Politics
Labour Grandee Blames Starmer Over UK Defence Spending
A Labour grandee and former Nato boss has accused Keir Starmer of leaving the UK “in peril” due to a lack of spending on defence.
Lord George Robertson, who served as defence secretary in Tony Blair’s cabinet, said Britain is “underprepared … underinsured [and] … not safe” on the prime minister’s watch.
His comments are significant because he carried out a Strategic Defence Review on behalf of the PM.
But in a speech to be delivered on Tuesday, the Labour peer will hit out at the lack of progress being made by the government on implementing his recommendations.
He will say: “We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe . . . Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.”
Lord Robertson will add: “There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger – but even a promised national conversation about defence can’t be started.”
The peer, who was Nato secretary general between 1999 and 2003, will also warn that “we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget”.
And we will take aim at “non-military experts in the Treasury” who he accuses of “vandalism” for not providing enough funding for defence.
Lord Robertson’s comments come amid global tensions over the wars in Iran and Ukraine, and the mounting threat to the UK from Russian aggression.
A government spokesperson said: “We are delivering on the Strategic Defence Review to meet the threats we face.
“It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with a total of over £270 billion being invested across this parliament.
“We are finalising our Defence Investment Plan that we will publish as soon as possible, rebuilding British industry to make defence an engine for growth and doubling down on our own commitment to Nato.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Politics
Donald Trumps Iran War Threats Could Hit UK Economy Hard
Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran will damage the UK’s economy more than any other major country, experts have warned.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by just 0.8% in 2026, 0.5% down on their last forecast in January.
That is the biggest downgrade of all the G7 nations, which includes the likes of America, France, Italy and Canada.
By contrast, the IMF said Canada’s GDP is expected to grow by 2.5% this year, a downgrade of just 0.1%.
The war, which began on February 28 when the US and Israel launched missile strikes on Iran, has led to the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, sending the price of a barrel of oil soaring.
That has sparked fears of a global recession caused by high inflation and weak economic growth.
Responding to the IMF report, chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “The war in Iran is not our war, but it will come at a cost to the UK. These are not costs I wanted, but they are costs we will have to respond to.
“I have vowed that my economic approach to this crisis will be both responsive to a changing world and responsible in the national interest, keeping inflation and interest rates in check to protect households and businesses.
“We entered this conflict in a stronger position because of the choices this government took to build economic stability, but there is more to do.”
In an interview with the Mirror, Reeves said: “I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said the UK’s economic downgrade is “a damning indictment of Trump’s idiotic war and all those who cheered it on – including Reform and the Conservatives”.
She said: “People in Britain are already feeling the pressure at the pump, and now it’s clear that we’re in line for a huge hit to growth and even higher prices on the shelves.
“Starmer’s latest flurry of stern words directed at the US President are worthless if there is no plan to protect people from Trump’s economic vandalism.”
But Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said Reeves’ handling of the economy was to blame for the IMF downgrade.
He said: “Being handed the biggest downgrade in the G7 is a clear verdict on Rachel Reeves’ choices – and she’s got no one to blame but herself.
“Her ‘plan’ to keep costs down has left us with the highest inflation in the G7, with businesses closing and the cost of living skyrocketing.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Politics
Hackney Greens pledge to review ‘Who Owns Hackney’ at manifesto launch
Zoë Garbett, Hackney Greens candidate for mayor of Hackney, has pledged a “community ownership” drive. This is part of her plans to make the borough a more affordable place to live. She said:
Too much of Hackney has been sold off to the highest bidder, not to enrich our community, but to deprive it: of its youth clubs, its cultural centres and its social life. We want to change that, because ‘Who Owns Hackney’ should be all of us, the people of Hackney.
Garbett wants to bring underused land and buildings into community use, working with charities, neighbourhood organisations and small businesses to revitalise them with and for the community:
We will use our compulsory purchase powers and support community groups to use the community right to buy to ensure there are affordable spaces for youth clubs, arts groups, parents groups and anyone else that needs a home to contribute to the life of our borough.
Garbett announced the pledge on Saturday 11 April at the Hackney Green Party’s manifesto launch in Stoke Newington. Along with Green Party leader Zack Polanski, prominent Hackney-based author Gary Younge and local community group leaders, hundreds of volunteers and residents gathered to hear Garbett launch her party’s election platform.
Announcements included:
- Pledges to fix existing council homes and buy-back past council homes to increase housing stock rapidly.
- Adding a road premium for large non-commercial vehicles.
- Commencing council divestment from companies complicit in genocide.
- Greater community ownership of Hackney spaces.
Hackney community spaces under threat
Garbett highlighted examples of community spaces that are under threat due to the combination of gentrification, predatory landlords and a Labour administration too tepid to take them on.
Building landlord Larochette Real Estate closed Ridley Road Indoor Market and evicted the market traders at the end of March. The landlord had previously attempted to redevelop the site for upmarket residential use between 2018 and 2022. The campaign to save the retail space continues.
The Moth Club, an independent live music venue in Hackney, was under threat from a mixed use development that was refused planning permission just weeks ago.
Stoke Newington Town Hall sits empty due to the building’s state of disrepair after council failed to properly care for it, meaning a large scale community space sits unused. This disrepair has meant that the hall was officially placed “at risk” by English Heritage at the end of 2024.
Garbett said Hackney deserves better:
My administration would take on these fights. We may not win them all, but we stand with communities because they deserve better. Hackney deserves better.
Featured image via Matt Payne / Hackney Greens
Politics
US military kills 5 people in dirty ‘narco’ war
The US military has killed another 5 people in its targeted strikes against so-called ‘narco-terrorists’ in the seas off Latin America. The American dirty war has now claimed over 160 lives since it began in September 2025. The latest victims died in two separate strikes in the eastern Pacific.
The US bombed Caracas, Venezuela, and kidnapped the country’s president on 3 Jan 2026. The attack came after months of military build-up in the region. The US-Israeli attack on Iran has absorbed legacy media focus since – but strikes in the Americas have continued.
Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is the US military mission in the region. SOUTHCOM confirmed the strikes on 13 April 2026:
Applying total systemic friction on the cartels.
On April 11, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted two lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence… pic.twitter.com/sRXTFYCWXu
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) April 12, 2026
SOUTHCOM said:
Two male narco-terrorists were killed, and one narco-terrorist survived the first strike. Three male narco-terrorists were killed during the second strike. Following the engagements, USSOUTHCOM immediately notified U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor. No U.S. military forces were harmed.
The US allegedly killing survivors of a drone strike in the Caribbean on 2 September. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth was accused of giving the orders. The legal NGO Just Security said:
if the media reporting is accurate, this military operation is a “dishonorable strike” that is illegal under international law and the laws of war. This sentiment and logic was echoed by former U.S. military lawyers. The illegal order also runs contrary to longstanding U.S. military doctrine and U.S. Navy Regulations governing the treatment of survivors at sea.
Just Security’s contributors written extensively about the legalities of this new ‘war on drugs’. US operations have recently been expanded onto land and given a chilling new name…
Total Extermination
Operation Total Extermination has already carried out an attack in Ecuador which destroyed farm buildings and reportedly saw workers tortured by US-backed troops.
The American commander for operations in the SOUTHCOM region, General Francis Donovan, said the strikes were only a small part of what the US had planned:
What we’re moving for right now might be an extension of Southern Spear, but really a counter-cartel campaign process that puts total systemic friction across this network. I believe these kinetic [boat] strikes are just one small part of that.
Security forces allegedly detained and beat workers from the dairy farm on 3 March. The workers told the press:
Ecuadorean soldiers arrived by helicopter on March 3, doused several shelters and sheds with gasoline and ignited them after interrogating workers and beating four of them with the butts of their guns.
Three of the workers, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation by the government, said the soldiers later choked and subjected them to electrical shocks before letting them go.
Ecuador’s right-wing president Daniel Noboa, a Trump ally:
has pushed through ‘urgent’ neoliberal reforms, cutting public spending while clamping down on civil liberties, workers’ rights, and indigenous environmental activism against mining and fossil fuel extraction.
The UK and Ecuador are working together on ‘counter-cartel’ operations. Media focus is on Iran. But Trump’s war against what he claims are cartel smugglers is still underway. Trump still wants hemispheric control. And, as well as Ecuador and Venezuela, the US has long-standing ambitions for Mexico and Cuba.
Featured image via X
Politics
Israeli genocide training ban had military fretting
One of the UK’s top military colleges fought to distance itself from a September 2025 government ban on training Israeli officers. The head of the college sought advice, fearing that banning the genocidal settler-colony’s forces would be bad optics. A truly strange perception of what constitutes bad PR…
Al Jazeera gained access to emails which show concerned internal discussions at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS).
The outlet reported on 13 April:
The British government made the decision, which was widely reported in international media, amid a wave of condemnation of Israel’s escalation of the war, calling the planned ground offensive “wrong”.
However:
Previously unreported correspondence shows that the move prompted discussion within the RCDS about potential harm to its reputation as an institution which welcomes students of all backgrounds, leading its head to ask a senior military official to ensure that the public would be aware that the college played no role in the decision.
The head of the college, RCDS commandant George Norton, emailed British general Tom Copinger-Symes for advice just after the ban started in September 2025.
Norton told Copinger-Symes:
that it would “appear to be important” for Jenny Chapman, the UK’s development minister, to highlight that the college does not invite or select participants in its courses, and that invitations were “rather a government-to-government matter”.
Israeli genocide: optics of banning a pariah state
His main worry appears to have been optics, rather than the idea the college might be training the genocidal military personnel of a pariah state. Norton wanted it made clear that the government, not the college, had come up with the ban.
These key pieces of information have been absent from the majority of media portrayal, generating a perception that RCDS itself is deciding which countries to invite or not to invite.
Norton also expressed a concern about making it clear the college was not trying to undermine government policy:
I would be grateful for your support in underlining this position in our public narrative, without of course creating a perception that RCDS (or CSOC) is seeking to undermine government policy.
Copinger-Symes said he would “see what we can do”.
‘Positively engaging’ and ‘diversity’.
Another RCDS staff member, deputy commandant Tamara Jennings, wrote in an email:
I appreciate that while we fall under MOD, we do have a standalone brand and our reputation as a welcoming college that positively wants to engage with all as that diversity and dealing with places we would not always agree with on a topic is exactly what this place is about.
So a story which says RCDS have banned anyone is unhelpful, both in terms of attribution of the decision and the term ‘ban’.
Our colleagues at Declassified UK were first to report the story on 29 July 2025. They said:
At least two Israeli colonels have attended the prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) since 2023.
After weeks of stonewalled inquiries to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the military was forced to disclose:
that IDF soldiers were studying at the RCDS, admitting that fewer than five officers had trained there in 2023 and 2024.
The MoD did not offer the names and ranks of the officers or provide figures for 2025.
However:
Declassified was able to find details of one Israeli officer who graduated this summer because the RCDS Commandant posted photos of them on his social media accounts.
The UK military is well known for training military personnel from nations on its own human rights watchlists. The latest revelation of such activity came via the NGO Action of Armed Violence on 27 March.
However it is notable that:
Israel does not appear in the dataset, despite the MoD previously confirming that a “limited number” of Israeli personnel have been trained in the UK. No explanation is given for the omission.
That the UK’s top military college was worried that a ban on personnel from a genocidal army would be bad PR is remarkable. And the fact one staff member drew on the language of ‘diversity’ in her complaint about the ban – or its framing in official comms – must be too. Why, one ought to ask, would an educational institution want members of an army which has been carrying out war crimes in attendance anyway?
It’s hard not to think this is same old colonial arrogance, the British military have embodied for centuries. Perhaps in future, they’ll be more careful what they write in their emails…
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Reform have got suspended racist still working for them
On 24 February, we reported that Reform UK had finally suspended activist Adam Mitula over his racist comments. Now, the Guardian is reporting that the far-right party are using Mitula as an election agent in the upcoming local elections. If you don’t know already, an election agent is the person who’s in charge of a campaign’s financial management.
Given that Mitula once downplayed the Holocaust numbers, we’re not sure he’s the man you want in charge of your figures.
Reform: Adam Mitula
Mitula’s racist comments were widely reported back in February:
🇬🇧 Reform UK has suspended a campaign manager after he said Polish victims of the Holocaust are used “to make up the number”.
Adam Mitula also used a racial slur in a separate post, which was subsequently reported by Hope not Hate.
Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/9IcEs0XlAd
— Europa.com (@europa) February 24, 2026
Reform Tameside campaign manager Adam Mitula said: “I wouldn’t touch a Jewish woman” in an uncovered social media post👇 pic.twitter.com/6rcu8UfLc1
— Turn Left Media (@TurnLeftMediaUK) February 14, 2026
Mitula was the campaign manager for Matt Goodwin’s disastrous Gorton & Denton by-election run.
Manchester’s the Mill noted that Goodwin has actually surrounded himself with far-right activists. They argue that this is at odds with how Nigel Farage has historically operated:
Nigel Farage has always been at pains to distance his party from known far-right groups. He’s been publicly critical of Tommy Robinson on many occasions, and as UKIP leader he banned ex-British National Party members from running for his party.
Now, the Guardian have reported:
A notice of election document published last Thursday shows that Mitula is now the election agent for Reform candidates standing in three wards in the Tameside area: Aron Webb, Audra Murray and Daniel Bennett.
Neither Mitula nor Reform replied to the Guardian. Tameside Green Jackie Olden did, however, telling the paper:
Time and again, we have seen a pattern of commentary and behaviour from the Reform leadership that aims to normalise division in our communities.
Here in Tameside, residents have already seen the impact of that approach. In Gorton and Denton, Reform’s campaigning has too often relied on divisive messaging that alienates parts of our community.
Campaign of chaos
Are Reform really so low on viable operators that they’re having to rely on disgraced individuals like Mitula?
According to our local election reporting, yes – yes they are:
As bad as all the above candidates sound, it’s worth noting that most are still standing. And even if they do get suspended, there’s no reason to think they won’t rematerialise like Mitula.
If things get really bad for any of them, they can also just join Restore Britain – a breakaway party for the far-right’s most anti-social elements.
Featured image via Hope not Hate
Politics
Ceasefire? Israel is still killing Palestinians in Gaza
In yet another flagrant violation of ceasefire, Israel has killed at least six Palestinians and wounded others carrying out an airstrike targeted a police checkpoint at the entrance of al Bureij refugee camp, in Central Gaza.
What ceasefire?
Journalist Mohammad Sayyed was among those killed in the attack, which happened in the early hours of 11 April. Several of the injured were reported to be in a serious condition.
Throughout its genocide in Gaza, the Israeli occupation has systematically targeted Palestinian police across the strip, to intentionally cause the breakdown of law and order, and sow the seeds of chaos amongst the desperate population.
It is now six months since the so called “ceasefire agreement” was signed, in October 2025. But conditions on the ground do not, in any way, resemble that of a ceasefire. Palestinians in Gaza continue to experience extreme hunger, deprivation, injury, and death, because of the Israeli occupation’s ongoing aid restrictions, attacks, and movement restrictions. There is no sense of safety or stability, and recovery or reconstruction is non existent, as all necessary equipment has been blocked from entering Gaza.
Humanitarian organisations – Save the Children, Refugees International, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the Danish Refugee Council, have produced a Scorecard, which assesses progress against Trump’s 20 point peace plan’s stated objectives and commitments.
Trump’s ceasefire deal has failed
According to Jeremy Konykndyk, president Refugees International said:
On matters of basic protection, rights, and aid for people living in Gaza, this deal has failed.
Save the Children’s Multimedia Manager, Shurouq, 31, lost her husband and her home during the genocide.
She says:
There is absolutely no ceasefire. We hear constant bombardment. Many of the explosions we hear are the Israeli military demolishing things, such as standing buildings beyond the yellow line, and within it.
The violence, killing, and indiscriminate airstrikes still take place each day. As of 3 April, more than 700 Palestinians, including at least 180 children have been killed since the so called ceasefire agreement in October 2025. 224 of these Palestinians have been killed near to the ‘yellow line,’ which ‘Israel’ continues to repeatedly shift.
Many hundreds of aid trucks have been blocked by “Israel” from entering the Strip. The Rafah and Jordan border crossings are still closed for aid, yet Trump’s ceasefire deal stated “immediately after the prisoner swap has taken place, aid will be distributed – without interference from either side – by the United Nations and the Red Crescent, along with other international organizations not associated with either Israel or Hamas. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference”.
Israel throttling aid
The population of Gaza is still struggling to survive, as almost all have lost their source of income, so are primarily reliant on humanitarian aid. But between 28 February and 8 April, less than 5000 aid trucks entered Gaza out of 23,400 that were planned.
Oxfam’s Ghada Al Haddad says:
There is not enough food to eat, and entire neighbourhoods still have no functioning water system because the equipment needed to repair them are not able to enter Gaza. The people are denied the basic tools for survival. Aid is blocked, repairs prevented, movement restricted, and the conditions of life continue to deteriorate, six months into this so called ceasefire. A large proportion of trucks entering Gaza do not even carry humanitarian aid, only commercial goods. These goods are expensive, and not accessible to the vast number of Palestinians, who have no money to spare.
At least 1.7 million people are still in displacement sites, many with deteriorating tents that are subject to flooding. This is be ause the entry of shelters into the enclave continues to be “heavily restricted“.
No major reconstruction equipment is allowed into the Strip either. So the piles of rubble remain. People are not only unable to clear space to try and rebuild their homes, but they are also unable to bury their dead still buried underneath the rubble.
When it comes to reconstruction efforts, none is occuring. All critical infrastructure has been intentionally targeted by the terrorist regime of “Israel”, but none has been rebuilt. Health facilities, water and power infrastructure all remains destroyed.
Trump can’t even deliver on aid
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan is a paediatric intensive care, and humanitarian doctor who has worked extensively in Gaza. She was last there in February.
She says:
There is constant bombardment and constant drones. You get the sense that you are in the middle of a war zone, as you were before. The conditions of the ceasefire clearly are not being met.
Haj-Hassan claims patients are now dying of preventable things, because of the conditions brought about by the Israeli occupation, and its:
targeted and systematic destruction of the healthcare system- through the direct targeting of every hospital in the Gaza Strip, and the continued blockade of aid.
Lack of medical facilities and supplies, combined with the devastating and inhumane conditions experience by the population of Gaza, mean that medical evacuations from the Strip are necessary. But as part of its ongoing genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, “Israel” is obstructing patients from leaving abroad. Almost the entire population of Gaza remains trapped inside the Yellow Line, unable to return to their homes- if anything remains of them, and the majority of the Strip.
According to Konykndyk, humanitarian access should be the easiest part of Trump’s “ceasefire plan” to deliver on.
He says:
They are now trying to turn to much more political issues, such as disarmament and governance of Gaza, but it’s very hard to see how there can be any progress if they can’t deliver on the easiest elements.
These organisations recommend the following, to ensure a lasting ceasefire
The ceasefire must be in practice, not only in rhetoric
There must be an independent and transparent system to approve aid delivery – The Israeli occupation government cannot be allowed to dictate who and what enters and exits Gaza.
All border crossings into Gaza must be opened.
The new arbitrary restrictions the occupation has placed on International NGOs – which provide many of the basic services and are critical to the population – must be lifted.
Featured image via the author
Politics
Arsenal kit-man debacle spirals after open letter
Outraged political campaigner Andrew Feinstein has sent a damning letter to the CEO and co-chairperson of Arsenal over its decision to sack long-time employee Mark Bonnick.
The kit man was suspended and then dismissed in December 2024 for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, signaling that undue repression of British citizens for challenging Israel is still going strong.
Justifying their disgusting decision, Arsenal bosses alleged that the ‘offending’ comments would bring the club into disrepute.
In stark contrast, Feinstein stated:
I would argue that to not speak out against these appalling crimes would bring any institution into disrepute.
After all, genocide scholars, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have declared that Israel’s acts against Palestinians are indeed genocide. These findings hardly come as a shock when Israeli officials have been stating their murderous intentions painfully clearly since October 7 2023.
An Open Letter to Arsenal Football Club about @Arsenal ‘s indefensible firing of a longtime, loyal employee because of his empathy for the Palestinian people pic.twitter.com/pX0FIlCPEv
— Andrew Feinstein (@andrewfeinstein) April 14, 2026
Andrew Feinstein: ‘I introduced the first ever motion on the Holocaust’
In Feinstein’s letter, addressed to Richard Garlick and Josh Kroenke, he affirmed his pride as a Jewish Arsenal fan and having been a “season ticket holder of almost twenty years”.
He also pointed out his wealth of knowledge and personal experience on the serious issue of genocide:
And as the son of a Holocaust survivor who lost dozens of her family mainly at Auschwitz where I have lectured on genocide prevention; as an author and expert on the global arms trade, conflict and genocide; and as a former ANC Member of Parliament serving under Nelson Mandela where I introduced the first ever motion on the Holocaust in the history of the South African Parliament.
Speaking to his “deep concern and outrage” at Bonnick’s sacking, Feinstein further highlighted why his comments were in no way antisemitic as was claimed:
Mark expressed views on the conflict in Gaza and Israel’s behaviour that are not inflammatory or offensive and certainly do not bring the club into disrepute. As an anti-racist who has experienced antisemitism personally, and having devoted my adult life to fighting all racism and discrimination, I do not believe anything Mark has said could be interpreted as an antisemitic trope or blood libel, except by those who will not tolerate any criticism of the state of Israel.
Crucially, Mark’s comments were made in the context of the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, determining that Israel was likely perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. This view is shared by 98% of human rights organisations, most human rights lawyers, relevant UN bodies and the vast majority of genocide experts, including a significant number of Israeli experts.
At this point, over 70,000 people have been slaughtered, over 70% of them women and children. Senior Israeli politicians and military leaders have been charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes and genocide.
As Feinstein clearly explains to the pro-Israel football bosses, the Genocide Convention was created with international consensus in response to the “horrific tragedy of the Holocaust” to ensure that this immeasurable cruelty and violence could never repeat itself.
Referring to the term ‘never again’, he underscores how that applies to “all humanity, including Palestinians”.
Arsenal show double standards with invitation for Zionist influencer
Last year, Bonnick, 62, announced plans to sue the club for unfair dismissal and discrimination, according to reports. He was a committed employee at Arsenal football club for 22 years.
Bonnick’s dismissal exposes a sinister double standard at play in the decisions made by the club’s management. Just compare their treatment of Bonnick with their treatment of influencer Matthew ‘Papa’ Pincus. Pincus openly promotes pro-Zionist, pro-genocide views and is regularly present pitch-side.
The contrast is stark.
It’s clear that Bonnick felt compelled to speak out against the mass murder of Palestinians, like many across the country. But as we all know, anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Feinstein, a Jewish man and the child of a Holocaust survivor, once again refuses to see ordinary people penalised for calling for justice.
He wrote:
The views expressed by Mark are, according to numerous polls, shared by a majority of people in Britain, including many Jews like me. The Jewish community does not think with one mind about this or any other issue. I understand that not all Arsenal supporters might share his views, but based on the above surveys, it is likely that a majority do.
In addition, like with the case of apartheid South Africa, there are certain humanitarian situations that compel people to speak out. This genocide, because of its scale, illegality and brutality, is undoubtedly one of them.
Hypocritical double standard exposed – now fix it!
Feinstein equally picked up on Arsenal’s gross double standard in his letter to the big bosses.
…it would be extremely hypocritical of the club to suggest an employee has no right to express a personal political view, when the club emblazoned the Ukrainian flag on the stadium scoreboard after the horrific, illegal Russian invasion. A number of high-profile employees, players no less, have historically expressed political views on their social media.
That a longtime, hardworking and loyal member of the Arsenal family can be dismissed so callously for expressing a point of view is not just shocking but is an insult to the values that have run through the club for generations.
He then finished with a final plea to Garlick and Kroenke:
I, and many others, are deeply disturbed by the club’s action.
I, therefore, call on you to reverse this decision.
At the Canary, we’ll be watching closely to see whether Arsenal choose to take any real remedial action or not.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Rachel Reeves Slams Trump Over ‘Folly’ Of Iran War
Rachel Reeves has slammed Donald Trump over the “folly” of starting a war against Iran as the division between the UK and the US deepens.
The chancellor told the Mirror newspaper she feels “very frustrated and angry” over the conflict, which continues to push energy bills up in the UK.
Reeves said: “This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want.
“I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve. And as a result the Strait of Hormuz is now blocked.”
Up until Trump and Israel decided to bomb Iran at the end of February, the Strait of Hormuz operated as a major shipping lane transporting a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies.
Iran retaliated by effectively closing the waterway and attacking any ships which passed through it, causing the wholesale cost of oil to soar.
Trump has since declared the US will start its own blockade of the Strait, although the the UK government has refused to send its own Navy to support that action.
Reeves also reiterated the UK’s decision not to support Trump’s offensives in the Middle East, saying: “We’re not getting involved in the US blockade, we don’t think that is the right approach.
“All the way through this conflict we have said de-escalate, de-escalate. The Conservatives and Reform – they both wanted to jump in feet first into this conflict and for us to play a part in active, aggressive, offensive action.”
“Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime,” the chancellor continued.
“But to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly and it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world.
“I don’t think it was the right decision. But it was absolutely the right decision for Keir Starmer – our prime minister – to keep us out of this conflict.”
Reeves’ words come after the prime minister insisted once again that Britain will not be “dragged in” to the conflict.
The PM added: “We’re not supporting the blockade and all of the marshalling diplomatically, politically and capability – we do have mine-sweeping capability, I won’t go into operational matters, but we do have that capability – that’s all focused, from our point of view, on getting the strait fully open.”
The UK’s relationship with the US has declined over the course of the war, with Trump repeatedly attacking the prime minister over his decision not to initially allow US jets to launch bombing missions from RAF bases.
The president has said Starmer is “not Winston Churchill” and even compared him to Hitler-appeasing 1930s PM Neville Chamberlain.
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Politics
Green Party continue to surge in the polls
According to the latest poll from YouGov, the Green Party are in second place when it comes to the predicted seat count. Labour, meanwhile, have dropped to sixth:
‼️POLL | Reform lead by 5pts
➡️ Ref: 24% (=)
🔵 Con: 19% (=)
🟢 Grn: 18% (+2)
🔴 Lab: 17% (+1)
🟠 Lib: 13% (=)
⬛️ Res: 4% (=)
🟥 YP: 0% (-1)— Seats —
➡️ Ref: 282
🟢 Grn: 91
🔵 Con: 83
🟠 Lib: 81
🟡 SNP: 47
🔴 Lab: 34Poll: @YouGov, 12-13 Apr (+/- vs 7 Apr) pic.twitter.com/m0PQxoBh26
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 14, 2026
This puts Labour below all of the major national parties; it also puts them below the Scotland-specific SNP.
The hard work of the thousands of Green Party members is paying off.
Every conversation we have makes a difference.
Lower Bills. Protect the NHS. Keep us out of US wars. https://t.co/VsT4LXJ8rp
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 14, 2026
New danger for Starmer’s Labour
The above polling is interesting for a few reasons.
Firstly, we’re now well past the point where Reform look capable of forming a majority government. At the same time, they would be placed to form a coalition with the Tories. This is something we all know they’d jump at given how many Tories they’ve accepted into the party.
Secondly, the centrist and left-leaning parties would fall short of being able to form a government even if the Greens, Lib Dems, SNP, and Labour joined forces. This is not good. It’s especially not good because despite the four parties’ seat share being below that of Reform and the Tories, their vote share is higher – i.e. more voters would have voted for them.
Thirdly, Your Party are on track to get three seats despite having less than 1% of the vote share. The three seats represent an increase of three despite their overall vote share dropping. Your Party have certainly had a chaotic fortnight with many members resigning in protest at the recent ‘purge’ motion, so it will be interesting to see how things look a week from now.
Fourthly, as ever, the above shows what a mess our current voting system is. Ideally, you’d want the number of seats to reflect each party’s vote share. Instead, we get stuff like the following:
- Only Reform sitting in a seat share position which matches their vote share.
- Reform on track to win close to half the seats despite only having 24% of the vote share.
- Restore getting zero seats despite having 4% of the vote share.
Ignoring all the above, it’s important to remember that polls are just a snapshot of the current moment. Things could change dramatically in a general election. And as we keep saying, it’s definitely the Green Party who have the momentum – not to mention the right answers to most of the days big questions (although we have criticised their stance on Zionism).
Reform UK do not have momentum.
The only party with momentum in the UK right now is the Green Party. https://t.co/wx92kcIIFf pic.twitter.com/FsDeLEigh8
— thelefttake (@thelefttake) April 14, 2026
Proportional Representation
Make Vote Matters write the following about proportional representation:
Proportional Representation is any voting system in which the share of seats a party wins matches the share of votes it receives. There are many different systems of Proportional Representation, but they all aim to make sure seats match votes.
The UK currently uses the primitive First Past the Post voting system – which causes severe problems for voters, our politics and our society. From its definition alone, it’s easy to see how Proportional Representation solves the problems of First Past the Post.
‘First Past the Post’ is how we ended up with a century of Conservative-Labour dominance. For the past forty years, this allowed the two parties to offer little besides reheated Thatchernomics, as they knew voters had nowhere else to go.
Make Votes Matter also said:
Proportional Representation (PR) could potentially revolutionize the UK’s political landscape by ensuring that each party’s share of seats in Parliament aligns more closely with the proportion of votes they receive nationwide. Under such a system, smaller parties would have a greater chance of representation, breaking the dominance of the two-party system.
This is outdated now, of course, because the two-party system has already broken down. Our voting system still needs to catch up, but voters just don’t care anymore.
They’re sick of the neoliberal Labour and Tories, and now they’re voting for whoever they like – voting system be damned.
Momentum
Looking at YouGov’s voting tracker, it isn’t the first time the Greens have polled higher than Labour:
The Greens overtaking Labour was unthinkable a year ago.
Now we know it’s possible, we need to think bigger.
Featured image via Stats for Lefties / Barold
Politics
Why did it take so long to shelve the rotten Chagos giveaway?
In October 2024, UK prime minister Keir Starmer agreed to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – including the largest island, Diego Garcia, which hosts a joint US-UK military base. Eighteen months and a lot of criticism later, Starmer’s Chagos deal has finally been shelved.
While officials said the agreement had not been entirely abandoned, the government admitted on Monday that ‘the position of the United States president appears to have changed and this means in practical terms it has become impossible to agree [a deal]’.
It has looked for months as if the deal may be in the deep freeze. In January, President Trump branded it an ‘act of total weakness’. The following month, he urged Starmer not to ’give away Diego Garcia’. Giving away Diego Garcia, however, seems to have been something Starmer – together with his attorney general, Lord Hermer – had been extremely keen to do.
What I have called our ‘craven surrender’ over Chagos was for me the final straw that led to my resignation after 11 years as a British diplomat. The issue was the clearest indication of a pattern I saw repeatedly during my time in the Foreign Office, and which has become more pronounced under the Starmer administration: an unshakeable subservience to the most rigid interpretations of international law, and its elevation over a clear-sighted view of our national interest.
Chagos has become totemic because it illustrates the guiding principle of international law that energises our PM. The tenacity with which Starmer has pursued the giveaway of British territory, and the amount of political capital he has been willing to expend on the cause in the face of all criticism, has left many genuinely perplexed.
This is not, after all, a prime minister unaccustomed to u-turning. Yet on Chagos, it seemed as if nothing would stop him. Not the cost of leasing Diego Garcia back from Mauritius, estimated at anywhere between £10 billion and £50 billion. Not finding himself on the wrong side of the self-determination rights of the Chagossians. Not the fact that the one man he desperately needs to keep on side – Trump – came out against the deal. Not even the powerful environmental concerns around the possible destruction of a precious marine reserve should the deal enable Mauritius to commence commercial fishing. Despite everything, and through it all, Starmer tried to plough on.
As any student of international relations knows, international law is an amorphous thing. It’s less law as we understand it in the domestic sense, and more an evolving framework. A guidebook for responsible state action, if you will, rather than a hard-and-fast instruction booklet. But what is responsible about giving up sovereign territory to an ally of China, against the wishes of the historically displaced population and in a manner that would weaken the West’s precarious military defences at a time of rising geopolitical tensions?
The problem goes deeper than Starmer. The Foreign Office has, for many years, taken to heart American political scientist Joseph Nye’s observation that nations who disregard international law risk a ‘hypocritical’ foreign policy that diminishes their soft power. It is that maxim that explains our foreign-policy establishment’s decision to treat the 2019 International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement as the beginning of the end of British sovereignty over Chagos, despite the ruling being only advisory, rather than binding.
As former head of the Foreign Office, Lord McDonald, said a few days ago, ‘There was a long discussion about whether we should play along [with the ICJ judgement]… in the end we decided to engage… Once you have decided to engage in a legal process, you can’t then walk away from it when you don’t like the result.’ While McDonald acknowledges that the judgement could theoretically have been ignored, it seems the Foreign Office decided that would have deviated too far from its modus operandi. ‘Everything that has happened now and also under the Conservative government as well as the Labour government is a consequence of that ICJ judgement’, said McDonald.
But why, unlike almost every serious thinker about geopolitics today, have Starmer, Hermer and the Foreign Office leadership not woken up to the fact that the ‘rules-based international order’ has ceased to exist, if indeed it ever did so? John Bew, the foreign-policy brain of the past four prime ministers, gets it. Writing recently, he pointed out that ‘the idea of a rules-based order is treated as an almost theological abstraction, as a God-given gift from which dissent cannot be contemplated’. To make ‘fidelity to international law the organising goal of our foreign policy and the premise of every decision we take’, he argues, means we risk being left as the only one with our pants down.
Rather than getting serious about investing in our military capabilities and holding on to prized assets like Diego Garcia, which will help us to navigate the dangerous world we face, Starmer has prioritised setting an empty moral example. It is less the ethical foreign policy expounded by Robin Cook nearly three decades ago, and more an exercise in virtue-signalling on the world stage. As Bew warns, the danger is that Britain ends up curating ‘an old system’ rather than becoming an active participant ‘in a new world in which power is being more nakedly asserted’.
Even Canadian PM Mark Carney, speaking at Davos in January, spoke of the end of this rules-based order. The former central banker invoked Václav Havel’s Soviet-era greengrocer who put up a ‘Workers of the world, unite!’ sign in his shop window not because he believed in it, but to signal compliance, and because everyone else does the same. To do so is to be ‘living within a lie’, Carney said. It is time, he declared, ‘for companies and countries to take their signs down’.
The irony of all this is that Britain’s wholesale abandonment of hard power has, in fact, undermined our soft power and the moral force of our example on the world stage. Diplomats from other nations’ foreign ministries I am in touch with are astonished and aghast at how weak and frankly naive UK foreign policy has become. At a time when we should be investing in warships and fortifying our bases, we’re invested in anti-colonialism dialogues and giving our bases away.
Even Joseph Nye himself, speaking at Chatham House back in 2011, acknowledged realism could not be wished away: ‘It would be nice to imagine a world in which it [international law] was applied equally and in all states. I don’t expect to see that world any time soon.’ And even Nye – who coined the term ‘soft power’ – was more clear-sighted than our prime minister about the limits to the role it could play in a nation’s overall foreign policy: ‘I’d hate to see Britain lose its capacity for hard power. You really need both, and the combination is what I call smart power.’
The Chagos surrender is thankfully dead, at least for now. But what the attempted giveaway reveals about Starmerism shows it’s anything but smart.
Ameer Kotecha is a former diplomat and now the CEO of the Centre for Government Reform.
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