Politics
Madonna’s Danceteria Lyrics: Who Is Everyone Mentioned In The Confessions II Song?
It’s a very exciting time to be a Madonna fan.
Not only has the Queen of Pop’s latest release Confessions II got some of the most glowing reviews in her 40-year career, she’s just topped the UK albums chart for the first time since 2012.
What’s more, Confessions II cut Danceteria has also become her first solo top 40 single on this side of the Atlantic, proving people are still up for hearing from the trail-blazing star even four decades into her career.
Hype around Danceteria was strong even before its release, after it was prominently featured in Madonna’s Confessions II short film, in a star-studded sequence featuring a host of A-list cameos.
Danceteria itself also namechecks a host of key figures from Madonna’s past, who she used to rub shoulders with at the titular nightclub before shooting to fame in the early 80s. Some of them were friends of hers from back in the day, some went on to achieve huge success in their art form, and some are even still in Madonna’s life all these years later.
With Danceteria quickly becoming one of Madonna’s most talked-about songs in years, we’re running through some of its lyrics with a quick guide to everyone who gets a mention in the song…
‘Meet this boy called Martin Burgoyne, he’s my best friend, he’s my Boy Toy…’
Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
A visual artist who was a pivotal part of the downtown art scene in 80s New York, Martin Burgoyne befriended a young Madonna at Danceteria and later became her roommate.
The two worked together numerous times in the early years of her career, and after years of friendship, he eventually became one of the first people in her life to die from AIDS-related causes.
During the final stages of his life, Madonna paid for Martin’s medical bills, as well as an apartment for him that meant he could be nearer St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he received his treatment.
She later paid tribute to him on her Erotica album track In This Life, and in 2023, when Madonna turned her song Live To Tell into a memorial to those who died in the AIDS crisis, Martin’s face was the first projected onto the stage.
“He was really cute: blond curly hair, earrings up his ears, plaid golf shorts, Doc Martens, black frames, and a white t-shirt with a sweater vest over it,” Madonna told Interview magazine earlier this year, while recalling their first meeting.
“He’s like, ‘You look lost’. And I was. He said, ‘Come with me. I’ll get you in’. And he just crashed to the front of the line.”
She added: “Everybody knew him. He said hi to everybody. The doorman opened the velvet rope. He brought me in and my whole life changed.”
‘Cut to the front, there’s Haoui Montaug…’
Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
Haoui Montaug ran the door at several iconic New York clubs, including the Tunnel, Studio 54 and, of course, Danceteria.
At Danceteria, he was also in charge of the club night No Entiendes, where Madonna performed her debut single Everybody back in 1983 (he can be seen introducing her at the beginning of the video below).
In the early 90s, after being diagnosed with AIDS, Haoui held what became known as a “suicide party” to say goodbye to his loved ones (including Madonna, who is reported to have attended over the phone) before taking his own life the following morning.
‘Get on the elevator, I run into Debi Mazar…’
DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Debi Mazar is an actor, TV personality and life-long friend of Madonna’s, having previously appeared in the music videos for hits like Papa Don’t Preach, True Blue and Music.
The two also met at Danceteria, where Debi used to work on the lift (as mentioned by Madonna in her lyrics).
As the singer put it to Interview magazine: “[Debi] was 16 when she was working there and lying about her age. She was going to the Wilfred Academy of Hair & Beauty Culture and we hit it off right away.
“She used to put the elevator on hold, like press the emergency button, and come out and dance with me.”
Madonna added: “She had the most incredible looks all the time. Her face was beat. Her hair was done. I kept going, ‘Damn, girl, how do you look so good? I have three pieces of clothing and I don’t even know how to do my makeup’.”
Debi also described Madonna as her best friend during an interview with Watch What Happens Live in the early 2010s.
Since her Danceteria days, Debi’s screen credits have included everything from the films Goodfellas, Empire Records and Malcolm X to the popular TV series L.A. Law, Entourage, Ugly Betty and Younger, plus lending her voice to Maria Latore in the Grand Theft Auto games.
Notably, she’s also the only person name-checked in Danceteria to also appear in its accompanying visual.
‘Then I see Mark Kamins is the DJ, he’s the DJ, hide the cocaine…’
Steve Eichner via Getty Images
As you can probably guess, Mark Kamins was one of the DJs at Danceteria at its heyday, who helped Madonna out majorly by playing a demo of her song Everybody, which eventually became her debut single, during a night out.
In Interview last month, Madonna claimed she specifically used to go to Danceteria in an attempt to “butter up” the DJ, with whom she’d briefly go on to work in the first years of her pre-fame career.
As she put it: “He saw me as a complete stalker. Someone would say, ‘There’s Mark Kamins’, and I’d go sit next to him and say, ‘Hey, I know you’re the DJ here and I’ve been working on this music and I’d love to get a chance to play it for you if it’s possible’.
“He was cute and I was turning on the charm as much as I could, and he’d be like, ‘Do you know how many people bother me about wanting to play me their demos?’. He left, but I kept harassing him. I just kept coming back.”
She continued: “Eventually I ended up in a bathroom with Mark Kamins, and I saw him snorting coke. He’s dead now. I can say that.
“He was a wonderful guy, but he did a lot of things people did in the ’80s that they shouldn’t have done. You know what I’m talking about […] So anyway, I brought him some coke in the bathroom, took him in the stalls, me and Debi […] So anyway, we made out, we did a little blow, and then he agreed to listen to my demo.”
‘There’s Fab 5 Freddy…’
Like many of the people name-checked in Danceteria, Fab 5 Freddy was a burgeoning artist in the era Madonna’s hit is set, at that time mostly dabbling in large-scale graffiti art.
He is now considered a pioneer in the hip-hop scene, and was previously name-checked in Blondie’s Rapture “rap” back in 1981, too, before putting together the film Wild Style and going on to become a VJ for MTV’s flagship hip-hop show.
‘…and Basquiat…’
Jean-Michel Basquiat is among the most influential artists of the 20th century, rising up through the New York graffiti scene before turning his hand more to painting in his own signature style.
He and Madonna dated in 1982, at a time they were both on the cusp of a breakthrough in their professional careers, though the future Queen of Pop said that his continued use of hard drugs was what ultimately led to the end of their relationship.
“He wouldn’t stop doing heroin,” she told Howard Stern decades later, adding: “He was an amazing man and deeply talented. I loved him.”
Madonna claimed that after their split, he made her return two paintings of his that he’d once gifted her, which she later learned he’d destroyed with black paint.
In 1988, he died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27.
‘…Keith Haring…’
Artist and activist Keith Haring’s distinct drawing style is immediately recognisable, and has been referenced in Madonna’s career dating all the way back to her Borderline video in 1984.
His work incorporated heavy themes including issues around race, drug misuse and the AIDS crisis, and is recognisable by its colourful and uniquely-shaped drawings of people and animals.
Keith died as a result of complications from AIDS in 1990. In 2023, he was also among the figures included in Madonna’s tribute to those lost in the AIDS epidemic on her Celebration world tour.
‘…and Kenny Scharf…’
Marc Patrick/BFA.com/Shutterstock
Another artist who came up with Madonna in her Danceteria days was Kenny Scharf, known for his distinctive style that sends up middle-class American iconography, often incorporating cartoon characters from his youth, like the Flintstones and Jetsons.
Still active today, he has turned his hand to various artforms over the years, including sculpture, video and even fashion, and was the subject of the 2020 documentary Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide.
‘Everyone came from Shafrazi – Sha-fra-zi, to the beat…’
Allan Tannenbaum via Getty Images
Art dealer Tony Shafrazi opened up his own gallery in the late 1970s, which quickly became a key space in the downtown art scene.
The Tony Shafrazi Gallery and Danceteria were both known as a hub for artists of that era (including many of them named in Madonna’s latest hit), eventually closing in 2014.
In more recent years, Shafrazi has become a more divisive figure in the art world due to his vocal support for Donald Trump.
‘There’s Maripol…’
Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
French fashion designer and stylist Maripol was an important figure in the early years of Madonna’s career, helping put together the image that would make her a global superstar.
Most notably, she styled the future chart-topper on her first two album covers, as well as in the music videos for hits Burning Up and Like A Virgin, as well as her inaugural tour, The Virgin Tour.
Outside of her work with Madonna, she’s also collaborated with musicians like Cher, Grace Jones, Sir Elton John and Blondie’s Deborah Harry.
‘…and a guy named Fred’
Alright, you’ve got us there.
Danceteria actually name-checks three different “Freds”, including the aforementioned Fab 5 Freddy and The B-52s’ frontman Fred Schneider, but quite who the mysterious “guy named Fred” is supposed to be is up for debate.
One contender suggested by fans on Reddit is the photographer Fred Seidman, who took Madonna’s pictures for the New York paper The Village Voice years before she made it big.
‘There’s Rock Steady Crew and Crazy Legs…’
During Madonna’s time partying at Danceteria, breakdancing was still very much on the come-up, with one of the artform’s most popular troupes being the Rock Steady Crew.
Their leader was Richard Colón, better known to fans as “Crazy Legs”, whose distinct moves made him one of breakdancing’s most influential figures.
‘Nile Rodgers…’
The co-founder of Chic was instrumental in some of the band’s biggest hits, including Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love and Le Freak.
While Nile Rodgers and Madonna moved in the same circles at Danceteria, interestingly, they wouldn’t work together until she’d already broken through, and he produced some of the biggest hits from her second album, most notably Material Girl, Like A Virgin and Dress You Up.
Still a huge figure in the pop music sphere, Nile Rodgers has quite literally worked with everyone, from Diana Ross, David Bowie and Duran Duran to Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. He and Chic are still staples on the festival scene, too.
‘…and David Byrne’
Most of us will know David Byrne best as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the avant-garde rock group Talking Heads, whose biggest hits include Once In A Lifetime, Burning Down The House and Psycho Killer.
Like Madonna, David Byrne is very much still making music, releasing his most recent album in 2025, in collaboration with Ghost Train Orchestra.
He’s also an Oscar winner thanks to his work on the score of the 1987 film The Last Emperor.
‘…the B-52s had money to burn’
Of course, the B-52s had their breakthrough a few years after Madonna with their seminal floor-filler Love Shack.
Quite why Madonna says they “had money to burn” in their Danceteria days remains to be seen, but at least frontman Fred Schneider appeared to see the funny side of it all.
‘Lounge Lizards had so much style…’
David Corio via Getty Images
Saxophonist John Lurie co-founded the band Lounge Lizards in the late 1970s, merging elements of jazz with other popular genres from that time, including punk, new wave and other avant-garde music.
Much like Madonna herself, the Lounge Lizards would often perform at Danceteria as well as frequenting it as patrons.
‘Lower East Side, take a walk on the wild side…’
Although she doesn’t reference him by name, Madonna’s “take a walk on the wild side” here nods to Lou Reed’s similarly-named hit.
To drive her point home, she then launches into the “do do do” section of Take A Walk On The Wild Side, which is why the late Lou Reed is also named as a co-writer on Danceteria.
Lou, of course, is a true icon of the music world, first coming up as a member of The Velvet Underground, before enjoying decades of solo success.
He died in 2013 at the age of 71, and continue to record and tour even in his final years.
Darline Graham Nordone, Lindsey Graham’s younger sister and close confidant, will serve the remainder of the late senator’s term in Washington.
“It’s my honor to ask his little sister Darline Graham to finish his work for him now,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday, formally appointing Nordone after recounting stories of Graham’s legacy.
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune both publicly expressed support for McMaster choosing Nordone as a tribute to Graham.
Her appointment as an interim caretaker triggers a wide-open race ahead of the Aug. 11 primary. Several Republicans are already weighing bids to take over Graham’s place as the GOP Senate nominee.
A video of a Muslim woman, Nora Mubarak, capturing a seagull in a white sheet in Grimsby has gone viral for the wrong reasons.
One of Britain’s self-styled “patriots” shared the video, with many claiming the woman was catching the bird to eat it — parroting the same racist theories that falsely accused immigrants in the US of eating pets.
However, Mubarak was actually doing a good deed in rescuing the seagull that had fallen from a roof. More footage shows her working with other locals — white locals, for the record — to reunite the gull with its mother.
Nevertheless, despite it being a load of nonsense pushed out to stir up racial hatred, the misinformation has reached far further than the truth.
This comes as another reminder that X has far too much power to shape perspectives and far too little regulation or accountability. A Brown woman’s safety was needlessly put at risk, without any reprisal, because of dangerous misinformation.
The first video posted by Active Patriot on X, with 5.2m views, is below.
At this rate we won't have any wildlife left — Active Patriot (@ActivePatriotUK) July 8, 2026
This has happened in my town Grimsby on the corner of Lord Street 
Poor Stephen 
pic.twitter.com/ydx7utmH0x
Muslims are too often victims of the ‘Robinson’ effect
Active Patriot’s misleading video, as has become pretty typical, was reshared by Tommy Robinson. As a result of the ‘Robinson effect’ and the size of these two bad actors’ followings, 8.1 million people saw the video and likely believed the nefarious suggestions made. They also received 69,000 likes with nearly 19,000 reposts.
Robinson made a disgusting suggestion that the video showed:
Invaders catching and killing gulls in broad daylight in “Modern England”.
Get these backwards people out!
In fairness to Active Patriot, he subsequently posted that he was mistaken. Tommy Robinson, of course, hasn’t felt inclined to do so because truth has never been very important to that weasel.
A video I shared yesterday of a woman catching a seagull in a blanket, was Not what it looked like, the woman in question was actually concerned for the small seagull after it has fell off the roof previously, as you can see in… https://t.co/X4ae0MxvCR pic.twitter.com/36ONNaUHu6
— Active Patriot (@ActivePatriotUK) July 9, 2026
WOMAN WAS RESCUING SEAGULL, NOT STEALING IT
X user admits he was ‘quick to judge’
The correction read:
WOMAN WAS RESCUING SEAGULL, NOT STEALING IT
A video I shared yesterday of a woman catching a seagull in a blanket, was Not what it looked like, the woman in question was actually concerned for the small seagull after it has fell off the roof previously, as you can see in this video that the woman in question shares with the seagull society on Facebook, she asked locals to help her it on to a flat roof so it could be back with its mother.
Like many people yesterday I saw the video shared round of her catching it and jumped to conclusions, for that I apologize and hold my hands up I was quick to judge.
But the post rectifying the misinformation didn’t reach nearly as far, receiving only a million views, 3,200 likes and 741 reposts.
We are living in dangerous times where bad actors can put people’s safety at risk by posting misinformation and lies. While they whip up racialised hate towards marginalised groups in a press of a button, social media platforms aren’t prioritising sanctions and regulations for this behaviour.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric called out by the Canary
We know the woman in this video (who was rescuing the seagull). So we'd recommend you remove this post and apologise for your anti-Muslim, racist tirade.
* tirade means angry verbal outburst if your followers were wondering https://t.co/dEjOsMhqkT — Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 10, 2026
Mubarak says she will hold liars accountable
Mubarak spoke to ITV following these dangerous allegations, saying she was helping a number of other locals to assist the distressed bird. She added:
They have an agenda to divide us, and we should not let them do so.
I hope Nora sues people like Tommy Robinson, who lied about her when she was just trying to help rescue the seagull. pic.twitter.com/7LihuGnIDH
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) July 11, 2026
The leader of Northeast Lincolnshire Council, Oliver Freeston, who represents Reform, joined the bandwagon in assuming the woman had bad intentions. Needless to say, he has failed to apologise for demonising her.
As a council leader, he has a responsibility to all his constituents, including those who are Muslim, so how does he justify such behaviour?
Those who come out to defend truth never seem to even come close to the astronomical reach of those pushing ridiculous, sensationalist lies. In fact, the government minister responsible for regulating social media platforms, Lisa Nandy, has instead walked away from the platform taking her whole department with her.
Clearly, she recognises it is a cesspit of disinformation and abuse, as she stated in her ‘Goodbye X’ post. But she has notably held back from doing anything about it, other than turning the other cheek as if a statement will suddenly make Elon Musk change his ways.
The far right will abandon all truth and reason
One thing is abundantly clear: truth does not matter to the far-right. All that matters is their explicit intention to convince British people that immigrants and asylum seekers are the reason why living standards, opportunities, local investment and social cohesion are declining. Anyone who is not white is a threat according to them.
However, they miss the point repeatedly. It’s the super-rich, who have spent decades playing politicians like instruments in an orchestra with compliant leaders happily dancing to their tune, that is the real problem.
The result? Politicians have demonised and scapegoated harmless people — and even the premise that humans have basic needs — while handing the richest in society ever more tax breaks, lucrative contracts and generous subsidies.
There is a pretty easy, and perfectly doable, way of fixing this corrosive issue in our society and political discourse. Regulate social media and make lies and misinformation expensive for those capitalising off of it.
After all, we all know rich people do not like to put their hands in their own pockets, instead they want to fleece ours.
Featured image via ITV
US president Donald Trump wants to create an automatic retaliation policy if Iran manages to assassinate him. The erratic US leader’s idea emerged as Iran and the US returned to open hostilities around a month into the Oman-brokered negotiating period to end the war.
Associated Press (AP) reported on 13 July:
President Donald Trump is suggesting he has left standing orders for the U.S. military to destroy Iran “ at levels they’ve never seen before” if Tehran follows through on its long-standing threats to kill him.
The news agency added that:
the U.S. government has no way to create an automatic, preauthorized “dead man’s switch” that would prompt immediate retaliation.
In the vanishingly unlikely event that Trump were killed by Iran — or died for any other reason — vice-president JD Vance would become president. In such a scenario:
Vance could do exactly what Trump called for, though there also is a chance he could decide not to follow his predecessor’s orders — or offer a direct response in a different way.
AP said:
Trump nonetheless posted on his social media website Saturday that Iran had made threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him and he said 1,000 “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”
Rumours of an assassination attempt emerged on 9 July. The Wall Street Journal said that new intelligence:
indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.
Trump said at the time:
They want to take out the U.S. leader—me. I’m on every list. I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long.
The intelligence reportedly originated from Israel. No evidence that the claim is true has been produced. No source was named and the Israelis have not given any further comment.
Flailing Trump still can’t escape Iran mire
The bizarre ‘kill-switch’ plan came as the US-Iran peace process, such as it was, seemed to be falling apart fully. The two countries have exchanged missiles in recent days and Trump posted on social media:
We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.
The US and Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.
The US has achieved none of its original war aims. Iran predictably closed the Straits of Hormuz, a vital oil channel, once attacked — creating a global energy crisis. Far from being defeated, Iran has made clear the war will continue until “the enemy’s inevitable and permanent humiliation, disgrace, regret, and surrender”. Trump came to power on an anti-war ‘America First’ ticket. He now faces worldwide humiliation as the front man for US imperial decline.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
With Britain sweating through its third consecutive heatwave, the Green Party has moved to introduce a maximum workplace temperature bill:
"From bus and train drivers sweltering in their cabins to bakers working in over 40 degrees, and builders whose workplaces offer no respite from the heat – the government has a duty to protect all of us."
Today Hannah Spencer is tabling a maximum workplace temperature bill. pic.twitter.com/0ofCXCDx4M
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) July 13, 2026
“Absurd”
Speaking to the Guardian, Hannah Spencer said:
This is something workers and trade unions have been raising the alarm about for many years. It shouldn’t have taken this long to act, but the unsafe temperatures we’re seeing now should be a huge wake-up call.
We’ve seen absolute chaos as a result of these recent temperatures, and such a massive human cost, yet we haven’t heard a peep from government about how they plan to protect us all.
Spencer branded the situation “absurd”. She also said:
From bus and train drivers sweltering in cabins that are hotter than the soaring temperatures outside and bakers working in temperatures of over 40°C, to builders whose workplaces offer no respite from the heat, the government has a duty to protect all of us.
I had one constituent contact me about the appalling conditions he faced laying Tarmac on roads in Gorton and Denton in temperatures he called unbearable.
Spencer used Spain as an example of what can be done. As she noted, workers there are given the ability to adjust their hours to avoid the hottest hours of the day. This allows work to continue without putting workers at risk. And the risk is real too. We experienced 2,700 excess deaths during the first two heatwaves this year; we’re now in the middle of the third. This problem won’t go away in our lifetimes either.
This affects all of us
We reported on this issue before — namely when Zack Polanski made the following intervention:
Climate justice is social justice. https://t.co/b2I31KSLWf
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 26, 2026
As we noted at the time, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) were among those calling for maximum workplace temperatures. A report from the CCC said:
Maximum working temperature regulations would address the increasing risks that high temperatures pose to workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of the necessary cooling. Businesses are largely responsible for investing in their own adaptations but must ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside.
The TUC, meanwhile, flagged the negative health impacts that can result from extreme heat:
- Dizziness.
- Delirium.
- Fatigue.
- Rashes.
- Collapse.
- Cramps.
- Exhaustion.
- Stroke.
- Death.
The Greens’ bill is expected to enjoy cross-party support. As the Guardian reported:
Her bill is expected to receive cross-party support and will be backed by the leftwing Labour MPs Rebecca Long-Bailey, Alex Sobel and Nadia Whittome as well as Graham Leadbitter from the Scottish National party, Liz Saville Roberts from Plaid Cymru and the independent MP Jeremy Corbyn.
Still, not everyone is happy about the idea of making things moderately better for workers:
#GMB discusses a maximum temperature limit in workplaces.
Alex Mansuroglu says yes & talks about tradespeople having to work in 38 degrees. Daisy McAndrew says they'd lose money. Ranvir Singh responds, maybe there should be statutory pay. Watch the look on Ed Balls face! pic.twitter.com/D4CV2a7p0L
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 24, 2026
Progress
While this bill is certainly a progressive measure, it’s happening because progress on climate action did not come fast enough. And the reason we failed is because hostile oil barons hid the truth from us for as long as they could — later promoting denialism and misinformation.
As journalist Benjamin Franta reported in 2021, we should have been acting decades earlier than we were:
At an old gunpowder factory in Delaware – now a museum and archive – I found a transcript of a petroleum conference from 1959 called the “Energy and Man” symposium, held at Columbia University in New York. As I flipped through, I saw a speech from a famous scientist, Edward Teller (who helped invent the hydrogen bomb), warning the industry executives and others assembled of global warming.
“Whenever you burn conventional fuel,” Teller explained, “you create carbon dioxide. … Its presence in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect.” If the world kept using fossil fuels, the ice caps would begin to melt, raising sea levels. Eventually, “all the coastal cities would be covered,” he warned.
1959 was before the moon landing, before the Beatles’ first single, before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, before the first modern aluminum can was ever made. It was decades before I was born.
This climate catastrophe we’re living through is happening because of wealthy interests. And if people have a problem with workers needing some degree of flexibility, they should take it up with the oil industry.
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
According to the Times, Labour is planning to restrict migrants from being able to access benefits. In response, the Green Party’s Zack Polanski has labelled their immigration plans “performative cruelty”:
Labour plans to withhold benefits to people who have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Performative cruelty and total cowardice.
That’s why the Greens will replace Labour. https://t.co/UxqPjdOjG6 — Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) July 13, 2026
Polanski slams Labour’s “cowardice”
Steven Swinford of the Times noted that so-called ‘Boriswave migrants’ wouldn’t have to wait ten years to be granted indefinite leave under the unveiled plan. At the same time, they’d face a longer wait to be eligible for benefits — which Polanski sharply criticised.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out how this could all go wrong.
If you have a class of people who can’t claim benefits, you have a class of people who will do anything to earn money should they find themselves unemployed. Employers will take advantage of this, and shadow economies will form. Once these shadow economies become established, we’ll find ourselves one step closer to a government which can strip away welfare for all citizens.
Things don’t get worse all at once; they get worse one step at a time, and this latest proposal is a significant step towards a state which works solely for the rich. Polanski has repeatedly warned against these creeping changes.
Zoe Gardner spoke further on this, stating:
This all sounds tough, but in reality it’s not just performative [cruelty], it’s incredibly stupid.
People fall into difficulties sometimes, they just do. You don’t have to be British to be impacted, we saw that with Covid for eg.
If you blanket deny the state safety net to one group, all you do is create child poverty, vulnerability to loan sharks, destitution & misery in our communities. This actually is bad, not to mention more costly in emergency services, for everyone.
The cost of managing destitute people often eclipses the cost of eliminating destitution in the first place. An example of this is that it costs more to house a homeless person than it does to let them sleep on the streets. This is because the various services which supposedly ‘help’ these people (or criminalise them) cost money, and as it turns out this adds up to more than simply giving people shelter.
Gardner added:
These are people who do & will live here for the long term, probably their kids will always live here.
Forcing them into poverty, debt & homelessness just because “foreigners bad” is not good for society, actually.
We’ve reached the point where this needs spelling out…
Labour has a chance to reverse this stupidity, but instead they’re doubling down.
They should hang their heads in shame for pathetically dancing the Xenophobic polka to Farage’s tune.
Unclear
Since the Times’ reporting above, HuffPost have claimed that Burnham will actually back Shabana Mahmood’s bill as it is. Polanski responded to that too, saying:
Labour had one last card to play.
That after Keir Starmer they could find themselves a progressive leader.
We're speed running crash and burn faster than anyone could have imagined.
We're building the alternative of hope with a plan to replace Labour.https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp https://t.co/XRLDDSrN2S — Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) July 13, 2026
As we’ve reported previously, ‘wishy washy’ doesn’t begin to cover Burnham’s approach to migration. As such, we have no idea how he’ll vote this evening, and we imagine that neither does he.
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
As deadly heat covers Europe, governments must act quickly to protect lives and force fossil fuel companies to foot the bill. That’s the view of campaign group 350.org.
There were more than 10,000 excess deaths across Europe during record-breaking heatwaves in June. Deadly wildfires are still raging in France and Spain. And even in the normally less extreme UK, the death toll has topped 2,700 and multiple fires have taken hold.
Climate campaigners urge European governments to take urgent measures to protect the public, especially vulnerable populations, from heat impacts. This includes measures such as upgrading hospitals, care facilities, schools and universities and providing emergency support for farmers.
France’s High Council on Climate has warned that the country’s infrastructure, cities and public services were built for “a climate that no longer exists”. It says that current adaptation policy is insufficient to protect people.
In response, 350.org campaigners called on European governments to invest massively in heat adaptation, while accelerating the shift to affordable renewable energy to reduce emissions and lower bills. 350.org analysis shows that the heatwaves drive up households’ energy spending.
Adaptation measures, however, must be borne by fossil fuel companies through stronger and permanent taxes on oil and gas profits, says 350.org. It shouldn’t be down to people already burdened with high energy bills and other extreme heat impacts.
Fanny Petitbon, 350.org France country manager, said:
This heatwave isn’t just about lack of preparedness, it’s gross negligence. Scientists have sounded the alarm long ago, but governments chose to keep burning fossil fuels.
We’ve been saying for decades that climate inaction is deadly. And now it has a body count of more than 10,000 in Europe in June alone. It’s never too late to protect people. Investing in adaptation now can save thousands more from harm in the months and years to come.
We don’t need endless debates in parliament nor austerity measures that slash the funds meant for climate action, we need decision-makers to wake up and act now. The scale of action needed and who must foot the bill is clear.
Europe’s heatwaves are sponsored by fossil fuel companies. The industry must pay both for the destruction and urgent measures like better thermal insulation of social housing, schools and hospitals, greening of public spaces, and heat warning systems for outdoor workers.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
Referrals to LGBTQ+ youth charity The Proud Trust increased by 171% following the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.
This prompted the charity to launch a major new national campaign highlighting the challenges LGBTQ+ young people continue to face and call for greater understanding, safer spaces and better support.
The Proud Trust, one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ youth charities, has launched #DeserveBetter, a nationwide campaign calling for greater understanding, safer spaces and better support for LGBTQ+ young people throughout the year.
The campaign comes as national research continues to paint a stark picture of the challenges many queer young people face. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils experience bullying because of who they are, almost six in ten have seriously considered suicide, while almost a quarter may never complete secondary school, twice the national average.
The charity says there’s a growing demand for specialist LGBTQ+ support. Over the past year alone, The Proud Trust delivered nearly 400 youth group sessions and held more than 820 support conversations with LGBTQ+ young people, parents, carers and professionals.
Almost 10,000 people visited The Proud Place, its LGBTQ+ community centre in Manchester, while more than 1,400 teachers, youth workers and other professionals received specialist inclusion training.
Through its Rainbow Flag Award programme, which helps schools create safer and more inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ pupils, the charity also reached almost 50,000 young people.
Campaign will highlight issues affecting LGBTQ+ young people
Through #DeserveBetter, The Proud Trust will shine a spotlight on many of the issues affecting LGBTQ+ young people today, including bullying, discrimination, healthcare, education, barriers to employment, family acceptance, identity, belonging and access to safe spaces.
To kick off the campaign, The Proud Trust is sharing powerful first-person stories from people speaking publicly for the first time about growing up LGBTQ+, while also shining a spotlight on the key issues affecting young people today through expert insight and lived experience.
Award-winning spoken word artist myndstate has written an original poem inspired by his own experiences of growing up gay, while the campaign will also feature a special film bringing together a host of LGBTQ+ celebrities and high-profile allies, with the full contributor line-up to be revealed in the coming weeks.
Liam Swanston, director of development and partnerships at The Proud Trust, said:
A 171% increase in referrals isn’t just a statistic, behind every referral is a young person looking for somewhere they feel safe, someone who understands what they’re going through, or simply reassurance that they’re not alone.
Every day we work alongside LGBTQ+ young people who are navigating bullying, discrimination, isolation and uncertainty while also trying to understand who they are and where they belong. We also work with adults who want to understand and support the young people in their lives better.
No young person should grow up believing they have to hide who they are, face those experiences alone, or feel there’s no place where they truly belong.
#DeserveBetter is about ensuring those young people’s voices are heard. This campaign shines a spotlight on the realities many LGBTQ+ young people continue to face today, while celebrating the extraordinary difference that acceptance, visibility, community and support can make.
We hope it encourages greater understanding, challenges misconceptions and reminds every LGBTQ+ young person that they deserve to feel safe, valued, understood and able to thrive, every single day of the year.
For more information about The Proud Trust and the #DeserveBetter campaign, visit www.TheProudTrust.org
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
As of the 13 July, new regulations have come into effect for all police forces which will impact vetting procedures and suspensions. The government is rolling out the “complex and wide-ranging” rule change as part of its pledge to end violence against women and girls (VAWG). It follows a campaign from the charity Refuge, ‘Remove the Rot’, which kicked off in 2023 and subsequently found a “shocking scale of police-perpetrated VAWG” which meant women and girls could not trust the police to protect them. Refusing to allow there to be no place to turn for justice, the domestic abuse charity pushed for change, saying:
as an institution designed to protect the public from harm, the police cannot be allowed to let perpetrators slip through the net.
Refuge welcomed the changes which came into effect from today, adding that:
We hope today represents the beginning of a future where women and girls finally feel protected by the police, as they deserve.
Refuge: ‘Remove the Rot’ campaign
UK police forces have long been under mounting pressure to own up to the misogyny and racism that have been allowed to take root among many male officers.
These calls intensified after the appalling — and preventable — kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens. He abused his position of power with deadly consequences, conducting a false arrest of Everard and using police handcuffs to take her into his ‘custody’.
However, men that abuse women and girls do so because it makes them feel ‘superior’ and ‘dominant’ over their victims. This makes the police force quite an appealing line of work for these pathetic and dangerous types of men, making it the perfect breeding ground for these malicious, abusive attitudes.
Couzens shared “grossly offensive messages” with fellow officers before murdering Everard. This surely shows just how deeply these toxic attitudes can run within policing. Given another police officer was spared prison time for spying on a 14-year-old girl back in October, it doesn’t seem like the force has suitably recognised the severity of the threat facing women and girls across the country.
And that is what makes this so frightening: the police are supposed to protect the public, but when women and girls fear the very people meant to keep them safe, who are they supposed to turn to?
Given they amount to half the UK population, this has been a huge failing by the police and reform has been long overdue. This also comes at a time when the safety of women and girls is hugely under threat, with violence against women and girls rising and reported rapes increasing by over 500% in the last two decades alone.
“Refuge decided: enough is enough”
CEO of Refuge, Gemma Sherrington, welcomes the rule changes:
Women’s confidence in policing has been in crisis for far too long. Finally, the tables are starting to turn. As new vetting and suspension regulations come into force, today (July 13th) marks the success of Refuge’s Remove the Rot campaign.
For years, we have pushed for automatic suspension of officers accused of violence against women and girls (VAWG) alongside stronger vetting procedures. At long last, the police conduct and vetting regimes have been amended to bring new regulations in.
Launched in 2023, Remove the Rot uncovered the shocking scale of police-perpetrated VAWG, including domestic abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Having seen firsthand the catastrophic impact this was having on women and girls’ trust in the police, Refuge decided: enough is enough. VAWG is already at epidemic levels, and as an institution designed to protect the public from harm, the police cannot be allowed to let perpetrators slip through the net.
The new regulations, which were first announced in the government’s 2025 VAWG strategy, will require all police officers to hold and maintain vetting clearance, with new requirements to tighten suspension for those under investigation for specified VAWG offences. While these regulations depend on consistent implementation across police forces and cannot reverse the harm caused by police-perpetrated VAWG, they do send a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.
This campaign win was made possible by the tireless efforts of our supporters, with over 48,000 of you signing our Remove the Rot petition which was delivered directly to Downing Street in 2024.
The head of Refuge finished with a reminder that this is just the start of long-overdue reforms of the kind of people the police force is willing to hire and empower:
We hope today represents the beginning of a future where women and girls finally feel protected by the police, as they deserve.
We deserve to feel safe with the police
Many women and girls won’t even consider contacting the police for abuse they have suffered. They may stay silent because they fear nobody will believe them, or because they want to avoid a criminal justice system that often puts victims on trial instead of holding perpetrators to account — further deepening their trauma.
However, these changes introduced to the police force, lobbied for by Refuge, are only effective from today. Those within the ranks will likely not face any penalties unless they choose to reoffend.
Yes, abusers often reoffend, so they will likely expose themselves eventually, but this again puts the burden on victims of police-perpetrated abuse to have the courage to speak up to the colleagues/mates of the very man who hurt them.
Therefore, officials should have applied these changes retrospectively to remove those already hiding within the force and tackle the rot at its very core.
After all, Refuge found over 1.1k cases of police perpetrated VAWG just between October 2021 and March 2022.
Refuge rightly says that women and girls deserve to be protected by the police — not to be abused by them.
Featured image via the Canary
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‘Please don’t speculate.’ If I hear that chilling instruction one more time, I’m going to flip. It’s been the deathly, censorious chorus of the police, politicians and every media prick since Ann Widdecombe’s body was discovered at her home in Dartmoor last week. Don’t speculate. Don’t be a conspiracy theorist. Don’t exploit this tragedy. Don’t say it was political. Don’t call it terrorism. On and on they droned. And yet now it seems the ‘speculators’, those defamed as fantastists, may have been on to something.
Today it has been announced that counter-terrorism cops are taking over the investigation of Ms Widdecombe’s death. The body of the veteran Tory / Reform politician was found on Thursday. Shock tore through the nation when it was later announced she had sustained serious injuries and there would be a murder investigation. But cops were quick — weirdly so — to dampen ‘speculation’ that it might have been a political killing or a terroristic act. There is ‘nothing to suggest’ it was politically motivated, they said.
To many of us, it just didn’t stack up. How could they be so sure so soon? What’s more, the first suspect they arrested – a ‘26-year-old white man’, they told us, with the emphasis on ‘white’ – was swiftly released without charge. Without a suspect, how could they decipher a motive? Then came the news of the arrest of a second suspect, and that’s when folk really started scratching their heads. He was arrested in Rotherham, more than 250 miles from Widdecombe’s home. We were expected to believe that a random from Rotherham allegedly drove across England to the exact address of a famed politician and that there was nothing to see here? Nothing to ruminate on? Nothing unnerving?
Then came the Sun’s publication of CCTV footage seeming to show the suspect getting into his car in Rotherham on the morning of Widdecombe’s death, apparently with a large wooden stick. Naturally, the Sun, too, was accused of dangerous ‘speculation’, but in truth its intrepid sourcing of the CCTV footage contributed enormously to the public’s bristling, democratic concern over this strange death in Dartmoor. Even the BBC is now saying that the Sun’s reporting was swiftly followed by today’s jolting announcement: that Widdecombe’s death is now being investigated by counter-terror cops.
It was a moral outrage to shame the masses for ‘speculating’. People have serious, burning and entirely legitimate questions about this horrific incident. They knew it didn’t feel right that a possible political motivation was so swiftly discarded. They knew it didn’t add up that a man would allegedly trek from Yorkshire to Devon and allegedly knock on the door of a Tory turned national treasure without some kind of motivation. It’s possible the demonised speculators will be vindicated following today’s announcement that ‘new information and evidence’ has been discovered, and that counter-terrorism will take over.
It was officialdom’s supercilious tone that was most grating. And the media class’s, too – these prigs looked down on everyone asking questions as X-brained conspiracy nuts driven loopy by populism. They dolled up their opposition to ‘speculation’ as an effort to ringfence the legal sanctity of a future trial from the grubby BS of the little people. In truth, there has been a clear censorious impulse to their reprimanding of social-media oiks: pipe down, plebs, and leave it to us of a more refined, educated bent.
Maybe the chin-scratching public were right and the haughty elites were wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Let’s see. Of course, justice must not be prejudiced. And Widdecombe and her loved ones really do deserve justice for the horror that appears to have been inflicted on her. But respecting justice does not preclude querying police narratives, especially when they are asking us to believe that an alleged Rotherham-to-Dartmoor journey, with an alleged weapon, where a simultaneously loved and hated politician was the alleged target, is a random thing with no motivation. We must be free to query that. It was good that people did.
It’s the double standards of the speculation shushers that really stands out. When a ‘progressive’ individual is attacked, it is instantly narrativised as the horrible consequence of right-wing ‘culture’ and angry tabloid criticism. Yet when a figure on the right is attacked, it’s all ‘Don’t speculate’, don’t point a finger, don’t weave a self-serving narrative. Shorter version: we can ‘exploit tragedy’, but you can’t. It’s preposterous, and sinister. We need justice for Ann, and we also need the right to put pressure on officialdom if we think they are selling both us and her short with their investigations.
Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His new book, Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism and Technocracy, is out now. Find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.
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