Joey Gwinn is a senior parliamentary assistant and a former county and city council candidate. Kevin Ghateh is the Interim National Chair of the Young Conservatives and Grace Hunter works in a constituency office and is a former borough council candidate.
For much of our lives, the Young Conservatives have been a soft underbelly for punchlines, derision, and proof that the Conservative flame was fuel-starved and dying.
It was an easy source for column inches, an easy target for political opponents and even an easy outlet of frustration for some party members – and for a time, though through the actions of just a few irresponsible individuals, this was somewhat justifiable.
Today, however, this reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
We three have come together to write this not just to correct a false narrative of Young Conservative decline, but to defend the dedication, passion and backbreaking work that we know thousands of Young Conservatives across the country over the last few years have poured into successfully reviving not just our party’s youth wing, but our party as a whole.
Eleven months ago, the Party allowed the election of a volunteer interim chair and the formation of a team of volunteers around them to reignite and rebuild a meaningful Young Conservative outfit. This was the culmination of many voices, including the assiduous Liv Lever and Blue Beyond, and was ultimately spearheaded by Kemi Badenoch who made it one of her first missions as party leader. In her tenure, Kemi has been one of the most passionate advocates of the Young Conservatives, bringing under-30s members front and centre in all aspects of party life, and has been a steadfast rock of support.
In just the eleven short months that our party has had an official youth wing again – led by Kevin, Young Conservative revival has been nothing short of phenomenal and is arguably the biggest shakeup seen in under-30s politics in that time.
Young Conservative attendance at Party Conference has smashed modern records not just once last October but has already done so twice for this year’s conference too; the Young Conservatives’ reach on social media has grown more than twenty-fold; membership figures for under-30s are up, and the new constitution the team has written means that, next month, we will not just be a turbocharged organisation but a fully democratic one too. The current generation of Young Conservatives have also comparatively been one of the most active generations of a youth wing in our Party’s history.
If you have just one takeaway from this piece, we want you to know that the scale of contributions that this generation have and continue to make are not only immeasurable, but also rapidly growing.
Young Conservatives are near-universally integral to campaign efforts on every level, are taking on extraordinary levels of responsibility in helping run all aspects of the voluntary party, and make up the majority of Parliamentary staffers assisting every one of our MPs in beating back this disastrous Government and delivering Kemi Badenoch’s Party Renewal.
This May’s elections saw not just an unprecedented amount of Young Conservative volunteering, but an unprecedented number of Young Conservatives stepping up to be candidates too.
In London, hundreds of Conservative candidates were under-30, and a huge proportion of our activists were too. Not only was this the only region in the country where we both won control of councils and gained seats overall, but many of our retained and newly elected councillors were Young Conservatives. These efforts and the enduring efforts of elected Young Conservative councillors cannot be scrubbed away at the tap of a keyboard.
Young Conservatives also often stand in the hardest seats too. All three of us not only have ample experience of standing and losing, but know first-hand the efforts of hundreds of Young Conservatives every year who stand up and answer the calls for candidates in seats that no Conservative has any real prospect of winning, and still delivering exhaustive campaigns so that every British citizen can still be provided with a Conservative option on their ballot. This is why every win by a Young Conservative candidate should be held as even more precious.
In the trenches, thousands of Young Conservatives have been the critical difference in getting Conservative candidates over the line in countless elections and by-elections. In Newark West last July, it was the relentless efforts of Young Conservatives from Nottinghamshire and Lincoln that saw us reclaim our first Council seat off of Reform since our May 2025 drubbing by a margin of just eight votes. In Barnet, it was a coalition of Young Conservative activists that helped secure a fantastic result in May, almost winning back the whole majority we lost in 2022. Here, 24 of our candidates, many of whom were successful, were Young Conservatives themselves. This burgeoning youth participation is the fruit of the Barnet Young Conservatives, a branch established and built by Kevin over several years. Lincoln too was kickstarted by Joey.
We are sure that Young Conservatives will continue to make the decisive difference in upcoming campaigns, whether that be in Knaresborough East where the candidate, Tyler, interim deputy chair, is a selflessly hard-working Young Conservative himself, or at any other dozens of by-elections on the autumn slate.
But membership of a ferocious electoral juggernaut is not all the old Young Conservatives had a long tradition of offering, and it’s not all that is on offer in the rapidly renewing new Young Conservatives either.
Since Kevin and the Interim Team have taken post, they’ve organised and coordinated nationally advertised events open to all Young Conservatives at a rate of almost one every month, including socials in Bristol and Leeds, a packed-out rave in Birmingham, a candidates party in Kentish Town, panels at both the London annual conference and national spring conference in Harrogate, huge pub receptions at both spring conference and party conference in Manchester – with another planned for Birmingham in October, and an official Christmas party. They have also made inroads linking up with centre-right parties across Europe. It’s been Kevin’s vision from the start, that we three all share, that the Young Conservatives need to be a serious political force that’s fundamentally fun to be a part of.
Equally exciting is the exponentially growing calendar of localised and energetic events put on by newly enthused Young Conservative branches and growing Conservative groups injecting real community into the movement all across the country. Tens of these events have been put on by hundreds of activists in just the last few weeks, ranging from the Next Gen Tories’ now monthly socials to pizza meets in Gravesham.
From our own personal lives as much as the feedback we get from others, we can all say that the Young Conservatives have become more like a family in the last year than at any point during our enduring membership of the Party. There has never been a better time to be a Young Conservative for our current generation, and we say this before even considering the number of hugely positive policies that Kemi is now bringing forward, including her New Deal for young people – the single most revolutionary policy package for under-30s any party has offered in our lifetimes.
All of this, however, has not come without at least some of the same tired and timeless criticisms that we and many Young Conservatives have always had to brush off regardless of our zeal and contributions to help the whole Party move forward – something that thousands of us do from a heart posture of selflessness in Party and National interest, expecting nothing in return except to see dials shifted.
It is true that the actions of a few individuals historically has given credence to some of the stereotypes now levelled at us by outsiders – we have never shied away from that. We also don’t lack self-awareness in that some individuals, with oftentimes no actual established roots in the grassroots party, continue to act online in a way that perpetuates the wrongful pervasiveness of some such stereotypes to an extent that makes most of us cringe until our teeth hurt. This is an enduring problem for our image, but a problem that every party has and a problem countless Young Conservatives have worked tirelessly to begin to successfully now eclipse.
Think about the other parties: for the Greens and the Lib Dems, this cringy, immature, ideologically ungrounded shock and outburst politics is not just pervasively rife but also completely on brand and part of their appeal; Labour hasn’t just suffered its worst electoral defeat in its history, and Reform don’t have an organised youth wing that we, or we think frankly Reform HQ, know of. The reason the very things that make most cringe at hearing the phrase ‘Young Conservatives’ have managed to cut through the media to become a quasi-pop-cultural oddity is because it is so jarringly different from the reality. It’s galling for us actual Young Conservatives to hear, not because truth hurts, but because we know that for the vast majority of us it simply isn’t true. We must not accept this decline narrative when we are roaring so positively forward.
It is also true that conservative ideology, packaged in a way that draws younger generations to that ideology’s true home, hasn’t yet cut through. It is certainly regrettable that in online spaces, it is often the left-most and right-most shouts from our generation of Young Conservatives that cut through, usually on departure when they themselves have discovered that their own ideological groundings were fundamentally not really founded on conservative roots. The unfortunate reality is that for both social and traditional media, dissent sells. Even Conservative Home, as important as it is for platforming both big and small C Conservative values, can oftentimes prove this point. But beneath the most salaciously consumable constructs lies the enormity of the ideological and policy writing heft that Young Conservatives contribute. Just scroll through this website to see for yourself.
We may struggle to make it fully known, but the Young Conservatives are a powder keg of ideas that are already reshaping the party back towards its true conservative principles. It is on this very basis that any attempt to simply write off our generation of Conservatives is simply unfathomably wrong.
We hope this article hasn’t given the impression that we are perfectly content that the Young Conservatives has reached its final destination – we’re not. The renewed organisation, essentially a vast franchise model, has been undergoing an incredible transformation over the last year almost entirely through the work of volunteers. But our discontent is not because we believe this hasn’t been enough, it is because we are simply far more ambitious about the trajectory it should be on, and we know that we are among an ever-growing membership that still remains an under-tapped pool of phenomenal talent.
So if you’re a ‘normal’ aged Conservative and you want to see our impact grow: please consider what you can do to logistically or financially help us. If you want to see Young Conservatives campaign and make a difference on your electoral battlegrounds: please continue to facilitate our campaigning and champion us on an equal footing in selection processes. If you own a pub, restaurant or any other entertainment venue and want to see a renaissance the likes of which harking back to your own Young Conservative glory days: please reach out and work with us. And if you’re a journalist, podcaster, editor or producer and you want to see Young Conservatives spread their ideas: please platform us – ConservativeHome to their credit already does this well.
Young Conservatives have been and will continue to be integral to reviving the Conservative Party, the question now is what can you do to help us continue to revive the Young Conservatives?
So-called Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has found himself in charge of the Israeli occupation’s police, its prisons and its internal security. This is despite being an illegal settler and convicted criminal.
He has recently been showing off a new execution facility, which is currently under construction. He says there will be a hanging rope and “viewing chamber” so victims’ families can come and watch Palestinians being put to death. Ben-Gvir, who claims the plans are based on the US model of an execution chamber, says:
We are fulfilling what we promised.
In March, the Knesset passed a death penalty law which was initiated by Ben-Gvir. It mandates hanging for Palestinians convicted in military courts of lethal attacks against ‘Israelis’. This legislation means the Israeli occupation Prison Service is now responsible for execution — by hanging — within 90 days of sentencing.
Capital punishment legislation is part of a deliberate state project, promoted by Ben-Gvir. The aim is to strip Palestinian prisoners of what few rights they may still have, and any basic daily needs. And it provides legal cover for a reality already enforced on the ground.
The idea, since he became minister, has been to turn ‘Israeli’ detention facilities into sites of systematic deprivation, torture and abuse. He has succeeded. According to B’Tselem, Ben-Gvir has turned Israeli occupation prisons into a:
network of torture camps for Palestinians.
Prisoner advocacy groups claim the current conditions are the worst experienced by Palestinian detainees. Palestinian detainees are totally dehumanised, through institutionalised neglect and physical violence. But Ben-Gvir continues to treat them inhumanely, and makes this known to the ‘Israeli’ public.
Pushing for the death penalty and tougher prison conditions was the main promise of his 2022 campaign. Ben-Gvir attacked prison conditions as too soft. And he refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition without a deal to make life harsher for Palestinian detainees, and the introduction of executions. As national security minister, he used these crackdowns to show his supporters he was getting results. This was important, as polling in ‘Israel’ has shown for years, that the majority of Jewish-Israelis support the death sentence for Palestinians who kill ‘Israelis.’
The occupation’s national security minister has also given orders to prioritise the demolition of homes in Palestinian villages and towns in ‘Israel’. He has even said:
the best deterrent is evicting a [Palestinian] family from its home.
He has recently participated in a police campaign to demolish Palestinian buildings in the al-Jawarish area of Ramla, a predominantly Palestinian area in so-called ‘Israel.’ Citing lack of permits-which are almost impossible to obtain — he posted a video of himself, on X, in which a house in the neighbourhood was being flattened. He commented that the 10,000th “illegal” Palestinian structure was about to be demolished, and said the bulldozers were making
Wonderful sounds
and
sounds of sovereignty.
Ben-Gvir Celebrating the demolition of the 10,000th Palestinian They are counting Israel UK — Howard Beckett (@HowardRBeckett) August 20, 2026
minister:
home
They are celebrating
is a racist, apartheid state
sanctions against now
Ban arms sales to now
Ban money from politics now. pic.twitter.com/k2JcPUuFZD
The occupation has marginalised Bedouin communities in ‘Israel’ and Area C of the West Bank for decades. The campaign of forced displacement and discrimination is now accelerating. Ben-Gvir has ordered the demolition of 80 percent more homes in Bedouin communities, in the last three years, especially in the Negev, in southern ‘Israel’, and parts of the West Bank.
In June, Ben Gvir boasted that he had:
demolished 5,700 homes in the past year alone,
vowing he would:
continue demolishing more and more homes in Bedouin communities.
He has framed the policy of stricter enforcement against “illegal construction” as central to restoring “governance and sovereignty” to the area.
Hundreds of Bedouin Palestinians demonstrated in the Negev desert against the demolition of homes in "unrecognised villages". Community leaders called for recognition of Bedouin communities and criticised National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for promoting the policy. pic.twitter.com/HFCduwtaGN
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 25, 2026
Ben-Gvir also promised to expand eligibility for gun ownership to:
ensure that as many citizens as possible can protect themselves and the State of Israel.
Soon after 7 October 2023, his new regulations saw licences fast-tracked and 280,000 Jewish-Israeli citizens, including illegal settlers in more than 200 localities, now have a personal firearms licence. This is a dramatic increase from before the start of the genocide in Gaza.
Volunteer civilian guard units have operated in West Bank settlements for decades. But after taking office, Ben-Gvir created hundreds of new squads, and directly distributed tens of thousands of automatic rifles to them. He also established new volunteer police units composed of settlers. These armed settlers have the full backing of the occupation, and operate with absolutely no accountability whatsoever.
They are out of control and used by the occupation to intimidate, terrorise, and even kill Palestinians, on a regular basis. The aim, as always, is to forcibly displace them from their homes and land. But as settler violence has reached a record high, the occupation’s police in the West Bank, under Ben-Gvir, have become extremely lenient. ‘Israeli’ news outlet N12 News reports a decrease of almost 75 percent in the opening of settler violence cases against Palestinians, since October 2023.
In a recent podcast, Ben-Gvir not only called for Jewish settlements in Gaza, but advocated for the killing of 30 to 40 Palestinians every night, saying Palestinians
do not need to live.
#Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the killing of 30–50 Palestinians in #Gaza every night, while making further dehumanising remarks about Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/7NNOafH7j4
— Doha News (@dohanews) August 16, 2026
According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), Ben-Gvir’s words have incited
violence amounting to atrocity crimes
against Palestinians. They are:
yet another example of the utter contempt for international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the basic tenets of humanity displayed by senior Israeli Government officials.
But his comments did not receive condemnation from the ‘Israeli’ media, or government. This is not surprising, given the result of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem poll, in 2025. Almost two thirds of the Israeli public agreed with the statement:
there are no innocents in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir’s rise to national security minister shows how far-right ideas have moved to the heart of power in ‘Israel’ . When he was a teenager, he followed the violent Jewish-supremacist rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane called for the expulsion or enslavement of all Palestinians, in ‘Israel’ and Palestine. As a result, Ben-Gvir was considered too dangerous to join the Israeli occupation forces (IOF).
He first became well-known in 1995, when he stole the badge from then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car. He held it up on TV, saying:
We got to his car, and we’ll get to him too.
Rabin, who signed the Oslo Accords, was assassinated several weeks later.
Ben-Gvir is a criminal. He lives in Kiryat Arba, an illegal Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. And he has at least eight criminal convictions, including supporting a terrorist group, called Kach, and inciting racism against Palestinians. He kept a photo in his living room, until 2020, honoring the American-Israeli murderer Baruch Goldstein. In 1994, Goldstein, an illegal settler, shot dead 29 Palestinians while they prayed in Hebron’s al-Ibrahimi Mosque.
Once thought of in ‘Israeli’ society as a dangerous outcast, he is now a minister with deep public support. In the 2022 election, his alliance won over half a million votes to become the third largest bloc in parliament, being especially popular among young voters and soldiers. Recent polls show that over 70 percent of right-wing coalition voters still want him to keep his job.
Western media often frames Ben-Gvir as a rogue extremist, but he is not. He is the unmasked face of ‘Israel’s apartheid society. He says out loud what the state has practiced on the ground for decades, but others do not want to admit to. There is no mass outrage in ‘Israel’, over what he says and does because his thoughts and actions match what much of the public wants too.
And when Pew Research finds only four percent of ‘Israeli’ Jews think the occupation’s military has gone too far in Gaza, while polls show a majority backing for executing Palestinians, it shows us Ben-Gvir is delivering on mainstream Israeli demands.
Featured image via the Canary
By Charlie Jaay
Higher-welfare poultry farming could be a “secret weapon” in curbing the nation’s most widespread cause of food poisoning, according to the RSPCA.
The call comes as a new study highlights fresh concerns about the spread of the bacterium campylobacter, the UK’s most common form of food poisoning, and the role that highly-intensive farming systems play in its spread.
An urgent switch to slower-growing chicken breeds on farms will not only “drastically improve” animal welfare. It could also offer a vital line of defence for public health and reduce strain on the NHS.
Campylobacter is largely harmless to healthy adult chickens. But it can be a major infection risk for humans, causing severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea and illness.
Now, the RSPCA says more government intervention and industry action to promote slower-growing breeds reared under higher-welfare systems could not only improve the lives of millions of animals’ lives, but simultaneously help stem food poisoning and illness in the human population.
Charlotte Arthur, poultry welfare expert at the RSPCA, said:
In preventing the spread of campylobacter, hygiene and biosecurity have always been the focus. But evidence also suggests more welfare-friendly poultry farming could be a secret weapon in efforts to reduce the spread of a bacteria that can be so dangerous to humans.
Slower-growing chickens live longer, experience fewer welfare problems and may also be less susceptible to some of the biological processes that allow campylobacter to spread.
These birds don’t just experience better lives – evidence suggests they may be better equipped to cope with infections such as campylobacter.
That’s why slower-growing breeds of chicken must be part of a serious conversation about reducing risk, and building resilience that doesn’t involve more antibiotics, keeping people healthier, safer, and reducing the strain on the nation’s doctors’ surgeries, pharmacies and the NHS.
By switching to slower-growing chickens, we will not only drastically improve animal welfare standards, but could quite literally keep people safer and healthier.
RSPCA Assured is the RSPCA’s ethical food label and farmed animal welfare assurance scheme. Farms on the scheme utilise slower-growing breeds. And they’re reared at lower stocking densities with environmental enrichment, such as perches and pecking substrates.
These higher welfare standards allow birds to exhibit natural behaviours and significantly reduce stress levels.
Evidence suggests that less stressed, slower-growing chickens develop stronger immune systems. This makes them less susceptible to infections and reduces the likelihood of bacteria like campylobacter spreading into tissues such as the liver.
Consequently, these practices not only improve animal welfare but could also lead to fewer human infections.
It comes as a study by the European Food Safety Authority links the practice of ‘thinning’ to increased campylobacter rates. This is due to the associated stress and biosecurity challenges.
‘Thinning’ refers to removing part of a chicken flock from a shed for slaughter before the rest of the birds. This lowers the stocking density and maximises space. But it causes distress and health risks for the remaining birds. And this can further contribute to the spread of campylobacter. On welfare grounds, the RSPCA banned thinning on Assured member farms in 2016. This move may contribute further to safer meat for consumers.
Arthur added:
While no farming system can eliminate campylobacter, higher-welfare farm systems address many of the same risk factors that are being identified. Animal welfare and public health should be part of the same conversation.
And while the benefits to a chicken’s life of better systems should persuade governments to act, we hope the case for better public health and better food safety will also encourage politicians and industry to act.
The RSPCA is calling on retailers, food businesses and government to move urgently towards prioritising slower-growing breeds and promoting higher-welfare farm systems.
Meanwhile, the charity is urging people to carry out kind acts for animals in their communities as part of a Summer of Kindness. More information is available on the RSPCA website.
Featured image via RSPCA
By The Canary
Darts — Luke Littler’s push to qualify for the Players Championship Finals and keep alive his bid for a historic clean sweep of PDC majors in 2026 took a hit in Leicester, as he suffered a narrow quarter‑final defeat to Jermaine Wattimena. The world No 1 was beaten 6‑5 in a final‑leg decider, with Wattimena going on to win the title later in the day.
Littler, who has dominated the televised circuit this season, arrived at Players Championship 27 needing to bank floor earnings to climb into the top 64 of the Players Championship Order of Merit. Only those 64 qualify for the Finals in Minehead in November. With the projected cut‑off expected to exceed £30,000, every run matters.
His quarter‑final finish earned £4,000, which useful, but not transformative. This leaves him needing strong results across the remaining seven scheduled floor events.
The 19‑year‑old had opted out of the first 26 Players Championship tournaments before entering PC27 and PC28, both staged at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. His season debut on the floor showed flashes of his usual control, but Wattimena’s finishing proved decisive at the key moment.
Littler opened his campaign with a 6‑2 win over Archie Self, followed by a composed 6‑3 victory against Arno Merk. He then dispatched William O’Connor 6‑3 to reach the last 16, where he produced his sharpest performance of the day. That was a 6‑0 whitewash of Chris Dobey.
That set up the quarter‑final meeting with Wattimena, who had beaten Carl Sneyd 6‑4 in the previous round. The Dutchman, long known for his pace and heavy scoring, matched Littler stride for stride and forced the match into a final‑leg shootout. There, Wattimena produced the moment of the tournament. A clutch 115 checkout on tops to seal his first career victory over Littler.
The finish not only ended Littler’s run but also ignited Wattimena’s charge to the title.
Wattimena’s day built steadily before exploding into life after his win over Littler. In the semi‑final against Luke Woodhouse, he found himself 4‑1 down but reeled off six straight legs to win 7‑4, producing a remarkable sequence of five ton‑plus finishes to turn the match on its head.
He carried that momentum into the final against Kevin Doets, racing into a 6‑2 lead with another run of six consecutive legs. Doets responded by winning four of the next five to close the gap, but Wattimena steadied himself and fired an 11‑darter to close out an 8‑6 victory and secure his third PDC ranking title.
Afterwards, Wattimena noted that he “played really well today but some games I made difficult for myself,” and highlighted the confidence boost from his 115 finish against Littler. He also acknowledged he hadn’t realised he had hit five ton‑plus finishes in the semi‑final, adding that he was “very happy with this win” as he moved back into the world’s top 16 at the expense of Ross Smith.
Littler’s season remains extraordinary. He has won every televised PDC major so far in 2026. The World Championship, Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup of Darts and World Matchplay. He still has the World Series, World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals to chase.
A clean sweep of all ranked PDC majors in a single season has never been achieved, and Littler’s form across long‑format matches has made the possibility a genuine talking point. But the Players Championship Finals remain the biggest obstacle, not because of the format, but because of qualification.
With only seven floor events left and the cut‑off likely above £30,000, Littler needs deep runs and ideally a title to secure his place. The winner of each Players Championship event earns £15,000, meaning one strong day could transform his position. PC28, also held in Leicester, offers an immediate chance to respond.
Littler returns to the floor for PC28 with immediate motivation. His televised dominance remains unquestioned, but the Players Championship Order of Merit demands consistency across the floor circuit. This is something he has not needed to prioritise until now.
With seven events left, the equation is simple, Littler must accumulate enough prize money to reach the top 64. His quarter‑final run at PC27 was a solid start, but deeper progress will be required. Given his level across 2026, a title run is well within reach.
Littler’s pursuit of a historic clean sweep remains one of the defining storylines of the year. PC27 was a setback, but not a derailment. The next chapter begins immediately in Leicester.
Featured Image courtesy of the Canary
By Faz Ali
On 25 August, we reported that PM Andy Burnham had reportedly backtracked on plans to temporarily nationalise Thames Water. While the plan didn’t go far enough, it was better than allowing the company to remain in the hands of Thames Water and its investors. And now, Green Party leader Zack Polanski is demanding answers:
I have written to the Cabinet Secretary to seek assurances that the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, who was lobbying for the privatised water industry until recently, has had no involvement in talks about the future of Thames Water. pic.twitter.com/T7QNfFkdWU
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) August 25, 2026
The full letter from Polanski reads:
It is reported in the media today that the Prime Minister has ‘shelved’ plans to take Thames Water into administration.
As is well known, the Chief of Staff in Downing Street James Purnell was until his appointment, the Chief Executive of Flint Global, whose clients it is widely reported include members of the privatised water industry, and Thames Water’s bondholders.
The Times reports that the Prime Minister has been ‘advised by officials’ not to go ahead with special administration. In addition to James Purnell, can you confirm that no other officials involved in this process have links to the privatised water industry, and have accepted no hospitality from anyone associated with or acting on behalf of members of the water industry, including Flint Global, post the departure of James Purnell.
It is especially concerning that the Times reports that the Prime Minister has listened to advice that even the half measure of temporary special administration would be costly and run into legal issues. Of course, this is what advisers and lobbyists for the privatised water industry will be saying and it is the ‘advice’ James Purnell would have been making weeks ago. It is also highly unlikely to be true, given the repeated catastrophic failures of Thames Water, including polluted rivers, sky high bills and water shortages, Thames Water could be taken into public ownership right now and Thames Water would not have a legal leg to stand on.
The public and I expect a proper explanation for this decision, including an update to parliament at the first possible time, and assurances that James Purnell has had nothing at all to do with discussions on this crucial matter of public importance. There is a new Prime Minister who has promised to do politics differently, and corporate lobbyists at the heart of government decision-making don’t feel too different at all.
Most of all we need assurance the Prime Minister is not acting in hock to the Thames Water bond holders.
Polanski isn’t the only one criticising Burnham. As the pro-nationalisation pressure group We Own It told us on Tuesday 25 August:
If Burnham doesn’t take Thames Water into public ownership, he’ll go down in history as a same-old prime minister delivering sewage in our rivers and spiralling bills to households. This is his one and only chance, if he doesn’t take it he’ll be a laughing stock.
The idea that we can’t take back this company which has literally gone bust, been in breach of its licence for two years and has put forward several proposals for illegal sewage is a joke. It makes a mockery of households, of our entire water system, of the special administration regime, of England. Why should a handful of US creditors – whose own water is 87% publicly owned – cow a British Prime Minister into submission? Why can’t he stand up for us like the Blair government did when Railtrack went bust?
Officials should absolutely be investigating how to reward this failure as little as possible but let’s be clear – the shareholders don’t need compensation, they have already walked away. The creditors are expecting a huge haircut to the debt. So that means just refinancing a vastly reduced debt more cheaply in the public sector. The company can be brought into special administration on two counts – it’s insolvent and it’s failing to fulfil its statutory duties.
Andy Burnham went to court to fight for bus passengers in Manchester. He must continue defending the public interest if he wants to stay popular. The alternative is to rubber stamp the rip off of English households for decades to come. Because there has never been a cheaper or better time to take back Thames Water.
If the latest reports are to believed, there may be some hope yet. Apparently, Burnham is considering a change to insolvency laws. This would allow the government to more easily take control of companies like Thames Water. The problem, of course, is that Burnham has promised and considered many things at this point. And we all know who’s whispering in his ear.
Featured image via Matthew Horwood / Carl Court
By Willem Moore
A journalist known for pushing anti-migrant sentiment has gone undercover on a small boat crossing in the channel. Now, people are asking if he’s broken the law by doing so.
Notably, the journalist carried this action out in coordination with Isabel Oakeshott — a Reform-supporting journalist who’s in a relationship with the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice:
— Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) August 25, 2026
HOW did a white British man cross the Channel in a migrant dinghy? Read the full story of our year-long undercover investigation in the Channel for @watchman_raw and @TalkTV here: https://t.co/aoN6ssmHis
The journalist in question is one Christian Drogan of the ‘Watchman’ group. Watchman describes itself as following:
Watchman is a non-partisan platform documenting real-world experiences across Britain, with a focus on verified reporting, public submissions, and community-led journalism.
We publish carefully reviewed public submissions, including video footage, images and first hand testimony, highlighting the impact of migration in the UK, pressures on public services and wider social and political issues. Coverage includes small boat crossings, asylum seekers, housing pressures, NHS strain and the effects of UK migration policy on local communities.
The idea that the group is ‘non-partisan’ is interesting given that the Teams section of the Watchman site pictures just two people – Drogan and Oakeshott. Anyone with any awareness of Oakeshott knows she is one of the most partisan journalists in the UK. Much of her current reporting is openly supportive of Reform UK, and she’s in a relationship with the party’s deputy:
Reform accuses National Crime Agency of leaking bank statements https://t.co/9VIXkFKKFU
— Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) July 7, 2026
Oakeshott has also attracted criticism for the following:
Here's Middle East migrant, Isabel Oakeshott, telling us that she hasn't bothered to learn the language yet. pic.twitter.com/kV0kcLUDq2
— Haggis_UK
(@Haggis_UK) August 25, 2026
Drogan’s story was published in the Telegraph. It focusses on his attempts to board a small boat from France to Britain, and features passages like this:
Boarding the blubbery black vessel that now lurked in shallow waters waiting for its human cargo would be the culmination of a year of painstaking groundwork and intelligence gathering. The preparations had been physically gruelling, expensive, and at times extremely dangerous. Through multiple failed attempts, I had learned the hard way that a white-skinned English man is an instant source of suspicion in these circles – no matter how downtrodden he looks. Though I could – and often did – pass for a Kurd, the ruse only worked while I kept my mouth shut. Unfortunately, I don’t speak a word of Arabic, Farsi, or any other foreign languages.
It’s notable that the situation for Drogan wasn’t as serious as it was for the asylum seekers he would later travel alongside:
On one particularly epic day of this twisted travelling circus, I notched up 42,000 steps. In cheap trainers that were never designed for such distances, I was soon limping like a bona fide asylum seeker.
Eye on the prize, I kept going.
Eventually, I received an alert that made my heart leap and my pulse quicken: “game” was tomorrow. I was instructed to make my way to a final holding camp in the woods.
Drogan would go on to board a small boat bound for the UK, but was caught by Border Force and taken to a processing facility.
One question people are asking is whether Drogan broke the law:
This should be fun.
These two twats filmed themselves breaking the law.
I'm going to assume you knew about it and did nothing.
That's you fucked too.@TiceRichard pic.twitter.com/OUU00uekrY — MrTibblesNewEra (@MrTibblesNewEra) August 25, 2026
In his piece, Drogan wrote the following (emphasis added):
Official Home Office figures will tell you that on Aug 2, 2026, a total of 35 illegal immigrants crossed the Channel. Quite rightly, the statistics do not record me: the only person to have invaded without breaking the law.
The problem is it’s illegal to enter the UK from a foreign country without doing so through official checks – even if you are a British citizen.
Drogan’s belief that he didn’t break the law might rely on the fact that he was caught by Border Force and taken to a processing facility. Drogan admitted he was a journalist at the facility, and so he did deal with customs in a sense; the question is whether this is legally excusable given the situation.
A counter to this is that there should be some leeway for journalists to observe criminal activity up close, and that sometimes that will necessitate breaking various laws. We might not like Watchman and we may be dubious of their intentions, but we’re also wary of attempts to further criminalise journalists.
Regardless of the legality of all this, this coverage is being pushed by Oakeshott and other Reform sources to once again dehumanise and discredit asylum seekers. Why are they doing this? Because doing so draws attention from the people who are actually rinsing this country — the billionaires who have gotten richer and richer while the rest of us have suffered.
Featured image via Watchman Media
By Willem Moore
We’ve had another email from the Crown Office. Stand by for a surprise!
Well, that seems fair enough: other than the fact that almost £700,000 in “ringfenced” fundraiser money is (still) visibly missing, and the fact that the First Minister of the country and the leader of the party the money was entrusted to has publicly admitted it was misappropriated, there’s insufficient evidence that anything untoward happened to it. Panic over, everyone. Nothing to see here. Carry on with your day.
Shadow secretary for local government James Cleverly (Alamy)
4 min read
Exclusive: Wandsworth Council and the Conservative Party are preparing to formally appeal cuts to local government funding after PoliticsHome revealed that the South London borough was preparing to raise council tax by 160 per cent.
Leaders of Tory-run Wandsworth and members of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow front bench, including party chairman Kevin Hollinrake and shadow local government secretary James Cleverly, met on Wednesday to discuss how to escalate their response to the new local government funding settlement.
They agreed on what sources described as statutory action, in which Wandsworth Council will consult residents before submitting a formal appeal to ministers asking them to reconsider the funding reforms. If this appeal is rejected, then the Local Government Association could make its own appeal to ministers on behalf of the council.
Wandsworth Conservatives told PoliticsHome: “The previous Labour administration in Wandsworth failed to stand up for local residents, choosing instead to roll over while the Labour government cut 40 per cent of Wandsworth’s funding. That decision has real consequences for our borough and unfairly punishes Wandsworth residents.
“Wandsworth Conservatives will always stand up for our residents. That is why we have officially launched a challenge to the decision taken by the Labour government.
“We will not sit back and accept a funding settlement that leaves Wandsworth residents worse off. We will continue to fight for a fair deal for our borough and the funding it deserves.”
PoliticsHome revealed last week that Wandsworth was preparing to introduce England’s biggest-ever council tax increase in April 2027.
The council, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the country, blamed Labour government cuts to its grant funding, which are projected to amount to a 40 per cent reduction.
The government has said its reforms to local government funding prioritise parts of the country with higher deprivation so that the system is “truly based on need”.
However, the changes will mean less funding for some local authorities in London, with MPs and councillors in the capital warning that the plans will exacerbate cost pressures.
London Councils, which represents local government in the capital, last week told PoliticsHome “it is now almost impossible” for councillors in London “to protect frontline services for their communities” because “funding from central government remains wholly insufficient to meet these growing demands”.
Wandsworth, which the Conservatives won from Labour in May, has already announced spending cuts in response to the new funding settlement, having previously warned that council tax would have to increase by up to 230 per cent without a spending decrease.
Leaders of other councils impacted by funding cuts were also present on Wednesday. Conservative-run Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea have been considering launching appeals to the government, as has Lib-Dem-controlled Richmond, PoliticsHome understands.
Westminster, which like Wandsworth was permitted by the government to raise council tax above five per cent without a referendum for the next two years to raise more revenue, recently warned it would have to raise council tax by up to 200 per cent to keep spending at current levels.
A Conservative Party spokesman told PoliticsHome: “We regularly meet with Conservative council leaders across the country to discuss the issues facing their communities.
“Labour have slashed funding for these councils only to hand the money to badly run Labour councils elsewhere.
“It is only right that, in the face of this Labour government’s determination to impose huge and vindictive council tax rises, we meet with them to discuss how we can work together to oppose Labour’s council tax raid.”
Since PoliticsHome revealed the expected council tax rise, the Labour group in Wandsworth has used the 160 per cent figure on its campaigning literature ahead of a by-election in the Trinity ward on Thursday.
In response, Conservatives in the South London borough have accused the previous Labour administration of spending recklessly while it controlled the council.
Saeed Kamali Deghani’s 2010 Guardian article about a woman executed in Iran played a significant role in setting the anti-Iran narrative of the following years. Titled “Iranian facing stoning speaks: ‘It’s because I’m a woman’”, Deghani’s “exclusive interview” relayed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s accusation that the Iranian court was lying about charges of adultery and murder. The article said that the charges were made up.
But in fact, it was Deghani’s article that was made up. Completely. And now — he says in the hope of forgiveness from God — he has admitted it:
Mina Ahadi is a communist Iranian exile who serves on the committee of Atheist Alliance International. She presumably has little reason to want to help the image of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But she has posted a screenshot of Deghani’s confession. In the accompanying caption, she says that Deghani had already confessed to her in 2010 — and that he had begged her not to expose him in case he was sacked and sent back to Iran.
And she shows little sympathy, advising him to calm down now that he is “in the arms of the executioners”:
You pleaded and begged so desperately that I would not tell your superiors at The Guardian that the interview with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was fabricated and a lie. You were terrified that you would be deported and that the executioners’ regime would execute you.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan was a journalist who, unfortunately, had learned the art of lying and fraud from some journalists who suddenly move from Fars, Tasnim, IRIB, Etemad, Hamshahri, and similar outlets to supposedly reputable international media or Iran International, and then begin reporting for them.
He has now returned to Iran, and presumably, after being debriefed and having his information extracted, he is helping the regime and conducting smear campaigns against the people.
A few days ago, he announced that the interview with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani published in The Guardian—in which he claimed to have been in contact with Sakineh while she was in prison—was a lie. Meanwhile, the regime’s thugs and hooligans are now shouting that the reports about Sakineh’s stoning sentence were completely false and that stoning was not at all common in Iran.
My response to this man who fled London and has now joined the Islamic regime is this:
Sir, on the very day The Guardian published the interview, I called you and asked why you were writing lies. No one except me was in contact with Sajjad, Sakineh’s son. That was precisely why journalists from all over the world, including you, contacted them through us.
And you told me that if I reported this to The Guardian, you might be fired, deported, and executed.
You yourself told me in detail how you had secretly made a film about Neda Agha-Soltan, and you described the details of your escape from Iran. You said, with fear and terror, that if you were deported, you would be executed. That is why I neither told The Guardian nor made the matter public.
Now that you are in the arms of the executioners and bloodshed perpetrators, it would be better for you to calm down and stop struggling to justify yourself any further, because you are only making yourself complicit in some of their crimes.
The Guardian has not deleted its article. The UK government -—and its media allies — continue to support the illegal and murderous US-Israel war on Iran, even as Iran’s defence threatens to plunge the globe into economic ruin and Trump escalates sanctions and threatens nuclear strikes because he is unable to defeat it.
UK ‘mainstream’ media are not neutral and should not be trusted unless their claims can be independently verified.
Featured image provided via author
By Skwawkbox
5 min read
One hundred days is not a long time in government. It is, however, enough time to test old assumptions.
For much of the devolution era, Welsh politics rested on a broad assumption that Labour would govern Wales. Elections would come and go, Prime Ministers would rise and fall, but the fundamentals would remain unchanged. The electoral map of Wales would stay red.
That assumption has gone.
The election in May showed that Welsh voters were prepared to do something many commentators believed they never would and entrust government to a national Welsh party. In doing so, they delivered a mandate for a different vision of Wales and its future.
One hundred days on, the new Welsh Government has delivered on the commitments it set itself in the 100-day plan published ahead of the Senedd election. The people of Wales voted for a government focused on the issues that affect their lives every day, and we have moved quickly to deliver. £145 million has been allocated to bring down NHS waiting lists, work has begun on setting up elective care hubs, free school meals have been expanded to secondary school students on universal credit, farmers have been given a £1 billion sustainable settlement, and groundwork has started on Wales’s first Climate and Nature Plan, charting a path to net-zero by 2040.
The benefits of having a government with clear plans and a clear sense of purpose are already visible. Take childcare as an example.
The previous Labour government promised 12.5 hours of free childcare a week for every two-year-old in Wales. Yet at the start of this Senedd term, only three local authorities were delivering that offer in full. One hundred days into office, Plaid Cymru has succeeded in doing what Labour failed to do in five years. Every local authority has now confirmed that it is on track to roll out the offer, with full national coverage by March 2027.
At full rollout, every child aged 9 months to 4 years will receive 20 hours of free childcare for 48 weeks a year, which will be transformational for families, putting money back in their pockets while supporting parents into work.
Governments are judged on whether they can turn a demand for change into meaningful action. The first 100 days of a Plaid Cymru government shows how to act with both urgency and realism about what is possible in a short timeframe.
Yet there are still some in Westminster who appear to believe that May’s result was simply a temporary backlash against a tired Labour administration and that politics in Wales will eventually revert to type. While Welsh voters elected a government committed to securing greater responsibility and greater powers for Wales, senior Labour figures in Westminster continue to question the case for further devolution. Comments by the new Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Kinnock, suggesting he remains unconvinced by devolving additional powers sit uneasily with the democratic verdict delivered by the people of Wales. It sits uneasily too with the new Prime Minister’s pro-devolution rhetoric for England.
A failure to learn the lessons of the election is visible in the Senedd, too. Labour Members voted against a budget that aligned spending with the priorities people voted for in May, including funding to bring down NHS waiting lists, expand childcare and increase support for children with Additional Learning Needs. Faced with a choice between backing those priorities and opposing the new government, they chose the latter. After twenty-seven years in government, reflection would serve Labour better than opposition for opposition’s sake.
One lesson for Andy Burnham as he enters his first Autumn as Prime Minister is straightforward. Wales has changed and something deeper is taking place. There is a growing expectation that our nation should have a stronger voice, greater responsibility and more control over the decisions that shape people’s lives.
That is why people’s demands for powers over the Crown Estate, rail infrastructure, justice and policing matter. Plaid Cymru’s case for those powers has never been constitutional change for its own sake. It is about Wales having the tools needed to solve its own challenges and seize its own opportunities.
If this pro-devolution Prime Minister stays true to his principles, we could be on the brink of a significant new chapter in the devolution of power across these islands. If he is serious about problem-solving over point-scoring, he should listen to both the evidence and the democratic mandate given by the people of Wales.
That does not mean seeking conflict with Westminster. Quite the opposite. As we move beyond these first 100 days, we want a relationship with the Labour UK Government that is constructive and respectful, built on a shared determination to improve lives and strengthen communities.
But cooperation must begin with a recognition of political reality. The people of Wales voted for change in May. They voted for different priorities, a different vision for Wales’ future and a stronger Welsh voice.
Plaid Cymru’s first 100 days in power has shown what new leadership for Wales looks like. But this milestone is not the end – it is only the beginning. The next chapter for this Plaid Cymru Welsh Government is promising, with a real opportunity to deliver positive change for communities across Wales.
The question now is whether Westminster is prepared to learn the lessons of it and work with the Plaid Cymru government to turn the mandate delivered by the people of Wales into lasting progress for our nation.
Weekend Open Thread: Madewell – Corporette.com
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