Tim Burrows
@timburrows.bsky.social
Writer, Guardian and others. The Invention of Essex is published by Profile Books: http://bit.ly/3Bj9lLi
Guardian profile: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tim-burrows
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/timburrows
Agent: [email protected]
Guardian profile: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tim-burrows
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/timburrows
Agent: [email protected]
Pinned
Tim Burrows
@timburrows.bsky.social
· Nov 26
The invention of Essex: how a county became a caricature
The long read: From Loadsamoney and ‘Basildon man’ to Towie and Brexit – Essex has long been held up as both the authentic England and the crudest, stupidest symbol of Englishness
www.theguardian.com
Hello! As I'm new here, I thought I should start a thread of my writing from the last few years. First up, an essay-length dredging of the secrets of my home county, The Invention of Essex, for the @theguardian.com long read in 2019 www.theguardian.com/news/2019/ju...
Excellent Sukhdev Sandhu piece on We Are Making a Film About Mark Fisher. Nice that he picked up on the Patrick Keiller vibe of the film among other elements www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7186...
The permanent influence of Mark Fisher
A new film grapples with one of the finest—and broadest—minds of the 21st century
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 11, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Excellent Sukhdev Sandhu piece on We Are Making a Film About Mark Fisher. Nice that he picked up on the Patrick Keiller vibe of the film among other elements www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7186...
Reposted by Tim Burrows
If a new app was produced which had, as its core features, the generation of sexual deep fake images of children and calls for a violent global far-right revolution, then not only would it be swiftly banned, but you wouldn't have a single mainstream politician willing to associate themselves with it
January 9, 2026 at 10:30 AM
If a new app was produced which had, as its core features, the generation of sexual deep fake images of children and calls for a violent global far-right revolution, then not only would it be swiftly banned, but you wouldn't have a single mainstream politician willing to associate themselves with it
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Heard similar on Radio 4 this morning. Was really, really odd. Talking about accusations of fraud involving Somalis. Not sure what - at all - had to do with ICE shooting a woman did.
Felt like classic 'some say it's rainy outside, others say it's sunny' faux impartiality
Felt like classic 'some say it's rainy outside, others say it's sunny' faux impartiality
Why’s BBC R6 news explicitly highlighting ethnicity of local Minneapolis councillor talking about woman shot by ICE? Can’t see any reason his Somali heritage is relevant. Same time repeats trump lies re ‘self-defence’ despite footage showing otherwise. Another eg @petergeoghegan.bsky.social
January 8, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Heard similar on Radio 4 this morning. Was really, really odd. Talking about accusations of fraud involving Somalis. Not sure what - at all - had to do with ICE shooting a woman did.
Felt like classic 'some say it's rainy outside, others say it's sunny' faux impartiality
Felt like classic 'some say it's rainy outside, others say it's sunny' faux impartiality
Newspapers have had ten years to figure this out
Lying, despite video evidence, works: NYT, WaPo, CNN all leading with version of Trump Regime claiming that cold-blooded murder of innocent woman was "self-defense"
January 8, 2026 at 10:18 AM
Newspapers have had ten years to figure this out
Reposted by Tim Burrows
NYT landing page right now:
1) Trump is so cool!
2) Trump says that his paramilitary did a great thing shooting that lady, who are we to question the word of the President?!?
COLLABORATORS
1) Trump is so cool!
2) Trump says that his paramilitary did a great thing shooting that lady, who are we to question the word of the President?!?
COLLABORATORS
January 8, 2026 at 12:18 AM
NYT landing page right now:
1) Trump is so cool!
2) Trump says that his paramilitary did a great thing shooting that lady, who are we to question the word of the President?!?
COLLABORATORS
1) Trump is so cool!
2) Trump says that his paramilitary did a great thing shooting that lady, who are we to question the word of the President?!?
COLLABORATORS
'When he claims that abducting Nicolás Maduro was strictly law enforcement, tot up the 150-plus aircraft, including Delta Force choppers, bombs and special ops troops, and see if you can’t spot a unilateral act of war.' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Don’t dignify Trump with talk of a ‘new world order’ – there’s nothing new or ordered about this chaos | Aditya Chakrabortty
The US president’s grotesque theatrics on the world stage are an opportunistic distraction from his falling domestic ratings, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:14 AM
'When he claims that abducting Nicolás Maduro was strictly law enforcement, tot up the 150-plus aircraft, including Delta Force choppers, bombs and special ops troops, and see if you can’t spot a unilateral act of war.' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Spooked by revisiting this piece I wrote in 2015 for a thing, positing how narcissists like Trump may triumph in our age of digital fortresses. Not because of any claims of prescience, more that it's 10 years on and we are still asking if Trump means anything he says thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
Fear In The Faceburbs: Comfort, Dread & Digital Fortresses In 2015 | The Quietus
If our current cultural predicament can be summed up in a tweet, it’s this: Alan Sugar points at a version of himself on his giant TV that dwarfs his mortal physique, from an episode of the hit Britis...
thequietus.com
January 7, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Spooked by revisiting this piece I wrote in 2015 for a thing, positing how narcissists like Trump may triumph in our age of digital fortresses. Not because of any claims of prescience, more that it's 10 years on and we are still asking if Trump means anything he says thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
One of the striking outcomes of post-2016 politics is how it has turned politicians into content makers who believe that the minutiae of their lives are somehow of interest to the public - whereas really it should be the other way around
December 18, 2025 at 11:39 AM
One of the striking outcomes of post-2016 politics is how it has turned politicians into content makers who believe that the minutiae of their lives are somehow of interest to the public - whereas really it should be the other way around
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Germany seems to have successfully attributed an election disinformation campaign and flight safety disruption to Russia.
www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bund...
www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bund...
Bundesregierung bestellt russischen Botschafter ein
Die Bundesregierung hat einen großen Cyberangriff und eine Desinformationskampagne im Bundestagswahlkampf Russland zugeordnet.
www.sueddeutsche.de
December 12, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Germany seems to have successfully attributed an election disinformation campaign and flight safety disruption to Russia.
www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bund...
www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bund...
Bonnie Blue's Farage piece is an objectively insane piece of writing.
December 12, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Bonnie Blue's Farage piece is an objectively insane piece of writing.
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Free speechwriting tip for the PM: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
December 4, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Free speechwriting tip for the PM: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
What gives these days, children can just cosplay in their 'wise professor' outfit and be allowed to say this shit on television
GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament
December 4, 2025 at 11:07 AM
What gives these days, children can just cosplay in their 'wise professor' outfit and be allowed to say this shit on television
Reposted by Tim Burrows
So the Daily Mail owner's wife has just given £50,000 to Nigel Farage's Reform UK
December 4, 2025 at 9:30 AM
So the Daily Mail owner's wife has just given £50,000 to Nigel Farage's Reform UK
Wonderful long read from @jim.londoncentric.media, who has a lesson for all journalists: sometimes all you need to do is turn up unannounced at the door of a snail farmer www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?
The long read: Terry Ball – renowned shoe salesman, friend to former mafiosi – has resolved to spend his last years finding ways to cheat authorities he feels have cheated him. His greatest ruse? A ta...
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Wonderful long read from @jim.londoncentric.media, who has a lesson for all journalists: sometimes all you need to do is turn up unannounced at the door of a snail farmer www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
Reposted by Tim Burrows
With every outright racist things he says I think back to his former students and colleagues at a pretty diverse university who had to work with someone who clearly did not respect or value them.
Reflections on the budget from the head of Students4Reform
November 26, 2025 at 10:09 PM
With every outright racist things he says I think back to his former students and colleagues at a pretty diverse university who had to work with someone who clearly did not respect or value them.
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Ok but this is totally something Charlotte Church would do
Just realised this is referring to a church in North Carolina and not the Welsh singer
November 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Ok but this is totally something Charlotte Church would do
Matt Goodwin is so unserious. A country with a healthy popular intellectual discourse would have buried him not long after he 'ate' that book. But he just grifts along
For different reasons - jobs, study, family!
Most went to more ethnically diverse countries (Australia, Canada, America + UAE) than the UK!
Because an increasingly ethnonationalist Goodwin has an ever narrow view of who is "British" he instinctively imagines all these British emigrants are white
Most went to more ethnically diverse countries (Australia, Canada, America + UAE) than the UK!
Because an increasingly ethnonationalist Goodwin has an ever narrow view of who is "British" he instinctively imagines all these British emigrants are white
November 19, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Matt Goodwin is so unserious. A country with a healthy popular intellectual discourse would have buried him not long after he 'ate' that book. But he just grifts along
Reposted by Tim Burrows
I just…don’t understand any of it. And it mostly elicits feelings of deep sadness and a sense of huge missed opportunity. The better choices were right there and they had *plenty* of people pointing at them.
November 17, 2025 at 11:29 AM
I just…don’t understand any of it. And it mostly elicits feelings of deep sadness and a sense of huge missed opportunity. The better choices were right there and they had *plenty* of people pointing at them.
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Honestly, the potential case for getting rid of Starmer before was the lack of any political project and absence of charisma. But now No.10 is creating a moral imperative for the PLP to act as well.
November 17, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Honestly, the potential case for getting rid of Starmer before was the lack of any political project and absence of charisma. But now No.10 is creating a moral imperative for the PLP to act as well.
Knighthood for Geoff Barrow
![A screengrab of text in which Geoff Barrow from Portishead answers a question:
Barrow answers: Did you ever imagine that your sonic experiments on Dummy would become the backdrop to so many romantic entanglements – and how do you feel about being the unsung hero of the 90s sex playlist? asks VerulamiumParkRanger
I’ve heard that people were going out, doing ecstasy, coming back, smoking spliffs and putting Dummy on. If you just listened to the music, you’d think: “That’s really chilled, man.” However, the worst thing that anyone can say about my music is that it’s chilled! That makes me throw up. They’re only listening to Beth [Gibbons]’s voice, not what she’s saying, which makes a huge difference. I’ve had people actually say “My daughter over there was made to your music”, and I’m like, “fuck off”. I can’t think of anything worse to make love to.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fatch45et3xo3adwd6yejbzb/bafkreidpcfdggjrc7hretdat5e6dl7a3ezxzv7nkaq2st5hsdlf6zsvtue@jpeg)
November 13, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Knighthood for Geoff Barrow
Reposted by Tim Burrows
Any journalists interesting in covering/following can DM here or contact me at pdkmitchell at gmail dot com. The most recent BBC and ITV coverage is here (CW: violence, femicide, suicide):
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.itv.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Any journalists interesting in covering/following can DM here or contact me at pdkmitchell at gmail dot com. The most recent BBC and ITV coverage is here (CW: violence, femicide, suicide):
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
Reposted by Tim Burrows
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
Reposted by Tim Burrows
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today