Zena Marks

Science + natural history journalist and producer-director for TV, digital and radio. Social evolution specialist.

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

The #Maitlis moment comforting for #journalists who've been reporting on this, working on related projects & gaslit. It's consensus knowledge now. There'll always be attempts by the ruthless & desperate to undermine & discredit, but truth will out. Bad principles = bad business

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

@RadioTimes Hi. My mum has a subscription with you. Twice recently it hasn't been delivered. The compensation given was less than the replacements she had to buy. Moreover, when she called to alert you, each call was charged at £7 and £9 respectively. How can you justify this?

[Darren Jones MP @darrenpjones]

Earlier this year, I set out plans to modernise the civil service - rewarding high performers, and strengthening accountability for those who fall short.

Now, for the first time ever (!), pay rises for senior civil servants will be linked to performance - including the delivery of our political priorities.

[BBC Politics @BBCPolitics]

Keir Starmer is "not Superman, we're not going to get Superman, we're going to get a person"

Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry tells #PoliticsLive it's "impossible" to be UK PM, adding "you cannot have someone who's perfect, and also someone who's human"

https://t.co/GjfbT8OS1U

[alan rusbridger @arusbridger]

Ofcom only employs around 1,500 people, so it is to be congratulated for moving so swiftly—a mere six months!—to see that there might have been a problem with allowing a known fantasist to spout nonsensical falsehoods about a number of subjects without correction or interruption. https://t.co/8CXNAdAv7p

[Cherry @Cherryopenmind]

Unfortunately, my school teacher is no longer with us to grade this piece through her golden rule of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

So, let us walk through Laura Kuenssberg's article together and scan it the way she taught me to.

WHO
The article relies heavily on an army of anonymous faces. 'An ally tells me', 'one cabinet minister', 'another minister', 'one source'. This is not verified reporting. It is Westminster gossip and unnamed sources. If sources have no names, they have no skin in the game and no accountability.

WHAT
We are told the race to replace the Prime Minister is officially on. But what has actually happened? One MP resigned from government and another wants to re-enter parliament. Everything else, the timelines, the coronation plots, is speculative drama, gossip, and unnamed sources designed for clicks.

WHERE
The setting is entirely inside the Westminster bubble. An article about such a momentous topic that will affect the lives of millions of citizens contains absolutely no mention of them. There is no word on how the stock market is already reacting or how this uncertainty will impact the entire country and every single citizen.

WHEN
The piece talks about a leadership contest over the summer, yet the author admits this timetable is miles away from being confirmed. A real journalist would know the rules, laws, and procedures, and would offer at least two alternative timelines, including the very real possibility that none of this happens at all.

WHY
We are told Starmer is being pushed because he is a 'slow decision-maker'. This reduces national governance to a personality contest. Why is there no mention of the GDP growth, the many advancements the government announced just last week, or the clear progress made on their manifesto? A proper journalist would look at these undeniable results and search for the deeper, hidden motives of the people challenging the PM.

The Verdict
My teacher would have given this a 2/10. It is a theatre review masquerading as news.

The author lists major issues on the PM's desk, help with energy bills, defense spending, social media safety for children, and so much more. Yet, these crucial issues are treated as mere background decoration for party infighting.

The fact that this comes from the BBC is what should worry us the most.

A broadcaster that built its global reputation on honest, investigative journalism now relies on writers who treat politics like a soap opera.

Between these narratives, figures like Robbie Gibb with questionable political motives, and an Ofcom regulator that does everything except its job, civic trust is being destroyed.

Laura Kuenssberg can go hand in hand with Chris Mason.

We are left to wonder why the two of them are doing this and what their motives are, especially regarding the BBC, which we pay for.

We deserve real facts, not orchestrated drama.

#BBCNews #LauraKuenssberg #ChrisMason #Ofcom #UKPolitics #Journalism #VotersFirst #Decency

[Stephen Morgan MP @StephenMorganMP]

Here's eight things Labour introduced in the King's Speech this week:

⚡ Labour is introducing an Energy Independence Bill to scale up clean British energy, strengthen energy security and protect households from future global shocks

🏥 Labour is introducing an NHS Modernisation Bill to reform health services and improve how care is delivered across the country

📈 Labour is driving economic growth and backing British businesses through the European Partnership Bill, Small Business Protections Bill and Regulating for Growth Bill

🚓 Labour is bringing forward a Police Reform Bill and Courts Modernisation Bill, including plans for larger police forces and a new national force to tackle the most serious crime

🏘️ Labour is introducing a Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill and Social Housing Renewal Bill to cap ground rents, strengthen tenants’ rights and boost long-term investment in social housing

🚄 Labour is bringing forward a Civil Aviation Bill, Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill and Highways (Financing) Bill to back major infrastructure projects and unlock growth across the country

🚤 Labour is introducing an Immigration and Asylum Bill to strengthen border security and make the system fairer for everyone

🛡️ Labour is introducing a Tackling State Threats Bill and Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to strengthen national security and improve Britain’s cyber defences

[Damian Low @DamianLow3]

The level of personal hostility directed at Keir Starmer over the last week deserves scrutiny in its own right. Not because he should be immune from criticism, but because the tone and intensity of the attacks tell us something unhealthy about the state of democratic politics.

1. Starmer is a conventional political figure. Cautious, legalistic, incremental. He frustrates people precisely because he is managerial rather than messianic. Yet the reaction to him often goes far beyond disagreement, tipping into visceral hatred more commonly reserved for authoritarians or demagogues.

2. Much of this hostility is disconnected from concrete policy. It is not about specific votes, proposals or outcomes, but about projection. A belief that Starmer embodies betrayal, bad faith or hidden malice. That kind of politics runs on suspicion rather than evidence.

3. This matters because democracy depends on the assumption of good faith among opponents. You can think a leader is wrong, timid, or misguided without believing they are fundamentally illegitimate. Once politics becomes moralised to the point of demonisation, compromise is reframed as treachery and pluralism as weakness.

4. The pattern is familiar. In fragmented, polarised systems, anger concentrates not on extremists, whose intentions are clear, but on moderates, who disappoint maximalists on all sides. The centre becomes the lightning rod precisely because it resists totalising narratives.

5. There is also a media and online dynamic at work. Incentives reward outrage, not proportionality. Algorithms favour contempt over analysis. Over time, this creates a political culture in which relentless personal attack feels normal, even virtuous, rather than disgusting.

6. None of this is a defence of Starmer’s decisions, instincts or record. Those should be argued over robustly as you do in a democracy. The problem is the substitution of critique with hostility and the quiet erosion of democratic norms that follows when political opponents are treated as enemies rather than rivals.

7. A democracy cannot function if every election is framed as an existential struggle against internal evil. At some point, the target may change, but the damage to trust, restraint and culture remains.

[Clive Efford 💙 @CliveEfford]

You’ll miss Keir Starmer when he’s gone https://t.co/sshKEIYkHI I couldn’t agree more. Change, after 14 years of Tory austerity, is bound to take time before people begin to feel the benefits.

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

@CHazelgroveMP @darrenpjones Stability wins.

[Claire Hazelgrove MP @CHazelgroveMP]

🌹 Labour gains in 2x Filton Town Council by-elections yesterday!

These were seats held by a Green & a Tory, and straight run-offs between us & Reform… we gained both! 🌹

Thank you to everyone who voted for Andy & Mac, who will be brilliant Cllrs - and to our excellent team!

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

@wself Starmer is not trying to appear a 'legible', 'even corrupt', 'good bloke'. You've also missed out a true pole describing Starmer though - being a kind, fair bloke. You may be sick of fair rules. Most of us crave them.

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

@wself You may be sick of frameworks and protections Will - most of us aren't. The resistance to the 'unread contract' is resistance to legalese and verbal sophistry being used to disguise screwing someone over. Starmer is the opposite of the 'unread contract'; more the protective union

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

@carolvorders @AndyBurnhamGM Absolutely bonkers - poss giving seat to Reform, at worst throwing country into further instability & early GE in which the right wins. Burnham might've been a great candidate, at another time. Now, in this way, it just makes the party look like back-stabbing chaos goblins.

[Chris Ward MP @chriswardmp]

The economy’s growing.
We have a packed Kings speech with 35 Bills to deliver security and fairness.
A divisive leadership challenge now would be utter madness.

[Zena Marks @ZenaMarks]

A general election is the agreed measure of the most popular person to be leader of the country. That's #Starmer! Albeit a compromise between wildly different views. (Many successful leaders have lost this number of councillors and more in local elections.) This is nuts #Labour

[Brendan May @bmay]

Quite funny that the only cool calm head is on the shoulders of the man they’re trying to depose.

[Andrew Clark @clarkaw]

Always had the impression Starmer went into politics, quite late in his career, out of a sense of public service rather than pure ambition. Not sure what motivates some of these other people.

[Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst]

Nothing that has happened today is remotely proportionate or reasonable behaviour this far out from a General Election scheduled for 2029. This level of internal game playing risks driving us into a General Election within months, as well as causing months of deep political instability that have real world consequences for the economy and national security. I am, to put it mildly, unimpressed.