Politics
Lana Hempsall: Motability reform? It’s time to scratch below the surface
Lana Hempsall is a Policy Fellow at Onward, a County Councillor and founder and director of the Welfare Information Network, looking to raise awareness of the flaws and misuse of the welfare system.
The Motability scheme, which provides taxpayer funded vehicles to disabled people, has come in for increasing criticism over rapidly growing costs. In response, in the last Budget, the Chancellor announced changes to prevent luxury vehicles being offered. But that was never more than the most minor cosmetic adjustment, designed to deliver a quick positive headline while avoiding addressing the more fundamental problems with the current scheme.
Motability’s flaws do not start with the relatively small number of people who are driving BMWs or Mercedes. The problem is its sheer scale, cost and direction. Symptoms of a scheme that was designed with the best of intentions in the 1970s but which has grown far beyond its original purpose.
The scheme’s latest annual report lays this bare.
As of 30 September 2025, the Motability fleet has grown by 9.8 per cent in a single year to 890,000 vehicles. That is an extraordinary figure. Nearly one in five new cars sold in Britain now goes through this taxpayer funded scheme. In the past year alone there were 186,000 new applications including renewals, reflecting a 7.1 per cent increase in the eligible base of recipients of qualifying disability allowances.
Financially, the numbers are equally striking. Rental revenue, funded through taxpayer money, has risen to £3.464 billion, up from £2.806 billion the previous year. And yet despite generating more than £3.4 billion in income, Motability reported an operating loss before tax of £158 million.
Those aren’t the numbers of a marginal programme helping those unable to use traditional transport that Motability claims to be. Instead they tell the story of a vast, expanding leasing operation embedded within, and leaching off the benefits system and yet still making a loss.
But how is it possible for a scheme that is funneled customers by the government to be losing £158 million a year?
Part of the explanation lies in the rise in insurance claim expenses, increasing sharply from £491 million in 2024 to £655 million in 2025. However much of the blame lies with the additional services and products the scheme offers to participants. The annual report also highlights a series of one-off initiatives that Motability says were designed to help customers cope with the cost-of-living pressures in that year. including a £750 one off payment to 894,000 customers. But the taxpayers paying for this generous payment – which cost in total over £600 million – received no such financial support for them. In addition, Motability cars come bundled with insurance, servicing, road tax, breakdown cover and RAC membership – again, an option not available to other drivers at such a generous rate. That year, as part of its push to support net zero, the scheme also installed 28,000 home EV charging points last year at no extra charge.
Each of these elements may be defensible in isolation. Taken together, they demonstrate an almost willful negligence that for any normal business would spell the end of its senior leadership. Instead the operation continues to expand, and executives are paid as though they run a FTSE 100 powerhouse.
From March 2025, CEO Andrew Miller’s salary rose to £522,000, with bonuses taking his total package to roughly £924,000 including pension. The Chief Financial Officer’s total remuneration was around £766,000, while the Chair now receives £187,000. Even the lowest paid non-executive director received £58,000.
Is it any surprise then that many feel the Chancellor’s decision to remove luxury vehicles is barely scratching the service in tackling Motability’s failings?
At the heart of the issue, as with the wider welfare system, is the excessive eligibility of the scheme. Access to Motability depends almost entirely on receipt of the higher mobility component of Personal Independence Payment or Disability Living Allowance. As the number of people qualifying for those benefits has risen dramatically, particularly for those with mental health conditions, the fleet and costs have ballooned.
If the Government is serious about restoring Motability to its original purpose, it must look beyond brand marques. It must consider whether eligibility should be more tightly linked to severe physical mobility needs. It must examine whether vehicles should be replaced less frequently and whether the range should be more clearly capped at practical, cost-effective models, instead of simply banning a few “luxury” models. It must also consider whether executive remuneration in a scheme of this nature should be subject to closer oversight.
However, above all, it must confront the wider welfare dynamic driving this expansion. When disability caseloads rise rapidly among working age individuals, the consequences ripple across the entire system. Motability is just one of the most visible and politically sensitive manifestations of that growth, a visible demonstration of the confused, expensive mess that the welfare system has become.
Motability is a warning, showing that a system that expands without clear boundaries risks undermining its own legitimacy. Every pound spent extending generous car leasing packages to those who may not require them is a pound not able to be used for those with the most severe needs, or a pound added to a welfare bill that is already stretching the public finances.
Removing a handful of high-end models may quieten criticism in the short term. However it is not reform. It is appeasement.
If the Government was honest with itself, it would tighten eligibility, redefine the scheme’s mission and ensure that mobility support is targeted, sustainable and fair.
Until that happens, the fleet will continue to grow, the costs mount, and public confidence erode.
For the first Peaky Blinders movie, The Immortal Man, Netflix went suitably large for Cillian Murphy’s first feature-length outing as Tommy Shelby.
The big-budget movie, which picks up the story in the Birmingham Blitz of World War Two, seems to have paid off, with the film picking up an increasingly rare box office success as well as critical acclaim.
After a short run in cinemas, the film has landed on Netflix, with new legions of fans streaming the next chapter.
With six seasons and a film now part of the Peaky Blinders’ legacy, you might be wondering where that leaves the franchise and what’s next for the gang (if anything).
Here’s a quick guide to everything we know so far…
Will there be another Peaky Blinders film after The Immortal Man?
So far, there’s been no confirmation of a The Immortal Man sequel, or indeed another film set in the Peaky Blinders universe.
Back in 2021 show creator Steven Knight told Deadline the “plan from the beginning” had been to “end Peaky with a movie”.
Based on how the movie ended, fans can probably agree it’s the last we’ll see of Tommy Shelby – so it would be a surprise if we did see another Peaky Blinders film, at least for the time being.
What about a new series of Peaky Blinders in the future?
That’s where the good news starts.
In October 2025, Netflix and the BBC confirmed two new six-part sequel series of Peaky Blinders, with original writer and creator Steven Knight behind the wheel once again.
What will the new Peaky Blinders sequel series be about?
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man acts as a bridge between the initial six series of the show and the new ones.
The sequel series will jump further forward in time and take place after the events of the film, picking the story up in the 1950s.
An official synopsis for the follow-up reads: “Britain, 1953. After being heavily bombed in World War II, Birmingham is building a better future out of concrete and steel.
“In a new era of Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders, the race to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions. This is a city of unprecedented opportunity and danger, with the Shelby family right at its blood-soaked heart.”
Meanwhile Knight has promised new characters and adventures, teasing: “The new generation of Shelbys have taken the wheel, and it will be a hell of a ride.”
When can we see the new episodes of Peaky Blinders?
Netflix hasn’t confirmed a release date yet, however we might not have to wait too long according to What’s On Netflix.
The online outlet has reported that filming began in Stoke-on-Trent in early March 2026, suggesting a possible mid-to-late 2027 release date.
Who will star in the new Peaky Blinders seasons?
So far, Netflix and the BBC haven’t officially announced any cast members.
We do know that Cillian Murphy is on board as a producer, so perhaps we could see Tommy Shelby in some flashback scenes.
Reports have suggested that it could be a cast of relative newcomers, with Video Nasty star Cal O’Driscoll spotted on set along with How To Get To Heaven From Belfast star Fintan Shevlin and Atomic actor Jacob Wright.
The first six seasons of Peaky Blinders are now streaming on BBC iPlayer, with the film The Immortal Man available to watch on Netflix.
President Donald Trump gave a predictably heartless response to the death of former FBI director and special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who died on Saturday aged 81.
“Robert Mueller just died,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Mueller served as special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and became a target for Trump and his MAGA base. His family announced last August that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021.
While Mueller’s investigation uncovered contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election, Mueller declined to charge Trump with obstruction, saying that while he had sufficient evidence to charge Trump, he was prohibited because Trump was the sitting president at the time.
Despite this, Trump spent years attacking Mueller for an investigation that ultimately let him off the hook.
Less than an hour after expressing glee at the death of Mueller, Trump was back to his usual attacks on Truth Social.
“The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will,” Trump said in a post threatening to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to patrol airports across the US.
Democratic lawmakers and pundits are unleashing on President Donald Trump for his social media post celebrating the death of Robert Mueller, the former FBI director and special counsel who oversaw the 2016 investigation into Russian election interference, calling it “disgusting” and “insane.”
Mueller died on Friday night aged 81, his family said in a statement to the Associated Press on Saturday.
A cause of death has not yet been disclosed, though two people familiar with the situation told MS NOW that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Hours after Mueller’s family asked in the statement that their “privacy be respected,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
The post drew fiery responses from legions of Democratic politicians and media personalities, who decried its callousness and mourned Trump’s ongoing indifference to the presidential decorum of the past.
“I expect every Republican who was outraged at people for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death to immediately condemn Trump for saying, ‘I’m glad he’s dead’ about Robert Mueller,” wrote liberal political influencer Harry Sisson on X. “This is disgusting.”
Many Trump supporters are defending him, however, arguing that Mueller spread “the most destructive lies of the 21st Century” and was “a piece of garbage” for his so-called “persecution” of Trump. Other conservatives condemned the post.
“This is the kind of stuff Trump does that makes people not just oppose him but hate him,” wrote Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume. “There was no need to say anything.”
Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Democratic Representative Dan Goldman called Mueller “a true public servant” in his social media tribute, writing: “Yet the President of the United States disgustingly celebrates Mueller’s death simply because he exposed Trump’s efforts to steal the 2016 election.”
Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan argued that far too many journalists are reporting on Trump’s post without any detraction, writing, “Very few acknowledgments of how insane and inappropriate it is for the president to respond like this.”
He added, “Imagine their response if it was [former President Joe] Biden.”
Below are more responses to Trump’s Mueller post:
Afroman has won his legal battle after Ohio police attempted to sue him for defamation.
In 2022, Ohio police broke down Afroman’s door as part of a drug and kidnapping investigation. The raid did not lead to any charges.
Hilariously, he then released an album in 2023, titled Lemon Pound Cake. It was a piss-take of the CCTV footage captured from his house during the raid.
The deputies lawsuit came right after and requested $3.9m (£2.9m) damages for:
humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation.
However, the officers stole money, broke down his door, and trashed his house. It should have been Afroman suing them.
Afroman — because he got high
One song took aim at an officer who stopped mid raid to eye up a lemon pound cake on his kitchen counter. The song says the officer:
got the munchies because he got high.
Another was titled “Will you help me repair my door”, and needs no explanation. So far, it has over 11 million views.
During the trial, the Afroman said:
he had a constitutional right to make artistic and critical content about government officials.
His lawyer added that public officials:
could not use the courts to silence criticism simply because it hurt their feelings.
His lawyer also asked if any reasonable person would think a man wearing a flag suit in court “should be taken seriously”.
If you haven’t been following this, Afroman’s lawyers have also had some incredible moments — including asking if any reasonable person would think that a man wearing a flag suit in court should be taken seriously https://t.co/fb9R7EOja6
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) March 19, 2026
Afromans’ only defence witness during the trial was the ex-wife of one of the deputies.
Imagine that.
Playing the victim
Another deputy broke down in court — after trashing his house and stealing his money. Meanwhile, Afroman was vibing to his tune.
Officer Lisa broke down in court when they played the diss track about her. The camera cut to Afroman, and he’s just vibing to his song.
America is not a real place. https://t.co/Fq9hc7lrkr pic.twitter.com/DNPL1NCaKT
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) March 19, 2026
The lyrics of one track read:
Randy Walters son of a bitch /That’s why I f–ked his wife and got filthy rich
But in court, Randy Walters testified that he “wasn’t sure” if his wife was fucking afroman.
Having a cop testify under oath that he isn’t sure if his wife is fucking Afroman is a level of fucking with the police previously unknown. https://t.co/8WM6kbHfSv
— Kristi Yamaguccimane (@TheWapplehouse) March 18, 2026
He caused himself more humiliation than Afroman could have dreamed of, and we’re here for it.
This has been the only light in a very dark month of news. https://t.co/rUrDWL1qIE
— Amity (@amitylee13) March 20, 2026
The more you look into this the more hilarious it gets.
Not only are the songs making fun of the cops, but during the trial he said he made them to pay for the damages the cops did to his house.
One of the songs is about the officer’s wife asking him to sign her titties. 🤣 https://t.co/KjcMjArKEy pic.twitter.com/b4tM215bWp
— Walter Curt (@wcdispatch) March 19, 2026
I bet the Ohio police force didn’t think their trial would turn into a free promo for Afromans album. That one really backfired.
But at least Ohio is finally on the map…
Feature image via ogafroman/ YouTube
DES MOINES — Rob Sand got a hero’s welcome at a state deer hunting expo at the Iowa Events Center on a recent March weekend.
The state’s lone Democratic statewide elected official, and Democrats’ hope for flipping the governor’s mansion for the first time in 16 years, could barely make it through the Sunday morning sea of camo-wearing, venison jerky-chomping, Busch Light tallboy-nursing fellow hunters as more than a dozen people stopped and congratulated him.
But it wasn’t because of his politics. If anything, it was in spite of them.
“Rob, heckuva buck!” said one passerby.
Sand was at the annual Iowa Deer Classic to enter a Green gross-scoring 209-inch buck he’d tagged earlier this season. Photos of the deer have proliferated on Trophy Bucks of Iowa and other Facebook hunting groups across the state.
“Mr. 200!” said Levi Schmitz, a Trump-voting Republican who nonetheless plans to back Sand.
“You got me,” the 43-year-old state auditor responded with a grin.
As Democrats across the map continue to hunt for paths out of the metaphorical wilderness, Sand is betting that his own path to the governor’s mansion runs through his familiarity in the literal wilderness.
Sand represents the kind of candidate Democrats have long sought to win on tough red terrain: an inarguably of-the-place contender whose persona and bio can help sell political views that have become a tough pitch in places where many hear “Democrat” and picture coastal elites. Iowa, a swing state through 2012, moved hard right in the Trump years as Democrats increasingly struggled to connect.
Here, Republicans have taken advantage of the culture wars in a big way for years. Retiring Sen. Joni Ernst first won in 2014 by running hard on her pig-farming, military vet bio and painting her attorney opponent as an effete outsider.
Sand doesn’t run from some of his more liberal views. But like many other Democrats running this year, he’s banking that his local cultural cred will make him tougher for Republicans to caricature as a not-like-us coastal outsider.The day the expo kicked off, the avid bow hunter and fisherman’s campaign launched a “Hunting With Rob” microsite that extolls the rugged Iowa way of life. “For the first time in Iowa history, hunters, sportsmen, conservationists, and outdoor enthusiasts alike will finally have an ally in the governor’s office,” it reads.
In a state where the first day of deer season is an unofficial holiday, Sand’s strategy to center his culturally midwestern hobby rather than his Democratic brand was on full display. He dropped $30 on a glove for removing burrs, $35 on a tool that keeps hunting bows level and $69 on MAXX Step Aiders for climbing trees. And the branding appeared to be working.
“I’m super-Republican, but you got my vote,” said Tom Buckroyd, a hunter from a small community near Marshalltown wearing a “Crossbows Are Gay” T-shirt who spent roughly 20 minutes talking to Sand about hunting.
As he picked at a free sample of barbecue venison jerky on a toothpick, Sand said he wasn’t surprised by his warm reception.
“Number one, it just means I shot a huge buck this year,” he told POLITICO. “But number two, I go back to culture. And we have this stupid, broken, two-choice political system. … And we are told stories about who can be right in either party. And when you find someone that’s in a party, but then also doesn’t fit that story, I think for a lot of people that is a sign of realness or a sign of authenticity about who they are.”
Since their bruising losses in 2024, Democrats have tried all manner of ways to rehabilitate their brand, from cursing more to growing beards to talking about sports. This cycle, they’ve redoubled their efforts to find authentically local candidates — and in some races, those candidates have emerged and caught lightning as they challenge status-quo Democratic candidates. Many are leaning hard into local culture signals.
Sand has hunting. Maine’s Senate candidate Graham Platner has his oystering and his Second Amendment creds. Texas’ Bobby Pulido has his guitar; James Talarico has the Good Book. Alaska’s Mary Peltola has fish. Democratic candidates who can win in tough places often get national buzz. And Sand happens to be from a state that — at least for now — still plays an outsized role in the presidential process. Could Sand be a surprise 2028 contender?
“If Rob wins, he will instantly be part of that conversation,” said Tommy Vietor, President Barack Obama’s former Iowa press secretary and a host of Pod Save America.
Sand is running as a hunting-loving, churchgoing, Casey’s gas station pizza-loving state auditor who has spent the past five years positioning himself as a fiscally responsible friend to the Iowa taxpayer.
There’s been little public polling of the race; the only public survey, released back in October, found Sand beating GOP Rep. Randy Feenstra by two points, 45 percent to 43 percent. But national operatives in both parties see it as one of a handful of governor’s races that could flip. Sand is unopposed in the state’s June 2 primary, though five Republicans will be on the ballot for their party’s nomination.
He entered the show room at the EMC Expo Center after attending a chapel service for expo-goers where he quietly scrolled a Contemporary English Version of the Bible on his phone, listening dutifully to the sermon about Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. “What sort of kingdom work is He asking you to do?” the pastor asked
And what does Sand see as his kingdom work? “Talking about the evils of the two-choice system and trying to break down a system that inherently divides us and leads our leaders into the temptation of being lazy, and leads our leaders into the temptation of lying, bearing false witness against their opponents, because they know that they don’t actually have to solve our problems,” he said.
“In order to get reelected, all they got to do is convince us that they’re the lesser of two evils,” Sand continued. “And they win because we only have two realistic options on the ballot — and that entire system, to me, is just such a temptation to not serve people, to not do good, to actively lie, to spread false information.”
You’d be forgiven if you forgot Sand was running as a Democrat. That, of course, is part of the point of his campaign. Sometimes to salvage the Democratic brand in a red state you have to first savage it.
But Republicans will be sure to remind voters a few times between now and November.
“He hasn’t really had to take very many positions,” said David Kochel, a longtime Iowa Republican operative who has guided multiple presidential campaigns. ”He’s going to be forced at some point to either disavow the Democratic Party platform, which is going to piss off progressives, or he’s going to have to accept the label of being a Democrat in Iowa and defend it. And it’s gonna be hard for him to do.”
Republicans will paint some images of Sand of their own. As much as he would like to cut the figure of a rugged outdoorsman, they say, he also spent some time in college modeling in Milan and Paris — photos that may well pop up in GOP ads. “I mean, it was a part-time job I had in college,” Sand said. “Catching chickens was my first one.” Catching chickens? “Castrated male chickens,” he clarifies.
There is also the matter of his election financing: His wealthy in-laws have dumped $7 million into his campaign. “Hardworking Iowans know the value of a dollar, and don’t have the luxury of having a silver spoon feeding them their career,” Iowa Republican Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement.
Iowa Republicans are taking Sand’s candidacy seriously. In an interview, Bob Vander Plaats, the influential West Des Moines evangelical leader, called Sand “dangerous” and the “best candidate” Democrats could run.
“He’s trying to come off as a more folksy, more accomplished Tim Walz. ‘I go to church every Sunday. I hunt. I’m the taxpayers’ watchdog. I’m gonna hit all the Republican talking points, basically, that I can,’” Vander Plaats said before stressing that Sand “would be way outside of where Iowans are.”
On the Republican side, Vander Plaats endorsed Adam Steen over Rep. Randy Feenstra, the GOP establishment pick and primary frontrunner. “I just haven’t been impressed with Randy’s campaign. I don’t think he has the campaign to win a general election.”
Sand practices a judge-not-lest-ye-be-judge approach with would-be voters. When he was speaking to the man wearing a “Crossbows Are Gay” shirt, Sand didn’t bat an eye.
“I know what that shirt says, but I’m not going to assume that he literally is anti-homosexual because his T-shirt says that,” Sand said. “I’m not a believer that lecturing people is an effective way to get them to not do a thing. Now, I’m open about my support for gay marriage, for the gay community. He’s probably seen me say that. … And he’s not going to hear me back away from that. So to me, there’s probably room for someone to wear a shirt that they mean as a joke they don’t actually mean to be negative.”
Sand didn’t win the Big Buck contest he’d entered. But as he took selfies with the men who had beat him, an onlooker from Exira named Jeremy brought up a possible consolation prize.
“You’re the next governor of Iowa!” he told Sand.
As the day wrapped, the lanky state auditor pulled his buck head down off the wall and, carrying it by an antler, walked out of the convention center — its taxidermied eyes fixed in a frozen stare at Sand’s potential new voters.
The Earthquake Faction has set fire to Elbit’s Israeli weapons manufacturing centre in the Czech Republic.
The blaze marks the launch of the group.
BREAKING: ‘The Earthquake Faction’ launches by setting ablaze Elbit’s Israeli weapons manufacturing centre in the Czech Republic.
The site was built to “service the global expansion of Israel’s biggest weapons producer”.
No one was harmed, but photos show the site destroyed. pic.twitter.com/uU31RdFQUZ
— The Aftershock (@The_Aftershock_) March 20, 2026
The group said:
the site was built to service the global expansion of Israel’s biggest weapons producer.
The group did not harm anyone, which is a thought far too implausible for the Western elite to even imagine.
However, images from the site suggest that the fire destroyed it.
Photos showing extensive damage from the action were shared on the group’s telegram channel: https://t.co/XF4dbqlGvJ pic.twitter.com/2OWcvQo1zX
— The Aftershock (@The_Aftershock_) March 20, 2026
In true Western colonial fashion, Czech authorities are investigating it as a “possible terrorist attack” after the group claimed responsibility and linked it to the war in Gaza.
Because anyone standing up against Genocide and murdering innocent people is a terrorist, whilst the global superpowers dropping the bombs are completely innocent?
Cue the worldwide proscription of Earthquake Faction in 3, 2, 1…
Czech govt is already calling this a terror attack.
Not a single person was hurt nor did the group aim to hurt people. Their stated goal was to “quash their means to kill”. To save lives not take them.
Following the UK govt’s lead.
Welcome to the era of nonviolent terrorism. https://t.co/8L9NF6iqSE— Vivian (@MxVivianWulf) March 21, 2026
But this is the ridiculous example that the British government has set. Vandalise equipment used to murder innocent brown people, and you’re on a terrorist watch list.
Arming genocide
According to Who Profits:
Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israeli defense company engaged in the development and production of weapons and combat systems for land, air and sea combat forces, in the fields of electronics, electro-optics, artillery, aviation, lasers and more.
The company is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and has a tightly knit relationship with the Israeli security apparatus for which it provides a wide range of services and develops extensive weapon technology, equipment and platforms deployed in varying fields.
As the Canary previously reported, Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, which markets its products as “battle-tested” on the Palestinian people. They provide 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as bullets, missiles, and digital warfare.
Elbit’s Israel-based CEO, Bezhalel Machlis, who also sits on the board of Elbit Systems UK, explained how the company has “ramped up production” to meet the demand of the Israeli military’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and across the wider region.
The International Court of Justice has ruled it’s plausible Israel is committing genocide – and Elbit is arming that genocide.
Elbit Switzerland
Activists have also vandalised the offices of Elbit Systems in Bern, Switzerland.
Sent in to me for publishing:
“At 8pm local time on March 20 the Elbit Systems Switzerland office in Bern, Switzerland has been vandalized.
Elbit needs to close” pic.twitter.com/1GYni2oVHZ
— maia arson crimew🐈🐾🏴 (@awawawhoami) March 20, 2026
The same Elbit that is running UK government contracts, supplying the Swiss government with reconnaissance drones, and delivering an advanced SPYDER air defence system to the Czech Republic.
All three countries are complicit in Elbit’s war crimes.
I don’t see why you’d go and smash up some-
Ah, I see, never mind have a great day pic.twitter.com/n9QCjounRu— Tubbymcwubby (@Tubbymcwub) March 20, 2026
How does Elbit feel now that one of its factories resembles Gaza? Your own medicine doesn’t taste so nice, does it?
Does international law exist, or does it not? Because when the war crimes being livestreamed on phones are completely unchallenged, it seems that maybe it doesn’t.
Elected officials stand and watch while their pals carpet bomb innocent people. Yet they cry “terrorist” when people take direct action, and it messes up their other pals’ profits.
Ordinary people should be allowed to resist the genocide that their governments are actively involved in. Because let’s face it, the majority of our governments will not. If we’re not allowed to resist genocide, then what the fuck can we do?
And as Stokely Carmichael said:
In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience.
Feature image via the Earthquake Faction
Keir Starmer is allowing the US to use UK military bases to bomb Iran. This is an explicit deviation from his line that they should be used only for “defensive purposes”.
Specifically, Starmer has said that UK bases can be used to
strike Iranian sites targeting Strait of Hormuz
His previous comments meant that the US could only use UK bases for actions that would stop Iran from firing missiles that put British interests or lives at risk.
However, despite this, we have still repeatedly seen photos and videos on social media showing large bombs being loaded into US warplanes, on UK soil.
So Starmer may only be publicly changing his mind now, but it appears that US forces were already doing it.
The BBC have decided to report on a thing that’s been happening for two weeks https://t.co/YSA1cmiBvC
— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) March 20, 2026
Starmer — war criminal
Human rights groups are warning that the UK allowing the US to use its military bases could violate international law.
Yasmine Ahmed, Human Rights Watch UK director, has demanded “urgent clarification” from the government to ensure that US military strikes conducted from its bases are “compliant with international humanitarian law”.
But how can any strikes in a war that started due to Israel and the US’s unprovoked attacks possibly be “compliant with international law”?
There have been more international law violations in the last three weeks than even Ai Neyanyahu has fingers to count.
International law only works if everyone abides by it.
Starmer is proving over and over that he is a war criminal.
I truly hope Starmer will one day be tried and jailed for his complicity in countless war crimes. https://t.co/84FRFoV6sq
— Red Collective (@RedCollectiveUK) March 20, 2026
You’d have thought a former prosecutor might have reflected on the lessons from the illegal Iraq war.
This war isn’t about nukes, it’s about power. Trump‑Netanyahu’s moves against Iran ignore international law. Global energy suffers, ordinary people pay, while big powers play dangerous games. #EndTheWar #USIsraelExposed #IranWar https://t.co/FFHR9UWQZT
— Lenin Ravi (@leninravi) March 20, 2026
Especially when neither parliament nor the British public have voted on the country going to war.
Britain should block the US from using our bases
British people want no part in this illegal war! https://t.co/F7Sz4XsfL3
— Manchester Green Party 🐝 (@McrGreenParty) March 21, 2026
Consequences
Like usual, British households will pay the price for the government’s inability to engage their brains and face the consequences of their actions.
Keir Starmer is taking Britain into an illegal war AGAINST the wishes of the majority of British people
And putting us in danger
Starmer is a disgrace https://t.co/MxBEGqhoqr
— Stop The Bollocks with Mirabel (@MirabelTweets1) March 20, 2026
No discussion.
No vote.
No accountability.Call it what it is: escalating participation in an illegal war of aggression. https://t.co/sX0OCcnnMo
— Jonathan Bartley (@jon_bartley) March 20, 2026
Just as Starmer has participated in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, he is now also participating in murdering innocent Iranians.
We can count on Starmer playing the victim when Iran bombs UK bases.
Watch them spin it like they’ve done nothing wrong when Iran bombs UK bases https://t.co/ObjSybLpg1
— Leah Dionne (@leahdionne__) March 20, 2026
Iran warned him that anyone assisting Israel and the US’s illegal and unprovoked attacks would be fair game.
Similarly, it warned the world that it would retaliate for strikes on oil and natural gas facilities. It even issued evacuation orders, which is far more than the US or Israel did when they blew up Iran’s South Pars gas field.
Yet still, Starmer blames Iran and “condemns in the strongest terms“. Meanwhile, he allows the US and Israel to blow up Iran’s facilities.
So much for standing up to Trump. Starmer is a pussy. And he couldn’t be further up Trump and Netanyahu’s arses if he tried.
This is a universally un-fucking-popular war here. It’s a public easy win to simply not involve us in another war in the middle-east.
Instead, we are prioritising licking the boot of a foreign leader who is quite candid about doing this illegal war for his own oil gains. https://t.co/F2TlWMRZ4l
— Ryan T. Brown 🎮🩷 on holiday! 🌞 (@Toadsanime) March 20, 2026
Starmer is nothing but a Temu Tony Blair. But we have to ask why Labour love war so much? Supposedly, the party of the working class, yet more concerned with blowing up black and brown people in the Middle East than making sure British people can afford their energy bills. All while lying about their involvement.
Starmer’s blind allegiance to the US and Israel is dangerous and will make the UK a direct target for retaliatory attacks. But he can’t say no one warned him.
Feature image via HG
A pack of hounds from the Heythrop Hunt rampaged through a private garden and killed a fox on Wednesday 11 March 2026. Blood stains remained on a resident’s lawn in Condicote after approximately 30 hounds chased the terrified animal through the village.
Footage taken by Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs shows the pack running wild on driveways and through gardens in the scenic village. Hounds appear with blood on their coats whilst drinking from plant pots and buckets.
The hunt staff allegedly entered the property without permission to remove the poor creature’s body. Joint masters Ollie Dale and Vanessa Chanter were filmed attempting to remove a camerawoman from the garden. The hunt broke the garden fence during the altercation.
Another member of the hunt, Josh Tierney, was seen with bloodstains on his trousers after removing the body of the poor fox away from the crime scene. Whilst the homeowner allowed activists to film the site, the hunt forcibly escorted them out once the owner went inside.
Systematically wreaking havoc in the countryside
This incident is just part of a wider pattern of hunting-induced havoc across the UK. The League Against Cruel Sports recorded 1,117 reports of hunt havoc during the 2024/25 season. These reports include (PAGE 5):
- 319 incidents of trespass on private property.
- 423 incidents of out of control or lost hounds.
- 367 reports of road havoc caused by the hunt.
Rowan Hughes, a spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association said this shows why hunting needs a total ban. Hughes stated that hunts have no respect for private property and ‘shout trespass’ only when they are being exposed.
Broken fences, trashed properties, ruined lawns and injured animals are one side of the hunt that these ruthless riders are desperate to hide. The law is catching up with them, and public hostility toward the hunt has never been higher. At this critical moment, we must call them to account for every small infraction.
A history of the Heythrop Hunt controversy
The Heythrop Hunt are no strangers to controversy or press attention. In February 2026, Channel 4 News released footage of the hunt dumping dead chickens in woodlands. Activists claim this “feeding station” was used to lure foxes into areas so they can be hunted in the future. In the 24/25 season, monitors recorded 332 cases ((PAGE 8)) of hunt trespass nationally. So it isn’t just when these wankers are actively hunting, it’s also to lay the dirty groundwork to draw in their innocent prey.
The HSA reported that covert cameras captured the terrierman of the Heythrop Hunt. He was recorded dumping black bin-bags full of dead chickens between June and August 2025.
By October, the same cameras picked up the hunt pursuing the very foxes they had drawn in. This premeditated approach contradicts the claim that the hunts are simply following a pre-laid ‘trail. Unless these fucking dickheads are actively laying trails through peoples’ gardens, we can see the obvious lie.
Heythrop Hunt — Closing the trail hunting loopholes
Gloucestershire Police received a report of the kill but, as per usual, officers did not attend the scene. Police have not charged any members of the hunt at this stage.
In January 2025, this same hunt apologised after hounds ran through an industrial estate. The chairman previously told Bourton Parish Council that such incidents were “isolated”. But how can that be the case when once again we are seeing private property being used as the hunt’s personal playground?
Three Counties Hunt Sabs filmed this new footage after the Labour Party announced the plans to ban trail hunting. This reform was part of the Animal Welfare Strategy for England announcement on Monday 22 December 2025. A spokesperson for Three Counties Hunt Sabs noted that the kill happened whilst vixens are pregnant. And this is happening within half a mile of where staff dumped the chicken corpses.
The spokesperson urged the government to close the loopholes in the Hunting Act 2004. And urgently. This latest incident in Condicote suggests that trail hunting remains a smokescreen and is nothing but a thin veil to hide the hunt’s illegal activity.
The human cost of hunt trespass
The owner of the garden in Condicote was visibly shocked by the ruthless intrusion. He gave the hunt sabs permission to film the evidence before re-entering his property. Yet once the owner was out of sight, the hunt members used force against the activists. Despite them having no permission to be on the private land.
This lack of respect for residents is a common theme in rural communities. The League Against Cruel Sports reported that 76% of the public support strengthening the ban. Yet the current legislation allows hunts to claim they are following a scent trail. However, in a case like this when a fox is killed in a garden, that excuse becomes impossible to justify.
We reached out to Simon Russell, chair of the HSA who said:
“The current Hunting Act 2004 has so many holes, you could drive a van through it. Although Hunt Sabs have achieved more hunting convictions than any other organisation, the 99% of times we see illegal hunting, there is no chance of a conviction. The government needs to do a lot more than just ban trail hunting, which seems to be its only focus.”
So as the Labour Party moves towards a total ban, incidents like this should be increasing public pressure. The sight of blood-stained trousers and dead foxes in gardens is a stark reminder of the reality of a government and a police force that don’t give a fuck.
Featured Image via The Three Counties Hunt Sabs
Byline Times has linked the components used in the Tomahawk missiles which hit a girls’ school in Mibab, to two defence companies with a strong presence in the UK.
The US missiles murdered around 165 school girls on February 28 in a double-tap attack. The second missile killed sheltering survivors, two first responders, and the parent of a murdered child.
Tomahawk cruise missile
Byline Times has revealed that analysis by Action on Armed Violence, combined with US Government procurement data, strongly suggests that the British defence industry — namely BAE Systems and Raytheon — produced parts for the Tomahawk missiles used in these attacks.
At first, there was speculation about the origins of the missile used in the attack and who was responsible. However:
independent analysis of video, satellite imagery and debris has consistently identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile, a system used by the United States and its allies in this conflict, and no credible source has contested the origin of the recovered fragments.
One of the recovered components is marked “SDL ANTENNA”. This is:
part of the satellite data link system that allows the missile to receive mid-flight guidance updates.
The markings on the part identify its manufacturer as Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. This is a US-based contractor. However, BAE Systems, a UK corporation, owns Ball Aerospace, having acquired it in February 2024.
The weapon fragment contains the code 13993, issued by the US Commercial and Government Entity. This code makes it clear that the company owned by British BAE Systems manufactured the missile’s satellite communications antenna.
Of course, detailed information on current subsystems is partly classified. However, there is no evidence of any recent changes to the UK’s supply of core components, such as those used in these strikes.
Byline Times added:
Since acquiring Ball Aerospace in 2024, BAE Systems has retained its capabilities in Radio frequency (RF) and phased-array (multiple antennas) technologies, making it likely that similar components remain in production under UK ownership.
It is often hard to attribute weapons components to a single strike, as Byline Times has done in this case. However, UK-linked components are a consistent feature of the Tomahawk system.
Additionally, the recovered fragment contains a contract number: N00019-14-C-0075.
According to Byline Times, US Naval Air Systems Command records show that Raytheon won this contract in 2014 to produce Tomahawk Block IV missiles, with “subsequent modifications expanding the order”.
This means that we can directly link the recovered component to that production programme.
The UK’s wider role
Byline Times has also seen wider procurement data that points to “continuity” in the UK’s role in the Tomahawk programme.
Around 4% of the production of the US Tactical Tomahawk programme is based in the UK — at Raytheon UK’s Glenrothes facility in Scotland. It manufactures “electronic and guidance components” for missiles.
According to Byline Times:
Raytheon UK received more than $15 million for its contribution to this production lot according to public financial records (contract N00019-14-C-0075). UK parliamentary records have also previously confirmed that components produced at the Glenrothes site are exported to the United States for integration into Tomahawk missiles, indicating a sustained role in the programme.
An unclassified US Selective Acquisition Report (SAR) also shows that the UK plays an official role in the Tactical Tomahawk programme.
It states:
The FY 2014 procurement includes 196 surface and subsurface launched AURs, 20 torpedo tube launched AURs as part of the United Kingdom Foreign Military Sales case, and 15 surface AURs (FY 2013 funded through Buy-to-Budget).
The UK government doesn’t usually disclose which British-made components are included in weapons used by allied forces, or how these systems are deployed. However, the US does provide detailed procurement data. This means we can trace which company produced specific components.
UK complicity in war crimes
Even before this latest revelation, the UK was already complicit in Israel and the US’s war crimes.
Previously, Keir Starmer claimed the UK was “playing no role” in the illegal attacks on Iran. Then he stated the UK was only taking part in “regional defensive operations”. Now, Starmer is allowing the US to load massive bombs into planes to bomb Iran.
And to make matters worse, it now turns out that the US and Israel are using weapons with British-made parts to blow up little school girls.
You’d have thought a former prosecutor might have had a hard red line when it comes to war crimes. But apparently not. Starmer has even more blood on his hands.
Feature image via HG
I have always prided myself on having a sixth sense for deception, an ability to spot the lie buried in the casual comment or the discrepancy in a story that exposed what someone is working to hide. I figured that’s what made me a great thriller writer.
In 16 books published over 25 years, I’d been constructing elaborate plots where people led double lives and hid horrible truths with both blatant lies and simple misdirection.
My protagonists were always law enforcement – inspectors and detectives, a medical examiner – sharp-eyed women trained to see through shiny veneers to notice the small inconsistencies that eventually cracked the case.
And yet, for two and a half years, I missed the most obvious plot twist of my life: my husband was having an affair with his massage therapist.
The irony isn’t lost on me. Somedays, the irony is suffocating.
It was a Friday afternoon in December 2022 when I found out. Our kids were home from college for the holidays, and our family was preparing to head to Mexico to join my sister and her family for a week of sun, sand and margaritas.
I discovered his affair not through any brilliant investigative work nor the careful attention to detail I so prided myself on. Instead, the discovery came from a charge on a credit card statement – a session with a couples counsellor we hadn’t seen in almost a decade – that caused an uncomfortable pit in my stomach.
I sometimes wonder whether the appearance of that pit meant that suspicion had been planted before then – whether there was a part of me, deep and buried, that sensed the rot beneath the carefully maintained façade.
When I reached out to my husband, his phone was turned off. For more than two hours, the pit grew as he remained unreachable and our adult children began to sense something was wrong. When his phone finally came back online, I confronted him with the charge and asked what was going on.
“I’m almost home. Let’s talk then,” he responded. So casual. So calm.
When he arrived, he asked if we could talk without the kids.
“What’s going on?” I demanded when we were alone. “I’m not in love with you anymore,” he said in the same tone you might mention the oil light has come on in the car.
“Who are you in love with?” I asked.
Love was energy; it didn’t just dissipate into the ether. It went somewhere else.
“There’s no one else,” he told me.
Courtesy of Danielle Girard
He acted normal for the next 24 hours. In weak imitation, the kids and I tried to act normal, too, to prepare for our trip and the small Christmas celebration we planned before leaving.
The following morning, Christmas Eve, we were set to depart for our vacation when I woke at 4am with the memory of something my husband said when our friends divorced: “A man never leaves his marriage unless there’s someone waiting for him.”
I roused him at 4:04am and asked again, “Who are you in love with?” When he didn’t answer, I started to guess. I got it in two. On the first guess, he protested loudly. On the second, he went silent.
“How long?” I asked. If I’d written the scene, I like to think I’d have been more creative, but creativity evaporated in the panic of that moment.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he lied again. It took more than three weeks to get him to admit that the relationship had been going on for almost two and a half years. Three years later, there are details that never quite squared and lies that were never ironed out.
As a thriller writer, I’ve spent countless days imagining the worst things people can do to each other. I’ve sat in coffee shops and on airplanes and at my desk and invented murders, betrayals, psychological torture.
I’ve been inside the heads of liars and manipulators and people who destroy others without remorse. That experience made me believe I understood human darkness with a clarity others lack. But understanding it for the benefit of a story and living through it are entirely different things.
Courtesy of Danielle Girard
For days after I found out, I moved through my life like a stranger. Every object felt suspicious, every memory potentially false. Had he been thinking about her when we were in Nashville for my birthday the month before? Was he texting her from our bed when I was in the kitchen and setting up the coffee machine for the next day? How many times had he said “I love you” while mentally planning his next Friday massage appointment?
“Really? Your massage therapist?” I asked once, during one of those miserable circular conversations where nothing gets resolved and everything gets worse. “A 50-year-old man and his massage therapist. It’s so cliché.”
The comment clearly stung, as if I’d insulted his creativity rather than his fidelity.
“We were friends first. She listened to me,” he said.
“I listen to you,” I said like a petulant child.
“You’re in your office, working, or you’ve got your nose in a book for the podcast.”
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
Once our kids had left for college, I’d shifted my focus to my writing and working harder than ever as my career took off. I’d stopped working on the marriage. My shiny new toy was the book; his worked out the kinks in his neck, ones put there by 30 years with me.
That December, I was neck-deep in a manuscript about a detective investigating a pregnant surrogate who goes missing. It was a book I’d been so excited about six months earlier, one I’d been confident was my darkest, most psychologically complex book yet.
After I learned my husband’s secret, I couldn’t write a word.
Every time I sat down at my desk, I’d cry or stare at the blank page, wondering why I bothered. What did these pretend murders matter? What did my clever plot twists signify when I’d missed the biggest one in my own life?
Beyond the logistical fears about my own future was another terrifying realisation: I no longer wanted to write the detective book. Overnight, I’d lost interest in stories about detectives solving crimes, justice being served through shootouts and the court system, about the bad guys getting caught and punished. Suddenly, those seemed too neat, too fake, like fairy tales and not the Grimm’s variety.
Real betrayal, I learned, doesn’t get solved in 300 pages. Real deception doesn’t wrap up with a satisfying twist where everything makes sense and the protagonist emerges stronger and wiser. Real betrayal sits there, ugly and unresolved, in the middle of your life while people take sides and you fill the garage with items you once cherished and no longer want to see.
I started thinking about the kinds of stories that had never interested me – messy ones where the protagonist doesn’t figure everything out and there are no clear villains, just people making terrible choices for complicated reasons. Stories set in the ugly places I’d never wanted to go until now.
When I found my way back to the page, I rewrote the surrogate story, cutting the point of view from the detective, and placing the biological mom at its centre with her best friend from high school as the surrogate who vanishes four days before the baby is due.
In this new version, the story focuses on these women who were friends in high school and the complications of their long, intense friendship.
Though there is a big moral question at the centre of the book, as well as a fun, juicy plot, it was the interactions between the characters themselves that allowed me to explore the messy reality of life that I was living through while writing.
My divorce was finalised at the end of 2023, a few months after I got a new agent, six months before my agent sold that book, Pinky Swear, at auction for release earlier this year. It was the hardest book I’ve ever written and the best.
Courtesy of Danielle Girard
The one I’m writing now is trickier, more complicated. It’s about a woman who discovers her husband’s long affair with a massage therapist.
My husband was married to a thriller writer for almost 30 years. This can’t come as a surprise to him. Still, this is not a memoir. There’s a murder, for starters. But there are echoes from my own experience in the details, like the secrets that begin small and seem harmless … until they’re not.
While the main character is not me, the protagonist is walking in my own, uncomfortable shoes, trying to construct a narrative to make sense of chaos, and working to find a path forward when the narrative crumbles.
Every time I drive downtown, I scan the cars, the street, the store or restaurant for my ex-husband and his girlfriend. I still haven’t seen them together, though I know that they are. I wonder what I’ll feel when I do – a fresh wallop of despair? Closure? I have run the scenario a hundred times, and I still don’t know.
What I do know is that the writing I’m doing now feels like what I should be doing. Not because detective fiction isn’t important or valuable, but because I’d been using it as a way to imagine I could manage the outcome and somehow avoid the terrible things that happen to people who I imagined weren’t as studious or as prepared.
For months, I’d been plotting elaborate lies and deceit in that first draft of Pinky Swear while missing the simple, stupid truth: that the person sleeping next to me was a stranger. That I was so good at inventing characters for mysteries, I’d forgotten to be curious about the one I’d married.
I see now what those books were really about: control. The illusion that if you’re smart enough, observant enough, careful enough, you can see the betrayal coming. You can solve the crime. You can write your way to safety.
But you can’t. Life isn’t a thriller, and there’s no genius detective who’s going to figure it all out – no satisfying final chapter where all the pieces fit. At least, not in my life. Instead, there are just little clues I recognised far too late about the person I thought I knew becoming someone I never knew at all.
The book I’m working on now – the one about the woman who discovers her husband’s two-and-a-half-year affair with his massage therapist – will be called Happy Ending.
It won’t be neat or easy, but it might be happy. I hope it will be.
Danielle Girard is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of several novels, including the Annabelle Schwartzman series and Pinky Swear. She is also the creator and host of the Killer Women Podcast, where she interviews the women who write today’s best crime fiction. A graduate of Cornell University, Danielle received her MFA in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. When she’s not traveling, Danielle lives in the mountains of Montana.
Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@huffpost.com.
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