Politics
The shameful disinformation over the Gaza death toll
The way much of the media handled last week’s ‘news’ about Gaza’s death toll is nothing short of shameful.
On 29 January, left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, based on an anonymous source, that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had ‘accepted’ the Gaza Health Ministry’s (GHM) estimate of 70,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023. Immediately, major outlets ran headlines declaring an Israeli ‘u-turn’ – after all, officials had long dismissed such figures as Hamas propaganda. Journalists and commentators, who had spent two years lambasting those sceptical of the GHM figures, rushed to claim vindication. Among them was Mehdi Hasan, who crowed on social media that after every Gaza war, Israel ‘accepts the Palestinian death toll’. Hasan implied that those of us who dared ask questions about it were engaging in gaslighting.
However, as is often the case, there appears to be a significant gap between media narrative and reality. To begin with, the IDF has outright denied Haaretz’s report. LTC Nadav Shoshani of the IDF Spokesperson’s Department stated the reported 70,000 figure ‘does not reflect official IDF data’. In other words, the widely promoted ‘admission’ was based on an anonymous background briefing – not an official, verified statement. The IDF emphasised that any formal report would be issued through the proper channels. Unsurprisingly, this caveat has been conveniently ignored in much of the news coverage.
Even so, the framing of this story has been highly misleading. The debate over the death toll was never about whether tens of thousands have died in Gaza. Everyone agrees the war has been devastating. The real dispute, both then and now, concerns the composition of that death toll, the credibility of its sources, and how many of the dead were Hamas combatants or victims of Hamas’s own actions, rather than civilians killed by the IDF. In addressing these questions, the media’s performance has been appalling.
From the outset of the war, the Hamas-run GHM became the main source of casualty figures in Western reports. By early 2024, the GHM was claiming that about 70 per cent of the dead were ‘women and children’ – a statistic cited endlessly by sympathetic journalists and activists. This claim was always nonsense, and is easily disproven just by looking more closely at Hamas’s own data. Most of the casualties were, in fact, male, with a disproportionate number of those being of fighting age. But you wouldn’t know that from reading the BBC.
Those of us who dared to scrutinise the Gaza death toll were not denying that civilians were being killed. We were simply emphasising that the figures came from a party directly involved in the conflict. A study of international coverage between February and May 2024 found that a staggering 84 per cent of major media reports failed to distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths when citing Gaza’s death toll. Ninety-eight per cent of reports cited Hamas’s numbers, while only five per cent referenced Israeli estimates. Tellingly, one in five articles didn’t even attribute the death toll to a source, presenting Hamas’s tally as if it were an uncontested fact. Meanwhile, on the rare occasions that Israeli figures were mentioned, they were often treated with outright scepticism. This blatant double standard undoubtedly laid the foundations for today’s rampant disinformation.
Over a year ago, the Henry Jackson Society published my team’s analysis on the GHM’s fatality lists. The findings were damning. We discovered that Hamas’s lists were riddled with errors and non-combat deaths. Individuals’ ages and genders were frequently misreported (men were listed as women, adults as children) in ways that artificially inflated the count of female and child victims. The lists included people who had died before the war – including those killed by Hamas’s own actions (such as by misfired militant rockets). All of these were lumped together as if Israel was directly responsible. Unsurprisingly, the published toll made no mention of any Hamas combatants whatsoever. Every single fatality was implicitly presented as a civilian who died as a result of Israeli strikes – a near-impossible scenario in a conflict of this nature.
We also observed evidence that the Gazan death toll encompassed natural deaths, which would have occurred regardless of the war. Gaza, like any society, experiences deaths from illness and old age every day. These do not stop during wartime. But the GHM’s methodology appeared to include all manner of deaths in the conflict tally. It even used a public Google Form for individuals to self-report deceased relatives. Given that compensation is offered to families of the deceased, this was clearly a system prone to duplicate entries or misuse. Our qualitative analysis found that these lists were unreliable, and the media should never have treated them as definitive.
Initially, the Palestinian representative in London angrily dismissed our warnings. But a few months later, Hamas discreetly took action that proved our point. In March 2025, the Gaza Health Ministry released an updated casualty report that had quietly removed around 3,400 names that appeared on previous lists. At least a thousand supposed child victims were among those deleted. The likely explanation is that these were duplicate entries, errors, or otherwise invalid records that Hamas erased once they were identified. Our paper was validated: the lists contained thousands of errors.
Our research identified a consistent pattern in conflicts in Gaza: Hamas hides its combatant casualties during the fighting, only acknowledging them much later (if at all). This war has been no exception. Hamas officials have largely remained silent on how many of their militants have perished. Meanwhile, the IDF has consistently reported its estimates of enemy fighters killed. By late 2025, the IDF stated it had killed at least 22,000 Hamas and allied combatants in Gaza. It reported that the fatalities were roughly one-third combatant, two-thirds civilian. This ratio, though tragic, has been consistently maintained in Israeli military briefings. It is a far cry from the ‘nearly all civilians’ picture painted by Hamas.
Can we say for sure that the IDF’s own militant body count is reliable? Of course, Israel is itself an actor in the conflict. But there is historical precedent to suggest its figures are more reliable. After the 2014 Gaza war, independent analyses of casualty lists, along with statements made by Hamas officials, revealed that hundreds of the dead were combatants. Though during the 2014 conflict, Hamas had insisted that almost all fatalities were civilian, the numbers ended up roughly aligning with Israeli estimates.
The same dynamic is unfolding now. While Hamas’s public statements still account for zero militant deaths, behind closed doors, Palestinian sources have acknowledged thousands of militant losses via their Telegram channels. Our report found that Hamas privately pegged around 6,000 of the dead as their fighters. While this number is far lower than Israel’s estimate, it offers stark proof that the GHM’s narrative is a fabrication.
It is important to remember that the GHM figure includes everyone who died as a result of the war. This covers not only airstrike victims, but also people who died from secondary effects like lack of medical care, starvation, being trapped under rubble, or strikes from stray rockets launched by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While Gazan officials claimed over 440 deaths from malnutrition or starvation during the war, Israel firmly disputes that any deaths from hunger ever occurred. The IDF notes that Hamas likely counted individuals with severe illnesses as ‘starvation’ victims. The upshot remains that the death toll of 70,000 is a composite of many categories of deaths which, though devastating, cannot be attributed entirely to Israel.
The heated debate that followed the Haaretz report completely overlooks these vital distinctions. Instead of engaging with the complex reality of Gaza’s death toll, much of the press chose self-congratulation. ‘See, even Israel now admits 70,000 died – we told you so!’, they have insisted. But what exactly did they ‘tell us’? Many of these outlets spent two years obscuring the very issues I have outlined. They parroted Hamas’s GHM without caveats, failed to verify the figures, and overlooked the astonishing lack of combatants listed among the dead. They were quick to doubt Israeli statements about militant casualties, yet slow to acknowledge clear evidence of Hamas’s number-fudging. When the GHM quietly removed thousands of names from its records in March 2025, did CNN or the BBC make it headline news? Of course not. That ‘small inconvenience’ was largely left to niche researchers and think-tanks to expose.
Personally, I do not enjoy saying ‘I told you so’. The loss of tens of thousands of lives in Gaza is a reality, and nothing can lessen that human tragedy. However, facts matter, especially in wartime. I warned over a year ago, in detail, that the Gaza death toll was being reported without proper care: that it included errors, double counts, natural deaths and propaganda; that the frequently cited civilian-versus-combatant breakdown was unreliable; and that eventually, the truth about the underreported militant casualties would emerge. I was correct on all points.
Shame on the world’s media for ignoring these red flags for so long. Shame on them for allowing a terror group’s unverifiable claims to shape the narrative, and for smearing those who raised legitimate questions as bad-faith actors. The press should be scrutinising both sides’ claims rigorously, not selectively echoing whichever figures fit a simplistic morality tale we wish to tell ourselves.
The mishandling of this issue has done a huge disservice to both truth and history. Gaza’s dead deserve to be remembered accurately, not reduced to pawns in a propaganda contest. We can mourn the innocents lost while still insisting on an honest accounting. We should not fail them by obscuring the reason their lives were cut short in the first place: a war that was started by the terrorists of Hamas, in which they did everything they could to place civilians in harm’s way.
Andrew Fox is a former British Army officer and an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, specialising in defence and the Middle East.
Tommy Robinson is the UK’s most infamous anti-migrant activist. Surprising no one, he’s also an ‘expat’ who legally lives in Spain. If you’re wondering what the difference is between a ‘migrant’ and an ‘expat’, it’s that you’re average expat is oblivious to the point that they say things like this:
Imagine an immigrant in Spain complaining about other immigrants lol https://t.co/d1g6qmiHUY
— Jordan M (@Jordan_MG_) March 28, 2026
Oblivious
There are two things to point out here.
The first is that Spain is considerably closer to Africa than it is to Britain. The second is that the ‘Spanish’ Canary Islands are literally on the African continental plate (see the bottom left below):
For reference, this is how far the UK is from the Canary Islands:
A person shouldn’t be shocked to see Black people when visiting the continent of Africa.
In fact, the people Robinson is filming should be shocked to see him. Not because he’s white, but because he’s a racist little toerag who won’t stop travelling outside his own sphere of culture.
Tommy Robinson — Man of the world
Reporting on Robinson’s Spanish life, the Olive Press wrote in October 2025:
TOMMY Robinson has told a UK court that he formally resides in Spain – although his exact address will remain confidential.
The revelation confirms long-held suspicions that the far-right activist has used the country as a bolthole from problems in the UK, such as legal proceedings and concerns over his personal safety.
According to Ezra Levant, the Canadian publisher of the far-right media website Rebel News and a long-time supporter, Robinson is currently living in Spain ‘for safety’.
The claim was echoed in court by prosecutor Jo Morris.
The admission is likely to prompt questions over how and why Spanish authorities have permitted his continued residence, given his string of criminal convictions and notoriety in the UK.
Robinson’s safety has been called into question more than once. In February this year, Robinson claimed he was on the run from ISIS, but then proceeded to keep filming his location while abroad:
🚨 BREAKING: Tommy Robinson really needs money for his next luxury holiday pic.twitter.com/ZyLLcHv3FR
— Gadget (@Gadget440) February 14, 2026
Two things on ‘Tommy Robinson’ fleeing UK to ‘protect his family’:
1) He permanently moved his family from UK to Spain back in 2020, 5 years and 7 months ago.
2) His marriage ended in divorce in 2021.Tommy doesn’t have to worry about ISIS. Never in history has ISIS attacked an… https://t.co/8AsM7CVDdB
— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) February 13, 2026
The following are two examples of ‘on-the-run’ Robinson broadcasting his location to the world:
Tommy Robinson is laughing at his gullible supporters while he and his son are living a high luxury life.
If he is a priority target for ISIS, why is he keep updating everyone about the next location he’s going to be at. pic.twitter.com/jiYqXlYqOW
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 28, 2026
Tiny Tommy went to Mar-a-Lago and recorded himself while off his head. pic.twitter.com/axlACnb4Gq
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) March 21, 2026
Mukhtar has also highlighted Robinson’s other travels:
Scroll through this thread.
Tommy Robinson’s kids are living the high life, going on luxury holidays, flexing on a private jet whilst struggling mums are sending him £20 out of their last £40 in the bank. https://t.co/u33Iri7Con
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 26, 2026
Unreal
As a final update on Robinson, little Tommy has assured his followers that the screengrabs are NOT REAL:
I have seen stuff posted on whatsapp groups and here on X – people claiming to have some disgusting communication between me and my son about young women.
They are (obviously) not true.
It looks as though the far left, the islamists, and the real far right (who are working…
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) March 29, 2026
The problem Robinson has is that he’s so consistently full of shit that whenever we see him denying something, we immediately assume it’s true. A good example of this was when he told his supporters that the suspected scam he was promoting wasn’t a scam:
No it don’t , at least do some research before . I wouldn’t be sharing if it was a scam
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) January 26, 2026
For reference, the above is how his posts usually read. The following, meanwhile, is how his ‘not-a-scam’ tweet read (emphasis added):
I’m not usually one to post about trading tools or opportunities.
But loads of my friends have been using Core Signals for months, and the results are hard to ignore.
Some of you got early access through my mailing list. Every single person who did has made money.
At this point, it’s just depressing that people can’t see through all this.
Saying that, if his followers do get upset by the thought of Africans living in Africa, they possible deserve to be scammed by this shameless, little turd.
Featured image via Raw Pixel
As we’ve covered, the Labour Party‘s latest scandal centred on the WhatsApp messages sent between the disgraced Peter Mandelson and the also-disgraced Morgan McSweeney. We’ve criticised both men for years, so we were in a pretty good position to cover this story. The same cannot be said of one Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson:
girl… https://t.co/k9RvfUJ1NN pic.twitter.com/zz6RrKcKOe
— Ben Smoke (@bencsmoke) March 28, 2026
WTFApp
On 26 March, we covered that Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney reported his phone stolen in October last year. Given that this happened after his mentor Peter Mandelson was sacked, people suspected McSweeney faked the theft to covertly delete some messages. Suspicions only heightened after it came out that McSweeney had given the police incorrect information while also failing to tell them he was a key government employee.
Later that same day, we learned that the people investigating Peter Mandelson weren’t asking to search his personal devices. This was despite them knowing Mandelson had used his personal devices for government business. This is all especially dodgy, because they’re investigating Mandelson as a result of him leaking secret government information to the notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
So yes, this is all very bad.
But still, look at the state of this cunt:
The greatest vanishing act since Shergar!https://t.co/7vu2BvoHWQ
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 28, 2026
If you don’t know, ‘Shergar‘ was some famous horse that got stolen — exactly the sort of reference you’d expect from Johnson.
This is what the Standard reported regarding Johnson’s own missing WhatsApps:
About 5,000 WhatsApp messages on Boris Johnson’s phone at the start of the Covid pandemic have gone missing, the inquiry into it was told on Wednesday.
They added:
About 5,000 WhatsApp messages on his phone from January 30, 2020 to June 2020 were unavailable to the inquiry. Pressed on this, Mr Johnson said: “I don’t know the exact reason, but it looks as though it’s something to do with the app going down and then coming up again, but somehow automatically erasing all the things between that date when it went down and the moment when it was last backed up.”
Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC said a technical report provided by Mr Johnson’s solicitors suggested there may have been a factory reset at the end of January 2020 followed by an attempt to reinstate the contents in June 2020, but the former prime minister denied knowledge of that. “I don’t remember any such thing,” he said.
We think he might remember such a thing, honestly.
We also suspect he might know what happened to that horse the way he keeps going on about it.
Boris Johnson — Liar liars
Boris Johnson is one of the worst prime minister’s we’ve ever had, and if he ever tries to return to office we should throw chairs at him until he runs away. At the same time, he does at least bullshit with some panache. Keir Starmer lies all the time too, but he acts like we’re the ones at fault for noticing:
A remarkable thing about Starmer is that, despite being the most prolific liar in British political history, he is a terrible liar. https://t.co/v2IfP2kIqs
— Karl Hansen (@karl_fh) March 26, 2026
It says a lot about this country that our options for PM have been ‘eccentric liar’ and ‘boring liar’.
Featured image via Wikimedia
Saturday 28 March saw a significant anti-far right protest take place in London. According to Green Party leader Zack Polanski, however, you probably wouldn’t realise this if you’d been locked to the BBC:
How can the BBC justify how much coverage they give other marches which are significantly smaller in size?
The bias is so obviously blatant.https://t.co/vT67pvnoZh
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) March 29, 2026
Zack Polanski — Numbers
The Guardian piece Zack Polanski links to above notes:
Organisers say half a million are taking part – though police disagree
Getting an accurate picture of the number of people attending a march is always difficult, but today’s organisers say they believe half a million people have gathered in London.
Rally co-organiser Kevin Courtney, chairman of the Together Alliance coalition, told crowds gathered on Whitehall:
“Our estimate is now that there are half a million people on this demonstration – the biggest demonstration ever against the far right. And it gives us all confidence to carry on. Thank you very much.”
The Met Police say their initial estimate is more like 50,000 people. They concede, however, that it is hard to get an accurate number as marchers are so dispersed throughout central London.
Muslims, Jews, Christian’s, atheists
Gay, straight, trans
Public sector workers, private sector workers, students, retired people
Disabled people, older people, younger people
White, black, brown
All people marching TOGETHER against the far right
— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) March 29, 2026
We’ve joined the short march at the Together Alliance demo in central London today – oh and the rave on Trafalgar Square is already popping off 💚 pic.twitter.com/aRVWsfBulm
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) March 28, 2026
Polanski was a speaker at the protest:
“Look around. Look at the people around you. We are intergenerational. We are white, we are black, we are Asian, we are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, non-faiths. We are community”
“And together, we will win”
We WILL win. https://t.co/vzJZBLAQYD
— Anne Greensmith 💙 (@snowleopardess) March 29, 2026
Half a million people marched together today – in the biggest demonstration against the far-right in our history.
Our message to Farage and his allies was clear:
We will defeat your division with unity.
And we will challenge your hate with hope. pic.twitter.com/JfdWBiXiBC
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) March 28, 2026
While the BBC did cover the protest, it’s fair to say that other protests have received significantly more attention. A key example of this was the far-right ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest, which saw about 150,000 people hit the streets of London. An example of the BBC’s extended coverage was this piece in which they interviewed attendees to understand why they attended the Tommy Robinson-linked event.
As we previously reported, Generation Remigration spoke at Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom. ‘Remigration’ is the plan to mass deport migrants and their descendants from European countries. And as we said at the time:
We’re not quite sure how that will work in Britain given the continuous influxes of populations we’ve experienced since the Roman Empire, except we are sure, obviously – they’re talking about deporting Black and brown people.
Attention economy
Beyond the BBC, the Unite the Kingdom rally sent shockwaves through the UK media. This was because it was the largest far-right rally in years. Despite this – as Polanski said – even larger rallies regularly fail to capture media attention. This is especially true when they’re linked to issues that the establishment opposes, such as the liberation of Palestine.
Polanski is right to fight for all the attention this movement can get, because lord knows the media won’t offer it from the goodness of their hearts.
Featured image via Richard Burgon
Responding to their aggressors, Iran has said that the war isn’t over until they say it’s over:
JUST IN: 🇮🇷 Iran says “as the victors, we will set the conditions for ending the war, and the enemies will be forced to accept them.”
— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) March 27, 2026
The Iran quagmire
The message comes as Donald Trump has expressed his disinterest with continuing the war:
Just take a step back and think about the fact that he killed 200 children the very first day of the war and is now saying “that was fun but I’m bored.” He’s a true sociopath https://t.co/ncb9c7RmcA
— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) March 27, 2026
As noted above, the US did indeed strike a school, killing hundreds of children. People disputed this at the time, and some even claimed that Iran had blown up the school itself. What’s gone less reported is all the carnage since then:
I can’t find a single headline from a mainstream Western outlet with this story.
Imagine the coverage if 26 Israelis had been killed, mostly women and children. https://t.co/XvfakobZ3S
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) March 28, 2026
This continued assault has included more strikes on schools:
Terrifying reality check. In just 27 days of their illegal war, the US and Israel have demolished over 600 schools across Iran, martyring more than 1,000 students and teachers. They are systematically destroying civilian infrastructure with zero regard for humanity. pic.twitter.com/sB57A4kl0x
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) March 27, 2026
Trump has now claimed the US will pause strikes on Iran for 10 days, as reported by the BBC:
Donald Trump’s decision to pause any attack on Iranian energy plants for a further 10 days could be a pivotal moment in a conflict that has now lasted almost four weeks.
The US president’s commitment to deadlines is fluid – this is his second extension of this particular threat – but he uses them nonetheless for a purpose: to send signals, to distract attention and to buy time.
Take this latest promise to hold off a threatened “obliteration” of Iran’s energy infrastructure, a massive escalation that could trigger both Iranian retaliation against similar Gulf facilities and damage chances of a sustainable peace and global economic recovery.
It may be Trump wanted again to calm international markets; it has not gone unnoticed this latest pause was announced minutes after trading closed on Wall Street.
The boys who cried negotiation
Because the US and Israel have repeatedly attacked the countries they’re supposedly holding peace talks with, there is no reason for Iran to trust Trump. At the same time, there’s clearly a good reason for them to make the global economy hurt, because doing so will force their enemies to think twice before launching another attack.
In other words, Iran may be speaking honestly when they say this ends when they say it does.
That is unless Trump becomes convinced that wrecking the global economy is a price worth paying for a victory that takes decades to achieve and provides no actual benefits.
Featured image via Amwaj
It’s been a bad month for Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin. First he lost the Gorton & Denton by-election, and then he lost what little remained of his credibility. Now, things, have gotten so bad that his right-wing colleagues at GB News are mocking him too:
Incredible scenes on @GBNEWS tonight, where they’re still mocking MattGPT, with the Pride of Wales @Caiwilsh labelling him the Triggered Tantrum of the week! @GoodwinMJ has lost his own channel 😭 pic.twitter.com/pvOnbMI1UG
— andy twelves (@andytwelves) March 28, 2026
Hostile workplace
Goodwin is a GB News contributor, as they state on their site at the top of this unsettling mosaic of Matts:
As we reported on 28 March, Goodwin went on GB News to defend himself against the accusation that he wrote his book Suicide of a Nation with the help of ChatGPT. This went incredibly poorly for Goodwin:
🇬🇧 Failed Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin defends himself against accusations his book was written by ChatGPT by reading a statement written by ChatGPT.
Analysis of Goodwin’s new book, Suicide of a Nation, found that it invents numerous quotes by historical figures, uses false… pic.twitter.com/ywNgV2AEsw
— Europa.com (@europa) March 27, 2026
In the video at the top, a panel of five of Goodwin’s colleagues talk about the “many painful moments” from the debate — all of which were felt by Goodwin himself. The man inflicting that pain was journalist Andy Twelves, who has now said the following:
Are your colleagues mocking you in the workplace? Join a Union. https://t.co/v17tvHkw6C https://t.co/Xy8vr96gNt
— andy twelves (@andytwelves) March 29, 2026
Given his past commentary, we suspect Goodwin probably won’t be joining a union any time soon:
UK trade unions today are far more interested in upholding a broken model of mass immigration that undercuts British workers and serves globalist firms than representing the workers they were founded to represent. This is why Reform is now, by far, the party of the working class
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) October 10, 2025
It’s not just GB News who are going for Goodwin either. The allegedly unsavoury Dan Wootton called Goodwin out for his plastic Brexiteer credentials (the image is clipped, but it notes Goodwin backed Remain in the EU Referendum):
https://t.co/TZU892U4Pl pic.twitter.com/cBz17ykzSI
— Dan Wootton (@danwootton) March 29, 2026
And this is what Restore leader Rupert Lowe said in response to one of those patriot-bait nationalist accounts on Twitter:
Goodwin made unpleasant and quite sinister career threats to the young men backing Restore Britain.
I would heavily suggest he focuses on his own output, or at least upgrade his AI subscriptions.
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) March 27, 2026
Reform — Good riddance
As we covered at the start of the Gorton & Denton by-election, Matt Goodwin is a longtime establishment insider pretending to be an outsider.
Or he was, anyway.
Now that he’s soiled his reputation, he’s actually on the outside of the media career he’d built for himself.
Featured image via GB News
As reported by Reform Exposed, Nigel Farage‘s party is struggling to attract women candidates:
Just 16 out of 74 in Scotland.#ScottishElections pic.twitter.com/wIEr4xSGWd
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) March 29, 2026
Given Reform’s politics, this is entirely unsurprising.
Reform’s Victorian mindset
On 25 February, we reported that Reform have been talking about ending no-fault divorce. This would mean people can only get divorced if they’re able to cross the right government tick box. Obviously this would leave many — mostly women — vulnerable to abusive partners.
This is what Andrew Marr said to Reform’s Richard Tice:
Danny Kruger, you’ll have seen his speech today, and he wants to find government measures to oblige women or persuade women to have more children. And he’s also interested in getting rid of no-fault divorces. A lot of female voters around the country will look at this and say, there’s a lot of kind of quite posh white men telling us what to do, and we won’t like it.
Tice failed to provide any sort of answer:
‘We need more prosperous families which lead to a more prosperous country.’
Reform’s Richard Tice dodges @AndrewMarr9‘s question over whether reversing no-fault divorces is his party’s policy. pic.twitter.com/9RpwHoFxU5
— LBC (@LBC) February 24, 2026
There was also the case of the councillor who reposted that a female Labour MP ‘should be shot’:
It’s additionally the case that Nigel Farage was accused of using grooming gang victims for political capital (accused by the victims themselves, in fact).
As we reported at the time:
On 28 October, we reported that Nigel Farage had inserted himself into the latest UK grooming gangs inquiry. In that piece, we covered that a former employee had accused him of opportunism. We also highlighted that Farage may not be the best person to speak out on this topic given his support for convicted rapist Donald Trump, or the fact that he refused to clearly condemn the alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate:
A man is judged by the company he keeps. pic.twitter.com/vOZLwzKTje
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) October 28, 2025
Since then, Farage’s involvement has further toxified the potential inquiry, with several abuse victims demanding an apology from the Reform leader:
EXCL: Five women have asked for an apology from Nigel Farage after he suggested they weren’t victims of grooming gangs.
They said that, while they had been abused by Asian men, they were “aware the inquiry is not just about us” and the comments were “degrading and humiliating”.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 29, 2025
Reporting on the party’s “problem with women”, Alexandra Topping wrote in the Guardian:
When Nigel Farage told a journalist this week she should “write some silly story … and we won’t bother to read it”, it provoked an instant – and divided – reaction. For some it was a “masterclass” in dealing with mainstream media, but for others it was “rude, dismissive, misogynistic, arrogant”.
Behind the scenes, Farage’s treatment of the Financial Times’s Anna Gross – which was met with mirth and applause among Reform diehards in the room – provoked disquiet and anger among lobby journalists across the political spectrum.
As the Reform UK leader was leaving the event, a Guardian political reporter suggested he had been rude and had upset the journalist. “Good,” Farage responded.
It is not the first time Farage has been accused of patronising a female journalist. When the former BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain asked him about the potential consequences of shooting down Russian planes last October, Farage responded: “Listen love, you’re trying ever so hard.” A month later he accused the Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey of playing a “silly little game” when she asked who his chancellor would be.
Unsurprising
Because of the above, it’s unsurprising to see Reform are doing significantly less well with women:
It’s also unsurprising to learn that they are struggling to attract female candidates.
Going forwards, it will be interesting to see if Reform try to appeal to women, or if they simply hope that legions of new, resentful men magically appear out of nowhere.
Featured image via Estitxcu Carton (Wikimedia)
The turnout at the “independence march and rally” yesterday was so abysmally poor that it seems almost unfair to pick on any of the scores of SNP elected representatives who didn’t bother to show up.
But dear old Cosy Feet Pete Wishart had the most chef’s-kiss excuse of all.
The reason he didn’t fancy getting his wee Billy Whizz quiff blown about a chilly Calton Hill was that he had important business “taking on the far right” – who were of course nowhere to be seen – with “half a million” (50,000) of his British besties, a convenient short Tube ride away from his London residence, at an event called… UK Together.
Now there’s some more irony you can’t buy.
Just like Mick McCann from Preacher guarding New York from the Kaiser in 1917, the MP for Perth and Kinross-shire has done a heroic job defending Britain from the far right and fighting for Scottish independence from the plush safety of the Palace Of Westminster for the last 25 years – even though we’re out of the EU, independence is nowhere in sight and Nigel Farage is set to be the next Prime Minister.
But time and tide waits for no man, and as Farage enters No.10 and Wishart walks off to retirement, (having handily reached the requisite age by the next election), Slippers will just have to wipe his tears over quarter of a century of total failure on his fat UK Parliament pension of around £50,000 a year for the rest of his life.
Thanks for your service, Pete.
Last night, John and I sat down to watch the Huw Edwards drama which Channel 5 showed last week. It was that or Virgin River or the Hotel Inspector.
Watching a drama about someone you vaguely know was bound to be a strange experience. What I wasn’t expecting, but should have, was that it was a profoundly uncomfortable viewing experience.
I had lunch with Huw Edwards back in 2021, when all this woeful saga was going on. I can’t quite remember how it came about, as I had never met him before, but I dutifully turned up at the Langham hotel, opposite Broadcasting House in Portland Place, looking forward to having a chat with the man who was Britain’s premier news broadcaster. In all honesty, I was flattered to be asked.
While I never suspected him of doing anything like the things he has been found guilty of, the whole lunch was a profoundly weird experience. He seemed to be on edge the whole time. I knew he had had depression, but he was acting very oddly. Admittedly, at times he was quite funny and entertaining, but kept obsessing about various of his BBC news colleagues and how incompetent or ghastly they were. Jeremy Vine copped it more than most. When I left the Langham, I remember thinking ‘well that was weird’.
When The Sun story broke about a famous BBC personality, I just somehow knew it was him. I have a terrible Gaydar, but I do remember wondering about his sexuality, despite knowing he had five children. I also had a number of younger gay friends who told me how attractive they found him, way before the scandal became public.
In some ways. Martin Clunes played a blinder. He looked far more like him than I expected him to, and got his voice quite well too. I thought at times he ventured a little into caricature, and played up to dramatic necessity to make him appear monster-like. We could certainly have done without the w*****g scene, but overall the drama stayed just the right side of the taste line and didn’t go too far into prurience.
When the scandal first broke, I will admit to having some sympathy with Huw, but that soon disappeared when it was revealed that he had accepted and scene nearly 400 images of underage children, some of whom were under ten.
Huw had lived the secret of being gay, or bi, for all his life. He’s not alone in that. He came from a small Welsh village and inevitably led a closeted existence. By the time he acted on his feelings, he was well into middle age. He’s not alone in that. He was also clearly flattered by the attention of young men. He’s not alone in that. However, what he has done is enabled people who have a stereotypical view of dirty old gay men to be reenforced, and that is unforgiveable. Some people still assume all gay men are happy to sleep with anyone else that has a penis, including those who are underage. It is simply untrue. Gay people are no more susceptible to paedophilia than straight people are, yet the myth still persists. And Huw Edwards is partly responsible for that.
So, it’s Virgin River on Netflix tonight…
With the local elections fast approaching, Reform UK are gearing up for a fight. The problem is they keep punching themselves in the face — most notably by borrowing a Jimmy Saville catchphrase and by refusing to dismiss a would-be candidate who did a Nazi salute. Shockingly, however, it seems like things are even worse under the surface than they are on top:
Reform candidate for Swansea in the upcoming Welsh elections steps down.
Very strong statement.
“Politics is a dirty game, but Reform has sunk deep into the sewer when it should have been a beacon of decency.”
This tallies with what many long-term Reform members have been… pic.twitter.com/HKY9cgucTX
— Will Hayward (@WillHayCardiff) March 28, 2026
Sewer politics
The above message reads in full:
Having been an active member of Reform since it was founded, and the Brexit Party before that, it is with some sadness that I resign. In truth, Reform has left me.
The party I joined and helped build had a clear vision of how to solve our country’s problems: better politicians who care more about the people they serve than their careers. That’s how we fought the 2024 general election, winning 14.3% of the vote across the UK. In Swansea, I came in second, with 17.5% of the vote.
The “professionalisation” of the party has led it to take its members and candidates for granted. Communications that once began “Thank you” now more often start “You are required to…”. The party’s employees in Millbank forget that branch officers and candidates are unpaid volunteers.
Some will call my resignation petulance or sour grapes at my lowly placing on the list (fifth to an ex-Tory on the make and three novices). That rankles, but it has also confirmed to me what I feared; Reform is no longer open or honest. Politics is a dirty game, but Reform has sunk deep into the sewer when it should have been a beacon of decency.
Across Wales the candidate appointment does not reflect how people performed in the selection process; I know because I was there. In many constituencies those at the top of the list are not the best. Far too many are Tories – and the Reform vote will suffer.
Politics should be about openness, decency and serving the country, which it once was in Reform. Politics is (or should be) about people, not process. Principles, not opportunism. Passion, not career building.
The Reform Party has betrayed its early members’ vision, labour and achievements. I won’t be a party to that, so I resign.
As we’ve been saying for some time, Reform is morphing into the Conservative Party 2.0, and its early members can’t stomach it. The question is whether voters will realise this before or after they have the opportunity to vote in the 2029 election.
Candidate collapse
As reported by Reform Exposed, the above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their candidate chaos.
In only a couple of weeks you’ve had 5 candidates suspended or quit! https://t.co/b406LfFNVA
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) March 28, 2026
David Barker is Reform UK’s candidate in the Sunderland local elections.
These allegations about him are quite concerning @ReformUKSun & @reformparty_uk.
He set up a website and Facebook page called The Masked Truth, which claims to help members with social services and family… pic.twitter.com/btnH5N1cxL
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) March 28, 2026
If anyone was on the fence about the Reform UK #Senedd candidate Corey Edwards, that did the Hitler salute and resigned.
Here’s a video he took of himself drinking whilst driving. pic.twitter.com/J7CRCCdn4q
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) March 28, 2026
There was also this mess:
🚨 REFORM CAN’T EVEN GET THE BASICS RIGHT 🚨
In a rush to push out candidates, Reform UK now has a new NHS worker candidate posting campaign material in uniform — clearly against National Health Service rules on uniform use.
Respect to the profession — absolutely. But dragging… pic.twitter.com/m3z9PmO0bZ
— Sly U (@SlyForTheRight) March 28, 2026
And they’re are struggling to hold on to sitting councillors too:
Reform UK councillor suspended by party after allegations she shared racist social media postshttps://t.co/00mUeojrn9
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) March 28, 2026
‘Reform Will Fix It’
When we said that Reform have borrowed a Jimmy Saville catchphrase, this is what we were talking about:
According to Nigel Farage, ‘Reform Will Fix It’. Now where the ‘paedo Jimmy Saville’ have we heard that before?
Via @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/bamdUWWV8r
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) March 29, 2026
That’s right — ‘Reform Will Fix It’.
We’re not sure what the ‘It’ refers to, but Reform’s key fault is their inability to field a normal candidate.
Featured image via emap
As we’ve covered extensively, Keir Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson to be our ambassador to the US despite knowing that the man enjoyed a weird friendship with the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Further revelations led to Mandelson being sacked; they also led to Starmer’s chief of staff and Mandelson protege Morgan McSweeney resigning in disgrace.
All of this is known and on the record.
And yet Labour politicians want you to believe that people who speculate on the finer details are ‘conspiracy theorists’:
Phillipson: the wider coverage around McSweeneys phone is drifting into conspiracy theory
Because the PMs chief of staff ringing the police like any ordinary person, not identifying himself, giving false details, no apparent govt security protocols, thats all perfectly normal! pic.twitter.com/hXlOcoSaUQ
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 29, 2026
We’re sorry, but if you didn’t want conspiracy theories, maybe you shouldn’t have appointed the guy who was best pals with Jeffrey Epstein — the man at the centre of the 21st century’s most far-reaching conspiracy.
Morgan McSweeney — Conspiracy
We’ve covered the latest intricacies of the scandal here, but the TLDR is:
In the clip above, host Trevor Phillips said to Bridget Phillipson:
Let me ask you about the story of the week. Why is Morgan McSweeney the only person in the modern world who doesn’t have his messages automatically backed up to the cloud so that we can recover them and see what traffic there was between him and our former ambassador to the United States?
Smirking as ever, Phillipson responded:
I think your question’s a bit of a reach in terms of that.
When asked why, she said:
It’s hyperbole and you know it.
Oh, sorry — she’s right — some people don’t backup their messages. That’s the real issue here — somewhat exaggerated language.
After confirming that Phillipson’s messages were backed up in line with government guidelines, Phillips asked:
Why aren’t Morgan McSweeney’s?
Phillipson answered:
What happened here, which we all know, is that Morgan McSweeney was mugged
Oh yeah, we’re all 100% confident that the famously dishonest McSweeney was truthful about this ‘theft’ which happened at the maximum moment of benefit to himself.
She continued, noting that McSweeney:
reported that to the police, followed all of the processes that were asked of him.
“That were asked of him” — ignoring the fact that the police didn’t ask him to do more because they weren’t told he was the prime minister’s chief of staff.
Getting to the truly offensive part, Phillipson said:
And I do think some of this wider coverage is drifting into… conspiracy theory territory here.
Oh, is that right?
Do you think that’s because the official narrative is so full of holes that people need to use their imagination to make it make sense?
Phillipson got a similarly harsh response from Lewis Goodall on LBC:
‘He’s not some geezer down the pub – he’s the Prime Minister’s chief of staff!’
@Lewis_Goodall responds to Bridget Phillipson’s suggestion that coverage of Morgan McSweeney’s phone is ‘getting ridiculous’. pic.twitter.com/nkmluPxk7a— LBC (@LBC) March 29, 2026
A big club
Interestingly, Phillips would later turn the conspiracy logic on Kemi Badenoch:
Absolutely wild scenes here as Peter Mandelson’s best friend insists there’s nothing weird about Peter Mandelson’s protege misplacing his phone at the height of a very serious scandal about Peter Mandelson passing information to a foreign agent. And he is *the host of the show*. https://t.co/4jx9MRhmsa
— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) March 29, 2026
By ‘best friend’, what Flying Rodent means is that Mandelson was the best man at Phillips’ wedding.
This isn’t a conspiracy; this is what it looks like when your political and media establishment are so firmly entwined that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
Featured image via Sky
‘Spiked’ student saved from two strangers on night out by hero taxi driver
Snoop Dogg Drops New Album, Olympic Legacy Continues in Busy 2026
MicroStrategy Chair Michael Saylor Breaks 13-Week Bitcoin Buying Ritual
-
NewsBeat4 days agoManchester United reach agreement with Casemiro over contract clause amid transfer speculation
-
News Videos4 days agoParliament publishes latest register of MPs’ financial interests
-
Sports6 days agoGary Kirsten Accuses Pakistan Cricket Board Of ‘Interference’, Mohsin Naqvi Responds
-
Sports6 days agoRemo Stars and Kano Pillars Strengthen Survival Hopes in NPFL
-
Tech7 days agoAI enters the chat: New Seattle dating app relies on tech to facilitate meaningful human connections
-
Business3 days agoInstagram, YouTube Found Responsible for Teen’s Mental Health Struggle in Historic Ruling
-
News Videos6 days agoCh 9 Financial Management Part 1 | Detailed One Shot | Class 12 Business Studies Boards 2026
-
NewsBeat2 days agoThe Story hosts event on Durham’s historic registers
-
NewsBeat4 days agoTesco is selling new Cadbury Dairy Milk bar and people can’t wait to try it
-
Tech6 days agoSamsung will soon let you control smart home devices from your car’s dashboard
-
Sports7 days ago2026 Kentucky Derby horses, odds, futures, preview, date: Expert who hit 12 Derby-Oaks Doubles enters picks
-
Entertainment22 hours agoLana Del Rey Celebrates Her Husband’s 51st Birthday In New Post
-
Entertainment6 days agoCynthia Bailey Dishes on ‘RHOA’ Season 17, Discusses Kandi
-
NewsBeat6 days agoColombian military plane with 110 soldiers onboard crashes following takeoff
-
Fashion5 days agoDoes It Matter What You Wear When You’re Laid Off and Looking?
-
Business5 days agoMore women enter wealth management, but few in advisory roles: study
-
Business5 days agoLate-paying firms face multimillion-pound fines under new crackdown
-
Sports5 days agoFantasy Baseball Week 1 Preview: Top sleeper hitters for both five- and 12-day period led by Munetaka Murakami
-
Fashion6 days agoFringe Bags for the Season
-
Politics6 days agoHow Media Platforms Balance Performance and Accessibility in Image Delivery
You must be logged in to post a comment Login