Politics
Labour must not bind Britain’s fate to the failing electoral system
It’s fair to say that British democracy is in ill health. Labour has inherited rock bottom public trust in politics and a state wracked by austerity. We are working to show that government can deliver again, and this Labour government has rightly set to the task of addressing the myriad problems left us by fourteen years of Conservative government.
Much of that work is not a quick fix – it is hard yards. We know it will take at least a decade to set things right. But if the foundations of our politics are not able to deliver stability then every bit of progress we make in this parliament is at risk of being swept away. Governing under first past the post is building on sand.
At the last general election, 58% of people who voted ended up with an MP they did not vote for. Unusually, despite the overwhelming parliamentary majority it produced, that election did little to restore public trust in democracy.
With at least five parties in contention across the UK, May’s local elections are set to continue and accelerate the UK’s 60-year trend towards political fragmentation. It is neither sustainable nor democratic for governments to be elected on an ever-diminishing fraction of the popular vote.
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Dozens of leading academics have now warned that Westminster’s voting system is headed for chaos. They are not alone. Last month, business leaders came out in favour of electoral reform. They – like we – can see it would create the political stability and consensus required to deliver the long-term investment required to address the housing crisis, the cost of living and rebuilding our trading relationships with Europe.
Labour must not be complacent about the risk of inaction. An outdated electoral system is not just a matter of fairness – it is also a critical vulnerability for interference in British politics and the security of our elections. If extreme parties can win on 30% of the vote, it lowers the bar at which international threats from dark money and disinformation begin to destabilise our democracy.
Cynics might suggest that electoral reform cannot happen without a minor party forcing Labour’s hand – and that electoral reform is just one of many negotiating chips for a coalition deal. That received wisdom is now dangerously outdated. In the 1950s, Labour and the Conservatives won over 90% of the vote. In 1997 that figure was 74%. In 2024? Just 57%.
This trend is reaching a critical tipping point. Five parties are now crammed into a two-horse race across England – six in Scotland and Wales – making elections increasingly random. First past the post is turning British elections into a gamble with the country’s future, recently described by The Economist as “Slot Machine Politics“. Treating our democracy as a bargaining chip in an age of populist anti-democratic movements would be an act of reckless complacency – one that could see British politics follow America’s descent.
There is another way. Labour has a proud tradition of democratic reform – we remain the only party to introduce fair, proportional parliaments across the UK in Wales, Scotland, London and Northern Ireland. This Labour government can still build consensus for an alternative, but it must do so urgently. We need a national commission on electoral reform to examine the electoral system and recommend a modern alternative to first past the post.
We must not bind our party – or the country’s – fate to a broken, unfair democratic system and this clearly failing status quo. The Westminster system is crumbling. Labour must rebuild it – or we will find ourselves under the rubble.
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Politics
Israeli settler violence rocks the West Bank
On the afternoon of 21 March, 18-year-old Zionist settler, Yehuda Sherman, died when his quad-bike collided with a Palestinian owned vehicle. Sherman, who lived in the illegal outpost of Shuva Yisrael—in the northern occupied West Bank—was supposedly carrying out a “security patrol”. This is when the crash occurred.
Revenge attacks by Zionist settlers
In the immediate aftermath of his death, 20 locations across the occupied West Bank witnessed violent settler terrorist attacks.
Late on Saturday, Israeli settlers stormed the village of al-Fandaqumiya and the town of Seilat al-Dahr, south of Jenin, late on Saturday. They smashed windows and used Molotov cocktails to set fire to vehicles and homes, and they brutally attacked Palestinians.
The violence continued throughout the night into Sunday morning, in what international media sources have described as revenge attacks.
Settlers also hurled rocks at an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PACS) in another unprovoked attack. PACS personnel reported that the violent mob smashed the ambulance’s windscreen. This took place while they were responding to a traffic accident near the Shilo settlement in Ramallah.
In the early hours of Sunday, 22 March, a terrorist mob of Zionist settlers carried out attacks on the Palestinian towns of Jalud, and Qaryout, in Nablus. They burnt homes and vehicles, and violently assaulted Palestinians residents who reported multiple injuries.
Apartheid deepens in the occupied West Bank
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported similar incidents in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. Settlers, flanked by Israeli occupation forces (IOF), stormed the area. They injured two Palestinians, and three others were arrested by the IOF, while providing cover for illegal settlers.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning these calculated attacks, which is described as:
organised settler terrorism as part of a genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
Sherman’s funeral took place on the Sunday afternoon, at Elon Moreh settlement, northeast of Nablus. More than 500 people attended, including far-right finance minister and head of the Religious Zionism party, Bezalel Smotrich. Additionally, Smotrich has been described by credible sources as a “religiously dedicated Israeli settler.”
To secure unrestricted travel routes for Israelis attendees, the IOF closed off access to Route 60—the main north-south road in the West Bank. The road serves as a lifeline for rural Palestinian communities travelling to cities in the West Bank for work and school. Furthermore, the closure was announced on the last day of the Muslim Eid holiday. As a result, many Palestinians who had been visiting relatives were prevented from returning home.
Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli occupation has installed more than 915 barriers restricting the freedom of movement for Palestinians. These include iron gates, as well as arbitrary and excessive checkpoints outside almost every village and town in the occupied West Bank. As most Palestinian communities are surrounded by iron gates, the IOF can close these at will. This further restricts the movement of West Bankers.
Settler impunity
Far-right Israeli voices have vocally condemned Sherman’s death as “murder,” without providing any supporting evidence. In a post on X, Smotrich wrote the following tribute:
I participate wholeheartedly in the grief of my friends and longtime partners, Yehoshua and Sima Sherman and their family, over the murder of their son, Yehuda Shmuel Sherman, may God avenge his blood, who fell while guarding our land in the settlement in the soil of Samaria [a biblical term used by Israelis to describe the northern West Bank].
Extremist, criminal national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir also posted a tribute, claiming Sherman was “murdered in the defense of the land of Samaria.”
One funeral attendee, quoted by the Times of Israel reported that Sherman had been fulfilling a “strategic mission” to expel Palestinians from the West Bank. This would bring about Jewish settlement in the territory. They said that:
Every day, he took his herd out [to pasture] to remove the enemy from all the territory there so that Jews will come back to this place.
Sherman’s father Yehoshua—aligned withSmotrich’s Religious Zionist party—pledged to continue his son’s work by establishing new illegal settlement outposts in the coming days. He also called for the abrogation of the Oslo agreement.
כאב גדול על הרצחו של יהודה שמואל שרמן הי”ד, שנרצח בהגנה על אדמת השומרון.
מחבק את הוריו יהושע וסימה ואת כל בני המשפחה, ומשתתף בצערם העמוק. עם ישראל כולו איתכם.
מחזק את קהילת אלון מורה ואת תושבי השומרון.
נמשיך להיאחז בארץ, לבנות ולהמשיך את דרכו.יהי זכרו ברוך 🕯 pic.twitter.com/bB66ZS8jOu
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) March 22, 2026
A translation of the post above reads:
Great pain over the murder of Yehuda Shmuel Sherman, may God avenge his blood, who was murdered in defense of the land of Samaria.
Embracing his parents Yehoshua and Sima and all family members, and sharing in their profound grief. The entire people of Israel are with you.
Strengthening the community of Alon Moreh and the residents of Samaria. We will continue to hold on to the land, to build, and to carry on his path.
May his memory be blessed.
Settler violence in the occupied West Bank has increased exponentially since the start of the genocide in Gaza, and has intensified again with the US-Israeli led attacks on Iran.
Settler terrorism grips the West Bank
On 21 March, diplomats from 13 European countries and Canada issued a joint statement condemning the surge in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. They described the violence as “settler terror,” and warned it is contributing to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities. Furthermore, they called on Israel to ensure accountability and protect civilians.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly called on global governing bodies, particularly the UN, to implement resolutions aimed at disarming settlers and holding them accountable for acts of terrorism.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Condemns Deadly Settler Attack in Qaryout, Calls for Immediate International Intervention
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemns the deliberate attack carried out by Israeli settlers on Monday in the village of Qaryout,…
— State of Palestine – MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) March 3, 2026
This includes imposing travel bans, freezing their assets, placing them on international terrorism lists, and targeting the financial networks and goods associated with settlements.
Featured images and videos via author
Politics
Kirklees council pushes through privatisation of dementia homes
On 17 March 2026, the staff at Castle Grange and Claremont House were formally told the specialist dementia care homes they work in are being transferred to a private provider. Mulberry Care Homes already runs a care home in Kirklees. However, the Care Quality Commission has assessed it as ‘requires improvement’.
Despite this rating Kirklees council is seeking to cut its losses and sell the home. This is leaving residents and their families to pick up the pieces. And, as they await the next steps, they’ve had no formal information from the council.
The ‘Save our Kirklees Dementia Homes from Privatisation’ group has tirelessly campaigned against this sell off. Just as it also fought to prevent Kirklees council from closing them. It is only thanks to this campaign that the homes didn’t close two years ago. But this council was not impressed or deterred from pressing ahead to offload them to the private sector.
The campaign includes close relatives of residents at both homes. And it has fought for the last two-and-a-half years to keep these excellent and caring homes in the public sector. Campaigners have received overwhelming support from the public and local community.
Labour banned questions on dementia homes
The campaigners have taken questions and petitions to the council to press their case. For their
troubles, they feel they have been patronised, ignored and finally silenced by an uncaring council. Six months ago, the ruling Labour group banned ALL councillors from asking any questions on the topic at council meetings.
Campaigners were also prevented from addressing the council and had to resort to standing outside town hall meetings lobbying individual councillors. Left with no alternative, they took their case to the High Court in Leeds in September 2025.
Regrettably the judge ruled in the council’s favour and the campaign appealed to the Court of
Appeal, where they tragically lost again. The rulings were on legal technicalities, not on the morality of selling off these dementia homes from under the residents to a failing private provider. The legal route was the last resort for the campaign and the council has acted with indecent haste
to tell staff they will now be transferring over to a new employer on worse terms and conditions!
Understandably staff, residents and families are devastated. Evidence shows that the private
sector provides worse standards of care compared to the public sector. The council is aware of
this but has chosen to fall back on erroneous figures to try and prove it is too expensive.
The campaign has consistently disputed these figures and produced a detailed dossier to prove its case. The campaign is now assessing its options and will monitor very carefully the new owners and the care they offer.
A spokesperson for ‘Save our Kirklees Dementia Homes from Privatisation’ said:
We all went to Leeds in September for the High Court hearing, and many of us also attended the Appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on 5 March. We are gutted we lost the case but we have fought all the way and continue to believe very strongly the council is making a huge mistake.
We would like to thank the staff, the community, those councillors who have believed in us and our legal team at Irwin Mitchell for all their support. We are naturally down but not unbowed. We owe it to everyone to ensure this new provider is kept on their toes and that the council fulfils its duty to monitor standards.
For those voting in the elections on 7 May, please ask your candidates where they stand on privatisation of public services and vote accordingly.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Israel must be stopped, says Spanish MP
Spanish MP Ione Belarra delivered a forceful speech condemning Israel, declaring that it “must be stopped.”
Belarra has often been outspoken, alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza. She argues that Israel’s military campaign is a genocide and has long called on the international community to act decisively.
She also condemned further Israeli strikes beyond Gaza, specifically their military actions against Iran and Lebanon. Belarra astutely described them as part of a broader and increasingly unlawful escalation. Since late February, Spanish leaders have continued to press other countries to uphold international law and the rules-based global system to little avail.
Refusing to give up, Belarra has now issued a stark and urgent warning to world leaders, insisting that their failure to restrain Israel could lead to wider devastation far beyond Palestine.
BREAKING : 🇪🇸 Spanish MP Ione Belarra sent chilling warning about Israel
“If we do not stop Israel now, what they are already doing to Palestine, they will do to the entire world. THEY MUST BE STOPPED.” 🔥
Another Fearless voice from Spain after Pedro Sánchez. RESPECT 🫡 pic.twitter.com/9yeJym0Ibh
— Ankit Mayank (@mr_mayank) March 22, 2026
Israel is the true threat to global peace and stability
Principled activists and leaders have relentlessly called on international governments to show backbone and act with moral clarity. They argue that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza after decades of occupying Palestinian territories since 1948 and demand that the world confront it now.
They point to Spain – under PM Pedro Sánchez – as setting the pace, with one of the strongest efforts in Europe to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
This warning from Belarra follows prior moves by Spain to apply political pressure against Israel. The Spanish government have stood out on the world stage for its actions such as the banning of arm sales, refusing to allow access to military bases and recently recalling Spain’s Ambassador from Israel.
Spain appears to be stepping up its campaign to wake world leaders to what it warns is a dangerous reality: Israel’s aggression will not stop at the Middle East.
Belarra has compared Israel and its genocide against Palestinians to Nazi Germany from the outset:
This adds to a list of powerful speeches given by this courageous Spanish MP; she regularly speaks out against Israel in the Spanish parliament. Here, she has even called NATO a “criminal alliance” and insisted Spain bow out:
🚨🇪🇸🇺🇸🇮🇷 BREAKING: Spanish MP Ione Belarra of Podemos urges Spain to “expel the American army,” close all U.S. bases in the country, and leave the “criminal alliance” of NATO.
She calls the U.S. and Israel “the greatest threat to the security of humanity.” pic.twitter.com/OHOmwD2fWh
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) March 19, 2026
A reminder of the catastrophic hellscape that has been inflicted on Palestinian civilians at the hands of the IDF and its lackies:
If you’re outraged by the destruction in Israel but not the destruction in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran. Then you’re the problem. pic.twitter.com/qn1cMIqxtB
— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) March 22, 2026
This X post shows the sheer scale of opposition to the US and Israel amongst the Spanish population:
Massive turnout in Madrid, Spain this weekend to protest the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran. pic.twitter.com/b7PYzAf6fR
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) March 15, 2026
This video shared in the X post shows Israel and the US declaring more countries as ‘enemies’. This reinforces Belarra’s warning that their military reach will eventually extend even further:
Nicholas J. Fuentes – In what universe are Canada, France, the UK, Poland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and Ireland our ENEMIES — and Israel our greatest ally?” pic.twitter.com/sLdBZTfWPs
— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) January 11, 2026
Keep going, Spain!
Spain and its elected officials are leading the way internationally in the fight against fascism and violent extremism. Israel and the US are being led by toddler tyrants who prioritise their own self-interest and power over accountability and human cost.
As Ione Belarra warns, this hostile supremacy poses a threat to everyone. Countries with ties to the US – and especially those hosting its military bases – now face the strategic risks those installations have always carried: tools to exert pressure and project power, often at the expense of their own national interests.
Like Spanish citizens, we need principled leadership in the UK – leaders who stand up to genocidal warmongers and say no.
They’ve already sold out our interests for private profit. We must not let them sell out our country to a terrorist state too.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Vozpopuli
Politics
The feminist courage of Dame Jenni Murray
Journalist and broadcaster Dame Jenni Murray died last week at the age of 75.
Born in Barnsley in South Yorkshire in 1950, Murray began her journalistic career at BBC Radio Bristol in 1973, before becoming a presenter and reporter for regional news programme, South Today. A warm but probing interviewer, she became a presenter on BBC’s Newsnight from 1983 until 1985, and then on BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today, in 1987. But it was as the host of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, a role she held for over 30 years until she stepped down in 2020, that she was best known.
She was also a prominent feminist voice in the media. Alongside her work on Woman’s Hour, she focussed on women’s issues in her journalism for the Guardian among other outlets, and in her own books, including Is It Me or I It Hot in Here?, tackling everything from menopause to sexist beauty standards. Climbing the ranks at the BBC when it really was a boys’ club, Murray, with her clipped and serious questioning style, was a heroine for many aspiring female journalists.
But it was in 2017 that Murray showed her feminist courage. In an article for The Sunday Times in March 2017, entitled ‘Be trans and be proud – but don’t call yourself a real woman’, Murray outed herself as possibly the only member of the media elite at the time who wasn’t going to get on the ‘transwomen are women’ bandwagon. Murray wrote that ‘it takes more than a sex change and makeup’ to become a woman.
In a long, eloquent article detailing her position, Murray recounted experiences she had had with transwomen – the Reverend Carol Stone and India Willoughby among them – who had disappointed her by clinging to stereotypes of what it meant to be a woman. Murray argued that men, who had enjoyed all the privileges and power that she argued women were often refused, could not suddenly shop in a different section of the department store and call themselves ladies. She described her ‘fury that a male-to-female transsexual could be so ignorant of the politics that have preoccupied women for centuries’. Referencing the British Medical Association’s request for employees to use ‘inclusive’ phrases like ‘chest-feeding’, Murray responded: ‘I breastfed my kids and it was my breast that was cut off when I had cancer. No debate.’
This article would come to define much of Murray’s later career. She faced cancellations and countless protests at several universities where she was scheduled to speak. At Oxford University, protesters hung a ‘transwomen are real women’ sign. At the University of Hull, students decided to drop plans to name a lecture theatre after her, with Hull Students’ Union president claiming that her views made her ineligible as a ‘role model for students’. And trans activists were interviewed on television claiming to be frightened to be in the presence of Murray.
The BBC responded to the trans-activist pressure by preventing Murray from discussing any trans-related issues on Woman’s Hour – a behind-closed-doors decision Murray herself revealed in a 2020 article for the Daily Mail. Murray described stepping away from Woman’s Hour as being ‘free of the leash’.
Murray’s no-nonsense attitude to the issues and challenges facing women, from marital rape to women’s healthcare (Murray herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006), gave her the kind of confidence to challenge trans ideology. Her commonsense challenge to the idea that men could become women with a wardrobe change and a visit to the doctors was a brave and brilliant intervention during a time of madness.
Many of Murray’s former colleagues have celebrated her journalistic integrity since the announcement of her death. Her passing should also provoke some soul-searching among a fair few of them, too – particularly those who have quietly moved TERFside now that it is no longer career-ending. Many failed to stand with Murray when she chose to say what she knew to be true. They looked the other way as she defended women’s rights – just as she had done all her life.
A pioneering journalist, cutting it in what was once a male-dominated industry, Murray remains an inspiration to many. She set a moral, political and journalistic example that others would do well to follow.
Politics
Francesca Albanese warns UN member states to act
UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has once again urged UN member states to wake up to the reality on the ground in the Middle East. Ahead of her eighth report on Israel’s genocidal actions against Palestinians, she warns that Israel poses a serious threat to international peace and security.
In turn, Albanese highlighted the extensive evidence she has gathered in her urgent UN reports and reinforces her call to world leaders to uphold their humanitarian duty by intervening to stop the mass killing of innocent men, women, and children.
Finally, she stresses that only those in positions of power can hold Israel accountable under international law. In turn, this could work to prevent a dark, sinister future for the global population as a result of the new world order enforced by the US and Israel that ‘might is always right’.
A world order that will hurt any and all countries who have anything of value to imperial interests.
Dear UN Member States,
As I prepare to deliver my 8th report to the UN, I reiterate: Israel poses a threat to international peace and security.
I have documented its most egregious crimes. Now the obligation to act, and stop it, sparing innocent lives, rests with you. https://t.co/2tP4sK4nvl
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) March 22, 2026
Francesca Albanese tells UN member states to stop ignoring legal obligations
Albanese is continuing in her mission to press the UN into action, tirelessly reminding it of the vital purpose it was created to serve. The UN was formed after WWII in 1945 in order to promote cooperation amongst international leaders, enforcing a rules-based system which would foster and maintain peace and security.
If international law was applied without fear or favour, the world would see far less bloodshed and far less aggressive vitriol from hostile states. However, since its inception, the world’s most powerful states have used the international body as a way of beating down states they wish to exploit whilst shielding themselves from accountability for crimes committed by the West.
The US has consistently vetoed any effective resolutions put forward by the UN, often making its lackies toe the line and abstain from having a view. The US even saw fit to veto a UN resolution which would have allowed for unrestricted aid to enter Gaza, as we wrote back in September:
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has voted on a draft resolution put forward by its ten ‘non-permanent’ members demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all hostages and the immediate lifting of Israel’s blockade on food and medicines – and ordering on the occupying power to ensure safe and unhindered distribution to all in need.
The US representative vetoed the UN resolution, condemning around 1.5 million surviving civilians in Gaza to starvation as they continue to be bombed and displaced by the coloniser.
Allowing these abuses only emboldens tyrannical leaders. After all, veto powers that block widely supported resolutions undermine the rules-based system and threaten international peace and security. This only reinforces Albanese’s assertion that Israel, and those who provide diplomatic cover, are the ultimate threat to the wellbeing of the global civilian population.
Many have long called for an end to this ability to stack the deck through the veto capability, urgently calling for reform in the Security Council:
Calls are growing for the UN Security Council to be reformed after the US used its veto power to block a Gaza ceasefire resolution, a move welcomed by Israeli PM Netanyahu ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/MvnplAht8z
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 10, 2023
A world leader leading the way is Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez, who recently supported calls to end veto power in the UN:
Spanish PM Sánchez Calls to End UN Security Council Veto Power
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urges reform of the UN Security Council, arguing that the veto system undermines international decision-making and global cooperation. #WashingtonEye pic.twitter.com/3QYCkRRwBf
— Washington Eye (@washington_EY) March 11, 2026
Investigative journalist Peter Cronau has further reinforced Albanese’s demand for the UN to act:
The United Nations has an OBLIGATION to take action against Israel for its repeated egregious breaches of humanitarian and international law. https://t.co/s9ocdUpZZ4 pic.twitter.com/fbkOVuRJ6g
— Peter Cronau (@PeterCronau) March 22, 2026
Where is the UN’s backbone now?
Legal scholar Nimer Sultany has compared prior decisions made by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to the lack of action taken today:
The UNGA should act.
In December 1982 (37/123), the UNGA declared “once more” that “Israel’s record and actions confirm that it is not a peace loving Member state” and called upon all states to suspend military, diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations with Israel. https://t.co/0thhg1WNHh pic.twitter.com/a7WY61uuvA
— Nimer Sultany (@NimerSultany) March 23, 2026
Going further, Sultany highlighted the silence from the UN Security Council (UNSC) regarding the illegal attacks on Iran:
In 1981 the UNSC “strongly condemned” Israel’s attack on Iraq’s nuclear research centre. And considered that Iraq is entitled to “appropriate redress”.
Now the UNSC is silent on Israel’s attack on Iran. pic.twitter.com/ktTx76J2Qj
— Nimer Sultany (@NimerSultany) March 23, 2026
Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara underscored how Israel’s abuses seem to have no end in sight:
With no end in sight ..,, https://t.co/k5k1JYQl7H
— Marwan (@marwanbishara) March 23, 2026
Better late than never
Francesca Albanese’s plea to the UN and its member states comes at a dangerously bleak moment for modern civilisation. Israel and the US are being led by self-interested, reckless, and fanatical leaders who prioritise settler colonialism above all else.
When greed and cruelty run unchecked, staying silent about crimes abroad only legitimises these dangerous actions – and leaves all states vulnerable to those who seek to take from them next.
We hope the UN and Western leaders finally heed Albanese’s call – after all, it’s better to act late than never at all.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Starmer Tells Trump: You Can’t Pressure Me Over Iran War
Keir Starmer has told Donald Trump he won’t be “pressured” into changing his position on the Iran war.
The prime minister said he “will not be wavering” in his belief that America and Israel’s attacks were illegal and that the president has no plan for what comes next.
Starmer angered Trump by initially refusing permission for American jets to use RAF bases to launch bombing raids.
Giving evidence to the Liaison Committee of senior MPs, the PM said: “The principles I’ve applied throughout is that for any UK action, there must be a lawful basis, and a viable and thought-through plan. That is why we didn’t join the original offensive strikes.”
He added: “This is not our war, and we are not getting dragged into this war.”
Trump has launched a series of attacks on the PM since the war began more than three weeks ago.
His most recent jibe came on Sunday when he shared a Saturday Night Live UK sketch portraying Starmer as weak, indecisive and scared of Trump.
Asked by Liaison Committee chair Meg Hillier about the president’s “quite rude” behaviour, the PM said: “I’m utterly focused on what is in the best interests of our country and I am unapologetic about that.
“Notwithstanding the pressure that comes from elsewhere, I will remain laser focused on what is in the British national interest.
“And a lot of what is said or done is undoubtedly said and done to put pressure on me, I have no doubt about that. I understand what is going on.
“But I am not going to waver on this. I am the British prime minister and my job is to be absolutely focused on what is in the British national interest.
“That has served me well in recent weeks and that is the principle that I will continue to adhere to as we go forward taking difficult decisions.”
Politics
The GOP’s Absurd ‘Abortion Water’ Bill
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Politics
Iran’s foreign minister denounces Netanyahu’s anti-Jesus fascism
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, slammed Netanyahu’s blasphemous dismissal of Jesus as having “no advantage over [conqueror and mass murderer] Genghis Khan”.
Israel’s PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave away his complete ignorance of actual Christianity. Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world; Khan, like Netanyahu, is all about stealing physical territory and wealth from the people in his way.
Iran’s Araghchi calls Netanyahu ‘wanted war criminal’
But Araghchi zeroed in on Netanyahu’s show of contempt for the deluded US ‘Christian’ nationalists whose support is vital to Netanyahu’s crimes and impunity:
For a man so reliant on goodwill of Christians in the United States, Netanyahu’s open disdain for Jesus Christ (PBUH) is remarkable.
His unbridled praise for Djingis Khan, the worst slaughterer our region has ever seen, also fits with his current status as a wanted war criminal. pic.twitter.com/xIoTiuO1vZ
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 20, 2026
The video also exposed, again, Netanyahu’s fascism and genocide. He uses ‘democracy’ as an excuse for brutality, claiming that violence — ‘strength’ — is essential to ‘defend’ it. He deliberately ignores that it is no ‘democracy’ that needs to be defended with war crimes and genocide.
The video has also been dismissed as AI. It certainly looks weird and off. Netanyahu has not been credibly seen in public for almost three weeks since Iran said it had struck his office. Likewise with his security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Israel and its lobby groups try to claim that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. In fact, about 90% of Zionists are ‘Christian’ — more precisely, racist US and other ‘Christian nationalists‘ whose beliefs have little to do with the teachings of Jesus.
Featured image via Iran Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Politics
Israeli analyst calls for death of children
Israeli analyst Orit Perlov has called for the deliberate murder of the children of Israel’s opponents. Perlov, who works for the Israeli Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, posted the comment on her X feed on Sunday 22 March 2026. She has previously called ISIS-linked, Israeli-funded Palestinian terrorist Yasser Abu Shabab “the man of the hour”.

Translated, her post – apparently since deleted – demands a “cruel religious approach” of “eliminating” the children of Iranian leaders. And she appears to bemoan the fact that Israel didn’t do it immediately in Gaza or Lebanon:
Please replace the state approach with a cruel religious approach. Instead of a power plant strike, a plague of the firstborn – tomorrow evening, eliminate the children of Vahidi, Araghchi, and Ghalibaf.
If we can’t get to the parents, harm their children (it took us two years to do it in Gaza. We haven’t done it in Lebanon yet)… Instead of a “mad landlord” approach, we need a cruel landlord. Trump can’t promise hell – that’s exactly what they want.
Hitting power plants would be counterproductive If they drag us into a boxing match and ping-pong games – We lose.
On the same day, she also had the nerve to decry Iran’s threat to retaliate for US-Israeli attacks on its energy resources by striking Israeli power plants as a “war crime”, despite Israel’s repeated attacks on Iran’s.
The INSS plays a role in Israel’s attempts to fight ‘delegitimisation’ of its apartheid colony, for example by condemning left-wing allies of the Palestinian people who see the Palestinian struggle as an anti-colonial one (I know, right) and claiming it drives ‘antisemitism’.
Prior to joining the INSS, Orit Perlov worked for the Israeli government.
Imagine the mass political and media outcry if an Iranian government-linked think-tanker called for the targeting of the children of Israeli political figures, even though Israel routinely murders the families of Palestinian journalists and medical workers.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
no justice for its victims
The long-running spycops inquiry has revealed what one expert calls “the secret history of Britain“. Officially known as the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), the inquiry, led by Sir John Mitting, has been looking into misconduct by uncover officers who infiltrated leftwing movements, stole the identities of deceased children, and entered into undisclosed, unlawful romances.
Published exchanges show how absurdly incompetent some agents were, and confirm, yet again, the state’s commitment to sabotaging left-wing movements.
Undercover officers unjustifiably targeted hundreds of left-wing groups for decades. As expert Tom Fowler told the Canary previously, this campaign “fundamentally changed Britain.”
The recent focus on one incompetent officer in particular, exposes how this infiltration of progressive movements wasn’t always smooth sailing.
When a spycop messed up
The agent, who went by the false name of ‘Simon Wellings’, made a costly blunder. Wellings, as the Guardian reported:
jeopardised his own covert deployment by mistakenly recording himself discussing individual campaigners with other special branch officers.
In a ludicrous turn of events, Wellings was at a spycop meeting when he looked up an activist’s phone number and dialled it by accident. The call went to voicemail, which recorded his ongoing conversation with other officers. This silly mistake blew his cover.
Between 2001 and 2007, Wellings infiltrated numerous campaigns and sent thousands of surveillance reports back to his superiors.
These, as the Guardian found:
included details of campaigners’ bank accounts, housing, personal relationships and finances.
They also noted that:
Campaigners said Wellings routinely made up and over-inflated his surveillance reports about them, exaggerating, for example, the level of violence in protests.
Their reporting highlighted that:
Internal police documents show that, after he was exposed, the police considered whether to leave the anti-capitalist group he had infiltrated “intact” or whether to “mount a destructive operation”.
‘Destructive’ police operations against the left
Activist Chris Nineham, whom the state is still targeting today, was a member of the groups that Wellings targeted. And after Nineham’s appearance at the spycops inquiry, Fowler hailed him for hammering home that:
this was not just about spying. This was about disruption. This was about sabotage.
As Fowler insisted, the undercover cops and the network of repression around them were “doing so much to destroy movements.”
He added that the evidence shows:
the police did destroy – do destroy – movements, as we have long said. But more than that, they talk about doing it and they put it in their files.
Guy Taylor, who was in the same left-wing groups as Nineham, summarised that Wellings’s appearance at the inquiry proved the agent:
was a fantasist and a liar and inflated everything
And even though the proceedings didn’t use the court’s time in a very efficient way, Taylor stressed that between the witness testimonies and Wellings’s own words, the former agent had totally “crumbled and died” under scrutiny. Indeed, as Fowler asserted, the chair himself even asserted that:
he believed… the evidence from other people… and gave [Wellings] the opportunity to change his position
Fowler concluded:
that just doesn’t happen and I think that spoke volumes
The spycops inquiry itself may not bring about real justice or change. But every new revelation helps to piece together the British state’s historic repression of the left. The inquiry is an important step towards exposing and resisting state repression, and minimising the harms of future uncover missions targeting our communities.
Featured image via the Canary
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