Nathaniel Menday, the newly elected Reform UK councillor for Sheffield Woodhouse, has been suspended from the party over his history of white-supremacist social media posts. The far-right party is now investigating the councillor’s posts, “which have brought the party into disrepute.”

The only problem? The Times had already published on Menday’s bigotry weeks before the election. However, Reform only suspended him after the Sheffield Star uncovered another slew of bile, including a post on Twitter stating:

Compared to many continental countries people here are fatter, uglier and poorly dressed.

On top of this we have a disgusting, almost subhuman underclass of people bringing the place down.

Self-identified ‘ethno-nationalist’

On 22 April, more than a fortnight before the elections, the Times wrote that:

Nathaniel Menday, standing for Reform in Woodhouse, Sheffield, has called himself an “ethno-nationalist” and encouraged the use of white supremacist symbols. Last October, he asked a fellow Sheffield United fan to add a sonnenrad “sun wheel” emblem to a flag — a symbol widely used by neo-Nazis.

In January 2024, he shared a picture of Berlin’s Olympiastadion and wrote: “Whichever group of people built this must have been real visionaries!” The stadium was built by Nazi Germany to host the 1936 Olympics and designed by Albert Speer, the munitions minister who was convicted at the Nuremberg trials of crimes against humanity.

Likewise, Menday also blamed “Jewish people in the West” for the antisemitism they suffer because they “overwhelmingly favour open borders.”

In spite of Menday’s vile support for white supremacy being known well in advance of the polls, he nevertheless received 1,987 votes. By comparison, Labour’s Danny Allsebrook – the second-place candidate – received just 890.

‘I am not antisemitic’

When the Times approached him for comment before the elections, Menday stated that:

I am not antisemitic nor do I have any Nazi sympathies.

I have flirted with what could reasonably be referred to as ‘far-right ideology’ but ultimately I have come to reject its core tenets.

I am passionate about my country but I am and always have been motivated by love, not hate.

Sure, you were calling people a “subhuman underclass” out of love.

On top of all this, the Sheffield Star published further records of Menday’s bigotry on 13 May:

You’d tell us if you’re a Nazi, right?

Back in April, BBC Essex asked Nigel Farage if his party had vetted its local election candidates. The Reform leader stated that:

I know that our candidates will be held to a higher standard than any of the other parties.

That’s because we are the challengers. We are the ones taking on the establishment. Yet we have done a good, thorough professional job.

On 11 May, when yet another Reform councillors resigned over his rascist posting history (noticing a pattern?, the Canary wrote that:

That “thorough professional job” raises an important question. That is, did Reform know about Prior’s disgusting comments and not care, or was Farage simply lying?

Importantly, thanks to Nathaniel Menday, we now have an answer: it’s both! Regarding Menday’s disgusting tweets, a Reform spokesperson said:

Cllr Menday has been suspended from Reform UK pending investigation after he failed to declare social media posts which have brought the party into disrepute.

Reform UK does not support such comments.

So, we now know that the party’s idea of a “thorough professional job” boils down to asking ‘Are you a white supremacist? You have to tell us if you are?’ Likewise, it’s obvious that the party didn’t care about Menday’s self-identified ethno-nationalism, because – again – that was already well publicised.

Reform UK are a party of disgusting bigots. This alone should be enough reason to avoid them, but on top of that its MPs and councillors don’t do their fucking work. These far-right jackasses are a danger, pure and simple, and the UK will spend the next election cycle learning the truth of that statement.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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The State Opening of Parliament is always a momentous occasion where the government sets out its plans for the next parliamentary session via King Charles.

The monarch makes a grand entrance to the Palace of Westminster, dressed in all his finery, and reads out the legislation the government plans to focus on over the next year or so.

But there’s a shadow hanging over the whole of Westminster right now after more than 80 Labour MPs called for the prime minister to resign and four of his ministers quit.

It comes after the party took a drubbing at the elections in England, Scotland and Wales last week.

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But Keir Starmer has insisted he is staying in post, even after four of his own ministers and four ministerial aides quit and urged him to set out a timetable for his own departure.

Now all eyes are on his rival in cabinet, health secretary Wes Streeting, who has long-held ambitions to be prime minister.

His allies even briefed the media that he was considering resigning from government on Thursday to launch his own leadership bid moments before the King began speaking in the House of Lords.

So the combination of pomp and ceremony and the backdrop of a possible Westminster coup led to some very bizarre moments across the day,

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1. Streeting’s Dramatic Downing Street Entrance

The health secretary went to 10 Downing Street for a tense coffee with the prime minister just hours before the King was due to arrive in parliament.

He was expected to ask Starmer about his plan to get the government back on track – though speculation mounted over whether Streeting’s own leadership bid might come up.

The exact contents of that meeting have been kept under wraps so far – but Streeting stalked out of Downing Street after less than 20 minutes.

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He pointedly ignored the press’s attempts to get his attention and walked very quickly away from Number 10.

2. ‘Not Now, Andy!’

Torcuil Crichton, the Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, got a few laughs when he shouted “not now, Andy” as Black Rod knocked on the front door on the Commons.

The Black Rod is a parliamentary official who has the door of the Commons shut in their face and has to knock three times before they are allowed in.

It’s a symbolic moment dating back to the Civil War.

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But Crichton’s humour overshadowed it by joking about Andy Burnham, another potential rival for Keir Starmer.

He is not an MP but the mayor of Greater Manchester, and desperate to get a seat in the Commons so he can challenge the PM – hence he would be knocking at the door.

3. Streeting In Isolation

As speculation about the health secretary quitting grew, Streeting was mysteriously absent from the front bench.

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He chose not to sit on the front bench but lurked by the Speaker’s chair, away from his cabinet colleagues.

Naturally, that only fuelled theories that he is close to leaving government.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

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Content warning: this article contains references to self-harm, suicide attempts and sexual assault, addiction.

I have had one hell of a life. Once a homeless little gutter punk who hopped from one addiction to another, here I am writing for the Canary. This is the story of how medical misogyny ignored my ‘textbook’ ADHD for over 20 years, driving me into self-medicating and leading me to a life on the streets. And now my hormones are crashing and my male GP nearly fucked my life all over again.

Medical misogyny — a childhood ruined

I was the weird kid in a private school I didn’t want to be in. My dad was in the military and it was common to stick army kids in boarding schools to give them a more ‘stable’ life.

I’m laughing, because mine was anything but.

Trapped in a place where I was bullied relentlessly, 13-year-old me hid in the woods to smoke weed pretty much every night. I was chasing a dopamine hit I didn’t understand. In the classrooms nearby, four lads had been diagnosed with ADHD and given the support they needed to thrive. I was simply labelled ‘disruptive’ and told I wasn’t applying myself. That I should shut up in class.

This disparity is a statistical fact.

Boys are referred for ADHD assessments three times more often than girls. And this happened in the early 2000’s, when diagnosis rates were even lower. ADHD simply wasn’t identified in girls back then. Now, boys are diagnosed on average by age seven. Women, on the other hand, are left to spiral until their late fucking 30s.

When I was caught self harming at age 12, a male therapist dismissed my cuts and anguish as puberty. He did fuck all for me. Girls with undiagnosed ADHD are four to five timess more likely to self-harm than neurotypicals.

The system of medical misogyny didn’t see a kid in crisis. They saw a ‘typical’ teenage girl. But behind the scenes I was broken, desperate to know why I wasn’t like everyone else.

Why I felt broken.

A dopamine-seeking spiral

By the time I left school, the lack of structure was a death sentence for an unmedicated teen. I traded college life for smoking weed in a graveyard. I was kicked out of there and moved into what was basically a drug den at the age of 17. Speed gave me the focus the system denied me. Ecstasy made the depression disappear. And weed quieted the constant screaming of my anxiety.

Adults with untreated ADHD are twice as likely to struggle with substance abuse.

And fuck, did I struggle.

I didn’t know it, but at the time I was self-medicating in a world I didn’t quite fit into. I was chasing the dopamine that my brain couldn’t give me.

It was a male doctor who stuck me with the Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. Approximately 40%–50% of women with ADHD are first slapped with this diagnosis. Or Bipolar.

A male doctor openly called me ‘attention-seeking’ whilst prescribing me another SSRI that didn’t fucking work. My arms and legs were shredded, tendons hit and sewn back up as I cut deep enough to sever them.

My life descended into total chaos. I ended up hooked on ketamine, sleeping on the streets and friends’ sofas.

Ketamine was a wonder drug to me. It left me catatonic, in a state where literally nothing mattered. My risky behaviours ended in two abortions and a severe sexual assault. A&E kept releasing me back to the streets, despite several suicide attempts. Zero aftercare. Just another addict who was craving attention in their eyes. I look back at who I was and I want to cry.

Even now, medical misogyny still ruins my life

The turning point only came when I took matters into my own hands. Friends literally dragged me off the drugs and alcohol, kicking and screaming. Literally poured my whisky down the sink and escorted me everywhere for months. It was only then, with a clear head, that I realised I had ADHD. My first GP dismissed it so I went out and researched the shit out of it. I came back with assessment criteria and demanded a female GP. She instantly put me on the waiting list which was six fucking years.

So I saved and paid for it myself. The verdict was immediate: I was a ‘textbook’ case of female ADHD. And I cried as she called the wasted decades of my life disgusting. As she told me I had been failed by an NHS which literally fails all women with the condition.

And I found around seven years of peace. I thought the battle was over. But then the perimenopause hit. And it hits women with ADHD so much harder. Estrogen acts like the scaffolding for dopamine in the brain. When that estrogen drops, symptoms are fucking wild. Studies show women with ADHD are 87% more likely to report extreme psychological symptoms during perimenopause. And it hits us waaaayy earlier.

Despite this, my MALE GP ordered blood tests six fucking times. Because they came back ‘normal’, he told me it couldn’t be the menopause. This is a dangerous fallacy. The British Menopause Society states that blood tests are often ‘misleading’ because hormone level fluctuate wildly. I even told the guy we were doing them at the wrong times, that when I was getting tested I didn’t feel as bad.

My life was stolen, but now I’m reclaiming it

He ignored the dizzy spells which frequently have me collapsing. Ignored the hot flushes, sleepless nights, weird body hair and fucked up periods. After ten years of being clean, I found myself in the kitchen with a knife to my wrists. I knew it wasn’t right. One thing I pride myself on is staying on top of my mental health because I know if I don’t, I’m only one drink away from hurting myself and spiralling. Women experiencing menopause have the highest suicide rate of any female age group, a risk that triples for those with unmanaged ADHD.

It took months of dismissal before I demanded a female GP. She was fucking amazing. Recognising the symptoms instantly, she confirmed the blood tests were dog shit and I was suffering a textbook hormone crash.

I am finally on the right path, but the cost has been my life. I am finally settled. In a job I love, living a life I have had to fight tooth and nail to build. Now I face another hurdle that will take months to fix, all because a man refused to believe I know my own body.

The story of my life isn’t bad luck. This is what medical misogyny does to women. How many others are out there, in the same place I was, because they aren’t being heard? I tried to kill myself so many times. How many women have succeeded?

We are being gaslit by a profession that refuses to listen. And that shit needs to change. Now.

Featured image via Freepix

By Antifabot

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is once again proving that the Timms review into Personal Independence Payment is an absolute farce.

DWP — Timms Review was never genuine

The Timms review was launched after the Labour government failed to cut PIP last summer. Thanks to a massive push back from disabled people and a Labour rebellion, the DWP had to take PIP cuts out of the welfare cuts bill. Hower, as a last ditch attempt to still get some cuts through and not look like a total failure, the minister for disabled people announced that there would be a consultation on PIP if MPs voted for the bill.

This completely threw universal credit claimants under the bus, as cuts to that went through, but to MPs these were seen as more justifiable — Universal Credit is an out-of-work benefit and all that.  But it also meant PIP cuts weren’t stopped, just kicked further down the road.

The Timms review has, from the outset, been absolute bullshit. After an almost four-month wait, Timms finally revealed the terms of reference. The terms set out that PIP would become the only way to access out-of-work disability benefits, despite it not being an out-of-work benefit. It also revealed that the review would be overseen by just 12 whole disabled people.

Most shockingly, it also just casually dropped that in an effort to rush the review through, it wouldn’t be subject to parliamentary debates. Meaning there can be no pushback or interference from MPs this time.

Call for evidence

Finally in March the call for evidence was released, which once again proved how seriously the DWP was taking it. By calling it ‘call for evidence’, the department could forgo the mandatory 12-week consultation time, making it just 10 weeks. As Hannah Sharland reported at the time:

At best, it will take forward a few good changes, but use them to package more brutal cuts. One notable sentence confirming this concerns what the review says it’s “particularly interested in”, states that:

‘the assessment criteria for both Mobility and Daily Living elements of PIP – including activities, descriptors and associated points – and whether these effectively capture the impact of long-term health conditions and disability in the modern world (from the Terms of Reference)’

It’s hard not to see this as a sly to justify constricting the PIP criteria to exclude people. Of course, this is precisely what the DWP previously tried to do to slash people’s access to PIP with its egregious 4 point policy.

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And if the review already felt like a total stitch-up that didn’t actually care about, it then came out that the panel wouldn’t even be reading responses, they’d be summarised by AI. This was just weeks after the DWP led a press campaign against disabled people who used AI to complete PIP forms.

Want a meaningful consultation? Do it yourself

And now, as Benefits and Work reports, the department’s latest effort to look like they give a fuck about disabled people’s opinion is just that.

Instead of holding accessible, meaningful consultations the department has said it will give DDPOs ‘Workshop in a box’ resources kits to run their own consultations. This means the burden of organising, funding, dealing with upset and concerned disabled people and then feeding this potentially triggering information back to the DWP will fall squarely on disabled people’s shoulders.

Alongside these, the DWP has also said it will run evidence sessions with experts. The problem here is that the department will get to decide who they include in these sessions. Evidently, the Timms Review is doing everything it can to block out disabled people who will have their lives upended if these cuts happen.

As Benefits and Work said:

The reality seems to be that the Timms Review is doing everything it can to avoid a genuine, mass consultation with disabled claimants. Instead, it is stalling for time by releasing scant information about events to be held at unspecified dates in the future, with most of these not even open to most disabled claimants.

All of this means it’s vitally important for as many disabled people as possible to fill in the Timms Review Call for Evidence. We need to give the panel as stark a picture of life without PIP as we can. The call for evidence closes on 28th May at 11:5pm

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Keir Starmer has appointed “clearly anti-Palestinian” MP James Murray to replace Wes Streeting as health secretary. Streeting resigned on Thursday to launch his campaign to replace Starmer.

The new health secretary has given a clear signal that his plans for the NHS are just as sinister as his predecessor’s. Murray posted on X that he:

Can’t wait to get started and continue [Wes Streeting]’s brilliant work.

And at the same time, he gushed about his time working for appalling chancellor Rachel ‘Freeze‘ Reeves:

Deeply honoured to be appointed by the Prime Minister as Health & Social Care Secretary.

Huge thanks to @RachelReevesMP for my time as part of her fantastic team.

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Can’t wait to get started and continue @wesstreeting‘s brilliant work on such a critical mission for our country.

— James Murray (@jamesmurray_ldn) May 14, 2026

Murray — Slash-and-burn

Streeting’s “brilliant work” is a ten-year slash-and-burn plan of treatment rationing, hospital closures, rampant privatisation and the replacement of doctors with less-qualified ‘associates’. This will all be overseen by private health lobbyists wielding Streeting’s threat to kill the NHS if it doesn’t submit.

Murray can’t wait to get stuck in to sticking it to the NHS and the millions who rely on it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

Let me let you in on a little secret: just because your holiday is bound to the size of your suitcase, you don’t have to switch up your regular beauty routine.

While the call of spending an ungodly amount of money on whatever travel minis they have at the airport is almost inescapable, times are a-changin’.

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Thankfully, most major wellness and beauty brands are now on board (pun intended) with selling their wares in multiple sizes.

So, whether you’re travelling by train, plane, or boat, you can maintain the same hair and skincare routine you have at home when you’re on holiday.

If you’re already planning what you’re going to pack for your next trip, our shopping writer has found the best airline-friendly travel products under 100ml to stock up on now.

From travel-sized shampoos, to LED patches, and body wash, these are the mini products to help you travel in style this summer.

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Best travel mini beauty products

Holiday skin gets sweaty, sandy, and suncreamy, so you’ll want to make sure you’re taking just as good care of it as when you’re home. This set from the Inkey List contains fan favourites like its salicylic acid cleanser, a treatment for any holiday breakouts, and a water cream to keep your face soothed after all that sun.

What with all the lotions and potions you have to fit into that tiny plastic bag at airport security, body cream is likely going to be one of the first items to go. But to make sure you’re really locking in that tan, it can be useful to add some kind of body moisturiser into the mix; this body oil from Nuxe is multi-purpose, so it can be used on your skin or hair. It smells just like holiday (to me, anyway) and it’s loaded with a subtle shimmer, to make your bronzed skin pop.

Another thing that takes up way too much space in your hand luggage, especially when inflated by the pressure on your flight, is makeup wipes. But never fear, these individually wrapped coconut-scented ones are pretty non-invasive in your bag, and they also won’t dry out.

In case you couldn’t already tell, we’re all over a multi-purpose product for holidays. This sensitive-skin friendly aftersun also doubles as an insect repellant, so you can slather it on of a warm evening and sleep safe in the knowledge you won’t get covered in a spattering of bug bites (not cute).

Hotel shampoo can get the job done, but it’s not going to be quite as effective as this organic set from Green People. Each product is enhanced with plant actives like quinoa protein and artichoke to give your sea-swept hair a boost of moisture and shine. Even better, it’s formulated to be safe on coloured hair, too.

When you’re spending 80% of your time in a bikini, you suddenly start thinking more astutely about your body care. This set from OUAI has everything you need leave you shining and smelling like a waft of tropical breeze, even if you’re lying by the beach in Cornwall.

I can’t be the only one who struggles to fall asleep in a bed that isn’t my own. The pillow is never right, and every slight sound is enough to keep me tossing and turning throughout the night. I find that this pillow spray from ThisWorks is all it takes to knock me out, and it now comes in this teeny travel bottle.

If you’re more of an Ordinary gal, the brand also has its own set of mini skincare essentials so you don’t have to stray from your routine. Because even though you’re exploring new terrains, that doesn’t extend to your beauty routine.

The second I step foot in a climate with even a hint of moisture, my makeup miraculously slides off my face. To avoid looking like I’ve been punched in the face, courtesy of my mascara migrating to my cheeks and my blush migrating to my jawline, this primer holds everything in place and also stops unwanted shine.

Ah, the struggle of holiday hair washes. There’s just never a logical time to have clean hair when you’re diving in a pool or the ocean at any given moment. Not that it’s not the rest of the year, but dry shampoo becomes my best friend when I’m away. Unlike aerosol brands, this K18 one stretches the extra miles to keep your hair looking fresh holiday-round, thanks to requiring a mere few spritzes to completely revive your locks.

For the minimalist man, this clever little soap can be used for body, hair, and face washes. The bristles make for just the right amount of exfoliation as you scrub, and the applicator comes with its own lid so you can chuck it in your wash bag without worrying about leakage. The soap itself comes in four vegan and pH-balanced formulas, including almond and tonka bean; peppermint and lime; sandalwood and geranium; and lime and patchouli.

My bleached-turned-red-dyed hair cannot catch a break, so I’m really doing everything I can to keep it protected come summer. This mini Colour Wow kit stops the dye from leaking – which is much needed after a swim or long stint in the sun – and my last kit lasted me three whole holidays.

While it’s easy to think your face doesn’t need anything else added to it after all that sunscreen, it’s actually gasping for a little moisturiser to stop it from drying out in the heat. Kiehl’s face cream has been a cult favourite for decades for a reason, it’s just the right texture to keep your skin protected through any kind of weather – and it’s sensitive-skin friendly!

Another cult Kiehl’s product, the Creme de Corps is packed with cocoa butter and beta-carotene, which if you ask me is beach bottled.

Travelling is all about treating yourself, and while the full-sized bottle of this shower gel might be too spenny to justify every time you need a refill, the tiny bottle is ideal for taking with you to unwind after an extremely trying day (not).

There are endless travel toothpastes, but I’m a big fan of this Marvis one, which gives the aura of having travelled back in time to when packaging wasn’t so in your face. Of course, it also leaves your mouth feeling fresh and minty, as any good toothpaste should.

If there’s one product I didn’t know I needed, it’s this compact dry shampoo puff. Honestly, the travel sizes of aerosol dry shampoo last me about two minutes, but this one has lasted me over a year – and I carry it with me everywhere. It’s easy to apply without alerting every fire alarm in your immediate vicinity, thanks to having a puff applicator, and it’s small enough to keep in any sized bag.

Of the many sensitive face sunscreens I’ve tested, this one from Laneige is my fave. It’s not too thick, doesn’t stain your clothes, and also sits nicely under makeup.

Can’t be bothered with buying individual travel products? So fair; this kit from Look Fantastic takes all the extra effort out of your holiday prep. It’s packed with everything from face sunscreen, to shampoo, moisturiser, lip balm, and even a body cream – and all for a sweet £35. Considering I’ve been known to spend that on food at the airport, I think that’s a banging deal.

Should you be partial to a sunset dinner on your holibobs, you’ll need to make sure you’ve loaded up on SPF. Before doing your best holiday makeup, slather your face in this SPF50 moisturiser that also works as a primer. Our parenting editor called it her ‘ultimate summer beauty hack‘ for a reason.

Best travel-sized beauty and wellness tech

You can’t always rely on the lighting in a hotel bathroom, so to make sure you’re not adding insult to injury with the disparity between your tan and regular skin tone, this makeup bag comes with its own LED mirror. So, as well as having plenty of room for a plethora of makeup products, you’ll always be able to get a showstopping face on when you’re on the go.

Want to get off the plane looking like you just woke up from the best sleep of your life? Pop these LED patches under your eyes for a quick refresh towards the end of your flight, or use them on your cheeks, forehead, or wherever needs a little support when you feel a spot coming on.

If holiday hair is serious business for you, you’ll be able to curl and smooth your hair, or even give it a bouncy blowout with this foldable hair dryer. Packed up in its own travel bag are two styling heads, and both a left and right handed hair wrap option – which, one reviewer says, means you won’t have to do “contortionist moves to do your hair evenly”.

Don’t need all the bells and whistles? This mini hairdryer also folds, but comes with just one attachment to get the job done.

Sore post-flight limbs are not what you need to kick off your holiday. Whether you want some relief from sitting still for an abnormal amount of hours, or you’re planning on squeezing some early-morning workout sessions in, this travel-sized massage gun is airport security-friendly, so you can prioritise recovery and full-body relaxation on your time off.

Because you deserve a little holiday fun! This eight-speed suction vibrator comes in its very own travel case, and has a baked-in travel lock, so you won’t have any awkward airport encounters.

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A coalition of UK peace organisations is launching a new petition calling on the UK government to rule out military conscription, or any form of compulsory national service involving the armed forces.

Thirteen peace and faith organisations have come together to organise the petition. It arrives amid growing debate about military recruitment and national service as the UK government ramps up military spending.

Rising talk of conscription

Campaigners say they are concerned that proposals once politically unthinkable are increasingly entering mainstream debate. Commentators and military figures are regularly calling for the reintroduction of some form of conscription. The Conservatives previously proposed a form of national service for young people, while Labour is expanding a military ‘gap year’ scheme.

Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Emma Sangster from ForcesWatch said:

Conscription is now a threat held over young people in the UK. People talk patronisingly of national service being good for young people, as if it didn’t pose significant risks to their physical and mental health, and impose the moral burdens of warfare on them.

She added:

We do not accept that militarised security will bring real human security. We do not accept that young people in this country should be drafted into its service through compulsory measures. It’s hard to believe that anyone would want that for their children and future generations.

Meanwhile across Europe, conscription is on the rise. Serbia is reintroducing military service, while Croatia has recently become the tenth European NATO state where conscription is in force. France is introducing a voluntary form of national service.

In Germany, a new law requires 18-year-olds to register with military authorities, with provisions allowing compulsory measures in future if deemed necessary. This has prompted widespread resistance, with 45,000 schoolchildren participating in recent walkouts and protests.

UK peace campaigners argue that any attempt to reintroduce conscription in the UK would represent a major attack on civil liberties and young people’s freedom.

The petition states:

We reject conscription as a moral affront and an attack on human rights. It deprives young people of choices and opportunity at a vital time in their lives… Joining the armed forces is a political and moral choice that should never be forced on anyone.

It concludes:

With war escalating around the world and record numbers of civilian casualties, now is the time to stand up for peaceful and cooperative approaches to conflict resolution.

Conscientious Objectors’ Day

The petition is launching on International Conscientious Objectors’ Day (CO Day, 15 May). This is an annual event when people around the world stand in solidarity with conscientious objectors, past and present.

Events to mark CO Day are taking place in towns and cities across the UK alongside many others worldwide. There are UK events in Brighton, Edinburgh, Leicester, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Sheffield, Wokingham and elsewhere.

The National Ceremony for CO Day in London, where the petition will be announced, will feature testimonies from COs from Russia, Ukraine, the UK and other countries.

As well as opposing conscription, the petition also calls on the UK government to:

assert and uphold the rights of conscientious objectors, ensuring protection for those who refuse to participate in the armed forces.

It will be handed in to both 10 Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence.

The participating organisations are:

• Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.
• Conscience: Taxes For Peace Not War.
• Fellowship of Reconciliation.
• ForcesWatch.
• Movement for the Abolition of War.
• Network for Peace.
• Pax Christi.
• Peace & Justice (Scotland).
• Peace Pledge Union.
• Quakers in Britain.
• The Right to Refuse to Kill Group.
• War Resisters’ International.
• Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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