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Andy Burnham is set to campaign in London ahead of the local elections as Labour tries to avoid major losses in the capital.

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The Mayor of Greater Manchester, widely seen as a leading candidate to succeed Keir Starmer as leader, is planning to knock on doors in Islington in north London this week, according to literature seen by PoliticsHome, and is expected to visit several more boroughs between now and 7 May.

The capital is one of Labour’s biggest headaches heading into those elections next month, with the party under pressure from the Greens to its left and Reform UK to its right.

A YouGov poll published on Wednesday forecast Labour to win 15 borough councils, down six from the last time they held elections in 2022. The biggest beneficiary of Labour’s fall in support is expected to be the Greens, with YouGov projecting Zack Polanski’s party to win in Hackney, Lambeth, Lewisham and Waltham Forest. 

In Islington, where Burnham is due to campaign in the coming days, the Greens are expected to eat into Labour’s vote share and finish second (37 to 31 per cent), according to YouGov.

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The former cabinet minister is also planning to visit the borough of Lewisham in south London, PoliticsHome understands, where YouGov today gave the Greens a narrow two per cent lead over Labour (35 to 33 per cent). Bar a brief interlude in 2006 when it was under no overcall control, Labour has controlled Lewisham for nearly 60 years.

Burnham wanted to be Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year but was blocked by the Prime Minister and other senior Labour officials.

Green candidate Hannah Spencer won the contest in Greater Manchester with 40 per cent of the vote, pushing Labour into third place. Many Labour figures believe the party would have kept hold of the seat had Burnham been the candidate.

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The House magazine reported earlier this month that the Burnham operation had started reaching out to Labour MPs, senior party officials and trade unions about a second attempt to return to the House of Commons.

Karl Turner, the Yorkshire MP who recently had the Labour whip removed, predicted on last week’s episode of PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown that Burnham would be Labour leader and prime minister “in the not too distant future”.

The consensus within Labour is that Burnham would be in competition with former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner to secure the support of the left and soft left of the party in any future leadership contest.

Starmer’s position is coming under renewed pressure over further revelations about his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US.

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Olly Robbins, who was sacked by the Prime Minister as the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office last week over his role in the Mandelson affair, told MPs on Tuesday that No 10 showed a “dismissive attitude” to Labour peer’s security vetting.

Starmer has repeatedly apologised for the original decision to appoint Mandelson, but insists that due process was properly followed throughout the process.

Told to resign by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday, Starmer said: “I was elected by the British people because they [the Tories] let the country down for 14 long years.

“Whatever she says, whatever noise they make, nothing is to distract me from delivering for our country.”

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Keir Starmer faced many disgruntled MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) as he continued to deny any responsibility for his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson.

However, despite making jabs at Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, for “rushing to judgement” on the government’s processes and of MPs’ knowledge of Mandelson’s murky ties, Starmer once again highlighted his own woeful lack of judgement.

The prime minister keeps trying to shift the blame. Speaking in PMQs on 22 April, he claimed Olly Robbins made a “serious error of judgement” by failing to inform him that the security vetting advised against clearance and red-flagged the appointment as “high concern”.

Nevertheless, most people would be able to make an objective judgement that a man sitting on the board of Kremlin-linked defence company, Systema, is pretty damn dodgy. A position, as Badenoch underscored, Mandelson sat on “long after the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014”.

Badenoch subsequently destroyed Starmer’s measly defences by highlighting how the former ambassador sat on this board as a non-executive director, likely to his own profit, “long after” Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Apparently, Starmer needed that in a paint-by-numbers explanation that this clearly is a conflict of interest to have an appointed official likely drawing profits from war crimes against a supposed ally, Ukraine.

Mandelson is in the inner circle of the Trilateral-Epstein elite who run the global economy like a protection racket. The normal rules don’t apply to him. Funny though watching ‘Mr Rules’ squirming to explain away having being rumbled. https://t.co/iujGiljyss

— Hon. PolProf of Agile Ceremonies (@CeilNoyle) April 17, 2026

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PMQs: All allegations put to bed by Robbins’ evidence

True to form, Keir Starmer tried to scapegoat Olly Robbins, stating the allegations were “put to bed” by his sacking. Robbins has been apportioned full blame by the Labour government, for any and all misjudgment surrounding the appointment of Epstein pal, Petie Mandelson. 

On the other hand, Starmer has only exposed his own poor judgment as our elected leader. Given his past as former head of the Crown Prosecution Service, this is frankly embarrassing for any elected official, let alone the PM.

After all, most Britons would surely expect their PM to be capable of making objective decisions without needing officials to spell out the blatantly obvious.

Getting his just desserts, Starmer has delivered another own goal for this failing, occupied government.

Israel is also at work in our corridors of power

On top of that, the rest of us can also clearly see the pro-Israel influences at play in the government’s decisions, which only adds to the urgency for the PM to resign his position. Power and privilege should depend on competence — not, as Badenoch outlined, on the current standard being defended.

She said:

He promised them probity, and what he has given them is cronyism and an old boys’ club where Matthew Doyle is being proposed as an ambassador. Ridiculous.

This is referring to yet another example of the power afforded by Starmer to pro-Israel stooges with more paedo-ties. Doyle campaigned for convicted sex offender, Sean Morton.

This week, the Canary wrote about the nefarious influence of Zionists on our elected officials:

…significant donations from Israeli lobby groups to MPs and political parties appear to buy political allegiance and diplomatic cover for Israel. This is only evidenced by the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants outstanding for senior leaders in Israel for genocide and war crimes.

Warrants which the UK has repeatedly violated, welcoming war criminals to our shores. In fact, David Cameron even threatened ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to block warrants in the first place.

This development provides further evidence that our so-called democratic process faces repeated undermining by a colonialist and violent Zionist project.

People are absolutely sick of dishonesty in British politics as Zarah Sultana has strongly condemned.

As I said yesterday: Keir Starmer is a barefaced liar. https://t.co/FDpQnGCvHy

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) April 21, 2026

The PM’s future is no longer tenable

It is deeply uncomfortable to find resonance and legitimacy in the judgement of the leader of the Conservatives. Nonetheless, this just makes clear how far Labour has sunk into the morally bankrupt abyss. Moreover, it signifies just how far the party has shifted to the far-right.

Most people across the country can see the prime minister repeatedly lying to hold on to power and privilege. Actions like Sultana’s intervention in the Commons the other night — when she refused to back down from calling Keir Starmer a liar — further drive that message home to the electorate.

Badenoch is also managing to annihilate Starmer’s defence, which can only confirm that the PM’s future as leader is just no longer tenable. Frankly, it hasn’t been for quite a few years.

Therefore, MPs must apply sustained pressure now and make it clear that the public is done with excuses.

Instead, unfortunately for Labour, voters actually want to trust their elected officials and the power and influence they wield.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

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The post Tobacco and Vapes Bill: the stupidest law ever passed in Britain appeared first on spiked.

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With local elections just over two weeks away, Labour fear a wipeout in the nation’s capital. With the Morgan McSweeney, Matthew Doyle, and Peter Mandelson scandals swirling overhead, things cannot get much worse for Keir Starmer’s ailing project. But there is always another scandal with this Labour government: the number of Zionists in its ranks. Could they be wiped out at the local elections as well?

London Labour’s ‘friends’ of Israel

London Labour’s executive committee includes Izzy Lenga. In a now-deleted photo from her Facebook page, Lenga is pictured in a military uniform, wrapped in an Israeli flag and carrying an assault rifle. Photographs of recruits in similar outfits suggest that Lenga may have taken part in Marva, a two-month ‘IDF intro’ course.

Izzy Lenga is an associate of fellow Labour councillor Ella Rose. In 2016, after being made director of the Jewish Labour Movement, Rose attempted to conceal a previous job at the Israeli embassy in London. Rose also admitted to an undercover reporter to “working with” Israeli embassy officer Shai Masot.

London Labour councillor Ella Rose has previously been caught boasting about participating in IDF-developed Krav Maga. In 2022, now Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood campaigned for Ella Rose and Liron Velleman, Labour’s two candidates for Barnet Council. In March, Velleman was sentenced for child sex offences.

Israeli embassy employee and former IDF officer Shai Masot was also recorded in the covert investigation, discussing the potential “taking down” of Alan Duncan, a Conservative government minister at the time. Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, told Parliament that Masot’s “cover” had been “well and truly blown.”

Jewish Labour Movement

London Labour’s executive committee also includes Mike Katz, former national chair, and Peter Mason, former national secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). The JLM specifies that it aims “to promote the centrality of Israel in Jewish life”. Another former JLM chair is Ivor Caplin, the ex-Labour MP and Defence Minister, who was arrested over alleged sexual communication with a child last January.

At JLM’s 2024 conference, former Unit 8200 spy Assaf Kaplan spoke alongside now disgraced Labour MP Josh Simons at an event on “how to run a good campaign”. Simons hired private investigators to go after journalists who were exposing Morgan McSweeney and Labour Together.

Another member of London Labour’s executive committee is Issy Waite, a member of the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour First employee. Morgan McSweeney’s ally Matt Pound was previously head of Labour First, tasked with ensuring the success of McSweeney’s favoured candidates.

Shama Tatler and Anu Prasher also sit on the executive committee. One Labour source spoke to me about being dragged before a three-person ‘panel’ of Tatler, Prasher, and Luke Akehurst, and current London councillors have told me that the party is deliberately “sabotaging” popular candidates.

Labour MP Luke Akehurst has described Morgan McSweeney as a “pivotal figure” and “solid supporter of Israel”. McSweeney previously spent time living in Sarid, an Israeli colony. Ex-IDF officer Shai Masot called Akehurst as “a great friend” and “one of the best … on the inside of the party”.

Zionist Donors

In a 2014 X post, another London Labour executive committee member, Dean Gilligan, wrote:

Aha , now I understand, Conservative Friends of Israel donated £1417 #greed #hypocrisy #nastyparty #selfinterest #HarrowEast Tory MP.

Labour Friends of Israel have consistently refused to reveal its donors.

Reeves gave the keynote speech at Labour Friends of Israel’s annual lunch. She has received donations from three Labour Together funders: David Sainsbury, Clive Hollick, and Trevor Chinn. She was also bankrolled by Labour Together directly. Last week, I broke the news that current Labour Together board member Jonathan Kestenbaum served in the Israeli occupation forces.

Rachel Reeves also received £150k for “staffing costs” from lobbyist Victor Blank, who has funded three groups linked to the Israeli military. According to journalist Peter Oborne, Blank has supported both the Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel lobby groups, which “work closely” with the Israeli embassy.

I have spoken to two west London councillors who believe that Labour are on the verge of a “wipeout” in the capital. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one told me that voters on the doorstep are calling Starmer’s party “worse than the Tories”.

‘The seediest parts of Labour’

In an exclusive interview, another west London councillor told me that “the seediest parts of Labour are now running the party”. She said that Labour’s leadership would “sacrifice their own party for the McSweeney-Starmer wing”, before adding:

Labour will end up with nothing in London.

Labour’s London branch seem hellbent on attacking their rivals, but they might want to focus on cleaning up their own shop first.

Jody McIntyre is an investigative journalist whose work can be found at jodymcintyre.substack.com. He stood at the 2024 UK general election, receiving over 10,000 votes.

Featured image via the Canary

By Jody McIntyre

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Killing Corbynism, by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, examines an issue largely absent from mainstream discussion of the Corbyn years. Namely, the role of the State of Israel and its lobby in the campaign to undermine supporters of Palestine and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the opposition.

The book draws on extensive research. It demonstrates that a campaign against the left was developed in Jerusalem and exported to the UK when Corbyn was elected Labour leader.

For more than four years, a smear campaign discredited and demeaned Corbyn and his supporters. The campaign destabilised a political project that had given hope to millions. This paved the way for a lack of mainstream UK political opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and West Asia more widely.

Killing Corbynism provides both a compelling narrative and a meticulous repository of evidence, much of which has since been deleted. It goes to the heart of the UK Establishment, into both houses of parliament, the charitable sector, the media and the honours system.

Gordon-Nesbitt’s anti-racist analysis examines the Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-GRT racism, and even antisemitism, inherent within the campaign against Corbynism.

Published by Incarnadine, Killing Corbynism will be available in hardback, paperback and eBook editions from 24 April 2026.

Praise for ‘Killing Corbynism’

Ghada Karmi:

A welcome exposé of the pro-Israel dirty tricks campaign used to bring down Jeremy Corbyn. ‘Killing Corbynism’ is an informed, well-researched guide to the workings of a political network of malign influence that should alarm us all.

Leah Levane

In 2017 Jewish Voice for Labour was set up to try to counter the false allegations of anti-Semitism levelled against Jeremy Corbyn and all of us who supported his ideas.

One of our ongoing tasks has been to separate Judaism and Zionism and to emphasise that the majority of Zionists are not Jewish and that a significant – and growing – proportion of Jews are non- or anti-Zionist.

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt’s clarity on this is all-too rare. She also recognises, as we do, that using anti-Semitism to mean criticism of the Israeli State or Zionism as an ideology is dangerous, not least for Jews in the face of very real anti-Jewish hatred.

That this tactic is still being used to attack – and suppress the freedoms of – hundreds of millions across the world who support the rights of the Palestinian people is another reason this book is so important.

Rebecca’s meticulous research reveals the methodology used by those who want to keep our society working in the interests of the few and helps give us the tools we need going forwards.

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Ken Loach:

This book must be taken seriously as an analysis of how the claims of anti-Semitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party got such a grip on the political discourse.

So many people were wrongly accused, so many accusations were exposed as unfounded, so many statements misquoted yet allowed to stand uncorrected and so many Jewish Labour members suspended or expelled for racism against Jews.

It was a witch-hunt, without question. Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt’s rigorous analysis is compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand what actually happened to remove Jeremy Corbyn and the politics he represented from the Labour Party.

It has been called a ‘political assassination’. This book should ensure that it never happens again.

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Moshé Machover:

The true nature of the Zionist project of colonisation – employing apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people – is increasingly grasped by the public. Support of Palestinian rights has become the defining position of present-day progressive opinion.

The forces of reaction have been trying hard to stem the tide by deploying fabricated accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’. This book is a forensic case study of one of the major campaigns against the left, using this poisoned weapon.

Michael Mansfield KC:

This courageous research exposes the extent of pernicious anti-democratic forces which have been spreading a toxic and false narrative for many years.

Ilan Pappé:

In a world of low-calibre self-centred politicians, focused on their career as an occupation and not a vocation, Jeremy Corbyn shone as the absolute antidote to what is wrong with politics in our time.

The smear campaign against him, based on the false allegation of anti-Semitism, should not have surprised anyone. His potential success would have led to politics that would challenge greedy capitalist stakeholders, who benefit from a world scorched by fires of war and global warming.

His success could have also led Europe for the first time to play a constructive role in protecting the Palestinians from further colonisation and dispossession.

‘Killing Corbynism’ provides the most detailed, authoritative analysis of how a pro-Israeli lobby played a crucial role in trying to topple Britain’s most honest living politician of our time.

This essential book will help us to be better prepared in the future as this could happen again to the few individuals who entered politics in order to make the world, including in Palestine, a better place through moral clarity and ethical strategy.

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Yanis Varoufakis:

The brilliant tactics with which the Zionist lobby orchestrated Jeremy Corbyn’s character assassination is a master class in how vacuous accusations of anti-Semitism can be weaponised to safeguard capital’s hegemony.

A book that must be read by anyone interested in restoring the possibility of democracy in Britain and beyond.

Asa Winstanley:

Fascinating. A worthy successor to my book ‘Weaponising Anti-Semitism’, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt’s ‘Killing Corbynism’ contains many essential details of this story which I’d not known.

Featured image via Incarnadine 

By The Canary

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The UK has been named as the worst violator of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2026, a report by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA).

Its ranking as the worst state in terms of “non-compatibility” with the treaty is, in part, due to the UK having its own nuclear weapons, as well as being understood to have started hosting nukes for Trump’s USA.

A damning report

The report explained why it focuses on the TPNW:

It tracks progress towards a world without nuclear weapons and highlights activities that stand between the international community and the fulfilment of the long-standing goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons.

In measuring this progress, the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor uses the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as the primary yardstick, because this treaty codifies norms and actions that are needed to create and maintain a world free of nuclear weapons.

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The TPNW is the only legally binding global treaty that outlaws nuclear weapons. It was adopted on 7 July 2017 and entered into force on 22 January 2021. The impact of the TPNW will be built gradually and will depend on how it is welcomed and used by each and every State.

The TPNW is supported by 99 of the world’s 197 states, with 74 joining as parties and 25 as signatories that have not yet ratified the treaty.

Political pressure

No nuclear-armed states have joined the treaty, but the Ban Monitor said:

Every non-nuclear-armed State that joins strengthens political pressure for nuclear disarmament.

Adding:

With ratification processes advancing in several signatory States, further progress in expansion of the treaty membership appears likely in 2026.

The report took aim at the poor record of European states on eliminating nuclear weapons, saying “support for the TPNW is strong across all regions of the world except Europe,” and warned:

Europe stands out as a major obstacle to further progress toward universalisation of the TPNW.

The UK was singled out as having the most policies or practices in 2025 that were viewed by the report’s authors as being “non-compatible with, or of concern in relation to, one or more of the TPNW’s prohibitions”.

It was singled out alongside 44 other states found to have non-compatibilities with the TPNW. Most were not compatible with the TPNW’s “Prohibition on assisting, encouraging or inducing prohibited activity”.

The UK, meanwhile, was identified as being non-compatible with a total of six prohibitions:

1. on “development, production, manufacture, or other acquisition”;
2. on “possession or stockpiling”; on “receiving transfer or control”;
3. on “assisting; encouraging or inducing prohibited activity”;
4. on “seeking or receiving assistance to engage in prohibited activity”;
5. and on “allowing stationing, installation or deployment” of nuclear weapons.

The next least compatible country was the US, which had five prohibitions it was not compatible with.

‘Evidence suggests’ UK received US nukes and is expanding its own stockpile

ICAN head of communications Alistair Burnett told the Canary:

The Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor reports annually on the size and composition of the arsenals of the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries and it also assesses how compatible each country is with the provisions of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Of the nine nuclear-armed states, Britain violates more articles of the treaty than any other because it not only has its own nuclear weapons, it may have also started hosting US nuclear weapons on its soil again after a break of 18 years.

In 2008, US nuclear weapons that were held at US air bases in Britain were quietly withdrawn, but last year evidence suggests the US may have returned upgraded nuclear bombs (the B61-12) to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Neither country shares any information publicly on this, but research by the Federation of American Scientists revealed new facilities to store these weapons were being built at Lakenheath and flights by the US planes that ferry nuclear weapons around the world have been monitored arriving there.

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The United Kingdom also engages in assistance and encouragement of banned nuclear activities under the TPNW in its nuclear cooperation with France, and the United States.

In 2021, the UK also removed the cap on the number of warheads it has and stopped releasing information on nuclear warhead numbers.

UK faces becoming ‘more and more isolated diplomatically’

Burnett went on to explain how the UK’s failure to support the TPNW is likely to make it increasingly diplomatically isolated, and recommended how the government could work towards a nuclear weapons-free future.

He said:

The TPNW came into force in 2021 and a majority of the world’s states have already either signed or ratified the treaty (74 have ratified and a further 25 have signed it and are working on ratification). As more and more countries join it, Britain and the other nuclear-armed countries become more and more isolated diplomatically

The TPNW provides a fair and verifiable pathway to eliminating nuclear weapons, and Britain – which committed to getting rid of its weapons when it joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 – should engage with the TPNW and work towards joining that treaty as well in order to fulfil the disarmament commitments it has made and also to help reduce the nuclear threat that continues to menace the whole world.

It is impossible to envisage any use of nuclear weapons in conflict that would be consistent with international law, of which the British Government claims to be a champion.

A first step would be for the UK to stop voting against annual UN General Assembly resolutions on the TPNW and the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. In 2024, the UK, alone with Russia and France, even voted against setting up an independent scientific panel to update our understanding of the impact of the use of nuclear weapons in 2024.

In addition this year, the UK Government, at a minimum, should also observe the first Review Conference of the TPNW that is being held at the UN in New York in late November and early December.

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The Canary approached the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for comment on the government’s shaming in the report. An MOD spokesperson deferred to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The FCDO did not respond to a request for comment.

UK Government urged to end its ‘nuclear hypocrisy’ and engage with TPNW

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Sophie Bolt told the Canary:

It’s little surprise Britain is the worst violator of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for 2026. It’s ploughing ahead with the multi-billion pound modernisation of its nuclear-armed submarines, update and expansion of its nuclear warhead stockpile, hosting of US nuclear weapons on British soil, and giving the RAF a nuclear role for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

The Canary reported earlier in April that campaigners were demanding that the UK stops hosting Trump’s nuclear weapons, in response to his veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran.

Bolt continued:

As the government is facing increased pressure to enforce more austerity to fund major military spending hikes, a quarter of the MoD’s budget is blown on nuclear weapons.

What’s more, these nuclear projects are facing delays and ballooning costs with diminishing oversight. Nuclear dangers have never been higher but having nuclear weapons doesn’t increase security. Britain needs to end the nuclear hypocrisy and finally engage with the TPNW.

Nuclear deterrence is ‘naïve idealism’ – professor

University of Sussex emeritus professor Andy Stirling reacted to the report by telling the Canary:

Recent events show more than ever, that notions of ‘nuclear deterrence’ are a delusion that only lasts so long. Now more than ever, time is running out.

As with the same claims made in the past for explosives, machine guns and aircraft, nuclear weapons are not – and never can be – technologies to end war. Nuclear deterrence is naïve idealism.

With impacts of global war now more existential than ever, the security of each country must be viewed with reason, not sentimental nationalist blinkers or militaristic ideology.

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Even where only a few countries claim exclusive national rights to make nuclear threats against others, the inevitable result will be nuclear war.

The only rational way to reduce the threat of nuclear war is to address security globally. As in the playground … or in gangland … the only realistic way to abolish nuclear threats for all is for each to stop making them against others.

Those who make nuclear threats lower their own security by adding to risks of surprise nuclear attacks against them.

It is too often forgotten that even a small nuclear attack by any one country will (even if it is not retaliated against), cause devastation in that country as well through nuclear winter. In that way too, nuclear threats are a suicide vest.

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In a debate on ‘Civil Preparedness for War’ in the House of Lords on 20 April, MOD minister of state Lord Coaker confirmed that the government does still support the NPT and representatives would be attending the NPT review conference in New York later in April.

This could be seen as a thin sliver of hope for the UK eventually working to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

By Tom Pashby

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The home secretary has apparently expanded the list of people she’d like to deport to include her rivals from each main political party.

Shabana Mahmood was being interviewed by comedian Matt Forde in London’s West End when she said it but that hasn’t stopped the criticism.

BREAKING: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood threatens to deport Green leader Zack Polanski.

Asked by the Telegraph who out of Polanski, Farage, Badenoch or Davey she would taser or deport, she said:

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“I want to taser and then deport … all of them"

(Via Telegraph) pic.twitter.com/Q6l2d1hBeh

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Shabana Mahmood is spitting mad

If you’re unfamiliar with Forde, he’s the man who wrote what may be the worst comedy sketch of all time mocking Jess Phillips, who was then shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding.

The fact that Labour MPs still talk to this guy is surprising, but here we are.

Matt forde being horny for Jess Phillips is not what I needed to see before midday on a Monday https://t.co/CTb2R3N1EL

— R (@rjb_1998) October 4, 2021

As reported by the Telegraph:

Mahmood was also asked which of the opposition leaders – Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch, Zack Polanski or Sir Ed Davey – she would either deport or taser. She replied: “You are talking to me so I want to taser and then deport… all of them.”

What does “You are talking to me” mean? Is she implying she has some sort of violent and uncontrollable condition? This is the sort of response the Joker would give, not a government minister.

If @Nigel_Farage said he’d ‘taser and deport’ a political opponent we’d have a week long media feeding frenzy – led by the Labour Party.

But @ShabanaMahmood can say that about political opponents and it’s….fine?

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Why the double standard? pic.twitter.com/CgLnfJQJwj

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) April 21, 2026

Do we want a home secretary to be making jokes about deporting people? The obvious answer is no. It makes her seem like an inhumane monster who doesn’t care about human suffering. That or she’s someone who enjoys inflicting it.

I do not think there is any context in which it is acceptable for the Home Secretary to threaten to inflict violent attacks on the persons of opposition leaders and suggest she intends to strip them of their citizenship and deport them.

This is a very, very grim moment.

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Home secretary tells hecklers to ‘fuck right off’

Mahmood also got upset because hecklers accused her of copying Reform. The home secretary then responded by saying the hecklers could “fuck right off”.

She said:

I’m not going to let a tinpot racist or some random heckler, or anybody else claw away at the foundations of who I am as a person.

I’m a proud English woman. I’m a proud Brit. I’m a hugely proud Muslim. That is the absolute core of my life.

Then added:

I do think there is that element of it which is: ‘How dare you, a brown woman, say a thing that we white liberals think you’re not allowed to say?’ Well, I’m saying it.

This is the Labour of today in a nutshell, isn’t it?

On the policy front, they want to enact the cruel right-wing proposals of Reform; on the rhetoric front, they want to deploy 2010s-style identity politics.

You can’t do the ‘I’m a proud, Brown woman with multitudes‘ shtick when you’re defending a wretched system that dehumanises Brown women.

Having their cake and deporting it

Voters have seen through Labour at this point. Many ex-voters think the party is unnecessarily cruel now while others don’t believe they’re cruel enough.

Lab is now losing far more votes to Greens (7.4pts) than to Reform (3.6pts).

Overall, a majority of 2024 Lab voters are now backing other parties, and a whopping 70% of those are fleeing leftward.

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Lab’s collapse is not the result of a right-wing surge, but of left-wing dissent. pic.twitter.com/OpdGfeLzw2

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 11, 2026

Mahmood can crack wise with pervert comedians all she likes, but the real joke is Labour’s polling.

Featured image via X/ Barold 

By Willem Moore

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Scotland’s nature agency, NatureScot, has spent more than £72,000 of public funds in just the first three months of 2026 on matters relating to the controversial guga hunt. This is according to new figures that advocacy group Protect the Wild has obtained.

The documents reveal that NatureScot has already spent nearly £30,000 this year on research it’ll use to assess how many birds the hunters can kill. This is alongside further spending on legal advice connected to the licensing of the hunt.

Tens of thousands more has gone on hiring additional security and repair costs associated with protests and growing public opposition.

Crucially, these figures do not include staff time, which NatureScot admits is not recorded separately. So the true cost to the public purse is likely to be significantly higher.

Campaigners say the spending raises serious questions about priorities. Public money is being directed towards maintaining and managing a controversial activity, rather than invested in nature restoration and biodiversity recovery.

Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said:

The licence for this hunt is entirely discretionary, and the Scottish government has confirmed this. That means continuing to license the guga hunt is an active choice by NatureScot, and one that is becoming increasingly costly not only to the taxpayer, but to our already struggling wildlife.

There is a clear expectation that public funds allocated to a nature agency are used to restore and protect nature, not to sustain an outdated and cruel tradition. The guga hunt benefits a very small number of people, at the expense of wildlife and the wider public interest.

NatureScot’s responsibility for protected species

NatureScot is Scotland’s public nature authority, responsible for protecting and enhancing Scotland’s natural environment. As part of this role, it decides whether to grant licences allowing the killing of otherwise protected species, such as gannets, which the guga hunt targets.

The guga hunt is the UK’s last remaining seabird hunt. It involves a group of hunters traveling to the remote island of Sula Sgeir to slaughter gannet seabird chicks. Their flesh is taken back to the Isle of Lewis where it is sold and consumed as a local delicacy.

In 2025, the birds reportedly sold for £35 each. If all 485 birds taken were sold, this would equate to a potential value of around £17,000.

Docherty added:

Nobody should be making money off the killing of a protected native species. And our public money should certainly not be spent on aiding it.

Over a quarter of a million signatures have now been gathered on petitions to end the guga hunt. NatureScot must listen to the clear mandate for change, and use its discretionary power to stop the slaughter of seabirds on Sula Sgeir.

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NatureScot has said if a licence application comes in for 2026, it will go before its board for decision.

Featured image via John Ranson for the Canary

By The Canary

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Former Israeli intelligence officer Ella Kenan’s boast to a pro-Israel conference has exposed the occupation’s massive digital propaganda operation. Kenan’s 60,000-strong ‘army’ is focused entirely on undermining global support for the Palestinian people.

Israeli arrogance

With typical Israeli arrogance, she claims that her organisation’s reach is ‘completely organic’. Then, in the next sentence, she boasts that its propaganda goes ‘viral’ because of coordinated ‘communities’ of 60,000 – and the help of ‘non-Jewish influencers’ that ‘collaborate’.

‘Organic’ is doing some heavy lifting in Kenan’s brain.

Kenan then boasts of whitewashing Israel’s genocide and apartheid and of making up slogans that reach the speeches of US presidents. And she adds that her ‘communities’ run ‘take-down’ campaigns to remove news they don’t like from social media platforms.

But all ‘completely organic’, of course:

Every accusation is a confession

Her unironic claim of coming up with ‘Hamas is Isis’ is, as usual, a case of ‘every accusation is a confession’. The ISIS-linked organisation in Gaza works for Israel. As author Susan Abulhawa rightly pointed out:

Actually, Israel is ISIS, but 10x worse.

Kenan has also boasted of ‘beating Greta Thunberg’ after Thunberg called for the freedom of Gaza as Israel began its genocide there.

Israel is a terror state that is allowed to throw huge resources at spreading the lies it tells to excuse its crimes. And its professional propagandists are not even shy about admitting it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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The BBC has once again attracted criticism for its handling of Reform UK, this time for using its logo and branding in a TV news report.

This is shocking https://t.co/p6IQickZtz

— Mr Ethical (@nw_nicholas) April 21, 2026

We should note that the big red arrows were added by the person drawing attention to the Reform branding.  Still, though, that’s most definitely the Reform logo and that’s most definitely Reform’s trademark turquoise.

BBC or the British Reformcasting Corporation?

In the above clip, the journalist is explaining how Reform’s asylum policy will work. Presumably, the BBC would say that this is why it has Reform’s logo and colours on screen.

However, the reason it isn’t clear is because the logo and text bar are placed where you would normally see the BBC’s logo and text bar. As such, it looks less like the BBC is explaining Reform policy and more like it’s rebranded as the British Reformcasting Corporation (BRC).

If the BBC would be so kind as to pull the Reform Party’s trousers back up when it’s finished round there, that’d be just swell

Giving Farage’s party its own own logo in its own colours for its own segment

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Seriously?

pic.twitter.com/0N2UHzOoGF

— Stuzi (@stuzi_pants) April 21, 2026

Of course, the BRC accusations go much deeper than the above. For a start, the BBC has a tendency to come running every time a Reform politician clears their throat.

Reform UK has now announced this unworkable, monumentally expensive ‘policy’ three times in the last year.

Yet the BBC still rush breathlessly to report every word they say.

It’s just madness. https://t.co/h6RLUaOApn

— Don McGowan (@donmcgowan) April 20, 2026

As the Canary wrote last December:

A research group has brought out a new study on the political biases behind broadcast news. The results are truly damning – shining a light on the disproportionate coverage of far-right Reform UK on the BBC and ITV. 

The BBC also has a mysterious fascination with Nigel Farage, which has seen him land more Question Time bookings than anyone else this century.

Nigel Farage’s 38 Question Time appearances are among the highest ever, Compared to main political leaders such as Cameron, Clegg, Miliband, Sturgeon, or Starmer, Farage has appeared more frequently, This is the BBC’s booking choices,

— Chris Harrop OBE (@ChrisHarropOBE) September 9, 2025

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The BBC loves inviting Nigel Farage. They might aswell give him his own show.

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) December 6, 2024

Comparisons

The BBC is treating Farage and Reform like a government-in-waiting. This is far from normal in terms of how they usually behave.

As an example, we don’t have to go back far to see how the BBC treated another insurgent politician who was shaking up the system. (Jeremy Corbyn.)

I don't know why people are surprised. The BBC literally photoshopped a russian hat onto Corbyn and got away with it.

However, the model is right and needs protecting.

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The rot lies with the Tory Exec who have politicised the BBC.

The BBC leadership should be politically… pic.twitter.com/B2dsuIJ28V

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) November 11, 2025

It might be worth getting used to the BBC being turquoise, anyway, because if Farage forms the next government, it will be permanent.

Featured image via BBC

By Willem Moore

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