Politics
UK Gardeners Told To Place Common Household Item On Their Lawns
Though it was a good year for strawberry growers, 2025′s weird weather gave gardeners much to reconsider.
Backyard-proud Brits have been asked to check for footprints on their lawn, place a pan of water on their grass, move their potted plants, and even shuffle some stones around to ensure their greenery is properly hydrated.
But speaking to HuffPost UK, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) points out that your garden isn’t just made up of plants.
Birds, whose population has been slashed by as much as 50% over the past 50 years, are just one member of a key ecosystem that helps our gardens to thrive (if you need any more motivation, they’re a natural pest control for slugs, chafer grubs, and other unwelcome visitors).
One way to help them in this dry spell involves placing an old washing-up bowl or sink in your garden or even balcony, the experts say.
It can create a “mini pond”
Katie Nethercoat, a member of RSPB’s Wildlife Team, says that the simple gesture can go further than you might think.
“Lack of rain, hardened ground and rising temperatures can all bring in challenges for our birds,” she says.
“Providing fresh, clean bathing and drinking water is a simple but hugely effective way to help wildlife, as well as leaving areas of damp ground and soil.”
That’s partly because slick mud is key for ground-feeding birds like blackbirds and dunnocks, who need to eat invertebrates like worms.
“Piles of twigs, leaves and branches in a corner of a garden help keep areas damp for invertebrates,” Nethercoat continues, “our summer visitors, the house martin, also rely heavily on mud to build their nests.
“By keeping an area of wet mud available to them, this can mean they are able to build but also restore nest sites. This also lowers the risk of their nests drying out and falling to the ground.”
One way to keep these all-important mud patches moist is by building a “mini pond,” the expert adds.
It can “seem like a huge task, but a mini-pond is a great addition to a garden or even a balcony.
“Using an old washing-up bowl or sink can provide valuable access for wildlife. If the edges are level with the ground, more creatures can get in and out.”
If the edges reach above ground, provide ramps with logs, bricks, or rocks.
Nick CunardNick Cunard / NCSM Media / RSPB
Birds are far from the only beneficiaries
Hedgehogs, frogs, and a wide range of other animals will be thankful for the mini oasis.
“Even a mini pond in a pot will benefit wildlife,” the Royal Horticultural Society says.
This is a key step as our wildlife is desperately struggling in the UK.
The RSPB have full instructions on building a mini-pond on their site.
The post Why does the first lady of Sierra Leone have a council flat in London? appeared first on spiked.
Mike Newton was Conservative parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton West, and worked for the Bank of England during his career in the financial markets.
My plan for Saturday afternoon was to lounge on the sofa with our bulldog Albert and watch Celtic and Hearts slug it out, but it was interrupted by a call from a distinguished central banker. He has been a guiding force behind his own country’s financial stability for decades and not a worrier for its own sake. But he was seriously concerned about developments in the gilt and sterling markets.
On Friday, as markets woke up to the full gravity of the political crisis and a potential Leftist Burnham government, the benchmark ten-year gilt increased by 18bp to its highest level since 2007. The pound was hammered versus every other currency.
‘What is the right price for gilts now?’ my caller asked. That is a very good question, and the problem for Labour is that no one in the markets seems to really know the answer.
The implications of that are extremely serious. The post-1970s consensus on fiscal stability has completely broken down and no one knows what is coming next other than much higher volatility.
The foundations are in very poor shape. What is known professionally as the UK’s ‘fiscal metrics’ (its capability to issue and pay debt) have moved adversely for some time now.
These include factors such as sovereign debt to GDP ratio (93 per cent of GDP), economic growth (1.4 per cent in 2025 dropping to 0.6 per cent in the first quarter) and the highest weighted average debt maturity in the G7 (fourteen years), which effectively means that when bond markets come under pressure, the UK is hit harder than anywhere else.
It is also worth noting that 25 per cent of total outstanding debt is linked to inflation (if inflation moves higher this debt becomes more expensive to service). Again, this is the highest in the G7.
Perhaps none of this would matter if Labour was a centrist government committed to fiscal responsibility, and allowing the private sector to get in with the job of creating wealth and employment. It would also matter a lot less if inflation was low and stable.
Labour’s policies on employment, energy and regulation have put a structural premium on UK inflation at a time when it is going up globally. The markets have also greatly reduced confidence in the Bank of England to control inflation.
The value of the pound is perhaps a bit less important than the situation in gilts, but the two are linked as a collapse in the pound would have very serious implications for the cost of borrowing, given its impact on inflation and the value of gilts for foreign investors who ultimately need to repatriate profits (or losses) into their home currency.
The pound has now started to sell off as global investors internalise the seriousness of the situation, and the implications of the closure of the North Sea to new drilling as announced in the King’s Speech. Sterling has now become a ‘reverse petrocurrency’ at a time when it has never been more important to be one.
So what happens next? Well markets never travel in a straight line, but the broad direction looks set: higher gilt yields and a weaker pound. But are we heading for a real crisis or just volatility?
I think crisis: and I sense we are in one now. Labour is going to lurch to the left whatever happens, and Burnham’s lack of respect for the bond market is being imitated now by Streeting, and of course Miliband and Rayner are already fully signed up members of that club.
Rather than arguing why gilts should yield 6 or 7 per cent, I think it is now more of a case of saying ‘why shouldn’t they? The burden of proof has shifted.
Burnham’s plans to have a separate class of gilt for defence, infrastructure and the NHS is particularly insane, as the idea that different types of expenditure can be ringfenced has been proven over the years to be a complete non-starter. The markets set a price for debt based on how much there is, not what the proceeds are used for.
It is frightening ignorance. If it was a workable fix, believe me it would already be done by every government in the world.
There is no handbrake from Labour’s MPs or grandees for any of this. When Liz Truss made her mistakes, the Tory machine stopped her. The Labour Party is the other way round on this. It actively wants the mistakes to be made!
Labour blowing up the gilt market will go one of two ways: interest rates on gilts rising to such highs that new issuance becomes so expensive it is unsustainable and reverses course, or it runs the car off the road and must ask for an IMF loan.
The latter would of course come with very stringent conditions, and given that the US effectively runs the IMF, the terms that the Trump Administration would offer a Socialist Britain would be eyewatering. It might even be the case that the UK Treasury instead asks for help from the European Central Bank and tried to peg sterling to the Euro, which would suit the Rejoiner motivations of Labour’s elite very nicely.
As Conservatives, we need to have a stringent alternative, and that is to structurally stabilise the public finances through a smaller state. I believe philosophically that government exists primarily to facilitate individual opportunity, and the state should not, and cannot, be involved in our lives to the extent it is. And now it cannot be afforded either.
Andrew Griffith MP wrote here last week that ‘the solution has to be a Conservative one…built on the hard truth that no government has run a fiscal surplus since 2001.’
Andrew is dead right. In addition to a radical re-examination of what the state pays for, there needs to be very serious consideration of the introduction of something like the German debt brake (die Schuldenbremse) through legislation, which limits the government’s ability to take unnecessary risks with the public’s money.
While we continue to rebuild trust under Kemi, we should be mindful that we are going to have to provide clear and hard headed solutions for the problems Labour has created, and the solvency of the country unfortunately looks to be top on the to-do list.
Katie Price has issued an update after sharing that her husband is “missing”.
The reality star announced earlier this year that she had married the Dubai-based entrepreneur Lee Andrews around a week after meeting him in real life, having already struck up a relationship on social media.
Last week, Lee was due to fly to the UK to join Katie for a joint appearance on Good Morning Britain, though he ultimately didn’t turn up.
Over the weekend, the Celebrity Big Brother winner shared a video on YouTube claiming that Lee had been “missing” in Dubai for the last three days, his location services had been switched off his phone and that when they’d last spoken via video-chat, he was in the back of a van wearing a hood with his hands bound.
Katie has since posted another video onto her YouTube channel, in which she criticised those who have made light of the story, and questioned whether it may even have been a publicity stunt.
“This is a really difficult time for me at the moment,” she began. “It’s been five days now since I’ve heard anything from Lee. None of his family have [heard] anything from Lee. His dad is out is Dubai, he’s heard nothing, and the rest of his family is in the UK, and obviously [so am I].
“We have reported him to the British embassy as a missing person, he’s been reported in Dubai as a missing person, I just don’t know what to say.”
Disclosing that her “anxiety levels are sky high”, Katie continued: “I know there’s going to be stories coming out now because it’s a hot topic. But, at the end of the day, guys, I have feelings – and people disrespect that. It’s really not nice for me to be going through all of this, at all.”
“I am only human,” she noted. “I am a tough girl, I’m a survivor, but I’ve never been in a situation like this – I don’t think many people have been in a situation like this where all of a sudden the last message you get [is] a FaceTime from your husband in the back of a dirty old van.”
Responding to “TikToks”, “Instagrams”, “media speculation” and “lots of things flying about” with regards to her husband’s whereabouts, she added: “What everyone has to remember, as much as everyone’s trying to take the piss out of everything and speculate this and speculate that, this isn’t a game. This is real life. This is a serious situation for me.
“So, everyone trying to speculate, take the piss, make jokes, just think of other people’s feelings here.”
“This isn’t a ‘scandal’, this is something that’s really happening, and there are real feelings involved here,” she insisted, before stating: “I want to make it clear, again, everyone. This is not a publicity stunt. This is real. And anyone who thinks that I’m part of this is disgusting.”
Katie concluded by urging anyone with information to “come to me, or come to the newspapers, and we can find him”.
In her previous video, Katie expressed concern that Lee may have been kidnapped or held ransom, but clarified in her latest update that if that were the case, she’d not received any ransom note.
Katie and Lee’s first wedding service took place in Dubai in January, with the pair formally registering their marriage the following month.
The former glamour model has now been married four times, first to pop singer Peter Andre, who she met while they were both competing on I’m A Celebrity in the early 2000s, and with whom she shares two grown-up children, Junior and Princess.
Katie was then married to ex-cage fighter Alex Reid for one year, and builder and former stripper Kieran Hayler for eight years. Kieran is the father of Katie’s youngest son and daughter, Jett and Bunny, and she also has a grown-up son, Harvey, from a past relationship with footballer Dwight Yorke.
The government has been accused of a “cover-up” after fighting to keep some details of its files on Peter Mandelson redacted.
The second batch of files related to the vetting, hiring and subsequent firing of the ex-ambassador to the US are due to be released in June.
The former Labour peer was sacked in September when the depth of his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was uncovered.
But questions over how – and why – he got the job in the first place remain, as his Epstein association was already in the public domain when he was hired.
The government has also been scrutinised after it emerged Mandelson failed security vetting but still got the job.
The government has been forced to publish its internal documents around the decision to hire Mandelson by the Conservatives using a parliamentary procedure called a Humble Address.
The Intelligence and Security Committee of MPs is overseeing the documents’ release and has raised concerns over the “broad” redactions within the files.
The ISC has tabled an Urgent Question – a debate – in the Commons on Tuesday to suggest ministers have been unfairly holding back information and are not abiding by the terms of the Humble Address.
The Tories’ shadow policy renewal minister Neil O’Brien said the ISC’s concerns are “an extremely serious matter that completely undermines what this House agrees”.
“There may be legitimate reasons the government doesn’t want to place certain things in the public domain, but if the Humble Address motion doesn’t allow for redactions on those grounds, the government can’t just unilaterally decide to ignore the will of this House.”
He then accused Labour MPs of voting for “a cover-up when they voted against referring the prime minister to the privileges committee” over Starmer’s past comments on Mandelson.
“This House and the people of this country deserve better than yet another cover-up,” O’Brien claimed.
But cabinet office minister Darren Jones said the government “takes these matter very seriously”.
He told the Commons: “I would not for one instance countenance the idea that there is, as loud as you’d like to shout it, a cover-up.
“If there was any suggestion of the cover-up, I would not be standing at this despatch box, I would resign.”
Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, also confirmed the next tranche of documents’ release date had been pushed back from this Thursday until June.
He said that would be “inappropriate” to release the lengthy publication as MPs are set to rise for recess on the same day.
“Given the House is due to rise on Thursday, and given the length of the publication, the second tranche will now be published after the Whitsun recess to give the House sufficient time to review the material and to be able to ask me and the government questions,” the minister told MPs.
“It could have been published this Thursday, but I felt that the House would deem that to be inappropriate, given it will be such a significant publication.”
“This will be the largest publication, other than the Chilcot Inquiry report, ever published to the House,” he said, referring to the official probe into the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war which covered almost a decade of decision-making.
The first batch of documents, released in March, showed Keir Starmer was give plenty of warnings not to make Mandelson the UK’s ambassador to Washington, but went ahead with it anyway.
The files showed the disgraced peer also wanted a pay-off of more than half a million pounds for the job he was sacked from, though he ended up with £75,000.
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Did you know that getting up at night to pee has a name (nocturia)?
Not only that, but it turns out there are “normal” amounts of midnight number ones to expect by age, too. Younger people usually get up to urinate once a night, while those in their 90s may still be in the “usual” range if they make four trips in the wee hours.
But not all nocturnal disruptions are to do with the loo. According to a 2010 study, just under a third of us wake up in the middle of the night at least three times a week; while older research found 23% of us get up a minimum of once a night.
And according to experts at the Sleep Foundation, those numbers might be affected by age, as after 60, they say, our circadian rhythm changes.
What’s a normal amount of times to get up at night?
As teens, our circadian rhythms lengthen – meaning our “natural” awakening point is later than usual.
But they shorten between the ages of 60-65 in a phenomenon called phase advance. Older people may have better focus in the morning, as a result, but they might also want to go to bed sooner.
That can mean older adults’ bodies are telling them to fall asleep at 7-8pm for a 3-4am wakeup. Of course, some try to struggle against this, leading to disrupted or inadequate sleep.
Johns Hopkins Medicine says we have mini wake-ups about 20 times a night, but don’t remember or observe the experience. But for most adults, experts say it’s within the normal range to wake up about two or three times per night – this shouldn’t keep you up, however.
The National Sleep Foundation puts it at one memorable rising, meanwhile.
For adults over 65, though, those two or three wake-ups might be part of a sleep pattern that culminates in a 3-4am wakeup – and they may struggle to drift back off again after.
That natural wakeup call can feel like a sleep interruption – especially if you’re not changing your bedtime.
This can lead to “disturbed sleep” from that point onward, the Sleep Foundation says.
Older adults are also more likely to have a shorter sleep duration overall and take longer to fall asleep, which means the earlier wakeup plus attempts to fall asleep after that time could lead to more wake-ups.
The National Sleep Foundation, which says younger adults should aim for one nighttime wake-up or less, doubles that for those age 65 and over.
Those who put the average figure closer to two or three times a night could expect it to rise to four or even five times.
When should I see a doctor?
The NHS says that “if someone cannot get to sleep or stay asleep for long enough to feel refreshed, they might have insomnia”.
If you’re getting up “several” times a night, it’s advised you see a GP.
It’s less to do with a number and more to do with how you’re feeling – the National Institute of Ageing advises that “waking up every day feeling tired is a sign that you are not getting the rest you need”.
Sometimes, sleep changes are linked to dementia. See your GP if there are sudden changes to your sleep routine, if your sleep is interrupting your daily life, or if you never feel rested.
Wes Streeting had been the first to go public with his ambitious desire to be Labour leader in an upcoming battle to replace PM Keir Starmer. However, his confidence – or arrogance – about how worthy he is for the top job will likely take a significant hit as polls show only 4% of Labour members ranking him as their first choice for Labour leader.
Despite the mainstream media portraying him as the ‘golden boy’ of the Labour Party, this measly 4% is hardly enough to give him a fighting chance against Burnham or Rayner.
This is hardly surprising, however, as we have reported multiple times – Wes Streeting is a snake who has been dismantling the NHS for private interests. As this polling indicates, people have finally seen through his duplicitous nonsense in the nick of time.
4% of Labour members want Wes Streeting to leader.
FOUR PERCENT.
And that’s despite a mass exodus of left wingers.
Yet the media have treated him as their golden boy! https://t.co/FMeDBGVlng
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) May 18, 2026
Streeting – 4% support is just humiliating
It is undeniable that this polling should destroy any hopes that Wes Streeting – and his billionaire donors – have about the likelihood of him ever becoming the UK’s PM. In fact, even the publicly despised Keir Starmer flounces Streeting with 32% of members behind him remaining in post. Moreover, Burnham appears to be the front runner with 48% – but still, nobody is managing to command a majority of support even within their own party.
So, why don’t we remind ourselves why Streeting should never be allowed anywhere near a decision-making position ever again.
He is a duplicitous snake who will say whatever the public want to hear to get in power – then he will sell that very same public out.
We wrote about how Streeting’s own words in 2023 to slam Rishi Sunak’s response to NHS strikes were exposed in their blatant hypocrisy with his own behaviour in post. Given he is throwing the word ‘progressive around’, this is a significant alarm bell for voters to pay attention to:
NHS GP Neena Jha has taken apart Wes Streeting with his own words from 2023 over an upcoming resident doctors strike. It’s yet another indication that Tory and Labour politicians merely cosplay as caring opposition until they themselves enter government. Then, they backtrack and carry on the same neoliberal agenda they previously criticised.
In 2023, Streeting said:
“Now we know why Rishi Sunak refuses to negotiate with NHS staff. He wants the strikes to go ahead, so he can blame doctors and nurses for his failure.”
The thing is, the health secretary has now himself refused to negotiate on pay restoration for doctors. This prompted Jha to take down Streeting “by his own admission”, replacing Sunak’s name with his own:
“Now we know why Wes Streeting refuses to negotiate with NHS staff. He wants the strikes to go ahead, so he can blame doctors and nurses for his failure.”
It is the Labour continuation of austerity and privatisation that is failing the NHS – not doctors.
He is giving our data away to dangerous billionaires
Streeting is giving our data to Palantir: a murderous, billionaire-interested spy tech firm which makes no secret of its disdain for ordinary people. Despite his promises that he intends to fix the NHS, the reality is that he intends to make it work for billionaires – whilst ordinary people have no say in the use of their personal health data.
Speaking of the astronomical wealth accrued from contracts effectively just given to Palantir, we wrote:
The spy-tech firm won the NHS contract for £1 in 2020 which is now worth a lucrative £400 million for Thiel and co.
It is worth noting that this kind of wealth appreciation has become pretty commonplace for the world’s richest whilst ordinary people increasingly suffer.
As a result, calls are being made to rip up this contract to prevent the inevitable exploitation of data for the financial gain of billionaires.
Considering Palantir’s proven involvement in the genocide on Gaza, this really should not be a hard fight to win.
3. He is the establishment’s ‘pick’ which should underscore how little ‘change’ this corrupted politician could ever deliver.
Discussing Labour MP John McDonnell’s astute takedown of Streeting in which he theorised the whole bid is a revenge plot by Epstein-pal Mandelson and dodgy McSweeney, we wrote:
He’s alleged revenge by Starmer’s former handlers Morgan McSweeney and his mentor and child-rapist fan Peter Mandelson. Both men were sacked or resigned over the scandal of Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Starmer has tried desperately to distance himself from Mandelson – completely unsuccessfully – and McDonnell says they’re now collecting payback.
Whether McDonnell is right or wrong, Streeting in Number 10 would be just as appalling news for the many as Starmer has been. Has-been… – that seems very appropriate. If only both of them were ‘never-was’s.
Streeting is (at best) a continuation, but he could be even worse
The Labour-right know that progressive, socialist policies are the only way they can differentiate themselves from right-wing Starmer. They are also the only hope of repair to our crumbling state. As a result, we have seen Streeting label himself as ‘progressive’ and once again, attempt to hoodwink the masses.
However, his 4% polling signifies that members are waking up and will not be fooled again.
Nevertheless, the media clearly worship him and will push him down our throats regardless.
Therefore, it is crucial that we do not forget who this man truly is – before it is far too late to do anything about it.
Featured image via Getty Images/WPA Pool
Israel’s death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank has now gone into effect after an Israeli army commander signed a military order. It follows the 30 March vote in the Knesset. National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party initiated the vote but it received overwhelming cross-party support.
Following the passing of the bill, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) submitted a sanctions recommendation to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It called for the sanction of sixty-two Israeli Knesset members responsible for passing and adopting the law.
This law consolidates more clearly than ever before the extent of Israel’s apartheid judicial system, whereby Palestinians can be sentenced to death and Israelis convicted of the same crime cannot.
It is an entrenchment of Israel’s genocidal policies that are prevalent not just in Gaza, but across the occupied Palestinian territory. Once again, Israel’s unchecked impunity after years of genocide has allowed it to continue to violate international norms.
The law means that there is now a mandatory death penalty for ‘terrorist acts’, that does not require judicial unanimity, with executions to be carried out by hanging within 90 days of confirmation by the Israeli Prison Service.
Individuals sentenced to death will be held in a separate facility with no visits except from authorised personnel, with legal consultations conducted only by video link. Harrowingly, many Israeli parliamentarians including Ben Gvir wore noose-shaped lapel badges during the campaign to get the bill passed, and celebrated with bottles of champagne in the Knesset.
Death penalty based on citizenship, not offence
This law only applies to military courts, which only deal with West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens. This means the law will be used to kill Palestinians, but Israelis who commit terrorist acts would not be held to the same legal standards, and would not face the death penalty.
This is especially noteworthy, considering the current Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was previously arrested on suspicion of attempting to blow up a highway in Israel with 700 litres of gasoline. Meanwhile, Ben Gvir himself has been convicted of supporting Israeli terrorist organisations and having a portrait of an Israeli terrorist in his office, Baruch Goldstein.
While some Western governments have expressed their ‘deep concern’ over the bill, the response remains perfunctory. Countries including the UK did not use diplomatic levers to influence Israel robustly and the result is an apartheid law of unimaginable bias and cruelty.
Jonathan Purcell, ICJP’s head of public affairs and communications, said:
Israel is a rogue, pariah state. We’ve been saying this for literally years now, but the more the UK government wrings its hands, the further Israel will entrench its apartheid and genocidal practices. We called on the UK government to sanction the Israeli lawmakers responsible for passing this death penalty law and yet they did nothing.
Now, a law exists where 100% of people killed will be Palestinian, mirroring apartheid South Africa where 95% of those killed were Black. It is very clear that the UK government and others standing idly by are on the wrong side of history.
Featured image via Erik Marmor / Getty Images
By The Canary
Corporate parasites are weaponing manufactured fear to try to force a bailout of Thames Water onto an even more weakened Labour government. Potential investors are claiming that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could, rightly, push to bring utilities into public ownership. The Guardian reported this corporate leak, and said:
.Potential investors fear Andy Burnham could push to bring utility companies into public ownership
The establishment media portraits Burnham as some kind of big socialist threat to private equity. But we know he’s not the saviour some people like to think he is as his political history tells an entirely different story.
Thames Water cesspit
A bunch of creditors led by US investment firm Elliott Management is negotiating a shitty takeover deal for the collapsing water company. Private investors want tens of millions in environment fines written off. They also demand a reduction in environmental infrastructure investment until 2023. Because of course these vultures do.
Corporate ghouls are now using the threat of possible Burnham leadership bid to scare prime minister Keir Starmer into signing the ridiculous deal. And let’s be honest, Starmer’s spine bends to corporations at the slightest bit of pressure.
Burnham: 59% 706 members, 14-16 May
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 18, 2026
NEW: A YouGov poll of Labour members shows Andy Burnham would beat Keir Starmer in a leadership contest
Starmer: 37%
Don't know: 4%
These corporate parasites claim special administration would create unnecessary instability for the supply chain. In short, the public get the shitty end of the stick. But this panic is entirely artificial because Burnham is far from the socialist saviour that the mainstream media wants you to think.
Thames Water is suffocating under £17.6bn worth of debt which the company has accumulated since it was privatised. The company is drowning in debt, yet previous owners and capitalists have sucked billions out of it in dividends. Private shareholders got fat on massive payouts whilst leaving us to inherit a dried out husk and polluted waterways.
He’s not a saviour, he’s a very naughty boy
The media and capitalist parasites are trying to paint Burnham as some kind of ‘socialist saviour’ but nothing could be further from the truth. Canary author Willem Moore highlights the difficult yet ambitious path Burnham will have to travel in order to be selected for the upcoming Makerfield byelection. Once securely in his Westminster seat, Burnham can challenge Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party.
He has used the success of his public-owned Bee Network buses in Manchester to build a political case for wider nationalisation. On Saturday we publicly argued that the UK must put utilities back under stronger public control. It sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? But don’t believe everything you hear…
But, Burnham has already stated he will not pursue proportional representation, and has fallen short of calling for full re-nationalisation of our utilities. Yes, we would have stronger control over them, but they would not be entirely ours.
Andy Burnham: “I don’t blame anyone who left our party. I don’t blame anyone who voted for other parties”.
“We need to renationalise water, energy and housing.” pic.twitter.com/lS5TXENvXG — Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) May 16, 2026
His own parliamentary voting record tells a story of soft-left politics that prioritises establishment compliance. And definitely not that of a radical overhaul the public so desperately needs. Burnham consistently voted for the Iraq war between 2002 and 2003. And of course, he then voted against investigations into the disastrous conflict.
Tellingly, in 2015, Burnham chose to abstain on the cruel Tory Welfare Reform Bill, which drove hundreds of thousands of people into poverty.
So, don’t believe the corporate fear-mongering you’re seeing in the mainstream media. Burnham may pay a good game publicly, but his voting record and actions show historically, he has always batted for the corporate team.
We, the public, need to reject corporate blackmail and the false promises of wannabe Labour leader Burnham. The UK needs real, full, collective ownership. We need a real leader who will tell these corporate parasites to get their teeth out of our utilities.
Featured image via the Canary
By Antifabot
Cate Blanchett has admitted that she isn’t feeling the impact of the #MeToo movement in her working life.
The two-time Oscar winner recently gave a talk at the Cannes Film Festival, where Variety reported that she said the movement – which saw many high-profile women speaking out about workplace harassment, abuse and gender-based discrimination in the late 2010s – “got killed very quickly”.
“There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me, and the so-called average woman on the street is saying #MeToo. Why does that get shut down?” she questioned.
“What [the #MeToo movement] revealed is a systemic layer of abuse, not only in this industry but in all industries, and if you don’t identify a problem, you can’t solve the problem.”
Cate claimed: “I’m still on film sets and I do the headcount every day, and it is still, you know… there’s 10 women and there’s 75 men every morning.
“I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same. You just have to brace yourself slightly.”
She added: “I’m used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace. I think it has an effect on the work.”
Back in 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Cate was one of 82 women who protested on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet the same year she served as the event’s jury president.
This number was chosen to represent the 82 female directors who’d been showcased at the festival at the time, compared to their 1,866 male peers.
“Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of the industry says otherwise,” she was quoted as saying at the time.
More recently, the Australian performer admitted last year that she was “serious about giving up acting” after, in her words, spending “a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable”.
Real Madrid have agreed a two‑year deal to bring Jose Mourinho back as head coach. An announcement is expected after the club’s final game and his contract reportedly includes an option for a further year.
Mourinho returns to a volatile dressing room
Madrid have moved to reappoint Mourinho, 13 years after his first spell at the Bernabéu, in a bid to restore stability after a trophyless season and a string of off‑field incidents. The deal is for two years with an option for a third, and the club plans a formal unveiling once the season finishes.
Florentino Pérez and the board appear to have prioritised experience and authority over a long‑term rebuild. Mourinho’s previous Real Madrid tenure (2010–13) included a La Liga title in 2012, and his relationship with the club’s president is well documented.
Mourinho is currently Benfica manager; his contract there reportedly contains a buy‑out clause of around £2.6m, which allows him to leave after an unbeaten league campaign that finished with Benfica third in Portugal. Sky Sports understands Mourinho will bring four coaches from Benfica to Madrid, signalling he intends to transplant much of his existing backroom structure.
Immediate challenges waiting at the Bernabéu
Squad cohesion is the headline problem. Real Madrid’s season was undermined by internal tensions and a high‑profile altercation that required medical attention for a first‑team player. Mourinho’s mandate will be to reimpose discipline and clear lines of authority.
Tactically, Mourinho inherits a squad that has underperformed in LaLiga and exited the Champions League earlier than expected. He will need to balance short‑term fixes with the club’s long‑term transfer and development plans.
What to expect next
• Official announcement: expected after Real Madrid’s final league fixture.
• Backroom changes: four Benfica coaches likely to join, suggesting a rapid overhaul of training and match‑day routines.
• Contract length: two years, with a possibility for a third; Mourinho’s Benfica clause makes the move financially straightforward.
This is a pragmatic, short‑term appointment aimed at restoring order and delivering immediate results rather than signalling a full strategic reset. Mourinho brings experience and a proven ability to impose structure, but he also brings a style and intensity that will test a squad already under strain.
Featured image via Getty Images/Angel Martinez
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