For many of us, the return of Strictly Come Dancing each autumn provides some much-needed familiarity and cosy escapism.

But if that’s what keeps you tuning in year after year, it’s worth flagging now that the show is undergoing some big changes ahead of its 2026 incarnation.

While regular hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have already delivered their last “keep dancing”, having stepped down as hosts at the end of last year, bosses are shaking up everything from the show’s presenting team and line-up of pros to other major ways that fans have been enjoying the show for years.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series…

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Who is hosting Strictly Come Dancing 2026?

After months of rumours, it was confirmed back in May that outgoing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have been replaced by a new presenting trio at the helm of Strictly in 2026.

TV presenter Emma Willis, Strictly fave Johannes Radebe and comedian Josh Widdicombe are joining forces to front the BBC dance show when it returns to our screens in the autumn.

Although Emma is a total newbie to the Strictly ballroom, she does have plenty of reality TV experience, having previously hosted the likes of Big Brother, The Circle, Love Is Blind UK and The Voice.

Johannes, meanwhile, had been a Strictly pro for eight seasons before making the jump to his new presenting role – having been responsible for some of the show’s most memorable moments in recent history – while Josh previously took part in the Strictly Christmas special back in 2024.

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Which celebrities have been cast on the Strictly Come Dancing line-up so far?

At the time of writing, 12 spots on the Strictly line-up are now accounted for, with the cast announcements having started much earlier than usual way back in June.

Here’s the current line-up as it stands:

• Bethany Antonia (Stay Close and House Of The Dragon actor)
• Cach Mercer (dancer and Love Island winner)
• Chris Appleton (celebrity hairstylist)
• Dani Dyer (TV personality and Love Island winner)
• Delta Goodrem (pop singer)
• Graeme Hall (canine expert known to fans as The Dogfather)
• Jaime Winston (Kidulthood and Babs actor)
• Lacey Turner (EastEnders staple)
• Lawrence Robb (Emmerdale actor)
• Dame Sarah Storey (record-breaking Paralympian)
• Shaun Wright-Phillips (former England player and football pundit)
• Will Best (Big Brother and Hits Radio host)

Which celebrities are rumoured to be in the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 cast?

Currently, there are just three spots remaining on this year’s Strictly line-up, and a host of stars still rumoured to be taking part.

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Among the more prolific celebrities who’ve been tipped to have signed up include This Morning host Josie Gibson, reigning Traitors winner Stephen Libby, Gavin & Stacey fave Melanie Walters and Gladiators ref Mark Clattenburg.

Check out our guide to all of this year’s rumoured Strictly stars here.

Who are the new Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers for the 2026 series?

It was well-documented that there was something of a mass exodus among Strictly’s resident troupe of dancers earlier this year, with Karen Hauer (who had been the show’s longest-serving pro), Gorka Márquez, Nadiya Bychkova, Luba Mushtuk and Michelle Tsiakkas having now all said farewell to the Strictly ballroom before it was confirmed that Johannes would also be shifting to a new presenting role.

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In their absence, BBC bosses have confirmed that five new dancers will all be strutting their stuff this year.

• Aleksandra Isaeva (Ukrainian Latin champion)
• Cristian Priori (four-time Italian Latin champion)
• Lethabo Monametsi (South African youth Latin champion)
• Mark Karmalita (two-time Canadian Latin champion)
• Maddie Ingoldsby (British national ballroom dancing champion and eight-time 10-dance world champion)

Get to know the new additions a little better below:

Reacting to the news, Shirley Ballas told Strictly fans: “Get ready everyone, we are in for something very special. I’ve witnessed first-hand these young dancers within my industry and they are some of the very very best.

“We are blessed to have them enter our ballroom. I’m excited.”

Joining them will be returning performers Dianne Buswell, Julian Caillon, Amy Dowden, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Jowita Przystał, Aljaž Škorjanec, Alexis Warr, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Lauren Oakley, Vito Coppola and Strictly’s reigning champion pro, Carlos Gu.

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Who is judging Strictly Come Dancing in 2026?

Well, at least that’s one thing that isn’t changing this year.

Once again, the panel will be made up of Craig Revel-Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke.

Following Tess Daly’s exit, Craig is now the only member of the Strictly family to have been in the same role since the show’s inception in 2004 (Anton has also been with the show all that time, but previously served as a pro for 18 series before making a move over to the judging panel).

Is the Strictly Come Dancing studio being revamped for the 2026 series?

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Back in June, The Sun reported that, in keeping with bosses’ plans to “drastically shake things up” with the upcoming series, the Strictly studio is also being given a make-over.

An undisclosed “insider” told the tabloid: “It’s going to get a more sleek, impressive set, but it will still be all about fun, glitz and sparkles.

“They aren’t trying to turn it into the set of Star Wars. But it would have been strange not to have made some change to the look of the show, given that the programme is starting a new chapter with so many other new elements.”

What’s happening with the Strictly Come Dancing companion series It Takes Two in 2026?

This remains unclear for the time being, but after more than 20 years on the air, it doesn’t sound like the show will be returning as we know it this year.

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Instead, it was suggested that the show would be retooled into a vodcast-style series more in keeping with companion shows for hit BBC reality shows The Traitors and Race Across The World.

Janette Manrara has confirmed she will not be returning to host, with signs indicating that Fleur East is also not back, while The Sun reported recently that former Strictly competitor Ellie Taylor has bagged the presenting role in the show’s era.

Has Strictly Come Dancing announced whether the usual themed weeks and Blackpool special will be back for the 2026 series?

A recent BBC announcement read: “The much-loved themed weeks – including Movies, Icons, Halloween and Musicals – plus the Instant Dance challenge will also be back, following its high-energy debut in 2025.

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“As well as all this, one of the most iconic milestones of the series, the annual visit to the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom, will once again be a highlight for everyone to look forward to.”

When will Strictly Come Dancing be back on our screens?

A specific release date is yet to be confirmed, but what we do know is that Strictly’s 24th series will, as usual, premiere in September.

Traditionally, the show begins with a pre-recorded launch show, in which the stars discover who they’ve been partnered with, and take part in a mass group dance with the entire cast.

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A week later, the live shows kick off, with the first elimination usually airing the night after the second live show.

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The post Jason Arday: the unravelling of Cambridge’s DEI darling appeared first on spiked.

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Michigan Democrats’ scramble to unify after a brutal primary continued Friday with a preplanned rally that brought together the statewide ticket.

It also brought out Pete Buttigieg, a former and potentially future presidential candidate, whose presence helped underscore the stakes not just in November, but for 2028.

Holding the Michigan Senate seat is key to Democrats’ hopes of winning back the upper chamber. It is also a major battleground state that has now voted for President Donald Trump in two of the last three presidential elections, even as it sends Democrats like Elissa Slotkin to the Senate. Michigan is now poised to become an early presidential nominating state, giving it outsized influence on the 2028 contest.

Buttigieg laid out, in explicit terms, the broader stakes of a fractured Democratic coalition heading into the general election: “The stakes are high, and people from around the country, people from around the world, are watching the state of Michigan right now to see if we have the capability to put together that coalition to win.”

“We’re going to win because we know what it means to focus on what’s at stake, to lock arms as allies after a spirited primary, to pull together in common cause,” said Buttigieg, who stayed neutral in the state’s Senate primary, at the Michigan Democratic Party’s general election kickoff rally.

Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday defeated Rep. Haley Stevens after a bruising primary that exposed ideological and demographic divisions within the party. He now faces Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in the general election, and he has to figure out how to pull moderate and establishment Democrats back into the fold to hold the seat.

Republicans, seeing an opening with Black and Jewish voters who broke more for Stevens, are already trying to peel away parts of the Democratic coalition. They view Michigan as one of their best pickup opportunities this cycle.

Buttigieg, who represents the party’s more moderate flank, used his remarks Friday to explicitly appeal to Democrats across the spectrum — and even some Republicans.

“Wherever you sit, in this big tent of ours, and it is a big tent, but whatever corner of that tent you think of as home, there is a set of things, and I mean big, big things, where we agree with each other, we agree with most Michiganders, and Washington and Lansing Republicans disagree with us,” he said. “That’s what’s at stake right now, and it’s not all about left, right, and center, Democrat and Republican.”

Buttigieg’s remarks — and the early unification around El-Sayed in one of the nation’s most important battlegrounds — underscores the delicate balancing act party leaders have to contend with. After a string of progressive victories through the spring, establishment Democrats in particular are trying to rally behind their new nominees without necessarily embracing every part of the politics that carried them across the finish line.

That dance showed up subtly throughout the speeches on Friday night.

Buttigieg at one point framed El-Sayed’s position as wanting “to expand affordable health care and keep more money in your pocket,” whereas Rogers “voted against the Affordable Care Act.” Buttigieg notably did not use the phrase “Medicare for All” to address one of El-Sayed’s signature progressive positions.

El-Sayed, for his part, also made an explicit effort to turn the page.

“In the spirit of unity, in the spirit of the work, in the spirit of coming together, I want to thank both of my colleagues who ran, Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, for an incredible race,” he said. “Their incredible public service in the state of Michigan, and I cannot wait to see what both of them will do next.”

But he signaled that the progressive policy positions that powered his campaign would remain central to his general election stump. He reiterated his support for Medicare for All and railed against “the system of super PACs” and the millions of outside money flooding into politics.

And he sharply criticized Rogers, who, along with his fellow Republicans, have dramatically increased their attacks against El-Sayed since he won the primary, offering an early glimpse of what is likely to be a combative and divisive general election.

“They don’t know who we fight for,” El-Sayed said. “We fight for the families barely able to put their groceries in the cart and check out, we fight for the mom who’s worried about the child care she needs to be able to work a job that barely pays enough, we fight for the folks who are afraid about what happens if they get sick. We fight for each other, and we don’t back down.”

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It’s emerged that the Scottish Labour Party is fronted by Westminster paymasters. The Scottish wing of Labour relies entirely on its anti-sovereignty London HQ bosses to cover its staffers’ wages.

Scottish Labour’s most recent financial accounts show that it paid for no staff last year, with the UK-wide operation meeting employees’ wages. The SNP claimed Scottish Labour “don’t exist” after the revelations.

Lord Sarwar jumps a ghost ship

By Cameron Baillie

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Communities opposing mining destruction in the Philippines have been facing more and more repression. In a country whose elites have long submitted to US economic and political interests, state authorities and mining firms have both been increasingly intimidating activists because of their firm resistance.

Intimidation from both lawyers and the police

The North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC) has headquarters in the metropolitan area of Philippine capital, Manila. It claims its mining operations, over five hours to the north in Nueva Vizcaya, are “responsible” and follow “rigorous regulatory and environmental standards”. Local people, however, disagree.

The problem, as the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Britain explained, is that:

NLMRC holds an exploration permit… in Kasibu, granted in June 2025 despite residents’ objections. Indigenous Bugkalot/Ilongot communities say the permit area overlaps their ancestral domain and threatens their water sources and livelihoods, and that the company’s proof of consultation relied on attendance sheets from an unrelated community activity.

As a result:

Since May 2026, residents have maintained seven barricades across the affected barangays to block drilling equipment

These efforts have so far been successful.

NLMRC has responded to this resistance with legal attempts to shut its critics up, via ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ (SLAPPs). SLAPPs are a tool that wealthy parties use to try and silence ordinary people who speak out via “costly, stressful and unpredictable legal action”. They’re essentially an elite attack on free speech.

ICHRP noted that there have been:

at least 21 cases brought by NLMRC and its allies against Kasibu’s anti-mining leaders and their counsel, calling the pattern a textbook SLAPP campaign designed “to silence, intimidate, and ultimately deter public participation.” Naming lawyers alongside the community members they represent is a deliberate tactic: it strips defenders of the legal support they depend on and creates a chilling effect that discourages others from coming forward.

On 5 August, meanwhile, over 30 police vehicles turned up at Kasibu’s barricades to try and get activists to stand down. Police also left armed officers. As solidarity network Yes to Life No to Mining said:

Extractive projects cannot move forward without consent and we see this as representative of a larger pattern of extractive development enforced through militarized intervention against peaceful resistance.

A familiar story, but with links to a Reform billionaire

As the Canary reported previously, a subsidiary of a British mining company has also faced community resistance in the Philippines. These activists in Dupax del Norte (which is close to Kasibu) faced violent repression and arrests in response to their barricades.

In June 2026, billionaire Reform treasurer Nick Candy was the largest shareholder of parent company Metals Exploration plc.

The efforts of activists secured an indefinite suspension of the firm’s exploration permit, as we reported in April.

Corporate and colonial influence in the Philippines remains strong

The Philippines has faced a long and brutal struggle against elite rule, from Spanish colonialists to US colonialists and then to the pro-US dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Even after US colonialism in the country, US influence has remained strong. For example, there are regular joint military exercises, some of which have been on the rise.

Because of its strategic location close to China and Vietnam, the Philippines was a prominent laboratory during the Cold War for repressive US efforts to crush left-wing movements in Asia. Jacobin has even noted that the country was:

Crucial to the Making of American Empire

Levels of inequality and poverty have remained high as a result of ongoing elite rule and corruption. And elections have so far offered little hope of challenging this in a meaningful way.

Marcos’s son easily won the most recent presidential election, despite having consistently defended his father’s dictatorship and used online propaganda to whitewash his legacy. The winner of the vice-presidential election, meanwhile, was the daughter of disgraced outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte will officially go on trial later this year following his 2025 capture on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. The misogynistic extremist faces charges relating to the state killing spree under his presidency that was essentially a war on some of the country’s poorest people.

As vice-president, Duterte’s daughter Sara has no real power right now. But the Duterte and Marcos families are likely to dominate the next elections in 2028. And there’s currently no major left-wing alternative in sight.

The communities resisting mining destruction despite state repression and corporate intimidation, however, are a real cause for hope.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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On Thursday 6 August, police in Thetford, Norfolk imposed ‘public safety measures’ after a crowd tried to break into a property they believed housed asylum seekers. The measures allow police to order people they suspect of anti-social behaviour to leave an area, and/or to remove face coverings.

A Norfolk Police spokesperson said:

At about 9.30pm officers responded to reports that people in the group were trying to gain access to a residential property.

As police intervened, members of the group became physically aggressive towards officers – two were taken to hospital after a male officer was struck with a rock and a female officer was seriously bitten, breaking the skin.

A third officer was also spat at.

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Tuesday — ‘Between 30 and 50 people’

On Tuesday night, 4 August, the mob smashed windows and fences whilst trying to break into a home on a residential street. Residents called the police at 8:12pm to report the vandalism and attempted breaking-and-entering.

An officer recounted that:

The group were shouting and preventing a workman from leaving.

A resident of the same property reported a group of between 30 and 50 people trying to get into the house.

Officers attended a second address on Bracken Road where some of the group believed to be present at the previous incidents smashed the windows of the property.

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A third incident happened on Elm Road where a smaller group entered a property and forced out the resident and stole their mobile phone.

Wednesday — ‘Significant police resources’

A police spokesperson stated that the force also deployed “significant police resources” to maintain public safety on the next night, Wednesday 5 August.

Local Reform county councillor Scott Hussey posted on Facebook, in apparent support of the mob:

Situation in Thetford tonight as residents protest outside a house where a group of young male asylum seekers have been moved in by the Home Office. I’ve counted 28 police officers. The house is on a family estate, right next to a primary school.

He also posted a video of the assembled mob, in which a voice states:

They don’t want the white man anymore. They want us all gone, they wanna swap us. It’s predicted by 2050 that the f****** white man’s going to be a minority.

Another video posted to social media shows police escorting five men away from residential houses. Norfolk Police reported making two arrests. Charges included harassment, public order offences, and possession of an offensive weapon – namely a wooden bat.

Thursday — further arrests in Thetford

Last night, officers enforced public order measures from 6pm 6 August to 7am 7 August. A police spokesperson reported two further arrests – one on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, and another on failure to provide details on request and suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.

Another two men were arrested on Thursday, with one arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and the other on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly and failing to provide details to police when asked.

South West Norfolk’s Labour MP, Terry Jermy, stated that residents had contacted him with fears for their safety:

People have been pulled from their homes – a place of safety – and forcibly removed, with reports of members of the public breaking into homes, taking property and smashing windows.

This would have been utterly terrifying for the people in these properties and also very worrying for neighbouring residents. I utterly condemn this behaviour, and I know many Thetford residents share my disgust and concern.

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He went on to add that:

I do not know the immigration status of the people placed in these properties or their legal status, but I know they are human beings that must be afforded the same rights that we all expect in this country.

Featured image via James Linsell Clark/SWNS

By Grace

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A year-long campaign by animal rights groups has resulted in Brittany Ferries ceasing their cruel live export of animals from Ireland to France. The vile practice involves subjecting animals to lengthy journeys in dire conditions. Animals endure a terrifying experience in noisy, cramped, overheated environments, often without food or water, only to be murdered when they reach their destination.

Campaign group Four Paws pointed out that:

Among those transported were calves just a few weeks old, separated from their mothers and subjected to exhausting journeys across land and sea. Many travelled for more than 18 hours without food, before continuing by road to destinations including the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. Some journeys could last as long as 50 hours.

Of course, as recently highlighted by the Canary, the process of raising animals for food is cruel from beginning to end. However, any move that at least reduces some part of that harm can be considered progress.

Compassion in World Farming also celebrated the win, saying:

The decision directly follows months of concerted pressure from us and partner NGOs including Ethical Farming Ireland, Welfarm, FOUR PAWS, L124, Eyes on Animals, Eurogroup for Animals, Southampton Animal Action and Dorset Animal Action.

Brittany Ferries — Protest works as persistent campaign secures win

The activists launched their campaign when French-owned Brittany Ferries took the shameful decision to restart the shipping of live animals, following a 30-year period of not doing so. In response, animal rights supporters across Europe sent more than 100,000 emails in opposition. Protesters in Portsmouth routinely hit the company’s offices in the city.

Brittany Ferries also provides a passenger service for travellers across Europe. Those emailing made it clear they would be boycotting the company while they participated in needless animal cruelty.

Four Paws added:

Irish Ferries is now the only ferry operator continuing to carry unweaned calves from Ireland to France. With both Stena Line and Brittany Ferries withdrawing from the trade, Irish Ferries is becoming increasingly isolated.

This follows Stena Line announcing they too had ceased “transporting live, unweaned calves from Ireland to France”. Mainstream media in Ireland have predictably led with the voices of those who want to see the cruelty continue, namely the Irish Farmers Association and their backers in government, such as Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher. The latter said that agriculture minister Martin Heydon must be:

…prepared to step in if the market fails to respond.

Fianna Fáil are typically happy for the market to have its wicked way with working-class people, with limited intervention in the likes of housing and health care. But when a major industry lobbies for action to perpetuate mistreatment of animals, suddenly the market must be tamed.

Disgraceful Irish government allowed cattle to be shipped to ‘Israel’

The government was happy to stand back earlier this year, when an ‘Israeli’ vessel was disgracefully allowed to brutally drag thousands of Irish cattle away for slaughter in the genocidal Zionist apartheid settler-colony. Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign Louth slammed the decision, saying:

Shame on Greenore Port for facilitating this live export and turning a blind eye to animal welfare concerns. Ireland should not be trading with an apartheid state who is in breach of international law.

Aside from stopping disgraces like that, an additional intervention for government might be to begin shifting the Irish economy away from its focus on agriculture. People are increasingly turning away from meat, as they realise its destructive impact on animal welfare and the climate.

Researchers at The Conversation found that nearly 50% of young adults in Britain and the north of Ireland have considered ending meat consumption. Half of that group had already tried a meat-free diet. Previous research found that 51% of Europeans:

…say they have reduced their conventional meat intake.

There are promising signs of a shift away from the live export of animals. Britain banned ferrying of farmed animals in 2024. In 2023 New Zealand put in place a full ban on all live exports of cattle, sheep, deer, and goats by sea.

Now Corinna Reinisch at Four Paws says the Brittany Ferries move must be just one more step on the road to banning the cruel practice everywhere:

While we celebrate this development, it must also be seen as a wakeup call for others. Both the European Union and private companies must follow along. EU decision makers must realise that transporting live animals by sea is an outdated practice that causes unnecessary animal suffering.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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The nation’s most prominent pro-Welsh independence campaign and pressure group, YesCymru, has set an ambitious target of 2032 for Welsh secession.

This week, YesCymru set a clear and ambitious objective for the country’s growing movement. It wants the Welsh people to have a sovereign referendum on Welsh independence in 2032.

The announcement came at the National Eisteddfod, Wales’s largest cultural festival, celebrating Welsh language, music, literature and arts. YesCymru chair Rob Hughes made the bold announcement at one public meeting in Pabell y Cymdeithasau on the Eisteddfod field on Sunday, August 2.

The 2032 target sets an ambitious but not rushed deadline. It will allow for the groundwork to be set without immediate pressure felt. It gives the nation time to build momentum following the historic election of Plaid Cymru to Wales’ devolved halls of government.

The moves towards independence are not isolated but rather form a united Celtic Alliance front. Respective ruling parties across the Celtic nations are talking seriously about going beyond devolution now.

Aberystwyth to Host Mid Wales’ First YesCymru March for Independence

What are the practical steps?

Before any such vote could take place, the Welsh government would have to win dramatic powers from an unsympathetic Westminster establishment. It currently holds no such right to secede from the Union.

Honeymoon-period Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already flatly refused both Scotland and Wales independence referendums. But by 2032, we could be three PMs away from Burnham. (At least, based on the average pace at which Westminster has shuffled through previous PMs in the past decade!)

We might even be facing major UK constitutional changes in the intervening years. This comes after Burnham suggested that the case for Britain to adopt a written constitution — a single overarching legal document — is growing stronger. Such a written constitution exists in real countries such as Spain, India or the US.

As it stands, the UK’s constitution is uncodified. This means that it exists across a series of disparate sources including statute law, common law, and unwritten conventions. Essentially, the critical set of rules and standards outlining how the country is governed, remains something of a mishmash.

In theory, this could mean that anti-unionist parties could be dealing with an entirely different political landscape. However, that is also true of Burnham’s highly-flaunted plans around maximum devolution across the nations. These might lessen support for independence, if perceived generally successful.

Such parties — Sinn Fein, the SNP and Plaid Cymru — now control the devolved governments across the Celtic nations. By the time of any referendum, a new constitution may work better in their favour, or worse.

In the meantime, Plaid wants greater powers over policing and justice, and rail infrastructures. It is also calling for the Crown Estate to be devolved from Westminster to Cardiff.

Future PM Burnham already upsetting some in Scotland, Wales

Hughes’ case for Welsh independence

Speaking at the Eisteddfod meeting, YesCymru chair Hughes said:

I think we’ve had enough of wandering through life without giving us and our supporters and the people of Wales something to have as a focus.

What we need to do is persuade the people of Wales that an independent Wales will provide a better future for them and for the generations to come.

The 2032 campaign will focus on growing support for independence over the next six years. YesCymru say that their work will turn that support into a clear demand for a referendum. They also plan on setting out the various political and practical steps required to achieve that ultimate, revolutionary objective.

Hughes closed the public meeting at National Eisteddfod, saying:

Let’s build a country that is fair, tolerant and welcoming, and use the skills, belief and ambition of the people of Wales to create a country that works for all of us, for our children and for the generations to come.

It’s a big, ambitious step, to be sure. Hughes has met with Welsh Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution Dafydd Trystan Davies and officials this week to discuss the campaign group’s aims. They reportedly discussed the constitutional future of Wales and the organisation’s role in building public support for independence.

Support for Welsh independence has been as high as 41% in previous polls, with support for Plaid rising year-on-year. This has been particularly buoyed by Welsh Labour’s collapse. It is also supported by general perceptions of repeated Westminster governments’ failures on delivering fairly for Wales.

With a possible goal now firmly in mind, the Welsh population could be voting Yes soon enough. It may come before Scotland can even get an answer on how to be allowed to even ask the question again.

North of Ireland’s First Minister on the emerging ‘Celtic alliance’

Featured image via Ifan Morgan Jones 

By Cameron Baillie

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The campaign against ‘Frankenchickens’ is gathering pace. The name refers to types of chicken selectively bred for the cheap meat industry.

If a human baby grew at the same rate as one of these chickens, they’d be as heavy as two gorillas by eight weeks old.

That’s one of the questions in a new comedy sketch featuring high-profile UK comedians. Project Slingshot released the sketch as part of its £3m ‘Don’t Buy It’ campaign, highlighting the horrors of factory farming.

The latest instalment in Project Slingshot’s campaign turns its attention to ‘Frankenchickens’, the fast-growing chicken breeds supplied to major UK retailers and restaurant chains.

The Chicken Quiz, hosted by Last One Laughing stand-out star Sam Campbell, and featuring comedians Jon Richardson, Sara Pascoe, and Kerry Godliman, was directed by Simon Amstell. It focuses on the conditions of chickens in British factory farms. The comedians reveal that 90% of UK chickens grow so fast that they can barely stand.

The sketch also satirises welfare claims made on chicken packaging. When Pascoe insists: “You can’t lie on a label”, Campbell replies: “Yeah, you can. People lie on labels.”

It goes on to highlight the reality of intensive chicken farming, including birds spending much of their lives sitting in their own waste, causing painful skin burns. Around 1.1 billion Frankenchickens are grown in these conditions for slaughter in the UK every year.

Accompanying the video, a series of adverts is appearing across the London Underground network, featuring Campbell, Richardson, Pascoe, Godliman and Chris Packham.

Project Slingshot has allocated at least £3m of funding for its campaign against Big Ag this year. The organisation is stepping up pressure to end factory farming by 2040. It plans to increase investment into its campaign to £15m next year. This will place pressure on the food industry to be honest about the practices and outcomes of factory farming and on the government to tackle this damaging food system.

Frankenchickens everywhere

The Frankenchicken ads follow the viral London Underground campaign which challenged the pig industry’s claims that CO2 pig gassing qualifies as “humane slaughter”. Comedians Diane Morgan, Jen Brister and Shabaz Ali, TV’s Dr Amir Khan, and TV personality and athlete Mathew Pritchard fronted this.

Joanna Lumley also supports the campaign and comments:

90% of chickens, pumped full of antibiotics, are bred to grow so fast that their bodies collapse, their legs buckle and their hearts give out. They live for just 35 days, mostly in pain, and yet the industry calls it efficiency. I wonder if the general public would agree, if only they knew. We must ban Frankenchickens now because we’re better than this.

Campaigners coined the term “Frankenchickens” to describe breeds of birds that have been genetically selected to grow unnaturally fast. Today, the vast majority of farmed chickens in the UK reach slaughter weight within 34 to 36 days. Growth rates have increased by over 400% since the 1950s. Estimates suggest almost 90% of that increase is as a result of genetic selection.

Project Slingshot’s co-founder, Naomi Hallum, comments:

Factory farming has broken the chicken. In the UK, almost 90% of the 1.1 billion chickens bred for meat annually are the overbred, fast-growing ‘Frankenchickens’, who are prone to lameness, broken bones, and heart attacks.

They spend so long sitting in their own waste, they suffer painful skin burns that you can still see on chicken meat in the supermarket. Despite this, the industry still expects us to believe that animal welfare is its top priority. Well, we just don’t buy it.

In July, campaign group Anima hit the headlines when it called out Pret A Manger for supplying Frankenchickens across its chain of over 470 outlets in the UK.

Project Slingshot has added to pressure on Pret while also highlighting companies including KFC and Moy Park. KFC dropped its pledge to end the use of Frankenchickens by 2026. Moy Park supplies Frankenchickens to KFC alongside McDonald’s and supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi and Ocado.

More than 750 ads are appearing in 206 London Underground stations. And there are 6,600 more inside tube carriages, for 12 weeks. The stations include Euston, Charing Cross, Liverpool Street, Embankment, and Kings Cross St Pancras.

Featured image via Project Slingshot

By The Canary

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