Politics
Bridget Jones’s Diary Turns 25: Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Never Knew
It’s time to dust off your biggest and comfiest pants, cook up some blue soup and warm up your pipes for a Céline Dion sing-a-long because a very special anniversary is just around the corner.
This month marks 25 years since Bridget Jones made her big screen debut, diary in hand, introducing the world to one of 21st century British cinema’s most iconic and beloved characters.
Bridget Jones’s Diary has gone on to become one of the most enduring and game-changing romantic comedies of its time, going on to gross hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, spawn three sequels and even earn its leading lady Renée Zellweger her first Oscar nominations (she’s since gone on to win two, as it goes).
A quarter-century later, you might think you know Bridget inside and out (and love her “just as she is”), but we bet there’s still plenty about the enduring movie classic that you still don’t know.
To commemorate its 25th anniversary, here are 25 behind-the-scenes facts you probably never knew about how Bridget Jones’s Diary was made…
Alright, we’re starting with a pretty obvious one here, but for those who didn’t know, both the original novel Bridget Jones’s Diary and the movie were inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice
Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding said back in 2001: “Jane Austen’s plots are very good and have been market researched over a number of centuries so I decided simply to steal one of them.”
“I thought she wouldn’t mind,” Helen quipped. “And anyway, she’s dead.”
Because of the book’s ties to Pride And Prejudice, the Bridget Jones team were always adamant that Mark Darcy should be played by Colin Firth, who previously appeared in the BBC’s much-loved adaptation of the Jane Austen book
“Colin always had to be Mark Darcy,” producer Eric Fellner put it around the film’s release. “As the story unfolds, and the audience comes to understand Mark Darcy, he transforms from a seemingly snobby and cold intellectual into a thoughtful and sensitive man.”
There is another Pride & Prejudice reference hidden in Bridget Jones’s Diary that we’re only clocking now 25 years later
The publishing house where Bridget Jones works is called Pemberley Press, a subtle nod to Mr Darcy’s estate in the Austen classic.
When Bridget walks in on the woman that Daniel Cleaver has been cheating on her with, she’s covering herself with a Pemberley Press portfolio, sporting an image of a stately home not unlike Darcy’s.
When it came to casting the role of Bridget Jones, Renée Zellweger wasn’t actually the first choice
In fact, the role first went to Toni Collette, who turned it down because she was appearing in a Broadway play at the time filming was due to get underway.
She told Watch What Happens Live in 2023: “I have no regrets – life happens as it’s meant to.”
The casting process apparently took around two years before producers found their Bridget in Renée Zellweger.
Of course, the decision to cast an American actor as such an iconic Londoner wasn’t exactly met with unanimous praise, but Renée pulled it out of the bag and won over her detractors in the end.
To help perfect her British twang to play Bridget Jones, Renée Zellweger worked with the famous dialect coach Barbara Berkery
Right before Renée worked with Barbar Berkery, the dialect coach had helped Gwyneth Paltrow on her way to winning an Oscar for Shakespeare In Love.
Before that, she’d also coached Gwynnie while she was playing a Londoner in the 90s classic Sliding Doors.
It’s fair to say that Hugh Grant wasn’t initially convinced by Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones accent…
“She came in, doing quite a good British accent, but it was Princess Margaret,” Hugh recalled in the 2020 documentary Becoming Bridget Jones. “That was a little startling.”
After the suggestion that she “loosen it up a bit”, Hugh claimed that Renée’s next attempt was more “Princess Margaret having a stroke – but a week later, it was bang on”.
Alex Bailey/Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
To help retain her accent, Renée Zellweger continued speaking in Bridget Jones’ voice even between takes
Sally Phillips once told Lorraine: “I’d made quite good friends with her during the filming [but] I realised towards the end, when she suddenly lost a stone in the last week, and started talking in a Texan accent at the wrap party, I’d made friends with Bridget, not Renée.”
It’s well-documented that Renée Zellweger intentionally gained weight to help her play Bridget Jones, which she did by increasing her food intake and not exercising
For the second Bridget Jones film, Renée opted for prosthetics rather than gaining the weight back, and by the third and fourth films, it was decided that the actor and her on-screen counterpart should be the same size.
As well as her accent and weight gain, Renée Zellweger also got into the Bridget Jones mindset by working a brief internship at a publishing house
Paul Chedlow/Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
“A young work experience woman came into the office and introduced herself as Bridget and we were all a bit bemused by the fact that Bridget seemed to have really nice clothes (not smart, just a lot better than our outfits) and a transatlantic accent,” Mary Mount – who was working as an editorial assistant at Picador at the time – recalled last year. “I thought she looked vaguely familiar but in that way that you can’t really place.”
One of the future Oscar winner’s tasks was cutting out any press clippings about Picardo at the time.
Unfortunately, the big story surrounding Picador at the time was the fact that a Bridget Jones movie was in the works, meaning “her job was literally to cut out nasty articles about herself”.
“She kept her cool,” said Camilla Elworthy, who oversaw Renée during her work experience. “But [she] did scribble ‘rubbish’ in the margins of one piece.”
As for the rest of the Bridget Jones’s Diary cast, Hugh Grant actually turned down the part of Daniel Cleaver on several occasions
Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
“The only reason for that was because I didn’t feel they had the script quite right for a long time,” he admitted in the lead-up to its release. “And I kept saying, it’s not working. Just get Richard Curtis to come in and help rewrite it.”
Hugh had already worked with Richard Curtis on Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill, with the two later reuniting on Love Actually and the second Bridget Jones movie.
“As soon as Richard came on board, I signed on the dotted line,” the Bafta winner added. “So, that’s all it was.”
Bridget Jones’s Diary was filmmaker Sharon Maguire’s feature-length directing debut, although she did already have a connection to the source material
Sharon was close friends with Helen Fielding, and was heavily rumoured to be have been the inspiration for “Shazzer”, the character played on screen by Sally Phillips.
“I’m delighted to be in the book, especially as Shazzer is so much wittier than me,” Sharon once told The Telegraph. “The only thing is that you go to parties and you worry that people will expect you to be funnier than you really are.”
“Helen was just writing about our lives – hilariously,” she later told the LA Times in 2016, adding: “Thirtysomethings had come out of long relationships in their 20s and realised they hadn’t ended up married or with children. We were in our 30s, behaving like we were 17-year-olds and having a great time but still floundering around asking questions about relationships, careers, biological clocks.”
Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
Salman Rushdie’s Bridget Jones’s Diary cameo came about he, too, was a friend of Helen Fielding
“For me, it was very simple,” he told Texas Monthly in 2001. “Helen Fielding, the author of the book, is an old pal of mine, and she asked if I’d come along and make a fool of myself, and I said, ‘Why not?’.”
As for sharing the screen with the movie’s leading lady, the author added: “Renée was wonderful, I thought, and at the premiere we had a little joke. I told her that my performance is what held the film together – and she agreed. She thought it was a pivotal role.”
The exterior of Bridget Jones’ flat was a pub just off Borough market
The Globe Tavern, to be exact, which was already notable as it’s rumoured to be the location where the Great Train Robbery of 1963 was planned.
All those wintery scenes at Bridget Jones’ parents’ home were actually shot at the height of summer
Because of this, several locations in Snowshill, Worcestershire had to be covered in fake snow to make the setting more believable.
Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
As a result – Colin Firth didn’t exactly have the best time filming in his infamous Bridget Jones reindeer jumper…
Colin told Entertainment Weekly in 2020: “The set was lit at about 140 degrees Fahrenheit; it melted candles and desiccated the turkey curry. I almost tore the jumper to pieces pulling it off between takes – I probably lost about 15 pounds. I had little love for it by the end.”
…not that it actually is a reindeer, mind you
“We sent out the knitting challenge to approximately 20 or 30 knitters,” Sharon Morgan also told Entertainment Weekly for the same piece. “At first, none of the designs worked. They were lovely, but they just weren’t funny. So eventually we decided it had to be a moose, not a reindeer.”
“I never noticed it was a moose,” Colin added.
Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy’s fight sequence is one of Bridget Jones’s Diary’s stand-out scenes – but it could have looked very different
“There had been an earlier idea to make the fight look sexy,” Colin told the LA Times. “We were going to be buff and our shirts were going to be ripped off.
“I looked at myself and said, ‘You’re certainly never going to get that type with me’.”
Colin Firth and Hugh Grant decided between them to keep their Bridget Jones fight a little more… well… British
Alex Bailey/Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
“We both realised that the last time we fought was when we were 10. A playground fight,” Colin quipped. “So, we made a decision largely based on logic and common sense to make it more playful.”
He pointed out the characters are “two very ineffectual, frightened, angry yuppies going at each other – pulling hair and wanting to run away at the same time”, which needed to come across on screen.
During a video interview with Vanity Fair, Hugh later claimed: “The big fight was to stop stuntmen getting involved. They always want to come in and choreograph the whole thing and say, ‘mate, it’d be great if you swing a right hook and his head’ll go back’.
“I just thought, ‘yeah, in action films, cowboy films, whatever, that’s great, but these are two middle-class Englishmen, and they don’t fight like that’. I’ve seen them fight, and it’s shit.
“So, we managed to ban the stuntman. I think the last thing he contributed was probably the dustbin lid, and after that, it’s just me and Colin messing about.”
Stuntmen were used for one crucial part of the fight, though
That’d be the bit where Mark and Daniel fly through the front window of a Greek restaurant, which they thought they’d better leave to the pros.
By contrast, Bridget Jones’ infamous fireman’s pole scene was meticulously planned to ensure Renée Zellweger’s safety
“Renée did it on wires – it was her backside that came down,” stunt performer Dani Biernet told Time Out in 2017. “But I did all the lining up and the wide shots without a wire.”
Another of Bridget Jones’ more surprising physical moments required a stunt double, too
Dani also had to step in to play Bridget during the moment when she drunkenly tumbles out of a black cab.
“When I first did it they were all like, ‘Bloody hell, did that hurt?’. But as a stunt person, you learn how to fall,” she said.
“I remember doing it about six times and, to be fair, by take five you’re a bit bruised. But that’s part of the job.”
No, Renée Zellweger didn’t really have to smoke all those cigarettes on the set of Bridget Jones’s Diary
While it was once commented that Bridget “smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish and dresses like her mother”, fortunately Renée didn’t quite need to copy her character’s habits.
Instead, the cigarettes she was supplied to play Bridget were herbal, rather than tobacco-based.
You might not realise it but Bridget Jones’s Diary has a different ending depending on where in the world you’re watching
Alex Bailey/Miramax/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
Here in the UK, after Bridget and Mark’s big kiss, the credits roll and we’re treated to scenes of different characters being interviewed about their love story, while Robbie Williams’ rendition of Have You Met Miss Jones? plays.
Across the pond, though, the credits are interspersed with “home video footage” of Bridget and Mark as kids, recreating the paddling pool scene we hear so much about over the course of the film.
As for the fate of Bridget Jones’ iconic ‘big pants’…
“I heard some rumour that Hugh Grant kept the pants – the big pants,” Renée Zellweger told British Vogue while promoting the fourth Bridget Jones movie in 2024.
“But I don’t know if that’s true,” she quickly clarified. “We’ll have to ask him.”
Bridget Jones’s Diary is currently available to stream on Now.
US president Donald Trump is mulling pulling troops out of Europe. Which is really sad, we’re sure everyone will miss being a military colony of a fading, erratic imperial power which can’t even open a tiny little Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reported on 10 April that Trump was really very upset that few states has really backed wild designs on Iran.
The outlet said:
The internal deliberations come after Trump expressed his discontent with what he sees as NATO allies’ lack of action to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the failure of his plans to acquire Greenland from NATO member Denmark.
How sad.
Reuters said there were nearly 70 thousand US troops permanently stationed in Europe across 31 bases. This does not include troops on shorter rotational deployments. Reuters also estimated that Germany, Italy and the UK had the highest number of troops.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation estimated in 2021 that there are:
100 U.S.-owned nuclear weapons stored in five NATO member states across six bases: Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel Air Base in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi Air Bases in Italy, Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey.
The report came hours after socialist academic Jason Hickel captured something of the current anti-American zeitgeist with this post:
For people in Europe, one of the most important objectives for political mobilisation now is to remove the US military bases. They are a menace to humanity, they are a threat to popular sovereignty, and every one of them must be closed.
— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) April 10, 2026
Yanks out
The illegal US-Israeli war against Iran has provoked deep discontent with US basing arrangements (i.e., military colonialism) in the UK.
YouGov found on 5 March that Keir Starmer’s decision to allow the US to bomb Iran via British bases:
flies in the face of UK public opinion – our survey in late February had found 58% opposed to allowing the US to launch strikes from RAF bases, and subsequent poll on 2 March, and again on 11-12 March, and found that figure still stood at 49-50% when the ‘missile sites only’ caveat was included.
But even before the war began on 28 February new political parties were arguing for the removal of US forces. Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the UK’s security should not be subject to Trump’s erratic moods on 20 January 2026:
I think it’s pretty worrying that we’ve allowed ourselves to become so reliant on American interests, and that a lot of this depends on if Donald Trump is in a good mood or not.
He called for a full review into US military presence on UK soil:
We should be reviewing US bases on UK soil, and actually looking at a genuine strategic defence review.
And on 4 March, after the war began, Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a bill in parliament for oversight of US bases.
Your Party MP Zarah Sultana preferred the Spanish approach – a complete block on US use of any airbases:
CC: @Keir_Starmer
Look, it is possible to not be Donald Trump’s poodle. https://t.co/cC3L1vtqN4
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) March 2, 2026
Trump’s NATO meltdown
NATO general-secretary Mark Rutte visited the White House on 9 April in a bid to:
defuse a crisis after Trump said he was considering withdrawing from the 32-member transatlantic alliance, arguing that European allies have relied on U.S. security guarantees while providing inadequate support for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran.
Unnamed diplomats told reporters Rutte has conveyed Trump’s wishes to other NATO countries. One said:
We note the frustration in Washington, but they did not consult allies either before or after starting this war.
NATO as such would not play a role in the war against Iran, but allies want to be helpful in seeking longer-term solutions for Hormuz. With negotiations ongoing with Iran, this could be helpful.
Trump said on 28 March:
I think that NATO made a terrible mistake when they wouldn’t send a small amount of military armament, when they wouldn’t… just even acknowledge what we were doing for the world… taking on Iran.
NATO was not obliged to do so:
It’s true NATO countries didn’t provide their full support for the US and Israel’s unprovoked war on Iran. The illegality of the action meant NATO countries had no obligation to support the US, and yet many supported Trump anyway by allowing him to use their bases (the UK included).
Trump pulling the US out of Europe — and even NATO — maybe be a fearful thing if you belong to the European elites. For others it would mean sovereignty and independence wrested back from the hands of a declining empire, led by a jaded emperor who looks more detached from realities of global politics by the day. And public opinion may be shifting against US domination in Europe.
Featured image via the Canary
After the farce of the Starmer government’s fake and short-lived ‘ban’ on arms sales to Israel, illegal weapons destined for Israel have fallen foul of an NGO’s efforts. A disguised cargo of weapons and military spare parts en route from the UK has been seized at Liège airport in Belgium. An operation by an NGO identified the shipment after concerns were raised about the accuracy of its cargo manifest, which did not disclose the real contents.
The consignment was scheduled to fly on Challenge Airlines, a firm that regularly flies to the genocidal colony.
In total, 33 crates of undeclared military equipment were opened and seized. The contents included laser sights, fire control systems and spare parts for fighter jets involved in the bombing of civilians in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. The items would have needed specific declaration, followed by authorisation from the Belgian government, to transit legally — an unlikely outcome given decisions in 2025 in Belgium’s top courts and the policies of federal and regional government.
Belgian authorities have opened an investigation to identify those responsible for the attempted smuggling.
Featured image via the Canary
From time to time, people question why a person would put their neck on the line for Donald Trump. The answer to that is obvious (at least when he’s the president); it’s because he can literally pardon people of their crimes:
BREAKING WSJ:
Trump has repeatedly promised his top administration officials pardons before he leaves office, according to people who have heard his comments.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting.…
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2026
Trump’s criminal enterprise
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Trump is promising to pardon anyone who’s had anything to do with his second administration:
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting to laughs, according to people with knowledge of the comments. That radius appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.
In one conversation with advisers in the dining room next to the Oval Office last year, Trump said he would host a news conference and announce mass pardons before he left office, some of the people said. The people said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.
As we all know, Trump is prone to just saying things – many of which never come to pass. At the same, Trump is also prone to pardoning people.
In December 2024, the BBC reported that the US President had granted “237 acts of clemency” in his first term (143 pardons and 94 commutations). In that same article, they noted that Trump was kicking off his second term by pardoning/commuting 1,600 individuals who were linked to the botched insurrection of 2021. Trump has continued to grant clemency since then, and there’s little reason to suspect he’ll stop.
Oh, and talking of the botched insurrectionists who got pardoned; it’s notable that several have been re-arrested since. As CREW reported in December 2025:
At least 33 January 6th insurrectionists pardoned by President Trump have been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021, according to new analysis by CREW. Four pardoned insurrectionists have allegedly reoffended since receiving their pardons. Several have argued that the pardon should cover unrelated criminal convictions, and in one case last month, Trump explicitly re-pardoned one insurrectionist for his unrelated weapons charges.
Six of the pardoned January 6th insurrectionists are charged with committing child sex crimes, ranging from sexual assault to possession of child pornography. At least five were charged with illegal possession of weapons, including at least two who had a previous domestic violence conviction. Five were arrested or charged with driving while impaired or under the influence. In two of these cases, the defendant’s reckless driving resulted in a fatality. Two were charged with rape.
Absolute power
This is how Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the WSJ story:
The Wall Street Journal should learn to take a joke, however, the President’s pardon power is absolute
It’s almost like the Yanks didn’t think this pardon power thing through, isn’t it?
That or successive politicians simply pushed things more and more in their own favour to the point where we now have an American king (what you’d call a ‘burger king’ if not for potential trademark infringement).
Featured image the Canary
Brain ageing is a complicated process, unlikely to have a single cause. But scientists think they may have found a key piece in the puzzle: protein FTL1.
A study published in Nature Ageing looked at how the brains of mice changed as they aged. They wanted to see what might drive the processes that can slow down our mental activity and impair our memory over the years.
They found that the protein seemed to be the only consistent difference between younger and older mice minds – and they think they know how to counter it.
What does FLT1 do?
In older mice, FLT1 levels were higher. They had fewer connections in a part of the brain called the hippocampus (which is responsible for learning and memory), and their cognitive abilities weren’t as high as those of the younger mice.
To investigate whether the protein itself was causing that change, the scientists gave younger mice more of the protein than their bodies naturally made. When they did that, the younger mice had “synaptic changes and cognitive impairments indicative of hippocampal ageing”.
In other words, their brain and behaviours began to mimic those of older mice.
But when they did the inverse – reduced the amount of FLT1 in the brains of older mice – the opposite happened.
They had more connections between nerve cells and performed better on cognitive tests: they seemed, in short, “younger”.
FLT1 slowed metabolism in the hippocampus of older mice. But by giving them a treatment to speed their metabolism up, the scientists were able to prevent that from happening.
They’re hopeful that this might lead to ways to block the effects of the protein in the brain.
What might this mean?
In mice, changing FTL1 levels made a bigger difference than just managing the effects of ageing.
Speaking to the University of California, San Francisco, the paper’s senior author, Dr Saul Villeda, said: “It is truly a reversal of impairments. It’s much more than merely delaying or preventing symptoms.”
Though more research is needed to get even close to something like this for humans, Dr Villeda added, “We’re seeing more opportunities to alleviate the worst consequences of old age. It’s a hopeful time to be working on the biology of ageing.”
Labour keeps telling voters some variation of the following:
Only we can beat Reform!
The problem is they keep proving themselves wrong — most recently in a Kent County Council by-election:
These people are genuinely addicted to lying.
Labour have deployed this “only Labour can beat Reform” line in 3 legislative by-elections, and…
➡️ Reform won Runcorn + Helsby
🏴 Plaid Cymru won Caerphilly
🟢 Greens won Gorton + DentonIt does not work! Why keep saying it?? pic.twitter.com/az7IKNun54
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 10, 2026
Greens keep winning
The Greens secured an impressive victory over Reform in Kent — an area which had come to be seen as a Reform stronghold:
‼️Greens GAIN Kent council seat from Reform
🟢 Grn: 39% (+27)
➡️ Ref: 33% (-7)
🔵 Con: 15% (-4)
🔴 Lab: 10% (-12)
⚪️ Ind: 1% (-2)
🟠 Lib: 1% (-2)Ward: Cliftonville (+/- vs 2025 election) pic.twitter.com/JyzM7Gg3AB
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 10, 2026
As it’s only been in Reform hands since May 2025, we guess it’s less of a ‘stronghold’ and more of a ‘limp-grip’ given that they’re already vacating their seats for the Greens.
In March this year, Labour List published the following:
Dame Emily Thornberry said the lesson from last time was that only Labour was in with a chance of beating Reform in Cliftonville.
She said:
“I’ve campaigned against Reform UK councils across the country, but this one in Kent is among the worst I’ve seen. They are hiking council tax when they said they wouldn’t, slashing vital services in Thanet, and the council leader was even caught screaming and swearing at her own colleagues.
“Labour came second here last time, so Cliftonville voters have a real chance to send Reform a message that Thanet won’t tolerate their public service cuts and shameless lies.”
In the end, Labour won fewer than half the votes that the Greens did. And if you look at how much vote share the Greens gained compared to how much everyone else lost, it looks like Zack Polanski’s party may be picking up votes from all of the other parties at this point.
In other words, if anyone should be arguing ‘only we can beat Reform‘, it’s the Greens. Except they shouldn’t say that; they should say ‘only the Greens are beating Reform‘, because that’s the reality we’re living in.
As Stats for Lefties added:
The problem with claiming “only Labour can beat Reform” over and over and over is voters have eyes. And whenever Labour goes up against Reform, they watch Labour eat shit. All they do is prove that they CAN’T beat Reform.
So voters think – maybe someone else can.
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 10, 2026
People reacted to the victory as follows:
The Greens have won a Kent County Council by-election, called after Reform councillor Daniel Taylor was given a 12-month prison sentence after admitting to controlling or coercive behaviour towards his wife.
Green candidate Rob Yates won with nearly 39% of the vote.
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) April 10, 2026
Managed to say which party won but curiously left out which party the jailed councillor was from. https://t.co/rNdst2AlAf
— cez (@cezthesocialist) April 10, 2026
Reform’s disgrace
The Kent by-election occurred because an ex-Reform councillor was jailed for abusing his wife:
#Reform Councillor David Taylor JAILED.
“nasty and violent”.
“told his wife he would hunt her like prey and kill her, and that he would “put her in the boot and set fire to the car”.And STILL he was ‘vetted’ & ‘approved’ by #Reform as a candidate while this was all going on. pic.twitter.com/WhMox3ope4
— John O’Connell (@jdpoc) February 20, 2026
Kent is one of Reform’s key councils; it’s also the party’s most chaotic.
Infamously, Kent had to suspend four Reform councillors after a “chaotic meeting was leaked”. As Joe Glenton wrote for the Canary:
A spokesperson for the far-right party said they’d brought Reform UK into disrepute.
Which is quite a gallant argument given Reform UK didn’t have much repute to start with. Anyway, here’s a group of dysregulated middle-aged toddlers having an incredibly puerile row:
Kent Council also drew criticism for telling a local parish they couldn’t put Christmas lights up because they had Union Jacks on them (flags which went up as part of the flag mania which sweeped the UK in 2025).
Labour — Changes
Gone are the days when only Labour and the Tories were viewed as serious political entities. Now, voters don’t want to hear ‘only we can win‘; they want to know why a political party winning will benefit them.
Labour have no good answers on that front, which is why they can now only come third (at best!).
Featured image via Barold
Many people’s vitamin D levels do not fall within a healthy range, which can cause muscle weakness, fatigue, depression, bone pain and lower immune function. In fact, an estimated 60% of the world is vitamin D deficient and needs a supplement, Dr. Michael Holick, a professor of medicine, pharmacology, physiology & biophysics and molecular medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, previously told HuffPost.
But if that alone isn’t enough to convince you to prioritise getting vitamin D, which you can do through foods like salmon, tuna, and milk, new research published in the journal Neurology this month may do the trick. The study suggests that people with high vitamin D levels in their 30s and 40s have lower dementia risk factors later in life.
The study investigates the potential impact of vitamin D levels in early midlife by examining the prevalence of tau protein and amyloid protein in the brain, “which are key hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Thomas M. Holland, physician-scientist and assistant professor at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told HuffPost via email. Holland is not affiliated with the study.
Researchers followed 793 people in their 30s and 40s with an average age of 39 over 16 years. Vitamin D levels were tested at the beginning of the study; those with levels below 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) were categorised as having low vitamin D; anything above was considered high.
After a follow-up at the end of the study, it was determined that participants in the high-vitamin D group were more likely to have lower tau levels in their brains.
“Researchers looked at two different types of scans of the brain called PET scans,” said Dr. David Gill, chief of the division of cognitive and behavioural neurology at the University of Rochester in New York. Gill is not affiliated with the study. “One looks at the amyloid protein [prevalence], and one looked at the tau protein [prevalence].”
Even though tau protein levels were lower in participants with high vitamin D, researchers found that those elevated levels did not impact levels of amyloid in the brain. This indicates someone with high vitamin D could still have elevated levels of amyloid protein, which, as mentioned above, is a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.
This study does have a “major limitation,” Dr. Jagan Pillai, a Cleveland Clinic neurologist and director of the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, told HuffPost via email. Vitamin D levels were measured once at the beginning of the study “and after that PET scans were completed 15 or more years later,” said Pillai, who was not associated with the study..
“So, we don’t have any information in between,” Pillai added. It’s unknown if participants took supplements or followed a healthy lifestyle that helped them maintain healthy vitamin D levels, he noted. Because vitamin D levels were only measured once, it’s also unclear if someone shifted from having healthy levels to unhealthy levels (or the opposite) during the study’s time period.
While this study has solid data, it does not prove that vitamin D levels directly affect dementia risk, according to Gill. There are many studies on this topic, and they’re conflicting.
“Specifically, there’s been some studies to show that giving vitamin D might help improve memory a little bit, but those are also conflicting. There’s been all of this information out there without a firm understanding of whether there’s a real connection between low vitamin D and Alzheimer’s disease,” Gill said. “I don’t know this [study] answers that question, but it helps move us forward.”
So, does this mean having healthy vitamin D levels in your 30s and 40s will protect you from dementia? Not necessarily. But having healthy vitamin D levels can bolster many systems in your body, including the brain. And as research emerges about vitamin D and dementia risk, there are other changes you can make to take care of your cognition.
Anastasiia Voloshko via Getty Images
To lower your risk of dementia, there are certain rules you should follow in midlife and throughout your life.
Holland said the amyloid and tau brain proteins associated with dementia begin accumulating “15 to 20 years before the clinical symptoms of dementia or cognitive decline are detected.”
Anything we can do in midlife to support cognitive function and reduce the risk of dementia will “benefit us later in life,” Holland added. “We know that low vitamin D levels and other nutrient deficiencies are associated with neuroinflammation and potentially oxidative stress.” All of that can take a toll on your brain.
Throughout your life, you should work with your doctor to correct any vitamin deficiencies, whether that’s vitamin D, vitamin B12 or something else, according to Pillai.
Eating a nutrient-dense diet is also protective for the brain.
″For vitamin D specifically, adding in healthy protein sources, particularly fatty fish such as tuna, salmon, sardines and mackerel, can be beneficial,” Holland said.
“For overall brain health, incorporating foods such as dark leafy greens (i.e., kale, romaine lettuce, and spinach), berries (such as blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries), whole grains (like oatmeal, brown rice, and quinoa) and extra virgin olive oil is helpful, as these foods provide beneficial fatty acids and a wide range of supportive nutrients,” Holland continued.
Additionally, “we should be as physically active as possible,” Gill said.
This doesn’t mean signing up for a marathon, but can instead mean going for frequent walks in your neighbourhood.
“We should be doing things that challenge us mentally to keep ourselves mentally active,” Gill added.
For older folks, staying challenged can be tough — working is one of the easiest ways to stay mentally active, Gill said. For those who no longer work, taking a class, playing cards with friends, volunteering or joining a book club are all good options.
“Really, anything that you enjoy that engages your brain can be a good thing,” Gill said.
Socialising is also important.
“Being social is important for a number of reasons. We know the opposite, being lonely, is bad for our memory over time. And so being social is good for us because it keeps our brain active, but also avoids loneliness,” Gill said.
Finally, you should address any issues you have that could lead to dementia down the line.
“We should treat the medical problems that can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Gill, noting that “the things that increase the risk of heart disease tend to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” Diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol are all issues that you should work with your doctor to treat, Gill said.
What happens when you put a half-soaked (allegedly) TV presenter in charge of the military? Well, Trump’s ‘secretary of war’ Pete Hegseth is doing his best to show us.
His latest nugget? Encouraging shipping companies to keep sailing through Iran’s Strait of Hormuz despite its re-closure because the US and Israel won’t stop slaughtering innocents. Because, y’know, Hormuz is safe. The only risk is getting hit by an Iranian missile.
You couldn’t make it up. Tragically for the world, you don’t need to:
Featured image via the Canary
On 9 April, Reform UK announced the winner of their ‘Free Energy Bill’ prize draw. As we noted at the time, it seemed to be an excuse for Reform to make life a little easier for a family who appeared to have it quite easy already:
Giving old wealthy people assistance while the rest of the UK suffers.
Classic Reform. https://t.co/GbbeelYWEb
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 9, 2026
Since then, eagle-eyed investigators have noticed that this particular family have a history with Farage. Oh, and the police are looking into the raffle too. So all in all, things haven’t gone quite as well as they might have done.
Farage loyalists
Firstly, the prize-winning couple do seem to have a documented history of being around Farage. As political commentator Don McGowan noted (with help from the Yorkshire Lass account and Reform Party UK Exposed):
🗼WELL I NEVER🗼
Would you believe that Ray and June, who won the Reform UK energy bills prize, go back all the way to the Brexit Party with Farage?
Here they are with Farage, Widdecombe and Bull [a truly awful supernatural detective thriller].
What a coincidence [increasingly unlikely]
The point McGowan and others are making is that this longstanding history with Farage and his various political vehicles suggests these winners were likely hand picked by the party. In the same post, McGowan showed the following images which picture Ray, June, and Farage at the same event:
🗼WELL I NEVER🗼
Would you believe that Ray and June, who won the Reform UK energy bills prize, go back all the way to the Brexit Party with Farage?
Here they are with Farage, Widdecombe and Bull [a truly awful supernatural detective thriller].
What a coincidence [increasingly… pic.twitter.com/9VgIdB4wjP
— Don McGowan (@donmcgowan) April 10, 2026
McGowan also provided the following timeline:
<-> Ray and June Dibble are photographed at a Brexit Party rally in 2019 with Nigel Farage, Anne Widdecombe and David Bull.
<-> Ray and June nominate local councillor, Lee Moffitt as branch chair for Reform UK, Wigan.
<-> Ray and June win Nigel Farage’s energy bills competition.
<-> Additional info — Farage and Jenrick turn up at Ray and June’s house with a cheque for a VERY SPECIFIC amount of £1,758.
It’s almost as though the entire thing was orchestrated from the beginning.
What a surprise! The staunch Wigan branch members won.
It was pitched as a competition open to the general public in national press.
Reform will FIX it. pic.twitter.com/tXInAVkVes
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 10, 2026
Look, we’re going to be completely fair here. It seems reasonable to think that the sort of person who enters a Reform giveaway is almost certainly going to be the sort of person who likes and follows Farage. As such, the fact that the couple have been hanging around Nigel for years isn’t a smoking gun, as Reform themselves have argued:
Reform source says many of the party’s 270,000 members entered the competition.
“Is it a shock a member won? No.” https://t.co/ZNOJjihueC
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) April 10, 2026
Back to being less nice, Reform have certainly given no reason to believe that they didn’t fix it.
And really, it didn’t take a genius to foresee that the draw would end up looking like a fix, even if they didn’t purposefully orchestrate one.
Of course your members would enter the competition, Nigel.
Of course people would call foul when one of them won.
Of course the inevitable outcry would overshadow any benefits from this little gimmick.
Some called the “competition” a cynical PR stunt.
Others said it was deflection from Farage’s Iran war flip-flop.
A few spotted the data harvesting.
Turns out it was far simpler: just a giveaway to their own Reform party members.
June from Wigan, congrats on ‘winning’!! https://t.co/FKvvpCOqHW pic.twitter.com/XDhCg04Uzl
— Luke Charters MP (@lukejcr) April 10, 2026
And as Mr Ethical noted, the way things have shaken out could in fact be criminal:
Since it would appear that Reform knew the winners of their energy scam, they have almost certainly committed a criminal offence. I don’t suppose anything will happen though. pic.twitter.com/xspFLWXuJj
— Mr Ethical 🚩 (@nw_nicholas) April 10, 2026
This is why political parties don’t usually do giveaways.
That and because they’re not daytime TV game shows.
It’s not surprising that Reform would ape light television, anyway, given that they’ve already stolen Jimmy Saville’s catchphrase.
GMP’s Reform investigation
As reported by the Telegraph, the police are now looking into the raffle. Greater Manchester Police have said:
We have received a report and are currently reviewing the matter.
It’s currently unclear what potential offences the police are looking into. Reform, meanwhile, have said they’re not worried, having previously solicited legal advice.
In all likelihood, nothing will come of the above, because UK electoral law is a joke. Clearly, however, political parties giving out cash prizes is not a sign of functioning democracy.
Featured image via Chatham House (Flickr)
Yet another right-wing, friends-of-Israel paedophile has been convicted — the latest in the seemingly endless production line of Zionist Labour child rapists and abusers. Former Dudley councillor — and “attack dog” for arch-Zionist Luke Akehurst’s ‘Labour First’ pressure group — Adrian Hughes has pleaded guilty to three charges of grooming children for sex.
Hughes, who now lives in Preston, admitted communicating with a 13-year-old girl about meeting her to touch her and “teach her about sex” in May 2025. Also in the same month, he admitted trying to persuade a 13-year-old girl to have sex. Finally, he confessed to sending a picture of himself nude to an even younger girl and asking her to meet and have sex.
During his time as a Dudley councillor, Hughes sat on the council’s Children’s Services Select Committee, the Children and Young Person’s Scrutiny Committee and the Children’s Corporate Parenting Board.
Hughes has locked his X account, but traces of his own support for Israel are still identifiable. In 2023, he described comments from Keir Starmer supporting Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ by killing Palestinians as “reassuring”.
Broxtowe Alliance councillors and former Labour national executive member Mish Rahman pointed out financial support Hughes received from right-wing, pro-Israel MPs:
Labour Right MPs funded his campaign 👇https://t.co/z1Y8wNuP7A
— Broxtowe Alliance Councillors (@broxtoweindys) April 10, 2026
Spot the Labour First MPs who supported this cretin and used him as an attack dog – I can see three of themhttps://t.co/VCgCVsVaGy
— Mish Rahman (@mish_rahman) April 10, 2026
Two MPs with definite links to Labour First among Hughes’s donors include Gurinder Singh Josan, Akehurst’s right-hand man in Labour First and Russia hawk and “Labour First candidate” Phil Brickell. Also featuring is Josh Newbury, whose Cannock Chase seat is in Labour First’s West Midlands heartland.
The prevalence of paedophiles among the Labour right was not lost on respondents:
this way above the numbers of paedos you’d expect in a random cross section of people
— Diogenes 🇵🇸 (@Northern_cynic2) April 10, 2026
Hughes will be sentenced on 24 April.
Zionist Labour paedos — a long and growing list
Some commenters wondered whether paedophilia is an entry requirement for the pro-Israel Labour right. Not without reason.
Former Hackney councillor and Labour First organiser Thomas Dewey received 150 hours of ‘community service’ for possession of sadistic child rape images. Sam Gould, a former aide to Starmer’s health secretary Wes Streeting, received a suspended sentence for flashing a child and also an adult woman.
Israel fanatic and former Labour councillor Liron Velleman was convicted of sex offences with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl but turned out to be a police officer conducting a paedophile sting. Like many of his child-predator faction, he escaped jail. Some alleged Zionist paedophiles seem to escape consequences altogether. Former government minister Ivor Caplin is no longer even on bail after being caught — on camera — turning up to meet what he thought was a child for sex.
Some are accused but still awaiting trial. Starmeroid MP Dan Norris has been arrested — twice — for sex offences including rape and child-sex offences, including abduction. Former councillor Conor McGrath has been charged with possessing child-rape images after a ten-month police operation.
And the perversion is rife in the genocidal colony they all support, too. Israel is sheltering thousands of paedophiles and refusing extradition requests from their home countries’ police.
Extradition requests
Israeli cyber-spy boss Tom Alexandrovich was allowed to escape to Israel after meetings with US federal agencies. He had been caught in a paedophile sting. Israeli minister Orit Strook, her husband and son were accused by Strook’s daughter Shoshana of repeatedly raping her as a child and filming it. Shoshana Strook was found dead — ‘suicide’ — weeks after warning her followers that if she was found dead it would not be suicide — and days after hiring lawyers. Reports say that Israeli police are not pursuing the case against the family.
Featured image via the Canary
Taking place on Thursday 7 May, the 2026 local elections are fast approaching. If you’re an outsider party looking to do well, this is the moment when you want the maximum momentum. As such, it’s good news for the Green Party that they just hit a brand new milestone:
Victory rally in Margate this evening *and* an announcement!@TheGreenParty now has 225,000 members!
That’s an extra 25,000 since Hannah Spencer won last month and 2000 new members in the last 10 days.
Join the movement!https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp pic.twitter.com/naMXs1NysP
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 10, 2026
Reform, meanwhile, are embroiling themselves in an endless stream of scandals while sliding down the polls.
Mass membership
The Green Party’s membership has skyrocketed since Zack Polanski took over. As James Wright reported for us in October 2025:
Green Party membership has skyrocketed to 115,000 – a jump of 50,000 members since their recent leadership election. Meanwhile, the latest figures show Labour is losing a member around every ten minutes. In other words, they’ve been dropping 152 members a day. With that direction, it’s no wonder Labour is not releasing updated membership figures.
At that point, the party membership had nearly doubled. Since then, it’s almost doubled again. It would be a massive upset if it doubled once more from here, but we can’t rule anything out at this point.
Reform have also built a substantial membership, as the BBC reported in December 2025:
Reform UK claims it is now the largest political party in Britain, following reports Labour has lost more members.
According to the Times newspaper, external, internal figures show Labour’s membership has fallen below 250,000.
Reform said it had more than 268,000 paid-up members, which would mean it has overtaken Labour to become the biggest party by membership in the UK.
Labour refused to comment on the accuracy of the membership figures in the Times, with a spokesperson saying they would be published in the party’s annual report.
If the above figures remain accurate, the Greens could potentially become the largest party in the UK this year. This is especially true if they do well in the local elections, and they subsequently enjoy a post-ballot bounce like what they saw after Hannah Spencer became the MP for Gorton & Denton.
Green Party — On the up
As we reported, the Greens have pulled ahead of Reform in some polls:
‼️BREAKING | Greens surge into LEAD (1st!!)
🟢 Grn: 21.4% (+2.1)
➡️ Ref: 20.9% (-1.4)
🔵 Con: 20.5% (+0.2)
🔴 Lab: 17.0% (-0.4)
🟠 Lib: 9.2% (-1.9)Poll: @LordAPolls, 26-30 Mar (+/- vs 19-23 Feb) pic.twitter.com/oDVw4cDaFC
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 5, 2026
Lord Ashcroft is far from the most well-respected pollster, but other polls are showing that the Greens have overtaken Labour and the Tories while Reform stagnate:
‼️POLL | Reform lead by 5%
➡️ Ref: 25% (-1)
🟢 Grn: 20% (=)
🔵 Con: 17% (-1)
🔴 Lab: 16% (+1)
🟠 Lib: 11% (+1)— Seats —
➡️ Ref: 331
🟢 Grn: 115
🟠 Lib: 78
🟡 SNP: 48
🔵 Con: 37
🔴 Lab: 11Poll: @findoutnowUK, 8 April (+/- vs 1 April) pic.twitter.com/Ir8NcrnNwM
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 9, 2026
Individual polls might not tell us much, but looking at all the polls over time gives an idea of which way the wind is blowing. On the topic of momentum, Politico’s poll of polls shows that the Greens are on up the up while Reform have squandered their lead (the sort of lead which could have won them a majority):
Results
Regardless of momentum, Reform could still outperform the other parties in the local elections — Green Party included. This is what Elections Etc predicted in March:
‼️NEW | Projected seat change in local elections:
➡️ Ref +2,260
🟢 Grn +450
🟠 Lib +200
🔵 Con -1,010
🔴 Lab -1,900(Source: Stephen Fisher / @ElectionsEtc) pic.twitter.com/pkPixJ3Ont
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) March 30, 2026
We do know that polling has often failed to reflect Green support — most notably in the Gorton & Denton by-election, where the party outperformed all expectations (encouraging another 25,000 people to become members).
We could see similar in the local elections, but even if we don’t, the more councils Reform run, the more the endless scandals will increase, because these people are terrible at being in power. This is dreadful for the areas that will suffer, of course, which is why we should all do what we can now to keep Reform out of power.
Featured image via Barold
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