Politics

Clacton by-election circus loses its fox

Published

3 weeks ago

14 July 2026

An image of Clacton-On-Sea's railway track with the sign in show. In front of them on the right is Rob Pownall dressed in his red fox outfit. On the left is an image of Nigel Farage's bust, and he is looking perplexed

The upcoming Clacton by-election on Thursday 13 August 2026 is somewhat of a circus. But that circus was meant to be a direct battleground for animal rights.

After Reform UK leader and human-earthworm-lookalike Nigel Farage resigned to trigger a vanity vote, most major parties decided to boycott the contest. Yet in doing this, they have opened the ring to a chaotic wave of novelty candidates. This includes a man dressed as a fish finger, and possibly the most laughable of them all, Laurence Fox.

Wanting to protect the integrity of British wildlife campaigning from becoming a political punchline, Protect the Wild founder Rob Pownall has officially rescinded his bid to stand.

Targeting the pro-hunting establishment

Pownall is a fearless campaigner and has dedicated his life to protecting animals. He founded Keep the Ban at the tender age of 16 to fight fox hunting. This later evolved into Protect the Wild – a powerhouse of animal protection. Rob has since used creative, eye-catching campaigns to reach millions of people.

He’s previously stood for Scottish parliament dressed as a gannet to campaign against the massacre of thousands of British seabirds. In the Makerfield by-election, he stood wearing a full fox suit to call attention to the trail hunting ban. And this time, Pownall was ready to run in Clacton to confront Farage directly over his vocal support for blood sports.

However, as the final candidate list emerged, it became even more glaringly obvious that the by-election was nothing more than a political farce. We all love Count Binface, and wish him the best. But when he was going to be sharing the stage with a literal bin, a fish finger and Laurence Fox, Pownall has quickly come to realise staying in the race is actively damaging the serious nature of his cause.

'My job is to demonstrate that British democracy is wonderful and unique in the entire Cosmos'
Count Binface told #BBCBreakfast why he plans to stand against Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election – triggered by the resignation of the Reform UK leader who then plans to re-fight… pic.twitter.com/3o3RNSrirk
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— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) July 8, 2026

Not playing the performer

In a statement, Pownall has laid bare the seriousness of the situation:

Whatever chance there was of this being taken seriously has now gone… The more time that’s passed, the more this has looked less like a by-election and more like a circus, with people using Farage’s seat as a stage for their own attention, career or brand.

For Pownall, protecting animals is more than a punchline. He is refusing to let his campaign get swept up in a crappy media circus. Why do it, when it only serves to feed into Farage’s theatrical vanity project? Pownall added:

Being lumped in on a stage alongside a line-up of people treating this as a punchline isn’t the platform we set out to find. And I don’t think it’s the one that best serves the animals we’re trying to protect… Farage can be a ringleader of his new circus. We’re not here to be one of his performers.

The Makerfield and Edinburgh campaigns took place within serious, contested elections. Clacton, on the other hand, has been entirely abandoned by the political establishment. And let’s be honest, who the hell wants to stand next to Laurence Fox on a stage? Urgh.

Exposing the hunter-in-chief

Despite withdrawing, Protect the Wild has out-foxed them all. In the 24 hours leading up to Pownall’s decision, the campaign secured national front-page coverage. And in doing so, they have exposed Farage’s real record on blood sports. The Telegraph ran a piece smashing Farage, detailing his defence of hunting.

Pownall calls this a massive win:

That’s arguably the best coverage this campaign could have hoped for, achieving without ever having to stand on a stage at all… We set out to challenge Farage’s record on animals, and we have done exactly that.

The circus seems to have lost its fox – well, it’s only notable one. The Laurence one doesn’t count. But the ringleader remains, surrounded by his fish finger and his bin.

But the real, serious fight to protect British wildlife continues on the ground. And that is where the voices of vulnerable animals will never be treated as a joke.

Featured images via Protect The Wild

By Antifabot

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Politics

The House Article | No one should spend their final months fighting for financial support

Published

2 hours ago

4 August 2026

NewsAdmin

No one should spend their final months fighting for financial support

4 min read12 min

Dignity at the end of life cannot depend on whether a clinician knows about the relevant form or a family has the strength to keep chasing help.

When someone is living with a terminal illness, time becomes particularly precious. Their final weeks and days should be spent in dignity and comfort, with the people they love, not lost to paperwork and phone calls proving they are ill enough to receive essential benefits.

As Andy Burnham puts social care reform back at the centre of Westminster debate, he is right that palliative and end-of-life care urgently need fixing. The government’s promised Modern Service Framework for Palliative and End of Life Care should set out how the NHS delivers the right care, in the right place and at the right time. This ambition must include financial security, because people cannot die with dignity if they cannot afford to live safely and comfortably.

The Special Rules for End of Life are designed to give dying people quicker access to benefits without unnecessary assessments or delays. A terminal diagnosis can bring an income shock, as people may have to leave work while facing higher household costs, including heating and medical equipment. Fast-tracked benefits can help families to manage those pressures and support people to remain safely at home for as long as possible.

Yet the Special Rules are still failing to reach too many people they are supposed to protect. Research funded by Marie Curie and led by King’s College London found that, in England and Wales, more than one in three people who died from a chronic illness did not receive the disability benefits they were eligible for through this route, around 120,000 people each year. With more than 100,000 people dying in poverty annually across the UK, this cannot be dismissed as a narrow benefits problem. It is a moral failure spanning health, social care and welfare policy.

The research also helps to explain why people are missing out. Interviews with patients, carers and healthcare professionals found that uncertainty around prognosis and low awareness of the Special Rules can delay access, while discomfort discussing money and difficulties completing the relevant forms create further barriers.

For families already facing an extremely difficult time, missing out can mean being unable to heat their home or afford transport to appointments. It can make receiving care safely at home harder, even when that is where someone would like to be, while carers may feel forced to choose between taking time off work and paying household bills.

These problems are solvable, but they require coordinated action. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should work with the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS to make the Special Rules easier to understand and use. This should include raising awareness among clinicians, providing clearer guidance on Special Rules forms and embedding questions about financial hardship and eligibility into advance care planning, hospital discharge planning and GP palliative care registers, so people are offered help before reaching crisis point. The DWP should also collect better data on who completes the forms, consider expanding the group of approved clinicians who can confirm eligibility, such as hospice paramedics, and allow completion to be delegated once eligibility has been confirmed.

Ministers should also review the 12-month prognosis requirement used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prognosis can be uncertain, particularly for conditions with less predictable trajectories, such as heart failure or HIV, both of which are linked to lower take-up under the Special Rules. Scotland has moved to a more flexible model without a fixed time limit, and the DWP should examine what can be learned from that approach.

Everyone deserves a good death, and dignity at the end of life cannot depend on whether a clinician knows about the relevant form or a family has the strength to keep chasing help. The government has accepted that terminally ill people should receive fast-tracked benefits; it must now deliver on that commitment before financial hardship adds to the distress of their final days.

Dr Sam Royston Executive Director of Research and Policy at Marie Curie

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Politics

Rod Liddle’s death is a terrible blow to public life

Published

7 hours ago

4 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Rod Liddle’s death is a terrible blow to public life

Every death leaves a hole in someone’s life. But it’s a rare death that leaves a hole in public life. Rod Liddle’s does. His passing has robbed us of the finest, funniest and most sardonic chronicler of the absurdities of the 21st century. His writing was brilliant: sometimes brutal, always truthful. He was the only newspaper scribbler of our times whose name could be justly uttered in the same breath as Swift’s. You can feel his loss already. You just know the next time something mad or ridiculous happens, you’ll find yourself thinking: What would Rod have written about this?

He died on Sunday evening after a short illness. Until about six weeks ago – when he backed out of work – he’d been a prolific, heroic columnist. He wrote for the Spectator, the Sun and The Sunday Times. He hosted a Saturday morning show on Times Radio, which I loved appearing on. He was once a speechwriter for the Labour Party. He made TV documentaries and wrote books – my favourite was The Great Betrayal, his stirring defence of the ‘uneducated thickos’ who voted for Brexit against those posh twats malingering in the ‘Brexit Derangement Syndrome intensive care ward, wired up to saline drips, attended to day and night, occasionally afforded a few thousand volts of ECT when things get really bad, but still foaming, still beside themselves with apoplexy’.

His journalism career included four years as editor of the Today programme on Radio 4. A man who went from editing the morning show beloved of the Beeb’s leafiest listeners to being nominated for Islamophobe of the Year Award by the nutters of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (sic)? Truly we shall not see his like again. He and I were nominated for that award in the same year, and we often shared our dismay that neither of us won, not least since the prize-giving ceremony was at the Holiday Inn in Wembley, which would have been a great night out.

It was for his columns – dry, acerbic, profound – that he became best known. His prose sparkled like a jagged diamond in a media world dominated by privileged pricks more interested in being ‘correct’ than candid, honest or funny. He was the only columnist who could make you laugh out loud on the Tube. He once said the Severn Bridge between Wales and England connects Wales to the ‘First World’. Back in 2018, when even many feminists were going along with the trans lunacy, he temporarily identified as a ‘young, black, trans chihuahua’. Hilariously, Pink News published a thundering editorial accusing him of ‘dehumanising trans people’ illustrated with a split pic of Liddle and a black chihuahua.

He was an implacable foe of what most people call ‘woke’ but which he called ‘wank’. He heaped derision on the fake left that dominates our institutions. He once said the reason he used the term ‘bien-pensants’ is because it’s more acceptable than ‘cunt’. He ripped the piss out of leftish elites who are ‘aloof from the country’ and understand neither ‘its aspirations’ nor ‘its gripes’. Like many of us, he was heartened by Brexit, which he viewed as a ‘rebellion of the poor’. ‘One can be on the wrong side of history until history suddenly and rather capriciously switches sides, as it did on 23 June [2016]’, he said of the EU referendum and the working classes’ wrestling of the historic narrative from the bien-pensants / cunts. I once gave a talk on Brexit in Kent and heard wheezing whoops of approval from the audience: it was Rod.

Naturally, he fell foul of the tyranny of literalism. When Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary said radical Muslim Brits should become suicide bombers, Liddle agreed – so long as ‘they blow themselves up… a decent distance from where the rest of us live. Tower Hamlets, for example.’ The media fury was intense, as if he were literally inciting suicide bombings rather than, you know, making a joke. When he wrote a column wondering whether he’d sleep with Harriet Harman, a Guardian columnist said his ‘diatribe’ was ‘so disgusting’ that it caused her to ‘flush violently all the way from my breastbone to my forehead’ until she ‘looked like [she] had German measles’. Rarely had the narcissistic insanity of cancel culture been so starkly on display.

What ‘progressives’ really hated about Rod is that he met their earnestness not with indulgence but with scoffing. He was the nation’s cocked eyebrow. He was the irreverent guffaw of everyday Britain. He was a bawdy iconoclast of the northern working class, wielding his unflashy, quite Methodist scepticism against the crank ideologies of the rich and dumb who had colonised the left. The fools called him ‘far right’ but he was more properly left than any of them – a lifelong Thatcher sceptic and devotee of the Social Democratic Party who longed for the restoration of the common sense of our once great kingdom.

To my mind, his ribald humour and natural-born non-conformism made him the heir to the likes of John Wilkes, the pamphlet-publishing tearaway of the 18th century. He carried a flickering candle for the great English traditions of satire and ‘lower-class’ heresy in an era in which you could find yourself cast out for saying lesbians don’t have todgers. Rod worried about lesbians. He once told me that, courtesy of the trans madness, lesbians seem to be an endangered species, like red kites. Truth is, the likes of Rod were the true endangered species: Englishmen who speak as they see, and damn the consequences.

A little-known fact about Rod is that he was kind. He was fantastic company. His throaty laugh could carry an entire night. He was a great friend of spiked, often appearing on our podcasts and bigging up our writers. He and I were due to speak about anti-Semitism in Leeds just six weeks ago. He messaged me to say he couldn’t do it, because ‘I’m not in a good way’. ‘Get well’, I replied, and now I wish I’d said more. Everyone at spiked is deeply saddened by his death and we offer our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Alicia, and his children, Wilder, Tyler and Emmy.

Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His latest book – After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation – is available to order on Amazon UK and Amazon US now. And find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.

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Politics

Behind the glamour of the West End, theatre workers are pushing for better conditions

Published

13 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London's West End

It’s easy to assume that the theatre is a world of glitz and glamour. A place where performers have their names in lights and live lives of luxury.

But many theatre workers face the same challenges common across all sectors. Unpredictable hours and pay, difficulty achieving work-life balance, a general sense of precarity.

Performers and other staff in the Equity union have been pushing for an improvement in their terms. And they’ve already had success.

A new deal for theatre workers

Equity members have voted to ratify a new three-year agreement with the Society of London Theatre (SOLT). It covers pay and conditions for performers and stage management working in the West End.

The agreement runs from April 2026 to April 2029. It got approval from 98% of members voting, on a turnout of 75%.

Under the agreement, minimum rates will rise by at least 13.5% over three years. It also improves holiday entitlement and family leave, supports better work-life balance, strengthens equality and inclusion provisions, and recognises additional responsibilities.

Alongside improved notice and scheduling guarantees for theatre performers and stage management, the agreement provides producers and managers with more modern scheduling arrangements, simplifies tour planning, and gives both sides greater certainty over its three-year term.

SOLT and Equity thank the members of their respective negotiating committees, and all those who contributed to reaching the agreement.

Paul W Fleming, general secretary of Equity, said:

For over a decade, Equity has sought to increase annual leave, reduce rehearsal weeks, and improve work-life balance on the West End.
Not only does this agreement achieve these objectives for the first time, but it also lifts minimum pay to a record high in real terms.
We’re encouraged by SOLT’s stated aspiration to use this agreement as a starting point for more regular high-level exchanges on terms and conditions. There is no reason this cannot be the start of modern terms and conditions, and the beginning of the end of low pay on the West End.

Hannah Essex, co-chief executive of the Society of London Theatre, said:

This agreement delivers meaningful improvements to pay and working conditions, strengthens work-life balance, and gives the West End a clear and stable framework through to 2029.
It represents a significant commitment from producers at a time when costs are rising faster than inflation and higher employers’ National Insurance contributions are compounding the strain on theatres.
Even as average ticket prices remain below pre-pandemic levels in real terms, theatres have once again been excluded from targeted business rates relief.
Government must now recognise the cumulative pressure on the sector and ensure policy supports continued investment in the workforce, in productions, and in audiences.

At the opera too

Opera singers are also demanding improved pay, work-life balance and clarity of their terms and conditions.

Negotiations between Equity, represented by a working group of members together with union officials, and UK Theatre / SOLT are set to begin, after Equity submitted its claim on 30 July.

Equity is demanding improvements to the agreement that sets minimum standards on pay, terms and conditions for opera singers, and covers principals, covers and freelance singers working in UK Theatre / SOLT member opera companies.

The claim calls for improved weekly pay, especially to support the lowest paid, and to reflect changing performance patterns in the industry.

It also includes demands for improved notice of scheduling for a better work-life balance and family friendly working, and calls for clearer terms and conditions for artists and engagers.

Commenting on the claim, Equity Singers & Dancers official Lottie Stables said:

The demands from Equity’s membership are clear – for too long they have seen their pay stagnate, whilst being expected to show ever more flexibility with their working patterns.
This needs to stop. If managers are serious about artists’ wellbeing and dignity, they must address the demands of this claim and ensure fair weekly pay, improved scheduling and transparent terms for all singers.

Equity will submit a claim for improvements to terms and conditions for stage management across opera and ballet later in 2026.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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Politics

Canadian-Palestinian activist charged with terrorism

Published

14 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Ahmad Hajahmad Jarrar, a pro-Palestine activist, smiles with his index finger pointing up in a baseball cap turned backwards and a scarf draped on his shoulders. His jumper has 'Palestine' printed on it

Canadian-Palestinian activist, Ahmad Hajahmad Jarrar, has been charged under terror laws after a speech in Toronto against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, charges have been dropped against three Israel supporters who committed or threatened actual harm to pro-Palestine protesters.

Canada is following the UK in its lawfare war on anti-genocide speech and protest.

The charges against the pro-Palestine activist

Jarrar was arrested for supposedly making “public statements that advocated for the detestation and harm against members of the Israeli and Jewish communities”, Toronto police said.

The force added that he “acted for the benefit of, and in association with, Hamas, a designated terrorist group”. His reported actual words did not mention the banned group:

Teach your children the Zionist entity is the enemy. Teach your children that the resistance is an honour.

Jarrar’s lawyer said his client was innocent and being targeted for speaking against the murder of civilians. He added that Jarrar had not been charged with what the police said he was arrested for.

He faces a single charge arising from speaking at public demonstrations. No violence, no weapon, no one harmed. Speaking out at a protest about the killing of civilians is protected expression, not terrorism.
The police told the media he ‘advocated for detestation and harm’ but he is not charged with that. We’ll be looking closely at how and why this case came to be, and we’re confident it won’t hold up when measured against the law.

Police have provided no additional details or evidence, citing court restrictions for reporting on the case.

Impunity for the opposite side

Meanwhile, the Canadian double standard is no less clear than its equivalent in the US. In 2024, Ilan-Reuben Abramov attacked anti-genocide demonstrators with a nail gun while screaming:

Every fucking Palestinian will die.

Abramov was charged but has never been brought to trial, leading campaigners to suspect the charges have been quietly dropped.

In February 2025, far-right extremist Eli Schwarz was arrested after threatening anti-genocide protesters. He admitted to police that he was a member of the terrorist group, Jewish Defence League.

When arrested, he was wearing a t-shirt praising Zionist terrorist Meir Kahane. Police found a rifle with scope at his home, along with 10 boxes of ammunition.

Schwarz was charged with making threats and improperly storing ammunition but has not been prosecuted.

In December 2025, Gabriella Bodis was charged with assault after threatening anti-genocide protesters with ‘reagent grade’ (high strength) ammonium hydroxide, which is capable of severe damage to the eyes and skin. She has not yet been prosecuted.

Students in Canada have denounced the charges against Ahmad Jarrar.

Featured image via wearthepeace/ Instagram

By Skwawkbox

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Politics

Snack Lovers Are Learning The Sweet Meaning Behind Snickers’ Name

Published

15 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Snack Lovers Are Learning The Sweet Meaning Behind Snickers' Name

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how Hobnobs’ name actually has a meaning ― the “hob” refers to their homemade look, while the “nob” part (ooer missus) has to do with its knobbly texture.

Even Twix has a surprisingly clever name.

So you’d expect Snickers to have a similarly self-referential or witty brand, right? Maybe the “snick” is like “sneak”, because of the hidden peanut layer?

No. It was named after a horse.

What?

Yep! According to none other than Mars, the owner of Snickers, “The very first SNICKERS Bar, named after the family horse, was manufactured in Chicago, US, and sold for five cents.”

And per Mars Equestrian (yep, they’re the same Mars ― seems they really like horses), “Frank C. and Ethel V. Mars’ Milky Way Farm in Tennessee was well known for producing Thoroughbred racing champions, including the 1940 Kentucky Derby Winner, Gallahadion.”

The Mars family still breed thoroughbred horses and even has an equestrian sponsorship across multiple disciplines.

And you might not have known this ― I didn’t ― but Mars is actually a huge pet food manufacturer and owns brands like Pedigree and Whiskas.

What about the specific Snickers horse?

Per The Equine Chronicle, the family had good reason to appreciate Snickers the animal ― he was a winning racehorse.

Unfortunately, Snickers passed away “less than a month” before the launch of the bar in 1930. Hence the family named the iconic bar after their recently-departed horse (aww).

Well, sad as that is, I’m struggling to think of a better legacy…

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Politics

Animal Experts Reveal Stark Reason Why You Should Be Friendly To Crows

Published

15 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Animal Experts Reveal Stark Reason Why You Should Be Friendly To Crows

According to National Geographic, crows are some of the most intelligent birds in the world. They have also always been held in incredibly high esteem and are considered to be symbols of prophecy, transformation, change, and freedom.

However, as majestic and revered as these birds are, they are also not to be messed with.

According to Science World: “Crows are incredibly territorial during May and June. They are known to dive and strike humans not just once, but repetitively until the human in question has moved a good distance away from the nest.”

In fact… you may actually want to be a little more friendly with crows and even befriend one. Yes, really.

Why you should befriend a crow

So, maybe you don’t need to specifically befriend a crow but you definitely need to stay on their good side.

This is because a five-year study by scientists at the University of Washington has found they possess an unusually good memory for human faces linked to a stressful event.

Not only do crows remember the faces of humans for five years, but these clever corvids can also warn their friends and family about you, too. I don’t know about you but being the target of a murder of local crows sounds bloody terrifying.

However, if you do choose to buddy up with a crow, they’ll actually bring you gifts. They may be fiercely protective and hold a hell of a grudge but they are generous souls, too!

John Marzluff, conservation ecologist at the University of Washington said that crows take part in “gifting” by leaving behind keys, lost earrings, bones, or rocks, for the people who feed them.

How to befriend a crow

According to Pet Helpful, following these steps can help you to become friends with a crow:

Find food that the crows seem to like and keep it in stock. Crows tend to like nuts and seeds
Establish a regular feeding schedule so they know when to expect you and can create a rhythm with them
Don’t overdo it — you don’t need to feed them meals, just enough for them to know that you care and want to befriend them
Don’t overdo it. Don’t feed them so much or so often that they become dependent—just a handful of something to show you care.
Don’t just throw the food out there and walk away. Stay at a respectful distance to watch them eat. You may see them eat it on the spot, or they might choose carefully and fly off to cache it for later
Don’t get too close to them as they prefer to be standoffish and may feel threatened

Brb, off to invest in some nuts and seeds.

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Politics

8 Film And TV Adaptations Their Authors Hated

Published

15 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

If you love both reading and watching films, 2026 offers rich rewards – this year will see everything from new Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility adaptations to yet another instalment in the Dune franchise.

Project Hail Mary, The Odyssey, H is For Hawk, and Wuthering Heights are already out, meanwhile.

Generally, hitting the big or small screen spells good news for book sales. People can’t stop buying copies of the Homeric text after Nolan’s blockbuster; Wuthering Heights sales skyrocketed after Emerald Fennell’s controversial interpretation.

But that doesn’t mean every author is a fan of their works’ film or telly counterparts.

Here, we rounded up eight authors who criticised adaptations of their books:

1) E.B. White wasn’t delighted with 1973’s Charlotte’s Web

E.B. White, who wrote the 1952 children’s book, had been in negotiations with the production team John and Faith Hubley.

Eventually, Hanna-Barbera got the rights instead. After their animated 1973 movie came out, White wrote: “The movie of Charlotte’s Web is about what I expected it to be. The story is interrupted every few minutes so that somebody can sing a jolly song. I don’t care much for jolly songs. The Blue Hill Fair, which I tried to report faithfully in the book, has become a Disney World, with 76 trombones.”

His wife, meanwhile, told would-be director of the abandoned original adaptation, Gene Dietch, “We have never ceased to regret that your version of Charlotte’s Web never got made. The Hanna-Barbera version has never pleased either of us.”

2) Truman Capote didn’t love 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Author Truman Capote spent many years disparaging the movie based on his 1958 novel, calling it the “most miscast” movie (he’d wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part Audrey Hepburn got).

When asked what he didn’t like about the adaptation, he replied, “Oh god, just everything” – the book’s narrator role changes, as does the book’s ending.

3) Stephen King had issues with 1980’s The Shining

Speaking to The Paris Review about Kubrick’s version of his story, King said he thought the movie was “Too cold. No sense of emotional investment in the family whatsoever on his part”.

He added that Shelley Duvall as Wendy was “insulting to women. She’s basically a scream machine…

“And Kubrick didn’t seem to have any idea that Jack Nicholson was playing the same motorcycle psycho that he played in all those biker films he did… The guy is crazy. So where is the tragedy if the guy shows up for his job interview and he’s already bonkers? No, I hated what Kubrick did with that.”

The writer had penned his own version of the script, which Kubrick didn’t use.

4) Rick Riordan disavowed the 2010 Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief flick

Author Rick Riordan let his feelings about the adaptation be known on X, where he likened the movie to “my life’s work going through a meat grinder when I pleaded with [the studio] not to do it.”

He also posted, “I still have not seen the movies, and don’t plan on ever doing so… I judge them from having read the scripts because I care most about the story. I certainly have nothing against the very talented actors. Not their fault. I’m just sorry they got dragged into that mess.”

Still, the writer hinted he was “gonna fix” this with Disney+’s 2023 series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, for which he had more oversight.

5) Michael Ende called 1984’s The Neverending Story “revolting”

Going so far as to remove his name from the movie’s credits, Ende publicly described the movie as “revolting” and claimed, “the makers of the film simply did not understand the book at all”.

The author even reportedly tried (and failed) to sue in order to stop the movie from going out, saying his “moral and artistic existence is at stake in this film”.

6) PL Travers had such a contentious relationship with Disney due to Mary Poppins, there’s a whole film about it

The film, which won a remarkable five Oscars, had a very different nanny to the one in PL Travers’ books (she “never wastes time being nice”) – Travers also disliked the fact that Disney made Mrs Banks a Suffragette.

So contentious was her relationship with Walt Disney that the movie Saving Mr Banks was made to chronicle the making of the film.

7) Alan Moore, the mind behind V for Vendetta’s comics, called the 2005 movie’s writing “rubbish”

When asked to weigh in on the adaptation, Moore said: “I’ve read the screenplay. It’s rubbish”.

He also told the New York Times that for a lot of the DC projects that had become movies, “I don’t want anything more to do with these works because they were stolen from me – knowingly stolen from me.”

8) Moore also slammed the Watchmen film

The writer, who claimed the studio was using his brother’s serious illness to pressure him, said of the movie: “curse this wretched film and everything connected with it”.

Speaking to GQ, meanwhile, he said: “I would be the last person to want to sit through any adaptations of my work.

“From what I’ve heard of them, it would be enormously punishing. It would be torturous, and for no very good reason… It seemed to me that what people were taking away from works like Watchmen or V For Vendetta wasn’t the storytelling techniques, which to me seemed to be the most important part of it. It was instead this greater leeway with violence and with sexual references. Tits and innards.”

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Politics

I Shop For A Living, This Is The Fashion I’m Buying This July Payday

Published

15 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

I Shop For A Living, This Is The Fashion I'm Buying This July Payday

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.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the more I shop, the more I want. That is the plight of a shopping writer.

While I’m lucky enough to test probably close to a thousand products a year, I can’t help but build a wishlist of more fashion, beauty, jewellery, and wellness bits and bobs I want along the way.

And while I’ve already rounded up all of the products I loved in July, if you’re looking for shopping inspiration, I thought I’d be generous and share what’s on my wishlist this payday. Just don’t sell it out before I have a chance to buy it too!

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Politics

Parliament probes Richard Tice over undeclared Israel link

Published

15 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Richard Tice of Reform UK shaking the hand of an official in the Israeli government for the photo op while in Israel in September 2025

The parliamentary standards watchdog has opened an investigation into Reform UK deputy Richard Tice. The allegation focuses on Tice failing to declare an interest that related to a Commons debate on Israeli influence.

Tice himself has disputed media reporting, although the following claim is in part at odds with what the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards stated.

Contrary to garbage in media:
I am being investigated for standing against antisemitism. You could not make it up.
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Standards Commissioner is considering complaint by anti semitic anti Israel lobby group over whether I should have referenced my register of interests at start of…
— Richard Tice MP (@TiceRichard) August 3, 2026

Richard Tice claims probe is over antisemitism stance

In full, Tice said:

Contrary to garbage in media:
I am being investigated for standing against antisemitism. You could not make it up.
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Standards Commissioner is considering complaint by anti semitic anti Israel lobby group over whether I should have referenced my register of interests at start of a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence.
The same anti Israel group failed to notify Commissioner that Ayoub Khan MP did not declare his substantial donation received from a pro Palestine group.
Funny that…..

Adding further context, the BBC reported:

Reform said Tice did not mention in his 22 June speech that he had been on a trip to Israel last September, funded by a pro-Israel lobbying group.
The trip has been listed in Tice’s Declaration of Members’ Interests.

Here is what the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner published regarding the ongoing investigation:

Therefore, it is not the case that the commissioner is investigating Tice for “standing against antisemitism”, as he suggested.

The ‘Rule 6’ stipulates:

Members must always be open and frank in declaring any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its committees, and in any communications with ministers, members, public officials or public office holders.

Additional guidance states that MPs can refer to register of interests entries but:

Such a reference will not suffice on its own, as the declaration must provide sufficient information to convey the nature of the interest without the listener or the reader having to have recourse to the Register or other publication.

Israeli influence

The debate in question happened as a result of a Parliament petition passing 100,000 signatures. The petition read:

We are concerned about reported Israeli state-linked and pro-Israel lobbying activity in UK politics. We believe it is important to determine the scope and impact of any such influence campaigns.
We feel that the horrific devastation in Gaza, the ongoing suppression of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the UK’s political response underline the urgent need to scrutinise how pro-Israel organisations, networks, and lobbying efforts may shape government decisions, party policy, and public debate.

Featured image via Office of the President of Israel/ X

By Willem Moore

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Politics

BBC Documentary RevealsDolphins Taunt Pufferfish For This One Hilarious Reason

Published

16 hours ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

BBC Documentary RevealsDolphins Taunt Pufferfish For This One Hilarious Reason

Our family bathrooms may not be dedicated to them the way that they were in the ’90s, but dolphins are still a really popular mammal. I mean, of course they are, look at their wee faces!

One thing we have been learning over time, however, is that they are a lot more mischevious than we first thought. For example, did you know that dolphins like to swim through self-made bubbles and surf in waves? Adorable!

However, I just learned something about these scamps of the ocean that is both horrifying and, to be honest, absolutely hilarious.

The reason why dolphins taunt pufferfish

In a BBC series called Spy In The Pod, a documentary that used hidden cameras disguised as tuna and squid, to go into the heart of the dolphin’s world and get up close with their everyday lives.

One part of the footage revealed that dolphins appear to get high off pufferfish defence chemicals.

According to The Smithsonian, pufferfish produce a potent defensive chemical, which they eject when threatened. In small enough doses, however, the toxin seems to induce “a trance-like state” in dolphins that come into contact with it.

In the documentary, the dolphins gently played with the pufferfish, passing it between one another (puff, puff, pass, anyone?) which was in direct contradiction to what they did with other fish, which they immediately tore apart.

In a hilarious development, the dolphins were also filmed floating just underneath the water’s surface, mesmerised by their own reflections. Just like we do in club toilets at 2am!

Researchers believe this was not a one-off

Speaking to the Daily Mail, series producer Rob Pilley said that he didn’t believe this was a one-off encounter, saying: “The dolphins were specifically going for the puffers and deliberately handling them with care.”

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