Politics
Man in giant bird costume running for Scottish parliament
A man dressed in a giant bird costume is officially in the running to become a Member of Scottish Parliament. It’s one of the most unusual election campaigns Scotland has seen.
Robert Pownall is the founder of wildlife advocacy organisation Protect the Wild. He has announced that he’s standing as a candidate in Edinburgh Central. And he’s going to campaign entirely dressed as a giant gannet, to push for an end to the controversial guga hunt. He’s up against the likes of of SNP’s Angus Robertson.
The guga hunt is the UK’s last legal seabird hunt. It takes place annually on the remote Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, where months-old gannet chicks are killed by a group of ten men who travel from the Isle of Lewis. While the practice originated in times of hardship as a source of sustenance, today the birds are killed primarily to maintain tradition, with their flesh considered a delicacy.
Northern gannets are native seabirds, and Scotland is home to almost half of the world’s population. However, data which Protect the Wild brought to light shows that Sula Sgeir is the worst performing gannet colony in Scotland.
Giant bird takes a stand for gannets
Pownall argues that the killing of wildlife for tradition is unjustifiable. Protect the Wild set up a Scottish government petition to ban the guga hunt. It has surpassed 125,000 signatures and will be up for debate by the next parliament.
The killing of wild birds is normally illegal. However, the guga hunt continues due to a legal exemption under Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). Pownall is campaigning to remove this exemption as part of his candidacy. Dressed as a giant bird, he said:
I’m standing as an MSP candidate to force the guga hunt out of the shadows and into the political spotlight.
Gannet chicks are being snatched from their nests and bludgeoned to death for nothing more than a tradition. That clearly shouldn’t be happening, especially not in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.
Polling shows the vast majority of the Scottish people want the guga hunt to end. It’s high time this outdated exemption was removed from the law, and these magnificent gannets given the protections they deserve.
Pownall will campaign as a gannet throughout the election, and “will not appear out of costume”. He is calling on all political parties to commit to ending the guga hunt in the next parliamentary term.
Featured image via Protect the Wild
It wasn’t just any night for the Italian national team; it was a crucial match. The Azzurri entered it with the weight of history and the experience of their star players – most notably, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has a history of being the deciding factor in their most difficult moments.
All indications pointed to a penalty shootout, if it came to that, favoring the goalkeeper who had built his reputation on reading minds before feet.
But football, as is its wont, held up a small, unexpected detail – a detail that hadn’t been accounted for and wasn’t included in any statistical or tactical analysis.
A carefully placed piece of paper vanished in an instant, transformed from a helpful tool into a turning point, from a minor detail into a decisive factor that altered the course of a match… and perhaps even the entire history of qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
Donnarumma without his secret weapon
Donnarumma entered the penalty shootout relying on a tactical sheet of paper, containing a detailed analysis of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian penalty takers. It is a tool that has become an integral part of goalkeepers’ preparation in modern football.
But moments before the kick, the paper disappeared from its place under a towel, revealing one of the strangest incidents in a match of this magnitude.
A theft that changed the game
It later emerged that a 14-year-old ball boy, named Avan Čejmić, had picked up the paper and hidden it after realizing its nature and importance.
A seemingly simple act, but it undid one of the most crucial elements of mental and tactical preparation for a goalkeeper of Donnarumma’s calibre.
In televised remarks reported by AFP, the boy said:
I saw the paper next to the towel. I knew what it was immediately, so I took it and hid it. It contained all the instructions, and without it, Donnarumma relied solely on his intuition.
Confusion translates into a harsh exit
The absence of the paper wasn’t just a minor detail; it immediately impacted Donnarumma’s performance in goal.
The goalkeeper, accustomed to reading the direction of the shooters based on precise data, suddenly found himself facing impulsive decisions devoid of any guidance.
This confusion was evident in his movements. He appeared slow to react and hesitant in choosing his angle, losing the mental battle before the actual kicks were taken.
With each successful shot from the Bosnian players, the gap widened. Then the penalty shootout became a one-way street, ending with Italy’s elimination after a 1-1 draw and their failure to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time.
Widespread controversy and an unexpected hero
The incident sparked a wide-ranging debate that extended beyond the match itself, raising questions about the line between intelligence and unfair play.
While some saw the ball boy’s actions as a clear violation of sportsmanship, others considered it part of the ‘wisdom of the game’ and a legitimate exploitation of the chaos inherent in football.
This division wasn’t limited to fans; it extended to the media, where questions were raised about the responsibility of the organizers and the limits of interference by those surrounding the match.
Meanwhile, the boy became an unexpected symbol in the Bosnian street. He was celebrated as a hero who contributed – albeit indirectly – to a historic achievement.
The Qatar government has issued the following alert to residents ordering them to stay indoors and away from windows because of a heightened state of threat that must be attributed to likely Iranian retaliation for anticipated or ongoing US-Israeli escalation:
The move from Qatar comes in spite of the apparent ceasefire between the US and Iran. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain also issued warning alerts to citizens as the region waits to see if the ceasefire will hold.
The US has already bombed Iran’s biggest aluminium works, releasing mass clouds of highly toxic vapours. The White House and western media have now (late 7 April 2026 US time) claimed that a ‘conditional ceasefire’ has been agreed, but Trump has made similar claims of a ceasefire being close before that Iran has rejected and mocked. If there is an agreement, it seems politicians across the Gulf do not yet believe it.
Little wonder, given both the US and Israel are involved, and their long track record of breaking ceasefires.
Featured image via the Canary
The Israel lobby are trying to shut down ‘Palestine Declassified,’ an online analysis programme “about the worldwide struggle to liberate Palestine”. The show was set up, and is presented by, well-known former Labour MP Chris Williamson, alongside anti-Zionist David Miller,
Since Starmer conned his way into Downing Street with the help of fascist Reform’s ‘ghost candidates’, his regime has waged a constant war on pro-Palestine free speech, protest and activism, with direct action group Palestine Action unlawfully banned and a number of activists, writers and journalists prosecuted and/or persecuted by state power.
But, equally typically, Williamson is defiant. Explaining the attack on his show in a post on X, he said:
I’ve been presenting a weekly programme, alongside [David Miller], for the last four years called @PDeclassifed, about the worldwide struggle to liberate Palestine. But the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is now trying to shut us down.
The studio where Palestine Declassified has been recorded since 2022 has now been targeted by Zionists via the Home Office and corporate media. The studio recently received an unsigned and highly unusual letter from the Home Office threatening potential legal action under the National Security Act because of supposed ‘foreign influence’.
Since then, an absurd and defamatory Telegraph article claimed that the studio was owned by Press TV and, laughably, that it acted as a spy recruitment hub! But the studio has no relationship with Press TV or Iran, and our show is independently produced.
This is pure state intimidation. But we will not be cowed by these bureaucratic bullying tactics. Rest assured, the show will continue, and so will its groundbreaking reports.
This drastic step by the British government, operating at the behest of the Zionist regime, only shows how fearful they are about the information we are exposing about the global Zionist war on Palestine.
Given this campaign of harassment, we will be finding a new studio and changing the format of the show. This, unfortunately, will come with associated production issues and costs, so we will be launching an appeal soon to help ensure that Palestine Declassified continues every week.
Watch this space.
The so-called ‘Foreign Influence Registration Scheme’, which Mahmood is using against Palestine Declassified, was specifically created to target opponents of US-Israel aggression against Iran. It was described by the government as part of:
a robust package of measures to tackle threats from the Iranian regime.
Unsurprisingly, however, despite the mass presence of Israel front groups and lobbyists in the UK and of its agents in UK government and state, it is not – fancy that – being used against those who propagate and carry out Israeli influence in the UK. Despite one in four MPs accepting funds from Israel a recent, farcical government report on foreign influence in UK politics does not mention Israel even once.
Featured image via the Canary
Did the BBC really think it was unremarkable that a young Iranian told its reporters he would be ‘fine’ with a nuclear strike on his own country?
On Tuesday 7th April 2026, it ran a piece called ‘We’re sinking deeper’: Iranians brace for infrastructure strikes as Trump deadline nears – and included his quote without challenge or caveat.
BBC have lost it
In the initial piece the BBC quoted Radin, 20, from Tehran, saying:
About them hitting energy infrastructure, using an atomic bomb, or levelling Iran. My honest reaction is that I’m OK with all of these.
Lowkey shared the screenshot of the initial article.
The BBC claims to have found an Iranian inside Tehran to whom it attributes the following statement:
“About them using an atomic bomb or levelling Iran… I’m OK with all of these.” pic.twitter.com/pllyexaCI2
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) April 6, 2026
The latest version of the article has now changed the quote to:
If attacking targets in the country brings down the Islamic Republic, I’m fine with that. Because if the Islamic Republic survives this war, it will stay forever.
The BBC has added a clarification saying –
Update 7 April: This article originally included a longer quote from “Radin” in which he spoke about the attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure and referred to the levels of destruction which he suggested would be personally acceptable to him to bring down the Islamic Republic. Radin’s comments were made directly to the BBC and were initially included in full to illustrate the strength of feeling of some of those who are opposed to the country’s leadership. However, after further review, this part of the quote was removed from the article due to concerns over the way in which the speaker expressed his views and the extent to which they reflected wider Iranian viewpoints.
The BBC has belatedly included a note explaining its removal of a quote from a young Iranian claiming to be “OK” with a nuclear strike on his country. This whole episode raises questions about the journalistic ethics/integrity of BBC News Persian & BBC News online as a whole pic.twitter.com/y6MRePpM4f
— Nicholas Guyatt (@NicholasGuyatt) April 7, 2026
History professor Nicholas Guyatt said the whole episode raised questions about journalistic ethics and the integrity of BBC News Persian and BBC News.
The BBC has not explained what changed between Monday, April 6, when the article was first published, and Tuesday, April 7, when the quote was replaced and a clarification was added, other than public criticism.
Whitewashing war crimes
The BBC’s decision to run the initial quote is egregious, especially given the extraordinary nuclear threat facing Iran from American and Zionist forces.
‘A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again, I don’t want this to happen, but it probably will’ is Trump’s latest escalation which seemingly calls for the nuclear genocide of Iranians.
Why did the BBC dangerously normalise the unthinkable for Iran? And, it did so in the exact same manner that it has manufactured consent for attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
For instance, the BBC, in a piece on Lebanon in March, the broadcaster described Israel’s Gaza genocide, and its replication of the same tactics in its war of aggression on Lebanon, as Israel’s “path to peace.”
This is a pattern – BBC has repeatedly whitewashed crimes by the UK/USA/Israel’s war on West Asia.
The BBC is complicit in Israel and the US’s war crimes — and maybe one day the world will hold it accountable.
Featured image via the Canary
Imagine calling for the destruction of a civilisation. Imagine dreaming about violently scrubbing an ancient nation from the face of the Earth. Imagine flirting with the idea of obliterating a land with thousands of years of rich history. I am referring, of course, to the activist class and its annihilationist hatred for the Jewish State. For nearly three years, these people have beat the streets and swarmed the digital networks to agitate for the erasure of Israel, all the way ‘from the river to the sea’. President Trump’s juvenile bluster on Iran has nothing on their existential loathing for the Jewish homeland.
The frenzy of the past 48 hours, following Trump’s potty-mouthed and threatening social-media posts about Iran, has felt unhinged. The nukes are coming, influencers wailed. Trump must be ‘removed as president’ in order to ‘prevent a catastrophe that our species will never recover from’, said the Guardian’s Owen Jones. Within hours of this giddy apocalypticism, this huddled descent of the chattering classes into the pit of End Times prophesying, Trump had done what many of us expected he would: struck a kind of deal. The great detonation was not of a nuclear bomb but of the common sense of the cultural establishment. That’s the only thing that got vaporised yesterday.
Then there was the sheer cant. It was Trump’s ominous yelp that ‘A whole civilisation will die tonight’ that got leftists and liberals frothing. It’s genocidal lunacy, they said. Let’s leave to one side that the target of his digital ire appeared to be the Islamic Republic, not Persia. ‘Forty-seven years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end’, he said. The more striking thing is the industrial-level gall of a cultural elite that is devoted to the dismantling of Israel, puffing itself up in fury over Trump’s hyperbole on Iran.
I agree that ‘A whole civilisation will die tonight’ is a chilling thing to say. That’s why I’m so horrified by the frenzied anti-Zionism of our times. Our intellectual classes furiously deny Israel’s ‘right to exist’. Our activist classes openly call for Israel’s excision from the family of nations, by intifada (violence) if necessary. Our celebrity classes cheer the armies of anti-Semites (Hamas, Hezbollah) that were founded with the express intention of vaporising the Jewish nation. One minute the keffiyeh set is accusing the likes of Pete Hegseth of being in the grip of an anti-Iranian ‘bloodthirst’, the next it’s chanting for the death of the Jewish nation’s soldiers.
Future historians will marvel at the brass neck of an influencer class that took 24 hours off from calling for the destruction of Israel to bash Trump for posting about the destruction of Iran. I raise this not to be facetious but to draw attention to the moral disarray here on the home front that has been so spectacularly exposed by events in Iran. For it is undeniable now – we are surrounded by people who salivate over the violent disappearance of Israel but who fret over the withering of the Islamic Republic. They have taken sides – the side of the barbarous regime that dreams of ‘Death to America’ over the side of the democratic state rebuilt by Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust. I’m delighted the Persian civilisation is safe – now what about the West’s?
The mistake the media elites made these past 48 hours was to forget that diplomacy is always done behind closed doors. You won’t find any justification here of Trump’s impolitic, unpresidential language, but if you are viewing the Iran War through the prism of his purple prose, then more fool you. For as long as politics has existed, there has been a bright line between backroom machination and public spectacle. So as Trump threatened mayhem online, he pursued a ceasefire offline. Everyone should have known this was the likely situation.
We now know a two-week ceasefire has been agreed. Trump says it is conditional on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The remains of Tehran’s ruling class have issued a 10-point plan, which includes a commitment never to seek nuclear weapons and to end all conflict in the region, so long as US sanctions are lifted and Iranian assets held by America are released. The US and Israel are likely to agree to some of it, but not all. For instance, Iran has called for a cessation of hostilities against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Israel says No.
The public discussion about this no doubt fragile half-deal feels unhinged, too. Perusing the press, you might be forgiven for thinking America has just suffered a Vietnam-level defeat while the Islamic Republic is buoyant from teaching the filthy West a lesson. That’s been the tenor of the coverage for weeks. ‘Advantage Iran’, said the front page of that bible of the boss class, The Economist. It’s beyond delusional. Yes, the regime survives, but vast layers of its leadership have been taken out and its weapons systems have been decimated. The mullahs’ capacity to rule has at the very least been diminished. The current tendency to exaggerate both the menace of Trump’s America and the stamina of the Islamic Republic strikes me as wholly ideological, even as wishful thinking. Some in the West seem to hope, possibly in spite of their better wisdom, that Tehran will help tame Trumpism.
That’s what has been confirmed by the past 48 hours of frantic anti-Americanism. That some are now so consumed by voguish wariness of the West that they have come to see even the murderous regime in Tehran as a possibly useful cudgel against our arrogant societies and wicked rulers. One feels as though one is in a Kafkaesque vortex of moral duplicity watching the media elites paint Trump as a singular threat to civilisation. For that is to be wilfully blind to the swarms of Westerners who have spent the past two-and-a-half years openly cheering the enemies of our civilisation.
This is why the Israelophobia of Trump’s hypocritical haters really matters. For nothing better sums up the anti-civilisational turn in our societies, the West’s revolt against itself, than these twisted dreams of Israel’s demise at the hands of the barbarous armies sponsored by the Islamic Republic. The media rage over Trump’s ill-advised invective acts as a distraction from this far more serious corrosion of our civilisational values. Here’s the thing: Trump clearly didn’t mean it when he said Iran would ‘die tonight’, but the virtuous and educated of our cultural elites do mean it when they say the world would be a better place if Israel didn’t exist. His intent was to deceive, theirs is to destroy. The genocidal imagination belongs less to Trump than to his noisy critics in the new moral clerisy.
I’ll tell you what alarmed me more than Trump’s posts – that large gathering outside Downing Street last night, where mobs waved the flag of Tehran’s anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic regime and chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’. Any Brit who frets more over the oafish posts of a US president than he does over the presence in his own country of people who prefer Islamist tyranny to Western civilisation has entirely forfeited the right to be taken seriously. Let Iranians decide the future of their civilisation – we should focus on saving ours.
Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His latest book – After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation – is available to order on Amazon UK and Amazon US now. And find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.
Israel is refusing to include Lebanon in the US-Iran ‘ceasefire‘ agreement.
Instead, the Zionist entity is continuing to bomb Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley simultaneously.
Apocalyptic scenes in Lebanon’s capital right now.
Israel has launched 100 airstrikes on Lebanon in 10 minutes.
Striking South Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa Valley simultaneously.
This isn’t a ceasefire.
It’s mass bombardment of civilian areas. pic.twitter.com/ygTf2Pscrn
— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 8, 2026
Lebanon bombarded
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the ceasefire does not include Lebanon. This is despite Pakistan’s prime minister explicitly stating that the agreement covers “everywhere, including Lebanon”.
🚀🇮🇱🇱🇧 NOW: ISRAEL IS STILL BOMBING BEIRUT, LEBANON pic.twitter.com/tD12qLZWVB
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) April 8, 2026
So it appears that once again, Israel and its war crimes are just magically exempt from international law. But we could have predicted this would happen, given that Israel is an illegal ethno-supremacist state.
There is approximately a zero percent chance Israel will abide by a ceasefire.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) April 8, 2026
Lebanese politicians have urged the Pakistani ambassador to pressure Israel over its ceasefire violations.
BREAKING: Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Berri urges Pakistani ambassador to press Israel over ceasefire violations
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/zygwIgJdmZ pic.twitter.com/DvX7zqHDim
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) April 8, 2026
Additionally, the UK, France, Germany, and the European Union have issued a joint statement calling on “all parties” to implement a ceasefire, including in Lebanon.
Not the first time
Of course, this is far from the first time Israel has broken a ceasefire agreement.
100% agreed. There has never ever been a ceasefire that Israel have abide in their short history.
ایرانیهای عزیز بسیار محتاط باشید. https://t.co/wcAjKTwDYT— Sayed Wasi (@iamw786) April 8, 2026
In 2025, Israel violated various ceasefire agreements more times than we can count. In October alone, the total was 47. Israel murdered 38 Palestinian civilians and injured 143 others. Along with being a clear and explicit violation of the ceasefire, it is also yet another breach of international humanitarian law.
Israel has also repeatedly refused to let aid into Gaza, which is yet another violation of previous ceasefires.
In Lebanon, Israel has also repeatedly broken ceasefires.
In November 2024, after Israel’s thirteen-month-long attack on Hezbollah, a ceasefire was agreed. However, it seemed that the IOF didn’t get the memo. Within hours of the 4am ceasefire coming into force, the IOF opened fire on vehicles as tens of thousands of Lebanese people started to return to their homes.
But as far back as 1949, immediately after the UN-brokered Armistice Agreement between Israel and its neighbours went into effect, the newly created ethnostate started violating the truce. It invaded designated demilitarised zones its military attacked numerous civilians.
Then, in 1956, alongside Britain and France, Israel violated the agreement again by invading Egypt and occupying the Sinai Peninsula.
What is clear is that since Israel’s inception, it has held no regard for the rules of international law.
the ceasefire terms do not include the parasite zio state. https://t.co/jnyv3N3MgZ
— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) April 8, 2026
Bullshit ‘ceasefire’
Israel wants to take a two-week break from being bombed by Iran so that it can get on with pummelling Lebanon.
All in an effort to pursue Israel’s ‘Greater Israel’ project, which it has been talking about since 1967.
He is determined to pursue his #GreaterIsrael project, and break international law, regardless of all the suffering and destruction! https://t.co/njFPi8hZSu
— Dr Philippa Whitford (@Dr_PhilippaW) April 8, 2026
Despite Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah has been abiding by the agreement.
UPDATE: Hezbollah abides by ceasefire despite Israel’s attacks on south Lebanon
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/vdFpZ16DLB pic.twitter.com/rB94KvOPOo
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) April 8, 2026
This demonstrates once again that Israel is, in fact, the problem. Israel is an ethnostate, which means that annexation, war crimes, genocide, and murder are its bread and butter.
They will not halt the annexation. It is embedded in their nature. This constitutes a clear violation of the terms that were agreed upon. https://t.co/oyY7GJW8v2
— Ilias (@iliasazg) April 8, 2026
Israel’s definition of a ceasefire is one-sided bullshit. Iran stops bombing Israel so it can continue its illegal attacks on Lebanon. Does it think ceasefires are only for everyone else? Are white Jewish supremacists exempt from ceasefires under make-believe 3,000-year-old rules? Or do Israelis just think they are better than everyone else?
The international community needs to step up – and fast.
Featured image via CNN-News18/YouTube
One in three people living with a terminal illness in the most deprived areas of England and Wales aren’t claiming the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits they’re entitled to. This is despite the constant government and media narrative about the increase in benefit claimants.
DWP: many miss out on vital benefits
Terminally ill people with less than 12 months to live are eligible to receive fast-tracked benefits without a medical assessment. This is under the DWP Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). This applies to both non-means-tested and means-tested benefits, so it includes Personal Independence Payments, Disability Living Allowance, and Universal Credit.
However, new research shows that many are missing out
The Office for National Statistics has published a report with Marie Curie that explores the take-up of benefits from those living with a terminal illness. Although SREL applies to all benefits, the ONS specifically looked at means-tested benefits.
It found that over 350,000 people who were terminally ill did not claim the benefits they were entitled to in the last 12 months of their life. That’s around 34%. And the uptake is even worse in the more deprived areas of England and Wales. In Wokingham, the take-up was just 53%.
The claimant rate also varied significantly between different terminal conditions. 59% of people dying of HIV don’t claim. There’s also a huge portion of people living with liver disease (58%) and heart failure (46%) who didn’t claim. The highest conditions that were claimed for were dementia, with 85% claiming and neurological conditions, with 90% claiming.
Better access needed
The problem is that many don’t know that they are entitled to claim, so they miss out on vital support. The analysis was carried out as part of a broader study by King’s College London into the take-up of benefits by terminally ill people
Around 90,000 people die in poverty each year in the UK. Better access to benefits for people living with a terminal illness can help to lift people out of poverty and improve dignity.
The study aims to find out how they can best uncover “groups most at risk of underclaiming” in order to make policy recommendations to the DWP on how to better target people.
In 2024, the KCL researchers reviewed the campaigns put out by the government, local authorities, and the non-profit sector carry out to encourage “severely disabled people and those with serious health conditions to apply for benefits.”
A 2024 study the KCL researchers carried out reviewed the campaigns the government, local authorities, and non-profit sector have in place to encourage take-up among “severely disabled people and those with serious health conditions”.
This report found that the government needs to:
Develop and fund a comprehensive strategy for actively promoting and monitoring take-up of benefits by severely disabled people and people who have serious long-term health conditions (including those with life-limiting (terminal) illness), their families and carers.
DWP failing terminally ill people
Dr Joanna Davies, from the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation at King’s College London (KCL), told Hannah Sharland at Disability News Service that there needs to be a “wider awareness” around “access to benefits”, and suggested that applications “could be better integrated into other processes, such as advance care planning and hospital discharge”.
Dr Sam Royston, executive director of research and policy at end-of-life charity Marie Curie, also told Sharland:
Last year, Marie Curie’s Dying in Poverty report revealed that more than 280 people die in poverty every day across the UK.
A key step in addressing poverty at the end of life is to ensure the benefits system provides adequate protection to everyone who needs it. But this ONS research data, funded by Marie Curie, shows the extent to which people with a terminal illness are failing to be protected by our social security safety net
He continued:
Every dying person should be able to access the benefits they need, so they can spend their limited time focusing on what really matters: making memories with friends and family, and living their final months, weeks, and days as well as possible.
It’s clear that the government isn’t doing enough to ensure that sick people don’t die in poverty. At a time when all you hear about is the increased benefits bill, it’s almost like they’re banking on people not applying. At the rate it’s going, people will be offered assisted dying before support their final months.
I suppose it’s easier for the DWP if people die before they claim than for them to have to finish the job by cutting their benefits.
Featured image via the Canary
Brazilian national team and Real Madrid star Vinícius Junior has directly invited Barcelona striker Lamine Yamal to join forces against racism in football stadiums.
This initiative comes after an incident during a friendly match between Spain and Egypt at the end of March, where Yamal was subjected to anti-Muslim chants from Espanyol fans.
Personal experiences with racism
Vinícius Junior explained that this issue is personal for him, noting that he constantly experiences racist incidents during matches and tournaments.
He said in a press conference:
Racism exists everywhere, and I have faced it myself many times. That’s why it’s important that we join forces – me, Lamine, and all the players who have a strong voice – to protect others and confront this phenomenon.
Lamine Yamal was subjected to direct racist abuse from Spanish fans who chanted against Muslims during a friendly match against Egypt. This prompted him to speak out and condemn these practices, earning him widespread praise from his peers around the world.
The importance of solidarity among players
Vinícius emphasized that players with fame and resources have the power to influence public opinion and help those most affected by racism, such as those living in poverty and other marginalized groups.
He added:
If we resist these attitudes together, we will reduce the likelihood of players and fans being subjected to such practices in the future.
Support from global stars
French national team player Moussa Sissoko expressed his solidarity with Yamal after the incident of the anti-Muslim chants, stressing the need for unity among players in the face of racism.
This support demonstrates the growing awareness among football stars worldwide of the importance of protecting players and fans and working to create a safe and discrimination-free environment in stadiums.
Reform stooge Richard Tice has taken to Twitter to complain about the number of NHS staff who called in sick over 2025. Apparently, health service workers took an average of 19 sick days last year.
And if that doesn’t get you all riled up and right-wingy, 5 of those days were for mental health reasons! The scandal!
Not that he’d want our advice, but Tice needs to be careful sharing anti-NHS-worker shit like that. After all, people might mistake him for a Labour MP.
Reform privatisation dogwhistle
Here’s some slop for you:
NHS staff took 28m sick days incl 8m for mental health in 2025:
Keen to hear from other businesses whose staff take:
Average 19 days sickness pa
Including:
5 days mental health issues pa
https://t.co/Q1Cild9fRE— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) April 7, 2026
What a regrettably common treat – a Reform tweet with a Daily Mail source. You just know it’s going to contain some proper tripe.
First and foremost, why on earth are we framing the National Health Service as a business? Oh yeah, it’s because Tice and his Reform cronies desperately want to run it as a private business. The point is sustaining a healthy population, not turning a fucking profit – but of course, that’s lost on the likes of Tice.
Nobody mention the pay restoration
For the ‘context’ on Tice’s statistics, we can look to the Mail’s article itself:
Resident doctors will today cause more misery, cancellations and delays with another walkout in pursuit of a 26 per cent pay rise.
The number of sick days taken by NHS staff due to poor mental health has soared by 42 per cent since 2020 and comes amid wider concern about the nation’s approach to such issues.
The NHS in England lost 28million days to staff sickness in 2025, up from 21million in 2020 and higher than in any previous year, according to newly published data.
Of these, more than one in four – a record 7.9 million – were due to ‘anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses.’
Ah yeah, we’re having a bash at the British Medical Association (BMA) resident doctors’ strike. Cunning avoidance of mentioning the reason for that ‘26% raise’ goal, too.
The workers are striking in pursuit of pay restoration to match 2008 levels. Since then, they’ve suffered massive real-terms pay cuts – down to a low of -32% in 2022. Of course, they can’t let the government get away with that.
How do diseases spread again?
And then there’s the bit about all those lazy doctors taking sick days. I wonder why the people who work around sick people all the time are getting sick so often? Could it possibly be due to the communicable nature of disease? Someone should really start looking into this ‘germ theory’ I’ve been reading about.
Likewise, could the rising frequency of mental health leave have anything to do with the massive strain of NHS work?
Quite apart from the constant pressure of working with sick and dying people day-in and day-out, the NHS is also massively understaffed. As such, the workload of each individual NHS worker is massive – and it’s only getting worse. According to research from the BMA:
The average number of doctors per 1,000 people across the EU members of the OECD, for which data is available, is currently 3.9. Germany has 4.5. England, by comparison, has just 3.2 and would need an additional 40,000 doctors to reach the OECD EU average.
What’s more, those NHS staff are also working with lower resources compared to similar countries. Take hospital beds as an example – the BMA stated that:
Compared to other nations, the UK has a very low total number of hospital beds relative to its population. The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nation js is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4. Germany, by contrast, has 7.8.
Combined with staffing shortages, an insufficient core bed stock means that hospitals are less able to cope with large influxes of patients, for example during winter or periods of high demand.
Moral panic
The Mail goes on to make (or, at least, write) several points in quick succession – they may even be loosely related to one another:
The health service has lost 151.6million days to sickness since records began in their current form in mid-2019, meaning 6 per cent of all working days were lost to poor health – three times more than the average across all sectors.
Furthermore, the NHS lost 262,592 days to industrial action by resident doctors last year, with the British Medical Association marching its members out on strike in July, October and December.
From yesterday, new laws passed by the Government mean employees are entitled to sick pay from their first day in a job.
Only in the Daily Mail could you get what appears to be a staccato list of shit that sounds vaguely scary to right-wingers. Staff taking sick days! The unions are staging walkouts! Workers get sick pay! It’s like a fucking neo-Nazi Buzzfeed.
Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but again – NHS workers come into contact with sick people. Their absence rates are going to be higher than other sectors. Particularly, that is, given that we’re consistently cramming too many sick people into too little less space.
Sick leave – important, actually
On top of this, the NHS employment body also highlights that ‘presenteeism’ (turning up whilst sick) can negatively affect both the quality of your work, and the state of your mental health. Given that health workers often make life-or-death decisions, those negative impacts matter.
Likewise, NHS workers also have a duty to stay home if their illness could be transmitted to their patients. This is particularly true given that, by their nature, many of the patients in a hospital are at an increased risk of infection.
Of course, we can also expand that point out more broadly. If more workers across every in-person sector took sick leave to prevent the spread of infection, the workplace would be safer for everyone – and particularly for immunocompromised colleagues.
Oh would you look at that – we’ve reached the end of the article. I haven’t even made a single crack about Reform leader Nigel Farage never turning up to do his job, but you don’t hear Tice complaining. Never mind, I’m sure it won’t be long til Reform don’t bother turning up to work again.
Featured image via the Canary
Keir Starmer has ordered an entry ban on rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) to please Israel lobby groups. Ye’s record of antisemitic speech doesn’t prevent the ban being the latest step in Starmer’s Israel-driven war on UK free speech rights.
The ban forced the cancellation of the entire Wireless festival, outraging many who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its war on Lebanon and Iran.
But while Starmer is eager to performatively ban Kanye as an easy win in his rush to create a police state, he is more than happy to roll out the red carpet for actual and alleged war criminals – as long as they come from Israel and its supporters.
Kanye – double standards
For example, just since 2024 under Starmer:
Herzi Halevi
Israeli army chief of staff Halevi came to Britain in December 2024. As the overseer of Israel’s horrific mass slaughter in Gaza, his arrest and delivery to the Hague, or his trial in the UK for war crimes under ‘universal jurisdiction’ should have been automatic. Instead, Starmer gave him ‘special immunity’ to protect him.
Basyuk, Goren
Israel’s ‘genocide general‘ Maj Gen Oded Basyuk arrived in the UK in January 2025 for ‘secret’ talks with various UK government departments. He was granted “special mission immunity” – “immunity from criminal jurisdiction and personal inviolability”.
With Basyuk was Brigadier General Elad Goren. Goren had recently become the subject of a lawsuit filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his alleged involvement in the use of starvation as a weapon against the civilians of Gaza.
Gideon Sa’ar
The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) on Gideon Sa’ar:
Gideon Sa’ar is a senior member of Israel’s security cabinet and alongside Benjamin Netanyahu — wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza—has played a central role in the decisions that have led to the mass killing of Palestinians and extreme suffering more generally. Today, Sa’ar continues to advocate for the halting of all humanitarian aid to Gaza where civilians are now enduring full-scale famine conditions.
But Sa’ar was not only allowed to enter the UK in April 2025, special measures were taken to protect him from arrest. As the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) sought action against Sa’ar for his part in Israel’s Gaza genocide, Starmer and his then-foreign secretary David Lammy gave Sa’ar immunity to ensure he could not be arrested.
Isaac Herzog
In September 2025, as Israel criminally bombed Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Yemen, Israeli president Isaac Herzog came to the UK for meetings with the UK government. The Green party and human rights groups demanded Herzog’s arrest. Instead, Starmer proudly welcomed him, posing for photos on the step of Number 10.
War criminals, names withheld
Also in September 2025, various unnamed members of Israel’s Directorate of Defense, its Research & Development (DDR&D) and its Israel Aerospace Industries entered the UK for an arms fair, where they rubbed shoulders with Israeli murder merchants Elbit Systems and others. All three organisations are at the heart of Israel’s genocide and war crimes. Thousands protested, but the government allowed them entry and did nothing.
Over 2,000 British-Israelis have served in the Israeli occupation military during the Gaza genocide. At least ten of them have been accused since May 2025 of serving in Israeli military units that have committed atrocities. While they still have dual citizenship including British nationality, the UK government has taken no action against them. When a former government wrongly stripped Shamima Begum of her British citizenship when she tried to return from ISIS territory, leaving her stateless despite her having committed no atrocities, no such action is apparently contemplated for Israeli war criminals who would still have Israeli citizenship. Nor have they been prosecuted in Britain despite UK police being aware for more than a year.
It seems that while a racist Black musician can be banned, Israeli war criminals will continue to get a warm welcome from the Zionist Starmer regime.
Featured image via the Canary
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