Politics
Wings Over Scotland | When the law breaks the law
There is a not particularly funny joke that is sometimes told in legal circles about why a law student failed to finish his coursework – because he had no conviction. With rare exceptions lawyers aren’t renowned for their sense of humour but I can’t help thinking someone, at the highest levels of our justice system, is having a right laugh at my expense and those who have loyally supported me over the past six years.
I’m talking about the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC – a sitting member of the Scottish Government’s cabinet who was nominated by Nicola Sturgeon to that post in 2021, five months after I was acquitted.
For those unfamiliar with my case, I offer this brief summary. In March 2020 I made a short video on my mobile phone that was two minutes and thirty eight seconds in length. I hadn’t planned to make the video when I went out for a walk in a field near my home. But I was annoyed and wanted to articulate that annoyance, although at the time I recorded it I wasn’t intending for it to go much further.
Later that night, just before turning in, I uploaded it to my YouTube channel on a closed, unlisted link and then posted that link to my Twitter account that, at the time, had a modest 1000 or so followers. I then forgot about it.
Little did I know that short mobile phone video would result in me facing initially a criminal trial, then a five year legal battle in the highest civil court in Scotland and now, most likely, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In that very short video, I expressed my disdain for the complainers and conspirators, male and female, who were still trying to destroy the reputation of Alex Salmond, despite the fact he had been fully acquitted at the High Court just a few days before I made that video.
So what did I say? What possible criminal offence could I have uttered in less than three minutes that would result in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, then led by Ms Bain’s predecessor James Wolffe, despatching five Edinburgh detectives to raid my home, confiscate all of my tech and then bring me to trial where I potentially faced a year’s imprisonment if found guilty.
The video simply highlighted my opinion that if the complainers continued with their efforts against the former First Minister, ignoring the judgement of the High Court that had acquitted Alex, and they persisted in this campaign behind a veil of anonymity, then eventually, one way or another their identities would become widely known.
In evidence produced at the High Court the complainers themselves made plain that they could undertake this politically motivated campaign by exploiting the legal protections that rightly exist to protect actual victims of sexual assault. Their cynical and stated exploitation of this important protection not only continued to damage Alex’s reputation but also undermined wider confidence in those actual victims of such assault whose identities to deserve to be protected from the wider public.
That aspect is one of the more egregious and nefarious undertaken by the complainers and those who coordinated them in what has become the Alex Salmond saga.
As Sheriff Patterson concluded at Jedburgh Sheriff Court, “I do not accept [the comments made in the video] would cause a reasonable person fear and alarm. The video contained an opinion, nothing more.” He accepted my defence team’s motion of “no case to answer” and the prosecution case was dismissed and I was fully acquitted.
But such is the lunacy of Scotland’s once-revered independent legal system that my only hope of a subsequent remedy for this wrongful prosecution would have come if I had been jailed in January 2021. Only then would I have a legal route to seek compensation.
As Fergus Ewing MSP, former Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary and Minister noted in Holyrood just last week (see from 17.08), that situation is plainly “absurd”.
After my acquittal I instructed Solicitor Advocate Gordon Dangerfield – easily the most tenacious and dogged lawyer I have ever come across – and Andrew Smith KC to act on my behalf and in May 2025 we finally secured two full days of legal debate with the aim, on our side, of moving to the “proof stage”. That would potentially have enabled “certain facts”, as Alex Salmond put it following his acquittal, to see the light of day.
After these hearings we waited for Lord Lake’s considered written judgement, which was finally published on 5th February 2026. It is 31 pages in length and narrates, for the most part, all the legal issues around my case in some considerable detail before coming to a conclusion on whether I could proceed to the proof stage and what would have been the “juicy parts”.
Myself and my legal team were confident we could prove that there was clear malicious intent behind the decision to prosecute me in 2021. However, as Lord Lake makes plain in his conclusions, my case cannot proceed because of legislation passed by the UK Parliament.
The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, section 170 provides that prosecutors are immune from liability for malicious prosecution in summary proceedings like mine, where the person suing was not imprisoned.
In his written submissions to the court, my solicitor advocate posed these questions about that provision: “On what rational basis is a prosecutor liable for malicious prosecution only if imprisonment has been imposed on the person suing? … Is it compatible with Article 6 for there to be no remedy for a person seeking to sue and caught by the terms of section 170?”
Our answers to those questions had already been given almost four years earlier in our letter before action to the Lord Advocate, lodged as a production with the court. Section 170 was, we said, “incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention in that it fails to provide a remedy when a wrong is committed”.
Lord Lake has now agreed. In a formal declaration in his judgment he has found section 170 to be “inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 6 (right to a fair hearing), as it is an unjustifiable restriction on a pursuer’s right to have a determination of the merits of his claim that he was the subject of a malicious prosecution”.
That is an incredible statement in its own right, but Lord Lake continued: “Nothing has been brought to my attention to indicate why, notwithstanding the submission of no case to answer being upheld, it could be said that there was a case fit to try. It therefore appears that in the circumstances, the decision of the sheriff to sustain a submission of no case to answer indicates that there was no objective reasonable and probable cause [for bringing a prosecution].”
He then conducted his own analysis of the evidence and concluded: “Whether on the basis of the view taken by the sheriff at the trial or an examination of the evidence available in relation to the requirements of section 38 [the statutory breach of the peace provision under which I was prosecuted], viewed objectively there was no reasonable and probable cause to commence the prosecution – no case fit to be put before a court.”
In other words, Lord Lake is saying that if it was not malice that lay behind the decision to prosecute me, then what was it? In effect, he is laying out the basis of my claim and that it has clear merit. Indeed, he concludes in terms that “the requirements for a case of malicious prosecution against the Lord Advocate … are admitted, established, or the subject of relevant averments” in my pleadings before the court, and that I should be able to go to proof on them.
However, my claim cannot continue because the law stands at present is inconsistent with ECHR and my rights to a fair trial.
Now you might think that conclusion would have been a welcome one for our Lord Advocate because it effectively brings an end to my legal claim against her.
But on Monday 16th February 2026 the Lord Advocate took the decision to appeal Lord Lake’s decision to the Inner House of the Court of Session, the highest civil law court in Scotland. It is a fair assumption that the Lord Advocate is not best pleased by the ruling, not least because it leaves the door wide open for us to proceed with an application to the European Court of Human Rights.
Given Lord Lake’s very strong judgement substantively in my favour, albeit having been forced to dismiss my claim, we are confident of getting a very sympathetic hearing in Europe.
However, one consequence (intended or otherwise is hard to say) of this decision is that we now face unexpected additional court costs.
From the start, it has been clear that the Crown Office, led by the Lord Advocate, has sought to grind us down and price me out of this important legal case. Through the sheer generosity of my supporters in both my initial criminal trial and later in this civil case, we have kept up the fight.
Some have argued that it might have been easier for me to have simply walked away after my acquittal in 2021. They have misjudged me.
For simply offering an opinion in a 158-second video that initially hardly anyone viewed, I had my home raided, my mobile and laptop taken and all of my digital fingerprint forensically scrutinised in what was evidently a fishing expedition. Even after this, so weak was their case they had to amend my initial charge and hope they could jail me under a catch-all breach of the peace.
The publicity, generated by the complainers who didn’t even wait for the initial police report to be actioned, was relentless and highly critical of me personally, causing huge reputational damage that ultimately saw me lose contracts amounting to tens of thousands of pounds. As so often in modern Scotland the process was the punishment, but if they had succeeded I would also have been in prison for a year, for uttering a short opinion on legal proceedings that had been concluded and were of huge public interest.
Senior Counsel for the Lord Advocate during his pleadings at last May’s Court Of Session hearings before Lord Lake made no effort to hide the real agenda; to send a chilling effect across all those who had criticised the complainers.
This is not how actual justice systems are meant to function or how a state prosecutor should be conducting public affairs. Their actions are, as many within the criminal justice system have already noted, brought the entire system into disrepute, but still they continue.
This week I have reluctantly relaunched my financial appeal to get us over this next hurdle. We are genuinely optimistic about our chances but we cannot do that without support.
It has already become a landmark and historic case but we need one big final push. Hopefully then, the joke and the last laugh will be on Scotland’s malicious state prosecutor.
In his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, former prince Andrew notoriously claimed that Virginia Giuffre’s allegations against him couldn’t be true because he’s unable to sweat.
He’s likely to have discovered a few sweat glands since his arrest this morning.
All too typically for the British establishment, the arrest was not for sexually abusing trafficked and potentially under-age girls. Instead it was for ‘misconduct in public office’, after an Epstein files release revealed Mountbatten-Windsor was allegedly bunging sensitive secret information to the serial child-rapist while a UK trade envoy.
That fact is a disgusting betrayal of Epstein’s and Andrew’s victims. It’s also a detail that is likely to have ‘prince of darkness’ and former Starmer adviser Peter Mandelson joining Windsor in a sweat bath. The same release of Epstein files also revealed ‘Mandy’ repeatedly doing the same thing: sending sensitive, confidential and highly lucrative government information to Epstein. This information would have enabled Epstein and his mates to make a fortune in ‘insider trading’.
The British establishment deciding to throw ‘Randy Andy’ under the bus for that instead of his alleged crimes against trafficked girls should have ‘Mandy’ in a lather too.
For more on the the Epstein Files and the betrayal of victims, please read the Canary’s article on way that the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.
Featured image via the Canary
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a bellwether Democrat on AI and data centers, is tempering his message ahead of his reelection campaign.
Shapiro, a swing-state Democrat and a 2028 presidential prospect, has staked his state’s economic fortunes on the tech industry. He wooed a $20 billion investment from Amazon along with major investments by Microsoft and Google. Shapiro has backed President Donald Trump’s call for more nuclear and natural gas plants to power new tech hubs.
He’s now trying to hedge his bet as data centers absorb a nationwide backlash from voters increasingly concerned about their impact on electricity bills.
“Pay for your own power, so it’s not saddling local businesses or homeowners with higher costs,” Shapiro said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month from a union hall in Philadelphia.
It’s an unmistakable pivot by a leading practitioner of data center politics who along with other Democratic governors has been trying to bring under control rising electricity prices that could be political kryptonite for both parties. Household electricity bills are rising at twice the rate of inflation. In recent weeks, Shapiro has joined Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other Democrats who are sharpening their tone and putting new policies in place to try to claw back taxpayer expenses, increase pressure on utility companies and address local backlash against development.
“Too many of these projects have been shrouded in secrecy, with local communities left in the dark about who is coming in and what they’re building,” Shapiro said in his annual address to the Pennsylvania General Assembly earlier this month.
Shapiro, who is riding high in the polls as he launches his reelection campaign, is pitching the AI and data center boom as a source of union jobs during the yearslong construction phase — but also trying to manage the boom’s potential to alienate other voters.
Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, said Shapiro’s “get stuff done” political brand runs into trouble if voters tie energy affordability concerns to data center projects.
“People have started to connect the demand for AI and data centers to pricing,” he said.
Jobs and energy
Few Democrats have anticipated the data center zeitgeist as deftly as Shapiro. Shortly after taking office in 2023, he ordered an analysis of where the state and U.S. economies were headed. AI jumped out as a key opportunity, a top adviser said.
“Not just because we thought it was cool, but because we have strengths,” said Rick Siger, a former Obama staffer who serves as Shapiro’s secretary of community and economic development.
Carnegie Mellon University, a top engineering and technology school, was a selling point. So was the state’s manufacturing base, which makes hardware for data centers and boasts tech companies that will deploy advanced AI. Shapiro’s team fixated on what major developers were after. “Speed matters, in particular to companies that are competing in AI,” Siger said.
In June 2025, Shapiro announced Amazon’s $20 billion investment in two data center complexes: one in the Philadelphia suburbs of Bucks County and another south of Wilkes-Barre.
“The employees will be making, in some cases, double the average wage in that county,” Siger said, “to work in a high-tech job and be able to stay home and raise their kids in their hometown.” The data center piece of the AI juggernaut also works well for Shapiro’s union-heavy constituency. He toured Steamfitters Local Union 420’s training center in Philadelphia earlier this month, which is training apprentices to install cooling systems for the computer chips packed in wall-to-wall racks inside the cluster of AI factories being developed in Bucks County.
Rory Carroll, a 42-year-old steamfitter who was among the trainees greeting Shapiro, said he’s “tried everything” to make a living. “I sold cars, delivered pizza, managed a supermarket.” Now, he says he’s on a rising tide.
Local officials in Bucks County — which Trump flipped red in 2024, for the first time since 1988 — are wary but welcoming.
“Do I think the trend of technology replacing jobs will continue with the data centers? Of course I do,” said Erin Mullen, vice chair of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors. But she said the temporary construction jobs were worth pursuing. “This is a blue-collar township,” Mullen said. “So even though the jobs are temporary, a lot of families here survive on temporary jobs, and this is huge for the trades.”
Data centers’ demand for energy also works for Shapiro, who’s been touting the state’s large natural gas reserves in talks with tech companies. Last summer, he joined Trump and the state’s Republican senator, Dave McCormick, in Pittsburgh to announce multibillion-dollar commitments for restarting aging hydropower and expanding electricity generation from nuclear and natural gas.
Now, after cuts to federal renewable energy tax credits, he’s still touting Pennsylvania energy — with a partisan edge.
“I’m an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy governor,” Shapiro said in the POLITICO interview. “Unfortunately, the president of the United States has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from clean energy development in this commonwealth, which has cost us 26,000 union trade jobs who were set to work on these projects.”
“I don’t think it’s an either-or — it’s a both-and,” he continued. “We need to generate more power. Yes, it will rely in part on Pennsylvania natural gas. We also need to generate more power with renewables.”
Power politics
Shapiro’s call for data center developers to pay for electricity infrastructure that could drive up utility bills echoes the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric exhorting them to “pick up the tab” — but Shapiro’s focus on power bills was a long time coming.
In July 2024, as Shapiro was chasing Amazon, mid-Atlantic ratepayers were hit with a $14.7 billion, one-year charge from PJM Interconnection, the region’s electricity grid manager. The double-digit cost increases in utility bills came as a result of projections that electricity supplies could fall short of demand across the 13-state region stretching from northern Virginia to Chicago.
Shapiro demanded a price cap in December 2024 on the fastest-rising part of PJM customers’ electricity bills — a headline-grabbing event in Pennsylvania. And he’s threatened to pull Pennsylvania out of the PJM market all together, a major uprooting of the way power is delivered in the region. He’s attacked PJM for its byzantine utility-heavy leadership structure that leads to a sclerotic response to rising power prices.
According to federal data, electricity prices in Pennsylvania rose roughly 20 percent between November 2024 and November 2025 — the highest rate in the country. And PJM has warned that states could face power shortages by the end of the decade if the construction of new data centers race ahead of the energy supply.
“PJM is broken,” Shapiro said in December. “They’re too damned slow. And the needs we have in this country to produce more energy to support everything from data centers to more manufacturing need to be met. And we are being held captive.”
The enormously complex market rules that affect power prices in Shapiro’s state are outside average Americans’ conversations. But Shapiro and Trump have tied a rising part of their political parties’ credibility to the outcome of their pledges to make data centers pay their own way.
In January, Shapiro went to the White House alongside other East Coast governors of both parties to call for PJM to control power prices — and for data centers to “bring their own power” through long-term contracts with new generation developers.
Big tech companies are starting to sign on. Trump used a Truth Social post in early January to announce the White House was working with tech companies to get more agreement on containing the public cost of energy infrastructure. Microsoft then pledged to shoulder more of those costs.
Shapiro’s tack could work for him, according to recent polling.
A POLITICO poll released last week showed an electorate still wrestling with the data center question. Respondents’ top concerns surrounding data centers were power prices and the risk of blackouts — yet they were generally willing to support a new data center in their area evenif it hikes their power bills.
In his address to lawmakers, Shapiro proposed a three-pronged strike against rising energy costs — proposing new rules for data center developers, electric utilities and the regional grid PJM. He pledged to “hold data center developers accountable to strict standards if they want our full support.”
Last week, PJM agreed to extend price controls on future electricity production into 2030.
Former PM Gordon Brown has said that he dobbed former prince Andrew into “several UK police forces”.
Brown wrote a five-page letter to various forces, including the Met, Sussex and Thames Valley, which he says contained “new and additional” information from the Epstein files. The ex-royal was arrested this morning on suspicion of ‘misconduct in public office’ — which carries a potential life sentence but does nothing for Andrew’s and Epstein’s victims.
Brown doesn’t seem to have been asked quite why he had information from the Epstein files not previously available to police. Keir Starmer has helpfully added ‘What the king said’, insisting like Chuck that the “law must take its course”.
The whole establishment now seems to be getting in on the Andrew act as some kind of ritual hand-washing of its own metastatic part in Epstein’s decades of child-rape, trafficking and spying for Israel. Which isn’t how they’re describing it, of course — especially the Israel bit.
For more on the Epstein Files, please read the Canary’s article on the way that the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.
Featured image via the ScottishGreens
The Green Party believes it is only 73 votes behind Reform in run-up to the Gorton and Denton by-election, HuffPost UK understands.
The party came to that conclusion after more than 13,000 doorstep conversations, according to an internal Green Party WhatsApp group seen by HuffPost UK.
Campaigners in the constituency believe the Greens are now just 0.2% behind Reform, equating to just 73 votes.
The activists described the vote as being on a “literal knife edge”.
Voters in the Greater Manchester seat will head to the ballot box next Thursday for the crunch contest.
The seat has traditionally been Labour so it will be a significant test of Keir Starmer’s authority and approval among the electorate.
The Greens and Reform UK have both soared in popularity over the last 18 months and are hoping to boost their seat numbers in the Commons.
The outsider parties have also insisted they are now locked in a race with each other, while Labour has told HuffPost UK that it is only between their party and Reform.
Meanwhile, the UK Polling Report’s website is currently predicting Labour will hold the seat.
It claimed Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia will win with 35.47% of the vote, while Reform’s Matt Goodwin will come in second place with 29.17%.
The Greens’ Hannah Spencer is expected to come in third with 20.83%, according to the data.
Reform UK and Labour have been contacted for comment.
Green activists also used their WhatsApp group to warn they are “seriously short of campaigners for the final stretch of the campaign”.
The party believes that they need 300 people every weekday to campaign across the remaining week, with more 1,000 activists on the trail this weekend and 2,000 people on polling day.
In a message to campaigners, warns that the party is “not even close” to reaching that number right now.
When approached for comment on a potential shortage of campaigners, a party source told HuffPost UK: “That’s campaigns, campaigning. We have hundreds of volunteers out every day and we are expecting Saturday to be the largest action day the party has ever had.
“Our data shows we’re neck and neck with Reform and every extra volunteer out on the streets from now till next Thursday could make the difference to stop Reform.”
I don’t know about you but suddenly all of my friends are experts on skiing, figure skating and snowboarding – and it’s all thanks to the 2026 Winter Olympics completely captivating them all.
I mean, who can blame them?
The drama, the skill, the absolutely terrifying risks they take as athletes — these sports are not for the faint-hearted and for us, the audience, they make for an incredible viewing experience, even for those who don’t usually care about sports.
All of this got me thinking, though, how do they cope with performance anxiety?! I struggle to keep it together for a Zoom presentation to 12 people. Can you imagine knowing the world has its eyes on you and the country you represent is depending on you to win?
What Olympians can teach us about performance anxiety
Writing about the mental health impacts of being an Olympian back in 2021, Dr David M. Lyreskog, of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said: “In elite sports teams, the prevalence of depression and anxiety is sometimes as high as 45%, and in adolescent elite sports the prevalence of eating disorders is approximately 14%. The pursuit of performance – of excellence – does not appear to be a healthy one.”
Among the wider population, mixed anxiety and depression is Britain’s most common mental disorder, with 7.8% of people meeting the criteria for diagnosis, according to the Mental Health Foundation.
So, how do almost half of Olympians cope with anxiety when they’re supposed to be at the top of their game? And what can we learn from them?
Writing for the official Olympics website, four-time swimming Olympian-turned-sports psychologist Markus Rogan shared how he had been an anxious athlete and had learned four key lessons to get him through bouts of anxiety.
1. ‘Growing through anxiety’ and connecting with loved ones you trust
“It’s easy to surround yourself with people when you’re amazing, but maybe you can explore relationships with those who are there with you when you’re down,” he said.
2. Facing tough questions
When your brain is racing with ‘what if’ questions, ask yourself why you’re worried about this. Is the worry founded or are you just having anxious thoughts?
3. Asking people for their opinions
Sometimes, our anxiety simply comes from the unknown. Ask your loved ones to help. Ask them what you’re afraid to hear and trust them to protect you as they do so.
4. Not ignoring your thoughts
Sometimes bad thoughts are just bad thoughts, but once you label them, you can work on them. “Don’t forget that even the most profound thought is still just a thought,” he assured.
Speaking to Psychology Today, Dr Cindra Kamphoff, who has worked with professional and Olympic athletes for two decades, shared how she supports them following Olympic performances.
She said: “After the Olympics, we debrief. We evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and how to grow from the experience. Then we reset goals and begin preparing for the next competition.
“Confidence and mental performance are ongoing processes, not event-specific interventions.”
Disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, has finally been arrested in connection with revelations from the Epstein files.
Among those who have responded are the family of Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre accused Windsor of sexual abuse:
Statement from the family of Virginia Giuffre:
“At last.
Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.
On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their… pic.twitter.com/bgtHZtb2qO
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) February 19, 2026
Nevertheless, it hasn’t escaped attention that the arrest is regarding misconduct in public office and apparently not in connection with Giuffre’s allegations.
Andrew arrest: ‘at last’
On 19 February 2026, Thames Valley Police arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This came after they reviewed documents from the Epstein files which suggest he shared information from his time as a UK trade envoy with the late convicted paedophile.
Mountbatten-Windsor is currently in police custody amid searches of multiple properties as part of the criminal inquiry. The Epstein files have raised serious concerns about the scale of this sinister web of elitist men. This has prompted widespread demands for full transparency and accountability for sexual abuse against women and girls.
However, this pattern underscores how far more precedence is given to economic interests and institutional power over justice for victims and accountability for abusive men.
The statement from Giuffre’s family reads in full:
At last.
Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.
On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
He was never a prince.
For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.
Virginia Giuffre
Virginia Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was just 17 years old. She became a prominent advocate fighting against sex trafficking, in light of her own experience being sexually exploited by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She died by suicide in April 2025 leaving her loved ones and survivors across the world devastated and heartbroken. Giuffre’s push for accountability has been continued by advocacy groups across the West. Many have joined the call in demanding powerful men face consequences for the abuse they have evidently inflicted.
We wrote about Andrew’s arrest shortly after it happened:
If former royal, and mate of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was hoping for any public sympathy after his arrest this morning – on his birthday – he’s going to be sorely disappointed.
The family of Virginia Giuffre, Andrew’s most well-known victim, welcomed the arrest as a sign that no one is above the law:
“At last, today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty,” Giuffre’s family said in the statement given to CBS News.”
However, Windsor was arrested on suspicion of ‘misconduct in a public office’. Knowing the British state, this was more likely linked to his leaking of secrets to Epstein than his abuse of trafficked and potentially under-age girls. But the offence carries a potential life sentence, so there’s that.
Giuffre had long pursued seeing the suspected paedo-prince face accountability for his abuse against her. Obviously, Andrew has always denied these claims, which is no surprise as it’s damn rare to find a man actually hold his hands up in disgust at the abuse he has inflicted.
Because of this, she was denied the justice she deserved over the allegations against Windsor, after Epstein and Maxwell allegedly trafficked her to him. Giuffre also shared in her memoir even more sinister allegations against former Israeli PM Ehud Barak.
We wrote in October:
Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors (but now a victim) of serial child rapist and trafficker – and almost certain Israel intelligence asset – Jeffrey Epstein, was repeatedly left battered and bloodied after being beaten and raped by a man she describes, in a new memoir published after her death earlier this year, as a “well-known prime minister”.
Adding:
Giuffre said that she called the man ‘the Prime Minister’ and did not name him, because she was afraid he would come after her and cause her harm if she did. Before Epstein’s death, however, she named former Israeli PM Ehud Barak – also a close friend of Epstein’s ardent fan Peter Mandelson – as one of the many men to rape her, an accusation he has denied.
Virginia Giuffre wrote in horrific detail about the violence inflicted on her by the ‘PM’, whom she met when she was just eighteen:
“He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life. Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop. I emerged from the cabana bleeding from my mouth, vagina, and anus. For days, it hurt to breathe and to swallow… [He] raped me more savagely than anyone had before.”
King’s ‘concern’
The King chose his words carefully – and choice matters here, because men can choose to amplify victims’ voices and examine allegations critically. Rather than doing so, he voiced his “deepest concern” about his brother’s arrest and stated that “the law must take its course,” adding:
What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
This statement is reported to have the full support of Will and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Queenie Camilla had nothing to offer but a wave when asked for her feelings on the arrest. We can’t help but feel the Royal family’s concern here lies solely with Andrew, the man-child sex-pest, rather than the countless victims across the world who fell victim to powerful, privileged men and their sick fancies.
How the mighty have fallen, thus proving that powerful men can be brought to task if the political will is there:
‘Do you know who I was?’ #Andrew #AndrewWindsor pic.twitter.com/Gp6Eu5NuD9
— The Rev. Anton Mittens 🌹👮🎓 (@MittensOff) February 19, 2026
Accountability NOW
Don’t get us wrong, it is bloody wonderful to see the disgraced prince brought to task and finally facing a criminal investigation. A potential life sentence is equally refreshing to see. Nonetheless, many wish to see this go further. Despite the long relationship with Epstein, there has never been a thorough investigation into his involvement in the apparent trafficking ring instrumentalized by Epstein and co.
Enough must be enough. Andrew is now in a police station with more than enough evidence to legitimise a full investigation into allegations of sexual abuse. Yet powerful men have shown us that the protection of young girls will never be as important as protecting power.
Shame on them. Down with the monarchy.
For more on the Epstein Files, please read:
Featured image via the Canary
Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is celebrating the legal victory, with another huntsman brought to justice. Northampton magistrate’s court has found Philip Saunders guilty of illegal hunting on Wednesday 18 February. Saunders is one of the arsehole huntsman for criminal gang, the Pipewell Foot Beagles.
Another one?
The conviction is the second time these bloodthirsty arseholes have been caught out illegally hare-hunting.
And it beautifully landed just before the 21st anniversary of the Hunting Act.
The court heard how Saunders led his pack to kill a hare at the Boughton Estates on Kettering. Richard Scott is the current Duke of Buccleuch and one of the largest land owners in Scotland. It’s no shock that he would allow an illegal hunt to take place on ‘home turf.’
Courageous wildlife photographer Emma Reed was on the scene and captured the entire incident.
Reed’s video clearly shows Saunders encouraging the hounds to kill. The huntsman was heard growling “Get onto it!” at the dogs. This is a specific hunting term which incites animal cruelty and it proves the hunt intended to pursue the hare.
As per usual, the HSA provided names to the police at the time, but they failed to act on the evidence. Again.
Losing the horn
The magistrate fined Saunders £1,000 for his role in the illegal hunt. He also has to pay £3,600 in costs and a £400 victim surcharge.
In the landmark move, the court also ordered the destruction of Saunders’ hunting horn. Saunders must surrender it to the police by 5pm Thursday 19 Feb.
Destroying the horn is beautifully symbolic as this is the primary tool a huntsman uses to control the hounds. The HSA believe this should be common practice in all cases as it effectively strips the bloodthirsty wankers of the ability to lead.
Reed expressed her satisfaction with the guilty verdict stating:
“I am pleased with the guilty verdict as justice has been served. The judge was strong in his summing up of sending a message to the hunting community that these illegal actions will not be tolerated and are totally unacceptable.”
Justice for wildlife
The Judge was strong in his summing up of the case, making it clear that illegal hunting of hares is totally unacceptable and it sends a clear warning to the hunting community.
Simon Russell, chair of the HSA spoke to the Canary about this landmark victory:
Hare Hunts always pack up and go home when sabs find them, this is what they are really doing when they’re not under observation, killing our public wild Hares. A good hunting horn is hard to come by, the really decent ones rack in at £300 plus and we would suggest that future convictions have the horns donated to the Hunt Saboteurs Association. We would put them to good use saving wildlife.
Images via Emma Reed
An American attack on Iran appears imminent. US president Donald Trump has deployed massive military force to the Persian Gulf while negotiations between the two counties seem to have stalled. Media reports the attack could start as soon as Saturday 21 February.
Iran’s leadership has said that the principles of the negotiations — centring on Iran’s nuclear plans (or lack thereof) — were understood but that no agreement had been reached. The US has said military options are very much ‘on the table’ while Iran now says it’s open to international nuclear inspections.
Iran closed large areas of its airspace on 19 February. It’s aviation authority said it was:
to allow a planned missile launch exercise tomorrow. It specified danger zones where flying will be completely banned due to military activity.
Anonymous Iranian security officials said it was a show of force, and the US aviation authority has followed suit:
warning that uncoordinated missile launches could pose catastrophic risks, including endangering civilian flight paths.
The closure was enough to active alarm bells for some countries. Poland urged its citizens to leave Iran. Prime minister Donald Tusk said:
In a few, a dozen, or several dozen hours, evacuation may no longer be possible.
Behind the scenes, US military aircraft have been moving into the region for days.
Tankers inbound
Sky News reported that American refuelling planes have passed through the UK as part of the build-up. Starmer’s Britain, it appears, is happy to serve as checkpoints for Trump’s march to war.
Military expert professor Michael Clarke was on Sky on 18 February. Using open source air traffic mapping, he showed how on 16 February six US tankers passed through the UK on their way to Greece. On 18 February, a further ten tankers passed through the UK on their way towards the Mediterranean:
You can hear his analysis from around 1.55 in this report:
And Drop Site News journalists Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Huzzain reported:
the largest buildup of firepower in the Middle East since President Donald Trump authorized a 12-day bombing campaign against Iran last June that killed more than 1,000 people.
One anonymous former Trump insider told the investigative outlet that:
based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.
And retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis said the level of build-up:
harkens back to what I saw ahead of the 2003 Iraq war.
Davis warned:
You don’t assemble this kind of power to send a message. In my view, this is what you do when you’re preparing to use it. What I see on the diplomatic front is just to try to keep things rolling until it’s time to actually launch the military operation. I think that everybody on both sides knows where this is heading.
And a key US command and control aircraft is now in the region…
Critical command and control aircraft
Former US Marine and State Department whistleblower Matthew Hoh said the presence of the E-3 command and control aircraft was an indicator Trump intended to pull the trigger:
The E3 is an incredibly important aircraft. For those unfamiliar, it is the large airplane that looks like an airliner, but with a revolving radar disc on top.
The airplane is loaded with an air crew whose job is to observe, manage and control the airspace in its area. It is especially important for directing fighters and ground/sea based missile interceptors against Iranian missiles and drones.
This is the strongest indication to me of the seriousness of the US threat to Iran. The US has deployed more than 2/3 of its available E3 command/control aircraft to Europe and the Middle East.
The E3 is an incredibly important aircraft. For those unfamiliar, it is the large…
— Matthew Hoh (@MatthewPHoh) February 19, 2026
Renowned international relations scholar John Mearsheimer reminded us that barring UAE – which has close ties with the settler-colonial pariah state – the only country absolutely determined to have a war with Iran was Israel:
Drop Site broke down the scale of the build-up:
Two carrier strike groups—each built around one aircraft carrier, several guided‑missile destroyers armed with Tomahawk missiles, and at least one submarine—are also being stationed nearby, along with several additional U.S. destroyers and submarines in regional waters near Iran to defend against ballistic missile attacks, as well as more than 30,000 U.S. military personnel and numerous Patriot and THAAD anti-missile batteries spread across regional military bases.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is on its way to the Gulf from the Caribbean. The ship took part in Trump’s last ‘spectacular’ – the Caracas raid which snatched Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. The Ford is the biggest and most advanced carrier in the world.
Former Pentagon official Jasmine El-Gamal told Drop Site.
This is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. This is not the negotiations of last year or the year before or the year before that. They’re backed into a corner. There’s no off ramp.
El-Gamal said:
The fact that that carrier is there tells me that this isn’t just a routine kind of, ‘Hey, let’s flex some muscle.’ He didn’t need that. He didn’t need to send that second carrier to flex muscle.
But what would a US-Iran war actually look like?
Short intense war?
With negotiations deadlocked, one expert said that Iran and US might favour a short intense war followed by a return to talks.
Swedish-Iranian scholar Trita Parsi told Democracy Now:
We have a very dangerous situation, because both sides actually believe that a short, intense war may improve their negotiating position.
The US believes its overwhelming military capability will:
be able to take out Iran militarily rather quickly and then force it to capitulate.
Parsi said the Iranians have other plans:
They believe that they have the ability to inflict significant damage on the United States in the short term, including on civilian oil installations in the region, closing down the Strait of Hormuz, that would shoot up oil prices…
The Iranians were calculating that:
the initial cost of this to the United States would be so immense, and the United States would recognize that it would have to go for a longer war, which it cannot afford, and as a result, it would get the United States to back off.
Yes another Middle east war is looming. It would be a war which is not at all separate to the current genocide in Gaza and the legacies of the Iraq war. In fact, it would compound both. The best case scenario is that it doesn’t happen at all. Next best? The sort of ‘limited’ bombing we’ve seen in the past.
The third, most terrifying and not at all unlikely outcome is that the war escalates into something altogether more existential with profound impacts for the region and the world, and which sends violent shocks through the global economy. A number of experts and insiders are saying we’ll find out sooner rather than later.
Featured image via the Canary
City AM reports that Global Counsel, the embattled lobbying firm founded by Peter Mandelson, will go into administration as soon as tomorrow. Its CEO Ben Wegg-Prosser – close friend of Mandelson – stood down two weeks ago. Global Cancelled…
Attendees at the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) Postgraduate Open Day Event had a more memorable experience than expected on 18 February. A group of PETA supporters stormed the famous Octagon inside the Queens’ Building bearing signs that read, “QMUL: End Cruel Sepsis Experiments,” and chanting, “Sepsis experiments should be cruelty free.”
Cruel experiments
The action is part of PETA’s ongoing campaign calling on the university to stop tormenting mice in cruel and useless sepsis experiments, which consistently fail to lead to effective treatments for humans. Activists previously crashed a meeting of the QMUL Senate to draw the attention of university leadership.
PETA senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said:
Prospective QMUL students should know that the university is using their tuition fees to torture and kill terrified mice in cruel and pointless experiments that have done nothing to advance human health.
PETA urges QMUL to stop wasting animals’ lives on these cruel experiments and switch to cutting-edge, animal-free research that actually helps humans.
More than 150 drugs have successfully treated sepsis in mice, yet none have been effective in treating humans. Despite the well-documented failure in using mice to model human sepsis, QMUL experiments are cutting open terrified mice and puncturing their intestines to leak faecal matter into their bodies.
Experimenters noted that some mice experienced severe sepsis, which can include major organ failure and abject suffering. Data from some of these experiments has been published in papers that were later retracted by the publisher because data and conclusions were deemed ‘unreliable’.
Mice are intelligent, complex, and social individuals who experience a wide range of emotions. They become attached to each other, love their families, and easily bond with their human guardians – returning as much affection as they receive.
PETA encourages everyone to urge Queen Mary to heed the scientific evidence and join other institutions, including the University of Kent, that have committed to non-animal methods in sepsis research.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
Featured image via PETA
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