Robert Grainier with his daughter, Kate | Image courtesy of Netflix | © 2025 BBP Train Dreams. LLC

4 min read57 min

In previous times of major crisis, the United States provided hope, sometimes even mythologised, as rescue for the world. Today it can at least still offer stories of self-examination and solace. If the 20th was the American century, cinema was surely its great art form.

In Train Dreams – Clint Bentley’s 2025 film inspired by Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella – the simple life of woodsman and itinerant labourer, Robert Grainier, becomes the story of the country itself, from his birth in the 1886 of horses and carts to his death amidst the space race in 1968. In this respect, it might appeal to fans of the previous year’s The Life of Chuck by Mike Flanagan. This time, however, the form is more rural elegy than science fantasy.

Grainier is an orphan who drops out of school and lives a hard and hermit-like existence until he meets his future wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones). His orphanhood represents both the dislocation and stoic heroism of a migrant pioneering nation. Played with quiet but captivating pathos by Joel Edgerton, his precise ethnicity seems ambiguous.

Issues of race come to the fore on at least three memorable occasions. First, when Robert is complicit in a brutal incident involving a Chinese logger, Fu Sheng (Alfred Hsing). This episode forever haunts him and he feels cursed as a result of it. Secondly, when an African American cowboy arrives to avenge the racially motivated murder of his brother. Finally, Robert is befriended by Ignatius Jack (Nathaniel Arcand), a Native American who seems to understand both him and their surroundings better than so many others.

As so often in fine cinema, the score plays an essential part

The nobility of rural life is explored both via its various dangers and privations and in the way that neighbours embrace natural duty, travelling considerable distances to check on one another.

The environment is a major theme of the film, with some stunning locations cherished by Adolpho Veloso’s exquisite and rightly Oscar-nominated cinematography. We see it change over the years and one night around the campfire on a “cut”, the veteran explosives expert (played by the impeccably understated William H Macy) expresses his regret at what they have been doing to the forest all their working lives. The forest almost appears to exact her revenge by way of the various casualties that result from tall fallen trees and large branches. The animal kingdom is also represented by way of the relationship between Robert and his dogs in particular.

As so often in fine cinema, the score plays an essential part. Bryce Dessner has been understandably lauded for a string-based soundtrack using period-appropriate instruments, enhanced by modern synthesisers. There are nods to Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. Both the harshness and beauty of the landscape is evoked alongside the intrusion of industrialisation in the form of the all-important railway. Indeed, the music joins the best tradition of train sounds and rhythms, almost magically conjured for the screen experience by way of acoustic instruments. The title song, co-written by Nick Cave, receives another of the film’s worthy Academy Award nominations. 

Whether Oscar glory follows or not, I recommend Train Dreams as one of the most thoughtful and memorable films of the last year.

Baroness Chakrabarti is a Labour peer

Train Dreams

Directed by: Clint Bentley

Broadcaster: Netflix

Yet more Zionists – this time the Alexander brothers – have been exposed as child rapists. However, ‘mainstream’ reporting on their conviction makes no mention of their prominent support for the Zionist occupation colony. The BBC, for example. And the Guardian.

The three Alexander brothers – Tal 39, Oren 38 and Alon, also 38, are well known in the US for their ‘luxury’ real-estate deals – and for their huge donations to Israel and Zionist causes. But now they are well-known sex criminals convicted of drugging, raping and trafficking dozens of women. And, just like that, their support for Israel has become invisible in legacy media.

The BBC reported that:

During the five-week trial, 11 women – including several who said they were minors at the time of the incidents – testified against the brothers, alleging they gave them gifts and flew them to locations and parties where they fed them drugs before assaulting them.

Prosecutors said the brothers “surreptitiously” put drugs in women’s drinks, and told jurors that they “physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop”.

Advertisement

Alexander brothers support the IDF

Ironically, it takes an Israeli paper to put both their sex crimes and their Zionism together in one article. Haaretz reported:

The Alexander family reportedly raises and donates large sums of money to Zionist causes, including millions of dollars to support Israel Defense Forces.

Eleven women, several of whom were under-age at the time of the crimes, gave evidence that the brothers plied them with gifts before flying them to parties in various locations, feeding them drugs and assaulting them. After the verdicts, US Attorney Jay Clayton described the verdict as:

an important step in our fight against sex trafficking. The jury saw the Alexanders’ conduct for what it was – calculated, brutal sexual abuse that, unimaginably, the defendants celebrated.

All three brothers were found guilty of all ten crimes with which they were charged. These included sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor. They will be sentenced on 6 August and could face life in prison. However, on the US’s track record it would be entirely unsurprising for them to be allowed to escape to Israel.

An endless stream of sex criminals

The Alexander case is just the latest in a seemingly-endless line of Zionist paedophile and sex-offender cases, in the UK, US and Israel itself. In the UK, right-wing Israel fanatic and former Labour councillor Liron Velleman pleaded guilty in January 2026 to a series of sex offences against a 13-year-old girl, after being caught in a police ‘sting’.

In January 2025, former Blair minister Ivor Caplin was arrested in a sting operation as he allegedly attempted to meet a 15-year-old boy for sex. Local police went after local left-winger Greg Hadfield for exposing the explicit content Caplin posted on his X feed – Hadfield defeated the ‘vexatious’ charge in November 2025. However, no charges have yet been brought against Caplin and a court did not impose bail conditions after his initial bail expired. Despite the ongoing police investigation, Caplin was recently invited to speak on LBC about Keir Starmer’s (quickly disastrous) move to block Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s bid to stand in a parliamentary election.

Hackney councillor Tom Dewey, an organiser in pro-Israel group ‘Labour First’, admitted possession of the most serious category of child rape images in 2023. The party knew of his arrest when it allowed him to stand for election. After his conviction, it blocked local women members from its systems to prevent them discussing the case.

In March 2025 Sam Gould, who worked for Starmer’s health secretary Wes Streeting, quit as a Redbridge councillor after being convicted on two separate counts of indecent exposure to a 13-year-old girl. The following month Dan Norris MP was arrested over allegations of rape, child sex offences and child abduction. Avon and Somerset Police says its investigation is still ongoing.

In the US, as well as the still-emerging crimes of Israeli spy and serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein and his circle of paedophile traffickers and probably murderers, the US state has been caught enabling Israeli paedophiles to flee to Israel for refuge. In August 2025, it allowed Israeli cyberwar official Tom Alexandrovich to fly back to Israel after he was caught in a police paedopohile sting.

Widespread?

Hundreds of Zionist sex criminals have been allowed to escape justice in the US by claiming citizenship in Israel. Israel is currently ignoring well over 2,000 extradition requests for alleged and convicted paedophiles. A CBS News investigation found that:

many accused American pedophiles flee to Israel, and bringing them to justice can be difficult.

But its child-raping monsters are home-grown too. In April 2025 Shoshana Strook, the daughter of Israel’s far-right settlements minister fled to police and asked them to protect her, accusing both her parents and one of her brothers of raping her as a child, over a period of years, and filming the rapes.

Israeli psychotherapist and trauma expert Dr Anat Gur, head of the Bar-Ilan University trauma therapy program, has said that she believes organised child rape in Israel is widespread:

Organized child rape is one of the most horrific things I’ve encountered. It’s likely much more widespread than we think. It’s happening in places we least expect.

Even money, then, that the Alexanders ‘somehow’ find their way to Israel before their sentencing hearing.

Featured image via the Canary

How much exercise did it take?

What about when I’m out of university?

This article has been developed and funded by Chiesi UK&I

The true burden of COPD

COPD affects around three million people in the UK, yet nearly two million remain undiagnosed.¹ Symptoms such as breathlessness, fatigue and persistent cough are often dismissed as ageing or lifestyle-related, meaning many are only diagnosed once their condition is advanced. COPD exacerbations are the second leading cause of emergency hospital admissions in the UK and a major contributor to winter pressures on the NHS,^2,3 costing the NHS approximately £1.9bn annually.⁴

The burden of COPD is not evenly distributed, with health constituency data showing that the highest prevalence is concentrated in the North of England,⁵ and likely higher due to the number of people living with undiagnosed COPD.

Rethinking the case for COPD screening

The UK has a strong track record of delivering targeted screening programmes in areas of high need. Three national cancer screening programmes exist for bowel, cervical and breast cancers, and now a lung cancer screening programme is being rolled out across England.

The UK NSC is currently reviewing screening for COPD in the general adult population. Given the breadth of the NSC’s review, it is unsurprising that the committee recommends against population-wide screening for COPD.

This is not a new position. In 2018, the UK NSC determined that population-wide screening did not meet the recommendation criteria, citing uncertainty around cost-effectiveness and clinical benefit.⁶ Whilst that assessment remains reasonable, population screening is not the only option to achieve improved outcomes for people living with COPD symptoms but who are undiagnosed and potentially untreated.

Importantly, the committee has expanded its remit to consider targeted screening, mirroring the approach in lung cancer, where the NHS does not screen the entire population but instead focuses on defined high-risk groups such as people aged 55-74 with a history of smoking.^7,8 The Welsh Government has also committed to introducing a similar national targeted lung cancer screening programme, confirming this will include standardised protocols for managing incidental findings of other conditions, such as COPD.⁹ The current consultation represents a timely opportunity to evaluate how a targeted approach could improve COPD outcomes.

Learning from lung cancer screening

In England, the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme is identifying large numbers of people with suspected COPD through incidental CT scan findings, which are detailed scans that can help identify problems in the lungs.¹⁰ Of the approximately 1.2 million lung health checks completed to date, over 7,000 lung cancers were diagnosed, and, incidentally, over 100,000 cases of emphysema were also found.¹¹ While people with lung cancer entered specific care pathways, no consistent pathway exists for diagnosing and managing suspected COPD. This means that for every patient receiving a lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, 13.5 people with emphysema are not getting the opportunity for the same level of care.

A strong case for targeted screening

Recognising the challenges with timely COPD diagnosis, Chiesi is working with the NHS to understand the feasibility and value of targeted case finding in high risk groups through hospital-based and neighbourhood programmes. One example is our FRONTIER Hull programme, a collaborative working project with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which invites individuals identified through the NHS Lung Cancer Screening back for COPD assessment.

Nearly 50 per cent of people assessed were diagnosed with COPD.¹² Health economic modelling also suggests that targeted COPD case finding could save the NHS an estimated £33m over 10 years.^13,14 Beyond cost savings, earlier identification enables earlier intervention, shifting care from avoidable exacerbations and emergency admissions towards prevention, proactive management and improved outcomes.

“Data generated as part of our FRONTIER Hull project clearly demonstrate that case-finding among high-risk individuals with features of disease, rather than population screening, identifies a significant number of people with undiagnosed COPD. COPD is a progressive disease that becomes highly debilitating over time – these patients are often unable to work and struggle with simple day-to-day activities such as walking up the stairs. Earlier identification and diagnosis can enable people to access evidence-based treatments to improve their outcomes.”  

– 

Professor Michael Crooks, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at NHS Humber Health Partnership and Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull.

Advertisement

Looking forward

This approach doesn’t require new systems. As the FRONTIER Hull project demonstrates, COPD assessment can be integrated into existing services, with other community models also emerging.

As Lung Cancer Screening and Community Diagnostic Centres expand, we have a pivotal opportunity to align respiratory care with the NHS shifts from hospital to community and from sickness to prevention. The question isn’t whether to screen everyone, but how to scale targeted approaches for those most at risk.

This consultation offers a timely chance for the UK NSC to refocus by conducting a new evidence map that explores targeted screening over a population-wide approach.

Find out more about FRONTIER Hull here.

March 2026                                                                                             UK-CHI-2600116

References

Advertisement
1. NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Prevalence and incidence. Available at: https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease/background-information/prevalence-incidence/. Last accessed: March 2026
2. The Health Foundation. Variation in patient pathways and hospital admissions for exacerbations of COPD: linking the National Asthma and COPD Audit with CPRD data. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/funding-and-fellowships/projects/variation-in-patient-pathways-and-hospital-admissions-for. Last accessed: March 2026.
3. NHS England. Respiratory disease. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/clinical-policy/respiratory-disease/. Last accessed: March 2026.
4. NHS England. Respiratory high impact interventions: Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/prevention/secondary-prevention/respiratory-high-impact-interventions/#:~:text=The%20annual%20economic%20burden%20of,the%20UK%20%C2%A311billion%20annually. Last accessed: March 2026.
5. House of Commons Library (2025) Constituency data: health conditions (How healthy is your area?). UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-how-healthy-is-your-area/. Last accessed: March 2026.
6. UK National Screening Committee. (June 2018) Screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the general adult population: External review against programme appraisal criteria for the UK National Screening Committee. Solutions for Public Health. Available at: https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/document/86cb8a05-d1d5-4dcd-84ec-e848631bb4ba/download
7. UK National Screening Committee. Updated definition of targeted screening will help clarify remit of expanded UK NSC. Available at: https://nationalscreening.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/26/updated-definition-of-targeted-screening-will-help-clarify-remit-of-expanded-uk-nsc/. Last accessed: March 2026.
8. NHS. Lung cancer screening. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/lung-cancer-screening/. Last accessed: March 2026.
9. Welsh Government (2025). Written Statement: A National Lung Screening Programme for Wales. Available at: https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-national-lung-screening-programme-wales. Last accessed: March 2026.
10. NHS. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Diagnosis. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-copd/diagnosis/. Last accessed: March 2026.
11. UK Parliament. Written question 67321: Lung Cancer: Screening (answered 25 July 2025). Available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-07-14/67321. Last accessed: March 2026.
12. Chiesi Ltd. FRONTIER Hull data reveals 50% diagnosis rate in COPD case‑finding programme… Available at: https://www.chiesi.uk.com/media/press-releases/frontier-hull-data-reveals-diagnosis-rate-in-copd
13. Brindle K, Watkins K, Gilroy-Cheetham J, Maxted C, Niazi-Ali S, Crooks M (2025). The burden of undiagnosed COPD among lung cancer screening participants. Presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress 2025.
14. Chiesi UK and Ireland. Data on File.

Miriam Cates is a television presenter with GBNews and the former MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge.

Has opinion polling ruined politicians?

Polling – rather than principles – now seems to underpin most policy decisions in Westminster. Is the growing abundance of public opinion polls ruining our politicians’ ability to think for themselves?

The science of polling is nearly 90 years old.

The British Institute of Public Opinion (BIPO) was founded in 1937 by Henry Durant, inspired by the American pollster George Gallup, and the first British poll measured attitudes toward the abdication crisis involving Edward VIII. During the second world war, the Government regularly commissioned polls and surveys to test public opinion on issues such as rationing and conscription. Although we often think of Churchill’s defeat in the 1945 general election as a ‘surprise’, most polls correctly predicted a landslide Labour victory, a success that helped to legitimise the polling industry.

The post-war period saw the rise of commercial polling, and after 2000, the growth of the internet transformed the industry. The days of postal surveys and newspaper phone-ins are long gone. Online panels have replaced many face-to-face interviews, large sample sizes can be collected quickly, and complex statistical modelling is performed in an instant.

Opinion polls are now a constant feature of British politics, increasing politicians’ awareness of their own party’s popularity and the public’s opinions on key issues. It is now possible to see the impacts of policy announcements almost in real time.

In the past, polls were taken with a pinch of salt; pollsters were often wrong in their predictions, including about the outcomes of the 1970 and 1992 general elections. In response to a particularly gloomy prediction about their party’s fate at the next election, MPs could tell journalists in all honesty: “You can’t always trust the polls”. But improved methodology has significantly increased polling accuracy. Although under the British First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system, it will always be challenging to project exactly how many parliamentary seats each party will win, pollsters’ vote share predictions in the last two general elections were broadly correct. And besides, polls are now conducted so frequently that taking an average of the different results – a “poll of polls” – gives a pretty accurate idea of the truth.

Every new day brings a new poll, published and shared on X (formerly Twitter). In the House of Commons tearoom, MPs are now just as likely to pour over YouGov analysis as they are the newspapers, checking their phones for the latest voting intentions like a gambler searching for the horse racing results.

Surely access to more information about what voters think is of benefit to our political class? At worst, isn’t an obsession with checking the latest polls just a harmless habit for MPs waiting to go through the voting lobbies late into the night? Or could an over-supply of opinion polling have wider and negative impacts on our political culture?

Frequent polling causes politicians to live in a constant state of anxiety. When confronted with the latest revelation about their party’s low poll rating, you may hear MPs say: ‘there’s only one poll that counts; that’s the general election’. But this is what the kids call ‘cope’. Being confronted every two or three days with fresh evidence of how likely you are to lose your seat is like being a school pupil who is examined constantly, rather than just at the end of a few years of study. It is very difficult to focus on long-term achievement when you are facing continual assessment.

Constant feedback makes it much more challenging for our elected representatives to hold their nerve. Any Prime Minister who tries to pursue a policy that polls badly will quickly have their wings clipped by MPs. When Rachel Reeves announced the means-testing of the pensioner’s winter fuel allowance soon after the 2024 general election, polling showed the policy to be deeply unpopular, and the Chancellor was soon forced into a U-turn. Non-means-tested spending on pensioners has become completely unaffordable, and asking low-wage young workers to subsidise retired people with reasonable incomes is unjust. Yet because of “public opinion” – as evidenced by polling – pension reform is now in the “too difficult” box for this government.

In presidential systems like France or the United States, leaders seem to be less hamstrung by the polls, especially when, in the case of Trump and Macron, a two-term limit means neither can stand for re-election. But British Prime Ministers are not so fortunate; if they want to govern, they must find support for controversial legislation from backbenchers. When those MPs are now confronted daily by the cold hard reality of the polls, they become less and less likely to hold their nerve and support anything ‘unpopular.’ When U-turns are forced, rebels claim ‘success’ and the government claims it has ‘listened’. And precedents are set.

Another consequence of access to reliable, in-depth polling is that it has become much easier for voters to be segmented. In the late 20th century, pollsters developed caricatures such as ‘Mondeo Man’ or ‘Worcester woman’, but these ‘types’ now seem like blurred images compared to the sharp definition of today’s polling avatars. The polling company More in Common has developed a tool called the ‘seven segments’ of Britain, detailing the characteristics of voters from ‘Progressive Activists’ on the left to ‘Dissenting Disruptors’ on the right. This is a brilliant and important piece of research that is fascinating from a sociological perspective. It allows MPs to see which ages, sexes, income levels, geographic locations, and professions are most likely to vote for them and their policies. Yet the temptation then arises for political parties – like advertising executives – to aim their policies at narrow rather than broader segments of the public.

Last week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch promised to reinstate the two-child benefit cap to pay for an increase of £1.6bn to the defence budget. At a time when low birth rates are one of the greatest economic threats, and when by 2028 Britain will spend £36bn a year on state pensions for people who are wealthy enough to be higher rate taxpayers, it seems odd to single out the only benefit aimed at young families for a cut. Odd that is, until you look at the polls. With the Conservatives’ core voting segment – pensioners – bombs poll better than babies.

We see the same principle at play in Labour’s decisions to put VAT on school fees, introduce an ‘anti Muslim hostility Tsar’ or raise the youth minimum wage. Polling shows these policies are popular with particular segments of society. Politics has always been about appealing to voters – how else does one get elected? But when the environment is so data-rich as to allow politicians to pit one section of society against another – rather than making the case for policies in terms of the common good – the result is fragmentation and disintegration.

Can our electoral system cope with this fragmentation? Last month saw the emergence of ‘Restore Britain’, Rupert Lowe’s new party designed to appeal to voters to the right of Reform UK. According to one poll, Restore Britain’s policies on remigration and ethnicity appeal to 10 per cent percent of voters. On the left, a similar fragment supported Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Your Party’ when it was first announced. Under a system of proportional representation, these splits would come out in the wash, with coalitions forming in parliament after elections as small parties coalesce around broadly left or right-wing agendas. But under the British system, a fragmented political landscape where parties appeal to niche groups guided by polling, could lead to a parliament that is chaotic, impotent and utterly unrepresentative of public opinion. Whoever coined the phrase “let many flowers bloom” had obviously never heard of First Past the Post.

Polling saturation is turning our politicians from leaders into followers. Polls can tell us what voters think about a particular issue, but they cannot tell us if those voters are correct. The public’s views are often contradictory – for example wanting more public spending and lower taxes at the same time – and voters are often poorly informed. One of the driving forces behind the length and strength of covid lockdowns was that polling demonstrated public demand for these policies. The greatest barriers to NHS reforms, welfare cuts and pension reform are the polls. However fashionable it may be to wish for more ‘ordinary people’ to stand for election, we need to be honest about the fact that very few British adults have a sufficiently sophisticated understanding of data, statistics, probability, economics, science, history, philosophy or law to make good judgements on matters of policy and legislation, which is why we pay politicians to devote their time to informing themselves on the public’s behalf. Yet in trying to reflect the polls rather than attempting to persuade the public, too many MPs are trying to outsource their role back to their employer.

In relation to current events, it is noticeable that the main criticism of Farage’s initial stance on the war with Iran is that his position is in contrast with what we know is the majority opinion. Whether Farage is right or wrong is immaterial; the reaction shows that we no longer expect our politicians to lead the public but to follow. Reform UK has since backtracked on its support for the US. Perhaps they have seen the polls.

Polls can also sometimes lead us up the garden path. Although voting intention surveys are simple to interpret, this is not the case with more complex questions of policy. In the ongoing assisted suicide debate, proponents of Kim Leadbeater’s private members’ bill have claimed that the majority of the public support assisted dying. But when more sophisticated polls are conducted, it emerges that most people equate ‘assisted dying’ with palliative care, and support for a state-sponsored suicide falls sharply when the reality of what is proposed it made clear. Polls, like statistics, can be manipulated. Bad data can be worse than no data.

So where do we go from here? How can British political culture benefit from the obvious advantages offered by frequent and accurate polling, without our politicians becoming slaves to public opinion?

I propose a new challenge for both MPs and pollsters. Perhaps polling could be used to measure how effectively the public can be persuaded to change their mind on an unpopular but necessity policies, for example scrapping the triple-lock, or reforming the NHS. The task for politicians – should they choose to accept it – is to set out to educate and inform the public, and convince them of the case for making difficult and painful decisions in the long-term interest of the country. The change in public opinion could be measured at regular intervals, as the problems and solutions become better understood by a greater share of the population. Polling could be used to demonstrate which messages – and which politicians – are the most convincing in persuading voters to change their minds, rather than just reflecting back to them what they already think.

At present, an obsession with frequent polling too often paralyses and disempowers our MPs, and tempts political parties into narrow rather than broad appeals. Yet it might also be possible for polling to be used to reverse the trend for politicians to follow the crowd; perhaps our leaders can learn to lead again.

What to do if your teen is disconnected