Believe in Britain
Hello there! I’m Alan. I live in the idyllic South West countryside. I’m a trained (but not practising) journalist, and I created Big Up Britain as a small corner of light in an increasingly dark internet.
I’ve lived in Britain all my life and I feel genuinely lucky to call it home. It’s not perfect, and yes, the weather could be better, but we have an amazing history, fanastic landscapes and amazing food from all corners of the word. As a people we’re funny, caring, fair and resilient. We look out for each other, we keep calm, and we carry on.
The mission here, is simple. We’re surrounded by bad news, in fact we’re drowning in it. Social media and headlines push the negative for clicks, and it’s easy to feel worn down, disconnected or angry as a result. Big Up Britain exists to rebalance that, by shining a light on the good, positive and hopeful things happening across the UK.
There is far more to be thankful for than the news and politicians often let on. This project is about breaking the doom-scrolling algorithms and reminding ourselves of the good, the great, the fun and build our hopes for the future.
The mission is simple. Reduce the bad. Share the good. Believe.
How does this work?
The idea for Big Up Britain is to shine a spotlight on good news. I have been running this since the beginning of 2026 -and I quickly found out that as one man it was impossible for me to report on every good news story myself.
Over the first year the story discovery process has evolved...
During the day, the automated news discovery system monitors numerous news feeds, publications and trusted sources from across the UK, searching for positive stories about British people, businesses, communities, innovation and achievements. Rather than simply publishing everything, each potential story goes through an AI-assisted assessment process, where it is scored for relevance, credibility, newsworthiness and its positive impact on Britain. Stories that demonstrate genuine progress, celebrate achievement or highlight something worth feeling proud of are prioritised.
The highest-scoring stories are selected for publication, with AI helping to create clear, engaging summaries of the story. Our aim is to remain faithful to the facts, avoid unnecessary sensationalism and give clear credit to the original source.
While no automated system is perfect, our approach is designed to be consistent, transparent and focused on genuine good news rather than clickbait.
I also want readers to participate, which is why everyone is invited to vote on every story published with a 'BIG UP!' or 'NOT SO SURE'! You readers are the ultimate arbiters of whether a story is genuine good news.
Think of Big Up Britain as less of a news site and more of a curated directory of good news.
The core goal
The core aim of Big Up Britain is to highlight the good/positive stories and redirect the reader to the original source.
We're open to submissions too. If you have or find a good news story - please use the 'contribute' option in the top menu to share it with us.
I'm also keen to highlight new British products - so if you have launched a new product, app or service that is revolutionary in it's space and made in Britain - let us know and we might feature it too!
FAQ
Do you feature every 'good' article
No, there are a few rules I'm trying to follow - although these may evolve over time.
At the moment I'm showcasing 3-5 stories per day based on the following criteria.
- Is it interesting?
- Can people relate to it?
- Does it have a tangible benefit to the country?
There are a lot of hyper-local good news stories and I'm hoping to feature more 'local' stories in the future but right now the focus is on stories at a national level - although a few local stories might slip through on quieter days.
I have a Good news story - can I share it with you?
Yes!
I'd love for people to send us some original stories that we likely haven't or won't see from our usual stories.
Why do you use AI images?
It's not ideal and where I can use actual images I will.
The issue is copyright - without clear permission to use a photograph I could find myself in hot water. Quite often press releases contain pre-cleared images we can use but in the case of the vast majority of 'discovered stories' they are photos which we do not have permission to use. I have decided to play-it-safe and generate our own image for each story.