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Politics Home | Parliamentary Staff Overwhelmingly Reject Pay Deal Worth Less Than MPs’
Unite, one of the UK’s biggest trade unions, has carried out a survey of parliamentary staff on the pay offer for 2026-27 (Alamy)
3 min read
Parliamentary staff have overwhelmingly rejected a pay offer that falls below the salary increase awarded to MPs, according to a trade union survey.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) announced on Monday that MPs’ basic salary will rise by 5 per cent to £98,599 a year from April, while also aiming to move towards a salary of around £110,000 by the end of the Parliament, due in 2029. The MPs’ pay decision for 2026-27 includes a 1.5 per cent benchmarking adjustment, as well as a 3.5 per cent cost-of-living increase.
However, MPs’ staff are only being offered an ‘optional’ 3.5 per cent pay increase, despite months of lobbying by the trade union and some MPs for a substantial rise in staffing budgets due to low pay and unsustainable workloads.
In a survey of parliamentary staff by trade union Unite, seen by PoliticsHome, 91.5 per cent of respondents said they would reject the 3.5 per cent automatic pay uplift for staff salaries for 2026-27. Only 4.6 per cent of the more than 600 respondents voted to accept the offer, while 3.8 per cent abstained.
Parliamentary staffers told PoliticsHome on Monday that there was widespread “fury” over the proposals, with one saying that IPSA “treats MPs’ staff with total contempt”.
The Speakers Committee on IPSA are meeting later on Wednesday afternoon, with trade unions hoping to get the chance to challenge the IPSA budget. The committee technically has the power to veto or amend the budget, though this power has not been exercised before.
Trade unions representing parliamentary staff are hopeful that IPSA will come back to the table with a new offer.
In an email to staff on Tuesday morning, Unite asked all parliamentary staff – including non-members – to fill in the survey and “join the union to challenge this injustice and ensure a fair pay settlement”. The union recommended that respondents reject the 3.5 per cent offer.
A spokesperson for the Unite Parliamentary Staff Branch said the survey of MPs’ staff showed the “widespread outrage at yet another year of real terms pay cuts”.
“Offering staff a pay rise less than MPs and lower than inflation is nothing short of an insult,” they said, demanding that IPSA explain why the larger uplift applied to MPs would not apply to staff “who carry the bulk of the work and absorb the worst pressures of the job”.
Parliamentary staff have had a 14.6 per cent real-terms pay cut since 2020, based on RPI, with many caseworkers earning little more than the minimum wage.
“Our offices are chronically under-resourced, with staff often required to work unpaid overtime, provide practical and emotional support for constituents facing difficult situations, and support MPs in high-pressure situations,” the spokesperson continued.
“Our jobs are fundamentally insecure, yet our pay and pensions lag far behind those of comparable jobs in the civil service and local government.
“We are proud of the work we do to serve our communities and support our MPs, but stress and burnout are at an all-time high. If we want a thriving democracy, we need to start by paying the people who make it work fairly.”
IPSA does not have the power to set exactly how much a member of MPs’ staff should be paid; instead, it is proposing an automatic 3.5 per cent pay uplift for all staff, funded by a 5 per cent increase to staffing budgets, and an increase of at least 5 per cent to the minimum of each pay band. In practice, this could mean some staff salaries could rise by more than 9 per cent.
However, MPs have the authority to block their staff from receiving the 3.5 per cent pay rise. PoliticsHome understands some parliamentarians, including Labour MPs, signed to prevent their staff from getting pay uplifts last year.
As the embers of WW III were heard crackling into life across the East, Mr Speaker began PMQs reminding Members of the need for good temper and moderation in their language and the need for respectful debate. “Pete Wishart!” “Thank you Mr Speaker,” he began, Parliament’s favourite Scot. “The campaign slogan in Scotland may be…
It is hard to imagine what university-aged Iranians – many of whom have been putting their lives on the line in defiance of their nation’s brutal theocratic regime – would make of their counterparts in the UK. Indeed, while thousands of young Iranians danced in the streets following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli strike last week, students at Britain’s top institutions appear to be having a much harder time coming to terms with his demise.
Several student-led Ahlulbayt Islamic Societies (AbSocs) in universities across the UK have paid mournful tribute to the late dictator. The AbSoc at the University of Greenwich shared information about a vigil for Khamenei with its members, which was held on Sunday in London’s Maida Vale. Greenwich had previously held a meet-and-greet event, at which bookmarks depicting Khamenei were scattered among sweets. The Muslim Student Council (MSC), which is responsible for overseeing many UK AbSocs, said it had cancelled a planned iftar event out of ‘respect and in honour of our beloved shuhada [martyrs]’. The same post-featured a black and white image of Iran’s former supreme leader. Students at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester similarly expressed their ‘condolences’ for the tyrant.
Perhaps the most excessive outpouring of grief came from the University College London’s AbSoc, which posted a high-school-yearbook-style image of Khamenei and lamented the ‘unimaginable loss for the ummah [global Muslim community]’ that his ‘martyrdom’ has brought. The group went on to remind members that, even following the passing of their ‘beloved sayed’ (a ‘religious guide’ and ‘spiritual reference point’), the ‘resistance’ is far from over. Shia Muslims in the West, it said, ‘must remain aware and ready’. Ready for what, one wonders?
You do not have to support the US intervention in Iran to be alarmed by the students shedding tears for the ayatollah. Under his rule, Iranian authorities violently suppressed dissent. They arrested, tortured and executed those who spoke out against the Islamic Republic. Mandatory hijab-wearing is imposed by law, with security forces routinely capturing and punishing women for dress-code violations. In 2022, 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini died after being detained by Iran’s morality police, sparking the Woman, Life, Freedom protests across the country. Amini had just been admitted to a university in Urmia to study biology. Yet in 2026, students at a top London university openly celebrate the regime that killed her.
When it comes to the keffiyeh-wearing tote-bag-resistance class, many of whom grew up in Kent or Surrey and know nothing of Iran, Islamism or anything else, it is easy to dismiss such ayatollah apologism as ignorance, stupidity or naivety. Indeed, the bizarre notion that Islamic extremists – from Hamas and Hezbollah to the ayatollahs – are a part of some ‘global left alliance’ has a long, shameful history among post-class ‘progressives’. Meanwhile, Britain’s Islamists, who are legion on modern campuses, understand perfectly well what they are supporting and why when they express grief for Khamenei.
Since the student vigils started garnering attention in the press, the MSC has hit back, accusing the media of trying to ‘smear Shia Muslim students’. It also claims that accusations of ‘extremism’ are ‘Islamophobic’ for focussing on a ‘fake issue’ that ‘does not exist in the UK’.
The trouble is, the embrace of Islamist fanaticism is sadly nothing new for British universities. We saw it in October 2023, when students at Oxford chanted ‘Long live the intifada’ on campus. We saw it last year, when a ‘feminist’ society at Goldsmiths held a ‘night of remembrance’ for the butchers and rapists of the 7 October pogrom. No doubt we shall see more of it tonight, when the University of Manchester holds its candlelit vigil in honour of the supreme leader’s memory.
These campus celebrations of Islamic tyranny can no longer be dismissed as simple naivety or youthful radicalism. It is now a fixture of British universities and beyond. Those weeping for the ayatollah know they are on the side of barbarism.
Georgina Mumford is a content producer at spiked.
Lambeth Green Party has slammed “disgraceful” Labour austerity. And it’s going to mobilise members for a UNISON-backed protest outside the council’s budget-setting meeting at 6pm on 4 March.
The Greens added that, if they were to form an administration in May, they would put Lambeth at the centre of a network of “anti-cuts councils”, mobilising against central government austerity.
Labour- cuts, cuts, cuts
Changes to local government funding that Labour introduced this year have cut funding for Lambeth. And this has left the council with a budget shortfall projection of £130m by 2029.
Due to the government cuts and years of local financial mismanagement, the Lambeth Labour administration is looking to save £46.58m for the 2026/27 budget. And it’s proposing £100m in cuts by 2029/30.
While aiming to raise some cash from revenue-raising measures, the local administration will rely primarily on restructures and cuts to frontline services.
Lambeth’s own equalities impact assessment of the cuts has concluded that 24 of the 78 agreed savings will have ‘negative impacts’ on Lambeth residents. Labour has refused to publish this analysis.
The council has also put in a request for Exceptional Financial Support of £116m over three years from central government.
This Exceptional Financial Support comes on top of £40m of support received last year to balance the housing revenue account. It isn’t a grant and Lambeth council will need to pay it back through the sale of more public assets.
Greens fighting back against Austerity
Scott Ainslie, Green Party councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s ward, said:
Lambeth Greens have been proud to stand alongside our community, and local unions, to fight against cuts for the past 16 years. On 4 March, we will join the protests outside the town hall.
By many measures, the cuts being we’re facing now are worse than they were under the Tories. These cuts have been made even worse by the years of financial mismanagement by the local Labour administration. That means more jobs lost, more services cut back, residents let down and vulnerable people left to fend for themselves.
Lambeth Labour have finally run out of people to blame. This is Labour austerity, at every level. Austerity is a political choice – we need to make different choices.
Nicole Griffiths, Green Party councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s ward, said:
There is no public support for this agenda of endless cuts – and there is a clear alternative: tax the super rich and big business, and invest in our communities.
On 4 March, we will again be tabling amendments to Labour’s budget. But Lambeth Labour can simply vote them down, and they barely scratch the surface of the disgraceful austerity being imposed by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
We need a political earthquake – and that begins on 7 May when Lambeth can elect its first Green administration. In office, the Greens will put Lambeth at the heart of a nationwide network of anti-cuts councils, mobilising and empowering communities to fight austerity.
Featured image via the Canary
Not even three years ago, paid goons of the Islamic Republic murdered a 13-year-old British girl. They bashed their way into the room in which she had scrabbled for sanctuary with her mother and sister and shot her to death. They then set a fire, reducing the girl to ash. She could only be identified by her dental records. The tyrants in Tehran celebrated. They marshalled their supporters on to the streets to sing and dance over this orgy of violence that entailed the merciless slaying of a British innocent. It’s a ‘turning point in history’, they crowed, as reporters were in the girl’s blackened home, holding their noses against the stench of death.
Her name was Yahel Sharabi. And I intend to say it to every fellow Briton who says the crisis in the Middle East ‘has nothing to do with us’. And to every slack-jawed Labour minister twiddling awkwardly with their ties as one of the great geopolitical emergencies of our time swirls all around them. And to every keffiyeh-smothered smug leftist who is currently painting the Islamic Republic as the innocent victim of an ‘unprovoked war of aggression’. Was the killing and immolation of a British girl not a provocation? Was the murder of her in the arms of her mother and sister – who were also killed – not an act of aggression? Was the slaying that day of a thousand others who were guilty of the same crime as young Yahel – they were Jews – not war?
Yahel was one of 18 British citizens murdered by Hamas and its allies on 7 October 2023. Her sister Noiya, 16, and her mother Lianne, who was born in Bristol, were two others. There was also Aner Shapiro, 22, who ran into a public bomb shelter with 30 others from the Nova music festival. He threw back seven of the grenades that the Hamas fascists hurled in, but was killed by the eighth. There was Nadav Popplewell, 51, spirited into Gaza by Hamas brutes and then killed. And Bernard Cowan, 57, from Glasgow, shot dead in Kibbutz Sufa: the only Scot killed that day. More British citizens were killed on 7 October 2023 than in any terror attack since the ISIS mass shooting at Sousse, Tunisia in 2015.
And their killers were backed by the Islamic Republic. The Iranian regime funded Hamas to the tune of $100million a year. It provided Hamas with weapons tech and logistical support. It had intimate knowledge of Hamas’s fascistic plans for 7 October. It has since held numerous official celebrations of the barbarism of that day. Nothing to do with us? The Iran-backed murder of 18 British citizens, most of them Jews? Perhaps Britain’s handwringers might let us know their threshold for Jew-murder, the point at which the foreign-funded killing of our Jewish compatriots might finally prick their slumbering consciences. Tell us: how many dead British Jews would be the price of your moral concern? Twenty-five? Fifty? A hundred?
This is not to justify what is currently taking place. I am as troubled as so many others are by the events in Iran and the surrounding region. I’m a little like Tulsi Gabbard used to be, before she threw her lot in with the Trumpists: a ‘hawk’ when it comes to going after terrorist outfits that invade our lands or butcher our citizens, but a ‘dove’ when it comes to wars of regime change. History tells us regime-change wars have a nasty habit of unleashing regional instability while stealing the democratic initiative from the liberty-thirsting populace in the regime at hand. If Iran is to be freed from the squatting thugs of the Islamist theocracy, it is only the Iranian people who will do it.
No, this is an attempt to drag some historical context on to the morally barren wasteland of infantile posturing we have borne witness to these past few days. The woke left’s depiction of Iran as the guiltless victim of Western imperialism is an outrageous lie. The crank right’s claim that Israel is the cause of every war in the Middle East – if not the whole world – reeks to the heavens of anti-Semitic ahistoricism. The UK government’s flummoxed nonchalance about the whole thing speaks to how thoroughly the technocratic mind-virus blinds one to truth and morality. This tyrannical regime funded the murder of our Jewish countrymen. Including a child. Does that mean nothing to you?
This started on 7 October. People say it didn’t, but it did. That is the day on which the so-called Axis of Resistance declared war on the Jewish State, and through the Jewish State on the West. That’s the day when Iran’s most brutish proxy – Hamas – sent a 6,000-strong army of jihadists into Israel. They arrived by land, sea and air to rape and murder Jews, including British Jews. It was the next day, 8 October, that Iran’s proxies in Lebanon – Hezbollah – started to rain missiles on northern Israel, causing the internal displacement of 60,000 civilians. They were later joined by Iran’s proxies in Yemen – the Houthis, another avowedly anti-Semitic army – who have fired more than a hundred missiles and drones at the Jewish nation over the past year or so.
When people describe the Israel-US attack on the theocrats in Tehran as ‘unprovoked’, what they are really saying is that they do not consider the mass murder of Jews to be a provocation. When they call it unwarranted aggression, they’re saying the violent destruction of Jewish life is not something worth getting aggressive about. When they describe Israeli strikes against Tehran as an ‘escalation’, and never used that word for the Tehran-sponsored barbarism inflicted on Israel, they betray their own hyper-paternalistic Third Worldism. They confirm that in their Western-centric worldview, America and Israel are responsible for every earthly ill, while child-like states such as the Islamic Republic merely respond. Or ‘resist’. It’s ‘resistance’ when the Islamic Republic and its proxies kill Jews, but a ‘war crime’ when the Jews and their allies push back. We see you.
Events in Iran speak not to any criminal madness or bloodlust on the part of the American Empire and the Jewish State, but rather to the suicidal lunacy of 7 October. You don’t have to support the current regime-change efforts to recognise that the Iranian regime and its murderous proxies brought this calamity upon themselves. The 7 October attacks will go down as the most self-destructive military adventure of modern times, an act of apocalyptic vanity. Yahya Sinwar, the architect of that grim day, thought he would bring Zionism to its knees and provoke a Nazi-like expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land. Yet now he is dead, his movement of Hamas is decimated, Hezbollah is flagging, and the Iranian backers of their anti-Semitic crusade are under severe pressure.
The Islamic Republic did this to itself. It forgot that killing Jews has consequences now. It isn’t the 1490s or the 1930s. The rape and murder of Jews comes with repercussions these days. That the regime forgot this is somewhat understandable. It is, after all, consumed by cosmic delusions, by an inflated sense of holy importance as the final boss of Jew hatred. The Western left’s neglect of this truth, however, is less forgivable. You would think that woke agitators who love to talk about ‘consequence culture’ would recognise that murdering a thousand Jews might provoke war. Their demonisation of Israel and absolution of the Islamic Republic is not ‘anti-imperialism’ – it is the double racism of seeing the Jewish State as the sole author of violence in the Middle East and ‘brown’ Persians and Arabs as witless, wide-eyed victims.
It is terrible that the people of Gaza suffered so much in the wars of 7 October. It is terrible that Iranian civilians are now suffering in these wars, too. But this era of apocalyptic violence was started not by Israel or America but by the Islamic Republic. What concerns me is that the military suicide committed by Islamists on 7 October is finding its echo in the moral suicide of the West in the same period. Witness the Hamas sympathy on our streets these past two years or the current floundering of our rulers who can’t even bring themselves to say the Islamic Republic is a wicked regime whose Jew hatred, misogyny, homophobia and intolerance run counter to the moral virtues of our own civilisation. If you don’t think the killing of Yahel Sharabi and a thousand other Jews is an act of historic importance, then you have been defeated, too. Iran and its proxies may not have succeeded in destroying the Jewish nation, but they destroyed your soul.
Some MPs have divided the internet after they were filmed dancing in parliament even as the crisis in the Middle East rages.
Parliamentarians, including the Speaker of the Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, gathered in Portcullis House on Wednesday morning while Strictly Come Dancing stars Angela Rippon and Alex Kingston showed them some moves.
The event was meant to promote how dancing can boost health and wellbeing, but others have slammed the gathering for being insensitive.
Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, Tehran’s retaliatory strikes have pulled the whole of the Middle East into disarray.
The UK is currently weighing up how to defend its own military base in Cyprus following an Iranian drone attack.
Keir Starmer has already given the US permission to use its British bases to target Iran, too.
International affairs aside, MPs have also come under scrutiny this week after the independent expenses watchdog announced their basic salary will rise by 5% to £98,599 in April.
So people have, naturally, been questioning the timing of this dance lesson while clips of jubiliant MPs have been repeatedly on social media.
But not everyone was against it.
Some social media users said it was time to “lighten up” and suggested voters actually like seeing their politicians prove they know how to have fun on occasion.
Meanwhile others took the chance to joke about U-turns…something Keir Starmer has become very famous for, having chalked up more than a dozen since being elected in July 2024…
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in a press conference that a US military submarine has torpedoed a warship from Iran in international waters. This attack sunk the vessel, resulting in the murder of at least 80 with “dozens more injured” off the coast of Sri Lanka.
More than 100 were earlier said to be missing following the attack.
Showing footage of the attack, Hegseth stated:
The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf.
Notably, Hegseth also highlighted that this strike on Tuesday night was the first sinking by torpedo since WWII. It is important to note, this has been disputed and appears to be more indicative of the first struck by the US since the mass casualties of the Second World War.
A U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship in international waters, says U.S. defence secretary Pete Hegseth.
He says it’s the “first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since the Second World War”.
Iran latest 🔗 https://t.co/MSOfDN6aRq
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/67JYtqLngA
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 4, 2026
Iran distress call on Tuesday night
Sri Lankan politician Vijitha Herath spoke on behalf of the Sri Lankan navy confirming that “multiple bodies had been recovered,” with 32 injured in the incident now being treated in hospital. This follows the Sri Lankan navy answering their distress call just outside of their island’s territorial waters. Subsequently, they sent air force planes and ships on a rescue mission to the Iranian frigate ‘Iris Dena’.
Herath further informed that the ship had 180 souls on board.
The periscope video when American torpedo (launched by a submarine) hits the Iranian naval ship IRIS Dena. The Iranian ship was outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters but still within its economic zone, 44 nautical miles (81km) off the southern coastal city of Galle.
Sri Lankan… pic.twitter.com/pmhcuhCvHl
— Dr. Syed Mohd Murtaza مرتضیٰ (@syedmohdmurtaza) March 4, 2026
According to the Independent:
The Iris Dena, one of Iran’s newest warships, was the centrepiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil, and was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.
Iris Dena, along with IRIS Makran, faced designated sanctions in February 2023 due to them supplying weapons to Russia which have been used against civilian targets in Ukraine.
US submarine sunk Iranian warship in Indian Ocean with torpedo, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says – follow live https://t.co/QtWkbJmW6m
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 4, 2026
War of aggression is escalating
This act of aggression from the US comes on the fifth day of what has widely been recognised to be an illegal war of aggression by the US and Israel. Israel has long been operating an apartheid system against Palestine, and is now nearly three years into its genocide on Gaza, despite huge condemnation.
After all, Israel’s genocide and crimes against humanity have been condemned by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. Longstanding arrest warrants have also been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli leaders’ integral in the mass murder that has been live streamed since October 7th, 2023.
This news today marks an escalation in the US-Israeli military aggression against Iran. This makes it all the more important that powerful men face sufficient oversight before the world descends into chaos and never-before-seen levels of suffering across the Middle East.
We wrote today on a bill tabled by Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to address this serious issue, supported by eleven co-sponsors:
Corbyn has tabled the bill following Keir Starmer’s clear, public commitment to allow the US to use UK military bases in US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran for ‘defence’ purposes.
Because these two rogue states break international law daily, we must apply rigorous oversight and scrutinise government decisions that make us complicit in a war of aggression on Iran.
The full title of the bill is:
Bill to require parliamentary approval for the deployment of UK armed forces and military equipment for armed conflict; to require parliamentary approval for the granting of permission by Ministers for use of UK military bases and equipment by other nations for armed conflict; to require the withdrawal of that permission in circumstances where parliamentary approval is not granted; to provide for certain exemptions from these requirements; to make provision for retrospective parliamentary approval in certain circumstances; and for connected purposes.
Another Iraq: an aggression built on lies
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.
However, lies were used by the US administration to justify its illegal war. Given it is working in tandem with Pinocchio-Israel who can’t seem to distinguish the difference between fact or fiction, the direction of travel is clear.
Those who believe in the necessity of the rule of law, applied without fear or favour, must now defend it harder than ever before. Otherwise, mass casualties will be seen on all sides of the conflict, whilst the powerful walk away unscathed.
Featured image via the Canary
On Tuesday, 3 March, the last “blood moon” we’re expected to see until 2028 rose.
Sadly, though, it wasn’t visible in the UK. But “blood rain”, which may be coming on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 March, is expected to fall in our skies, the BBC reports.
What on Earth is “blood rain”?
It’s an unofficial term for red rain.
The colour comes from red dust and sand. It can look red as it falls, and/or leave reddish dust splotches on surfaces it lands on when they dry.
These particles get caught up in the atmosphere when they’re kicked up by powerful winds and storms.
And once they’re up there, they can sometimes become part of clouds and, therefore, integrate into the rain.
They can be carried for “thousands of miles,” the Met Office explained, which is why particles from far-off deserts can fall as “blood rain” in the UK.
Where does this week’s “blood rain” come from?
The rust-coloured rain coming our way includes sand from the Sahara.
It’s coming on warm air currents rising from the south. It comes after Iberian Storm Regina has moved into the Western Mediterranean, bringing rain and (crucially) howling winds with it.
As those conditions raged on, they “drew up warm southerly winds from North Africa, lifting fine Saharan dust high into the atmosphere,” the BBC said.
Where will “blood rain” fall in the UK?
Because the rain comes from the south, England and Wales are expected to have a higher chance of seeing “blood rain”.
The “blood rain” is likeliest to fall on Thursday and Friday (5 and 6 March).
How common is “blood rain” in the UK?
It’s not that unusual for dust from the Sahara to reach us.
But it’s relatively rare for enough red dust to enter the atmosphere to create “blood rain” in the UK.
Usually, when we do get sandy or dusty rain, it comes in more drab yellow or rain colours.
We might get fiery sunsets, too
Remember the “blood moon” we mentioned earlier? That turns red because, during a total lunar eclipse, Earth sits between the moon and the sun, meaning rays have to pass through our atmosphere.
And because shorter wavelengths, e.g., blue, scatter more quickly than longer ones, like red and orange, the moon looks tangerine or crimson.
Something similar happens when the sun’s light is filtered through a lot of suspended dust.
The particles high in the air scatter sunlight, creating incredibly vibrant and “fiery” sunsets and sunrises, rich with golds, oranges, and scarlet colours.
I’ll be keeping my camera phone with me at morning and evening this week.
UK animal charity Open Cages has rebranded to Anima, reflecting its global identity as Anima International.
The change comes as Anima prepares to invest “more resources than ever” into its campaign to end the use of fast-growing “frankenchickens” in the UK.
The announcement follows major recent wins for the animal rights group. These include Poland’s fur farming ban and a world-first decision in Norway to phase out fast-growing chickens completely.
The UK is one of Europe’s largest chicken producers. And over 90% of UK chickens are bred to grow at unnaturally fast rates. This commonly leads to severe welfare problems, including chronic pain, lameness, and sometimes even heart attack. Anima International has identified the UK as a key strategic priority in its efforts to reduce animal suffering.
Commenting on the rebrand, Connor Jackson, CEO of Anima, said:
The breeding of fast-growing chickens represents one of the biggest sources of animal suffering in the world, and it’s a practice that is out of step with public sentiment. As a result, a transition is already happening in countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
Our mission to achieve this in the UK hasn’t changed; we’re preparing to devote more resources than ever to this fight. Our new identity reflects our increasing focus on Britain as a priority for our entire organisation, given the snail’s pace at which we are solving this animal welfare crisis.
Waitrose is the only major UK company to have totally phased out fast growing chickens, branding the practice an “animal welfare crisis”. M&S has done it for 30% of its products. KFC, Nando’s and several other restaurants recently abandoned their commitments to make the change. Whilst companies such as Pret and Greggs are yet to follow through on their commitments.
Anima International is a global animal advocacy organisation with six national groups. It has two decades of experience working to end animal suffering. Now operating as Anima in the UK, the organisation plans to launch its largest UK campaign yet, later this year.
Featured image via Anima International
The racist Labour government will stop issuing study visas to people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan. Additionally, it is stopping skilled work visas for people from Afghanistan.
The Home Office claims the changes are due to “widespread abuse” and will take effect this month.
Figures suggest that individuals from those four countries are most likely to come to the UK to study and then make an asylum claim.
War, oppression, genocide
But all four of those countries are experiencing various levels of oppression, war, and genocide.
Since US troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has reigned over the nation. This has included public executions, amputations, and flogging. Of course, the UK played a huge role in destabilising the country. It was a key ally in the US-led invasion, the initial overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, and ultimately, it sparked a violent, long-term conflict against the resurgent Taliban.
In Cameroon, the government forces and armed separatists from the English-speaking minority have been fighting since 2016. It has killed over 6,500 people and displaced 584,000. It is reported that 1.8m people need humanitarian aid.
According to Oxford Law:
Since 2018, the UK government has supported the London-based firm, New Age, to win a contract to develop an offshore gas project in Cameroon estimated to be worth more than $250 million. This lucrative contract sees money going directly to the state-owned company SNH, which reportedly funds the elite armed forces of the Cameroon state.
Since 2017, the military in Myanmar has been committing genocide against the Muslim Rohingya population. The military frequently attacks schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure, whilst throwing journalists in prison. Once again, the regime is backed by over 200 British companies.
In Sudan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are committing genocide in the pursuit of gold. The UK is a major supplier to the UAE, and British Military equipment often turns up in the hands of the RSF.
Fuck around and find out
Now, Shabana Mahmood, Home Secretary, has said she was:
taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas for those nationals seeking to exploit our generosity.
And, according to the BBC:
The Home Office said a higher proportion of people than average from the four specified country cited destitution as part of their asylum claim, and there were 16,000 people from the four countries currently being supported.
About 95% of Afghans who arrived in the UK on a study visa then applied for asylum since 2021, while applications by students from Myanmar increased 16-fold and claims by students from Cameroon and Sudan more than quadrupled.
It’s such a coincidence that asylum claims are higher from the countries where there is ongoing genocide, armed conflict, and US and UK involvement.
Maybe if the UK stopped funding illegal wars, supplying arms to terrorist nations, and destabilising the Middle East, fewer people might need to escape war-torn countries.
There’s a thought for you, Shabana.
Featured image via GBNews/ YouTube
The majority of Western leaders have shown that when shit hits the fan, and civilian lives are at stake, they will side with genocidal maniacs (Trump) instead of doing the right thing.
Except Spain, of course, which condemned:
unilateral military action by the US and Israel.
It also banned the US from using Spanish military bases to attack Iran.
BREAKING: 🇪🇸 Spain’s PM says his country rejects the ‘unilateral military action by the US and Israel’
Spain is consistently based 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/EmFfzpZdzg
— ADAM (@AdameMedia) February 28, 2026
BREAKING: 🇪🇸🇺🇸 Spain BAN the United States from using Spanish military bases for attacks on Iran.
Viva Espagne 👏🏼 https://t.co/r1yNi14a5X pic.twitter.com/piHQPmMWag
— ADAM (@AdameMedia) March 2, 2026
Trump’s lap dogs
Other Western leaders have shown their true colours: Trump’s lapdogs, which is even worse when you consider that Trump is only bombing Iran to distract us from the fact that he is a massive nonce.
100%. These pedophiles thought if they start wars, they will not be prosecuted as they have more urgent matters on hand. https://t.co/r0D6kLIW25
— WeirdUniverse (@QqReviews) March 4, 2026
He is mentioned in the Epstein files thousands of times – and he thinks carpet bombing Iran is going to make us forget.
Before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran five days ago, fallout from the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files was spreading globally https://t.co/Qr4hvpbfNt pic.twitter.com/rv4aegIC2U
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 4, 2026
In the UK, Keir Starmer initially told Trump he couldn’t use military bases to attack Iran.
But of course, once the US and Israel bombed a little girl’s school, he changed his mind.
It seems that even a former Director of Prosecutions can be bought by Israel and Trump.
Starmer initially denied Trump use of UK bases for his attack on Iran
Trump says Starmer was “worried about the legality”
Trump then bombed a girls school, massacring dozens of kids
Next day, Starmer changed his mind and made Britain a belligerent
We are ruled by psychopaths pic.twitter.com/PLwcx9ipl4
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) March 2, 2026
The West bangs on about freeing Iranian women, but the reality is that they’re ok with rich white men (ahem, Trump), both murdering and raping little girls.
The back-and-forth is theatre.
It creates the illusion of legal caution before landing exactly where the establishment always lands.
Outcomes don’t shift, they’re managed. The Epstein class sits above the choreography.
We are indeed ruled by satanic psychopaths. https://t.co/yb1gARheoO
— Nayab Chaudhry (@Nayab_AC) March 2, 2026
Talk about hypocrisy.
Stiff competition
Now, Starmer, along with Germany and France, has said they are willing to assist “in some capacity” with the US and Israeli action against the regime.
Specifically, they said:
potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.
Similarly, the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, claims he is ok with the US embargoing Spain.
Merz is giving Starmer stiff competition for Best in Show as Donald Trump’s poodle. https://t.co/vle5nDADwL
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) March 3, 2026
For the third time in history, Germany is on the wrong side of a world war.
Prime Minister Rob Jetten of the Netherlands said that “Iran’s attacks must stop”. Again, no mention of the US and Israel’s indiscriminate and unprovoked attacks on Iran.
In Poland, President Karol Nawrocki said he had advance knowledge of the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran. Which is worrying, given one of the first targets was a school full of little girls.
Other Western leaders who have condemned Iran’s attacks include Austria, Belgium, Malta and Portugal,
The Portuguese Government has been following with great concern, from the very first moment, the evolution of the situation in the Middle East, in close coordination with our European partners, partners in the region, and NATO allies.
Under the coordination of the Ministry of…
— Luís Montenegro (@LMontenegro_PT) February 28, 2026
Time after time, Western leaders have come out to condemn Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Of course, they fail to mention why they are retaliating, the thousands of people Israel has murdered, or the fact that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that actually has nuclear weapons.
Trump is nothing but a bully. He even claimed he might have forced Israel’s hand in attacking Iran. But Western leaders are enabling his bullshit – along with Netanyahu’s. One day we will see them all in the Hague – and then they will have been against this all along.
Featured image via Associated Press/YouTube
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