The I’m Every Woman singer was chatting to Jessie and Lennie Ware on their Table Manners podcast when Lennie asked her if she watched any British telly.

Lennie then pressed Chaka on what she was watching at the moment, to which she revealed: “You know what I love here is Chase, The Chase. I love something like that. I love to learn.”

But it’s not just Bradley Walsh’s quiz that Chaka is partial to.

It turns out the funk icon is also a fan of ITV’s arcade-inspired gameshow Tipping Point, hosted by Ben Shephard.

When Lennie jogged her memory on another of British TV’s quiz shows, she responded: “Oh I love that too! The thing that comes out… the thing… they slide down the end? Yeah, right, I like that too.”

The petition to get Chaka on Celebrity Gogglebox starts now.

Chaka isn’t the first American celebrity to fall in love with British TV, though.

A Northern Irish politician, speaking on Good Morning Ulster, cited “precarious work” and “poverty wages” as issues. These contribute to North of Ireland having the worst rate of femicide across Britain and Ireland. During her television appearance, Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey said:

We need a different type of economy that actually supports women within the workplace, where there is well paid jobs and not precarious employment. Some of these women, they don’t have the finance, the independence, and that’s how some of these perpetrators try to encage them.

These issues have come to the forefront of public debate after two young women were murdered in March, as well as the conviction of a man who killed his pregnant partner in 2022.

Ellie Flanagan, 23 year-old, was murdered on 7 March by Martin McCarne—her mother’s husband. McCarney was charged with murder and “possession of an offensive weapon (three knives).”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) found 28 year old Amy Doherty murdered at an address in Derry on 21 March. They arrested a 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of the crime.

Finally, on 23 March a jury determined that Stephen McCullagh had brutally killed partner Natalie McNally at her home in Lurgan three years ago. McCullagh stabbed, beat, and strangled McNally in a brutal attack. He attempted to conceal his crime by blaming it on Natalie’s ex-partner.

Hargey also discussed the issue of housing, with a lack of available properties ready for women wishing to escape domestic violence.

She urged solving:

…blockages in housing for women who are in situations where there is violence perpetrated against them.

Socialist feminist group ROSA North cited similar underlying causes leading to cruel and violent deaths of women and girls. They called for Stormont to focus on:

…ending poverty wages and rampant worker exploitation which disproportionately affects women.

Their statement referred to the need to challenge a capitalist system:

…which allows wealthy and powerful men to abuse ordinary people rampantly.

The group called for this as part of a broader cultural shift which:

…challenges the ideas, culture and norms underpinning the violence; that challenges the impunity abusers are imbued with [and] that challenges rape myths and culture…

The Six Counties (the de-colonial term used to refer to the North of Ireland) undeniably has a problem when it comes to ensuring the safety of women and girls. Official data from 2020 to 2025, shows that there were 30 cases of femicide. That’s a rate of 0.52 per 100,000 people for the period. In contrast, the rate is 0.45 in England and Wales, and 0.24 in Scotland. Most shocking is the comparison with the South of Ireland. There, the figure is 0.15.

For some reason Chief Constable of the PSNI Jon Boutcher thought the appropriate response to this was to defensively quibble over statistics. Rather than simply acknowledge the reality of the problem, he should pledge to improve the force’s approach to it.

On 26 March, Boutcher spoke of a statistical error in a 2019 BBC report that may have given a misleading impression regarding rates of domestic in the North of Ireland. Speaking before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster, he said that the BBC had cited 8 murders for the year 2017. In reality, only four murders had occurred.

That’s a moot point given the figures discussed above. Boutcher then went on to give a self-serving, rambling, and incoherent response to what the police might do to prevent femicide.

Boutcher instead focused on the rise of the manosphere — the cretinous online influencers who push a misogynistic worldview, instead of looking at the wholesale issue of femicide. While turds like Andrew Tate are undoubtedly a malign influence, their recent emergence doesn’t explain rising rates of domestic violence. Over the past 15 years rates remain appallingly high.

Hargey suggested the PSNI need to ask themselves:

Are we prioritising it as much as we could be?

She said it was “something we have been pushing the police on.” Like any social problem, the police are rarely the sole nor ultimate solution. They can however do more and invest greater funds to ensure women are protected.

Recognising the scale of the crisis, ROSA North called for everyone in society to be part of a movement combating gender violence. Citing MeToo, Ni Una Menos in Latin America, and Black Lives Matter, the group said:

Let’s look to them for the much needed inspiration to keep fighting for the radically different world we believe possible.

Featured image via the Canary

And a modified version of the approach, called the Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay or MIND diet, is designed to slow brain ageing in particular.

It’s been linked to a 53% lower risk of dementia among its strongest adherents, and a 35% reduced likelihood among moderate adherents.

It combines the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on heart-healthy foods like olive oil, fruits, vegetables, and fish, with the blood-pressure-friendly DASH diet (high in lean proteins, lower in salt, and also rich in fresh produce).

Generally, the MIND diet focuses on leafy greens, berries over other fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, fish, and olive oil.

Brian Leishman MP (Photograph by Gemma Day)

8 min read30 min

Brian Leishman excelled in golf, a sport which celebrates individualism like few others and was previously a goalkeeper, that most specialist and lonely of football positions.

Since winning Alloa and Grangemouth for Labour, the 43-year-old is learning the ways sports and politics are similar – and the ways in which they are very different.

“Golf was amazing, and it was my passion for an awfully long time, but it’s an individual sport. I’ve got a friend back home in Scotland who describes politics as a bunch of sole traders playing a team game. I understand that… Teams that I’ve played in for football, you have a cross section of life and it’s the exact same in a political party.”

He adds: “You have got some people in a football team that when the chips are down, you can look at them and you think, you’re 100 per cent with me.”

Jonathan Reynolds, the Chief Whip, may be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at that given the number of times Leishman has rebelled. He lost the Labour whip last July, only for it to be reinstated four months later. But Leishman might contend that he is loyal to his cause – and there are more ways to win than doing as you are told.

He is warm, even jovial, a tone honed from his time teaching golf across Scotland, including to celebrities as varied as Shakira, Gerard Butler and Ryan Giggs.

He played in goal for the Hibernian and then the Cowdenbeath academies before being released in 1999, while the team was managed by future Scotland boss Craig Levein, though Leishman is clear he was “nowhere near” Levein’s first team. After he was released, he dedicated himself to his other sport. He dropped out of Stirling University at the end of six weeks there, returning to his local golf course on a Friday night. After a conversation with his boss, the club swiftly offered Leishman the opportunity to be the golf pro from the following week. He remained one for the next 23 years.

Leishman struggles to approach the topic without a heavy dose of self-deprecation. “I was alright. I mean. I was okay. I’m still trying to find a sport I’m good at.”

For now, the wait will persist, as Leishman is speed-running a political career. He first joined Labour in 2016 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, occasionally leafleting until Christmas 2021, when at 39 he decided to first stand for office.

Leishman had what he jokingly described as his “mid-life crisis”. “I’m not into sports cars, so I said to my wife: I might run for council. She said I should do it before I’m too old, so I put my papers in.

“Looking back, it was a bit of a box tick as they had six candidates for 12 [seats]. They played it super cool, before calling back in 20 minutes and asking what ward I fancied.”

Just over a year later, he stood to be the Westminster candidate for Alloa and Grangemouth, defeating the SNP incumbent, John Nicolson.

He narrowly avoided running out of money during the campaign after he underestimated the costs of electioneering full-time. He now jokes it’s “one of” the reasons he’d be unlikely to find himself a home in 11 Downing Street.

Since being elected to Parliament, Leishman has not tried to keep his head down. He became the first MP to call for the resignation of Morgan McSweeney, helped lead the revolt over the welfare bill and has pushed back on government plans for digital ID.

Although the government has ultimately followed Leishman’s lead on most of his rebellions, in July last year he was suspended for what the whips described as “persistent breaches of party discipline”. It seems the stick didn’t work: Leishman has remained outspoken.

He is deferential to other MPs in the party, though, and loath to criticise colleagues. He is currently making plans for his friend and fellow welfare rebel Neil Duncan-Jordan’s rock band to play in his constituency in the summer. He counts some members of the SNP as allies, and regularly plays snooker with their Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, though says they never discuss politics.

On the fight against the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, Leishman consulted Corbyn, who advised him to try to exhaust every possible political angle to get it on the national agenda.

While his views of other MPs regardless of background is considered, he is clear in his demands of party leadership.

“If you’re in leadership, if you’re around the Cabinet table, you can take the plaudits when things are good. Imagine being a secretary of state, and you implement a bit of legislation, and you’ve transformed someone’s life, like for example the Employment Rights Bill. You know what? Go home that night, crack open a beer, put your feet up, and reflect back and think that’s a job well done. That’s the good stuff. That’s leadership.

“But also you’ve then got to have the other side of that coin and say that, well, I don’t think if something isn’t living up to what I consider the Labour Party should be doing, then you’ve got to take that criticism, that’s part and parcel of being in leadership.”

Leishman’s frustration is chiefly reserved for issues of leadership – whether it be party management or errors of judgement – for example, around the latest scandal of Peter Mandelson.

“People were shocked at it – I’m not. Because let’s be honest, for the thick end of four decades, Peter Mandelson has been living in plain sight and telling everyone who he is, who he works for, what his vested interests are. People, surely, cannot be shocked and outraged at this. Well, they can be outraged, but they can’t be shocked at what happened.”

The Prime Minister… really needs to reassess his definition of what extreme left is

Similarly, Leishman’s response to the Gorton and Denton by-election defeat is not one of outcome, but of reaction to the result itself. In fact, his characterisation of Labour in comparison to the Greens and Your Party would not differ far from either Zack Polanski’s or Corbyn’s.

“We saw in Gorton and Denton, and we can see in Your Party, that there are other left-wing options for the electorate. The Labour leadership needs to appreciate that.

“The Prime Minister, if he describes what the Greens said in the campaign for Gorton and Denton as being of the ‘extreme left’, he really needs to reassess his definition of what extreme left is. What the Greens were saying about redistribution of wealth, improvement of public services – that’s basically Labour Party stuff.”

Having already had run-ins with the whips’ office, Leishman appears sanguine about the same happening again. Asked if Labour whips quite knew what they were letting themselves in for when a professional golfer from sleepy Clackmannanshire was selected, through what was otherwise a deeply factional process, Leishman pauses.

“I’ve never thought about it like that. I just want to come in, be representative of the people who put me here, and be representative of my own politics. It’s not a secret, it’s not a massive scoop for you to say I’m really not happy with the direction of the party. I don’t think it’s good enough. We’re miles off where a Labour Party should be.”

Either way, it doesn’t appear Leishman will die wondering.

“I don’t need to be emboldened, because it’s just what I’m going to do. I also look at it this way. Maybe this is a very, very black and white way of looking at it. But let’s say the next general election, whenever it would be, if I’m standing in Alloa Town Hall and the returning officer says that I haven’t won, that I’m out. I want to have a body of work I can look back on and say I’m genuinely proud.

“What’s an MP willing to sacrifice?” Leishman asks philosophically, considering his rebellions across the last two years, and the personal cost to him. “I don’t know how many times I’ve broken the whip – I’m not keeping count.

“We talked about Bromley versus Oldham earlier on, or Celtic and Aberdeen tonight. Like in football, you’ve got to take it one vote at a time.

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens next in regard to SEND,” he adds. “When we look at some of the sort of the immigration stuff that’s potentially coming down the line, I don’t agree with that. So, yeah, there’s more to come.” 

Nigel Farage did not appear on BBC Question Time on 26 March. This is despite the latest edition being filmed in ‘his’ Clacton-on-Sea constituency.

More lies from Farage

The excuse from Farage — now been exposed as a lie — was an alleged BBC policy forbidding the show from hosting MPs if the programme is held in their own constituency.

Skwawkbox found no supporting evidence for the claim that BBC Question Time bars MPs from appearing in their own constituencies.

This was confirmed by Starmeroid MP, Mike Tapp, who appeared on the show back in December 2025 when it was broadcast from his Dover constituency.

BBC Question Time’s racist darling

Farage has loomed over BBCQT like a Shakespearean ghost, even when he has not been physically present. The BBC has invited Farage onto the show 38 times, and accused of platforming his hateful, populist discourse, to drive engagement.

His absence was mocked by several users from Clacton. One user wrote:

Farage has been on Question Time more times than he has been at Clacton. At a rough guess probably 30 times.

In a simpler message, another clacton resident wrote:

He is called Nigel Mirage in Clacton.

“Nigel Mirage”

And it seems Farage, reeling from tumbling ratings for his party, was not open to the idea of putting forward a Reform MP for the show in his place.

I seem to remember being on Question Time, a few months ago, in Dover…my constituency.

You were too scared to even put a Reform MP up for tonight it seems.

Weak. https://t.co/ZgHOvF8puH

— Mike Tapp MP (@MikeTappTweets) March 26, 2026

The attempts by a few to defend Farage and his lies did not go well:

What’s your point? He was an MP on QT in his own constituency. This proves Farage is lying again.

— boatnoise (@boat_noise) March 26, 2026

Farage’s absence in Clacton isn’t exactly surprising, and the public reaction says it all. He’s usually absent from Clacton, and hardly ever mentions it in Parliament. Many angry constituents took to social media to express this and mock the bigoted Reform leader.

One user, responding to the question, would Farage “relish the chance to answer questions in his own electorate eh?” wrote:

Of course not. That would mean he’d have to actually go to Clacton.

Still, it’s nothing short of embarrassing to be caught out so quickly—though, honestly, what else could anyone have expected?

Featured image via the Canary

4 min read33 min

The government aims to add 1.5m new homes by the end of this Parliament, with Pennycook insisting that, despite a slow start, major changes to the planning system will lead to a ramping up of developments.

Speaking to host Alain Tolhurst about the new towns announcement, he said: “We know we’ve got an acute and entrenched housing crisis. We also know that lots of our towns or cities are constrained.”

Labour first announced plans to build “the next generation of new towns” in the run-up to being elected at its 2023 party conference. After entering office, it asked a task force to recommend a list of locations where new towns should be built. This week, the government whittled down that list of 12 places to seven.

They are Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank in West Yorkshire, Crews Hill and Chase Park in north London, Manchester Victoria North, Thamesmead in south London, Brabazon and West Innovation Arc in Gloucestershire, and a site in Milton Keynes.

The government says these new towns will be designed for modern living, close to train stations and easy to drive around, with green spaces and vibrant high streets.

Speaking to PoliticsHome, Pennycook, who is the Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said many communities are “unable to realise their full economic potential” at the moment, arguing that the programme, which aims to get several schemes started ahead of the next election, will deliver a financial benefit, and a sense of place, as well as thousands of new houses.

Previous administrations have been stymied by groups campaigning against building, commonly known as nimbys, but Pennycook said that “we are taking it on” through “the full use of our intervention powers” in the government’s recently passed planning legislation.

“For example, when it comes to local plans, we’ve taken new powers to be able to call in applications where local authorities are minded to refuse them, and we want to take another look,” he said. 

“There are powers that central government can use when it comes to the new towns. We’ve been really clear that in the final analysis, we’ll make decisions in the national interest. 

“We want to bring communities along with us where possible. In the cases of the seven sites we’re proposing, and many others across the country, it wasn’t the case that communities were resisting. We had lots of appetite for new towns, places coming to us, not least in the call for evidence in the new towns task force’s own process, saying, ‘please consider us’.”

The minister acknowledged that there is a “small cohort of people” in the country who want “no kind of development anywhere near them of any kind”, but said there is a “much larger group that wants good development”.

“They don’t want bad development that’s not well planned, that doesn’t have that infrastructure, whether it’s GP practices, or new schools, all of that stuff that sometimes in the planning process can be an afterthought or delivered right at the end once the homes are in.

“We have a chance here to show that we can do really good development in a different way and ensure these are exemplary communities, and I think therefore we’ll reduce, not eliminate, but reduce, some of the opposition there.”

Later in the episode, a panel discusses a whole host of issues around these proposed settlements, featuring the Labour MP Sean Woodcock, who sits on the Commons housing select committee, alongside Vicky Spratt, housing and society correspondent at The i newspaper.

Joining them are Professor Susan Parham, director of the University of Hertfordshire Urbanism Unit, and Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders.

The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

• Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Rundown, or search for ‘PoliticsHome’ wherever you get your podcasts.