel is doing in #Gaza: "The Palestinians should not just be observed going through their nightmare - if we have any influence, we should exert it."
"We are, willingly or not, part of a humanitarian disaster of enormous consequences." Former special adviser Baroness Helic says the UK must do more for the situation in Gaza. #BBCWato