Ben Lowndes
@blowndes
Husband. Dad to two teens (girl and boy). Agency founder. Chartered PR. Lives in Somerset. Proudly Pembs.
Dont often swear online, but fuck sake. He’s not even in the job yet. Labour has a chance to make a difference, but only a small one. Briefers need to stop briefing for a bit and focus on making the opportunity they have count.
Agree that 48 teams is farcical and not just because the numbers don’t work for knock out contests. Fundamentally there are too many teams. Take it back to 32, playing in one host country. That would be better for the quality of the tournament, players, fans and the planet.
OpenAI's 'help' centre is the most vividly pathetic illustration of enshittification I've seen in ages.
Are we supposed to be grateful to him for helping us avoid the global meltdown that he threatened to cause?
And this is why we can't trust Donald Trump. We've avoided a kicking over this. But next week, it will be something else. www.thetimes.com/comment/the-...
Tell me you’re a micromanager without telling me you’re a micromanager 🤔
The help section on your website speaks volumes about how you view customers. You can choose to be helpful. Or you leave your customers to flounder. Each has an impact.
The trade offs are starting to be explained to us. Much of the public anticipates the change, and some will be more ready than others. The media, however, will be certain to blow a gasket over any measure that hints at pain that they don't like. Only THEIR trade-offs count in this 'debate'.
Well, well... The Times six months ago quotes Richard Tice on morality and tax. Times today: Tice pays NO Corporation Tax on millions of pounds of profits for years. The would-be deputy PM is Reform’s business, trade and energy spokesman. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/... Never trust them.
Thoughts from a middle aged bloke on celebrating women, providing opportunities to progress, and calling out those who want to move backwards. Images are of my wife Lisa at Exeter Uni, daughter Penny at her school graduation, and my parents in 1973. benlowndes.blog/2026/03/09/t...
Morgan Mortlock's Times cartooon today appears alongside a leader and four op eds calling for UK military action. Is it saying that if we don't eagerly dash into an illegal war we don't care? That, if we're not supportive, we're indulgent, complacent, or soft? The media learns nothing.
Straight out of the Trumpian playbook. Professor Matt Goodwin lost by 4,000 votes. He could have lost gracefully and reflected on whether his pitch and some of his weird statements played well to voters. He chose instead to question the outcome and blame dark forces. I’m so glad he lost.
The Green Party didn’t just scrape a win in Gorton and Denton this morning. They won by MILES. And yet, some who have reported for weeks that Reform were near certainty to win uncritically cast doubt on the result. Where have we seen that before?
It doesn’t have to be this way. Regulate. Collaborate. Put governance at the heart of AI’s role in our lives. World is on AI path to disaster, former Google executive warns www.thetimes.com/article/4625...
Give me strength. What are they thinking?! One of my biggest clients is Scottish. I wouldn't DARE suggest Irn Bru was a good idea to take to a meeting. This image doesn't say 'I get Scotland' at all. Quite the opposite. What's he going to do on St David's Day? Proper cringeworthy stuff.
Fair enough, but there’s also something profoundly disappointing about the prospect of someone who’s made his stock over the last decade as a champion of the north and arch critic of the Westminster bubble going back. I hope he doesn’t run at this time.
Miss old Twitter on days like today. Biggest FA Cup shock ever just happened. Loads of big moments happening in grounds across the country today, which you’d catch on there. This was the first thing I saw on X. Huge congrats to Macclesfield for a stunning performance. But hey, fascists.
The Times leader on Wednesday calling for help for pubs (which is fair). The Times leader today calls the decision to offer support to pubs a sign of ‘rot’.
In seeking a ‘big bang’, MPs miss the point. It may please the media. But, by their very nature, big bangs make a noise then fade away. And nothing changes. They need to stop seeing this through the lens of the next headline
Bits of this bill are clunky. The idea that businesses like mine - who are recognised as good employers - must send staff messages about union membership penned by government official is daft. But warnings of mass strikes are also hysterical. More of us have mortgages. Let's calm down
A decent intervention would be an announcement that genuinely makes a difference. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Poll of Times readers right now. I'm not looking forward to minister after minister struggling to explain the various stealth tax rises will mean they've kept their manifesto pledge. If you're going to break the pledge, do it properly!
MP furious about leaks authorises leak to the Sunday Times about his fury at leaks. Give me strength.
This in the Times today is an incredible leap, just take it in. The suggestion that government is organised enough to do the things the media thinks is it’s capable is ludicrous to anyone who’s worked there. To link this to a potential nuclear fall out is mind-bending. WTF?