Politics
Polanski pledges education overhaul and union support
On 31 March, Green leader Zack Polanski gave a landmark speech on education reform to the National Education Union’s annual conference in Brighton.
His stated ambitions were wide-ranging, including massive uplifts to education spending, resisting the forced transfer of our school system to an academy model, and abolishing the Ofsted inspection system.
The speech also marks another stage in Polanski’s fulfilment of a left-wing promise — he’s speaking and listening to our trade unions.
Green-union alliance
In an interview with the Times, on the same day, Polanski stated that he’s actively courting the unions Labour has let down. He said:
When I became Green party leader I said I wasn’t here to be disappointed by Labour – I’m here to replace them. And a crucial part of that is connecting with the organised labour movement.
Historically, most trade unions have been very strongly linked to the Labour party but that link is starting to break as it becomes clear the Labour party is no longer the party of working people.
Since becoming leader I’ve had lots of really fruitful conversations with key union figures, and it’s clear that many people in trade unions are feeling really let down by this Labour government and are ready to work more closely with the Green party.
As part of that move, Polanski addressed the National Education Union today—making him the first Green leader to do so. Standing before the attendees of the NEU’s annual conference, he spoke of education being:
pushed to the brink by the toxic twin pressures of ideologically-driven reorganisation, and an unforgivable squeeze in budgets.
‘Chronically underfunded’
Likewise, he recognised schools’ need for a “serious cash injection” — funded, of course, by a wealth tax:
The UK currently invests approximately just 4.1% of GDP in education, below the OECD average of just under 5%. That puts us significantly behind top-performing countries like Iceland, investing 5.6%, and Norway at 6.2%.
This section of his speech, in particular, drew a standing ovation from the crowd—and little wonder. This aligns directly with the NEU’s criticisms of Labour’s education strategy, which has consistently tried to force schools to do more with less.
In fact, at the same conference, NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede stated that:
Our nation’s schools have been chronically underfunded for more than a decade. Today, 74 per cent of schools have less funding than in 2010. The consequences of this are clear for all to see — larger class sizes, burned out teachers leaving the profession, and buildings literally falling apart.
Children with SEND have been failed for too long by a system buckling under the strain of a lack of resources. This cannot be resolved by cutting corners or small cost saving measures. Reforms to SEND provision need to be funded properly – including to pay for additional staff – if they are going to be successful.
‘We need to end the Ofsted era’
Beyond the underfunding of the education sector, Polanski also set his sights on the “fail, toxic” institution of Ofsted:
We need to end the Ofsted era entirely and move towards a genuinely collaborative model. One that connects teachers on the frontline with local experts – specialists in pedagogy, child development and social care – we must make sure teachers have the support and guidance they need to meet the needs of their pupils.
This mirrors the NEU’s own ‘Abolish Ofsted’ campaign. In particular, the union has criticised the government’s reforms for increasing inspection pressures and workloads for staff.
Likewise, the union also cited the psychological toll of Ofsted inspections for already-overworked staff. They cited the example of Ruth Perry, the headteacher who took her own life after an inspector rated her school as ‘inadequate’ in 2023.
Resisting academisation
In his speech, Polanski then moved on to the issue of the ‘academisation’ of schools, calling academies:
Another failed model pushed on to teachers and children by previous governments’ ideological drive to marketise our children’s education. And the results have been stark: a fragmented system with poor accountability, allowing academy CEOs to be paid enormous salaries while pay and conditions for their staff worsen.
Research into the impact of academisation on learning has found no positive impact on the attainment and progress of pupils in multi-academy trusts, compared to other schools. And in fact, in larger multi-academy trusts, particularly secondary schools, the results were worse.
Again, this is directly in line with calls from the NEU itself. In particular, the union highlighted the high level of dissatisfaction among teachers at Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs).
Using a Freedom of Information request, the NEU found shocking levels of turnover at MAT schools:
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Last academic year, large MATs saw 1 in 5 teachers leave their jobs and more than 1 in 9 teachers leave the teaching profession entirely. This compares poorly with local-authority maintained schools, where over the same period 1 in 7 teachers left their jobs and 1 in 11 teachers left the teaching profession.
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Among large MATs — defined as those containing at least 21 schools – the rate of leaving the profession has remained consistently higher than in other governance structures over the past 10 years.
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Free schools and academies have higher rates of teachers leaving the profession than local-authority maintained primary, secondary, and special schools.
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Among large MATs, several had retention rates of 75 per cent or lower at the end of the 2022-23 school year, meaning that at least a quarter of staff left schools in those MATs.
‘Zack speaks more for schools’
Given the fact that the Greens are clearly listening to and learning from the NEU’s research, it’s unsurprising that Polanski’s speech was so well received.
In fact, general secretary Kebede indicated something of a sea-change within his union. Whilst he acknowledged that over 60% of NEU members voted for Labour in 2024, he stated that:
I think our membership feels that Zack speaks more for schools and education than Labour do at the moment.
If the other unions can be brought on-side with the same effect, this bodes very well for the future of the Green Party.
Hell, in spite of their many (many) differences, even the Mail is getting on board:
Fair play from the Mail.
I said what I said. pic.twitter.com/xRWnob353P
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) March 31, 2026
Featured image via National Education Union
As of now, just 21% of the British people think Keir “he’s playing a blinder” Starmer is doing well as Prime Minister.
The 70% of us that say he is doing badly — also known as the vast majority — isn’t just a dip, but a crater.
YouGov’s latest tracker puts his net favourability around -48. That’s the kind of rating that is usually reserved for politicians caught in flagrante with an expenses scandal or, in Liz Truss’s case, the iceberg lettuce that outlasted her premiership.
This isn’t some right-wing hit job. These are the cold, hard numbers staring back at a man who once promised “change” the way a dodgy salesman promises a revolutionary vacuum cleaner that turns out to be last year’s pile of shite with a fresh lick of paint.
None of this is particularly surprising – it was just so depressingly predictable.
Starmer’s descent was oh-so predictable
Starmer was elected in 2024 on a platform so fucking vague it could have meant socialism-lite, neoliberalism, or a particularly enthusiastic neighbourhood watch scheme.
Keir Starmer chose the path of least resistance, managerial centrism, served with a side order of ruthless purges of anyone to his left.
This has resulted in a government that has alienated its own base faster than you can say “rules-based international order”, while failing poor and working-class people that it claims to champion.
Look at the last few days alone for the perfect example of why Keir Starmer simply doesn’t get it.
While households brace for yet another surge in energy bills courtesy of the escalating Israel-US illegal war on Iran, Keir Starmer jetted off to Finland for a military summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force.
I’m sure the Starmer-friendly media will call this something like “admirable statesmanship”, but the optics? Chef’s kiss of disaster.
Chaos
Back at home, pensioners and families are staring down higher fuel costs, a cost-of-living that refuses to die, and the grim realisation that Keir Starmer’s New Year’s pledge to bring down living expenses has aged about as well as a pint of full fat milk left out on the hottest day of the year.
This has become so very typical of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer’s leadership. When the people need bread, Labour offers us foreign policy briefings and hope nobody notices the difference.
The Iran-related energy shock is hammering precisely the red wall and working class communities Labour was supposed to protect — the same voters who dragged themselves to the polls in 2024 out of sheer exhaustion with Tory chaos.
Fuel duty rises loom again in September. Winter fuel payments remain rationed like wartime luxuries. And instead of the bold left-wing measures we needed — a proper windfall tax on energy giants that actually bites, serious public investment in renewables that creates unionised jobs, or rent controls to stop tenants being fleeced for every last penny – we get the usual centrist technocratic tinkering.
Starmer’s remaining cheerleaders will trot out the usual excuses about global headwinds, wars, energy shocks, and an Inherited mess, some of which is completely valid because the world is in a particularly sorry state right now.
A left government was and is needed
But I would argue this is exactly why a genuinely left government was needed. A progressive administration would have seized this moment for structural reform by taking energy into full public ownership to shield bill-payers, launching a real Green New Deal that builds hope instead of just targets, and pursuing a foreign policy grounded in diplomacy, peace, and justice rather than automatic alignment with whatever the Washington predator Trump dreams up next.
Instead, we get the politics of the “national interest” that mysteriously always aligns with the City, defence contractors, and endless summits abroad while domestic pain festers.
It’s centrism as performance art — all sensible suits with zero soul.
During the leadership years and early government, the left warned that purging socialist traditions, scrapping or watering down public ownership pledges, and triangulating on welfare and immigration would end in tears.
We were dismissed as unrealistic, divisive, trots, dogs, rabble, and – that favourite insult – “unelectable”. Yet here we are, a Labour government barely 18 months old, polling like it’s already on its deathbed.
The deeper tragedy is what this means for the millions of us who actually need radical change.
Starmer must go. The left was right all along.
Britain in 2026 still grapples with stagnating wages, a crumbling NHS and council services, and a housing crisis that makes Victorian slums look like aspirational living.
Only unashamedly bold, structural solutions can fix these deep-rooted failures. Starmer’s cautious centrism was sold as the safe, adult alternative. In practice, it’s delivered paralysis, broken promises, and the slowest political suicide in recent memory.
You see, the problem isn’t merely that Starmer is deeply unpopular. The problem is that the politics he embodies were never going to inspire the working-class voters Labour exists to serve.
We wanted transformation. We got tweaks.
For Labour to try and miraculously survive, it needs to rediscover what it actually stands for – or step aside for someone that does.
The shocking numbers really don’t lie. Keir Starmer’s centrist politics has failed spectacularly. The left was right all along.
Featured image via the Canary
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to invest in a defence fund weeks ahead of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The Financial Times (FT) said three sources have corroborated this claim, which the Pentagon denies.
On 31 March, the FT reported the following.
Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, the people said, shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran.
The inquiry on behalf of the high-profile potential client was flagged internally at BlackRock, according to the people familiar with the matter. BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and the Pentagon declined to comment.
Hegseth is a key architect of America’s illegal attack on Iran.
Initial, unprovoked offensive strikes on Iran were launched by the US and Israel on 28 February. Iran was offering concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.
So far the Iranian government remains functional. The main US and Israeli achievement so far appears to be creating a global energy crisis after Iran predictably closed the vital oil channel in straits of Hormuz.
The FT said the purchase did not go ahead in the end:
The investment discussed by Hegseth’s broker did not ultimately go ahead as the fund, which launched in May last year, was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy.
Making a killing
The inquiry about buying into the fund was flagged because it was related to a “high-profile potential client.”
The FT explained the perverse nature of such funds, and their links to global arms giants—profiting from death.
According to BlackRock, the $3.2bn equity fund, which carries the ticker IDEF, pursues “growth opportunities by investing in companies that may benefit from increased government spending on defense and security amid geopolitical fragmentation and economic competition”.
The newspaper also reported:
Its largest holdings include defence conglomerates RTX, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which count the US Department of Defense as their biggest customers, as well as data integration specialist Palantir.
The legendary US Marine Corps General turned war resister and whistleblower Smedley Butler (dubbed the Fighting Quaker) once said that war is a racket. That was in 1935, after Butler had tried to head off a fascist coup in the US. Then 91 years later, the fascists are in power, and, if these reports are true, they’re still looking to make a killing off the killing — at the expense of the people of Iran.
Featured image via the Canary
Nazi-saluting billionaire Elon Musk’s X app will be pivotal in a new wave of pro-US propaganda spread through American embassies. A cable sent to embassies around the world encourages staff to use X for psychological influence operations.
Commenting on the directive, a report by the Guardian, which has seen the document (signed by secretary of state Marco Rubio), states it instructs:
embassies and consulates [to] work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation.
This likely means substituting foreign propaganda with American disinformation.
The Guardian’s Washington correspondent, Joseph Gedeon, also noted that the cable:
endorses Elon Musk’s X as an “innovative” tool to help do it …[and]… lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.
The news comes as the US is getting spanked daily by Iranian memes and AI videos.
The message highlights five areas where US propaganda will focus:
countering hostile messaging, expanding access to information, exposing adversary behavior, elevating local voices who support American interests, and promoting what it calls “telling America’s story”.
The US will recruit Influencers, academics and community leaders in target countries And also develop an approach designed:
to make American-funded narratives feel locally organic rather than centrally directed.
This already sounds very convincing…
A direct threat to US interests?
The cable also states that ‘enemy’ campaigns seek to:
shift blame to the United States, sow division among allies, promote alternative worldviews antithetical to America’s interests, and even undermine American economic interests and political freedoms
The paper warned that:
Using digital platforms, state-controlled media, and influence operations, they pose a direct threat to US national security and fuel hostility toward American interests.
The cable also instructs embassies to work with:
“the Department of War’s Psychological Operations” – the military unit more commonly known as Miso, or Military Information Support Operations, formerly Psyop, which is part of the Pentagon.
The US State Department told the Guardian that Sarah Rogers, the new under-secretary for diplomacy, had made countering foreign propaganda a priority. A spokesperson reminded the Guardian that leftwing groups were being framed as linked to foreign powers and targeted for US influence operations:
The state department also noted that Rogers had already drawn attention for a separate report to Congress identifying Code Pink and several other leftwing activist organizations as vectors of Chinese influence operations inside the United States.
The fact this information is now in the public domain may disappoint situational analysts who love to refer to everything as a PSYOP.
Presumably this particular guessing game is much less fun when the US publicly announces its running PSYOPs. Hate that for you, lads.
Though maybe—just maybe— the announcement is itself a PSYOP…*plays X Files music.*
Featured image via the Canary
Israel has murdered two more UN peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon, according to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). This marks the latest lethal attack against UN forces, leaving at least three dead this week.
In a statement on social media, UNIFIL said:
Two UNIFIL peacekeepers were tragically killed in south Lebanon today, when an explosion of unknown origin destroyed their vehicle near Bani Hayyan. A third peacekeeper was severely injured, and a fourth was also hurt.
This is the second fatal incident in the last 24 hours. We reiterate that no one should ever have to die serving the cause of peace.
We extend our sincerest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of those brave peacekeepers who gave their lives in service of peace.
Since Israel began its bombardment and subsequent invasion of Lebanon, more than 1,000 people have been murdered and more than a million are internally displaced. Over 120 of those deaths are children, highlighting, as we’ve long reported, that Israel does not distinguish between civilians or combatants.
Furthermore, the UN recently recently warned that 370,000 more children could be displaced by the illegal Israeli invasion.
Given that the occupational power is unfazed by the idea of murdering peacekeepers, supposedly protected under international law, the fate of Lebanon’s children hangs in the balance.
The UN has condemned the deaths of three Indonesian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who were killed in two separate incidents, including a vehicle explosion.
They are the latest UN casualties since Israel expanded its ground invasion. pic.twitter.com/gwqjTZaLLW
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 30, 2026
UNIFIL says “the violence must end”
Israel renewed its bombardment and subsequent ground invasion of Lebanon after attacking Iran in late February. Under the pretext of Hezbollah’s links to Iran, Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) intend to continue their landgrabs as part of their push towards their “Greater Israel.”
However, once again, it appears Israel is doing little to disguise its sinister motives, murdering UN peacekeepers in their alleged “war on terror.”
UNIFIL has been on the record condemning the IOF’s flagrant violations of international law:
We reiterate the urgent need for all actors to uphold their obligations under international law and to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property at all times, including avoiding any actions that may put peacekeepers in danger.
Deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are grave violations of international humanitarian law and of Security Council Resolution 1701, and may constitute war crimes.
Pointing out what Western leaders are desperate to ignore, they have also said:
The human cost of this conflict is far too high. The violence, as we have said before, must end.
This fatal attack followed the murder of another peacekeeper on Sunday near the southern Lebanese village of Aadshit al-Qusayr. UNIFIL states that it’s not clear where the projectile originated from but is investigating the matter.
UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said early Monday that one of its peacekeepers was killed and another critically injured after a projectile exploded Sunday night at one of its positions in southern Lebanon https://t.co/FjqQSwPM54 pic.twitter.com/KvxAHKcTaJ
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) March 30, 2026
One of the peacekeepers who was killed is an Indonesian national, as was confirmed by his country foreign affairs ministry. They also reported that three more of their citizens were wounded in an attack described as “indirect artillery fire.”
The Government of the Republic of Indonesia expresses its deepest condolences following the death of one Indonesian peacekeeper and the injury of three others serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), after indirect artillery fire in the vicinity of the…
— MoFA Indonesia (@Kemlu_RI) March 30, 2026
Every murder is intentional
Israel has demonstrated its capacity to carry out targeted strikes in Iran and Lebanon. This makes the repeated killing of civilians, peacekeepers, and journalists all the more revealing, underscoring the intent behind how the state conducts its military operations.
Basically, if you’re Arab, you’re fair game.
Our own Jamal Awar wrote recently about three Lebanese journalists murdered by IOF bombs in a double-tap strike:
Journalists Ali Shuaib (Al-Manar) and Fatima Ftouni (Al-Mayadeen), along with Fatima’s brother, camera operator Mohamad Ftouni, join a long list of Lebanese journalists killed by Israel. An Israeli warplane fired five missiles at their car, travelling in the countryside next to the city of Jezzine, around 30 km north of the border with occupied Palestine. The last two missiles were fired at 2 civilians, one of them from the Lebanese Civil Defence, who were trying to save the targeted journalists.
If those war crimes tell us anything, it is that:
- Israel intentionally targets journalists everywhere they can
- Journalism is as important as taking up arms on the path of resisting colonialism
It is clear that the same logic applies to anyone resisting Zionist colonisers, including UN peacekeeping forces. After all, in Israel’s mind, if there are no witnesses then there can be no crime.
This UN official has had enough of this:
Yesterday, Israel deliberately killed a UN Indonesian peacekeeper and wounded others in Lebanon.
Israel cannot continue to be treated as a full member of the UN.
Attacking UN peacekeepers is an abomination which was in the past perpetrated by terrorists, but never by members of…
— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) March 30, 2026
It is long past time since Israel should have been rejected by the international community. The fact that the Zionist entity is still welcome shows the complicity of the world order in genocide.
Featured image via the Canary
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a public consultation on Thursday 26 March 2026 to finally ban trail hunting. This move aims to close legal loopholes which have allowed the illegal persecution of wildlife under a smokescreen for over 20 fucking years.
No more loopholes
The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) welcomed this consultation, but warns that any new law must be watertight. Hunters have used loopholes, such as following trails during hunting as a cover for illegal activity. Huntsman claim to lay false trails to follow. Yet most of the time, this is a lie. Whilst claiming to follow a person-laid scent, the hunt usually just use this to hunt real foxes. And I have seen it with my own eyes. Men on quadbikes claim to lay the trail behind them, a barefaced fucking lie. The diesel fumes would cover these within an instant if it was true.
A press spokesperson for the HSA stated that using trail hunting as a smokescreen is part of the ‘illegal persecution of wildlife’. They emphasised that the public must help ensure the updated act has no further exemptions ripe for exploitation.
The police (who strangely never appear on scene when actual illegal hunting occurs) have also raised concerns about the current law. Matt Longman, the national police lead for fox hunting, has previously stated that illegal activity is frequently disguised using trail hunting methods. This consultation will explore how to prevent animal-based scents from being used as an excuse for the hounds to ‘accidentally’ find and rip apart a live fox.
The HSA needs our help
Public opinion both in the city and in the country, remains firmly against these blood-thirsty sports. Just a few weeks ago the HSA filmed a pack of hounds shredding a fox in someone’s garden. There was damage to a fence, as well as trespassing from the local hunt who didn’t have permission to be on the property. By the way, trail hunting often leads to such trespasses and chaos as seen here. But, desperate to hide their poor, fuzzy victim, they entered anyway and manhandled a sab in the process.
81% of people living in rural areas are sick to death of this entitled bullshit from the hunt. They are sick of their property being damaged, of hounds running rampant and causing accidents. On top of this, a whopping 85% of the population believes fox hunting should remain illegal. Remember, tell your parents/nana that Nigel Farage is a big fan of the hunt, kids! Yet, on the other hand, the hunt claims that hunting is a necessary part of country life—bullshit.
It is nothing but an excuse for these inbred wankers to get out their weird bloodlust, with trail hunting used as a justification for continuing their cruel activities.
The HSA has used direct action for the last 60 years. They have come away with broken bones, knife wounds and so much more over those years, just to save animals from pointless deaths. And they are now urging supporters to engage with the legal process. In short, they need our help to get over this last hurdle and end fox hunting once and for all. The organisation plans to release guidance to help people complete the consultation before 18 June 2026. This follows a petition signed by over 100,000 people asking for a total ban, further highlighting the public’s opposition to trail hunting.
A better world for wildlife
This consultation is a part of a wider shift towards stronger protections for wildlife in the UK. Along with the hunting of trails being banned, the government is looking to end the use of snares and puppy smuggling. How the hell that wasn’t already a thing is beyond me. For activist, this could be the end of a 20-year fight to save lives.
The question is, does the government have the balls to end fox hunting once and for all? Will it uphold the will of the majority? Or will it fold to the will of a bunch of arseholes on horseback?
Please help us, and have your say here.
Featured image via Unsplash/the Canary
By Antifabot
The post The sinister truth about assisted death appeared first on spiked.
Celebrities are not known for their common sense. From apologism for genocidal regimes to slathering themselves in Korean snail slime, they are a remarkably stupid caste. Nowhere is this clearer than in their treatment of JK Rowling, where the approved line among those with more Botox than brain cells is that her insistence that biology is real is ‘dangerous’.
The latest dullard sleb to bleat about Rowling is Andrew Garfield. The Los Angeles-based star of Spider-Man told Hits Radio last week that he still enjoys the Harry Potter films, despite the ‘controversy’. He declined to name their creator, instead referring to her as ‘she that shall remain nameless’ – a nod to Lord Voldemort, the series’ arch villain, variously described as ‘You Know Who’ and ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’.
Unlike Garfield, ‘she’ is a woman who has inspired generations of children, donated millions to good causes and built her success from scratch. And with a new Harry Potter series in the pipeline, ‘she’ is also quite capable of managing without the approval of red-carpet sniffers. Yet Garfield spoke as though sitting on his arse to watch the films inspired by Rowling was a radical and brave act. ‘I feel like, oh man, we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’, he said. ‘There are so many beautiful artists who worked on those films.’
Naturally, he did not elucidate which of Rowling’s beliefs or actions is so heinous that even her name must not be spoken. Perhaps it is her funding of a women-only rape crisis centre, Beira’s Place, which she did because survivors in Scotland were self-excluding because ‘trans inclusive’ policies had opened the door to men. Perhaps it is her thoughtful 2020 essay reflecting on her experience as a survivor of domestic abuse, in which she champions freedom of speech and calls for empathy. Or perhaps it is her view that gender-identity ideology is in tension with gay rights, and that placing children on a medical pathway with potentially sterilising consequences is negligent – a position now reflected in the findings of the Cass Review and in the growing shift among clinicians away from the ‘affirmation model’.
Garfield’s position that art should be separated from the artist is doubtless informed by his past. In 2016, he helped usher Mel Gibson back into polite company after years in the wilderness, following his anti-Semitic rants and allegations of domestic abuse. Garfield insisted that Gibson had ‘done a lot of beautiful healing with himself’, a generous assessment of a man once recorded blaming Jews for ‘all the wars in the world’. He added that Gibson ‘deserves to make films’ because of his ‘very, very big, compassionate heart’. Whatever one makes of Gibson’s misdemeanours or subsequent rehabilitation, the inconsistency in Garfield’s approach is striking.
Garfield has joined the tuneless chorus of cretinous celebs bashing JK Rowling. The ingrates she made famous – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – have all publicly and pointedly claimed that ‘transwomen are women’. Meanwhile, Pedro Pascal, star of HBO’s The Last of Us, has referred to Rowling as a ‘heinous loser’. Of course, none has dared to take on the beliefs of ‘she who must not be named’. That’s because, stripped of caricature, her arguments are not extreme but recognisably grounded in everyday reality.
It would be truly illuminating if actors like Andrew Garfield were ever asked to explain their own position. Why, precisely, should rapists be housed in women’s prisons, if they say they’re trans? Why should disabled people be denied the right to request same-sex intimate care? Why shouldn’t gays and lesbians be able to reject opposite-sex partners from their dating apps? These are not abstract questions but practical ones.
The lazy platitudes spewed out by the likes of Garfield are not the product of careful thought, but of a fashionable, elite worldview – one sustained at a comfortable distance from its consequences. Celebs won’t find themselves on an NHS ward, queuing for a public lavatory, or trying to protect their kids from trans ideology in the classroom. They can afford their fantasies precisely because they will never have to live with the consequences of them.
Jo Bartosch is co-author of Pornocracy. Order it here.
Our wonderful grassroots football team Great Western FC kicked arse on Saturday 28 March 2026. The reserves team played Coleview in the fast-paced semi-finals for the Swindon District Community Football League Plate final. This win is about more than football. It is about a community that refuses to leave its young men behind — championing them at every stage.
But the match was not so close as the scoreboard suggested. Great Western FC controlled the match for most of the afternoon. Our lads headed into half-time with a 3-1 lead. While a late penalty for Coleview made the closing minutes tense, the result was never really in doubt
A captain’s goal and a rare smile
The pressure was relentless on Coleview for the first half. Liam Irwin smashed two goals into the back of the net first. Team Captain, Levi Dunn, doubled down on the lead with a low-drilled free kick. This clinical finish helped the reserves head into the halftime break with a comfortable 3-1 lead.
Supporters said Dunn smiled for the first time this season when the final whistle blew. This squad is the antithesis of working class, and this victory was a glorious snapshot in working-class survival. The players come from diverse backgrounds, some of them rocking criminal records, who have found a stunning support network through Great Western.
In a system that discards young lads with a record, Great Western offers them hope and solidarity. Research shows that sports-based resettlement programmes can reduce reoffending rates significantly. And for these lads, many of whom have felt the sharp end of the justice system, the football pitch is the rehab that the state refuses to provide. And Great Western Reserves show exactly what can be achieved with the right support.
Late drama in Southbrook
Coleview pushed back in the second half, as Great Western expected. With only five minutes left until the end whistle, one of our players accidentally tripped an opponent in the penalty box.
Coleview won the penalty, bringing the score to 3-2. However, our young reserves held their nerve until the very end. The squad of 16, includes six players under the age of 21. Two of the lads have only just turned 18.
This young group is thriving, despite a national crisis in grassroots sports. Over 90% of grassroots clubs say running costs have skyrocketed recently. Almost half of those clubs estimate their weekly running costs at £250 or more. Meanwhile, we have big Football Association players on buck-wild wages that they can never hope to spend.
The FA doesn’t give a shit about small teams
The success of Great Western FC comes despite a complete lack of support from the football’s governing bodies. Whilst the FA claims a social return on investment of £15.6bn, very little of this wealth trickles down to the grassroots teams. Recent data shows that 95% of the annual broadcast revenue stays with the top 26 clubs. That is a fucking shambles.
The FA ignores the reality of working-class teams. For teams like Great Western FC, the survival of the club depends on the community in the form of fees, but these only go so far. The real money behind our little team comes from the dwindling wages of the members, not the bureaucrats in Wembley.
Most local games attract three spectators, and if they’re lucky, a dog. Saturday was different. Over 50 friends and family members cheered the team towards the final. And afterwards they celebrated the win in the most working-class way. In the fucking pub!
The reserves will now face Lambourne FC in the final on 9 May 2026. The match will be held at the Webbswood stadium, home of Swindon Supermarine FC. And the squad will spend next month training their arses off to make sure they bring home the win.
Featured Image via Great Western FC
(Alamy)
2 min read
Karl Turner MP has had the Labour whip suspended after a series of strong public criticisms of No 10 and government policy.
Turner has been particularly vocal in his opposition to jury trial reforms, but has also publicly criticised the Keir Starmer operation.
PoliticsHome understands that the suspension did not relate to a specific incident and was in response to a pattern of behaviour towards colleagues.
Some Labour MPs were unhappy with an interview that the Hull East MP gave to campaigner Jody McIntyre, who stood against Labour MP Jess Phillips at the last general election.
Turner claimed that he had not been made aware that he had had the whip suspended before it was reported by the media.
Writing on X on Tuesday afternoon after the suspension was confirmed to PoliticsHome, he said: “I am being told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this. It seems journalists have been told but I have not.”
Turner, who was first elected in 2010, wrote in The House in December that he was prepared to break the whip for the first time since being elected to oppose the government’s plans to scale back jury trials.
It came after PoliticsHome reported that Turner was organising a backbench letter to protest proposals.
While some MPs had said they were opposed to the plans to scale back jury trials for less serious offences, the bill passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons earlier this month.
As a Conservative donor, I speak regularly with senior Tory figures, and I keep hearing the same optimistic lines about the party’s awful standing in the polls. ‘Kemi’s net favourability is improving’, they say. ‘She’s more popular than Nigel Farage’, they insist. Both are arguably true. Yet both miss the point.
Politics isn’t measured in favourability ratings. It is measured in votes. And by this metric, the Conservative Party may soon find itself in intensive care. The latest polling aggregator puts the Tories on 18.1 per cent, behind both Reform (28.5 per cent) and Labour (19.8 per cent), and only slightly ahead of the Greens (14.1 per cent). The Conservatives have become irrelevant, and the biggest barrier to recovery is the degree of in-house denial.
Some party figures are sanguine. They say the Tories’ standing is simply the legacy of 14 difficult years in government. They predict that time will heal the wounds of this torrid legacy. The truth is less convenient.
Outside a General Election, the real scoreboard in politics is voting intention. Opinion polls are the equivalent of the Saturday results for a Premier League manager. One or two bad weeks can happen to anyone. But a long run of defeats ought to lead to difficult conversations. At the moment, the Conservative Party is a team that is losing three-nil every week, but wants to talk positively about its possession statistics.
I say that with no pleasure. I became a donor because of Kemi. I like her directness. When she won the leadership contest and said, ‘The time has come to tell the truth’, I was genuinely inspired to write a cheque. But telling the truth must start inside the Conservative Party. It is time to ditch the self-delusion about favourability ratings. If they mattered at all, then Ed Davey would be prime minister.
To be clear, I am not arguing that Badenoch should go. Leadership musical chairs would only make things worse. Being known for moral honesty and purpose is a strategy, but denial is not. For Badenoch and the party to survive, there must be candour about the years of Conservative rule from 2010 to 2024. Voters will not forgive the party for its failures until they are acknowledged.
Candour alone does not win elections. Inspiring hope, however, will. And hope comes from sharing a heartfelt moral mission that the public can believe in: a fairer country where work is rewarded, where virtue matters and where bad behaviour carries consequences.
The Britain we need leading out of is a place where millions toil just to survive, while others idle at home on benefits. It is a Britain where MPs step over rough sleepers near the gates of parliament without breaking stride. There is a great moral argument waiting to be made, and whoever makes that argument the strongest will win the next election. Policy-wise, a four-year commitment to make the first £18,000 of earnings tax-free would be a start. Not as a gimmick, but as a statement of what the party believes: that work should pay, and that there is a Conservative answer to widely accepted decline.
Badenoch has the instincts for this fight. But instinct alone will not be enough. She must be honest about what went wrong, what must change, and what the nation she wishes to lead stands for. Many voters like Kemi Badenoch. But almost none are convinced to vote for her – yet.
Andy Preston was mayor of Middlesbrough from 2019 until 2023.
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