Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the Epstein buddy formerly known as ‘prince’, has been arrested this morning at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Police arrived early this morning in unmarked cars. The exact reason for the arrest is still unannounced, though it is under the umbrella term of misconduct in public office. BBC correspondent Laura Manning speculated that:

My understanding is that there’s been a very significant development in the investigation into the Epstein files. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

That goes back to documents from when he was a trade envoy, that are alleged to have been passed to Epstein.

Knowing the priorities of the British state, it is more likely to be linked to his leaking of secrets to serial chiild-rapist Jeffrey Epstein than his alleged trafficking of women.

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

Featured image via the Canary

The Royal British Legion (RBL) have announced an Iraq War ’15 years on’ memorial event. The veterans charity, which is backed by major global arms firms, said the event would be held in Staffordshire in May 2025 at the National Arboretum.

The Arboretum is a national site for military remembrance, and is known for partnering with military-linked firms.

The Legion’s press release says:

We will remember the lives lost and those affected and pay tribute to the professionalism and dedication of the men and women who served, from the initial invasion to the crucial rebuilding of Iraqi institutions and infrastructure.

That last little bit is particularly deceptive. It makes Iraq sound like a humanitarian mission, rather than a war crime-riddled heist.

Iraq denials don’t hold water

In fact, one Iraq veteran told the Canary that the RBL’s claim was flat wrong:

When I was on Telic one [the Iraq invasion] there was a planned campaign of arresting anyone that had membership of the Ba’ath party (this was after the government had fell). In effect teachers, dentists, doctors, or anyone with a skilled job, had to be members of the party under the old regime, or they wouldn’t have been allowed to work.

In effect, anyone that knew how to do something in society was removed, and when we questioned this on the ground, we were told that this policy had come from the very top (Downing Street)

So it wasn’t just the military campaign it was also the removal of all people that ran Iraqi society. At the same time the army was pretty much made redundant.

The institutions and infrastructure wouldn’t have needed building up or repairing without this.

When we asked the RBL about their links to corporate sponsors, they told us:

Which certainly doesn’t clear up the issue of their corporate sponsors as an organisation. And, when we asked the Iraq veteran about the Legion’s links to arms firms, he told us:

Yes the RBL are basically partnering with the arms business, which surely must be against the principles of when the organisation started.

The truth is that the Iraq War was illegal and killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people. The war destabilised the entire Middle East region, leaving a lasting impact on those who carried it out. By all measures, it was an unmitigated disaster. Yet, bizarrely, figures like Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio are clamouring to revive colonialism. Regime change in Iraq clearly taught them that war is profitable for the West.

In the pockets of Big Death

Since the ousting of the pre-2003 government, Iraq has become a lucrative cash cow for certain players, including global arms firms — what I prefer to call Big Death. Welcome to the military charity-industrial complex.

What makes the Iraq event and comments from the Royal British Legion striking is that both the legion and the National Arboretum proudly state their connections to the global killing business.

BAE Systems is a major partner of the RBL — to the tune of £400,000. The Arboretum’s website names Amey, Key Systems, Briggs Equipment  and Jaguar Land Rover among its partners and supporters. All of these firms make profit from war and global instability.

The press and RBL did not even attempt to reflect these galling truths in their coverage of the event.

Flattening Iraq: literally and ideologically

Instead, the Mirror led with stories about veterans horribly wounded in the war — yep veterans, not the countless Iraqis killed as a result of the war.

Certainly, these are awful and harrowing tales involving terrible injuries. But the point, my friends, is that the choice to focus on individual stories is deeply political.

In 2018 Professor Paul Dixon wrote a report called Warrior Nation: War, militarisation and British democracy. Dixon recently published a much-expanded book on the same issue.

In his original report, Dixon identified many different tactics used by pro-war groups and individuals to de-politicise and flatten discussions about war. One of these is ‘personalisation”.

As Dixon has it:

The personalisation of war refers to the focus on human stories and the plight of the troops. This may serve militarists well in ‘depoliticising’ the war (which is, ironically, to conceal the highly political motivations of those behind the war) diverting attention from wider questions as to why it was necessary to fight these wars.

He adds:

Personalisation can be combined with deflection in which opposition to the war is presented

as opposition to military personnel, militaristic ideals and the nation. War becomes ‘a fight to

save our own soldiers… rather than as a struggle for policy goals external to the military.’

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is exposing on X the dangerous impact Reform MP Richard Tice would have if he makes it to office.

Live on LBC, Tice stated that Reform would:

Will consider cutting the minimum wage for younger workers.

This demonstrates how disastrously out of touch Tice is with the very voters he’s trying to win over.

The post below from the TUC underscores the contrast between billionaire-funded Reform UK, and the real challenges facing ordinary people — just trying to make ends meet.

Young people: We can’t afford our rent.

Multi-millionaire Reform MP Richard Tice: We’re going to cut your pay. https://t.co/i9SoVTcAPb

— Trades Union Congress (@The_TUC) February 17, 2026

Richard Tice: “100% of nothing is nothing”

The original LBC interview went as follows:

Ben Kentish: If you were in government, would reform cut the minimum wage for young people to get more of them into work? Is that on the table?

Richard Tice: Well, we’ll be talking about that over the coming weeks. We’ve got to re-look at it because the evidence is immediately there within a matter of six to nine months. But this has had a catastrophic impact as well, of course, of the impact of national insurance contribution rises, employment rights, fears from the dreadful employment rights bill. All of these things have a cumulative impact, which means that employers are saying, why should I take the risk?

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Kentish: A potential pay cut for millions of young workers on the minimum wage is something you are considering?

Tice: If you’re unemployed, I mean, 100% of nothing is nothing.

Kentish: But we’re talking specifically about the minimum wage here and whether it needs to be cut for young people.

Tice: But the wage is irrelevant if you’re not employed. If businesses are not employing you, so it’s much better to say, actually, we look at…

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Kentish: But the young people who are employed on the minimum wage obviously would also be affected by a cut in the minimum wage.

Tice: And that’s why I’m not going to make policy on the hoof. That’s why you’ve got to look at the implications of this.

Kentish: But you’re looking at it.

Tice: We’ve got to look at all of this because they’ve got themselves in a terrible pickle and sometimes it’s then quite hard to unwind these things.

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Kentish: And to young people who say, well, I’m in work, I’m earning the minimum wage, why on earth would I vote Reform if they think I should potentially earn even less than I’m getting?

Tice: That’s…

Kentish: What would you say?

Tice: Well, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is other young people are not being employed who could be and should be because of this extra cost. And it’s a significant disadvantage. But it’s now… it’s a complicated issue.

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Unfortunately, Kentish misses another reality: giving bosses ‘recruitment discounts’ through low pay requirements doesn’t lift people out of poverty.

Many will still need benefits to survive, with taxpayers footing the bill for what rich employers refuse to pay. After all, workers can’t get their PAYE sent to offshore tax havens — they’re captured by the tax system from the get-go.

Once again, the majority are forced to bear the burden the super-rich continue to shrug-off.

As if it wasn’t completely clear already, if you vote #Reform, what you are voting for is taking money out of the pockets of the working class and giving it to millionaires and billionaires. It really is that simple. They are a bunch of absolute grifters who prey on stupidity https://t.co/dAHbz1C1TV pic.twitter.com/QzNQQBlGvm

— Jim Kavanagh (@Jimbokav1971) February 17, 2026

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Says the immigrant from Dubai. Has he learned Arabic yet?

Reform couldn’t give a damn about the working class. They’re a private members’ club for billionaire tax-dodging wankers and offshore-trust boys who lecture 16 year old shelf-stackers to “tighten their belts for… https://t.co/kuCOsOtU1Z

— Atlanta Rey ❤️‍🔥🐦‍🔥 (@areyoflight) February 17, 2026

Reform stand with bosses, not workers

This interview exposes how a billionaire-backed party puts profit before people. In the past five years, “greedflation” has driven record returns for executives and shareholders, while ordinary households have faced tightening budgets and rising hardship.

The Canary’s own James Wright wrote yesterday:

The neoliberal system leaves 40 percent of Britons with less than £25 at the end of each week, a survey by the Cost of Living Action (COLA) group has found. This is a pittance and unlikely to stretch far under the cost of living crisis, where even employed people are finding themselves out of pocket.

He added:

Privatised essentials like energy and extractive supermarket chains are driving the cost of living crisis. British Energy companies alone have accrued £125bn since 2020, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

Meanwhile, profits for the German-owned supermarket, Lidl, rose by 297% since 2021. As for Aldi, its operating profit has risen by 50% and 72% since 2020.

While costs have increased due to climate change and other factors, supermarkets are using these pressures not to break even but to fatten profit margins – otherwise known as ‘greedflation’.

In other words, the fuel feeding the cost-of-living fire is the ‘privatisation tax’ on common essentials – not a natural disaster but a manmade problem.

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Claiming the unemployed must accept lower pay might soothe some. But the rich’s growing wealth proves they could pay fairly — they just won’t.

It’s far more appealing for them to watch their bank balances swell than to invest in fairly paid staff — especially if it means sacrificing one of their many extravagances.

Therefore, Kentish rightly highlights that reductions to the minimum wage won’t only affect unemployed workers taking new jobs – they will ripple far wider. This makes clear, a Reform government will affect all workers at a time when people are feeling absolutely done in trying to keep going on shoestring budgets and rocketing private rents. As the TUC aptly pointed out in their subsequent post.

One X account posted a stark rebuke to those voting for Reform:

These Boomer Cunts thinking of voting Reform will have to look their Grandchildren in the eyes and say ‘Yes, I voted for your abject misery’.

Under Reform, workers pay will be slashed

As if we didn’t need another reason to see that these bellends have zero intention of tackling the issues impacting ordinary people countrywide.

In fact, this party is a gathering of the very people  whose greed and influence created Britain’s economic hellscape in the first place.

We will not stop exposing the deep rot that runs through this deplorable party.

Featured image via Kent Online

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