Politics
PARC Against DARC accuses MOD of ‘sneaking through’ radar infrastructure
Campaigners from PARC Against DARC are accusing the Ministry of Defence of a series of potential moves to split out planning elements required for the DARC radar proposal without including them in the main planning application. They say legal precedents show this practice may be unlawful.
A PARC Against DARC spokesperson said:
We haven’t come across a single person who doesn’t think the whole story behind the RDF aircraft tracker relocation proposal that’s just been tabled, the inexplicably high-security landing cable station, the unanimously unpopular £60m Newgale bypass road and required power cable upgrades for miles just stinks to high heaven.
After 37 Senedd and Westminster politicians have come out against DARC, a petition of 18,000 signatures and public demonstrations that have gone viral online, the MOD seems to be looking for any way it can to ‘salami slice’ the massively unpopular DARC plans and try to ram them through planning against the local community’s will. We think that this would be both unlawful and wrong.
Follow the DARC Money
The spokesperson continued:
DARC admits to funding the new RDF aircraft tracker in the application. The MOD’s environmental screening document states clearly that relocating the RDF has been part of DARC’s plans, and the only reason it gives as to why it was excluded from them was because DARC were assured that its relocation would be completed prior to DARC’s construction.
It even goes as far as clearly implying DARC is paying off who it needs to to expedite the relocation of the RDF, using distracting language to hide these realities behind the operational separation between the two projects.
It just leaves you with the question: why does it appear as if money has been changing hands in order for this aircraft tracker to be done and dusted at all costs before DARC is potentially started, if not for the reason that the application is blatantly linked to DARC, and yet unjustifiably is not being considered part and parcel of it?
We strongly question whether the MOD’s attempts to escape reality would stand up in court, and we are disgusted with PCC for issuing a screening opinion that throws the Pembrokeshire people it’s meant to stand up for completely under the bus.
The MOD’s screening request for the upgraded aircraft tracker includes no environmental assessment for radiofrequency radiation impacts to local people and livestock, which means it fails to consider the cumulative impact of what would be that plus DARC’s radiation.
Considering we’ve found over 4,000 studies showing the type of radiation DARC would emit is linked with health impacts including cancer, and that the MOD has ignored nine whole freedom of information requests from us, the fact the MOD refuses to release a scrap of meaningful data on DARC’s huge potential radiation risks for our community leaves people here furious and disgusted.
All they can ever keep trotting out in response is the widely-criticised regulator ICNIRP and a tiny department of the WHO that’s completely riddled with telecoms and military lobbyists.
Suspicious ‘high-security’ undersea cable leads directly to DARC site
It gets even worse though, say campaigners:
There’s a strong public perception that the sea cable landing station they’re now building metres away from the gates of Cawdor Barracks, despite being said to be civilian, would actually be likely to supply DARC with data from overseas as well.
There’s an identical one proposed near Roch using the other one of the two new sea cables coming, but unlike that one, the Brawdy station features razor wire, security guards with on-site parking and CCTV cameras.
The MOD won’t explain why it could possibly need any of this, but if you consider that Brawdy was involved in the SOSUS programme which literally covered up the fact that the British military was concealing that its sea cables were for civilian use when in fact they were tracking submarines, you can see why locals are sceptical.
If they’re right, none of this was ever going to be included in DARC’s potential upcoming planning application, making that application seem less consequential than it would really be.
Newgale bypass with DARC links
The Newgale bypass road has recently suffered another 18 month delay due to a public consultation response that almost unanimously rejected the entire proposal. According to PARC Against DARC, nearly everyone they’ve spoken to believes that the road:
had to have been connected to DARC, because it was so implausible that they could construct and operate such a large-scale military site using tiny backroads that would cause traffic bottlenecks from all sides. This was not factored into DARC’s scoping report either.
Silence surrounds DARC Pylons
Campaigners add that on top of that, documented talks between the MOD and PCNPA show that the MOD has so far failed to include in any publicised planning materials what could be extensive pylon-based or underground network power upgrades it admits could be required for DARC:
It just seems to us like the MOD is dripping with the kind of perceptions of corrupt practice in the local community that the DARC fiasco has become so well-known for in the St Davids peninsula.
The MOD, from the start and throughout, has proven itself to be a government ministry that seems to do nothing but railroad communities, flouting both strongly held public opinion and potentially the law to get what it wants.
DARC opposition set to be ‘hot topic’ at the ballot box
With the Senedd election just ten weeks away and with two of the main contenders in Plaid Cymru and the Wales Green Party both having come out very firmly against DARC as party policy, campaigners say:
Labour locally risks destroying its voter base even further if they fail to recognise the huge levels of local opposition to the proposals and change course.
They add:
The Labour governments on both sides of the border that are presiding over DARC have been an utter shambles, and FM Eluned Morgan and MP Henry Tufnell have been as silent as the grave on DARC since day one.
With a move to proportional representation, voting for 16-18s and an increase from 60 to 96 MSs in the upcoming Senedd elections, it’s looking ever more likely that Labour will be completely wiped out and a progressive ‘Anti-DARC’ government will form the next administration in Wales, so we believe Labour has everything to lose on this key election issue if they fail to about turn.
Featured image (artist’s impression) via PARC Against DARC
Appealing almost solely to Muslim voters might seem like a strange way for a major party to go about winning a by-election in Manchester. Producing adverts in Urdu, the native language of Pakistan, might be considered even odder. Yet, to prove that nothing is too strange for British politics in 2026, that is exactly what the Green Party has done in a recent campaign video.
‘Shopkeepers, drivers, cleaners, mothers – it is we who keep this area running’, a female narrator says in Urdu. Hannah Spencer, the Greens’ candidate for this week’s Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester, then introduces herself in Urdu. ‘A cruel politician can win if we don’t vote Green to stop Reform’, the female voiceover continues. Pictures of Reform UK’s candidate, Matt Goodwin, appear at the bottom of the screen. ‘They want to break up our communities, deport families who have lived here for years, and tax people born abroad even more’, the ad continues. ‘They fuel Islamophobia and put our safety and dignity at risk.’
It isn’t just Reform the video targets. To ram home the message that the Greens are the only suitable party for Pakistani-heritage Muslim voters, it throws some punches in Labour’s direction, too. The video shows UK prime minister Keir Starmer and deputy prime minister David Lammy with Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu – the leaders of India and Israel respectively. It also shows footage of American ICE agents arresting immigrants and drone footage of the flattened Gaza Strip. Other snippets include Muslims in Manchester going about their daily tasks: one man is sweeping leaves on a street, another is standing behind the counter of what appears to be a vape shop, talking to a customer.
This video is not an aberration. The Greens, who many polls suggest could win the by-election, appear to be focussing their campaign on Manchester’s Muslim population – as high as 40 per cent in certain Gorton and Denton council wards – as well as the constituency’s large student and graduate population, for whom Gaza is the overriding concern. The result so far has been a brazenly sectarian campaign – an attempt to cleave the local population along ethnic and religious lines, using the faithful hatchets of the Gaza ‘genocide’ and alleged ‘Islamophobia’.
Green Party leaflets offer more evidence of these tactics. One shows Spencer wearing a keffiyeh and standing in front of a mosque. ‘Stop Islamophobia. Stop Reform’, the leaflet says in English. On the other side, in Urdu, the following words are printed: ‘Labour must be punished for Gaza… To give Muslims a strong voice, give your vote to the Greens.’ Another video, not apparently endorsed by the national Green Party, but made by a Green council candidate, says Muslims ‘must vote for [Spencer]’, as ‘she is standing with the Muslim ummah’ – that is, with Muslims worldwide. The social-media page of Green Party leader Zack Polanski has been notable in recent days for its unwavering focus on Palestine – pinning the blame for casualties in Gaza on the UK’s Labour government, for ‘supporting’ the supposedly ‘genocidal’ Israelis.
There can be little doubt that the Islamo-left marriage, which quickly ended in acrimony in Your Party, has been consummated in today’s Green Party. Indeed, the Muslim Vote – the organisation that helped propel four ‘Gaza independent’ candidates to victory in the 2024 General Election, has come out in support of Polanski’s outfit.
Just how beholden the Greens are to this bloc was made painfully evident in a recent debate between Spencer and Goodwin on the BBC. Goodwin asked Spencer what she thought was responsible for the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, when Manchester-born Salman Abedi detonated a nail bomb at an Ariana Grande concert, killing himself at 22 others. That Abedi was a jihadist is an uncontested fact. But, as Brendan O’Neill wrote last week on spiked, Spencer could not bring herself to get anywhere near the words ‘Islam’ or ‘Islamism’. Instead, she said, Manchester Arena was bombed because ‘people like [Goodwin] are dividing people’.
There’s little doubt the Gorton and Denton by-election is shaping up to be one of the most consequential of recent times. It hammers another nail in the coffin of the Labour-Conservative duopoly, and could potentially bring an end to Keir Starmer’s disastrously inept premiership. Disturbingly, it also looks set to entrench Islamic sectarianism as an undisputed force in British politics. The danger this poses to our politics and society should not be underestimated.
Hugo Timms is a staff writer at spiked.
Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) seafarers will take strike action on 5-6 March. The dispute is over pay, transparency and compliance with minimum wage legislation.
The RFA provides operational and logistical support to the Royal Navy. However, the crews are civilian seafarers and they can be members of the RMT union.
Strike action will take place from 00:01 hours on Thursday 5 March until 23:59 hours on Friday 6 March 2026.
If the ship is in port, members must not book on for any duty commencing during that period.
Seafarers to strike but ensure ship safety
During the strike, members will maintain the safety of the ship at all times, including moorings and gangways.
The action follows a strong ballot result in which members voted by nine to one to reject the latest pay offer and back industrial action.
RFA members met after the ballot result and agreed there was a clear aspiration to use the mandate immediately to send a strong message to the RFA and the Ministry of Defence that they must take this situation seriously.
RMT has welcomed the overwhelming vote for strike action after management failed to make a decent pay offer or show it was complying with minimum wage legislation.
Seafarers can routinely work up to 12 hours a day. However, there remains no clear or transparent formula setting out how to calculate pay against those hours.
RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said:
RFA members want a decent pay offer and for the employer to show it is complying with all minimum wage legislation.
Our members, who are the most highly trained seafarers, perform incredibly difficult tasks in often dangerous circumstances, supporting their colleagues in the Royal Navy, whilst spending months at a time away from their families.
Years of real terms pay cuts have left dedicated RFA seafarers worse off, demoralised and this latest offer falls well short of expectations, and significantly below comparable employers within the sector.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Ministry of Defence must now get around the table with us to address our members’ immediate concerns and tackle the crewing crisis.
That means a clear long-term commitment on pay and conditions, including National Minimum Wage compliance, if they are serious about retention and want to maintain credibility.
This dispute can be resolved, but only if there is a commitment from those with decision making powers to take these matters seriously.
Featured image via the Canary
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel tomorrow, India ordered X to block access to writings by Middle East Eye journalist Azad Essa. Moreover, this arm-twisting move was justified by the legal prohibition cited by India’s government.
Azad Essa, a US-based South African journalist and senior reporter with MEE, has said that he believes his account was blocked due to his reporting on India-Israel ties. For Essa, the move reflects India’s iron-fisted clampdown on journalistic freedoms in India, accusing X of complicity and censorship.
India blocks Middle East Eye journalist’s X account
Azad Essa, a senior reporter with Middle East Eye, says he has been routinely targeted by right-wing elements in the country
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 23, 2026
Essa is the author of “Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel” published in 2023. The book chronicles India’s and Israel’s blossoming love affair. Additionally, it describes their deepening military and ideological ties.
The book argues that while India and Israel only restored diplomatic ties in 1992, they maintained surreptitious military ties long before the 90s. In fact, Essa’s research suggests that Israel supplied weapons to India during its wars with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965 and 1971).
The alliance between India and Israel, he argues, promulgates aggressive nationalism to suppress Palestinian and Kashmiri aspirations.
Modi’s Israel visit slammed
Over the weekend, India’s prime minister Modi, taking to X, gushed about Netanyahu, calling him a friend, and expressing how he’s looking forward to meeting Netanyahu tomorrow.
These sentiments aren’t shared by the broader Indian public, as Al Jazeera notes:
Activists in India are protesting PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Israel, saying it goes against the values of a nation that once endured British colonial occupation.
Activists in India are protesting PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Israel, saying it goes against the values of a nation that once endured British colonial occupation. pic.twitter.com/hPK3oJrhpp
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 24, 2026
Underlining brewing opposition inside India to the Modi-Netanyahu alliance, People’s Dispatch also reported that:
Rallies were organised in different parts of India on Feb 15 to protest against the upcoming visit of far-right PM Narendra Modi to Israel, as it continues its genocide in Gaza in complete violation of the ceasefire it agreed to in November.
Rallies were organized in different parts of India on Feb 15, to protest against the upcoming visit of far-right PM Narendra Modi to Israel, as it continues its genocide in Gaza in complete violation of the ceasefire it agreed to in November.https://t.co/vHrE7pEYhC
— Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) February 18, 2026
Whereas Vox Ummah, commenting on the impact of Modi’s visit, wrote that it:
formalises a security partnership built on arms sales and shared control practices, with consequences visible in Gaza and Kashmir. Ya Allah protect our Ummah
Yesterday, officials of the occupation confirmed that Narendra Modi will travel later this month to meet Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit takes place as the confirmed death toll in Gaza has passed 72,000. While announcing Modi’s visit, Netanyahu said, “Israel is enormously popular… pic.twitter.com/u9D5ASBa8l
— VoxUmmah (@VoxUmmah) February 16, 2026
The Infamous Previous Visit and the Epstein Files
As the Canary has previously reported, India’s elite is also known for rubbing shoulders with Epstein – as the paper trail of Epstein files, released by the US DOJ, shows.
On July 9, 2017, three days after Modi’s official visit to Israel, Epstein wrote an email saying that Modi had “danced and sang” in Israel for the benefit of US president Trump. However, the irony, which escapes Modi fanboys, is that the Indian leader’s 2017 visit to Israel coincided with Pegasus spyware attacks on Indian activists.
#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at Dor beach in Haifa, Israel #PMModiInIsrael pic.twitter.com/6h5BXqxYAW
— Republic (@republic) July 6, 2017
Just three days before, on July 6, Modi and Netanyahu shared a “romantic walk” along Haifa beach – from which countless Palestinian families have been ethnically cleansed. It was the first time an Indian Prime Minister had visited Israel. Consequently, this smashed any possibility of solidarity with Palestine. Odd, one might think, for a country grappling with the shadow of Western imperialism.
Modi is also mentioned in another email suggesting that, in 2019, Epstein encouraged Steve Bannon to meet with him to counter China. He told Bannon that Modi was a strategic opportunity. Furthermore, he mockingly asked him to “look at your underwear” to see if it was made in China or India.
#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at Dor beach in Haifa, Israel #PMModiInIsrael pic.twitter.com/6h5BXqxYAW
— Republic (@republic) July 6, 2017
Modi and Netanyahu’s adulterous love affair is smothering popular struggles, from Palestine to Kashmir. Indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians and India’s indigenous communities, they shake their blood-stained hands over fresh, secret military deals. Azad Essa, it seems, won’t be the first or last journalist to be iced out.
Featured image via the Canary
Israel has used the F-35 jet throughout the Gaza genocide, as well as in airstrikes against Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. And now Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has confirmed the number of flight hours Israeli pilots have on the Lockheed Martin stealth fighter:
is greater than that of all the pilots of the other foreign countries that were partners in developing the aircraft.
These comments are completely at odds with the UK government’s insistence that Israel is a “minor customer” of the global F-35 jet programme.
Valuable feedback for Lockheed Martin
In an interview Leiter said:
The feedback from our pilots reaches Lockheed Martin. When I visited there a few weeks ago, their CEO told me that Israel’s information and developments ‘are worth many billions to my company.’
Leiter was speaking with Israel Hayom daily, and the Times of Israel reported it on 16 February.
The UK makes 15% of the F-35 jet. The US is the lead partner and the UK is the only Tier 1 partner. The other partners to the programme are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
Israel has 48 F-35I jets, with 27 more jets on order. On 20 January, the Canary shared news from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace that three new F-35Is left the UK air base, RAF Mildenhall, bound for Israel.
Israel is also involved in the production of the F-35 programme. In February 2026 Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) celebrated the delivery of its 350th fighter jet wings to Lockheed Martin for production of the F-35 fighter jet.
UK government comments
The UK government has been provided with extensive evidence of Israel’s use of the F-35Is by Al-Haq and GLAN throughout their legal case in the UK High Court.
Despite an Israeli ambassador and the CEO of Lockheed Martin confirming Israel’s central role in the F-35 programme – both as a user and developer of the F-35 jet – the UK government has repeatedly attempted to downplay Israel’s use of the jet and role in the programme.
In a letter to Dame Meg Hillier MP on 19 February, minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer MP wrote:
The UK Government has stopped direct exports of F-35 parts for use by Israel. The only exception is for the global programme, of which Israel is a minor customer [emphasis added].
In a letter to Sarah Champion MP, chair of the International Development Committee, on 1 September 2025, former foreign secretary David Lammy wrote:
We are unaware of any possible breaches of IHL having been linked to the limited evidence of F-35 use in Gaza and it is worth remembering that, where UK-produced F-35 parts go to the global spares pool, Israel operate a very small proportion of over 1,000 F-35s in the global fleet [emphasis added].
Use of F-35s in Gaza
As early as November 2023 it was reported that Israel was making heavy use of its modified F-35I Adirs. Former IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi confirmed F-35Is were providing close air support to ground troops 200 metres away in Gaza. He stated:
We never did anything like this. With very heavy munitions, a very good connection between what the [ground] force needs and what the plane knows to give.
In December 2023, US officials confirmed they were rushing spare parts and additional capabilities “at breakneck speed” for the F-35 to Israel from October 2023. Officials stated Israel’s F-35Is have performed “absolutely outstanding” in Gaza, and that the programme could “learn a lot” from seeing F-35s used in combat.
The Israeli Air Force has modified its F-35Is, in partnership with Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon’s F-35 programme, to operate in so-called “beast mode”, which allows them to carry four 2,000lb bombs. The IAF said that its aircraft are the “only F-35 to conduct strikes with this design.”
Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that in July 2024 an F-35 dropped three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
Israel is plainly not a minor customer for the F-35 programme, if it has flown more hours than any other partner country in the programme, and if the data it has generated though its genocide in Gaza is worth billions to Lockheed Martin. No other country has used the F-35 jet at near the rate that Israel has, let alone in two years of active combat. This cannot be overstated.
The comments made by Lockheed Martin and US and Israel officials over the last two and half years go beyond illustrating passive greed. Israel’s attack was immediately identified as an unprecedented opportunity by the F-35 programme to collaborate with the IDF and take the data generated by Palestinian suffering and death to test, develop, market and sell the jet.
We call on the UK government to correct the record, and admit that Israel is the key customer of the F-35 programme. We call on the government to immediately halt all transfers of F-35 parts to Israel.
Featured image via YouTube / Military Aviation Channel
In 2025 the disgraced, but still in place, US Homeland Security (DHS) boss Kristi Noem’s claimed on far-right Fox News that a victim of her and her boss Donald Trump’s deportation war on brown people was a cannibal. Not satisfied with that, she then claimed the man tried to eat himself as he was flown out of the US on an ‘ICE’ plane:
[This is the] kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country. …You know, what bothered me the most is that this U.S. Marshal just said it like it was normal. He said he was literally eating his own arms. That is what he did. He called himself a cannibal and ate other people and ate himself that day.
It was a naked ploy to demonise the victims of the fascist regime’s purge – and has now been exposed as a complete fabrication. Or in plainer language, a total lie. No fewer than three federal law enforcement officials – including one from Noem’s own DHS – have confirmed that the whole thing was fiction. One, on condition of anonymity, said:
That is completely made up. That never happened.
Homeland Security boss Noem already faces widespread calls for her to resign or be sacked – and formally impeached – for smearing ICE’s murder victims Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists“. She has persisted in these smears despite abundant video evidence showing them to be lies as well.
Ardent Zionist Noem has clearly been taking lessons from the genocidal colony she loves in making up atrocity propaganda to justify evil. And, just like Israel, her lies have been quickly and completely debunked.
Featured image via the Canary
On 25 February 2026, Jewish anti-Zionist groups and other anti-genocide humanitarians will hold a demonstration outside Westminster Magistrates Court. The protest will be in support of three defendants charged with using the word ‘intifada‘. ‘Intifada’ is Arabic for ‘shaking off chains’, commonly translated in English as ‘uprising’.
Despite its ordinary meaning, the UK Israel lobby in and out of government is determined to present the word as an antisemitic call for the ‘killing of all Jews’ instead of a call for Palestinian freedom from occupation and self-determination. The ‘First Intifada’ was a campaign of non-violent resistance, but the deliberate misuse of the word is part of the Starmer regime’s ‘lawfare’ war against free speech on Israel’s crimes and the rights of Palestinian people.
Holocaust survivor descendant Mark Etkind said:
Where will this attack on free speech end? Will people next be arrested for using words like ‘democracy’ or ‘freedom’? With some countries already banning the slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’, the answer to that question is, probably: ‘yes’.
Claims by Keir Starmer and other politicians that such slogans are antisemitic have no basis in fact. They are just cynical inventions to justify repression of a pro-Palestine movement which has always had numerous Jewish participants.
Starmer’s other anti-democratic persecutions of anti-genocide activists and writers have mostly failed so far. For the sake of justice, this one must too – but given the reputation of magistrates as presiding over ‘kangaroo courts’, it may not.
The protest starts from 9.30am.
Featured image via the Canary
Quakers in Britain and the United States of America have nominated Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination recognises two decades of community-led peacebuilding.
UK-based international NGO Concordis works in some of the world’s most fragile conflict zones. It aims to help people tackle the root causes of violence.
From Chad to South Sudan, it supports communities to rebuild, farm safely, and become resilient to famine, climate change, and war.
In their nomination, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) praised Concordis’ humility, respect, and consistent promotion of local partners.
The nominating letter said:
Concordis International’s commitment to peace is not new, brief, or transactional… Unlike the adversarial justice of the western world, they seek the healing justice for all parties, typical in a relational world view…
Their humility, respect, enthusiasm, and consistent promotion of their local partners over themselves is an international model for this millennium.
Peter Marsden, chief executive of Concordis, said:
We are truly grateful for the trust in us that AFSC and QPSW have shown.
More importantly, we’re grateful for their commitment to highlighting and applauding the unsung work of awesome local peacebuilders. These are the bold souls who work for peace where conflict is fought and felt.
Concordis works to ensure that everyone impacted by a conflict has a voice. This includes people neglected due to age, gender, ethnicity, people who take up arms, and those who do not, as well as governments and civil society.
Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers in Britain, added:
We are delighted to nominate Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Their work reminds us that true, lasting peace comes from the courageous, patient work of local people who heal wounds, build understanding, and bridge divides.
AFSC general secretary Joyce Ajlouny said:
We are honored to nominate Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize.
A century of experience has shown us, time and again, that peace does not come at the barrel of a gun.
And while diplomacy between world leaders is important, it is the tireless efforts of everyday people working to resolve conflicts and address injustices that truly builds lasting peace.
As former Nobel winners (laureates), AFSC and QPSW can make a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize every year.
Their 1947 prize recognised 300 years of Quaker opposition to war. And in particular the work done by AFSC and what is now QPSW during and after the two world wars to feed starving children and help Europe rebuild itself.
Featured image via the Canary
While Bad Al was visiting Ukraine when he was handed “an official EU folder for my work to get the UK back in” from EU ambassador Katarina Mathernova. What on earth are those trainers…
Now that the Peter Mandelson scandal has erupted back on to Britain’s front pages, can we once and for all dispense with the notion that Keir Starmer is a ‘forensic’ political operator who follows rules and procedure to the letter?
Starmer’s former UK ambassador to Washington was arrested yesterday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, allegedly for passing on financially sensitive information to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson himself denies any wrongdoing, and no one is suggesting that Starmer should have known about the precise contents of any private emails with Epstein. But shouldn’t our ex-prosecutor PM have asked a few more probing questions of Mandy before offering him one of the most coveted jobs in the British government?
What the prime minister surely knew when he appointed him last year was that Mandelson continued to have a relationship with Epstein, after his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. It was public knowledge – indeed, published in the Financial Times – that Mandelson stayed in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2009, during the financier’s first spell in prison. Starmer must also have known the Epstein Files were a bomb waiting to go off, with US president Donald Trump having campaigned for their release during the 2024 election.
And if the PM was unaware of any of that publicly available information, then he must at least have known that Mandelson was a magnet for sleaze scandals, having been sacked twice by Tony Blair and accused of dodgy dealings with a Russian oligarch when he was posted to Brussels as Britain’s European commissioner. Plus, there is the small fact that the man was literally nicknamed ‘the prince of darkness’…
Even if ‘forensic’ Keir somehow missed all of this himself, such things are supposed to be caught when the Foreign Office carries out due-diligence checks on appointees. Except, according to the i newspaper, vetting that would normally take months was carried out in weeks – fast-tracked under pressure from No10. Security-service insiders suggest that a ‘full and proper’ background check would have turned up some of the allegations that were later made public in the Epstein Files. But of course, that process was expedited to put ‘Petey’ in a plum job.
None of this is to suggest that we should overly fetishise bureaucratic hiring rules or vetting procedures. Who the PM should appoint as our man in Washington is a question of political judgement above all else. But isn’t ‘Mr Rules’ precisely what Keir Starmer promised he would be in Downing Street? Indeed, that cringe-inducing moniker was given to him by one of his own shadow ministers in 2020, for his apparently strict observance of the coronavirus regulations, in contrast with his cake-scoffing, Estrella-swigging opponent, Boris Johnson. Starmer was similarly hailed by pliant media for his ‘detailed and forensic’ questions at PMQs, for his ‘clinical’ and ruthless ‘cross-examinations’. Yes, the lawyerly Labour leader might be a bit dull and lacking ‘the vision thing’, Starmer’s fanboys might concede, but at least he would cross every procedural t, and dot every legal i. He would bring the eye for detail of the barrister, the ‘fearsome’, forensic acuity of the prosecutor to the job of prime minister.
The fact that Starmer can’t even get that right isn’t just a sign of his incompetence (although he certainly brings that in spades). It’s that those lofty appeals to ‘rules’ and ‘procedure’ have always been pure wibble. Rules are made to be broken, as the saying goes, and it is politics that dictates whether a rule breach is deemed a trifling non-event or a scandal that leads heads to roll.
We can see this most clearly in the civil service – the wing of the state that claims, quite implausibly, to stand above the political fray, bound only by hallowed rules and codes of conduct. Some of the recent scandals coming out of the Cabinet Office’s comically misnamed ‘ethics department’ would be considered too on the nose if they were written as satire.
The Sunday Times reported last weekend that Ellen Atkinson, the government’s head of propriety and ethics, was actually promoted to the job ‘in breach of its own ethics rules’ (the appointment was not advertised to any external candidates). Atkinson replaced Darren Tierney who, in 2022, is alleged to have ordered staff to break into a safe holding a copy of an investigation into alleged bullying by Dame Antonia Romeo, who Starmer appointed last week as his new cabinet secretary. The document said she had a ‘case to answer’. Tierney had the investigation and other files destroyed. Naturally, he says he acted within the rules – a claim dismissed as ‘extraordinary’ by a former civil servant speaking to The Times.
Before her appointment, Romeo was also accused of misusing taxpayer money for expenses and using her position to promote woke ideology. She reportedly told one underling to attend a ‘gender-nonconforming book club’ as part of a performance review. Which brings us back to Starmer who, just as when hiring Mandelson, is reported to have ‘forced through’ the process to give the cabinet secretary role to Romeo, his preferred candidate.
The picture that emerges here is one of fast-tracked appointments for me, ‘ethics’ and ‘procedure’ for thee. More often than not, rules, regulations and process matter only in as much as they advance or impede the interests of the Blob and its allies.
In the end, the Mandelson affair matters, not because Keir Starmer may have followed the ‘wrong’ processes in hiring his ambassador, but because he lacked the political nous to see why some sort of scandal involving the prince of darkness was inevitable. It is yet one more failing among many showing why he is so unsuited for high political office.
Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.
Whether you loved it or you hated it, Emerald Fennell’s sexually-charged reimagining of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights – featuring a brooding Jacob Elordi – still has us all talking over a week after its cinematic release. While the original 1847 novel didn’t feature any sex scenes, Fennell’s film is far more ‘Heathcliff, it’s me, it’s Cathy, I’m horny.’
But for all the sneaking out of bedroom windows, romping in carriages, grinding in the moors, finger sucking and… puppy play that Fennell portrays in her take of Wuthering Heights, how much of this raunchery was actually going on during the period in which the original novel was set?
When you think of sexy periods of time in history, we tend to think of the promiscuity of the Ancient Romans or even the more recent free love movement of the 1970s – not the late Georgian era. So before we all start wishing that we could jump in a time machine to 1770 and find our own Heathcliff to romp about the moors with, we asked leading UK historians what sex and relationships back then were actually like.
Social Class Dictated Your Sex Life
Right from the first opening scene, Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights features public hand jobs at the gallows and crowds snogging during a frenzied public hanging in an impoverished town centre – and you’ll be surprised to know the film was actually onto something historically accurate.
As the London Museum explains, public executions were more like a fair and a party atmosphere would be in the air as thousands of people gathered to watch someone’s final moments. Gruesome, we know – however, apparently it wouldn’t be enough to turn the Georgians off.
You see, according to Dr. Ruth Larsen, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Derby, pre-marital sex was really common among poorer classes during the time in which Wuthering Heights was set (1770 to around 1801). “Poorer people tended to marry older and engage in sexual activity prior to that, especially those living in urban areas,” she tells HuffPost UK.
So: thousands of people, likely from poorer classes, gathering en masse in an urban area with drinking and partying going on? You do the math – it would appear that this is a big old tick for Fennell’s uninhibited Wuthering Heights adaptation.
But what about those lucky enough to be born into aristocracy? Unfortunately you wouldn’t be ‘getting lucky’ as often as your less well-off counterparts.
“For the wealthier classes, it was very unusual for women to have sexual relations before wedlock,” Dr. Larsen explains. For people like Cathy, pre-marital sex would be off the cards as “the usual form of courting would have been through assemblies, formal gathering and family acquaintances.”
The sense of familial obligation, to uphold the positive reputation of the family, was felt by many, not just the richest in society – and the film yet again gets this right with Edgar Linton, whom Cathy marries, despite her love for Heathcliff in order to improve her family’s social standing.
And her choice wouldn’t have been uncommon in the late Georgian era either. As Dr. Larsen adds: “For most young women, marriages were an opportunity to find their place in society, to become mistress of the house and, if they were landed, of the estate. To decide to take a different path would have been seen by most people as unwise.”
The Logistical Nightmare Of Affairs In Georgian Britain
Of course, the sauciness in Fennell’s Wuthering Heights really ramps up when Heathcliff and Cathy give up yearning and instead start a steamy affair (cue the famous sex scene montage).
However, as easy as the duo make it look, having an affair in the late 18th century was far from plain-sailing.
“The scenes where Heathcliff crawls in through Cathy’s window are very much representative of the literary tropes we love today, but this might have been difficult to pull off in historical reality,” Lauren Good, Senior Content Producer from HistoryExtra, tells HuffPost UK.
If you were rich enough, you’d be lucky enough to have a separate bedroom to that of your spouse (as Margot Robbie’s iteration of Cathy thoroughly enjoys), however your bedroom would be adjoined – which, as Good points out, “isn’t ideal in allowing for a quick exit from your illicit lover!”
And if you did manage to get some time alone with your ‘bit on the side’, trying to then have sex wasn’t straightforward thanks to the fashion of the era.
“Women’s dress of the era wouldn’t have been so easy to get into,” Nichi Hodgson, author of the Curious History of Dating: From Jane Austen to Tinder explains.
“Women typically wore a chemise, corset, under petticoat, hoop skirt or crinoline, over petticoat and long sleeved gown – plus gloves.” Good luck trying to remove all of that while your husband snores next door.
At least Cathy wouldn’t have had to try and get her knickers off, as Hodgson points out that drawers did not come into fashion until the 1870s: “If a hooped skirt tipped to one side, you may have got an eyeful!”
In fairness to Fennell, we don’t see a nude Cathy in any of the film as Heathcliff navigates her many, many layers of opulent clothing during the daytime sex scenes in the montage – so once again, we have another historical accuracy win!
The Surprising Sadomasochism Of The Late 18th Century
Excuse our phrasing but buckle up – this might be the most surprising historical accuracy of the entire film.
Arguably the most shocking portrayals of sex in Fennell’s film come in the shape of sadomasochistic relationships, namely two servants enjoying off screen flagellation in the stables and Isabella Linton’s submissive role to Heathcliff’s dominant. And it turns out, in the words of Hodgson, “bondage and kink were alive and well in the 18th century!”
“We often assume that the stricter societal expectations placed upon those who lived centuries before us translated into their intimate lives, but that wasn’t always the case,” Good explains.
“We might dismiss this as shock factor in Wuthering Heights but flagellation, as Hilary Mitchell told us at HistoryExtra, ‘played a prominent role in English sex work from about 1700 onwards’.”
But before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s worth noting that BSDM-inspired activities were most likely services that men paid for, or engaged in with women in their service (female maids were often treated as household sex workers) as Hodgson explains.
And as for Isabella panting on a lead, you can forget about it happening in real life she adds – “not because those sort of dynamics didn’t exist but because no middle class gentleman and woman would ever be that brazen in front of a visitor like Nelly Dean in the film.”
While the release of Wuthering Heights has us yearning for moody Georgian era romance, it’s surprising how much of it is rooted in reality. If we do hop in that time machine, we’ll just have to remember to pack easier to remove clothing.
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