Connect with us

Politics

Labour MP seemingly denies genocide to attack the Greens

Published

2 hours ago

on

Labour MP seemingly denies genocide to attack the Greens

In October 2025, the UN found that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza. The UN wasn’t the first body to come to this conclusion, but it was one of the most significant. On 24 February, Labour MP David Taylor seemed to describe the ‘genocide’ label as a ‘baseless antisemitic conspiracy theory’.

This is genocide denial:

If Taylor wasn’t referring to the genocide, he needs to hire a social media person pronto, because how else is a person supposed to read the above?

Advertisement

Disgusting

The exchange began with the following:

Someone needs to explain to us why it’s “vile” to highlight that an unusual number of politicians have taken an unusual amount of money from a foreign power and its supporters — a foreign power responsible for a genocide — a foreign power which subjected Palestinians to decades of apartheid before that.

The above donations all come from notorious Israel-backing lobbyist Trevor Chinn.

Advertisement

Many Labour politicians have taken money from Israel and Israel-linked donors, and the term ‘Israel lobby’ is entirely in line with how we describe other donation sources (e.g. ‘the oil lobby’).

If the same politicians had taken the same sums from Russia, the above diagram would still exist, but it would say ‘the Russia lobby’.

Oh, and we assume the Trevor Chinn donations can’t be the ‘baseless antisemitic conspiracy theory’ Taylor responded to, because they were all declared. ‘Declared’ does not mean ‘ethical’, however.

Legalised bribery is still just bribery.

Advertisement

Ali responded to Taylor as follows:

The National reported the following on Taylor:

Advertisement

According to his register of interests, Taylor does not appear to have received money from Chinn, who has been the chair of a number of motoring companies such as the AA, the RAC and Kwikfit.

He is currently vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council, which lashed out at the Labour Government’s recognition of a Palestinian state last year saying it was a “reward for terrorism”.

Chinn has funded both Labour Friends of Israel and its Conservative equivalent, according to Declassified UK. Between 1973 and 1993, he was chair of the Joint Israel Appeal, a major fundraising organisation for Israel.

Education

Ali responded as follows to Taylor on 24 February:

It looks like you need me to continue your education. The Green Party has never been a single issue party, people and the planet first, right from its inception! Not big business, not billionaires and not genocide! Which is exactly why people are ditching labour! You still haven’t told us how much?

Taylor responded:

Advertisement

“You still haven’t told us how much?”

Words that show what a party of hate & division they’ve become. Just like Reform. Two sides of same coin, cynically pitting communities against each other to gain votes.

Hoping folks in Gorton & Denton reject them, and vote Labour on Thurs

Yes, we’re sorry Taylor; we want to know how much money you Labour ghouls are taking from foreign powers and billionaires. We also want to know the same about Reform, which is why we publish stuff like this:

Labour — End of the crime

The era of ‘if you point out what we’re doing, you’re an antisemite‘ is over, and this is where it led:

Oh, and this is where it’s heading in Gorton & Denton:

Do you remember when the Labour Party at least used to care about electability?

Because it seems like they’ve thrown it all away to defend the indefensible.

No wonder people think it’s all about the donations.

Advertisement

Featured image via Parliament

Source link

Advertisement
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

Al Green kicked out for defending humanity of Black people

Published

1 hour ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Al Green kicked out for defending humanity of Black people

US Congressman Al Green was kicked out of Trump’s ‘State of the Union’ last night for holding up a banner that read “Black people aren’t apes”. It was a protest against Trump’s recent video depicting the Obamas as apes, for which he has never apologised. Other Democrats refused to stand for the man unfit to be a janitor, let alone president.

Green’s stand triggered admiration for him, disgust at Trump — and a flood of racist support from what remains of Trump’s ‘MAGA’ base.

The admiration was mixed with horror that in 2026 anyone needs to point this out to a US ‘president’:

Al Green racially targeted

Tragically, Trump is far from alone. Thousands of MAGA racists — and no doubt many bots — popped up to defend Trump and use horrific racial slurs against Al Green and other Black people. Thankfully, they were usually taken down emphatically by right-minded respondents, who capitalise on the opportunity to point out what the racists/bots were defending:

Advertisement

Many of those defending Trump were Israel mouthpieces taking a short break from genocide denial and anti-Muslim hate. Or in some cases, combining defending Trump with anti-Muslim hate. While they got plenty of racist/bot support, they also didn’t — and those responses ranged from the politically eloquent to the pithy:

Shamefully, even a handful of Black politicians and influencers were prepared to simp for Trump. It didn’t go well:

Advertisement

And many pointed out that the ‘ape’ in the room last night was Trump himself — though comparing Trump to an orangutan is deeply unfair – to orangutans, who are a lot more human:

Advertisement

Overall, though, analysing the feedback to Trump’s speech and Green’s stand was a depressing reminder of the fact that, despite the stubbornly human response of many, the US is a dangerous, racist-riddled basket case run by a dangerous, racist basket-case.

Advertisement

Featured image via the Canary

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Can Zack Polanski hypnotise the left?

Published

2 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Can Zack Polanski hypnotise the left?

There is one thing we can say for Zack Polanski, the ‘eco-populist’ leader of the Green Party. He stands out. And not entirely for the right reasons.

How Zack must regret that, in his former career as a hypnotherapist, he agreed to go along with Sun journalist Kasie Davies when she rocked up at his swanky Harley Street consulting room back in 2013, and asked him to use his mesmeric powers to increase the size of her bosom. How much better, he must reflect, it would’ve been to say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous’, slam down the phone and get back to the serious work of helping people with more money than sense to hand him some of that money. But he’s stuck forever now, whatever he says or does, with his reputation as the Boob Whisperer, Hypnotits, Derren Bra-on, the Mammary Master, etc.

It’s quite unfair, really. It’s not as if he made a habit of offering this unusual service. This was a one-off, a bit of fun. Unfortunately for him, it’ll make him a living Benny Hill Show sketch – Playtex Polanski, the Gazonga Guru, a politician who certainly has his knockers, etc – in the eyes of the public for the rest of his days. What bad form it would be to linger on the incident here. So let’s linger.

Advertisement

‘Hypnosis essentially involves taking a person’s fixed attention’, reported Davies, ‘and moving it from one place to another’. Polanski explains it as follows:

‘Take, for example, the last time you were engrossed in a book or TV show and didn’t hear someone say your name. Right then, you were under a form of hypnosis…The unconscious mind also controls our bodily functions.’

In this instance, he was speaking to the part of the brain that controls the release of growth hormones needed for breast enlargement, as well as stimulating tissue growth and blood flow to that area.

Advertisement

And amazingly, this experiment was a success! Davies was cock-a-hoop with the development of her décolletage. ‘I measure my bust after three days. I’ve grown from a 32 inch chest to 34 inches’, she writes. ‘Three days later, my chest measures 35 inches. Another three days and I’m 36 inches. I’m still wearing a B-cup but it is a lot more snug and I realise I should have been wearing an A-cup before.’ But then, panic sets in. ‘What if my breasts don’t stop growing?’, she wondered. (I’m seeing that Kenny-Everett-as-Rod-Stewart sketch).


Enjoying spiked?

Why not make an instant, one-off donation?

Advertisement

We are funded by you. Thank you!




Advertisement

Please wait…

Advertisement

‘But after 10 days the growth grinds to a halt… After two weeks, I email Zack to ask him why. He says that, during our session, it emerged my unconscious wasn’t happy for this experiment to occur for an indefinite amount of time, so he asked it whether it was okay to happen for 10 days. It apparently agreed.’

Advertisement

Thank goodness. Imagine if Zack hadn’t done this deal with the poor woman’s unconscious – forget the climate crisis, the exponential growth of her fulminating funbags would by now have threatened all life on Earth. Zack was certainly happy with the results: ‘This is an extremely new approach, but I can see it becoming popular very quickly, because it’s so safe and a lot cheaper than a boob job.’

Away from the pun potential, what does this great experiment tell us about Zack? That he’ll say anything that’s expedient, in the moment, without much thought. That he’ll gladly play the role of the person who tells the gullible what they want to hear.

It’s quite funny that nowadays, when reminded of the incident, he takes great pains to say, very seriously, how he apologised to the world for it the very next day after publication, as if it were some terrible crime. All that he did was to play along with a tabloid journo for a bit of daft fun. And yet, he must – grandly and dramatically – atone. Which just makes the whole affair even funnier, and much harder to shake off.

Advertisement

But then, he has the look of someone who’s about to add the words ‘disgraced former’ to every line on his disparate CV. He’s an insult to the noble profession of tit-nosis.

For Zack Polanski is actually David Paulden, a waster of our time and his own, bouncing from one nonsense activity to the next – actor, hypnotist and now politician. His background has been thoroughly excavated by Guy Adams in the Daily Mail. Suffice to say, there’s a disparity between his claim of a humble background and the enterprising vim of the family Polanski – sorry, Paulden.

Zack was privately educated at Stockport Grammar School on a scholarship, but was ‘kicked out’ for being ‘a bit too cheeky’ and went to a state sixth-form college. ‘I remember absolutely loving it and thriving, and suddenly going: Oh, this is what diversity feels like. This is what it feels like when everyone’s not homogeneous.’ This would be 1998, when almost nobody gave a monkeys about ‘diversity’. But then Zack has a curious talent for throwing the modern into the past. He regularly tells us how awful the anti-homosexual piece of legislation, Section 28, was, despite being just six years old when it became law.

Advertisement

Adams reveals the hilarious diatribe dropped by Polanski in 2019 when he got arrested for stopping traffic crossing Westminster Bridge for Extinction Rebellion, and spent a night in the nick. ‘I’m a vegan and they were pretty bad about getting me some vegan food’, said Polanski. ‘If you are going to arrest 300 activists, you have got to think about getting some vegan food ready. There was no soy milk, either, so I had to have my tea black.’ The horror!

Zack spent some time as an actor in the mid-to-late 2000s, but seems never to have got very far on the stage except for appearing in ‘immersive theatre’. This is the lowest of a very low profession, chivvying people about pretending to be in a crashing spaceship or whatever. Then he jumped to hypnotism. Then, in 2015, to the Liberal Democrats. And then, in 2017, to eco-activism and the Greens, where he has at last found his métier.

Advertisement

But who is Zack Polanski? What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually. Names have a strange power, I find. Name changing is an acceptable activity for pop stars, actors, spies and criminals. There’s something about real names that tells the truth – Harry Webb (Cliff Richard), Reg Dwight (Elton John), David Jones (David Bowie), Marie Lawrie (Lulu). They reveal something about that person.

But when people switch their appellation and have no showbiz reason, or pressing need to disambiguate themselves from another person with the same name, I find it a bit suspect. I had a couple of dalliances with exotically monikered chaps in my salad-tossing days; when I stumbled on the prosaic truth, their real names clicked around them, like a protective case snaps around a phone. ‘Oh yes, that’s you’, I thought. This holds true for Zack. There’s never been anybody who looks more like a ‘Dave Paulden’, who became ‘Zack Polanski’ aged 18.

The surname Polanski certainly sounds exotic and memorable, even if it also brings a certain child-raping film director to mind; a bit like redubbing yourself Savile or Glitter. Polanski was the original name of Paulden’s Jewish ancestors, but not used for generations. I’m not sure Zack would have switched it if the ancestral name had been Winkle, Blum or boring old Goldberg. Polanski adds something spicy. And Zack? This was the name of a character in a favourite book of our Dave’s – thank goodness it wasn’t Mr Bump.

Advertisement

The changing of your name is something you do as a teenager, running from yourself, trying out new looks and new identities every five minutes; practising your quirky signature and dyeing your hair. Eighteen is leaving this a bit late. When I was 14, I decided to rename myself Harvey for some peculiar reason – I think because of Harvey Keitel, who I thought was super-cool. Everyone laughed in my face, and thank the stars they did.

What can we say of Zack’s acting career? It may seem a bit too obvious to point out that he is acting at politics, but I think it could be the case. A friend of mine worked for a kids’ pop mag many years ago, and he discovered that at least one of the members of a fleetingly hyper-celebrated teeny bop group viewed music not as a career, but as a role. He was, in effect, playing the part of someone with his name, like doing a long run in a musical. I think Zack the politician could well be another example of this – another part.

In one of his super-popular promo videos for the Greens, released in October last year, we follow Zack as he stalks mournfully through the twilit streets ranting – in a caring way, natch – about billionaires and calling for that lefty panacea, a wealth tax.

Advertisement

Now, I failed Maths O-level three times, and even I understand that wealth taxes are always a disaster. Polanski’s video apparently made Owen Jones, among others, weep. This is because they are simple-minded, resentful zealots with no understanding of economics, or indeed of life. The likes of Polanski live in the most peaceful, prosperous and indeed most equal civilisation there has ever been. And yet, in the name of the planet or the patronised ‘poor’, they rail against it all, against industry, against prosperity, against growth. They want to overthrow it – out of nothing much more than boredom and self-flagellating, self-aggrandising guilt, the most luxurious of all the emotions. This is the tantrum of a child smashing up a toy for something to do. There are indeed serious challenges facing British society right now, but they are entirely different ones to those Polanski campaigns on.

It’s an obvious shot but I’m taking it anyway – the boob-whispering is more sane than the Green Party programme. Where does Zack think money goes, what profits actually are, what growth means? The irony is that it’s precisely the tinkering of politicians – something the Greens want to do more of – that has made the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in recent years. It is progressives, technocratic to their core, who have brought stagnation and hopelessness down upon us.

Advertisement

Oh, and needless to say, Zack is all in on gender, the whole trans shebang swallowed whole. He applauded the arrest of Graham Linehan last September, and has stood bravely against women’s sports, safety and dignity.

Whenever challenged in the media, he responds with a set of stock replies – billionaires, Section 28, ‘inclusive’ feminism (which means including men), etc. And of course you’re never far away from a reference to the ‘genocidal state of Israel’ – another Polanski staple. You pull the string and you get one of his 11 set phrases, like a progressive activist Chatty Cathy, new from Mattel. He is, after all, just saying what he is expected to say, as he did all those years ago in his consulting rooms with Kasie Davies.

I don’t think this is calculated. I think he thinks he believes it all. But as you can see in almost every interview, he is hopelessly out of his depth, and cannot follow the logic in even very simple questions. Last September, he told the i newspaper, ‘I believe that racism… probably comes from poverty. I think if you don’t have scarcity in your life, and if you feel safe and secure, why would you hate another person?’ This could well be the very dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a politician come out with.

Advertisement

The central issue is that he is clearly very, very thick. This is, after all, a homosexual who rants on about Section 28 and at the same time is happy to indulge Mothin Ali, an Islamic sectarian, as his deputy leader – a man who, on 7 October 2023, in response to Hamas’s rape and slaughter of Israeli Jews, tweeted ‘White supremacist European settler colonialism must end!’. You can read Zack’s hopeless attempts to excuse that here.

Now, finally, Dave Paulden has the attention he always wanted. He is an eco-populist for the foreseeable, until the wheels come off and / or he tires of it. On the evidence so far, I predict an eventual Third Act as a television presenter, back at the fluff-level. Stay tuned for The Great British Boob-Off, 2035.

Gareth Roberts is a screenwriter, author and novelist, best known for his work on Doctor Who. This is an edited extract from his ‘Middle Class Holes’ series on Substack.

Advertisement

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Palestine Action unbanning ‘can be appealed by Mahmood’

Published

2 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Palestine Action unbanning 'can be appealed by Mahmood'
Image: the Canary, by JustBarold.

On 13 February, three High Court judges humiliated the Starmer government by declaring the regime’s terrorist ban on anti-genocide group Palestine Action unlawful.

However, the judges allowed the Home Office time to prepare arguments for an appeal against the finding — and the very narrow grounds on which the judges declared the ban unlawful made legal experts fearful that the judgment was constructed to be overturned on appeal.

All three judges — who were imposed by the authorities to replace the judge who granted Palestine Action founder Huda Ammori a judicial review — have close links to Israel, which is committing genocide in Gaza. These links made the decision to declare the ban unlawful all the more striking. But now those same judges have given home secretary Shabana Mahmood permission to take the case to the Appeals Court.

As the Palestine Action ban is still in force until the case concludes, it remains a criminal offence to support or be a member of the group, with heavy prison sentences attached.

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Matt Goodwin gives final F-U to the Muslims of Gorton & Denton

Published

2 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Matt Goodwin gives final F-U to the Muslims of Gorton & Denton

Matt Goodwin is Reform’s candidate in the Gorton & Denton by-election. Throughout the race, it’s become pretty obvious Goodwin is a Starmer-a-like charisma vacuum. This is a problem for him, because he’s running on a platform of giving Keir Starmer the boot.

Now, with the by-election drawing to a close, Goodwin has issued a “final message”. It’s a message which contains all the charisma we’ve become used to (i.e. ‘none’). It’s also a message which makes clear he has no intention of representing the Muslim population of the constituency:

Oh, and if you watch the video, we’re not sure why Goodwin put the subtitles over his crotch, but it’s certainly a choice!

Advertisement

He should have worn a t-shirt that read ‘my lies are up here‘ to stop us gawping at his groin.

‘The Muslim vote’

Goodwin’s message begins:

To the people of Gorton and Denton, tomorrow you have a unique and historic opportunity to send a message. To send a message to the Labour Party, which has treated you so badly. To send a message to Keir Starmer, who is destroying the country. To send a message to Rachel Reeves, who is wrecking the economy. And to send a message to Westminster, which has neglected you and left you behind for so long.

As noted, the problem for Goodwin is that he’s every bit as unappealing as Starmer or Reeves:

To be fair, he’s not wrong that Labour have neglected the country. The Tories before him were even worse, although many of those politicians are now technically part of Reform:

Most of Goodwin’s message actually focuses on the Greens, which is a sign he thinks they’re the real competition. On the Greens front, Goodwin said:

Advertisement

The Greens are obsessed with Gaza. They are obsessed with the Muslim vote. They are campaigning in different languages.

That’s right, Goodwin said “they are obsessed with the Muslim vote”.

What he means is the Greens have spoken directly to the Muslim population of Gorton & Denton, which is 29.6% of the constituency. Reform, meanwhile, have decided they can just ignore these people.

And not just ignore.

Going off the above comments, it’s clear Goodwin has nothing but disdain for the Muslim community. For another example, see this:

Advertisement

The above is in relation to the following:

Britain has notoriously lax election law enforcement, so it’s unsurprising Goodwin got off with this. It is surprising that he’s used it as an opportunity to needlessly antagonise a significant community in an area he seeks to represent.

Advertisement

Do Gorton & Denton really want to elect a man who will denigrate local people?

To be fair, this turn of events isn’t that surprising. As we know, Goodwin stuffed his campaign team with racists. There’s speculation this went too far for even Farage, which is why he travelled to the other side of the world in the middle of a crucial by-election. Well, that and Goodwin’s other scandals, anyway:

Matt Goodwin — ‘Not a Tory’

Towards the end of his monologue, Goodwin said:

I’m not a politician, I’m not a Tory, I am just like you

While it’s true Goodwin isn’t a Tory, that does put him in the minority when it comes to Reform politicians.

For an idea of what Reform are actually offering, here are some of the stories we’ve covered this week alone:

Featured image via Twitter

Advertisement

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Robert Jenrick ‘s plot to ‘destroy’ Zia Yusuf

Published

2 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Robert Jenrick 's plot to 'destroy' Zia Yusuf

The Times reports that failed Tory Robert Jenrick tried to “destroy” his now colleague Zia Yusuf by leaking private details while still in the Conservative Party, shortly before defecting to Reform UK. With the information now hitting the mainstream media and claims he referred to Yusuf as “Zia Useless”, it appears efforts to stir animosity between the two are intensifying.

This isn’t the first time the billionaire-funded party has seen its MPs at loggerheads — increasing the stench of self-interest so inherent in the Trump-inspired party.

Given their dogged insistence on British Christian values, we felt this passage from the Bible would be quite fitting:

Proverbs 13:20 – “Whoever walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Robert Jenrick: ‘Zia Yuseless’

The Times reported that a Tory source had informed them of Jenrick’s ‘complete obsession’ with taking Yusuf off his pedestal in Reform. Funnily enough, no one in the Conservative Party appears to have felt compelled to share this information prior to Jenrick’s public, bridge-burning defection. Almost as if they’re only now trying to expose Jenrick given he is no longer working in Tory interests.

However, this simply just underscores how Jenrick, and his ilk, work only in their own interest.

According to the Times, the source stated:

Jenrick was incandescent about Zia labelling him as a traitor to Britain and ridiculing his record on immigration.
Rob only ever referred to him as Zia Useless. Zia should watch his back, he’ll be first out of the door when Rob takes over from Nigel.

Of course, this investigation into ‘Zia Useless’ has been denied by Jenrick’s team.

Advertisement

The source added that the response from Conservative colleagues at the time of Jenrick’s shady intention to destroy Yusuf was:

I think gloves are off now. It’s dog eat dog with him!

This report from the Times suggests Jenrick’s tactics have come back to bite him in the arse, as now clearly the Tories see it as ‘dog eat dog’ with their old colleague.

Many have commented on the two slimy snake politicians are getting their ‘just desserts’ for their own murky behaviour. Careful the company you keep, Farage. As this X account highlighted, Zia might be next for Jenrick, but he won’t be happy until he is at the top of the chain:

We at the Canary highlighted how flip-floppy the animosity between this pair has been:

Advertisement

They’re all just looking to make money for doing bugger all to address legitimate issues in society, as this X post highlights:

Nothing good comes from fear…. or ego

Reform UK has seen itself split in two with Advance UK chomping at the heels of its ‘mothership’ party of privileged plonkers. Recently we covered the ensuing war between the self-interested billionaire-funded parties, writing:

Advertisement

It’s obviously preferable to watch these deplorable parties attack each other instead of minoritised communities.

After all, each side is clearly determined to be the last parasite standing but what they have in common is the threat they pose to our domestic politics.

As former CPS Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal scribbled on X, self-obsessed billionaires, he says, rarely act in the public interest.

Reform, Restore, or whatever party hatches next, will undoubtedly fuel deeper unrest and division across British society.

This latest briefing to the right-wing press suggests that the Tories know which thread to pull to sow chaos among their rivals, presumably to obtain an electoral advantage. When we so often watch them sow chaos in British society, deepening division and hate, it was inevitable that the chickens would come home to roost.

Advertisement

Grab your popcorn guys, this is a dog-eat-dog situation we can 100% get on board with.

Featured image via Twitter

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Mandelson ‘flight risk’ led Speaker Hoyle to alerting the police

Published

3 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Mandelson ‘flight risk’ led Speaker Hoyle to alerting the police

Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has admitted he was the one who tipped off police to the likelihood that disgraced former peer Peter Mandelson was planning to flee the country and fly to the British Virgin Islands. The tip-off led to Mandelson’s arrest and a renewed police raid on his home.

Mandelson is under investigation after the latest Epstein file release showed him sending confidential government information to serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. The ‘insider trading’ information would have enabled Epstein and his associates to make an illegal fortune. Former prince Andrew is also under investigation for similar communications.

Mandelson’s lawyers — arch-Zionist law firm Mishcon de Reya — complained about the supposedly-baseless police action. Hoyle’s confession makes Mandelson’s arrest an amusing case of ‘blue-on-blue’ pro-Israel in-fighting. Hoyle’s father was a founder of the odious and deeply racist ‘Labour Friends of Israel’. Hoyle, as speaker, helped out the Tories and ‘Zionist without qualification’ Keir Starmer by breaking parliamentary practice to stitch-up an SNP motion demanding a ceasefire in Israel’s genocide.

While Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are under investigation for misconduct in public office — which carries a potential life sentence — the state has so far done nothing at all over their potential or alleged involvement with the paedophile Epstein’s crimes.

Advertisement

For more on the Epstein Files, please read the Canary’s article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via the Canary

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

British Army embarrassed by looted African relic

Published

3 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

British Army embarrassed by looted African relic

The British Army is refusing access to a golden ram’s head looted during a colonial butcher-and-bolt mission in 1874. The Brits stole the head from the Asante people in what is modern-day Ghana.

Ex-BBC journalist turned author Barnaby Phillips has written a book on the topic. But he was refused access to view the stolen head. Writer Barnaby Phillips asked to view the head as part of his research. The British army refused.

The Anglo-Asante war saw British troops set fire to and destroy the Asante capital Kumasi. The Brits returned in 1896 and destroyed it again.

A commander in the war said at the time:

Advertisement

I had shown the power of England.

And a newspaper reported in 1974:

The best trophy is a ram’s head … This is very valuable.

Anglo-Asante war loot dispersed over the years. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum agreed to repatriate pieces it held in 2024.

The army has been less forthcoming with the golden head, which remains hidden away in an officer’s mess in Larkhill, Wiltshire.

British Army — Black boys in loinclothes?!

Phillips told the Guardian he believed:

Advertisement

that the Royal Artillery may be “embarrassed” by a stand that was commissioned for the ram’s head in 1875, as it depicts three black boys in loincloths, as if holding the object aloft, while its base is engraved with words commemorating the battles and capture of the city.

Bizarrely, the army blocked him on “security grounds”.

Phillips said:

It’s an army institution holding the spoils of war, but they say it’s not safe to show it to me. That’s somewhat ironic.

He explained the regimental secretary’s rejection letter was “curt and categorical”:

The regiment was ‘unable to agree’ to my request to see its Asante gold ram’s head, held in the officers’ mess room at their barracks in Larkhill … ‘It has long been our policy, primarily on security grounds, not to allow public access to items held in the regiment’s private collection,’ wrote the secretary. He clarified that it was for insurance reasons.”

Iconic evidence of Asante prowess

Understandably, Ghana wants it artifacts back. Historian and diplomat Ivor Agyeman-Duah told the Guardian:

Advertisement

We are interested in negotiating with the Royal Artillery.

He added:

I hope to go to the officer’s mess when I’m next in England and I shall be writing to them. This piece is iconic evidence of Asante prowess over two centuries.

But there’s more. Barnaby Phillips said the same soldier who stole the ram’s head also pilfered:

 a magnificent silver cross from a church on the controversial 1868 military expedition to Abyssinia.

He added:

Two of the most extraordinary objects that were looted by the British army are in this mess and nobody can see them, except for the regiment’s invited guests.

Phillips also told the Guardian the unnamed director of a major UK museum who had seen the ram’s head told him:

Advertisement

When you see those things, and you realise no one else can see them, and they will never leave this place, it’s like a punch in the stomach.

The army said:

Whilst we don’t comment on individual cases, access to military locations is controlled for security, operational and safety reasons.

They used to say the sun never set on the British empire. But that was because you can’t trust the British in the dark. The UK’s imperial past — and present — is a history of theft. In some cases this involves the looting and spiriting away of artifacts. But these thefts speak to much vaster truth. Resources, territory and people — in the case of the Atlantic slave trade — were all stolen by the British empire. The absolute least the modern British government can do is give what still possesses back to its owners.

Featured image via V&A

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Zack Polanski disputes claim James O’Brien invited him on

Published

3 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Zack Polanski disputes claim James O’Brien invited him on

James O’Brien wrote a book titled How to be Right in a World Gone Wrong. O’Brien also regularly makes laughable statements like the following:

On 25 February, O’Brien spoke about Green Party leader Zack Polanski, prompting the following:

Advertisement

Zack Polanski — ‘Happy to chase up’

In the video above, O’Brien says:

Manisha says: “it’s taken a very charismatic leader to make the Greens stand out”.

All right, this is something I should probably apologise for, given that I do this stuff for a living. I haven’t really got a mental kind of picture yet of Zach Polanski.

Advertisement

We’ve invited him onto the podcast. I’m sure he’ll come on at the first opportunity.

But I haven’t got… I can’t picture him smashing it in a TV studio. The clips… It hasn’t filtered through my algorithms yet. I don’t have enough evidence or enough material to agree or disagree with Manisha.

According to Polanski, this ‘invite’ got lost in the post. Hopefully they can get that sorted pronto.

If you want to see more examples of O’Brien, we recommend this from No Justice:

Advertisement

There’s also this:

If you don’t want to see more of O’Brien, of course, we completely understand.

Advertisement

Featured image via Roger Green (Wikimedia) / Barold

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Labour Faces By Election Accusations Over Fictitious Voting Group

Published

4 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

The leaflet was sent "on behalf of" Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia.

Labour is embroiled in a dirty tricks row over a campaign leaflet featuring a “fictitious” tactical voting company.

The offending literature has been put through voters’ doors on the eve of Thursday’s crunch Gorton and Denton by-election.

It says: “The Tactical Choice says Vote Labour. Based on a new prediction made in the last 24 hours we are recommending voting Labour.”

However, no organisation called “Tactical Choice” appears to exist.

Advertisement

The leaflet says it is promoted on behalf of Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia.

Labour is locked in a three-way battle with the Green Party and Reform UK in the seat.

Bookies make the Greens odds-on favourites, followed by Reform and then Labour, for whom Andrew Gwynne won the seat at the 2024 general election with a majority of nearly 13,500.

Two real tactical voting organisations – Tactical.Vote and StopTheTories.Vote – have already recommended voters back the Greens to stop Reform winning.

Advertisement
The leaflet was sent "on behalf of" Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia.
The leaflet was sent “on behalf of” Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia.

A Green Party spokesperson said: “In a final throw of desperation, Labour have made up an entirely fictitious organisation called ‘Tactical Choice’ referencing them on their final leaflet.

“They’ve had to make this up because every actual tactical voting organisation has endorsed the Green Party as the best hope to keep Reform out in this election.

“We have great faith in the electorate seeing through these desperate Labour lies and uniting behind the Greens in the by-election tomorrow to beat Reform.

“Hope versus hate is on the ballot tomorrow. Let’s make sure the Greens’ message of hope wins.”

A Labour campaign spokesman did not deny that Tactical Choice appear to have been made up by the party in a bid to sway voters.

Advertisement

He said: “The Greens have been pumping out fake news and deploying dirty tactics for weeks. We’ll take no lectures from them.

“The only way to defeat Reform in this by-election is by backing Labour.”

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Badenoch: Starmer’s Own MPs Call Labour the ‘Paedo Defenders Party’

Published

4 hours ago

on

25 February 2026

By

Badenoch: Starmer’s Own MPs Call Labour the ‘Paedo Defenders Party’

The Labour benches didn’t like that one…

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2025