Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
Feb 20, 2026 · 48 min · 13 segments
What links Bridget Jones to social media regulation? The answer: Baroness Beeban Kidron. In 2004 she directed the Bridget Jones sequal. 20 years later, she became one of the most vocal campaigners…
Nick RobinsonHost
Your husband's words, "you against the tech companies," is that how it's felt for these long thirteen years?
If they find me at the bottom of the Thames, it's Facebook what done it." [chuckles] Um, but yeah, no, it has, and, and I think it, it, you know, it has been a remarkable journey in the sense of I think everyone's caught up now.
You know, we all know there's a problem with tech, and so now we're moving to: What are we gonna do about it?
When you heard the Prime Minister this week say, "No platform gets a free pass," he said, trying to sound tough, it seemed to me, against those tech companies, did you welcome a sinner repenteth, or do you think it's all a bit late, really? [chuckles]
Why not? We need everybody, but a bit late to the party, and I have to say, a lot of the things they announced on Monday are sitting in legislation in the Lords, and they could accept next Monday.
He's nervous that you, that others, like the Conservative Lord Nash, are trying to rush the government, trying to get a change passed and passed straight away.
We're thirteen years too late to this, and so we're not rushing, and what's really difficult is that again and again, we hear ministers saying: "Oh, it moves so fast.
We can't do it." And yet they're rejecting things that would've stopped Grok, that would've stopped AI CSAM, child sexual abuse, that would've stopped things that people out there want stopped.
But some of what he said this week, I imagine, was, well, can we talk the Prime Minister of bringing new powers, giving us the ability to crack down on the addictive elements of social media? He said, "If that means a big fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on." That's, that's the words you want to hear, isn't it?
You know, just because you're late to the party and just because we wish it had happened before, yes, yes, we welcome it, but now get on with it because this is a government that has eighty-one open consultations, and if you look at the small print, it was a consultation he was announcing, not real powers, and he could do that.
I've had other conversations with him, but I don't think that anybody, um, is an expert because they have their own children, and I think it's one of the big mistakes we make is we have to look at it at population level.
Your husband's words, "you against the tech companies," is that how it's felt for these long thirteen years?
If they find me at the bottom of the Thames, it's Facebook what done it." [chuckles] Um, but yeah, no, it has, and, and I think it, it, you know, it has been a remarkable journey in the sense of I think everyone's caught up now.
You know, we all know there's a problem with tech, and so now we're moving to: What are we gonna do about it?
When you heard the Prime Minister this week say, "No platform gets a free pass," he said, trying to sound tough, it seemed to me, against those tech companies, did you welcome a sinner repenteth, or do you think it's all a bit late, really? [chuckles]
Why not? We need everybody, but a bit late to the party, and I have to say, a lot of the things they announced on Monday are sitting in legislation in the Lords, and they could accept next Monday.
He's nervous that you, that others, like the Conservative Lord Nash, are trying to rush the government, trying to get a change passed and passed straight away.
We're thirteen years too late to this, and so we're not rushing, and what's really difficult is that again and again, we hear ministers saying: "Oh, it moves so fast.
We can't do it." And yet they're rejecting things that would've stopped Grok, that would've stopped AI CSAM, child sexual abuse, that would've stopped things that people out there want stopped.
But some of what he said this week, I imagine, was, well, can we talk the Prime Minister of bringing new powers, giving us the ability to crack down on the addictive elements of social media? He said, "If that means a big fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on." That's, that's the words you want to hear, isn't it?
You know, just because you're late to the party and just because we wish it had happened before, yes, yes, we welcome it, but now get on with it because this is a government that has eighty-one open consultations, and if you look at the small print, it was a consultation he was announcing, not real powers, and he could do that.
I've had other conversations with him, but I don't think that anybody, um, is an expert because they have their own children, and I think it's one of the big mistakes we make is we have to look at it at population level.
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