Connect with us
DAPA Banner
DAPA Coin
DAPA
COIN PAYMENT ASSET
PRIVACY · BLOCKDAG · HOMOMORPHIC ENCRYPTION · RUST
ElGamal Encrypted MINE DAPA
🚫 GENESIS SOLD OUT
DAPAPAY COMING

Politics

Unison gen-sec: Labour is ushering in fascist Reform UK

Published

on

Andrea Egan speaking at the 2026 Unison health conference wearing her Unison lanyard and standing infront of a mic

Andrea Egan speaking at the 2026 Unison health conference wearing her Unison lanyard and standing infront of a mic

Andrea Egan, who took over in January as general secretary of Unison, has said that the Starmer government is ushering far-right Reform UK into power.

The comments come as Unison’s annual conference begins today.

Left-winger Egan ousted Christine McAnea in a vote of Unison members. McAnea had long been accused of prioritising the Labour right’s manoeuvres over the interests and democracy of Unison members.

This week’s conference is Egan’s first in her new role. In an interview with the BBC’s Iain Watson, she said that the union had been a “sleeping giant” that had been “subservient” to Starmer’s Labour for far too long.

Advertisement

Unison has been “handing money over to the Labour Party and getting absolutely nothing in return”, Egan claimed.

She added that she had been “frank” with Labour that it was betraying the people it is meant to be serving.

I have been very frank with the government. When Labour came into power there was a sense of relief. But sadly we’ve been left wanting.

Communities are really struggling. They [Labour] haven’t delivered and my election demonstrated that members were desperate to have their voices heard.

Unison’s Egan says Labour must deliver on promises

The union boss also told Watson that Starmer is on track to “hand the keys to No10 to Reform”.

Advertisement

I have spoken out clearly about the threat Reform brings. It isn’t us that will hand the keys to No10 to Reform —  it’s them, unless they change course. And drastically.

They’ve got to start introducing progressive policies. Investment in infrastructure, pay restoration, better services, insourcing. They need to ensure that they deliver on promises they made when they came into government.

Egan is right but also wrong. If Starmer’s Labour carried anything of what Labour is meant to be, there might be a prospect of the party changing — if only to retain power, if not to actually serve ordinary people. But the only thing Starmer’s zombie party has in common with the Corbyn party that it replaced is the brand.

Starmer’s entire purpose in taking over was to end Labour as any prospect of change for the better.

Instead, his party is owned by and run for elite interests — those of corporate privatisers, the arms industry and the Israel lobby.

Advertisement

Starmer’s personal and policy record in Downing Street and even before that is appalling. So appalling that a reasonable person could very easily conclude that Starmer is actively trying to end Labour as a political force and “hand the keys” to the far right.

Do not underestimate the damage Reform will do

Egan shows every sign of under-estimating the threat Reform poses. She cites Farage’s plans to attack workers and the NHS, but Reform would also wage war on minorities and human rights and launch a fire sale of what little remains in public ownership.

But in that, Farge is barely distinguishable from Starmer, who hardly even bothers to try to window-dress his own racism, authoritarianism and lust for privatisation.

Egan was expelled by Starmer’s cronies in 2022 when she was Unison’s elected president. It was an unambiguous show of Starmer’s contempt for the union movement if it won’t serve his interests.

Advertisement

Nothing has changed — not for the better, at any rate. Yet, Watson says, Egan “insists that she has only ever been a Labour member — and it wasn’t her choice to leave”.

The time to separate from Labour is now

Watson’s article notes that in 2027, Unison members will vote on whether to end the union’s affiliation to Starmer’s party. Unison currently pays more than £1 million a year to Labour. That will leave just two years — at most — before the general election at which Egan expects Labour to roll out the turquoise carpet for Farage to enter No.10.

Starmer’s record and the short time remaining to build up a genuine opponent to the fascist right — whether the fascists are wearing red, blue or turquoise rosettes — means waiting another year is unconscionable.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, even if he succeeds in this week’s Makerfield by-election and in deposing Starmer, is signalling that he would only put a personality on most of the same awful policies.

Advertisement

Unison, like the entire union movement, needs to disaffiliate now and put its money and resources behind a left party with a genuine chance to stop them. After the self-inflicted implosion of Your Party, that means the Greens. There’s no time for dithering.

Featured image via Unison

By Skwawkbox

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Politics

107 MPs call for Special Administration of Thames Water as government blocks rescue deal

Published

on

A Thames Water van

A Thames Water van

107 MPs, including 42 Labour MPs, have signed an open letter to Ofwat and the environment secretary, calling on them to reject the latest deal put forward by Thames Water’s creditors, and bring the private water company into Special Administration.

This comes as environment secretary Emma Reynolds has written to Ofwat to object to the Thames Water creditors’ proposal deal to take over the utility.

Thames Water is on the brink of financial collapse. Thames Water’s creditors have been negotiating with Ofwat to determine the future of the utility since June 2025.

As part of the proposed deal, the creditors want to waive fines until 2030. Pollution, leakage and other performance targets would be suspended or ‘significantly modified’. The creditors also want to raise bills for households beyond the level currently set by Ofwat.

Advertisement

The open letter expresses a concern that allowing Thames Water to set its own rules would create a dangerous precedent for all of England’s privatised water companies. The company caused almost a third of the water sector’s most harmful pollution incidents in 2025.

The letter argues that by taking Thames Water into Special Administration, this government can secure a better deal for the public purse by writing off a greater proportion of the utility’s debt.

We Own It co-ordinated the open letter, which has gained signatures from MPs across political parties, including:

  • Jack Rankin, Conservative MP for Windsor.
  • Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent West.
  • Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
  • Hannah Spencer, Green MP for Gorton and Denton.

It also comes as potential Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham states that public ownership is “what should be done” for Thames Water.

Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It, said:

Advertisement

The average water bill in England is now £639. During a cost of living crisis, households have no choice but to pay more and more for a broken service and sewage-filled rivers.

Yet Thames Water wants to be rewarded for its abysmal failure with a regulatory holiday. And they want us to foot the bill.

The government is absolutely right to block this deal. Members of the public, who pay for and depend upon our water system, and the MPs who represent them are clearly opposed to a deal which puts the interests of US hedge funds ahead of billpayers and our environment.

By taking Thames Water into Special Administration, we can slash the debts and give billpayers and the environment a fair deal.

From there, this government must place Thames Water into permanent public ownership.

Advertisement

Special administration of Thames Water must be the beginning of the end of our water system being used as an ATM for faraway shareholders. Under public ownership, we can put billpayers and the environment first.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Environment secretary writes to Ofwat calling out Thames Water deal

Published

on

ofwat under pressure over Thames Water's mounting debt

ofwat under pressure over Thames Water's mounting debt

Thames Water is now even closer to temporary nationalisation after the government objected to a £10bn rescue proposal from its creditors.

Ofwat, the UK water regulator, is also feeling the heat, after Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds penned a letter to the watchdog criticising the lenders’ offering. She warns it would fail both the environment and customers.

‘A holiday from the rules’

Thames Water has teetered on the edge of ruin for several years, at this point. It’s currently buried under £20bn in debt, and has faced record fines for dumping untreated sewage into England’s waterways.

The company will run out of money completely in October, at which point it will enter Special Administration (i.e. government control). Back in January, pollster Survation found that 54% of Thames Water’s customers supported the nationalisation measure, vs just 19% who wanted the company to remain in private hands.

Advertisement

However, London & Valley Water (LVW) — a Frankenstein’s monster of financiers who own Thames Water’s debt-tabled a deal with Ofwat. Now, time is against LVW here. Ofwat would have to put its deal up for three months of public scrutiny, and also obtain the High Court’s sign-off.

Under the current proposal, first set out in June 2025, LVW have offered to erase £9.4bn of Thames Water’s debt. The proposal also included £3.35bn cash and £6.55bn new debt facility before 2030. However, in return, LVW asked for permission to effectively ignore pollution and performance targets.

Understandably, the bogus deal has attracted massive criticism from campaign groups. We Own It, for example, urged MPs to sign an open letter demanding a rejection of the deal. The group stated that:

Thames Water’s creditors want a holiday from the rules, and they want us to pick up the bill.

Ofwat fails consumers

Then, on 15 June, environment secretary Emma Reynolds added the government’s weight to the objections. She wrote to Ofwat, calling the rescue proposal a “weak” response to “15 years of mismanagement and failure”. Likewise, she highlighted that it would place an “undue burden” on Thames Water’s customers.

Advertisement

The government has previously stated outright that it would prefer a “market-based solution” to Special Administration measures. As such, the fact that the environment secretary stepped in to offer criticism is a mark of how truly abysmal this deal really is.

Commenting on the intervention, Reynolds stated that:

I have written to Ofwat to set out my early concerns that the creditors’ proposals don’t do enough to protect consumers and the environment.

In response, LVW made a thinly veiled threat that any other option would result in higher water bills:

All other routes offer significantly worse outcomes for customers and the environment. Our proposals do not anticipate any increase in customer bills beyond those set out by Ofwat.

‘Let us keep dumping sewage or we’ll jack up the prices’ doesn’t exactly sound like good-faith negotiations to us. For context, Thames Water recently hiked bills by a massive 35%, which a vast majority of customers deemed unreasonable.

Advertisement

Ofwat is expected to make a decision on the deal by July at the latest. This is necessary in order to allow time for public scrutiny before Thames Water finally goes bust in October.

As both the public and the government has now urged, it must reject this awful deal and uphold its duty to protect both the environment and the consumers who are being held to ransom by Thames Water and its creditors.

Featured image via the Canary 

By Grace

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Labour’s authoritarian cabinet would be decimated in an election

Published

on

Starmer

Starmer Labour

The ruling Labour cabinet would face decimation if there was an election today. And if opponents to its left could join forces against the increasingly authoritarian Labour, the UK would stand a much better chance of stopping the far right from entering government and building on Keir Starmer’s legacy of repression.

The good news is that polling shows we have a real chance to throw the vacuous corporate lackeys of Starmer’s cabinet out of power. Labour has:

From the Greens to the Lib Dems, and from the SNP and Plaid Cymru to independents, the prediction is that people to the left of Labour will abandon it in massive numbers.

We could be celebrating the losses of awful Labour right-wingers like Rachel Reeves, Steve Reed, Yvette Cooper, and David Lammy. And although Wes Streeting isn’t in the cabinet anymore, we could celebrate his exit too:

Advertisement

The bad news, of course, is Reform. Because the far-right party hasn’t just been biting chunks out of the Conservative Party. It has also used its dodgy billionaire money to convince people in neglected working-class communities to ignore its hateful divisiveness and send Labour a message.

Advertisement

If people to the left of Labour manage to coordinate their resistance, though, a Reform-Tory government isn’t inevitable.

Unite the left, and Labour could lose even worse

While the polling shows lots of Labour cabinet members losing their seats, it also shows some who could still remain MPs. Those are James Murray, Keir Starmer, Peter Kyle, Heidi Alexander, Douglas Alexander, Alan Campbell, and Emma Reynolds.

Starmer, however, absolutely can lose. That would just require a deal between independent left-wingers and the Greens to make sure there is no splitting of progressive votes:

Advertisement

Murray could potentially lose Ealing North too, if Greens and Independents can join campaigning forces. There are other areas in London and cities around the country where this may also be the case.

In some places, the Green Party is the strongest opponent to Labour. In Hove and Portslade, for example, it could defeat prominent Labour Friend of Israel Peter Kyle if it benefits from some of the energetic Independent campaigning of 2024.

Advertisement

In Scotland, Douglas Alexander could lose Lothian East to the SNP if Greens could help to tip it over the line. In fact, some kind of anti-Labour deal between the two could throw Labour out of Scotland entirely by taking Edinburgh South too.

With Campbell in Tynemouth, Reynolds in Wycombe, and Heidi Alexander in Swindon South, Reform is currently Labour’s main challenger.

In short, Starmer’s Labour could lose even worse. And left-wingers could benefit from that in some places. But to stop both Reform and Labour, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Different strategies will work in different places, and different parties are more likely to win.

Everyone to the left of Labour needs to find a way to work together asap. And changing our voting system should be a key point to unify us. Because making our electoral system proportional is the best hope for stopping the far right and ending Labour-Tory dominance.

Advertisement

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

In pictures: protesters mount demo for tortured prisoners outside Israeli embassy

Published

on

ISraeli embassy

ISraeli embassy

Human rights activists have mounted a protest against Israel’s abduction and torture of thousands of Palestinians. And it did so right outside the Israeli embassy last Saturday, 13 June 2026.

Protest at the Israeli embassy

The Red Ribbons campaign aims to make sure that the illegally detained, tortured – and often raped – overwhelmingly civilian detainees are not forgotten. Their protest at the Israeli embassy was photographed by activist cameraman BetterThanReal, who kindly provided them to the Canary. It included a bloodied re-enactment with activists representing some of the huge number of bound and abused prisoners held indefinitely in Israeli torture camps:







Protesters also drew attention to the ongoing, 18-month imprisonment and torture of Gaza medical director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and to the plight of women and children held as hostages by Israel:




Palestinian prisoners and their families told TRT World earlier this month some of the horrors they faced while detained without charge:

Advertisement

Double standard

Around ten thousand Palestinians are currently held in these camps facing sexual torture, rape and even the use of dogs to rape. Western governments and media fanned a moral panic over a couple of hundred Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza who were well treated and faced more danger from their own side. But thousands of tortured and raped Palestinians barely registers as the west colludes in Israel’s racist, terrorist colonial project.

Featured image via the Canary

Advertisement

By Skwawkbox

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Sinister Labour MP wants to ‘finish the job’ on assisted dying

Published

on

assisted dying Laura Edwards

assisted dying Laura Edwards

The Labour MP who has launched another attempt to rush assisted dying through parliament has urged the Lords to ‘finish the job’. Labour MP for Rochester and Strood Laura Edwards is attempting to push assisted dying through parliament again using dirty tricks.

Dirty tricks again on assisted dying

Under the Parliament Act, if the same bill is passed by MPs in two consecutive parliamentary sessions, peers have no power to stop it. While Lords can suggest amendments, there’s also no requirement for the Commons to pass them.

And here’s the worst part: if the Lords don’t agree to pass the bill and it gets talked out by the end of the parliamentary session, it becomes law by default.

Advertisement

The original Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, was voted through by MPs after Kim Leadbeater used every weapon she could to stop those concerned about coercion and disabled people voicing opposition. At every turn Leadbeater painted opposition as anti-choice, as opposed to disabled people terrified for our community.

It then went to the Lords, where those for the assisted dying bill, including media shills, tried to tear down those attempting to bring amendments.

In the Lords, so many Peers wanted to speak that the debate had to be spread over two days, with two-thirds of speakers being against the bill. It progressed to committee stage, where the corrupt committee restricted evidence.

After that it went back to the lords, where Falconer casually said that both pregnant people and poor people would be allowed assisted deaths. The bill eventually ran out of time, as so many peers wanted to scrutinise it, which again was criticised.

Advertisement

Lauren Edwards is as bloodthirsty as Leadbeater

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Edwards said she was ‘playing by the rules’ and asking the Lords to do the same regarding the assisted dying bill.

She said:

Laws passed in the House of Commons are then refined by the House of Lords, but they don’t have the opportunity to block them.

It’s perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job.

To be clear, this is a law that would usher in state-supported euthanisation for disabled people. If I were attempting to be an architect for this, I probably wouldn’t have used a phrase that makes me sound like a blood thirsty ghoul, but you do you, Lauren.

Advertisement

Furthermore, it’s not really ‘playing fair’ if you’re taking away the other team’s powers, is it?

By using this loophole, Edwards has to use the exact same assisted dying bill Leadbeater introduced, which means there would be no protection for anyone vulnerable from being coerced into it. As Labour MP Ashley Dalton pointed out, we can’t expect the ‘for’ side to be open to commons amendments either, as they rejected them all last time

Dalton replied to a tweet suggesting MPs use this as a new opportunity to ‘fix it rather than criticise it’ with:

Commons Committee tried, but almost all amendments were rejected by the proponents of the bill. The proponents even brought 77 amendments themselves to the Lords it was in such a bad state when it left the Common. Remains to be seen if they incorporate any of these in the new bill.

Edwards hasn’t listened

It seems that Edwards cockily thinks she can rely on the Commons to vote for the same assisted dying bill twice. However, MPs have had over a year to realise they were rushed into a terrible decision. That while many people support assisted dying in theory, anyone who looks at the bill can see how flawed and lacking in safeguards it is.

Advertisement

One things for sure, disabled people have another fight on our hands. But Labour should already know we will not quietly let them kill us.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Brighton fascists try to fake respectability, whilst hiding the extreme violent reality

Published

on

Brighton far-right racist protest

Brighton far-right racist protest

Brighton stood up against far-right intimidation on 13 June 2026 as thousands of anti-fascists massively outnumbered a South East Patriots march. The Carnival Against Fascism mobilisation was stunning to see, and blocked the racist scumbags at every single turn.

Wandering around with the far-right, I observed an obvious disconnect between the far-right’s public branding and the unfiltered racism of its members. In short, brighton proved its resilience and commitment to standing up to hate.

The performance of innocence

The South East Patriots tried so hard to project a respectable public image for the cameras. I struggled to get myself into their crowd, as policemen had blocked off the four main streets. But they didn’t cover the tiny side streets. Wandering into a street packed with leering men, a sea of flags, and empty beer cans was nothing new. But the banner “Calling people racist when they don’t agree with you is getting really boring” was.

A sign a far-right protester is holding up which is black and red font on a white background which reads: Calling people racist when they don't agree with you is getting really boring.
One of the signs on the far-right side

Sh*t like that reeks of desperation. Away from the cameras, the language quickly became that of the most disgusting white supremacy. Let’s be honest, fascists love throwing out slurs and the crowd in Brighton was no different. But watching a young teen calling someone a “sand rat” whilst laughing with his dad hit home.

The dehumanisation of Black and Brown people permeates the entire movement. They can claim what they want through their banners. However, the language these thugs dispense daily, in person, confirms their deep-seated racial hatred towards people they don’t even know.

Advertisement

When Black and Brown people consistently warn us that these marches threaten their entire existence, we need to listen, because it’s getting worse in Brighton especially.

Under the lying banners

The aggression is never just verbal. Speaking to one of them, he took a sip of his Peroni, looked me dead in the eye, and said something that shocked me so much, it nearly blew my cover. He pointed across the police line at the thousands of anti-fascists stood in opposition, picked one lad stood at the front and said:

“I swear, if I had cancer, I’d take a gun and shoot every one of them on the other side, starting with that Black c**t”

This is the very real danger of the modern far-right. They don’t want a political debate. They want a war and view that anyone who isn’t white is a target for eradication.

The crowd also actively weaponised the teeny space they occupied. One woman openly boasted about carrying a large supply of stink bombs. She dropped a bunch of them whilst wandering through the Antifa crowd, handing them out for people to throw over the police line. It was silly of her to offer me over half as they got binned.

Advertisement

“Hyper-masculinity” and hostility

The demographic makeup of the fascist assembly was, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly male. You know, the typical lads, above the age of thirty with bald heads and shit lion tattoos. Out of around 300 fash there, I saw less than 30 women. This gender imbalance matches wider research by Hope Not Hate which shows far-right spaces rely on this weird hyper-masculine posturing. Aggression, dominance and an inability to listen, you know the type. Clearly, brighton’s experience reflects disturbing national trends.

A bald man with his shirt off giving a thumbs up to the antifascist crowd. He is wearing black joggers and shoes. Behind him in the police cordon with police vans. All around him are other people.
I mean, probably could have kept that shirt on.

During the violent far-right riots in Ballymena, 36% of the men arrested had previously been reported for domestic abuse. And 41% of those nicked during wider riots had prior domestic abuse records. So if they’re willing to beat their partners, what the hell can they do to people they don’t know?

The few women present in Brighton were paraded at the front. One woman draped in a flag shouted into a megaphone to lead the chants at one point. The far-right use their women as a shield to appear less threatening, even while the males around them project intense physical aggression.

This aggression targets anyone who doesn’t play ball. The amount of times they screamed at me to take off my mask got boring. They completely fail to see those protecting their health or privacy through face coverings. They view masks as nothing more a marker of infiltration.

Ruined march exposes two-tier policing

Their weird street posturing quickly broke down as Antifa blockades derailed their schedule. We turned their march into a slow, sluggish crawl as they were rightly cut off at every turn. Must have been upsetting, listening to FatBoy Slim play a secret DJ set, whilst being trapped under a bridge.

Advertisement

But whilst our community stalled the thugs, the police response exposed a dark double-standard. Officers handled the far-right with kid gloves, matching their aggression with little more than shouting and the occasional shove.

A police officer screaming at the camera. He is at the entrance to Brighton Train Station and he is brandishing his baton.
Bit heavy handed there, eh officer?

But anti-racism protesters were met with outright aggression. After being rumbled by Nick Tenconi’s security team, I was forced to leg-it and rejoin our side for safety.

At one point, me and a friend were walking casually towards a police line when the copper instantly withdrew his baton. This heavy handed approach from the state made one thing very clear — the police reserve their violent intimidation tactics for people opposing fascism.

Brighton, you did everyone proud on Saturday. The incredible show of love and solidarity was one of the most stunning I have seen. But the far-right demonstration showed me that this love isn’t enough.

As the far-right grow more desperate, we must be prepared and equipped to prevent this behaviour from spiralling.

Advertisement

Featured images via AntifaBot

By Antifabot

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Israel propagandists seize on Iran deal to push deeper India-Israel links

Published

on

israel india

israel india

Finally, Indian PM Narendra Modi’s “blind devotion” to Israel is being questioned. However, Israel propagandists like Eylon Levy, The Times of Israel, and Jewish Insider are pushing deeper links to Israel.

In India, Jairam Ramesh, Congress Party’s spokesperson, welcomed the unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which would bring relief to India. But he also cautioned that deeper economic challenges remain unresolved.

And, in a demonstration of staunch opposition, the Congress Party have also said that Modi should reconsider his “blind devotion and unconditional support” for Israel. And the party have also accused Modi of not representing India’s national interests, and demanded a more balanced approach.

Pakistan’s role as a mediator is being seen in India as a “monumental failure” of Modi’s foreign policy, for a country that pioneered the non-aligned movement.

Advertisement

The Wire reported:

India lost its moral guardrails; its outrageous pro-America/Israel stand on UN resolutions would have given Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru sleepless nights even in the tranquil heavens. India thought it would earn brownie points for being part of Trump’s tutored school choir. Trump instead saw India as an easy pushover. Enter Pakistan. The rest is history.

Zionist pitch for deeper India-Israel ties

Meanwhile, Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for Israel, posted on X that India should deepen its military and economic ties with Israel and abandon its “unsustainable” neutrality in the face of the Iran deal, which he called a “disaster for India.”

It is no accident that India’s right-wing are fervent supporters of Israel, united as they are by Islamophobia. The fact the Iran deal elevates Pakistan also threatens the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) trade corridor, and endangers Indian workers in the Gulf.

The Times of Israel and Jewish Insider are both supporting what they call “India, Israel, and the UAE: The New Power Triangle in the Middle East.”

Advertisement

Jewish Insider said that “alignments” between Israel, the UAE, and India had created new opportunities for cooperation, citing the May defence pact between India and the UAE.

The Times of Israel frames India as a country that engages with Iran through forums like BRICS while also expanding defense and economic cooperation with Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. It discusses IMEC as an opportunity facing challenges amid regional tensions.

Indian seafarers killed by the USA

The death of Indian seafarers in US attacks on commercial ships navigating through the Strait of Hormuz has sparked outrage across India’s political spectrum, with all opposition parties condemning the “dastardly attack” and accusing the US of acting like a “gangster trying to impose its hegemony over the entire world.”

In a joint statement, CPI(M), CPI, CPI (ML), and others demanded that the Modi government ensure proper compensation to the families of the slain seafarers and pursue all diplomatic means to punish those responsible, while calling on the people of India to protest against US aggression.

They call Modi’s government “junior partner” to the US, failing in its duty to protect Indian citizens, and reneging on India’s longstanding tradition of an independent foreign policy.

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi called Modi an “obedient servant” and “compromised” by foreign powers.

The Guardian also reported that the “seemingly blase” response from the US government to the killing of the sailors has been the cause of great consternation in India.

Modi and Trump are expected to meet during the current G-7 summit in France. Will US/Israel axis propagandists have won or not – time will tell.

Advertisement

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Disabled kids who get DLA not disabled enough for PIP

Published

on

A disabled teenage girl, wearing lipstick to match her autumnal high neck top and tartan dress, looks at the camera with a neutral expression from her wheelchair in a studio

A disabled teenage girl, wearing lipstick to match her autumnal high neck top and tartan dress, looks at the camera with a neutral expression from her wheelchair in a studio

The number of disabled children who are kicked off benefits when they are reassessed as an adult has doubled in two years.

Under the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) rules, children get disability living allowance (DLA) until they are 16. Instead of just automatically moving on to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), they then have to reapply.

It should be a straightforward process, but because PIP is a needlessly cruel system, many find it harder to qualify for.

Disabled kids suddenly not disabled at 16

Information service, Benefits and Work, examined the statistics on moving from Child DLA to PIP on DWP StatXplore. Its team found that between 2023 and 2025, the rate of failure doubled.

Advertisement

From August to October 2023, 11% of claimants who had received DLA failed the assessment to get PIP. But for the same quarter in 2025, the failure rate had jumped to 23%.

Those are the most recent stats available, so the situation could be much worse by now.

Not only that, but success rates where the claimant gets more money with PIP than they did from DLA have also fallen.

Between August and October 2023, 69% of claimants saw an increase in their award from moving to PIP. But in the same quarter in 2025, this increase rate was 54%.

Advertisement

So, despite there being no changes to the PIP assessment yet, it’s clearly already a ridiculous system to qualify for, if there’s such a discrepancy between children getting DLA and over-16s getting PIP. A young person’s disabilities don’t magically disappear on their 16th birthday.

Higher poverty rates

It’s especially worrying to see that so many disabled young people are left without support once they turn 16, when you consider how many disabled children live in poverty.

The children’s charity Variety found that 21,000 disabled children live in temporary accommodation. This equates to one out of every eight children facing homelessness.

It’s also important to consider that temporary accommodation often cannot meet the needs of disabled people.

Advertisement

Temporary accommodation is supposed to be a short-term fix, but Variety found that, on average, disabled children spend six to 10 months in temporary housing. Some cases exceeded six years.

Whilst there have been no policy changes since 2023, there has been a sustained campaign by the Tories and then Labour to demonise benefits claimants.

These latest statistics evidence another way that the DWP is trying to make life harder for people with disabilities.

Featured image via cottonbro studio

Advertisement

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Reform councillors suggest they’d vote for Jimmy Saville

Published

on

Reform councillors standing next to a man holding a sign which reads 'I would rather vote for Jimmy Saville than Labour'

Reform councillors standing next to a man holding a sign which reads 'I would rather vote for Jimmy Saville than Labour'

Two of Reform’s Wigan councillors have been pictured with a sign that reads “I would rather vote for Jimmy Saville than Labour”. The problem with that statement is it implies the people standing by it would vote for Jimmy Saville. The problem with that is the fact that Saville was a notorious paedophile:

Reform ignore crimes of Jimmy Saville

Here at the Canary, we’ve been as critical of Starmer as anyone. Arguably, we’ve been more critical, because we’ve been pointing out his flaws and deceptions since before he became Labour leader.

As bad as Starmer is, he’s clearly not worse than Jimmy f*cking Saville. You could argue that Starmer’s position as PM gives him a greater ability to cause damage, but that argument falls down when you’re saying you’d vote for Saville to replace him.

Advertisement

While Saville has once again become something of a joke, this man was a serious offender. 450 people accused him of sexual abuse. 82% of the victims were female; 80% of them were children. Saville used his position as a children’s entertainer to get away with this, as well as his connections within the media and charity sectors. He was a plague on this country, and no one should forget that.

Reform politicians have tried to paint themselves as the party which will tackle ‘grooming gangs’. Farage and his underlings told us the other parties don’t take the issue seriously, and yet here they are laughing about the most prolific sexual abuser of the past century.

Advertisement

“Reform Will Fix It’

This isn’t the only time that Reform has shown an unusual interest in Saville. In March this year, the party decided to borrow the dead paedophile’s ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ catchphrase:

Advertisement

Even some of their far-right supporters took issue with this, which is presumably why they’d later drop the catchphrase:

Reform’s cynicism around abuse doesn’t end there either. As we’ve reported:

Advertisement

There’s also this:

If you’re unfamiliar with Andrew Tate, here’s a video of him explaining the techniques he used to traffic women:

Advertisement

Unsurprising

Given all of the above, it’s not surprising that a Reform supporter would rather vote for Saville than Starmer. If anything, it seems like some people who support Farage just wouldn’t have a problem with Saville full stop.

Advertisement

These are not people who take abuse seriously, and as time goes on, that couldn’t be more obvious.

Featured image via Twitter

By Willem Moore

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

PSC’s Jamal demands apology from Board of Deputies

Published

on

Ben Jamal

Ben Jamal

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal has demanded an apology and retraction from Israel lobby group Board of Deputies (BOD) for its smears against anti-apartheid protesters. The BOD (like the Met Police) had attacked Jewish activists protesting outside a London synagogue hosting the sale of stolen Palestinian land — a reference to Israel’s illegal settlements — but the BOD brazenly denied the event was selling stolen land.

Marketing stolen land

But it was selling stolen land. This is a fact that even corporate state media has now been forced to acknowledge. This should surprise no one paying attention.

Moreover, Israeli settlers have even been marketing land in southern Lebanon. This is land that Israel doesn’t control yet.

But for the ‘mainstream media’ to admit it, however unwillingly, is conclusive. Prioritising the feelings of Israel’s supporters as usual, the BOD claimed to be “deeply disturbed” at the “wholly unjustified” protests. It also demanded tough action from police against protesters:

Advertisement
We are deeply disturbed at the wholly unjustified protest called for th is morning outside a North-West London synagogue. The event organisers have publicly refuted claims that the event is marketing real estate over the Green Line. It is very disappointing that MPs and other public figures have not acknowledged this and instead inflamed tensions through partial and misleading commentary. Protesting at a synagogue based on false pretences seems to be little more than an excuse to harass and intimidate members of the Jewish community. We have been in touch with the Metropolitan Police calling for protesters to be kept from intimidating members of the community, to police robustly any examples of hate speech, and to provide reassurance to the local community. New measures under the Crime and Policing Act, called for by the Board and community partners, will from the end of the month give police new powers to impose conditions on protests near places of worship. We are calling on the police to ensure such protests are kept a significant distance from places of worship to prevent intimidation to members of the Jewish community. Adrian Cohen Acting President

Don’t hold your breath

But the BOD has not, at the time of writing, retracted its smears or even deleted its post. It has certainly not apologised for smearing protesters who were entirely in the right. So Jamal has tagged in the BOD directly. This is to ensure it has no excuse for not being aware of the fact its falsehood has been exposed. Additionally, he quoted the BOD’s smear and called for an immediate retraction and apology:

Skwawkbox hopes that Mr Jamal is not holding his breath. The BOD found time to welcome the Court of Appeals’ decision to undermine UK human and civil rights by upholding the Starmer regime’s ban on Palestine Action. However, it didn’t find time to address its own dishonesty on the Israel land sale. This is no surprise. The BOD says it exists to promote Israel. Yet politicians and ‘mainstream’ media organisations treat it as though it represents all British Jews. Nevertheless, many of whom oppose Israel and its crimes — rather than Israel.

And many of those politicians and media outlets, along with other Israel lobby groups, have spent the weekend attacking the protesters for ‘targeting Jews’. It’s now beyond honest dispute that the protesters were opposing yet more land-theft by the coloniser ethno-state.

Just don’t hold your breath waiting for Israel’s supporters to acknowledge it.

Advertisement

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2025