Activists from action group “People against Genocide” have used modified Transit vans to block the entrance to an Israeli weapons factory. Access to the Elbit Systems’ Filton factory was blocked as of 7am today. Palestine Action activists were jailed for over eighteen months without trial for damaging the same factory in August 2024. It was among the pro-Israel groups that pressured the Starmer government to mendaciously ‘proscribe‘ Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group.

Members of People Against Genocide “locked on” inside one vehicle while others climbed on top of the second van to blockade the site.

Elbit claims that its Filton facility is a research, development, and manufacturing centre. However, previous raids found the military quadcopter drones awaiting shipment to Israel. The occupying force uses these lethal quadcopter drones to murder Palestinians, and, in total, Elbit supplies the occupation with 85 percent of its killer drone fleet.

The Filton protest is part of a wider campaign against firms enabling Israel’s genocide. On 25 February 2026, People Against Genocide activists sprayed the front of the Birmingham offices of Chubb Insurance, a week after targeting Chubb’s London office. Chubb insures Elbit subsidiary UAV Engines, which manufactures engines for Israel’s drone fleet. Without insurance, UAV could not produce these engines in the UK.

A spokesperson for People Against Genocide said of today’s action:

Yesterday we were in Birmingham, hitting Elbit’s insurer. Today, we strike at them directly, by shutting down their key facility at Filton, Bristol. While the genocide of the Palestinians continues, we will not rest in terms of targeting the British-based companies and facilities, who contribute to these war crimes. Elbit, it is time to go!

The very name, People against Genocide, was likely chosen to shame the Starmer regime if it tries to proscribe the group too.

Judge Justice Chamberlain said last year that while Palestine Action was proscribed, the ban does not prevent other groups or individuals undertaking similar actions.

The Palestine Action ban has been ruled unlawful, but remains in place while the Home Office appeals the decision.

Featured image via the Canary

In many British homes — whether it’s a Victorian terrace in Manchester, a new-build flat in Birmingham, or a compact London apartment — the bathroom is often the smallest room in the house. Yet it’s also one of the most used.

The challenge? Creating a space that feels light, open and modern without knocking down walls or embarking on a full-scale renovation.

The good news is that you don’t need extra square footage to make a bathroom feel bigger. What you need is smart design — particularly when it comes to lighting, layout and reflective surfaces.

Here’s how UK homeowners are transforming small bathrooms into brighter, more spacious-feeling rooms with a few well-chosen upgrades.

1. Light First, Everything Else Second

If there’s one thing that makes a small bathroom feel cramped, it’s poor lighting. Many UK bathrooms suffer from limited natural light, especially in older terraces and internal new-build layouts.

A single ceiling pendant simply won’t do the job.

Layered lighting is key. That means combining:

• Overhead ambient lighting
• Task lighting around the basin
• Soft backlighting for depth

This is where integrated mirror lighting has quietly become one of the smartest upgrades in modern bathroom design.

An illuminated mirror distributes light evenly across the face while also reflecting it back into the room. The result? Fewer shadows and a noticeably brighter space — without adding bulky wall fittings.

More homeowners are turning to streamlined solutions like a LED bathroom mirror from LED Mirror World, which combines mirror and lighting into one clean, minimalist feature. It’s a subtle shift that makes a significant visual difference.

2. Go Bigger with Your Mirror (Even in a Small Room)

It sounds counterintuitive, but a larger mirror often works better in a compact bathroom.

A generous mirror:

• Reflects more light
• Creates depth
• Visually doubles the wall space

In tight UK bathrooms where every centimetre counts, extending the mirror width across most of the vanity area can dramatically open up the room.

Round mirrors are particularly popular right now for softening sharp lines in modern interiors, while rectangular backlit designs suit more contemporary schemes. The key is proportion — the mirror should feel deliberate rather than squeezed in.

3. Choose Floating Fixtures for Visual Space

Another clever way to make a small bathroom feel bigger is to lift elements off the floor.

Wall-mounted vanities and toilets create visible floor space underneath, which tricks the eye into perceiving a larger room. The more uninterrupted flooring you can see, the more spacious the room appears.

Pairing a floating vanity with an illuminated mirror enhances that effect. The gentle halo of light around a backlit mirror adds depth to the wall, subtly separating surfaces and reducing visual heaviness.

4. Tackle Condensation the Smart Way

Let’s be honest — condensation is a very British bathroom problem.

Between chilly mornings and steamy showers, mirrors quickly fog up, especially in bathrooms without windows. Not only is this inconvenient, but over time excess moisture can contribute to mould issues.

Modern LED mirrors often come with built-in demister pads, which gently warm the glass to prevent fogging. It’s one of those small luxuries that feels surprisingly essential once you’ve experienced it.

Instead of wiping the mirror down after every shower, the surface remains clear and usable — particularly helpful during rushed weekday mornings.

5. Keep the Palette Light (But Not Clinical)

White has long been the go-to for small bathrooms, and for good reason. But that doesn’t mean the space needs to feel stark.

Warm neutrals, soft greys, and muted greens work beautifully in UK homes, particularly when paired with natural textures like oak, stone or brushed brass.

Reflective surfaces also play a role. Gloss tiles, polished taps and illuminated mirrors all help bounce light around the room.

The goal isn’t to make the bathroom feel flashy — it’s about creating a gentle brightness that makes the room feel calm rather than cramped.

6. Energy Efficiency Matters More Than Ever

With ongoing concerns around UK energy costs, efficiency has become a genuine design consideration.

LED lighting uses significantly less electricity than traditional halogen or incandescent bulbs, while also lasting much longer. Integrating LED lighting directly into the mirror eliminates the need for separate wall lights, reducing both energy consumption and visual clutter.

Brands such as LED Mirror World have leaned into this shift by designing mirrors that balance energy efficiency with everyday practicality — offering dimmable controls, colour temperature options and sleek frames that suit modern British interiors.

For homeowners looking to update their bathroom without increasing running costs, this kind of upgrade ticks several boxes at once.

7. Create a “Hotel Feel” Without the Hotel Budget

One of the most noticeable trends in UK bathroom design is the desire for a hotel-inspired aesthetic.

Think:

• Even lighting
• Clean lines
• Minimal visible fixtures
• A sense of calm

An illuminated mirror is often the feature that pulls this look together. It frames the vanity area, creates symmetry and adds that soft glow associated with boutique bathrooms.

Importantly, this can be achieved without changing the entire layout. Swapping out a standard mirror for a well-designed LED alternative can refresh the room instantly — no tiles ripped out, no plumbing moved.

A Small Room, Reimagined

Small bathrooms aren’t going anywhere. In fact, as urban living continues to prioritise compact layouts, learning how to design them well has become more important than ever.

The secret isn’t about cramming in more features. It’s about choosing fewer, smarter ones.

Better lighting. A well-proportioned mirror. Floating elements. Energy-efficient upgrades.

These aren’t dramatic renovations — they’re thoughtful refinements.

And often, it’s something as simple as upgrading to a quality LED mirror that shifts the entire feel of the space from cramped to considered.

In British homes where space is limited but style matters, that’s a change worth making.

Demonstrators, campaigners and parliamentarians gather outside the Department of Health and Social Care to protest against the planned clinical trial to assess the risks and benefits of puberty blockers in gender questioning children (Alamy)

4 min read8 min

Last week, the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) wrote to King’s College London, the trial’s sponsor, urging the university to suspend the trial due to concerns over the participants’ well-being. The government agreed to pause the Pathways trial while clinicians scrutinise further evidence.

The study looks at the possible prescription of puberty blockers among young people with gender incongruence. It was set to enrol 226 children aged between 11 and 15. However, the MHRA said it wanted to introduce a minimum age of 14 for participants, and expressed concern about potential long-term harms.

“This trial will only be allowed to go ahead if the expert scientific and clinical evidence and advice conclude it is both safe and necessary,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said in response.

As The House magazine reported last month, Health Secretary Wes Streeting is faced with groups of Labour MPs with strongly-held, opposing views on the subject.

For Labour MPs who support the trial, it is an important route to gender-affirming healthcare that will improve the quality of life of children with gender dysphoria and alleviate mental health problems that arise from it.

However, those opposed to the trial, which make up a smaller cohort of Labour MPs, say it is unethical and that not enough is known about the lasting impact of the hormone injections.

MPs in the latter group are making a renewed push to stop the trial altogether.

PoliticsHome understands that Preet Kaur Gill, who is a Parliamentary Private Secretary to technology secretary Liz Kendall, is organising a meeting with Streeting alongside several clinicians and Labour MPs to raise concerns over the Pathways trial. In January, Gill endorsed Blue Labour — the Labour caucus which promotes more socially conservative positions.

Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said blocking puberty in young children was “profoundly unethical” and that the trial should be banned over the MHRA concerns.

“It beggars belief that the government ever gave the go-ahead for this trial,” he told PoliticsHome. “A ‘pause’ will not do. The government must cancel the whole trial altogether.”

He added: “Children struggling with their gender identity need love, support and compassion, but they must not be medicalised in this way.”

David Smith, Labour MP for North Northumberland, who also opposes the trial being resumed, added: “To quote it [the MHRA letter] directly, it says, ‘unlike patients with precocious puberty, the proposed cohort in this trial have normal biological hormonal and sexual development but a psychological condition of gender dysphoria’.

“It goes on to raise concerns about the possible long-term harms, such as irreversible bone structural change in participants, raises concerns about cognitive effects, and the long-term potential loss of their fertility.”

Streeting banned the sale of puberty blockers for gender-questioning under-18s indefinitely soon after Labour entered government in 2024. He pointed to the review carried out by Baroness Cass into gender identity services, which raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for the hormone treatments.

The same review recommended the Pathways trial as a means of research into whether or not puberty-suppressing hormones helped children with gender dysphoria.

Cass told The Observer she was “disappointed” by the MHRA’s intervention and believed that the regulator had bowed to political pressure. Gender-critical campaigners like author JK Rowling have publicly pressured ministers to cancel the trial.

“There are no new research findings and the MHRA hasn’t presented any new evidence,” she told the newspaper. “It feels to me like they are responding to political pressure rather than to science.”

A Labour MP who sits in the party’s LGBT+ caucus said they would be “absolutely furious” if they were Streeting. 

“[He] has been put in an extremely awkward position by this massive and unfounded change of heart by a supposedly impartial regulator,” they told PoliticsHome.

“This decision by the MHRA, taken without new evidence, only makes that task harder and undermines public confidence that the system is acting in the best interests of patients.”

Labour is clearly desperate in the Gorton and Denton by-election. No wonder, since it’s running a poor third according to the latest polling.

So with polls opening today, 26 June, it was clearly time for the liar-led party to break out its latest scam: make up a completely fake ‘tactical voting organisation’ that ‘says’ local people need to vote Labour. Then post leaflets with the fake company’s name on – and a fake website.

It’s almost certainly illegal, regardless what ‘imprint’ the party puts in tiny print on the edge. It’s definitely illegal if it hasn’t put one. It’s definitely lying, either way.

Labour are beyond desperate

Labour has made up – plucked from thin air or the diseased brain of some PR slimer, or perhaps Labour Together, as it would fit with that slimy outfit’s record – a supposed organisation called “Tactical Choice”. And, surprise surprise, the non-existent tactical voting organisation made up by Labour recommends that Gorton and Denton needs to – drum roll…. vote Labour:

Got this through my door in the last two hours and was actually taken aback by how far they’ve gone out of their way to make it look like a leaflet from an independent tactical voting org https://t.co/mrqkvEC2Db pic.twitter.com/QWwdJ34WHm

— RopesToInfinity (@RopesToInfinity) February 25, 2026

The fake organisation even has a fake logo – although it looks like one that Labour bought off the shelf for pennies, like Starmer did with his ‘Great British Energy’ scam. And that was definitely a scam. In fact, the party may not even have spent pennies: Google’s AI suggested that the image had been created with children’s wax crayons:

The image displays squares that closely resemble Stockmar Beeswax Block Crayons. These are known for their luminous colors, flat shape, and use in Waldorf education.

And the Greens have noticed, with Green leader Zack Polanski taking Mancunian MP and Labour deputy leader personally and publicly to task for the scam:

Dear Lucy,

On the eve of the by-election, your Labour party spokesperson has admitted to the Huffington Post that a Labour party leaflet has been delivered through doors with your imprint recommending a vote for Labour by a tactical voting organisation which does not exist.

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This is deeply troubling, it is actually lying to voters. ​ Did you approve this? ​ Do you feel the Labour Party in government should be held to different standards in terms of honesty to the British public? ​

In your last letter to me you mentioned your ‘very extensive data’ and ‘having spoken to over a third of eligible voters’ which led you to an understanding that the by-election ‘was a contest between Labour and Reform’. ​ Clearly this latest development only tells voters one thing – you will employ any type of political deception (or in Urdu “Dhoka”) to win. ​

You will be very aware that all three real tactical voting organisations are recommending a vote for the Greens as the best way to stop Reform. ​ Lying to the voters, as you have been caught doing, raises the real prospect that Reform will be the beneficiaries, something you have said that you don’t want. ​

As this is such an important issue, for the sake of your own reputation, I would strongly urge you to apologise to the voters of Denton and Gorton before the polls open in the morning. ​

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Kind regards,

Zack Polanski
Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

But the leaflet isn’t all. The website it contains is also a scam. It uses an address that sounds like a general democracy website: iwillvote.org.uk. But the small print – right at the bottom where it will probably only be noticed by the sharp-eyed who know to look – shows that the website is operated by Labour:

Labour lies and it lies and it lies. Then it lies some more. Keir Starmer conned Labour members into voting for him by lying and breaking every promise he ever made. Now he’s trying to con voters in Gorton and Denton. He fully deserves the electoral kicking that the pollsters are predicting.

Featured image via the Canary

Nadiya Hussain has labelled the TV industry as “broken” in an interview with the Guardian, where she exposed the racist and sexist system, which she explains is paying Black and Brown women less than their white counterparts.

Nadiya Hussain speaks out on gaslighting

Nadiya rose to fame in 2015 when she was crowned champion of the Great British Bake Off. She quickly became a much-loved cultural fixture, publishing cookbooks and children’s books, and making TV shows.

In Summer 2025, Nadiya posted a video on Instagram saying that the BBC had decided not to commission another cookery show. Earlier that year, she published a cookery book titled ‘Rooza’. It was inspired by dishes from across the Islamic world, especially at Ramadan and Eid.

She knew it would not be attached to a TV series. However, the BBC then told her they would not be making her next book, Nadiya’s Quick Comforts, into a series, either.

The BBC then said:

After several wonderful series, we have made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain at the moment.

Nadiya then discussed gaslighting in the industry on Instagram without naming the BBC. She emphasised that as a Muslim woman, she rarely felt supported and TV bosses did not allow her to fulfil her potential.

Soon after, Nadiya left her agent and manager.

Nadiya told the Guardian:

The last year has been intense, really exposing, but it has been really enlightening at the same time.

She told the Guardian that she had been feeling uncomfortable in her job for a while, along with dealing with health issues, which included an autoimmune diagnosis. She said:

I started to feel like a caricature of myself. I’d become a version of myself that was manufactured and comfortable for everybody.

I’d become this palatable version of a Muslim that could be on television, that could write cookbooks. I’d become this really comfortable version of myself that was easy to digest.

‘Overwhelming whiteness’

Nadiya has spoken publicly many times about the “overwhelming whiteness” of TV and publishing.

Over the last year, she has realised how broken the system really is, and that she can’t change a broken industry.

She added that:

It’s always been really difficult to be the only person like me in a room.

And understandably, she’s tired of people asking if things have changed or “are we doing better?”

She told the Guardian that she:

has no evidence that it was Rooza that meant some brands no longer wanted to work with her, but this is the feeling she can’t shake.

She continued:

It was really interesting, because I felt like people had just twigged, ‘Oh, she’s a Muslim’, and suddenly I wasn’t palatable any more. Suddenly I wasn’t the same Nadiya that I was before, because before I was writing cookbooks that were for everybody, and now I wrote this book that didn’t feel inclusive.”

But her faith and culture are a huge part of who she is, and she thinks that made people uncomfortable.

Nadiya realised that she had very little control over her career. She said the feeling intensified when she saw the world not embrace her new book, Rooza, as it had previous books, especially when she was so “immensely proud” of this one.

She said:

I know how many people felt seen and heard with a cookbook like that. I write something that is really close to my heart, and suddenly I’m losing brand deals and people don’t want to work with me any more.

A neat little box

Nadiya felt as if the TV and publishing industries had put her into a neat little box. But suddenly, she didn’t fit. Quite beautifully, she realised:

I have to be the most authentic version of myself.

I just softened my edges enough to fit in. Even things like I changed the way I wore my headscarf because it felt more modern to wear it a different way. I did that without even realising it. I much prefer to wear it this way [covering her neck, as opposed to wrapping only her hair], but this makes me somehow look more Muslim.

The people around her also suggested that she should not post anything political on social media, such as Israel’s genocide in Gaza. She complained many times about people making misogynistic or racist comments, but bosses always told her:

‘That’s just the way they are’, or ‘just ignore them’.

She wished she hadn’t let stuff go. However, she knew the higher-ups would see her as “difficult” if she complained. Which tells you all you need to know about the state of the industry.

She added that, as a woman of colour, she felt she should be “endlessly grateful”. Which, of course, she should not. This means she has come to expect criticism, especially on social media – she cannot escape it.

To make matters worse, the racist comments have become “noticeably worse and more frequent”.

She said:

I think people are braver and just think they can say whatever they want. The world feels like it’s on fire at the moment. It’s hideous what’s happening right now, and it feels like no amount of speaking out is doing anything. But I think we must not forget that even one voice is better than no voice at all.

It took Nadiya a long time to realise she was good at what she does – and actively silenced herself in the process of realising that. She believes:

I get paid less to do the same job as the white version of me.

Nadiya Hussain has talked at length about the racism, her mental health, and the trauma she experienced in childhood, but she told the Guardian:

One thing I’ve learned in the last year is that it’s really important to always speak your truth.

Featured image via Loose Women/YouTube

Nigel Farage at a press conference in Westminster (Alamy)

7 min read7 min

Reform UK’s foreign policy is, it is fair to say, a work in progress. While Nigel Farage recently nominated spokespeople for the economy, home affairs, business and education, the identity of the person who would serve as his foreign secretary remains unknown.

Farage likes room for manoeuvre and has trimmed and tacked his way around big foreign policy questions for decades. But, as he seeks to project his outfit as a government-in-waiting, pressure is increasing on him to define how he would lead Britain on the world stage.

The Reform leader does not start with a blank page, however. And while support for Donald Trump and Israel and opposition to the EU and China might be givens, Farage faces persistent attacks from his enemies over his past support for Vladimir Putin.

I think the ECHR is going to take up the majority of Reform’s thinking around foreign policy

In 2014, asked about the world leader he admired most, he cited the Russian President: “As an operator, but not as a human being”. A decade later, the Reform UK leader suggested to the BBC that the West had provoked the Ukraine invasion, saying it was clear that “the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war”.

Farage does his best to disavow these past positions, for example, telling The House that President Trump had finally seen Putin was “not anyone you can do business with” last July. But they remain a drag on his support. Polling by More in Common found only 26 per cent think that Farage sides with Ukraine in its conflict, the lowest of any mainstream party leader.

In seeking a reset, Reform has turned to Alan Mendoza, executive director of The Henry Jackson Society, and now the party’s chief adviser on global affairs.

Speaking to The House magazine, Mendoza was keen to stress that Reform does not have an official formulated foreign policy as it develops. But his insights are a useful indicator of where the party is moving.

“The Elizabethan age gives a sense of what Britain is beyond just its immediate confines,” he says, referring to a time when Britain had an “expansive” trading relationship and presence with the outside world.

 “Now, you could say that the date we stopped doing that was the east of Suez decision in 1967 onwards,” he says, referring to Harold Wilson’s decision to cut Britain’s military presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Persian Gulf.

“When you ally that to entering the European Union, which brought its own complexities in terms of our foreign policy positioning, and suddenly you no longer necessarily had a global British outlook. You had more a parochial Britain as part of the European Union outlook.”

He adds: “I think it’s fair to say that sometimes what we have done in recent years is put, for example, alliance interests above necessarily strict British interests.

“And now it’s about a time of rediscovering what British interests actually are. That’s the key thing. What are British interests? What are they overseas? What should this country be doing in a post-European age?”

One early concrete step in this effort to reassert national interest over alliances would be taking the country out of the ECHR. Invoking Article 58 of the ECHR, which would start a six-month countdown to leave the convention, would require consequent changes to the UK’s trade agreement with the EU and the Good Friday Agreement.

“I think the ECHR is going to take up the majority of Reform’s thinking around foreign policy,” predicts Fred de Fossard, director of strategy at the Prosperity Institute.

The Prosperity Institute, highly rated by Reform insiders, published a paper on withdrawing from the ECHR last year, with a foreword from new recruit Suella Braverman.

“It’s what their voters will care about,” Fossard adds. “They will get credit in the bank for stopping the boats, fixing the borders, ensuring proper deportations, no longer having to pay money into the European Union.”

The United Nations has come under pressure from much of the British right, but it appears Reform UK has no plans to leave the organisation, despite raising serious concerns over the Human Rights Council (HRC) and UNRWA.

Then there is the question of the US – and a relationship with Trump that is, by turns, a help and a hindrance. “Farage’s foreign policy is probably a natural outgrowth of his personal links and issues over the years,” Jonathan Brown, an ex-foreign office diplomat and former chief operating officer of Reform UK, says. “So, that’s both with American and Europe, moderated by concern for what’s electorally popular.”

Another constant is the party’s relationship with Israel, with many of its MPs and members holding strong pro-Israel views. “Nigel Farage’s party have openly supported Israel, and we’re really grateful for it,” Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, told The House in December.

“It shows quite a lot of courage and backbone to [stand] by the right side of history, talking in depth and not in slogans, not to populism and not to the surrender to very radical and loud voices.” Reform Friends of Israel has sent two delegations to the Jewish state, which have included party chairman David Bull and board member Dan Barker.

“What is there to be nuanced on the pro-Israel question? What, be pro-Hamas? That’s your nuance on that? Of course, Reform is not going to be a pro-Hamas party,” Mendoza tells The House. “Reform is going to be a party and is a party that is very supportive of a democratic state fighting Islamist terrorists.”

I’m not sure anyone wants to pay a billion dollars to [sign up to the Board of Peace]

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Despite these twin pillars – Trump and Israel – Mendoza is sceptical that Farage would join the Board of Peace, not least because of the cost. “I’m not sure anyone wants to pay a billion dollars to do that, but I suspect we might have some input because of our traditional relationships in the region.”

Mendoza faces competition for influence over foreign policy. Reform UK MP Danny Kruger and Farage’s senior adviser James Orr both met with vice-president JD Vance on his holiday to the Cotswolds in August. Although Kruger tells The House he is “not very close” with Vance, he describes himself as “a great admirer of his”.

The MP, who heads Reform’s preparing for government unit, says of the vice-president: “I know he’s not very popular among all sections of our population, but I think he is a decent, thoughtful man who – by the way – loves this country.”

The party also continues to pursue relationships with individuals from other parties around the world. Gawain Towler, a Reform UK board member, met with New Zealand First and Australia’s Liberal Party recently. He has also increased the party’s outreach and developed contacts with Danish and Hungarian embassies.

“Broadening our scope – as we must, as a responsible party that may be in government – it is essential we build those links,” Towler says. “[Farage] went to Davos to say, ‘I am here!’”

He adds: “We are not isolationists in any way; we understand that geopolitics is not going away, we can’t live in a small bubble.”

As PM, Farage might find his biggest headaches are closest to home. “I can’t imagine the UK-French relationship is going to be as close,” Ed Arnold, fellow of defence think tank Rusi, tells The House. “The UK-German relationship might be difficult; the UK-Poland relationship will also be pretty difficult.”

One of the architects of Brexit might be about to be confronted with the task of building Britain a new home in the world.

200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Gala, 2025 (Alamy Live News)

8 min read20 min

That was the motto of the Stockton and Darlington Railway company, which in 1825 ran the world’s first steam engine carrying passengers. It changed the world forever, turbocharged the industrial revolution, and my town is rightly proud of the role we played in shaping the future as we know it today.

The choices before those grappling with the might of the steam engine then and the choices facing us as we contend with new digital technologies may be centuries apart, but they are more alike than you would think.

Being constantly connected is fundamentally changing what it means to be a child for the worse

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The consequences of the steam engine included the creation of the factory system and a complete reordering of what it meant to work. “Steam engines set the conditions of possibility for this development. They weren’t themselves a ‘problem’, of course; they gleamed and were precise and powerful. Who could see them operate without awe?” as Princeton historian of technology D Graham Burnett and other members of The Friends of Attention coalition recently wrote in The Guardian.

But a “problem” arose as a by-product of the technology: a generation of children being exploited. The positives of these machines were felt by many, in one way or another, but the lack of regulation was felt mostly by working-class children.

Those children were let down by a ruling class sluggish to react, inefficient and uncaring. Yet the sometimes-fatal harms were entirely known and predictable. And the harms were not just from what they spent their days doing, but from what they spent their days not doing. Their childhoods were sacrificed on the altar of booming industry. While campaigners banged on the doors of Parliament, begging it to act, arguments for child protection were smeared as moral panic and those calling for change were painted as anti-business, anti-innovation luddites.

Sound familiar? In our time, in the face of the digital world’s own gleaming, precise and powerful steam engines, we must do better. Being constantly connected is fundamentally changing what it means to be a child for the worse, and it is our job in Parliament to act.

The first meeting I had after I was elected was with secondary headteachers from all of Darlington’s schools. I asked them to help me set up an Online Safety Forum, to hear from local teenagers about exactly what life was like for them online.

The responses I got from my forum members were clear. While most of them didn’t want to be offline, they agreed there should be changes. More than three-quarters of 14- to 16-year-olds in Darlington who took part in my forum had been contacted by a stranger online. “It’s not us that’s the problem, it’s the weirdos,” one told me. He was right: we must protect young people from predators, bad actors and all “weirdos”.

Our response must involve enforceable and evergreen legislation. We could use statutory instruments to age-gate VPN apps to 18 and change the age of digital consent from 13 to 16 under GDPR legislation. This would help prevent age-gate workarounds via VPN and strengthen the tool (or “bot”) regulatory framework by bringing the Information Commissioner’s Office into the online safety space. These two changes alone would also force algorithms and suggested content functionalities to change, and they would help prevent the marketing and monetisation of children online.

We could go further and make a register of children’s broadcasters, organisations and charities that are trusted providers of online content to children. We could make any new or existing social media functionality 18+ age-gated by default. We could empower parents and carers by running a national “five-a-day”-style campaign covering online risks and harms. We could force social media companies that want child users to prove via a licence system that their products are safe for children. They should have to complete a dynamic risk assessment and only after approval of their licence could they allow child users.

These licences would allow us to regulate functionalities used by online technology companies to harvest information, drive behaviour and advertise. By age-gating online products (and their functionalities), requiring proactive highly effective age verification, and creating a licensing regime for products used online, we could replicate the approach we take in the offline world towards age-inappropriate harms or spaces.

Some functionalities are clearly unsuitable for under-16s. There is no reason, for example, for under-16s to have any access to strangers. This has already caused too many children too much harm, and young people have told me they don’t need or want it.

We should ban all functionalities for under-16s that pose the most risk to children, either from strangers, from themselves or from habitual damage. For example, an under-16-year-old shouldn’t be able to publish their own content. Nobody deserves something they said or did as a child to potentially be discoverable for the rest of their lives. These functionalities should never be available to under-16s, and it should be a criminal offence to enable or facilitate that happening.

Look at these harms as if they were offline

We prevent anyone from driving under 17, not because all 16-year-olds are dangerous behind the wheel but because it is our responsibility to reduce the likelihood of children and young people coming to harm by being given too great a responsibility for their own and others’ safety. We must replicate this approach and remove the level of personal responsibility we’re putting on our children online.

There are lots of other functionalities that have been raised with me that seem to be destroying childhood and turbocharging the normal challenges of adolescence. We need to decide on the suitability of generative AI, short-form scrolling and viewing unregulated influencer content. Mass group chat, broadcast and mass sharing functions are causing very real damage.

Look at these harms as if they were offline. Imagine a new state-of-the-art community centre opens round the corner from your house. Everyone in the area goes; you see old friends and make new ones; they offer lots of free activities for young people; your children love it, as do all their friends.

But then you find out one of the sports coaches is bullying some of the children and showing others horrible gruesome images. Another member of staff is popping into sessions and spouting hate against women, and your child has started repeating it. Another is telling your child to try diet pills, stop eating or try a life-threateningly dangerous challenge. Then you find out your child is sneaking out at night to hang out at the community centre with adults asking them for pictures. Your child’s behaviour has changed, and they only want to go to the community centre.

When you complain, you get an automatic response from a robot. Then you find out nobody knows the staff members’ real names or anything about them. You discover the community centre is owned by overseas billionaires who take no responsibility for what happens there, and nobody is legally responsible for what children are told at the centre.

With no other choice, you go to the police, thinking surely they can step in. But they say the staff were using fake names, live in other countries and even the international addresses they’ve provided turn out to be fake, so there’s nothing they can do. So, you decide to stop your children going there.

But it’s not that simple. Your children get bullied for not going, left out of their social circles and, besides, people tell you it’s safe, it’s been great for your business, and they have some useful adult and child education sessions.

After a bit of research, you find out this is happening in almost every community centre like this across the country. At this stage, you and your other friends with children go to MPs and say they’ve all got the same issues; that their children’s mental health is severely deteriorating and child development in early years is suffering too. You say it’s happening all over the country, all over the world, and some children have been groomed. Some have even taken their own lives.

At that point, you’d expect your government to take action to make the community centre safe for children or shut it down.

It is critical that, following the consultation, the action taken by this government must work to make the internet safe for children. It must be uniform, robust and enforceable.

We have reached crisis point. Inpatient numbers at children’s mental health units have risen dramatically since 2012. Our school readiness figures are poor and the Young People’s Survey for England found this generation to be the most connected but the loneliest on record. The minister for violence against women and girls recently said 91 per cent of all child sexual abuse images are made by children themselves. That is horrifying. Parents and children need our help.

Platforms and big tech will (and already do) protest any friction to their services, just as the mill owners, the car manufactures, the tobacco companies, alcohol producers and all age-restricted industries have done before them. But ultimately, just as their predecessors did, these companies will have no choice but to act in a way that protects children and creates the internet that our children deserve.

Internet safety is a modern problem, but the solution is over 200 years old: Periculum privatum utilitas publica. The Stockton and Darlington Railway had it right – the greatest private innovations must be used for public good. Join us and win the fight to protect our children and deliver that public good, for the benefit of all.

Lola McEvoy is Labour MP for Darlington