Politics
AIPAC, AI money propels Melissa Bean to comeback victory in Illinois
CHICAGO — Former Rep. Melissa Bean won the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 8th District, cementing her political comeback in a solidly blue seat more than a decade after she left Congress.
Bean, a moderate who served in the House from 2005 to 2011, defeated several progressive challengers on Tuesday in the race to replace Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who launched a bid for the Senate.
Her win was heavily boosted by outside spending: A group called Elect Chicago Women, aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured nearly $4 million into the race to support Bean, and another AI-focused committee ran ads in favor of her.
Bean, who had lost her seat during the 2010 Tea Party wave, built her campaign around a message of pragmatism — an approach she argued voters were seeking amid a hyper-partisan national political climate.
“What I’m hearing mostly from people is they would love to see a little more boring and a lot less drama from government,” Bean said during the race. “They just want to know [if] they elect you, you’ll put your head down, you’ll get the work done and you’ll deliver.”
After leaving office, Bean worked in the private sector at finance firms including JPMorgan Chase and Mesirow Financial before deciding to run again.
The race drew a crowded Democratic field of candidates who positioned themselves to Bean’s left. Among them was tech entrepreneur Junaid Ahmed, who had challenged Krishnamoorthi four years ago. He argued during this year’s campaign that the district needed someone prepared to challenge President Donald Trump directly, and he was endorsed by prominent progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The AIPAC affiliate backing Bean saw his candidacy as a threat. In the final days of the race, the group spent $664,000 in ads against him.
Another candidate, Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, also emphasized a progressive agenda, arguing the Trump administration poses a threat to health care access, LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom.
The progressive Justice Democrats PAC spent $56,000 in attack ads on Bean, but that hardly made a dent against the millions of dollars outside groups spent to assist her.
CHICAGO — Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won Tuesday’s Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, dealing a blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a race that had turned into a referendum on the group’s ability to influence the party.
Biss, whose mother is Israeli and whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, has sharply criticized Israel’s war in Gaza — and faced an onslaught of attack ads from a group aligned with AIPAC as a result.
He defeated a crowded field that included social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian American who is a more vocal critic, as well as AIPAC’s preferred candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine. Biss is now favored to win the general election in the heavily Democratic district.
The race had become one of the country’s most closely watched Democratic primaries, in large part because of AIPAC’s involvement in a district whose population is more than 10 percent Jewish and which has had a Jewish representative for more than 60 years.
An AIPAC-aligned group spent more than $5 million dollars in ads to boost Fine and attack Biss, then later, Abughazaleh. That group pulled down its anti-Biss attacks at the end of the race, before a different shell PAC emerged to prop up another low-polling progressive in the race in an attempt to divide the progressive vote.
Biss, meanwhile, had the endorsement of the more liberal pro-Israel organization J Street and publicly slammed AIPAC’s interference in Democratic primaries.
He is a former University of Chicago math professor who also served in the Illinois House and Senate and lost the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary to current Gov. JB Pritzker.
Schakowsky, the 14‑term incumbent who announced her retirement last year, formally backed Biss in January, praising his legislative experience and alignment with her priorities (they share similar views on Israel as well as other issues). That endorsement, coupled with his deep roots in the district, helped Biss fend off the crowded field and negative attacks.
Throughout the campaign, Biss pitched a broad policy platform that included boosting federal investment in affordable housing, expanding Social Security benefits and banning stock trading by members of Congress. He also drew national attention last year for his confrontations with federal immigration enforcement agents at a local gas station and his presence at anti‑ICE protests.
CHICAGO — Democrats are now all but certain to elect another Black woman to the U.S. Senate after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday’s bitter and expensive primary in Illinois.
Stratton overcame a crowded Democratic contest for the state’s open Senate seat, defeating front-runner Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi with the help of millions of dollars of outside spending — much of it from her old running mate, Gov. JB Pritzker.
She is widely seen as the favorite to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin in the blue state and would become the sixth Black woman to have ever served in the upper chamber.
The contest was defined by heavy outside spending and intraparty fissures over race. It became contentions during the final weeks, with Krishnamoorthi and Stratton trading sharp attacks on the debate stage and blasting each other in TV ads over corporate money and immigration policy.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus — who backed a different contender, Rep. Robin Kelly, in the primary — also warned that Pritzker’s interference could split the Black vote and cost Democrats a chance at electing a Black woman to the Senate this year.
Stratton’s late surge was powered by a combination of endorsements, outside spending and targeted messaging. She benefited from the support of Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). Illinois Future PAC, which received major cash infusions from Pritzker and other allies, spent at least $11.8 million boosting Stratton’s campaign and attacking Krishnamoorthi.
Stratton will face Don Tracy, a former Illinois Republican Party chair, in November. If elected, she would become the second Black woman to be nominated to the Senate from Illinois, following Carol Moseley Braun — who endorsed Stratton in the contest.
CHICAGO — Former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. fell short in his attempt to return to Congress on Tuesday, after resigning more than a decade ago amid a federal corruption investigation.
Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller defeated him and a host of other candidates to win the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 2nd district, a seat currently held by Rep. Robin Kelly, who left to run for the Senate.
Jackson’s comeback bid transformed the race into a high-profile showdown, with the former representative leaning on his deep name recognition. But Jackson — who resigned in 2012 and served prison time after pleading guilty to wire and mail fraud for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds — was unable to successfully reframe his past as a redemption story.
Meanwhile, Miller consolidated support across key parts of the district and benefited from spending by a group aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which funneled more than $4 million into ads promoting her campaign. The contest drew national attention in part because the group, Affordable Chicago Now, gave Miller’s campaign substantial airtime in the Chicago media market and funded mail pieces highlighting her record.
The spending helped elevate Miller’s profile even as a separate political action committee, the Leading the Future PAC, which is funded by OpenAI stakeholders, spent more than $1 million to promote Jackson after he signaled support for the industry with op-eds and ads.
Miller focused her campaign on her work on public health, public safety and budget oversight. She also underscored her longstanding ties to Democratic women’s organizations, as vice president of Illinois Democratic Women, former president of the Democratic Women of the South Suburbs and past board chair of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and its political action committee.
She made a concerted effort not to attack her opponents, saying she was “the only candidate in the race” to do so.
Other notable names in the race included state Sens. Robert Peters and Willie Preston.
The 2nd District, which stretches from Chicago’s South Side into the south suburbs and rural counties, is heavily Democratic and Miller is expected to win easily in November.
(Alamy)
3 min read
Travelodge has pulled out of a planned meeting with MPs who wanted to raise issues of room security with the hotel chain.
It comes after a woman was sexually assaulted in one of its hotels in 2022 by a man given a key card to her room by hotel staff.
An MP involved in organising the meeting said the move had sent “entirely the wrong message to victims and undermines confidence in their commitment to safeguarding”.
In February, Kyran Smith was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting a woman in a Travelodge in Berkshire in December 2022. Smith had attended the same party as the woman and had later acquired a key card to her room after falsely claiming to hotel staff that he was the victim’s boyfriend.
The BBC reported that the company had initially offered the woman a £30 refund, which the victim described as “insulting”.
Labour MPs Matt Bishop and Jen Craft wrote to Travelodge CEO Jo Boydell last week, demanding a meeting about the case.
MPs Bishop and Craft met with Boydell on Monday, alongside the victims minister Alex Davies-Jones and the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, with Boydell pencilled in to meet with a larger group of MPs later today.
However, MPs were informed on Tuesday night that the CEO would no longer be attending the meeting. It was unclear at the time of writing why Travelodge had decided to no longer attend.
Bishop told PoliticsHome: “I am extremely disappointed that Travelodge has chosen not to meet with us as a group of MPs.
“When serious concerns are raised about the safety of women, there is a clear responsibility to engage openly and transparently. Refusing to do so sends entirely the wrong message to victims, and undermines confidence in their commitment to safeguarding.”
PoliticsHome reported on Tuesday that Bishop, who is a former police officer, was working on a new law to improve hotel security following the assault, after concerns that any new guidance would not go far enough.
The proposals, set to be introduced as a Ten Minute Rule Bill, would introduce industry standards to ensure the safety of individuals staying in hotels. PoliticsHome understands that the government is willing to work with Bishop on the plans.
Boydell previously apologised to the victim and said that Travelodge had done an internal review of its security policies, making “immediate changes to ensure that an additional or replacement room key is only issued with explicit permission from the person, or people, staying in the room”.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Boydell said that the meeting on Monday had been “productive and helpful”.
Travelodge has commissioned an independent review and agreed to work with ministers and MPs to ensure that a leading violence against women and girls expert is appointed who can work closely with the KC leading the review.
Boydell said the review “will look at the lessons we can learn to help us improve the way we handle complex and sensitive cases, as well as how we can improve our room security procedures and what additional training we can offer to our colleagues over and above our existing health and safety, security and safeguarding training, including a specific focus on violence against women and girls”.
“As part of the review we will be seeking inputs from the wider group of MPs and Peers who care passionately about this topic.”
Boydell said she was “deeply sorry for the significant distress experienced by the victim and for our handling of her case”, and “would welcome the opportunity to meet with her to personally apologise and hear her thoughts on how we can improve our processes, if she would like to”.
Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran has sent energy prices skyrocketing. The effect on energy-intensive industries in the UK has been immediate and severe. And, as a knock-on effect, as many as 100,000 jobs could be lost across the UK.
Of course, we won’t shed a tear for the impact on highly polluting industries themselves. However, the situation is a striking illustration of the vulnerability created by the UK’s desperate reliance on increasingly volatile fossil fuels.
The Straight of Hormuz
The current grab for fuel began after Iran closed off the Straight of Hormuz. Around a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway. As such, the US and Israel have accidentally made Iran a global oil superpower.
This is the view of air warfare scholar Professor Robert Pape, whose damning critique of the attack on Iran has generated wide interest recently. On 12 March, Pape said that:
Iran hit 16 vessels so far in Strait of Hormuz.
That’s all it takes for Iran to control 20% of the world’s oil and become an oil hegemon — the number 1 strategic outcome US has sought to prevent in Middle East since 1970s.
The Iran war has already caused a spike in Brent crude oil prices, up from $60 in January to around $100. This is already being called the biggest disruption to oil supplies in history.
Likewise, wholesale gas prices in the UK have risen to 171p a therm, more than double last month’s 78p. This is the highest they’ve been since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The already-failing UK chemicals industry is also being hit hard. The sector uses fossil fuels not only for power, but also as raw materials for its products. Production in the industry had already dropped by 60% since 2021, with 25 sites shuttering, with more are teetering on the brink as the Iran war rages on.
Unemployment ‘closer to 6 percent’
As a direct consequence, some economists have suggested that over 100,000 jobs could be cut within months. Likewise, the uncertainty over energy prices has led to speculation that the Bank of England won’t make its expected cuts to interest rates anytime soon.
James Smith, of investment bank ING, opined that employers may seek to make up for rising energy costs by slashing jobs. Smith said:
It depends how long energy prices stay high. If we’re in a scenario where the disruption lasts three months or so, then I would imagine [unemployment would be] be pushing above 5.5pc.
Smith also stated that the previous shocks from the war on Ukraine had left the economy in a weakened state. He said:
Now, it’s very different. We saw this last year with the hospitality sector, where we had the big rise in National Insurance and the minimum wage. We saw a sharp drop in employment and no discernible impact on prices.
These sectors that are most affected by higher energy prices, particularly in the service sector, don’t have the pricing power that they did in 2022. They’re more likely to deal with higher energy costs by cutting back their worker numbers.
Jordan Rochester, of Mizuho bank, echoed this sentiment. He suggested that the UK’s unemployment rates—already at a worrying peak—will likely increase:
If the rate of unemployment’s ascent matches that of the past year, it would defy forecasts again and put us closer to 6% rather than 5%.
Environmental fallout
Similarly, industry body Make UK highlighted that UK businesses are putting up their prices at the fastest rate since 2023. The trade body’s senior economist, Fhaheen Khan, stated that:
While output and investment show some improvement after a challenging end to last year, rising costs and weakening domestic demand are creating real pressures for businesses.
With UK industrial energy costs among the highest in the developed world, any sustained increase in oil and gas prices could quickly push up input costs, squeezing margins and limiting investment.
Meanwhile, the soaring price of fossil fuels will not be accompanied by a corresponding drop in pollution. US and Israeli strikes have hit Iranian nuclear facilities, munitions stockpiles, and oil refineries.
As a result, Iran is suffering toxic black rain, clouds of unbreathable smog, and catastrophic environmental effects that will be felt for generations to come.
The situation—in the UK, Iran and across the world—is a stark reminder of the fact that the decisions of tyrants like Trump and Netanyahu have consequences far beyond their own countries—and those of the foreign citizens they murder with impunity.
Featured image via Unsplash/the Canary
With hindsight, it was clear that something was wrong in Canterbury at least a couple of days before the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) notified the public of a meningitis outbreak. Walking through the city centre on Friday evening, I noticed the pubs and restaurants that would normally be teeming with students were standing largely empty. Far from its usual raucousness, Canterbury High Street was eerily quiet.
It was 48 hours later that news broke of the tragic deaths of a pupil from a nearby school and a student at the University of Kent, from what has now been identified as meningitis B. Fifteen people remain severely ill in hospital. This is an incredibly difficult time for those mourning the loss of a relative or friend, worried about those still unwell, or concerned that they are at risk of infection.
Meningitis needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness. Amid concern that the UKHSA was too slow in alerting the public, health officials spent yesterday tracing those who may have come into contact with the disease and issuing precautionary antibiotics to those at risk. This was a sensible response to a worrying situation.
But elsewhere, the response to Canterbury’s meningitis outbreak has been far from rational. ‘TERROR ON CAMPUS’ screams the headline in today’s Daily Mirror. ‘Killer meningitis outbreak’, warns Channel 4 News. Images have been published of paramedics in hazmat suits wheeling a sick student out of university accommodation and into the back of a waiting ambulance – even though this is absolutely not happening routinely.
As I walked through the University of Kent’s grounds yesterday, it wasn’t petrified students I noticed, but journalists intent on whipping up hysteria. National camera crews had assembled at dawn, and by midday, helicopters were circling my house, capturing aerial footage of students queuing for antibiotics. Yet reporters, vox-popping teenagers and seemingly desperate for hysteria, were, at least at first, often met with boredom and resignation. It was only as the day wore on that ‘fear and panic’ began to be recorded.
Some journalists seem to go beyond describing what’s happening in Canterbury in their bid to summon a medical emergency, with the media at the centre of the action. This can have dangerous and unintended consequences. For example, reports suggest that some scared students have now returned to their family homes, when they may have been far better off staying put to avoid spreading the infection. Indeed, the first case outside of Kent was recorded in London earlier today, leading health officials to declare the outbreak a ‘national incident’. French officials have also reported a case involving a Kent University student.
‘Students queue in “Covid-esque” scenes’, claimed the Independent, turning to a comparison being drawn in much of meningitis reporting. Indeed, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t just journalists drawing Covid parallels. ‘Lockdown’ now provides the script for responding to serious illness. In Canterbury this week, people have all too readily returned to once-familiar routines with university exams moved online, masked-up students queuing for medication, and pubs falling silent.
What’s troubling is not just the readiness with which people retreat from social life, but that Covid comparisons fail to take into account the specific nature of meningitis and the way it is transmitted. Unlike Covid, meningitis B spreads through close and direct contact with an infected person through kissing, sneezing, and sharing drinks or cutlery. It is, thankfully, far less contagious than Covid – although this is not obvious from much of the reporting.
The ease with which lockdown routines are being revived means that students queuing for antibiotics at the University of Kent are being given masks, which likely serve little purpose, only to be spotted sharing vapes, which is far riskier than simply lining up outside in the fresh air.
Another unhelpful hangover from the Covid years is the way disease becomes incorporated into the culture war. Within minutes of footage of students queuing beginning to circulate, vaccinations became a topic of discussion once more. On one side, students were condemned for not having been vaccinated against meningitis, while others pointed out that repeated lockdowns and school closures meant that entire cohorts of teenagers missed out on routine vaccinations that would normally have been administered during the school day. Some note that vaccines are less effective against meningitis B, the particular strain thought to be spreading in Canterbury, while others argue that only a lack of NHS funding prevents this specific vaccine from being issued more widely.
Right now, Kent’s meningitis outbreak has led to the tragic loss of two young lives. There is a worrying wait for news of those who are still gravely ill. But we cannot afford to let a more generalised media hysteria, or a desire to replay an old Covid script, make this serious situation far worse than it already is.
Over the past week or so, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a time machine and been transported back to March 2025. Cast your mind back: Adolescence had just dropped on Netflix, and a moral panic was starting to set in about white working-class boys. Lurking in the background of the four-part series, which follows the arrest of a teenage boy accused of stabbing his female classmate to death, was the pernicious influence of Andrew Tate and the so-called manosphere in which he operates. Blaming the worst of all crimes on this self-proclaimed ‘misogynist’ influencer went down a storm at the time.
The Guardian hailed Adolescence as the ‘closest thing to TV perfection in decades’, while the Independent described its exploration of the ‘pernicious influence of the manosphere’ as ‘harrowing but compelling’. UK prime minister Keir Starmer wanted it to be shown in every British secondary school.
Exactly one year on, Louis Theroux’s latest documentary has once again put the manosphere under the microscope. The current moment feels like déjà-vu or, as Tate might say, a ‘glitch in the matrix’, because Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere also provides a superficial insight into a complex problem.
That hasn’t stopped critics from falling over themselves to praise the zany documentarian’s deep dive into the online world of hypermasculine content creators. Bragging about ‘one-way’ monogamy and the importance of material wealth above all else, these rage-baiting clowns have also sent celebrities into a tizzy. Everyone from Simon Cowell’s wife to Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews – the same Spencer Matthews who gained notoriety as the bad-boy womaniser on the reality show – took to Instagram shortly after the credits rolled to issue a casting call for ‘better role models’ in society.
While documentaries like Inside the Manosphere offer celebrities an opportunity to declare to the world which way their moral compass points and to atone for past sins, they ultimately fail to grapple with why figures like Tate have such a hold on young boys.
Theroux does, at one point, attempt to unpack what motivates the main protagonists in this machismo movement. But he doesn’t get very far. Delving into the difficult ‘origin story’ of controversial streamer HSTikkyTokky (real name Harrison Sullivan), Theroux observes that ‘carrying the wounds of childhood can project trauma into the wider world’. Sullivan, we learn, was abandoned by his father.
It is to some extent understandable that Theroux ducked the question of why so many men find the ‘manosphere’ compelling. Honest answers may prove radioactive. But it is surely the most important question, and certainly would have led to far more interesting conversations, rather than shallow psychologising about the ‘wounds of childhood’.
For starters, what did the advent of the pill mean for gender relations? Did the #MeToo movement go too far? How about wokeism in general? Unintended consequences lurk everywhere, from sexual ethics to feminism.
And you don’t have to search hard to find them. The contradictions inherent in being a modern man are easily found on dating apps, where women routinely specify that they are seeking a ‘real man’ who is both ‘emotionally aware’ and ‘assertive’. It should be possible to traverse this thorny terrain without endorsing misogyny. In fact, dodging the hard questions in favour of platitudes will only reinforce the masculinity crisis.
The Tates of this world have gone where others fear to tread. That they have gone too far, and ended up in a sexist abyss, should not prevent the rest of us from asking whether the long assault on manhood has been a good thing. The old Louis Theroux would have asked these questions, and given us a much better documentary as a result.
Adam Chapman is a writer and editor.
A senior Taliban official has said that Pakistan killed 408 people in an airstrike which targeted a drug rehab clinic in Kabul. The strike landed at 9pm on 16 March, allegedly wounded over 200, in addition to those killed. A Pakistani official said they had only targeted ‘military’ and ‘terrorist’ infrastructure.
Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X:
The Pakistani military regime carried out an airstrike at approximately 9:00 PM this evening on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction. As a result of the attack, large sections of the hospital have been destroyed, and there are serious concerns about a high number of casualties.
Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured. Rescue teams are currently at the scene working to control the fire and recover the remaining bodies of the victims.
The information minister of Pakistan, Attaullah Tarar, shared the following details:
✅ 17 March 2026
✅ Pakistan’s Armed Forces successfully carried out precision airstrikes on the night of 16 March as a part of Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, targeting Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar.
✅ Technical support… pic.twitter.com/b8YJkGC0cv
— Attaullah Tarar (@TararAttaullah) March 16, 2026
Doomsday scenes
He and his 25 roommates had gathered in their dormitory after prayers when the attack occurred. He was the only survivor among them.
many young people under treatment lived in large containers on the campus and very few survived the strike…It was extremely terrifying. Those who survived were the ones whose rooms were not destroyed and were fortunate. But the places where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed.
Now we have come again … there are still bodies under the rubble.
Border tensions between the two countries, building for several months, have turned into a hot war.
Afghanistan-Pakistan border war
Fighting between the formerly US-occupied nation and Pakistan (itself a US partner) kicked off in February. At the time, the Canary reported how Pakistani officials were already calling the confrontation an ‘open war’ back in late February.
In an explainer Reuters said:
Allies-turned-foes Pakistan and Afghanistan’s worst fighting in years erupted last month, with Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds.
Afghanistan called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty that targeted civilians, and launched retaliatory operations.
Over the last three weeks, both countries have launched air and drone strikes against each other and also engaged in ground firing across their 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border, with each claiming to have inflicted heavy damage and killed hundreds of opposition troops, without providing evidence.
Featured image via X/Canary
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Pat McFadden couldn’t pass up the opportunity to demonise disabled benefit claimants whilst giving a speech announcing the Youth Employment Grant.
McFadden was at Walthamstow Forest College announcing that the DWP would give businesses 3 grand to trap kids in shit jobs. But he, of course, couldn’t resist being a dick about disabled people on unemployment benefits, too.
Whilst talking about youth unemployment, he segwayed into those who’d been found unfit for work. Or as the Labour-run DWP have rebranded it, those who receive the Universal Credit health element, yknow, for their poor health.
DWP demonising young disabled people, again
McFadden said:
A young person under 25 on the health element of Universal Credit is now less likely to get a job than someone over 55 on the same benefit.
Think about that in terms of the long-term consequences for people’s lives.
A 20-year-old on incapacity benefit is more likely to turn thirty and still be claiming than to have held a steady job for a year.
Around 65% of 20-year-olds claiming incapacity benefits 10 years ago are still claiming them today.
And perhaps worst of all, a young unemployed person is over 70% more likely to die prematurely than their peers.
To be clear, he’s talking about disabled people here. He’s not talking about people choosing not to work, but those who are either too sick to or would find working too challenging in the ableist society we live in.
The 20-year-old is less likely to get a job because they can’t work. The reason people are still claiming the benefit 10 years later is that they are still as, or even more, disabled than they were 10 years ago. Anybody too sick to work shouldn’t be expected to “have held a steady job”.
And to bring in the death rate is just absurd from a department that’s responsible for god knows how many disabled people’s deaths.
Spin as always
He carried on:
All of this should tell us that this debate cannot simply be concerned with monthly income levels. It has to be about opportunity and chances in life.
The question we should ask is not just “what are you entitled to” but “how do we help you change your life.”
Our ambition should be to empower people to change their story.
This, of course, is bullshit because both questions should come into play. But only in the respect of how the DWP can support disabled people, not force them into work.
What follows next is a spectacular crash course in subtly saying too many are claiming benefits who shouldn’t be, whilst making it sound like you want to help them all:
The OBR forecast is for over 2m more people to come on to long term sickness and disability benefits over the coming years. The variety of conditions has widened. There are more young people with long term health conditions. And we have an old system dealing with new circumstances.
I recently spoke to the Timms Review steering group and met with Alan Milburn.
My message to both was the same: take this chance to advocate radical and powerful change. Enable people to change their lives. Develop a system for the conditions we see today not those of yesteryear. Always remember our obligations to support those who need it and put empowerment and work at the heart of your reports.
The levels of bullshit are off the charts. In one breath, he’s saying conditions have changed and must be accounted for, and then at the same time, that the “change” will be forcing these people into work. Whilst making it sound like they just want to support and help disabled people.
Both of the reports McFadden mentioned are actively working to make it harder for disabled people to claim benefits. The Timms review comes after PIP cuts to make it harder to qualify were squashed by campaigners and MPs. The Milburn review will basically find ways to force kids into work. Milburn previously authored a report that called for the DWP to cut benefits except for those with ‘severe disabilities’.
DWP talking about those who can’t work, when they decide who can’t work
It’s all well and good to say, ‘always remember our obligations to support those who need it’. But when you finish that sentence with ‘and put empowerment and work at the heart of your reports, ‘ you’re making it very clear that only the people you deem to be disabled enough will get support.
Because that’s what needs to be remembered here, it’s not medical professionals who are deciding who can and can’t work because of their health. But a corrupt system whose main aim is to save money.
To claim you will support those who can’t work when you get to decide who fits that ever narrowing criterion is beyond cruel.
Featured image via the Canary
Travelodge has finally mandated ID checks for all replacement room keys this week. The policy change comes after widespread outrage over over the sexual assault of a solo female guest. As the Canary reported previously:
a woman was sexually assaulted after making a solo booking at the hotel – only for staff to give her attacker a key to her room. The perpetrator of the sexual assault, Kyran Smith, told staff he was her boyfriend and needed another key card. Despite not being present on the booking, the hotel gave him that key which enabled his abuse.
The budget hotel chain only implemented the security overhaul after a survivor and 100 MPs shamed the brand for its safeguarding failures.
A woman was sexually assaulted in a Travelodge. Staff gave her attacker the key to her room after he pretended to be her boyfriend. She was offered £30 in compensation. Appalling.
Along with 100 Labour colleagues, I’ve written to Travelodge’s CEO & asked to meet. pic.twitter.com/1pxjVqZvn3
— Anneliese Midgley MP (@anneliese_midge) March 8, 2026
Travelodge put profit before basic safety
Smith is now serving 7.5 years in prison, but is that really the end of the story? No, not when the hotel’s role in this assault remains a point of national outrage:
‘How can you be sure if you are a woman and you’re going to stay at one of their hotels that you will be safe?’
Labour MP Jen Craft told #BBCBrealfast more than 100 MPs have demanded a meeting with the boss of Travelodge after a woman was sexually assaulted in her hotel bed by a… pic.twitter.com/MZqztwW5dd
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) March 9, 2026
The company’s new policy finally requires staff to verify the identity of anyone asking for a room key. This is either going to be through the booking reference, or through direct contact with the person within the room. Travelodge have also claimed to have “intensified” staff training on safeguarding processes across their UK hotels. But we need to ask why it took a life-changing trauma and a fucking PR nightmare for a huge corporation to implement the most basic level of security? Guest safety should be a fundamental right, not a reactive damage-control measure.
The measly cost of human trauma
Travelodge’s initial response to this fuck up was a measly £30 voucher offered to the survivor. Literally just a refund on the cost of staying the evening. That’s it. They treated a brutal sexual assault like a minor customer service complaint, or a shitty cold breakfast. The company since admitted this offer was “inappropriate” and guest safety is now their “priority”.
How the hell was it not before? If safety were a priority, they would never have facilitated the invasion of what should have been a private room.
Over 100 MPs co-signed a letter to the CEO demanding immediate accountability. Anneliese Midgley said the chain played an “intrinsic role” in the abuse. The survivor herself has been the driving force for these changes stating:
I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. It’s not just about me, it’s about making sure hotels are safe for everyone.
Corporate greed consistently prioritises the ease of check-in over human life. A shitty £30 voucher shows exactly how the corporation quantifies the trauma of women. It reflects a disgusting culture where corporate liability and profit margins matter more than people. They only move when the political and public pressure becomes a threat to their profit margins.
Industry standards are no excuse for rape
Travelodge initially tried to hide behind the claim this it followed ‘industry standard security procedures’. This suggests the entire budget hotel industry is currently failing to protect women. All of them. We cannot allow “standard procedure” to be used as an excuse for corporate negligence. Travelodge’s chief executive Jo Boyden stated on:
We have done an internal review of our room access security policies and have made some immediate changes to ensure that an additional or replacement room key is only issued with explicit permission from the person, or people, staying in the room.
This has been rolled out to all of our hotels, supported by training for our 12,000 customer-facing colleagues.
The CEO went on to say that safety of guests was the most important thing and that the company has commissioned an independent review of its room security measures. The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons called this case a “stark reminder” that criminals exploit “weaknesses in hotel security”.
‘They offered me a complimentary breakfast, it was nothing in comparison to the trauma and fear’
As MPs meet Travelodge over concerns about security, Emma Jackson told #BBCBreakfast about a recent ‘frightening’ experience a stranger used a key card to enter her hotel room, as… pic.twitter.com/Eg3VPWdpMe
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) March 14, 2026
As the Canary reported, sexual offenses increased 511% in the last 20 years. In 2024 alone 71,227 rapes were recorded by police and yet only 2.7% of them resulted in charge. Politicians are right to demand total transparency from the board regarding these new training modules. We need to see a complete overhaul of how hotel security functions. Now.
Women should not have to live in fear for their lives in a room they have paid for. The fact a man can simply lay claim to a woman’s personal space is sickening.
Will Travelodge actually change it’s internal culture, or is this more corporate window dressing? We will not feel safe until we see these policies enforced by law across the entire sector.
Featured image via Travelodge.com
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